TIWA N TIWA: RETRACING OUR LOST PATH

Tiwa n tiwa is a Yorùbá apothegm which roughly translates as “Ours is Ours”. It is that saying constantly used to remind the Yorùbá people that a denial of their culture is not a reasonable thing to do. Tiwa n tiwa drives home the message that no matter how enticing a foreign culture may be, no matter how comfortable we have come to see ourselves in its light, the underlining fact still remains that such feelings can never change who we are or what we should stand for. It is the Yorùbá symbol of self-awareness and inherent sentience meant to drive Yorùbá people back to their ways of life whenever they start going astray. This strong sense of self identity is entrenched in one of their proverbs where they say, t’eni n t’eni, t’èkísà ni táàtàn, meaning what belongs to one is what one possesses, the rag has no other place than a trash can. It agrees with another proverb which states that àjò ò le dùn dùn, k’ónílé ma r’elé, no matter how fun being in a foreign land can be, no matter how you like their language and ways of life and no matter how good a people they might be, all are transient as they will not answer the question of who you are and a foreign culture would always stay foreign.

According to CIA World Factbook, the Yorùbá people are an ethnic group of South-Western and North central Nigeria, numbering about 40 million and constituting a global population of more than 65milion. The Yorùbá people speak Yorùbá Language, a tonal language which belongs to the Niger-Congo group, spoken in Nigeria and Benin, with several communities in other parts of Africa, Europe and America, making it the most widely spoken African language outside Africa.

 No doubt, Yorùbá, as a culture is one of the richest in the world considering the people’s sophistication and indigenous exploits in various human endeavours. According to Culture Facts, Yorùbá civilisation flourished through the first millennium B.C.E when the people later known to be Yorùbá developed out of earlier Mesolithic age of Volta-Niger populations. Archaeologically, this population established Ife city around the 4th Century B.C building a civilisation with urban structures through 1100 to 1600, a period to be later known as the golden age of Ife. After the dispersion, Oyo Empire rose up as the dominant force in military and politics between 1300 and 1850 Christian era having built a strong system that boasts of a blend of democratic and autocratic governance. The Yorùbá people are famous for their art and craftwork; and their carved works, still being relevant till modern day, decorated with scenes of their everyday life, their history and mythology.

However, it is quite saddening that we are fast losing this rich heritage as a result of our lackadaisical attitude towards our culture and an obsessive patronage of foreign culture over our own. This anti-tribal act can largely be attributed to our contact with Islam through the Hausa/Fulani and Arab people, Christianity through the western missionaries and consequently, the British through the amalgamation of 1914 and the subsequent colonization of Nigeria until independence in 1960. The Muslim and Christian missionaries paganised our indigenous practices and the ways of our fathers, replacing it with their own, thereby robbing us of a larger part of our culture in the process.

No doubt, the Yorùbá children are getting severed from their root. The plight of Yorùbá people all over the world is one characterised by commotion and confusion. This, Tunde Kelani directed Ogunde-adapted musical video, Yorùbá Eronu laments as being “faded and jaded…the same cleverness that was responsible for their past success has now turned out to be their albatross”. Our culture has become a subject of ridicule that even the supposed sons and daughters of Oduduwa now subject it to further ridicule under their feet. Instead of speaking Yorùbá language with their shoulders raised, our children now speak a foreign language to one another with their clueless parents even encouraging such! The values, ethos and beliefs that distinguished us from the dogs and goats have now been thrown to the pigs and our cultural pride has been rendered naked.

While the situation is even worse than it seems to be, I believe the cause is not yet lost. Though, we are fast drowning in self deception, it is important for us to come back to our reality and start to identify with our culture. Listed below are some of the areas in which we have been lost and it is necessary we retrace our step:

Èdè (Language)

language

The first aspect the Yorùbás need to pay attention to is the language. The Yorùbá language, like never, is presently witnessing a massive corruption from this generation. I am sure you must have heard expressions like, ” Se wa OKAY, ba wo ni BUSINESS, ke ni NICE DAY, e CONSIDER wa NOW” and so on. These expressions obviously are not what you would refer to as the Yorùbá language. These expression variant is more like a pidgin Yorùbá, the product of confused and lazy bilinguals. For how long do we continue to deceive ourselves that we are proud of a language we are in fact killing.

The importance of language to any group of people cannot be overemphasised; it is the medium through which they primarily communicate their thoughts and feelings about their environment. If this medium is no longer functioning as it should, then that means the expression of their persons has equally been endangered. In fact, one cannot be wrong to conclude that language is the main differentiating factor of people in the world. Language distinguishes a British from a French man, it distinguishes an Igbo man from a Yorùbá man and an Ijesa man can only be distinguished from Oyo man by this same language. It occupies a strategic place in our lives that the loss of a language goes along with a loss of self identity and consciousness. No doubt, “Language is our soul”, as Aunty Rose Fernando rightly puts it.

The implication of the Anglo-Yorùbá language we speak today is that we are largely confused as to our identity; it means we are struggling between being an English man and a Yorùbá man which leaves us half English half Yorùbá man. It is even surprising that some lost Yorùbá parent would encourage their kids to ditch the Yorùbá language for the English language to the extent that such kids have no idea whatsoever again about their indigenous language, but the parents are in fact happy with this because we have allowed the history of colonization to rob us of our conscience. Ogede n baje, a ló n pón. These ignorant parents think they are bringing up their kids to one day become the leader of his or her people but the question is how do you want to lead a people you can’t communicate with? By the time we magnify our actions under a microscope, we will discover that we are in fact on an expedition to self oblivion.

The argument is not that we should ditch English for Yorùbá as our primary communication, of course, that would be tantamount to cutting our head to cure our headache, for we know that our country is a pluralistic society consisting of different ethnic groups, of which a lingua franca for easy communication is fundamentally necessary. The argument however is that we don’t replace our primary language with this lingua franca nor should we allow it to corrupt it. It is important that we keep Yorùbá as the primary means of expressing our thoughts and the English language as a second language to serve its purpose.

Ìtàn (History)

historyProfessor Pius Adesanmi in one of his articles on Sahara Reporters titled, “Ti Oluwa Ni Ile” brings out the pitiable plight of this Yorùbá generation. He wrote, “Yorùbá parents have been sending Yorùbá children from Yorùbá land to my classrooms in the United States and Canada for a very long time…And kids from Yorùbá land have never heard of Obafemi Awolowo. You try another approach and ask casually about Ayodele Awojobi. No? Okay, what about Tai Solarin? No? Okay o, what about Adeniran Ogunsanya? No? Okay, what about Simeon Adebo? No? Atanda Fatai Williams nko? No.  By now, despair sets in. You are afraid to ask about Gani Fawehinmi. It would hurt too much to see a first year Yorùbá undergraduate scratch his or her head for vague memories of Gani Fawehinmi who died just yesterday. You want to give up but you decide to give it one last shot. Okay, what about Bola Ige? Here you strike gold. Finally! The answer comes: “Ah, I know him sir. Is it not that man that they said that they killed?” You know you have to be thankful and make do with that answer. You don’t want to push it. At any rate, your interlocutor is already tweeting on his iphone or blackberry, the unmistakable signal that your time is up:”

The excerpt above reveals how ignorant our generation is fast becoming when it comes to our stories and history. If most of the people that answer to being Yorùbá today do not even know Obafemi Awolowo, then what do we expect them to know of Fábùnmi Òkè Ìmèsí, Oníkòyí, Móremí, Olómù Apèrán, Tìmí Ede, Gbónkán, Okere Saki, Aláàfin Adelu, Aláàfin Abíódún, Kurúnmí Aare Ona kan kan fo and a host of other Yorùbá heroes, patriarchs and matriarchs. These are the same people that takes pride in knowing the stories of Khan, Winston Churchill, Alexander The Great, Rockefeller, Columbus and so on. Today, Sun Tzu is an important authority in matters of warfare to the extent that some would even quote him on matters relating to Business and politics despite the fact that he is somewhat of a fabled character. We do have our own Òrànmíyàn, the legendary warrior and the founder of the Oyo Empire, we have Sàngó, we have Ògún, we have Oníkòyí, we have the great Ògèdèngbé, and Ògúnmólá, the Prime Minister of Ibadan and so on. To preserve our culture, it is time we start looking up to these figures for inspiration.

It is a rude irony that while we want greatness for the Yorùbá race, we neglect its stories when it is obvious that no people can rise beyond their own narratives. The greatness of any nation is forged between the lines telling of their exploits and words praising their feats. However, I am not saying we should not seek to know and tell the stories of these people outside the Yorùbá race, what I am saying in essence is that, prominence should be attached to ours and the stories of other people should just be as such to complement it. This is what Prof. Pius Adesanmi established when he said, “You acquire other stories in order to empower, enrich, and retool your own foundational stories. You do not abandon them.” Well, no doubt, our forbears have lived their lives, it is upon us to inherit their dreams and save our future – Alágemo ti b’ímo è tan, àì mán jo kù s’ówó alágemo.

Ìwòyé (Philosophy)

Photo Credit: www.ifayorubacontemporaryarts.co.uk
Photo Credit: www.ifayorubacontemporaryarts.co.uk

A lot of western writers have posited that we Africans are too simple to know what philosophy is. They said our hearts are dark and we don’t know our left from our right. However, later evidences positing against these Eurocentric views have been overwhelming. The Yorùbá people are no less human than their western counterparts in ideals, values and philosophy. Thinking is an art the Yorùbá people take very seriously and this is reflected in their beliefs like the issues of Orí, which is a very complex philosophical concept of the relationship between destiny and freewill; ènìyàn, the philosophical concept that explains the relationship between the body, soul, spirit and morals of a person and Omolúàbí, the philosophical endeavour that seeks to answer the question as to the education of a Yorùbá man and its inclusion into the Yorùbá society amongst others.

 As strange as it might sound, Professor Sophie Olúwolé, a retired professor of African Philosophy from the University of Lagos, Akoka argued in one of her books titled, “Socrates and Orunmila: Two Patron Saints of Classical Philosophy” that both Orunmila and Socrates are not just philosophers that share similarities in their method of philosophising but that Orunmila in fact preceded Socrates and compared both personalities on their thoughts, most especially on those regarded by western writers as being distinguishing of Socrates. According to her, both men spoke on the ‘nature of reality’, truth’, ‘human knowledge’, ‘classification of ideas’, ‘education’, ‘virtue’, ‘human destiny’, ‘death’, ‘good and bad’, ‘honesty and kindness’, ‘leadership quality’, ‘political rights’, ‘obedience to the state’, ‘the rights of women’ and many more. She also argued in support of Orunmila’s superiority over Socrates being that the mythical Orunmila combines the characteristics of both a spiritual leader and also a philosopher while the fictitious Socrates possesses just the philosophical figure. She adduced the evidence of the Encyclopaedia Britannica reported story of an exhumed fossil that dated about 9,000 B.C in Iwo Eleru near Akure to argue for precedence of African civilization amongst other compelling evidences.

Talking about reflection as a philosophical enterprise, the Yorùbá people have what they refer to as “Ìwòye”. Ìwòye denotes philosophical observation and examination of events and situations to make the observers come out with more refined thoughts and to live a life better than the one lived the day before. This aptly goes along with the Yorùbá proverb that boldly states that “Ogbón odun ni, were emii”. This proverb no doubt challenges the claim by both Eurocentric African and  western intellectuals that Africa and in particular the Yorùbá people do not think, for these are set of people that believe that “the wisdom of today is the insanity of the future”, what else can express their progressive and dynamic minds. These and others made Professor Sophie Oluwole underscores that “Yorùbá philosophy is a folk philosophy that valorizes the Yorùbá people’s cardinal virtues—namely, love, morality, temperance, honesty, honour, bravery, justice, prudence, and fortitude.”

Alágemo ti b’ímo è tan, àì mán jo kù s’ówó alágemo, let those who are ready to redeem the glory of our race go back in the deep search for our indigenous philosophy.

Ẹkọ (Education)

educationChinweizu Ibekwe, the author of “Decolonizing the African Mind” once retorted in an interview that “An education system trains somebody to live in a particular society. That’s what every proper education system does…So, on the premise that an education system trains people to live in their own society and ecosystem, what we have here is a miseducation system. Its all crap! (Sic) People think they are doing a great thing here: They give birth to a child and hand it over to an alien education system and expect that at the end of 20 – 30 years he would come back to be part of them. It can’t be, because they have moulded him differently, alienated him from his culture.”  This in fact is the situation with most of us in Africa and most especially, the Yorùbá people. I was speaking with a staff of the University of Ibadan recently and he was busy complaining about how they speak Yorùbá in the school he had enrolled his children and once he can raise more money he would change their school to a “private” school where all they will be speaking to them is English. Now, to him, the proper definition of education is speaking a foreign language and behaving like an outsider, no wonder, most of these kids return from school only to shake their parents instead of prostrating flat as a Yorùbá act of showing respect. Olówó ò wa  f’owó r’akú bí?

The Yorùbás, contrary to erroneous beliefs, posses a sophisticated system of education referred to as “eko” that ensures that individuals in the society fit into its philosophy of an Omolúàbí. This Omolúàbí philosophy of education is what Ademola Fayemi referred to in a paper titled, “Human Personality and the Yorùbá Worldview” to include oro siso (spoken word), iteriba (respect), inu rere (being of pure thought toward others), otito (truth, sincerity), akinkanju (bravery), ise (hard work), and opolo pipe (intelligence). If I may ask, what else is there to education than all these? Grief struck my heart when I saw a particular private secondary school around at Bodija in Ibadan publicly advertise that it runs a British curriculum. Really?! A British curriculum in a Yorùbá town? Where are you grooming the children for, Britain or Nigeria? London or Ibadan?

To save what is left of our battered face, there is a dire need to revisit our educational curriculum to reflect our indigenous way of life, the ways of our ancestors. Mind you, I am not saying western education is dangerous, neither am I saying that we should go back to learning under the tree. What I am saying in essence is that the Yorùbá system of education should be adopted to go hand in hand with what we have presently and there should be a legislation forbidden all these confused schools teaching American curriculum in Nigerian schools. What I am advocating for is an educational system where Yorùbá studies will be constant from Primary to the University regardless of your course of study. I am advocating for an educational system where Yorùbá attires would be favoured over the ridiculous western “school uniform”. I am advocating an educational system where for everything you learn in the English way, you also learn the corresponding Yorùbá teachings. Until then, what we have presently is not an education but a mis-education.  Omo táà ba kó, ni yío gbé’lé táàkó tà.

Ọnà Èdè (Literature)

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I doubt if you’ve heard about Ògbójú Ọdẹ nínú Igbó Irúnmalẹ̀, Irinkerindo ninu Igbo Elegbeje and other fantastic works of Baba Fagunwa. Have you read Awon Oju Odu Mereerindinlogun by Wándé Abímbólá. Have you read Saworo Ide (not the film o), Efunsetan Aniwura: Iyalode Ibadan, Aye ye won tan and other works of Akinwumi Isola? These and many others are works celebrating the Yorùbá culture. They have greatly done us a favour in giving us a peek into who we are as a distinguished race of people. While you will see many who called themselves Yorùbá boast about the number of Foreign authors they’ve been reading, you will be surprised when you ask them how many Yorùbá literature they’ve read and it will take the Grace of God for them to reel out a title or two, this is a shame fallen upon us.

Beyond reading these literature texts, we also owe it to coming generations to start writing in our mother tongue to further preserve our thoughts and spread our ingenuity. It is funny that most of what we have today as African literature are in fact written in foreign languages and not in the African languages. I think it is time Authors of Yorùbá descent start to follow the brave steps of Ngugi Wa Thiong’o when he revealed at the second edition of the Read Africa, an initiative of the United Bank for Africa Foundation to promote reading culture among pupils in Lagos, that “I stopped writing in English Language 10 years ago because Africa is our base and we must not lose our base and our indigenous languages. Since then I have been writing in Nkiyu language and I later do translation myself or I look for somebody to do it for me,” While we decorate our library with foreign books, while we write in foreign languages, let us know that what we are doing is what a Yorùbá proverb means when it states that, “A kìí f’árí olórí k’Áwòdì gbé t’eni lo”.

Aşọ Wíwọ (Clothing) 

clothing

In going back to our roots, one aspect of our living that is very essential is our dressing. Hardly will you see Yorùbá youngsters in real Yorùbá dressing, of course, they prefer to go around in jeans, spaghetti, crop tops, suits, shirts, bum shots and other strange attires of horrible names and sights. We should remember that our culture is our identity and this is largely expressed in our dressing. Dressing is vital constituent of the Omolúàbí image and if we really want to live as a proud member of our race, we should not only be proud of our cultural dressing but we should be able to showcase it anywhere, anytime.

We are proud owners of various clothing materials like Aso-Oke, Adire, Aran, Dandogo, Sanya, Koko amongst others. Yorùbá dressing philosophy leaves no room for indecency or irresponsibility, there are the right clothing style for the male and separate ones for the female, after all, Yorùbá believe that ìrínisí ni ìseni lójò, báà se rìn sí lá se n ko ni.

Àfò (Orature)

orature

Closely following the Literature is its orature. Though both are significantly related but it is proper to treat orature separately here because of some obvious reasons. Orature as an aspect of the Yorùbá is very important and sacred because it forms the fundamental structure of Yorùbá Language itself including its literature. This is simply refer to as àfò or oro in Yorùbá loosely translated as spoken art or language as identified by Olusola Ajibade of the Department of African Languages and Literatures at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife. Thus, it operates in the form of literature but distinct in that it is oral. It is an important channel through which the language is preserved from generation to generation. When we speak of Yorùbá Orature, we refer to Ijala (Hunters’ song), Iyere Ifa (Ifa Poetry), esa (masquerade poetry), oriki (praise poems), alo apamo/aro (riddles), alo apagbe (folktales), ekun iyawo (epithalamium), aroso (fiction), alonilahon (tongue-twister), iforowero (figures of speech) amongst a host of others. All these in no small way add beauty to the language but the question is how many of those that call themselves Yorùbá actually know all these things. Unlike literature, all these are meant to form a substantial percentage of our day to day communication.

Below is an excerpt from an èsà (masquerade poem) I composed that got me a poet’s role in a play I auditioned for in theatre arts’ department last semester. It’s titled Ènìyàn:

Ènìyàn o                                                                                         

Ènìyàn yán                                                                                    

Ènìyàn a bìdí yan yan o

Ènìyàn òsèlú

Ènìyàn òjèlú

Ènìyàn ti n f’agbádá gbá ‘gbada alagbede

Ènìyàn ti n f’owo ola gbaniloju

Ènìyàn a se ni tan, a te se mon rin

Ènìyàn eke, Ènìyàn alabosi o

Ènìyàn lo ni maa jo lo

Maa jo lo o, mo n weyin re

Boo ba de koto, won a si pada

To lo se la, ti’la fi ko

A ni ta lo s’ekan to fi we’wu eje

Ta lo n ta’mo ti’ye

To lo n na’mo na’ye

Se b’Ènìyàn naani.

Man

Oh! Man

A man, with mangy buttocks

Man, the politician

Man, the looter

Man that disrupts the blacksmith’s fire with his flowing gown

Man that oppresses

Man, who afflicts with trouble and hurriedly walks off,

Man, the hypocrite. Man, the double-dealer

Man, that will tell you to dance off and when you reach a ditch, he backs off

Who has rendered the okra useless

Who is responsible for the bloody garment of the garden egg

Who afflicts the child and mother

Who maims the child and mother

Is it not man?

From the above, it is obvious that the Yorùbá culture is not just rich but also complex and it really requires a participatory dedication to those characteristics that make up being called a Yorùbá. To preserve our orature, we need to keep it active in our day to day communication. As noted in the Encyclopaedia of African Literature, edited by Simon Gikandi Routledge in 2003, orature comes to life only in a living community. Where community life fades away, orality loses its function and dies. It needs people in a living social setting: it needs life itself. So it is hightime we started to re-enact our social settings to reflect the ones our ancestors lived. We need to reassess the content of our bedtime stories to reflect the organisation of the evening story time our fathers used to have. We need more contests amongst our youths where they can showcase the extent of their knowledge about Yorùbá orature and less of all these meaningless beauty pageantry and Hip-Hop /rap talent hunts. Eni ò si n’ile l’ewure rè n bi kan.

Isise (Technology)

tech

The Yorùbá people in their infinite wisdom have a saying that Nkan saa l’eye n je k’agbado to de, which roughly translates that the bird has been feeding on something before the coming of the maize. This is the apt illustration for the Yorùbá technological endeavours before the advent of the Europeans where these wonderful endeavours were either condemned or paganised. The Yorùbá people had an excellent communication technology manifested in the use of items in their immediate to convey messages through time and space. I am sure you know of the Bata drum, the telegraph without wires. Aroko is another complex system of intelligent communication of codes and items of symbolic usages. Beyond this is even a more complex esoteric way of spatial communication without physical contact, this is what has been achieved hundreds of years ago by the Yorùbá people before some scientists started making a shaky discovery about the possibility of telepathic science in 2014!

Apart from communication technology, the Yorùbá people also have a developed system of Agricultural technology that boasts of different effective farming systems and ways of domesticating animals for human consumption. There is also the Alagbede, who have mastered the technology of steel making; these people manufacture weapons and tools to aid other people in their works and professions. The Yorùbá counting system is in fact one of the most advanced in the world. These are the people that count based on binary system and not even decimal having distinct representation of ordinal and cardinal numbers. When http://discovermagazine.com is still asking, “Will Human Teleportation Ever Be Possible?” our ancestors have perfected the technology of teleportation in their various state. If you are indeed a Yorùbá person, you must have heard about the ofe, egbe, afeeri, ajabo, idiwo and so on. I know some people reading this might say “uh! That’s juju”, well my response is “what is not juju?” Most of the so called breakthroughs we are experiencing today are in fact esoteric knowledge of which the core activating explanation is known by few, what is the technology behind the sim card? What is the technology behind the internet? Only few can really respond to this. Same principle applies to these things, the esoteric knowledge is open to few and we must be ready to seek if really, we want to know. On this, the Yorùbá will say, e je k’atibi isana k’iye s’oogun.

Melo l’afeka ninu eyin adepele? These and many others have distinguished the Yorùbá race from other races. All these are testament to the facts that we have a rich legacy to explore, we have a heritage to keep and we have a torch to ensure its continuous burning.

 

Ìwòsàn (Medicine)

medicineThe Yorùbá people no doubt advanced the importance of health in life; they also have their own version of the axiomatic expression that health is wealth where they say ìlera l’orò. The Yorùbá medicine has been helping our ancestors conquer diseases and misfortunes for centuries. This is an area where utmost respect is given to the practitioners to the extent that Yorùbá medical practitioners are seen as demi-gods. To be a medical practitioner, it’s usually by inheritance and this account for why it is exclusive to a particular group of people. It has been established that the Yorùbá medicine is similar to conventional medicine in the sense that its main objective is to kill or expel from the body tiny, invisible “germs” or insects known as kokoro and also worms – aron, which inhabit the body.

The Yorùbá medicine has also been noted for its preventative approach to health, this is a reflection of the Yorùbá worldview that igi gogoro mágún mi l’ójú, à’tòkere l’atiiwo – prevention is way better than cure. According to Taye Oyelakin, a lecturer at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, falls into three distinct categories, the general traditional medicine, which consists of all forms of medication meant for the treatment, care and cure for all known illnesses (internal and external); the mystic medicine, which provides care in areas not easily understood to an average person, or on conditions that are not fully understood by simple reasoning e.g., the abiku phenomenon and esoteric medication which is the use of telepathy, second-sight, extrasensory, supersensual, clairvoyance, medium, and magic in curing diseases.

While I am not saying that the Yorùbá medicine possesses answers to all diseases and all different forms of ailment, what I am advocating for is that more inquiries should be launched into the histories and dynamics of the Yorùbá medicine. As Yorùbás we should take pride in patronising the medical system built and developed over centuries by our forefathers. The Yorùbás have no doubt found answers to cell regeneration, ajidewe; they know apaji, the art of resurrection and gbekude, the art of immortality amongst others. Committed inquiries into the Yorùbá medicine will not only clear many medical riddles but it will also help us in our quest of living forever.

Ẹsìn (Religion)

religionOosa t’a ba n se, ti a n le omode kuro, iru oosa be yio parun ni. Well, I won’t say much on this because I am well aware about the average Nigerian’s over-sensitivity to religious issues. But one thing is clear, out of the estimated 4,200 religions and faith in the world, Islam or Christianity cannot obviously be the ONLY RIGHT religion. Since the contact of the Yorùbá people with Islam in the 17th century and Christianity in early 19th century, they have in no small measure rob us of our traditional belief system. This of course is not as a result that these strange faith tendered superior spiritual arguments and suppositions but because of the tolerance of the Yorùbá people to a fault!

The Yorùbá religion is not like some religions spread by violence, force and lack of consideration and tolerance for non-adherents, this is a religion that believes so much in peace, non-violence and freedom of belief. No wonder, the name of the teacher of this religion is Orunmila, only heaven knows he who will attain salvation. If your argument of not going back to the religions of our forbears is that there are bad people who kill and do evil in the religion, then I don’t think you have any reason staying in your Islam or Christianity for therein abound more evil people…

In short, I am not asking you to desert the religions your reneged parents gave to you, instead, what I am advocating is that you drop valentine for Ogun Festival, New Year festival for New Yam festival, Christmas for Eyo festival, Ileya for Ogun festival, Haloween for Egungun, Easter for Sango festival and so on. Let us go back to worship Osun, such that one day, Millions of people will come from all over the world to worship with us at the Osun grove just as we mumuishly go to Mecca and Jerusalem every year. Náàni náàni náàni, ohun ani laa náàni, omo aségità n náàni epo igi.

I am a strong fan of Saheed Osupa, the Fuji Icon and arguably the best Fuji Musician alive. Permit me to end this piece with some lines from his track titled “Civilisation”:

Olaju de

Olaju de l’awa gbagbe asa idile wa

Olaju dee,

Olaju de, l’awa gbagbe asa ibile wa

Civilisation l’oje a gbagbe gbogbo oun t’adaye ba…

*This article was first published in the Famasi magazine of PANSPRESS, University of Ibadan

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Oredola Olamilekan Ibrahim Ajatontiriajabale

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