Bá a báṣe, iléayéní ń gbé;
a kìíṣe é, mbẹl’ódeọ̀run.
The things possible with men have their materiality right on earth;
the impossible remains only in the otherworld.
That is one oracular principle that clearly underlies and delimits the boundaries of divine and human jurisdictions of the exercise of will and power. Home and abroad, the Yoruba have held a longstanding reputation for the long history of their cultural civilization and sophistication which predates any form of encounter with the outside world. Hence, the people of Ọ̀yọ́ will always make the claim that ajíṣebí-Ọ̀yọ́ làárí, Ọ̀yọ́ ò ṣebíi baba enìkan (Ọ̀yọ́ never mirrors anyone; instead, Ọ̀yọ́ remains the model to be mirrored). As such, whenever the people of Ọ̀yọ́ make this claim, they assert the fact of their primordia cultural authenticity which marks their identity and indeed that of the entire Yoruba people by association. Ọ̀yọ́ Aláàfin has therefore remained an important cynosure to behold in terms of sociocultural and political organization, and no one can take this away from the people.
Indeed, Western minds of the likes of the anthropologist Andrew Apter and Africanist Ulli Beier did hold strongly the view that the Yoruba people’s cultural civilization is so highly sophisticated that it cannot be thought about as lesser in stature than even the Egyptian civilization. Other thinkers have found reasons and grounds for establishing parity between the Yoruba and Greco-Roman civilization with respect to similarities in their mythological ontology or the origins of things. That is how much respect the Yoruba as a people have been accorded from outside of their own cultural jurisdiction. Even when the people have been subject to the harrowing experience of the transatlantic slave trade, the Yoruba people have stood our as the only community with indelible cultural grace that no hegemonic powers have been able to obliterate. Politically, Oyo stands at the center of these cohesive community ethoses.
With this rich antecedence in view, the Agunloye ruling house seems to be doing its utmost best to uphold the Yoruba ethos of ilélàáwò, káa to s’ọmọl’órúkọ (It is to the home that we first look before assigning a name to the child). The Agunloye royal family would rather put their best foot forward at such a time as this, by first looking back upon their rich and competitive genealogical line as the descendants of Ilaka, and making the choice of the able Prince Ajibade Adeladan to represent their royal line as the successor to the throne of the Aláàfin of Ọ̀yọ́. Prince Dr.Ajibade Adedayo Aremu Adeladan is a trained general surgeon who has worked in Nigeria and in a number of United States hospitals, including Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Colorado, and California, and indeed as Board Certified Psychiatrist and Addiction Medicine specialist.
As a descendant of Ilaka, and like his fathers before him, Prince Ajibade Adeladan maintains a royal link to the erstwhile Ọyọ monarch, his majesty Oba Lawani Amubieya Agogo-Ijawho was the son of Aláàfin Adelu Agunloye. Agunloye had ascended the throne of Aláàfin of Ọ̀yọ́ following the passing of Ọ̀yọ́ Atiba. And, consequently, Lawani Amubieya Agogo-Ija became the Aremo Oba. Therefore, whatever might the nature of lobbying that may have come about in the course of campaigning for the selection of a successor to the throne of the Aláàfin of Ọ̀yọ́, one thing must be clear, and that is the Yoruba people’s trademark cultural antecedence of ètò (orderliness) or ààtò (the programmatic orpragmatic approach). In essence, whatever direction the turns of things may take, the Yoruba people always have the right approaches to dimension their own affairs. These approaches will be deemed appropriate depending on the dynamics at play. Indeed, there is not so much to argue about the awareness of outsiders about the cohesive nature of social order amongst the Yoruba, which makes the path of class mobility, among other things, to be seen as clearly well defined. The people will do all it takes to ensure the sustainability of the principles and philosophy of their ancestors and their dead in general.
For the Agunloye ruling house, the civil advancement and equitable leadership becomes paramount at a time such as the twenty-first century when the definition of monarchy has transcended sheer royal ceremonialism to accommodating a blend of the sophistication of intellectual sagacity and keen awareness of global issues, all of these yet resting on the cultural foundations which provide the distinct identity of the people through their royal representative. As the Odù Ọ̀wọ́nrín Méjì succinctly spells out, ẹni ó pọ̀ tí ò gbọ́n, ẹ jẹ́ á fi iruwọnwéyúúyunnínúoko, that is, a people that have a preponderance in number but yet are found wanting in wisdom, such must be compared to the giant grass which are preponderant but serve no useful purpose to anyone. This indeed is the cautionary philosophic basis on which the Agunloyeroyal house is building its quest towards an able and charismatic representation in the journey towards the succession to the throne of the Aláàfin of Ọ̀yọ́. In the person of Prince Adeladan, this royal house has found a noble prince worthy in character besides being a well-trained medical doctor with long years of practice, who is at the same time deeply rooted in the age-old traditions and ancient ethos of his people and indeed of the royal line.
It is instructive indeed that the Agunloye are unwavering in their philosophy of fair representation without sentimentalities of remote biases. They are manifestly in tune with the cognition that every time the Yoruba people make constant reference to “ayé Olúgbọ́n” (Olugbon’s time and reign) and “ayé Arẹ̀sà” (Arẹ̀sà’s time and reign), they provide cautionary reminders of the imperative of an enthronement of a reign and rulership that is expected to marked by an overarching systemic order, where “birds cry as birds and rodents cry as rodents.” Therefore, for those whose quarters the ideas is emanating that Ifá the Yoruba prime oracle cannot receive a “Christian” name, they must be reminded that even the Odù of Ọ̀sẹ́-Dìí teaches that ọ̀pọ̀ ènìyàn ò suwọ̀n, Ifá ń báọlọ́mọmẹ́fà á lọ; ọ̀bùnènìyàn ò suwọ̀n, Ifá ń báọlọ́kà á lọ, meaning “a crowd is deemed undesirable but the Ifá oracle gets on well with the parent of six; a squalid fellow is deemed undesirable but the Ifá oracle yet gets on well with the vendor of the flour-meal.”Certainly, this oracular verse references Ọ̀sẹ́-Dìí (the oracle) as companion of the “cult” of the house of Alárá (of Ìlárá) and the same Ọ̀rúnmìlà as companion to the cult of Ìjerò (of the house of Ajerò). Therefore, the import of this oracular verse is that the Ifá oracle particularly holds no reputation for favoritism or discrimination of any sort, and members of the oracular custodial cults (as well as the council of kingmakers) are supposed to know this as it is an ageless truth.
At any rate, the choice of an individual such as the Prince Adeladan to adopt Christianity does not, by any chance, put a foreclosure to his royal ancestry and identity, or his chances of ascending the throne of his forebears as the next Aláàfin Ọyọ. He does not cease to be a noble prince on account of his affiliation with the Christian religion. Definitely, by the law of antecedence, this is not a novelty to be ascribed solely and strictly to the noble Prince Ajibade Adeladan. Many past and indeed current Yoruba monarchs, as occupants of many first-class royal stools, are famous for being affiliates to some of the Abrahamic faiths, which include Islam, Catholicism, and other forms of Orthodox or Pentecostal Christianity. There is therefore no ethical locus standi for the foreclosure of any potential candidate’s chances of ascendancy to the Aláàfin’s throne merely on the basis of their adoption of a religious faith, especially if many before this material time have not been seen to be disqualified from occupying the thrones of their forebears on any similar grounds.
As a matter of fact, whether as priests, practitioners or as devotees, or as everyday minds, the Yoruba people’s veneration for their deities is unwaveringly priceless. Hence, in matters of enthronement, issues must be place where they duly belong: men must meddle in politics but yet must keep politics as the affair of men and leave the deities to preside over their divine jurisdiction. Apples must therefore not be compared with oranges in matters such as this. It will always remain a thing of honor and pride not only for the Agunloye royal house, but also for the entire people of Ọ̀yọ́ Aláàfin to embrace the candidature of one in the mold and character of Prince Dr. Ajibade Adeladan. At such crucial and sensitive moments as this, the collective pride and progress of a people must take primacy over any temporary politics of remote interests.
Surely, the unmistakable blue-blood genealogical connections of the person of Dr. Adeladan not only guarantees the authenticity of his royal qualification, but his agile youthfulness and his rounded global exposures also bequeath on him a strong credential of one who is well suited to represent the people of Ọ̀yọ́ Aláàfin in a twenty-first century modernity which has evolved with its attendant complexity of life and living all together, and an Ọ̀yọ́ land that is apparently confronted with the onerous duty of getting things right in the interest of an entire Odùduwà land. In essence, all eyes are watching from different direction. Ọyọ cannot let the world down; cannot afford to let down its own kith and kin both at home and in the Yoruba diaspora.
Based on a long historical and cultural antecedence of a cultural self-esteem, a people who pride themselves as ajisebi-Ọ̀yọ́-làárí will surely (and are indeed already) well-disposed and positively inclined to a kingly figure who embodies not just the good standing of a noble descendant and prince of Ọyọ Aláàfin, but also represents the face of modernity and “glocal” savvy.
Dr Muideen, a cultural enthusiast and an Oyo indigene, sent in this piece from the United States of America