It is an established historical fact that the cradle of the Yoruba race is Ile- Ife with Oduduwa as the incontestable progenitor. There is even a mystical extension to that belief that affirms that the entire human creation has a traceable origin to Ile-Ife. Though this may have led to several intense intellectual disputations, all the theorists have strong strings of fact to back up their polemical positions.
Behind the veil of the Yoruba history and mythology is the personae of Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi, the Ojaja II, who stands as the 51st Ooni of the source and the Arole Oodua. There is no doubt that a close interaction with the six- footer first class traditional ruler would leave one in awe of his enormous brain and brawn prowess as one of the iconic figures of the Yoruba race. The recent visit of this writer to the Ooni under the auspices of the Nigerian Council of Registered Insurance Brokers-NCRIB- (with its President, Prince Babatunde Oguntade) leading the delegation, was quite enriching as it created an avenue of intimate interaction with the iconic royal father who before ascending the throne was a man of worth and intellect. It takes very little while into the interactions to discover the humility and conversational gifts of the royal father. He regaled us with legendary tales about creation and how Ile-Ife was the fountain of all human existence and how the “Yoruba” came into being. He also unveiled some of the myths surrounding creation and the impelling human soul repositioning, often referred to as death. With incandescent memory of how many kingdoms branched out of Ile Ife, Oba Adeyeye demonstrated that the reason for destitution of knowledge in modern world was because of growing resentment to history and recession of inquisitive minds. He revealed the misery behind reincarnation and his plunge into the esoteric could put any shallow mind in a quandary.
Aside from the solid architectural restructuring that the sprawling palace had gone through since his emergence as the Ooni, the entire human resource in the palace demonstrated apparent self-content, borne out of the magnanimity of the Kaabiyesi. One of his aides revealed that his humanness was unparalleled in the palace. “Aside from personally paying the salaries of all his aides, he made sure he gave us periodic exposure overseas as well as award scholarships to many outside his confines of religion and tribe”. He has an uncanny sense of humour and is a superb social-connector whom every one would be delighted to be with or consort with. Going into the realm of abstraction, Ooni jolted the visitors when he revealed that he had once lived thousands of years before, but now again on earth to do and accomplish what he was unable to in the life before! His revelatory knowledge which he said was sometimes given through his interactions with the “irumoles” underscore this mystical affirmation.
Although, the NCRIB was on a visit to the royal father, being a distinguished Honourary Fellow and Royal Ambassador of the Council from whom it depended on to spread the frontiers of insurance broking awareness in rare quarters, Kaabiyesi again gave a good impression of himself as a cauldron of tradition and Yoruba mythology, humanist, worthy of being consulted by everyone desirous of richer knowledge about human creation and Yoruba historicity. To me, he comes across as a proud icon of human race. Long live, the Arole Ooduwa!
No comments:
Post a Comment