₦airaland Forum

The tradition of returning the body of the Benin Oba to Ile- Ife for interment symbolizes the return of the "stranger king" to his autochthonous place for burial, in keeping with the Yoruba and Benin tradition of burying kings and commoners in their ancestral place of origin.

Why did Oranmiyan call the city Ile Ibinu, the "land of anger," which then became Benin's permanent name? Part of Benin's continuing enigma is that the city's secret cannot be unfolded, especially by outsiders, a dilemma that caused Oranmiyim (an outsider) to vacate the throne and replace himself with a son born of a Benin woman (an insider). The inherent tension in the "insider-outsider" conflict remains part of Benin's identity today.
Three other significant cultural factors are alluded to in the Oranmiyan story: the mystical power of the Benin king; the importance of magic and medicine in sustaining the king's power; and the burden of preserving, at all cost, the institution of kingship to ensure the survival and well-being of Benin society. The story places the burden of preserving kingship on the community.

According to Egharevba, Oranmiyan was not sent until Oduduwa had confirmed that the Benin people would take good care of their king and the institution of kingship. Those who had demonstrated their ability to preserve lice would certainly guard very jealously the institution of sacred kingship, an equally delicate and onerous task, to which the Benin have devoted their full resources up to the modern era. The institution of kingship needed to be guarded by powerful medicine and magical rituals. Oduduwa sent with Oranmiyan a medicine man to make potent magic for the suste- nance of the king.

This tradition remains part of the royal cult of Benin mysticism; indeed, more than any other kingship system in Nigeria, Benin rituals, arts, and ideology of kingship demonstrate the importance of sacred power for the preservation of kingship.
Despite revisionist theories, especially in the last ten years, aimed at disconnecting the linkages between Benin and Ile- Ife, suggested by Egharevba and Robert Bradbury, the above story supports the origin of Benin kingship in Ife tradition.

As Kees Bolle points out, the central issue in myth is not "what is true" in the story but "What have societies, civilizations, communities found necessary to point to and preserve as centrally valued for their entire existence?" The story thus permanently establishes the sacredness and significance of IIe-Ife as an important ceremonial center and as an ancestral city to an equally powerful kingdom that lies to its east.

ILE IFE AND THE ANCIENT KINGDOM OF BENIN

Ile-Ife gains further credibility as a sacred center because of its connection with the ancient kingdom of Benin. According to the Benin historian Jacob U. Egharevba, following a series of unsettled crises in Benin, the Owodo, the last of the Ogiso kings of the first dynasty, was deposed. The Edo (Benin) people then sent emissaries to Ile-Ife (Uhe), asking for a "wise prince" who would reign over them. Oduduwa, the Oba of Ife at that time, decided to test the sincerity and endurance of the Edo (Benin).

In response to their request, he sent lice to the chiefs of Benin with instructions that they were to care for the lice and return them to him after three years. The Benin chiefs took great care of these lice and returned them after three years to the Oba of Ife, who was impressed. Convinced that people who could, without question, take care of such minute pests as lice, could undoubtedly take good care of his son, he sent the Ife prince Oranmiyan, accompanied by palace servants, courtiers, and a native medicine man (ogiefa).

Oranmiyan and his entourage reached Benin after 'an arduous journey that included a hazardous crossing of the Obie River. Upon his arrival in Benin, Oranmiyan met with resistance from one Ogiamwen, the son of Evinan, who had temporarily taken charge of Benin affairs during the interregnum, after the termination of the first dynasty. Oranmiyan triumphed over Ogiamwen, settled in Usama Palace, which had been built by the Benin chiefs, and married a woman named Erinmwinde, with whom he had a son.

After a few years, he grew tired of Benin and the many crises with which he had to contend there. He called an assembly of the Benin people and relinquished the throne, after naming the city Ile-lbinu, "the land of anger;" from which Benin, the current name of the city, comes. He decreed that only someone born and brought up in Benin and properly schooled in its traditions and mysteries should be its king.

Oranmiyan then installed his son Eweka as king in his stead and returned to Ile-Ife, his own native place, leaving the palace chiefs and medicine people to take care of the new king. On his way back to Ile-Ife, Oranmiyan stopped in Ugba (Okha) and Obboh, for three and two years, respectively, to ensure that his son reached maturity before he finally returned to Ile-Ife.

Eweka was crowned at Usama, his father's palace. When Eweka died, his remains were returned to Ile- Ife for burial. This tradition, in which "the remains of the Oba of Benin were taken to Ile-Ife in every third reign," was continued until very recently.
I am not concerned here with the historicity of the story or with its claim to truth. Rather, I regard it as an origin myth believed to be true by those who hold onto it as a part of their tradition.

The story establishes the sacred origin of Benin kingship, projecting it as an extension of the Ife sacred kingship that was certainly in existence long before this period. It establishes a kinship relationship between the Ife and Benin kingdoms, although Benin later took on a more radical form of sacred kingship than that which exists in Ile-Ife. Benin became an absolute monarchy, with the first son of the reigning Oba named as the heir apparent, whereas in Ile-Ife the kingship rotates among four ruling lineages, so that the first son of a reigning king does not succeed his father and there is a strong system of checks and balances on the power of the reigning king.

Oranmiyan's role is an important one in this story, especially in the spread of religious ideas and political values, presumably from Ile-Ife to Benin. Several traditions concerning Qranmiyan exist in Ile-Ife. One tradition refers to him as the son of Oduduwa, which is consistent with the Benin story.

Another tradition refers to him as a great Ife warrior who left his mark permanently on the Ife landscape in the mystery of the Staff of Oranmiyan (Oba Oranmiyan), a stone staff with iron marks that has become a tourist attraction, if not a pilgrimage site, in Ile-Ife.
Several other traditions support this warrior ethos and connection, and Oranmiyan features prominently in the annual ritual of Ogun, also known as Olojo (the festival and ritual of kingship).

Ogun, the Yoruba warrior god and god of iron, is equally important in Benin society and cosmology and possesses the same characteristics and features attributed to the deity by the Yoruba people in general.

Frobenius's ideas and theories represented the best in the European imagination of the African people during this period. Having read or heard of Ile-Ife in Europe, he concluded that it must be "the lost city of Atlantis" in black Africa, where remnants of the Greek culture that worshipped Poseidon lived.

When Frobenius first saw two pieces of reddish-brown terra-cotta pottery in the sacred shrine of Olokun, he observed: "Here were the remains of a very ancient and fine type of art, infinitely nobler than the comparatively coarse stone images, not even well-preserved. These meagre relics were eloquent of a symmetry, a vitality, a delicacy of form directly reminiscent of ancient Greece and a proof that, once upon a time, a race, far superior in strain to the Negro, had been settled here."

Frobenius acquired many terra-cotta heads, including the famous Olokun sculpture. He was convinced that the religion and culture of the ancient Greeks had been extensively disseminated, reaching even to Ile-Ife, and that the "Yoruba religion was not unique to the African people, that it is definitely linked to the perfected system of a primeval age."
The high chiefs in the courtyard of the palace preparing for the Olojo festival

ILE-IFE IN THE ANNALS OF WESTERN EXPLORATION: A LEO FROBENIUS REVISITED
Ile-Ife's preeminent status is based on archaeological and iconographic evidence that confirms its significance as a ceremonial center in cosmological, mythical, and ritual contexts.

The best-known European visitor to Ile-Ife was Leo Frobenius (1873-1973), a German ethnologist and researcher who visited the city between 1910 and 1912. Frobenius was the head of the German Inner African Exploration. At the time of his visit, the city's population was over twenty-five thousand. His contribution to the West's knowledge of Ile-Ife and of Africa in general was so significant that President Leopard Senghor wrote in a foreword to a book marking the centenary of Frobenius's birth:

"No one did more than Frobenius to reveal Africa to the world and the Africans to themselves." An essential part of this "revelation" consisted of the ancient Ife bronzes and terra-cotta pieces that Frobenius brought to the attention of the world. In spite of Senghor's warm comments, Frobenius's pioneering works are little read and appreciated.
Frobenius' Eurocentric views
Why has Frobenius not achieved a status similar to that of William Bascom, the American anthropologist who worked thirty years in Ile-Ife after Leo Frobenius?

The answer lies in Frobenius's Eurocentric views and his racist remarks about the Ile-Ife people throughout his sojourn there. Frobenius was convinced of the superiority of the German race over other European groups in Africa, especially the British, and he frequently referred to German thoroughness, which for him far surpassed that of the British, as exemplified in their colonizing efforts in Ile-Ife. Frobenius's goal was to discover artifacts more genuine in form and style than the "inferior" arts hitherto discovered by his English predecessors. Frobenius was both amazed by and envious of the British looting of Benin artifacts during the so-called punitive expedition against the Oba of Benin Kingdom in 1885.

He reasoned that since Ile-Ife was older than Benin and, indeed, gave birth to Benin, the art objects "from Benin were nothing but the products of degenerate times, mere imitations of an older, more genuine and sincere art."
This was a point of contention that caused the British to work against the success of his mission.

According to this interesting account, the king of Portugal, Don Joao, learned from the ambassador of the king of Beny (Benin) and also from Joa Alfonso d'Aveiro that to the east of the Benin Kingdom, about a twenty moons' journey (about 250 leagues), "there lived the most powerful monarch of these parts called Igane. Among the pagan chiefs of the territories of Beny [Benin], he was held in as great veneration as is the Supreme Pontiff with us."

The informant also described a ritual link between Benin and Ile-Ife. In compliance with an ancient tradition, whenever a new king ascended the throne of Benin, the Benin sent ambassadors to the monarch to the east with many gifts to inform him that the new king of Benin had succeeded his deceased father and to request confirmation of his new status.
As a sign of consent, Prince Ogene sent the new Benin king a "staff and a headpiece of shining brass, fashioned like a Spanish helmet in place of crown and scepter: He sent a brass cross to be worn around the neck, "a holy and religious emblem similar to that worn by the commendadores as of the Order of Saint John." for, "without these emblems, the people do not recognize him as the lawful ruler, nor can he call himself truly king." De Barros reported that the ambassadors from Benin never saw the king himself, since he was always secluded behind a "curtain of silk."
However, to authenticate the mission, just before the ambassadors departed from Ile-Ife, the king showed "a foot behind the curtains," indicating that he agreed to Benin's request.

The ambassadors were bestowed with gifts as compensation for the great journey to Ile-Ife. The gift to each ambassador consisted of a "small cross similar to that sent to the king, which is thrown round his neck to signify that he is free and exempt from all servitudes and is privileged in his native country, as the Commendadores are with us."
The Ifa Temple on the Oke Itase, the sacred hill of Ifa
This is one of the most detailed descriptions we have of Benin's connection with Ile-Ife, illustrating the perception of Ile-Ife and the sacred kingship in Benin. There have been several discussions about the historicity of this passage, especially regarding the authenticity of the Benin ambassadors and the gift of the cross.

The passage supports the account of the modern Benin monarchy's origin in Ife and the role of Oranmiyan (also named Oranyan), the son of Oduduwa, in the establishment of Benin's modern rule. It also establishes the ritual relationship between the two kingdoms in rites of coronation and burial. Although some traditional rituals have been modified or have disappeared in the contemporary Nigerian state, the coronation ceremony performed today for the Oba of Benin, whereby the Ooni of Ile-Ife sends a traditional gift to the new Oba, confirms the ancient connection between the two kingdoms described in the Portuguese sources.

Moreover, archaeological investigation in Ile-Ife reveals an ancient burial ground, called Orun Oba Ado (literally, "the heaven of Benin kings" that holds only certain parts of the dead bodies of kings brought from Benin. Some scholars suggest that the Ile-Ife burial site reserved for the Benin kings shows their ancestral connection with the city of Ile-Ife.
Because rituals are constantly reinvented in response to the contemporary social and political contexts in which they are performed, such customs often disappear gradually from practice.

In my view, the significance of the Portuguese story does not lie in whether it is absolutely true. Even if it occurred only in the realm of the imagination, without the archaeological and ritual evidence that lends it credence, the story would still enable us to comprehend the enigma that lies behind Ile-Ife's preeminence in the fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Portuguese accounts of explorations in the land of the "Negroes." I will return to these sources later in the chapter.

http://allafrica.com/stories/201212121332.html/

Prof. Jacob Olupona began the story of the mysteries of Ile-Ife -- the city of Yoruba gods
https://www.nairaland.com/1129838/ile-ife-city-201-gods-yoruba

The Imagined Sacred City
THE Portuguese image of Ile Ife: The Europeans saw Ile-Ife as the preeminent city-state and as an important ceremonial centre in what was then often referred to as "the Negro world." The seafaring Portuguese, the first Europeans to explore the coast of West Africa, arrived in the fifteenth century. Although they had heard much about the city of Ile-Ife, their inability to access interior forested regions made contact very difficult. However, the Portuguese recorded their impressions of the importance of this ancient city, especially of its artistic and historical relationship and connection to the kingdom of Benin, with which the Portuguese had earlier contact.

Writing in his navigational guidebook Esmeraldo de Situ Orbis, the well-known Portuguese explorer Duarte Pacheco Pereira noted that to the east of the Benin Kingdom, about one hundred leagues (four hundred miles) inland, was a country with a king named Licasaguou, who was said to be lord of many people and to possess great power. Close by, Pereira explained, another great lord, Hooguanee, "is considered among the Negroes as the Pope is among us." Although the identity of the first king, Licasaguou, remains unknown, the "Pope of the Negroes" may refer to the Ooni of Ile-Ife, since the neighbouring Benin people commonly referred to this king as Hooguanee (Ogene).

Some of the earliest written records about Ile- Ife come from the Portuguese seafarers who traded with the Benin Kingdom. One such record was Da Asia, by Joao de Barros, which provided a detailed discussion of the political and ritual kinshiIp of Benin and Ile-Ife in the precolonial period.

The flamboyant preacher and senior pastor of Kingsway International Christian Church (KICC), has completed his billion naira KICC University situated at Ode Omu, Osun state.

KICC University sits atop over 500 acres. The National University Commission of Nigeria requires at least 250 acres of land for a university campus. 

The university would be structured around six faculties and 22 mainstream departments. The Schools of Medical Science and Pharmacy in the College of Medical Sciences as well as the Faculty of Law are to run faculty/school-based degree programmes.

Academic activities would commence initially in two Schools: Humanities, Management & Social Sciences, and Information Science and Technology. Courses to be developed by the School of Information Science and Technology will be central to the teaching programmes in all Departments. There is a total of 59 academic programmes.

http://nigerianewsblog..co.uk/2012/12/matthew-ashimolowo-completes-billion.html?m=1

http://www.osundefender.org/?p=81047

ijigbamigb: @Osun*Ife

How we have allowed it to be partially extincted from our present day life.

It is sadden how our definition of "civilization has".

For detailed Ifa story:
Yorubaonline.org
https://www.nairaland.com/4427/ifa-true-religion-yorubas

When the divining chain is used, the Ifá priest holds the chain in the middle and throws it before himself. As mentioned in the previous chapter, the divining chain has four half-nuts of the öpëlè tree tied to each side of it. Each one of these half nuts has a concave and convex surface.

When the divining chain is thrown forward as described above, all or some or none of the half-nuts may come to rest with their concave or convex surfaces facing upwards.

The pattern so formed on each occasion by the half-nuts on the chain is regarded as an Odù. For example, when all the öpëlë half-nuts present their convex (' surfaces, the pattern is regarded as the signature of the first Odù (Èjì Ogbè). When all the half-nuts present their convex surfaces, the pattern is interpreted as the signature of the second Odù (Öyëkú Méjì).

When the middle two half-nuts on each side of the divining chain present their concave surfaces and all the other half-nuts present their convex surfaces, the pattern is taken to be the signature of the third Odù (Ìwòrì Méjì) Each of the two hundred and fifty-six Odù has its own character.

Broadly speaking, one Odù may denote evil while another one denotes good. The same Odù may also stand for both good and evil. One Odù may stand for prosperity while another one stands for disease and death.

When an Ifá priest performs Ifá divination and arrives at the signature of an Odù, he recalls to mind the character of that particular Odù and pronounces whether it is good or evil.

If a good Odù appears in the process of divination for a client, it means that the client can expect a good omen on the subject of his enquiry to Ifá, and if an evil Odù appears, it means that the client should expect evil. If an Odù which signifies disease and death appears to the client, it means that he should expect these two evils.


The characters of the sixteen principal Odù are paraphrased below:

1). Èjì Ogbè: This Odù denotes plenty of good and plenty of evil.
2). Öyëkú Méjì: This Odù denotes that death and all other evil will disappear. Red cloth should be used for sacrifice.
3). Ìwòrì Méjì: Enemies are around. This client’s heritage is about to be taken away from him.
4). Òdí Méjì: Evil is close to this client. He will have many wives including a princess.
5). Ìrosùn Méjì: this Odù belongs to »àngó. This client should heed his wife’s advice.
6). Öwônrín Méjì: This person will be victorious over his enemies. People will try to injure this client by saying untrue things about him.
7). Öbàrà Méjì: This Odù denotes poverty and want but at last prosperity and happiness.
. Ökànràn Méjì: this Odù denotes good fortune. This person should beware of enemies.
9). Ògúndá Méjì: This Odù denotes victory. This Odù relates to Ògún. All of this client’s good fortune is with his Orí. There is a certain barren woman close to this client.
10). Ösá Méjì: This Odù relates to Òò«àálá and the witches. It denotes prospect of many children and plenty of riches.
11). Ìká Méjì: This client will live long. People will always think of harming this client but they will not be able to do so.
12). Òtúúrúpön Méjì: This Odù denotes prospect of twin babies. It relates to Egúngún. It also denotes that attacks of witches is imminent.
13). Òtùá Méjì: This Odù relates to Ifá and deserters from his cause. It denotes victory over enemies and prospect of many children.
14). Ìr÷të Méjì: This Odù relates to »ànpönná. It denotes death, enemies and evil.
15). Ösê Méjì: This Odù denotes plenty of children, victory over enemies and plenty of good fortune.
16). Òfún Méjì: This client will be great. The people of his household should not mock strangers. Enemies will not be able to do this person any harm.

What has emerged so far is that the two hundred and fifty six Odù are very important in the Ifá divination system. The whole of the literary corpus known as ÷s÷ Ifá is based on the Odù. What a priest of Ifá tells his client is therefore taken directly from the Odù corpus. This is contrary to an opinion popularly held that Ifá priests are clever psychologists who read the problems of each client from his general appearance.


We must now turn our attention to the second category of the Ifá literary corpus, the ÷s÷ Ifá. As mentioned above, each Odù contains an unspecified number of ÷s÷.

While the Odù are important for the divination aspect of Ifá, the ÷s÷ form the main bulk of chants in the Ifá literary corpus. At the same time, the ÷s÷ are quite important for the divination aspect of Ifá because the pronouncements and predictions of the Ifá priest are based on the content of ÷s÷ Ifá. ‘¿s÷ Ifá is the central and most important part of Ifá divination system’.


The form of ÷s÷ is predominantly poetic. The poems of ÷s÷ Ifá are of varying lengths, some being as short as only four lines while others are as long as six hundred lines. It is the long poems of Ifá greatly treasured by Ifá priests that are referred to as Ifá Ñláñlá. ¿s÷ Ifá, whether long or short, make use of very interesting poetic devices e.g. personification, play upon words and repetition. ¿s÷ Ifá pervades the whole range of Yoruba thought and action throughout history.

¿s÷ Ifá deals with all subjects. It deals with history, geography, religion, music and philosophy. ¿s÷ Ifá may be a simple story about a man going on a journey and asking for advice on how to make the journey successful. It may be a highly philosophical story showing the merits and demerits of monogamy. It may deal with the foundation of a particular town. There is certainly no limit to the subject matter which ÷s÷ Ifá may deal with.

Each one of the two hundred and fifty six Odù has its own specific divination signature. Both the sacred palm-nuts and the divining chain are used alternatively by Ifá priests to arrive at the signature of each Odù.

The sacred palm-nuts are used in the following manner. The Ifá priest puts the sixteen palm nuts in one of his palms and tries to take all of them out at once with his other hand. If two palm-nuts remain in his hand, he makes one mark on the divination board containing the sacred yellow powder of divination. If one palm-nut remains, he makes two marks, but if nothing re-mains or if more than two palm-nuts remain in his hand, he makes no mark at all.

Each mark or pair of marks is made, one below the other, four times. When four marks or pair of marks have been made, the whole pattern thus formed is the signature of a particular Odù. The following are the signatures that may be obtained by using the sacred palm nuts.

ijigbamigb: @Osun*Ife

Can we discuss more on Odu and Ese of the Ifá literary corpus. How they came into being. How we have allowed it to be partially extincted from our present day life.

Not a professional in history of gods but here is a write up that I think suit the explanation for the Odu and Esu of Ifa Literary corpus.

THE ODÙ AND THE ESE OF IFÁ
(Note: ÷s÷ for Ese)
The Ifá literary corpus consists of two parts, namely, Odù and ÷s÷. The corpus is divided into 256 distinct volumes, which are called Odù, and each Odù is sub-divided into numerous chapters, which are called ÷s÷. While the number of the Odù is known, the number of ÷s÷ in each Odù is unknown. This is due to the constant growth in the content of ÷s÷ Ifá, a growth which certainly does not affect the form of the text.


There are two categories of the Odù. The first category consists of the Ojú Odù (The principal Odù), sixteen in number. The second category consists of the Æmæ Odù or (Minor Odù), two hundred and forty in number.


The Odù are regarded as divinities in their own right. Ifá divination myths tell us that before the final return of Örúnmìlà to heaven, he promised his children and his followers that he would send to them certain divinities who would perform some of the functions he used to perform when he was on earth.

He promised that these divinities would be known as Odù and they would come down from the sky. When Örúnmìlà finally returned to heaven, his children and his followers began to make preparations for the corning of the Odù from heaven.

For the sixteen principal Odù they made sixteen thrones one of which was well decorated and placed in an open place while the other fifteen thrones were arranged around it in the form of a circle. The people then started to watch the sky for the coming of the Odù.


When the sixteen principal Odù were coming down from heaven, Òfún Méjì, also known as Öràngún Méjì, was their leader. The ranks of the principal sixteen Odù in heaven was as follows:

1. Òfún Méjì 000006. Ìká Méjì 00000000012. Ìrosùn Méjì
2. Ösê Méjì 0000007. Ösá Méjì 0000000 13. Òdí Méjì
3. Ìr÷të Méjì000000 8. Ògúndá Méjì 000014. Ìwòrì Méjì
4. Òtúá Méjì 0000009. Ökànràn Méjì 000 15. Öyëkú Méjì
5. Ótúúrúpön Méjì 010. Öbàrà Méjì 0000016. Èjì Ogbè
11. Öwônrín Méjì

But when the principal sixteen Odù came to the frontier gate separating heaven from earth, they reversed their order of procession so that the 16th and the most junior Odù, Èjì Ogbè, went through the frontier gate first. He was followed by the 15th Odù and the 15th was followed by the 14th and so on until the first Odù came last.


Immediately Èjì Ogbè went through the frontier gate he entered into space and descended into earth. When the large gathering of expectant people saw him, they hailed him as the king of the Odù. They carried him shoulder-high and placed him on the big throne prepared for the leader of the Odù, thinking that he was the most senior of all.

The second Odù to descend from the sky was also hailed as the deputy of the king of the Odù. In this way, the ranking of sixteen principal Odù was completely reversed, giving the following new order:

1. Èjì Ogbè 00007. Öbàrà Méjì 00013. Òtúá Méjì
2. Öyëkú Méjì 008. Ökànràn Méjì 0014. Ìr÷të Méjì
3. Ìwòrì Méjì 00009. Ògúndá Méjì 0015. Ösê Méjì
4. Òdí Méjì 0000010. Ösá Méjì 0000016. Òfún Méjì
5. Ìrosùn Méjì 00011. Ìká Méjì
6. Öwônrín Méjì 0012. Òtúúrúpön Méjì

The order of seniority of the sixteen principal Odù has since remained thus till today. Èjì Ogbè is regarded as the most senior Odù, but whenever Ifá priests cast Òfún Méjì, they hail him as king, saying héèpà (We hail you)!


As mentioned above, the sixteen principal Odù are more important than the minor Odù. The sixteen principal Odù contain the most important ÷s÷ Ifá and it is considered a duty by all Ifá priests to know as many ÷s÷ Ifá as possible from this part of the Odù corpus. As a result of the greater attention paid by Ifá priest to the sixteen principal Odù, most of the extant ÷s÷ Ifá belong to this part of the Odù corpus.


The Æmæ Odù are also regarded as divinities. As their name implies, they are regarded as the children of the sixteen principal Odù. They are also known as Àmúlù Odù because each of them bears the names of two principal Odù. For example, the first and most important Æmæ Odù is known as Ogbèyëkú. This name is a combination of the names of two Odù, namely, Ogbè, the first Odù, and Öyëkú, the second Odù. The two hundred and forty minor Odù are arranged in twelve groups.


Each group is known as Àpólà (Section). The twelve groups bear the names of twelve of the sixteen principal Odù.

They are arranged as follows(from the image below):

Next on:
Imagined sacred city, findings of Western explorers,the Ile-Ife and ancient kingdom of Benin connection stories.

To be continued....

The unprecedented visit of an Ooni to Lagos was chilling to all the other Yoruba Oba, including the Alaafin of Oyo. Before this visit, it had been taboo for an Ooni to leave the city of lle-lfe. The other Yoruba Oba viewed the announcement of his journey with such great alarm and seriousness that they decided to vacate their palaces and stay outside their city for the duration of his visit until they could con firm his safe return. Although the Ooni's visit can be interpreted as a sign of the capitulation of the traditional center and society of Ile-Ife to the new colonial center in Lagos, the visit also signaled a reinvention of tradition.
Under the British system of indirect rule, the colonial government had created a new city legislative council in charge of the affairs of the new region. In 1903, a dispute between two Yoruba rulers, the Elepe of Epe in Ijebu Remo and the Akarigbo of Ijebu Remo, was referred to the state legislative council for adjudication. The Akarigbo protested the Elepe's wearing a beaded crown, which by tradition could be worn only by an Oba claiming direct descent from Oduduwa, who had been authorized to wear the crown by the Ooni of Ile-Ife.
The reigning Ooni was Adelekan Olubuse I, the grandfather of the incumbent Ooni. At the suggestion of council members, the Ooni was invited to Lagos in February 1903 to rule on the matter.
Hidden behind a screen (since it was forbidden to behold the face of the Ooni), the Ooni answered all the questions the council put to him. He denounced the Elepe, lamenting that if it were the old days, the Ooni would have summoned the Elepe to lle-Ife and had him beheaded.
What happened between the Ooni and the British governor after the meeting must be the subject of another work. In short, the Ooni was entertained by the governor in a private meeting, and upon the Ooni's safe return to Ile-Ife, the Yoruba Oba returned to their palaces. By reinventing the traditional power, the British colonial government was able to wend its way through turbulent issues such as this dispute between the two rulers. Ile-Ife, the Yoruba place of origin, played a significant role in this process.

Political dynamics
Recently, Roger Friedland and Richard Hecht have contended that there is a strong connection "between the construction of sacred space and the social organization of power" and that "ultimately, an adequate theory of sacred places must take cognizance of the political dynamics that play a key role in how it is appreciated, controlled, interpreted, and contested." According to these two authors, "Because they undergird identities and ethical commitments, because they galvanize the deepest emotions and attachments, material and symbolic control over the most central sacred places are sources of enormous social power." Ile-Ife is a prime example of how this social power shapes notions of identity, nationalism, and place.
I will examine the role of the Ile-Ife homeland and territorially in the construction of ethnic nationalism, patriotism, and community identity among the Yoruba. By nationalism, I refer not to the contemporary nation-state context (Nigeria) but to the Yoruba nation as a cultural group with a homeland, a language, a religion, and a shared culture.
Three related themes should be considered as a template for understanding how sacred cities function in the context of modern nationalism. First, Ile-Ife, as a hallowed land of religious and cultural traditions, was used to mobilize the Yoruba as a unified patriotic and nationalist group. Second, symbols of sacred place were used in the development of a homeland of subcultural identities and to galvanize the Yoruba community into a patriotic and national group. Third, the Yoruba mark their boundaries of sacred space in what have been called rituals of "hallowing the land."
The study of sacred places in Yoruba religious experience may help answer puzzling questions about Yoruba identity and the role the Yoruba religion plays in modern Nigerian politics. Why are the ethnicity and ethnic identity of forty million Yoruba people so strong that their cultural and political lives are difficult for outsiders to penetrate?
Part of the answer lies in the role of place, and particularly the role of Ile-Ife as a centralized sacred place, in "creating a religious, communal, and political identity" and mobilizing people politically. A second relevant issue, borrowed from Kunin's argument, is that a centralized model of sacred place not only constructs identities but also creates boundaries that establish the relationship of "insiders" and "outsiders" to the sacred center.
The Yoruba origin myth discussed above is normally followed by another equally powerful myth: that of the dispersion, migration, and odyssey of the children of Oduduwa, who left the sacred city of Ile-Ife to conquer, inhabit, and establish new dynasties and new cities and towns. With this odyssey, new city-states similar to Ile-Ife, such as Ondo, Owo, Benin, Ado-Ekiti, Ijebu-Ode, Ketu, and Oyo, were created. In the context of space and land, the migration myth from Ile-Ife "provides for a plan of cosmological relatedness."'
The Yoruba historian Adeagbo Akinjogbin describes this relationship between the Ile-Ife center and the new city-states as one based on ebi (lineage) ideology: semiautonomous kinship groups with defined territorial boundaries are joined in a sacred pact. The sociologist Akinsola Akiwowo has described their alliance as being based on what the Yoruba call ajobi (principles of kinship and religious association). Though Ile-Ife provides a unifying myth, an equal element of decentralization of sacred space is evident in Yoruba mythology. Multiplicity of sacred space does not negate our thesis of a centralized sacred space.
The significance of Ile-Ife in Yoruba political life is especially revealed by two incidents: the visit of the Ooni, paramount ruler of Ile-Ife, to Lagos in 1903; and the formation, in the 1940s and 1950s, of a centralized pan-Yoruba cultural and quasi-political association based on the Oduduwa myth, Egbe Omo Oduduwa (Society of the Descendants of Oduduwa) and its political successor, the Action Group Party.

SACRED SPACE AND SOCIAL ORDER: IDENTITY, NATIONALISM, AND PLACE
I turn now to the significance of place for nationalism and identity construction in contemporary Yoruba society. One lacuna in the history of religions is the general lack of in-depth analysis of the relationship between religious phenomena and the social order within which these phenomena exist. The danger of overemphasizing the social context of religion at the expense of the phenomenon itself has encouraged many to avoid exploring the possible social consequences of religious behaviour. If historians of religions were to take more seriously Peter Berger's suggestion for analyzing religious phenomena, that we should view religion in terms of its origin, functions, and intrinsic and substantive value, we would produce a more rounded interpretation of religion that did not privilege one aspect at the expense of the others.

SYMBOLIC CITY STRUCTURE
The structural organization of Ile-Ife and its special religious, political, and spatial form symbolize the sacred cosmology behind the city's origins. The most important section is the center, the Ooni's palace, or aafin, often called oke-ile (the high or big house), located on an elevated site, and the five principal quarters that constitute the old city of Ile Ife radiate out from it. Three major roads leading from these sections converge in front of the palace at an intersection called Enu Owa,
literally, "Mouth of the King." They function as an orita (crossroads), an imporant phenomenon in Yoruba religious life. Orita are not mere crossroads; they are "ritually potent spaces where sacrifices may be offered to spirits or evil forces (alajo ogun) and messages maybe conveyed to witches, wizards, and spirits of the underworld or heaven. The royal palace is protected by the city's concentric layout around its center. As one moves from outermost to innermost circles, degrees of power and sacredness increase. Located close to the palace are the sacred precincts that cradle the three most important ritual centers in the city, the grove, the shrine, and the temple.
The grove belongs to Oduduwa, cultural hero and founder of the city; Oke-M'ogun is the shrine and hill of Ogun, warrior god, patron deity of the sacred kingship; and Oke Itase, Ifa hill and temple, is the abode of Araba Agbaye, chief diviner of the universe. Sacred sites of Yoruba cities are determined by the divination process. Each principal city underwent a divination ritual to determine the best site for its origin and growth (odu ti o te llu do). When I asked one of my consultants to name the odu (chapter of the corpus of oral texts on divination) on which Ile-Ife was founded, he exclaimed in surprise, saying that all sixteen principal odu talked about the city's origin, an indication that this city was greater than any other city in Yoruba territory.

Ooni with the sacred crown.
Renewal of kingship
During the annual Iden, or King's Festival, the Owa of Idanre dons the ancient crown of Olofin (also regarded as Oduduwa) in the dark of night. Putting on the ancient crown signifies renewal of his kingship and celebrates his valor and military strength in conquering all intruders who pursued the Idanre to steal his crown. Indeed, Idanre is one of the most revered cities of southwestern Nigeria. Its inhabitants are particularly famous for their control over and use of traditional medicine and the spoken word (ohun), the magical or sacred formulas to make things happen. The Iden Festival that bears the signature of Idanre sacred kingship is similar to the Olojo Festival in Ile-Ife, the festival of sacred kingship and of Ogun, the god of war, in which the Ooni wears his own sacred are crown. Thus the legend signifies that the lie cosmovision is duplicated by other Yoruba cities whose inhabitants share in Ile-Ife's sacred myth and history.

In ancient times, it was the practice of those who had lost a loved one to travel to Ile-Ife to see if they could find the deceased person and learn from him or her about the cause of the death so that they could avenge a wrongful death or hear about unfinished business on earth that the deceased wanted living relatives to see completed if possible.
Ile-Ife attained primacy on the basis of its hallowed status as the source for all the crowned cities (ilu-alade). An important Yoruba myth refers to the dispersal of Oduduwa's sixteen royal children, who went out from Ile-Ife to found new kingdoms.
Each was assigned a sacred crown, or ade, a symbol of authority. (In 1903 the colonial administration determined that the Ooni of Ife was the most qualified to say who ought to own and wear this crown.) Each was assigned a sacred sword representing the divine power to take possession of new territories. Stories of the origin of several Yoruba kingdoms are filled with anecdotes about the royal princes' and princesses' encounters as they conquered aboriginal groups in their newfound lands and ruled with the sacred insignia of office: the crown and the sword.
I should add that in several cities the Ife cosmovision serves as a model for other lesser but equally significant sacred centers in the Yoruba world. A case in point is Idanre, an important city in the eastern Yoruba region of Ondo State, Nigeria, where I have also carried out field research. Idanre's inhabitants lived for a long time on an isolated mountain, Oke-Idanre, and they have always maintained a connection with Ile-Ife. The ancient name for the present-day city of Idanre was Ufeke (Ife on the Mountain). Legends of Idanre migration argue that their founders, Olofin and his followers, were immigrants from the ancient city of Ile-Ife. The founders claimed that they possessed the ancient crown of Oduduwa and other royal garments. They hid on a mountain, where they were constantly assailed by other Yoruba groups who wanted to seize these royal treasures.

Pre-eminent sacred place
Unlike the political, commercial, and administrative cities of Ibadan and Lagos, contemporary Ile-Ife is a ceremonial city par excellence; like the cities of Banaras, Jerusalem, and Mecca, in the people's imagination it is the preeminent sacred place, beyond the secular and profane.
I begin with Ile-Ife's various sacred place names, because epithets vividly show the significance of sacred cities. Stephen Scully argues in his book Homer and the Sacred City that "human centers such as Troy are richly and complexly described through the epithets attached to them." Citing an earlier study by Paolo Vivante, Scully contends that "city epithets, whenever they occur, bring out the essential aesthetics and contextual quality of place names." These epithets serve "as a resource of power and a medium of signification in their own right." They are "visual and concrete in nature, and thereby evocative of an essential and generic quality" of whatever they qualify.
Ile-Ife's inhabitants have conferred numerous sacred Yoruba names on their city. It has been called Ife Oodaye, "The Expansive Space Where the World Was Created," referring to the cosmogonic myth asserting that ritual creation occurred in this very place, and as Ibi Oju Ti Mo Wa (Where the Day Dawns). In Yoruba creation myth, Ile-Ife is conceived of as the place where the sun rises and sets, the center of origin of the universe. Ile-Ife is also called Ife Ooye, the place of survival or the city of life, because, like Noah's ark, it was a place of refuge from a primordial deluge that destroyed earlier settlements and left survivors to establish a new era. Various oral sources refer to Ile-Ife as the place where the 201 gods came down from heaven to live and interact with humans on earth.
Though Ile-Ife is the city of the source of life, it is, paradoxically, also the city of the dead. The Yoruba believe that those who die immediately return to Ile-Ife, the starting point for their pilgrimage to the other world. Several years ago, I was in my own hometown, Ute, in Owo District, a town located at the extreme eastern end of the eastern Yoruba territory, to conduct research on death in Yoruba thought. In an important song sung in the Owo tradition during the burial, the deceased is enjoined to "go on the straight road that leads to Ile-Ife and not stray by the wayside" (Onayo r'ufe ma ya o). Ile-Ife is regarded as the only stopping place before the dead pass into the underworld, so the rite of passage must ensure that the deceased not tarry on the way to the ancient city.

THE PLACE MOST HALLOWED: THE SACRED CITY OF ILE-IFE
In The Pivot of the Four Quarters, Wheatley indicates that no place in sub-Saharan Africa has such cosmic significance as the Yoruba city of Ile-Ife. Known as the City of 201 (or 401) Gods, Ile-Ife is the base of the entire Yoruba civilization and culture, and its significance goes far beyond the immediate geographical and national boundaries of Nigeria. The religious culture of Ile-Ife has influenced the development and growth of new African religious movements as far off as Brazil, the Caribbean, and the United States.
Ile-Ife, a city of about half a million, is situated at the geographical centre of the Yoruba city-states. To the west lies Ibadan, the largest city in sub-Saharan Africa, and to the east lies Ondo, gateway to the eastern Yoruba city-states. Ile-Ife is about two hundred kilometres from Lagos, which was Nigeria's coastal capital city for over a century.

http://allafrica.com/stories/201212110816.html/

Book Serial - Ile-Ife - City of 201 Gods

Jacob K. Olupona, scion of an Anglican priest, winner of Nigerian National Order of Merit Award (NNOM), Professor of African Religious Tradition, African and African American Studies at Harvard University unveils the mysteries of Ile-Ife and the Yoruba history, cosmos and the deities in a new book CITY OF GODS: Ile-Ife in Time, Space and the Imagination, Thursday at NIIA, Lagos. We publish exclusive excerpts of this Yoruba book of identity.

Eko Ile: Osun a dara o

SW o ni baje o

Ase eledua.

ABOUT 54 youths who participated in the Osun State Beef Production Programmes (O’Beef) have received N50,000 each to encourage them start their own business after undergoing intensive training in livestock production.

The Director General, Office of Economic Development and Partnership, Osun State, Dr Charles ‘Diji Akinola who made this known urged the beneficiaries to judiciously use the grants for their economic emancipation.

He said the state governor, Mr Rauf Aregbesola was determined to eradicate unemployment and that this informed the commitment of his administration to empowering the youth.

The youths were trained at the Oloba Farm Settlement, Iwo, a cattle  ranch owned by Osun State government which is currently under the management of a South African expert in conjunction with IITA and Faculty of Agriculture, Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife.

Akinola commended the youths for their determination to learn and exhibition of good decorum, just as he commended those awarded with distinction for sterling performance.

He clarified that the N50,000 was not a loan that would be repaid to the government, stressing that “Today, on behalf of Osun State government, the Office of Economic Development and Partnership through our O’Beef programme is disbursing a sum of fifty thousand naira to each of the 54 youths who took part in the scheme.”

"Osun will be supplying beef to South-West region and this will further boost our Internally Generated Revenue. “considering the huge  market for cattle in Oyo, Lagos and other Yoruba states, animal rearing and production became a paramount economic programme for the state and we are encouraging our youths to show interest in agriculture, especially the livestock," Akinola remarked.

oduz: https://www.nairaland.com/1118965/osun-pay-n10000-monthly-elderly
Also try nairaland search

Good bless your life and that of your family.

Osun Adara.... Ipinle omoluabi

[quote author=geez*]

Osun o Ni baje

Yorubaland o Ni baje[/quote]Ase.

You need to visit Osun to understand better. I can testify that there is no part of the state that is not witnessing one, two or more developmental project(s). This is my personal assessment about our state.

http://www.osundefender.org/?p=75226

Some federal roads(e.g Oshogbo-Kwara boundary interstate road) that are vital to the state economically are been taken up by the state government since the federal has left it untouched for years. The dualization is in progress as we speak and many more.

Rascality is not all that bad though, Aregbes rascality is paying good for we Osun people

Lovely.

Lasinoh: I hope this 'innovative measure' is CONFINED STRICTLY TO IBADAN!!!
Thanks!

Osun already is about doing the same
https://www.nairaland.com/1119159/osun-convert-human-animal-wastes

Lasinoh: Good! Keep that 'mess' in the SW.
Thank you!

If it is the mess that has been making the region the most progressive in all aspect than other parts of the country, better start using it to reach half the level of the South-West.

Eko Ile: SW o ni baje o

Ase, Amen, Amina insha alla.

http://www.osundefender.org/?p=73852

The resolve of the administration of Governor Rauf Aregbesola to turn around the infrastructure of the state is now in top gear, as the state government is currently undergoing construction,rehabilitation,upgrading and dualisation of about 996.5 kilometres of roads across the state.

The totality of the contracts’ sum for the road projects across the state stands at N67.6 billion.
Out of the projects, 827.6 kilometres were awarded by the current administration, costing about N61 billion, while 168.8kilometres, which are mainly rehabilitation works, with the cost of N6.3 billion were inherited from the ousted administration.

Addressing the press during the 2012 quarterly ministerial press briefing in Osogbo, the state capital last Thursday, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Works and Transport, Engineer Oladepo Amuda, said that out of the road projects embarked upon by the Aregbesola administration, 431.7 kilometres are being handled through contractors, while 396.7 kilometres are being handled through direct labour.

Some of the major road projects include the dualisation of Osogbo-Dagbolu International Market-Ikirun junction, Osogbo (Old Garage)-Ikirun road and Ikirun-Ila Odo-Kwara Boundary, costing N17.8 billion; as well as rehabilitation and construction of six selected roads (Igbajo-Okerun-Iresi, Gbongan-Odeyinka-Orile Owu-Ajegunle, Gbongan-Osogbo-Ife-Ibadan Express junction, Ijebu jesa-Iloko-Iwaraja, Ijebu jesa-Ijeda-Iloko-Ilesa and Ijeda jesa-Erinmo) costing N17.5 billion.

The contracts being handled through contractors also include Osogbo township roads rehabilitation and Ilesa township road at the costs of N3.9 billion and N3.7 billion respectively, while inter-city roads and intra-city roads being handled through direct labour costs N10.3 billion and N3.3 billion respectively.

Amudah further disclosed that the government has successfully been able to carry out road construction, rehabilitation and maintenance works across all the nine Federal constituencies in the state.

He said: “Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola is resolutely committed to standard and good quality job delivery and has mandatorily made it a watchword for the projects execution for all contract and direct labour jobs in the state.

“You can all see the quality with the thickness of the asphalt surfacing, standard reinforced concrete drainages on all newly-constructed and rehabilitated road projects across the state”, he stressed.
According to him, a large percentage of the ongoing road projects would be delivered on or before February 2013.

He debunked the insinuation that all the project inherited from the ousted administration were abandoned, saying that the current administration in the state has continued and would continue to complete all inherited on-going road projects, which were abandoned by the last administration.

Amuda also disclosed that work would soon commence on construction of Iwo-Osogbo road (58 km), dualisation of Gbongan-Osogbo road (25 km) and construction of Osogbo East Bye-pass road (18km) among others.

Fri, 30/11/2012

The Osun Government is to begin the conversion of human and animal wastes to industrial powder for cooking as part of its industrial package for 2013.

Mr Bola Ilori, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Environment and Sanitation, said this at Gov. Rauf Aregbesola’s second anniversary press conference on Friday in Osogbo.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the plan was to reduce carbon dioxide emission as a way of lessening the impact of climate change.

Ilori said the Ministry of Environment and Sanitation had already conducted research and discovered that the technology for the industry was locally available.

Specifically, he said, the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) Ile-Ife, could provide the needed technology such that cooking gas would be extracted from the waste matter.

According to him, for effectiveness and efficiency, the state government had already inaugurated both the technical and enforcement committees to work out the modalities.

Prof. Olubukola Oyawoye, the commissioner in the ministry, stressed the indispensability of the environment to human existence.

According to the commissioner, the growing population and its demand for convenient lifestyle has led to environmental pollution, all forms of degradation and diseases.

``This in turn causes shortages of food, potable or clean water, materials for shelter and other essential resources that would normally make life comfortable.”

Oyawoye said the state was set to curtail environmental ills such as flooding, erosion, water and air pollution, soil degradation and rainstorms.

http://www.osundefender.org/?p=76020