History has a unique way of repeating itself, thereby lending credence to the hullabaloo following former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s controversial order to some Yoruba obas to stand up for Gov Oluwaseyi Makinde during a road inauguration in Iseyin town, Oyo State, recently.
History has it that one time Oyo District Council Chairman, Chief Bode Thomas, in a similar version, shouted at the late Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Adeniran Adeyemi II, the father of the last Alaafin Lamidi Adeyemi III, for not standing up for him on his arrival for a council meeting.
Thereafter, Oba Adeyemi II was reported to have mystically ordered him to continue barking like a dog, and Bode Thomas eventually barked to death days after!
The real question now is,”Se agbara, bi tii Alaafin Adeniran Adeyemi II, ko si mo ni?” (“Is there no more such a command by traditional powers like that of Alaafin Adeniran Adeyemi II?
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The answer is in the Yoruba wise saying, “Eniti, o so ile baba e nu…o so apo iya ko.” (The moment one loses one’s culture and traditions…under whatever guise…be it modernity, religion or politics…one has lost it ALL. One will, therefore, occasionally suffer…outside…as an outcast…in the hands of miscreants having lost one’s ancestral home).
Examples abound of powerful Yoruba leaders that have been cut down in their prime by the world…having been so deceived/brainwashed to abandon their culture.
The traditional stool is not an arena for charlatans or politico-religious bigotry, but for those who are inherently and naturally endowed to uphold the tenets/rituals involved, and are equally genuinely interested in following/fulfilling divine traditional practices like abstaining from certain unguarded habits, outbursts, conducts, and certain public social interactions, by becoming the adherents of truth, justice, fairness, divinity, holiness, utmost culture of dignity, glamour and candour!
Traditionally, people don’t see obas’ corpses…but nowadays obas’ corpses are exposed to the non-initiated, and left on floors for their subjects to see before interment. What an abomination with dire consequences in those days!
Religion and politics divide homes and nations – making one’s friends become sworn enemies, but culture and traditions are unifying, which many modern day Yoruba obas have abandoned as custodians and turned their palaces into divisive arenas of politics and religion.
Oluwole writes from 3/39, Mosorire Street, Soka, Ibadan.,Oyo State – [email protected].
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