ILE-IFE
‘Biblical Garden of Eden was situated here’
By SEGUN OLUWAFEMI
Sunday, July 5, 2009

•Panoramic view of part of Ile-Ife Photo: Sun News Publishing

Living index

In Ile-Ife, everything is shrouded in mystery. From its origin through its evolution to the present, it is rooted in mythical powers and religious mysticism. There is hardly anything about the city that does not have a dose of spirituality. Some like a tale from the moon told by a superhuman. Some on the miraculous side, while some could easily be dismissed as ridiculous concepts.

Welcome to the ancient city of Ile-Ife, the cradle of Yoruba, the source of creation, the world of fables, the citadel of religion and indeed the informal capital of modern Yorubaland.
Ile-Ife does not seem to share similarity with any town or city in the world concerning its origin and history.

While most towns are founded by immigrants, Ile-Ife is said to be the point at which creation took place, thereby taking its origin beyond man’s conception. So, the history of Ile Ife is as old as the creation itself. The reason being that the Yoruba traced the origin of mankind to this ancient city. Some historians and archaeologists have also given accounts supporting Ife as cradle of life.

Going by the oral history passed from generation to generation by the Yoruba, Ile Ife is the origin of life. Yoruba traditionalists and Ifa priests have consistently maintained that Ife was the point where the first deity and indeed human being habited. To them, God’s project of earthly creation was executed and completed at this ancient city by a deity called Oduduwa.
Oduduwa is a heavenly being, according to the creation story, who descended at the instance of God to complete the creation of the earth.

Like most Yoruba names, Oduduwa is a shortened form of Odu-to-da-iwa, which translates in English to mean “the deity or cosmic principle that created existence.” It can also be interpreted as “the deity or cosmic principle that creates character” Oduduwa has always been tied to his function in earthly creation.

To the Ife, the earth was created twice. There seems to be a semblance with the biblical explanation of the creation story. The Holy Scripture states that God created the heavens and the earth in the book of Genesis chapter one. Though the world was wiped off in a flood resulting from downpour that lasted forty days and nights, God preserved the family of Noah who became the transitory vehicle to the second world.

According to legend, the first creation was ‘Ife Oodaye’ which means “Ife of first earth origin.” In a chat with the Ooni-in-Council consisting of several High Chiefs of Ife Kingdom, High Chief J.O. Ijaodola (JP) informed Sunday Sun that this process of earth creation was started by Obatala, but was brought into fruition by Oduduwa. Yoruba mythology states that the supreme deity ordered his son, Oduduwa to descend from the heavens on a chain with three things. Oduduwa scattered a handful of dirt over the ocean creating Ile-Ife. He then put a cockerel, which had six fingers on the land. It was the cockerel that undertook the task of spreading the soil to other parts of the world with its fingers just like we have today while scavenging for something to eat. Through this process, the earth was expanded upon the earth created by the Supreme Being which the Bible records as “without form and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep waters.”

Oduduwa planted the palm nut in the hole dug by the cockerel and from there sprang a great tree with sixteen branches representing the families of the early Yoruba states. Today, many of the surviving traditional religious groups in the city celebrate the creation of the world during a festival called Itapa.
Oduduwa’s statue with his divine cockerel stands in a flowery beautiful park facing the palace of the Ooni as if keeping watch over the world he created.

According to Olu Ademulegun in his book ‘Who is Oduduwa?’ “The first creation of Ife Oodaye, according to the Yoruba, was destroyed by flood due to conflicts and excesses of the gods. The second creation then took place. It was called Ife Ooyelagbo which means Ife of the survivors and its establishment was led by Oduduwa as one of the surviving sky gods.”

Justifying the Ife traditionalist’s perspective on the role of Oduduwa in creation, Ademulegun wrote: “I see a lot of sense in the traditional view that Oduduwa was fully in charge at that second creation and he berthed on a hill the traditionalists called Oramfe. The Jews who departed Africa years later toward the east, probably abridged Odu-ino-iwa (the ancient Ife dialect for Oduduwa) to Noah and also abridged Oramfe to Arafat.

The High Chief of Ife concurs affirming that the ark of Noah berthed at a hill called Oramfe. With one voice during the interview, they agreed that Ile-Ife had been in existence since pre-history and that Ife is not just the name of a town but “the spot where the earth started and expanded.”
Ademulegun submits to this mythical origin when he wrote: “The Ife/Oduduwa myth as recorded in Ife Corpus is, to me, about Africa being the home of the mother race of humanity.”

In their book “Yoruba: Nine centuries of African Art and Culture,” three professors: John Drewal, Penberton and Rowland Abiodun wrote: “The Yoruba speaking peoples of Nigeria and the popular Republics of Benin (former Dahomey) together with their countless descendants in other parts of Africa and the Americans, have made remarkable contributions to world civilization. Their urbanism is ancient and legendary, probably dating to AD800 – 1000 according to the result of archaelogical excavations at two ancient city sites – Oyo and Ife. These were only two of numerous complex city – states headed by secret rulers, men and women and council of elders and chiefs. Many have flourished up to our own time. The dynasty of kings at Ife, for example regarded by the Yoruba as place of origin of life itself and of human civilization, remains unbroken to the present.

“The prehistoric era is still unknown, but data from a last stone age site at Iwo Eleru about 47 miles from Ife contributed some collateral data. There, human remains identified as Negroid dating to 8000 BC were found, more significantly, about 1000 BC decorated pottery appears in abundance at Ife.”
These excavations clearly reveal Ife and Yoruba history to be well over 4000 years before Abraham, the father of the Jewish nation and about 8000 years before Jesus Christ.
Reverend Samuel Johnson a controversial Christian historian observed that: “All various tribes in Yoruba traced their origin from Oduduwa and the city of Ile-Ife, fabled as the spot where God created man and from where they dispersed all over the earth.”

•Entrance to Ooni Palace Photo: Sun News Publishing

Archaeologists’ perspective
The pre-eminence of Ile-Ife has not been the concern of historians alone but archaeologists whose sacred duties are to extract historical facts of its origin from the mythical tales of creation. Renown German Archaeologist, Professor Leo Frobenius in 1910 recorded that “Ile-Ife is the probable site of Atlantis, a legendary island in the Atlantic Ocean said to be a powerful kingdom for 9000 years, whose armies overran the Mediterranean lands with the exception of Athens. The archaeologist submitted that “if the people of the Atlantis were founders of the ancient civilization from where the Atlantic derived its name, it could be conclusively proved that the people of Ile-Ife were the founders of the present world civilization.”

Herodotus, the acclaimed founder of all history who lived between 424 and 484 BC affirmed that Ife was one of the ancient cities in Africa that existed at the dawn of history.
Lending credence to the historical pre-eminence of Ife, The New York Times of Tuesday July 27, 1993 published a full-page geneticist map of the world showing ancient human migration from the hinterland of Africa with specific reference to West and Central Africa as the likely source of human civilization.

Ife in the eye of the Yoruba
If historians and archaeologists will not come to agreement on the place of Ife in creation, the Yoruba nation regards Ife as the origin of man and where the garden of Eden was situated. Throughout the length and breadth of Yoruba, Ife is held in awesome reverence. From time immemorial, Yoruba villages and towns trace their ancestral link to the town. In the same way, every king traces his authority to Ife. Any monarch that cannot trace his root to the ancient city cannot be seen as Oba. Every beaded crown must be able to establish his link to the undisputable cradle of Yorubaland and civilization, even till the present.

So it is not uncommon to see kingship lineage labouring hard to establish the fact that his ancestors migrated from Ife. There is probably no oba in Yoruba land that does not claim that his ancestors had the blood of Ife running in their veins.
Going by the claim of affinity and biological bond by monarchs as well as towns and cities , it would appear that in the days of yore, an Ife man that crossed the border of the town is seen by his host community as one with royal blood running in his vein. He soon became the rallying point of the community. In a matter of time, he would naturally assume position of leader.

Most historians agree on the fact that Ife was the capital of Yoruba until the emergence of Oyo Empire. Captain C.H. Elegae, the colonial administrator of Ibadan writing on the evolution of Ibadan supported this view and recorded that Ife was the capital and most ancient city in Yorubaland.
During the country’s servitude under the imperial British administration, a study on the origin and history of Yoruba and of course, Ife was part of the primary school curriculum in Yorubaland. This continued until the 1970s when the nation began to place less emphasis on the people’s cultural heritage and history while it embraced foreign cultures.

Pa Olusola Fatuyi, a retired school teacher living in Ife recalled with nostalgia his perception of Ile-Ife as a growing child in his village in Ekiti. The picture Ife conjured to him as a child was that of a town that existed between the earth and the heaven. To school children of that era when transportation was still at its rudimentary stage and telecommunication evolving in the womb of science, Ife had all the attributes of a territorial town.
Fatuyi recalled how he would listen with enthusiasm to fables and folklores on Ife supernatural state. “A picture was painted of a town that is the closest to heaven. No town seems to exist on the border of this town in the imagination of some of us who listened to the spiritual and historical dimension of this city.”

How would the children of those days think otherwise when they were made to believe that one who was dissatisfied with this present world could just transit through a path in Ife to the world beyond? A journey of no return. Fatuyi knows better today. Having lived for over 20 years in the town, he now sees Ife like any other town in Yorubaland, while still giving it to the town as the origin of Yoruba race.
Just recently, Ooni began a tour of all the places across the globe where his children are. The fatherly visitation took him to Cotonou, Republic of Benin, Ghana where the Yoruba live. According to Fatoba, the experience was further proof of Ife as the progenitor of human race. He hinted that the itenerary would soon resume which will take the Ooni to the Yoruba in Diaspora-Brazil, Cuba, America etc. Their religion in these places is the ones they took with them from Ife, says High Chief A.O.E. Fadiwura, the Obalaaye of Iroye Ile-Ife. “They worship Sango and Ifa there.”

•Entrance to Ooni Palace Photo: Sun News Publishing

Family ties (Akodi)
There is strong family ties among the Ife people. At different quarters in the town, it is common to see an arcade gate leading to a compound that in most cases consists of houses with a bold inscription preceding the family name. ‘Akodi’ mean ‘compound.’ An Akodi comprises of extended family members who now collapses into one family for the purpose of unity and family lineage and to settle disputes within the family. It is also to enforce discipline and morality.

The agelong tradition of the town, which they still hold with passion is as a result of the Akodi meetings. Every month, each family compound meets. Those in the farm, those living in adjacent towns and even those living in far away town like Lagos go home for this important family re-union. The Akodi is headed by the ‘Oloriebi’ usually the oldest in the family. His words on every matter is the final. You dare not contravene his order or instruction.

Pa Ijaodola informed that no matter one’s social standing, position in the society or wealth you are bound by the decisions at the family meeting.
According to the high chief, you forget your status and bow to the authority of the family head. If there is need for punishment, the person is punished. Any matter that cannot be resolved at the family meeting is taken to the chiefs at the quarters. This is still very much alive in this ancient city.

The Quarters
Ife from the olden days till the present is segmented into five principal quarters for administrative convenience. Each quarter is further divided into compounds and streets. The five principal quarters are Moore Quarters which consists of 29 compounds; Iremo quarters which consists of 78 compounds; Ilode quarters with 46 compounds: Ilare with 22 while Okerewe had 75, Modakeke used to be under this quarters.

Opa Oranmiyan
Opa Oranmiyan stands over five meters tall in Moopa area of the town within a fenced wall. Few symbolic trees are scattered around the staff with some dotted marks, which the custodian says are marks of bullet during the several wars fought by Oranmiyan.
High chief Johnson Owoyemi, the Akogun of Ife is the current custodian of the Opa Oranmiyan – a staff that Oranmiyan, the grandson of Oduduwa used to take to war. The staff made of granite obelisk with iron stud stands within the Oranmiyan shrine manned by Chief Eredumi as chief priest who is the link between the dead and the living.

Oranmiyan, according to Akogun, is interpreted in two different ways. He explained: First, if a matter or case is settled well in your favour either by men or by the spirit through divination, second, it could mean conflict or disagreement over an issue or object. In the case of Oranmiyan it is the dispute over a pregnancy between father and son. Ogun,a warrior had brought in a beautiful damsel as spoil of war. His father, who was the king in the manner of an imperial power of the time overruled his son and took the lady as wife. On delivery, half of the baby was light and the other dark in complexion. Oduduwa was dark and Ogun was light in complexion.
Oranmiyan was a powerful warrior who founded Oyo and Benin Kingdoms. After several wars and conquests, Oranniyan returned to Ife where he died.

Home of culture and tradition
Ife is home to culture and tradition. It is a town that prides itself in culture. As cradle of Yoruba, Ife has not shirked its responsibility as the custodian of culture. From their dressing (though the elderly), greeting, love for arts to religious worship, Ife people are culture inclined even as they jealously preserve core traditional values of the ancient town.
Chief Gbenga Omiwole, executive secretary of Ife Development Board, a non governmental organization, informed Sunday Sun that “Ife is very rich in culture. Ooni himself is a cultural attraction. Ife is sensitive in its awareness of cultural activities.” Mrs Adenreti, a staff of Ife East Local Government and an indigene agreed to Ife’s love for tradition and culture saying it is most cherished. According to her, the elders will not allow it to perish saying Ife people don’t run away when they are asked to be conferred with family chieftaincy title. Mr Yomi Akinsola, a 400 level Political Science student of Obafemi Awolowo University agreed to the cultural and spiritual affinity with their ancestors.
Alhaji K.A. Adeleke, a civil servant in the town affirmed that it is “a town of culture. If you look at the way they build, it is traditional architecture.”

To the curator of the National Museum Ile Ife, Mr Bode Adesina, “Ife is an historical city and an embodiment of culture. This is where culture starts and ends.”
Records show that between 700 and 900AD, the town began to develop as a major artistic centre. Ile Ife is known worldwide for its ancient and naturalistic bronze, stone and terracotta sculptures which developed between 9th and 12th century and reached their peak of artistic expression between 1200 and 1400AD. The rulers and important people were often depicted with large heads because they thought Ase (authority) was held in the head.

Museum
As a mark of its love for art and culture, Ife is home to three Museums. Ife National Museum was established in 1948. The museum houses objects of antiquities made up of archaeological and ethnographic collection with wide range of artifacts from various excavations within and outside the town. Located in Enuwa, the heart of the city within the periphery of the palace of Ooni, the museum reminds one the various phases Nigeria had passed through especially from the point of colonial administration. It reflects the peoples’ collective sense of the past. The biggest terracotta in the museum is the royal stool.

The museum at Obafemi Awolowo University called ‘Martin Aworinlewo Museum of Antiquities and Contemporary Arts boasts of various original art works. These include bronze works of Ooni and his wife excavated from Itayemo by Frank William.
There is the original piece of Olokun head, the Queen of Ife believed to have introduced bead making and who was reputed to have first treated water with herbs which she gave to barren women. The head of the Olokun is the symbol of NTA Ibadan and that of Obafemi Awolowo University
According to sources at the museum, it was brought back from South Africa few years back by the Director General of Museum, Dr. Oluyemi Omotosho.
In this museum, virtually all the collections are the original art works. Indeed, it is a massive collection of ancient relics, which include bronze terracotta, religious effigy, objects and other art works. Some of them look fearful.
There is also the Pottery Museum, which is an annex of Ife Musum but located along Moore Road. The museum exhibits different pottery from Yorubaland. The museum serves as a reference point for researchers and students of Yoruba ceramics.

Religion
Like most towns, the people are religion conscious. The three main religions in the city are Christianity, Islam and traditional. Traditional religion appears flourishing than the other two as most people who belong to either of the former two also have soft spot for the age-long religion. So being a Christian or a Moslem does not preclude you from the traditional religion, which the elders hold in high esteem. It is not uncommon to be a leader in a denomination and still hold chieftaincy title that has to do with shrine.
Here, Olojo is the biggest festival on the Ife cultural calendar. This festival is held annually to commemorate Oduduwa’s descent from heaven. It is during the Olojo festival that Ooni wears Aare crown. Aare is a mysterious crown worn only once in a year and it is believed to possess the power that instantly transfigure Ooni to the rank of Orisa (god).
With 201 traditional religious festivals, it is only one day that is free that the people do not offer sacrifice at the various shrines that dot the town. This particular day remains a secret the chief and priests of the kingdom keep so dear to the heart.

Ifa is another sect that attracts good number of the people. Unlike what obtains in most other towns where Ifa worship is individualized and confined to illiterate priests or Babalawo in ramshackled buildings, it has been modernised such that one may mistake its worship centre for a church. Incidentally, their worship session is on Sunday like their Christian counterparts. When Sunday Sun visited the imposing Ifa Auditorium on top of a hill, near Ife Town Hall, children were seen playing unmolested. The children admitted that they also worship in the Ifa hall along with the elders. The main auditorium is the Headquarters of Ifa Worship Worldwide, which was being prepared to host a meeting of all worshippers round the globe last month. Araba is the chief priest.
Some of the main gods they worship include Obatala, Ogun, Olokun, Orunmila, Olojo, Sango, Ifa, Osun, Ela, Oya, Yemoja, Oranmiyan. These are what they call ‘sky gods’ that control virtually everything on earth.
Many hold that Ife is a fetish town ruled by powers of darkness, but the chiefs and leaders of the town think otherwise. Such views to them can only be from one who is mentally unstable.

Economy
What is economic activities like in Ife? This is all you need to ask a boisterous Ife man and his countenance instantly drops. There is no single industry you can point to in this town that prides itself as the source of creation. This lack of factory has greatly impacted negatively on the development of the town. Though the people claim they are industrious folks, there is no factory to show for it.
This is the greatest challenge facing the town. Ajijola Matthew Tosin, 30, a native of Ilupeju Ekiti who was born and bred in the town could not conceal his indignation against the government and rich people of the town for not establishing industries. Jobless Ajijola thinks that such efforts will provide job for the youths who are roaming the streets
Afolabi Adekunle, a Computer Science student of OAU agreed and charged the government and the people to try to turn the town to an industrial one by coming home to establish industries.

Dressing
The people love dressing well in either their native attire or westernized way. Though English garb has eroded the traditional pattern of dressing like in other Nigerian cities, native wears are still prevalent among the middle age and the elderly. When an Ife man puts on Buba, he dons cap to complete the dressing. The women are even more compliant in matters of tradition. Though Chief Ijaodola claimed that Aso Ofi is the main custume of his people, Ankara fabric is the commonest textile of the people today. The Ooni himself is an example in splendid sartorial taste. Each time he comes out, he is pleasant to behold in his expensive apparel.
One thing very noticeable in the dressing of Ife people is that a high sense of discipline and morality is still displayed. It is almost impossible to see a lady-young or old in revealing clothes or in one that shows the upper or lower cleavage. Not even with Ife being a university town will one see beckoning types of dressing on its streets.

Sola Omisore has an explanation for the decent dressing. “Discipline is instilled through family lineage. We know ourselves. So if a lady dresses indecently, people will say: Is this not the child of so so? Don’t think because Ife is a city that we don’t know ourselves.” He told Sunday Sun that OAU also has a dressing code that has sanitized weird dressing on campus.

Environment
A first time visitor will not probably fail to observe the clean environment of the city. There is conscious effort to ensure the streets are not littered. Like in old times, the women still sweep the house and its surroundings every morning. You can hardly see refuse dumps at Ife. This prompted the reporter to ask an official in Ife East Local Government who responded that the Department of Water and Environment is actively supported by Oba Okunade Sijuwade to ensure the town is kept clean.
But the town has many houses that can be justifiably classified as danger zones, yet people live in such buildings. Being an ancient town, there are scores of houses, even storey buildings that one side fallen off completely. They not only portend danger to those still living there but also the adjacent buildings. The local government official said that some of the landlords of these dilapidated houses have been issued quit order, which is not being heeded. The government might need to take urgent action to avoid disaster in the near future.
A stroll around Lagere and Akarabata area reminds one of a senseless war, as debris of one time mansions dotted the place. Three streets, Akarabata Line 1-3 have been overgrown by weeds and trees as reptiles now have comfortable abode in the former living rooms.

Home away from home
To visitors or non-indigenes, Ife is home far away from home. In this town, strangers feel at home as the stroll into the warm embrace of their hosts. The people are accommodating. One point of agreement among all the people (indigenes and non-indigenes) spoken to is the hospitable nature of the people. Chief Omiwole opined that Ife is accommodating to a fault. As if justifying this assertion, High Chief A.O. Fabunmi, the Erebese of Ife, a retired local government secretary noted that more than half of the farmland are in the hands of non indigenes. He, however, added that in Ife, there is no stranger since the town is the father of all.
Hospitality business is booming but there are not too many hotels in the town. Some of the highbrow hotels include MayFair Hotel, Diganga Hotel, Hilton Hotel. To have a bite of Ife delicacies does not cost a fortune. Iyan with egusi soup is their favourite meal, which is available at Eda Bar and Restaurant Bamboo kitchen and others.

Social life
The town is a good place to relax after a hard day’s job. Social life swings well in the evenings and on weekends. There are more drinking joints than you can find restaurants or bukatarias. But as night creeps in, social life grinds to a halt.
Security of life and property is considered above temporary ecstasy. The people are very security conscious and prepared to make sacrifice for their safety. By 10.00p.m the curtain draws on night crawling as the streets are virtually deserted. There is a network of vigilance groups that blend with the police to ensure the people have their two eyes closed while they sleep at night. The security alertness of the people paid off early this year when robbers invaded one of the banks and in a show of bravado, the people with police confronted the dare-devil, blocking the roads. Since then, there has not been any major robbery reported in the town.

Here, skimpily or scantily dressed daughters of Eve are not seen on the streets at night. Nonetheless, there is room for sons of Adam interesting in the flesh business. There are two outlets. He either hibernates with women of easy virtue in their den (brothel) located in three places in the town or hang around some of the hotels at night. Anyone going on such amorous adventure, should go in his vehicle because in Ife, you don’t get transportation after the light out which is 10p.m. However, during the day, the town offers one of the least stressful transport systems. The taxi cab, the bus and the ubiquitous motorcycle popularly called Okada are available anywhere you want to go at N30 for taxi and Okada while bus takes N20 per drop.

If you are first time visitor to Ife as a Yoruba person, mind the way you greet the people. You may offend the sensibility of a people. In Ife, it is a taboo to greet people ‘E ku ijoko’ which is a common greeting in Yorubaland for people sitting down or holding a meeting. Here, such greeting is reserved for period of mourning, when someone has lost a loved one.
The people are not copycats. They are proud of what they have. This fact is corroborated by a popular adage: ‘Ajisebi Ife l’anri, Ife o ni se bi enikankan’ meaning ‘It is other people that copy Ife, Ife will not imitate anyone’.

•NEXT WEEK: SAPELE