How we lost our cultural identity to foreign influence —Elebuibon

In this interview with FUNMILAYO AREMU and ADEOLA OTEMADE, Chief Yemi Elebuibon, the Araba of Osogbo and internationally acclaimed Ifa priest, speaks on how the Yoruba culture, especially, is gradually going into extinction and what the society stands to lose.

 

What is your opinion on the new law in Ogun State that allows  Obas to be buried according to the provisions of their religions?

It has been about 16 years now since Oba Awujale called a meeting of all the communities  in his domain. He explained that the agenda is that any king that is a Christian should be buried according to the Christian burial rites and likewise for kings  that are Muslims. So, I wrote a letter that the remains of a king do not belong to his family, but to the entire village. That is what I am fighting for. A king has authority over everything and a king has to be a person who respects culture and tradition. We are neither in Jerusalem, nor are we in Saudi Arabia, if we don’t practise our tradition, then we have no cultural identity. We don’t even bear our indigenous names anymore. Most kings now bear names like Jimoh, Rashidi, etc. It is not right. It is an insult to our customs. We should bear names that befit the crown and royalty, names like Ade, Ola, Oye, etc. Names that command respect. A Yoruba adage says Adé la fi ń mọba, ìlẹ̀kẹ̀ la fi ń mọ̀jòyè (the king is identified by the crown and chiefs by their beads). What we are saying is that kings of nowadays should know that they have to respect culture and tradition and represent the Yoruba people. Kings must participate in all traditional festivals and respect all deities. That is what we are saying. The lawmakers that said the family members of the king can bury the king anyhow they want do not understand our culture or respect our  tradition; they do not see themselves as Africans and those who must protect their customs and traditions.

 

How were kings buried in the olden days?

Each town or village has its  own way of burying its king. What is acceptable in my village can be a taboo elsewhere. Some people have a forest set aside, a mausoleum, where they bury their kings. Some others bury their kings in the palace, so that the new king can visit the burial place of his father. For example, in Oyo, they call the mausoleum Bàrà. They can point out the tomb of each king that has ever ruled. When a new king is crowned, there are some rites to be performed by the new Alaafin at his father’s tomb. He will put down his attire, kill a ram and perform other rites. Each town has its  own tradition.

 

What is the implication of abolishing the traditional method of burying kings?

God has given us the knowledge and wisdom about  how to handle things in Africa. The position of a king is very sacred. Some reporters from BBC asked if it is possible for a prince to become the king if he didn’t grow up in the palace, citing Queen Naomi taking the prince out of the palace as an example. I told them that it is not every prince that lives in the palace. Some princes might be opportune to live in the palace, but some children are taken out of the palace so that they can experience life outside the palace and not become brats. When the prince comes back to the palace, there are people who have been assigned to teach the prince the customs and tradition, like the Arokin and the Ayaba. They live in the palace and are saddled with responsibilities. Now, most palaces are empty. Regents, story tellers, the former kings’ wives, Arokin, were always present in the palace whether the king was alive or not. Those are the people that will teach the king things like the oriki (panegyric) of past kings; the origin of the village or town; places to enter in the palace and places that are forbidden; secrets of the palace; the rites a king performs every morning, etc. It is those who have been in the palace that will teach the new king. Those who have this responsibility are now civilised; they don’t even know what to do when a new king is crowned.

A king was asked about his experience before he became king, he said he was just eating and making merry. There was no orientation: how a king should dance; how he should interfere in matters; the kind of songs a king ought to sing; how the king ought to respond to his people  during protest or if there is chaos or conspiracy in the village, how the king ought to answer them, the room where crowns are stored in the palace; the room where the staff of office is kept and so on. So, the palace and the king are sacred. But when civilisation came, most of these traditions became extinct. We have two categories of kings now:  the civilised kings and the traditional ones. The civilised ones cannot understand what I am talking about. My advice to them is that they should educate themselves and know these things, it will be beneficial to them.

 

Some high chiefs in Ibadan were elevated to the position of King during the administration of former governor Ajimobi. Now that a new Olubadan is to emerge, there are question about the legality of the decision of the late governor. What is your reaction to this?

What Ajimobi wanted to do was a good thing, but the way and manner in which it was executed was wrong. The same thing was done in Ife. The former Ooni of Ife did the same. The rural villages like Olode, Omifunfun had Baale (village heads) and were upgraded to kings, but they were not in line for the throne [of Ile-Ife]. The mistake that Senator Balogun made was that he was already in line for the throne, but he was impatient. He should have been praying for a long life for himself and the Olubadan, so that when the Olubadan leaves, he can take over. When Ajimobi asked him to become a king, he should have rejected, because where he was headed is greater than what Ajimobi offered. Civilization and impatience caused it.

People leave some chieftaincy titles for another and there are some positions that once you attain them, that is the end. They have turned those kings to artificial; the real traditionally recognized seat is what they are going for now. Ajimobi should have made the Baales in Oyo State kings and left those in line for the throne of the Olubadan. Let them continue in the pattern which they have known. And those that were also in line for the throne should not have left their positions. They should have prayed that God should allow them to get to the throne. But I am happy that they have all realised that it should go to the person that deserves it. Chief [Rashidi] Ladoja did not leave his position; he was in line for the throne and he didn’t leave because he knew what he was gunning for. That is how it ought to be.

 

Should the government interfere in culture and chieftaincy matters?

They should interfere and at the same time they shouldn’t. Take England, for example, they have a prime minister and a queen. The queen has her own power and authority and so does the prime minister; they don’t clash. That is how it ought to be in Nigeria. They should give honour to the kings; give them their respect; they should not mix the matters of the throne with politics. Politicians should stop using kings like a remote control. Before civilisation, we Yoruba respected our kings so much. That is why we call them those who have power like  deities. It is not as if we didn’t respect God, but the religion of civilisation is the problem of those becoming our kings. When religious people meet the king, they say there’s no king like God. Is the king not aware that God exists? We respect kings just to give them the honour they deserve. Meanwhile, kings too should be watchful so that they do not become power drunk.

 

What are some of the Yoruba traditions that have become extinct?

Many of our culture and traditions have become extinct. When a person is buried in the olden days, the sand found at the spot where the corpse is buried would  be stored. When someone comes to the bereaved family and accuses the dead of owing them money or some sort of property, the sand (ilepa) that was previously taken from the burial spot will be mixed with water and given to the person to drink. This is to confirm that the person is telling the truth. If it turns out to be a lie, the person will die and his corpse will become swollen. That is how the corpse of someone who lied against the dead was identified in the olden days. That tradition has stopped. Civilisation has changed everything. In this month, a lot of people will celebrate their birthdays. Now imagine how many cakes will be bought. It is made up of sugar, chemicals, flour and the like. Traditionally, when there is an annual celebration, we cut yams, roast them  and eat. The prayer is that the person will be able to cut another yam the following year. It is more natural than cake. If every January celebrant buys yam for the celebration, the business of the farmers and sellers will grow. But when we buy cakes, we are not helping our economy. This is how poverty sets in. There is also aadun, a delicacy made of ground maize and palm oil. It is also used for celebrations. Sellers and makers of aadun will make a lot of money if people buy it for their celebrations.

Traditional doors are no longer used, rather we import doors from Japan and Turkey. Our wood carvers and carpenters are no longer patronised. We have been brainwashed that locally made furniture is inferior. When our artists are not getting jobs anymore, they will leave the profession. Imagine the millions we spend on importing furniture. Some people will even light candles on the cakes and ask the celebrant to blow it out. In our culture, if a lamp is lit, may God not allow it to be put off. It is not a good thing in our culture. I celebrate my birthdays with aadun and roasted yam. If we all do that, our economy will improve. The little things that we underestimate matter a lot. Our farmers should be empowered. We should stop eating canned food, artificial food seasoning and others, as they cause different kinds of diseases in our bodies. Carbonated drinks too. One day, I called one of my children and asked him to pour one bottle of carbonated drink on a dirty cloth. He did so, I told him to rub it together and the cloth became clean. All these things contain chemicals and we consume them. Only God knows how many will still consume those drinks today. All the things that our forefathers passed unto us are natural. You would notice that people who live in the farms don’t get sick as often as people in the cities. If our leaders want food to be in abundance, they ought to support farmers. But they tell us that they have spent billions of naira on farming and we don’t see the result. We the citizens all want white-collar jobs, we don’t want to farm. This won’t help us. Now, people don’t even want to learn trades. Youths now ride okada and engage in Internet fraud (Yahoo Yahoo. This is what is troubling us. We can be civilised, but we should not let it mislead us. We should bear our own names, and get married according to our tradition. Divorce is now rampant which wasn’t so in the olden days. Back then, it would be a shame for a woman to go back to her father’s house. That is why they tolerate everything that happens in their husband’s house. There is nothing like that anymore; if it doesn’t work, that is the end.

 

How do we now restore our culture and tradition?

It is everybody’s responsibility, because the destruction of a town or community starts from the family. The reparation of our culture is in the hands of members of each family. They should teach their children our culture, starting from the basics like kneeling to greet an elder for a female and prostrating to greet an elder for males. When they greet their parents, they should be praised with their oriki. Some Muslims will say it is a sin to kneel when greeting, it is a lie. What is acceptable in Saudi Arabia is different; their culture is different from ours. If kneeling is not acceptable in Jerusalem, it is none of our business; we are not from Jerusalem. Because we want to be Christians or Muslims, we forget that we are first Yorubas. People don’t even use their lineage’s oriki anymore or  even that of their town. When it comes to names, white people bear names like Stone, Bush, Carpenter, etc. Yoruba people do not bear names that don’t have meaning. If we don’t bear our names, we have no identity. If I tell you that my name is James Joseph, will you know if I am Yoruba? Or if I call myself Saheed Abdulkareem  because of my religion? As I said in one of my poems, bearing the name of a prophet can’t give you rewards, neither does it take you to heaven. The work of your hands will determine your end. We are all looking for what we already have; we have names, but we still borrow names for our children. We are politically independent, but don’t have cultural independence. We are independent, but still in the bondage of the white people. So, what is the essence of the independence that we have? We can’t do anything on our own;  we don’t have our own name, culture or language, instead we borrow. When you meet Indians, you would already know that they are Indians, likewise the Chinese and Japanese. The same white people that colonised India colonised us. They didn’t take the white man’s religion or language. The religion of the British that we accepted is what is troubling us now. We have so many churches, but no progress. No factories, but churches and mosques everywhere. Vigils, revivals, crusades and we are still in one place. We are still under colonisation; we are not independent at all. We bear their names, practise their religion and speak their language. To be truly independent as Africans, we have to embrace our culture. There is no shame in it. For true independence, we have to embrace our language, our food, our fashion and our religion.

 

What motivated you to remain faithful to the Yoruba culture and remain a traditionalist?  

I was born into it and grew up in it. I trained myself and exposed myself to our culture, so that I could have a deeper understanding of the workings of our tradition. I did a lot of research with foreigners and that also exposed me to different things. My parents were also traditionalists.