A former Vice Chancellor of the Obafemi Awolowo University and Awise Agbaye, Prof Wande Abimbola, in this interview with *TUNDE ODESOLA,* sheds light on the controversy surrounding the burial of the Awujale of Ijebu, Oba Sikiru Adetona, among many other issues. Excerpts:
What’s your view on the burial of the Awujale of Ijebuland, Oba Sikiru Adetona, and the controversy surrounding it?
The controversy surrounding the burial of the late Awujale is not surprising because he had shown his preference for Islam from day one, even though he performed some of his traditional duties. From day one, he had shown that he was not ready to abide by our traditions. The Agemo, which is a major orisa of the Ijebu, was virtually non-existent during his reign. He didn’t hide his preference for Islam over and above our indigenous ways of life. His burial does not portray us as a people with culture and tradition. When the Queen of England died, she was buried according to the rites of passage of the English. When the Pope dies, he is buried according to the rites of passage of Christianity; the same thing goes for the kings of the Arab world, who are buried in line with the Islamic tradition. The same should apply to departed Yoruba kings.
How should a Yoruba king be buried?
It varies from one place to another, but the corpse of a departed king is treated with the utmost reverence; Ifa would be consulted, the people who are supposed to bury the king already know their responsibilities, and they would perform the burial ceremony according to the laid down customs of the people. It is usually an elaborate ceremony, during which so many orisas will be propitiated, the community will go into mourning, markets will be shut, and there will be a curfew in the kingdom. It is usually a time for everybody to mourn. It is a pity the late Awujale deprived himself of all the burial ceremonies, a situation which is not befitting of a king of his stature. It is doubtful if the late Oba Sikiru Adetona, the Awujale of Ijebuland, would be welcomed with open arms when he reunites with his ancestors in heaven. His ancestors are likely to point the index finger at him and say, “Sikiru, why did you betray us?”
But the Chief Imam of Ijebu-Ode said the Awujale was buried according to Islamic rites to prevent ritual killings…
Is there anybody so stupid to believe that in this day and age, ritual killing will occur and the police would not intervene, or the people would not revolt? It is in their Islam that killings and beheadings are practised – if not in Yorubaland, at least we see it elsewhere, where people are beheaded in the name of Allah. I have witnessed the burial of three kings in Oyo. In Oyo, for example, there used to be an abóbakú, but that ended in colonial times. I don’t know why a chief imam would be making such an allegation when his fellow Fulani Muslims are killing the innocent all over Nigeria. It’s the height of ignorance and disrespect for anyone to ascribe that to our indigenous religion.
As a babalawo, does Ifa support ritual killing after the demise of a traditional ruler?
I think people need to show some respect to the people practising indigenous religion. In the distant past, it was not only the Yoruba who had people who accompanied their dead kings to the afterlife. Things like that were practised in some other parts of the world. Why allege without facts? I’m not surprised, anyway; during the spread of Christianity in Europe and the Americas, it was customary for Christian communities to burn people alive, claiming that their victims were witches and wizards – that was one way of discouraging young people from practising indigenous religion. I’m old enough and I’ve been in the depths of Yoruba culture all my life, and I’ve not seen anywhere in modern times where people were killed during the burial of kings. These are the same lies they tell when somebody is brutally murdered anywhere in Nigeria; they would say it is ritual killing, that it must be from those who practise indigenous religion. The point everyone needs to know is that our society in Nigeria today is in turmoil, and wherever there are crises such as war or epidemic or accidents, international human scavengers will descend on such a place so that they can harvest hearts, livers, and other body parts. It is a multi-billion-dollar universal trade. Not long ago, it was reported that a ship was arrested on the high seas near China, carrying human penises from Africa. In the USA, where I live, every day, many people need heart or kidney transplants, and some are smuggled from places where there are troubles like war. Nigerians should know that human organ harvesting is a serious syndicate, and it’s global. So when they catch anyone with human parts, it is easy for them to say one babalawo or the other sent them. When people who erroneously believe in money ritual are also caught, they lie that they are taking the organs to one babalawo, but the question to ask is, ‘Are the people they are taking the organs to real babalawos?’ Anyone can ask any fool to go bring human parts. Those pinning ritual killings on traditional religion practitioners should look elsewhere and stop maligning indigenous religion. I have told them on many occasions to call the Araba of Ife, who is the president of all babalawos worldwide, to find out if the person the police have arrested is a bona fide babalawo. No babalawo will ever engage in ritual killing. Never.
There is a growing fad among Yoruba kings to condemn traditional burial. What’s the reason for this fad?
The fad arises from their stupidity. They are stupid enough to think that Islam or Christianity is more valuable or that if they associate themselves with those two religions, they are more respected or they are more civilised. Fortunately for us in recent times, young people are coming out in large numbers to associate themselves with our indigenous practices.
With the growing fad, do you approve of Christian or Muslim clerics becoming traditional rulers in Yorubaland?
Well, anybody who is born and bred a Yoruba person and who is from a royal family is entitled to become an oba, but he has to be briefed, and the kingmakers should let him know what is required of the office, what is expected of a monarch when he’s on the throne. Anybody who cannot measure up to that expectation should never be installed as king…
How would the kingmakers know if someone measures up to standard or not?
They (kingmakers) would know. There is a traditional way to know. It is to ask Ifa. They should also question princes vying for kingship. When he is on the throne and he deviates from traditional ethics, they should remove him. There are ways of removing a king. In the old Oyo Empire, for instance, a king must not set his eyes on the parrot eggs. As a check, kingmakers could put parrot eggs in a closed calabash and ask the king to open it. If he sets his eyes on the parrot eggs inside the calabash, he must immediately commit suicide. Nowadays, what has complicated the whole issue is bribery and corruption, which are the order of the day in Nigeria. Today, the kingmakers wouldn’t even ask any question about whether the would-be king would practise the religion of his ancestors or whether he would use his powers to favour Christianity or Islam. They wouldn’t even ask those questions once they had received money. Money is the problem. The kingmakers don’t mind as long as they get the highest bidder.
Before I cut in, you were saying you don’t see anything wrong with Christian or Muslim clerics becoming traditional rulers in Yorubaland…
I don’t see anything wrong with it. If you are a prince and it’s your family’s turn, it’s okay inasmuch as you’re going to respect indigenous practices. For example, in Oyo town, you can hardly find anyone who is not nominally a Muslim or Christian in the royal family. The present oba is Akeem, even though he is a Christian. It’s very difficult to say that it’s only people who practise indigenous religion who should be kings. Christians and Muslims are part of the community. As long as the king would not be partial by trying to lord over other religions in the community.
The late Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi, was a Muslim, but he openly practised Ifa, Sango, Ogun, etc. If we take the narrow view that it’s only the practitioners of indigenous religions who should be kings, that won’t be good. We can all coexist without rancour if we respect ourselves. We should not seek to obliterate indigenous practices. Indigenous religion welcomes other religions; it’s the imported religions that are intolerant. A king has to be tolerant. Nobody is asking that the king should not go to church or mosque if that is his religion. The example of the current Alaafin is important. Immediately he ascended the throne, he went to a church and worshipped with them, then he went to a mosque and worshipped with them, too. He later went to the Ile Ijuba of Babalawos and worshipped with them. The Yoruba say ‘aro meta kii da obe nu’ – the tripod does not spill the soup. I hope that if the reawakening that is ongoing among our young people in embracing our indigenous ways of life continues, there will be a larger pool of princes who are practising the traditional ways of life to pick from when there is a kingship vacancy. It is not the kings alone that we should be talking about, however. In the Yoruba community as a whole, there should be respect. Religion is a question of choice; there’s no way you can lord it over somebody else, and there won’t be rancour. If we want peace in Yorubaland, let all religions be. I don’t mind if a Muslim or a Christian is king as long as they would practise and respect our indigenous ways of life. He could practise his Islam or Christianity privately.
The Olowo of Owo, Oba Ajibade Ogunoye, has cautioned that anyone who cannot stand traditional burial should stay away from obaship. Do you agree with Olowo’s position?
A Yoruba king should be buried in the Yoruba way. The identity of a person walks on two legs like a human being, and the two legs are language and belief – that is, religion. Both are being very badly threatened in Nigeria today. Many people don’t speak our languages anymore, they don’t write the language that gave birth to them, and they don’t practise the religion of their forebears. It’s sacrilege. It’s like something that our ancestors would frown upon. A king should be a shining example of someone who is above board. We cannot tolerate a situation where our indigenous ways of life and our autochthonous practices are abused or obliterated.
What roles does the government have to protect culture and tradition?
That’s why I said it would be parochial to say Muslims or Christians should be excluded from kingship, because the people to give government approval to a king could be a Christian or a Muslim. Such a scenario will eventually lead to religious tension in our society when government officials fail to approve a king based on religious antagonism. I think the government should provide a level playing field for all religions. They should promote our languages and culture, and also ensure that Nigerian languages become the language of instruction at all levels – from primary to university – and for conducting legislative sessions within our communities. The people of a country who cannot use their language to teach their children, those people are slaves; slaves of the foreign country whose language they speak and with which they teach their children, even though they may not know it. They wouldn’t know it because of their slave mentality. Somewhere in London or the USA, some people are laughing at us silently or loudly, saying, “Look at my Nigerian slaves.” I think the way Yorubaland is today is good in one respect, and that is – the fact that there’s religious tolerance, I think that should continue, but it shouldn’t continue with the eradication of traditional religion.
The Ifa Council is poised to sue the Ogun State Government over alleged meddling in traditional matters. Is that the way to go?
It’s one way to go; let’s see what the court would say. There is religious tolerance enshrined in the Nigerian constitution. So, let’s see what the judicial interpretation would be, in the light of the constitution.
What is the way out of the animosity among Nigerian religions?
The way out of the situation is that we should not forget we are one people – brothers and sisters who speak the same language. We have so many things in common. The way out is for the extremists in the ranks of the Christians and Muslims not to think they can eradicate the religion of their forefathers. If, God forbid, our autochthonous way of life is eradicated, it’s we, all of us, the Yoruba, who are eradicated. History is full of examples of people all over the world who have been eradicated.
Can you give examples?
Yes, they include the indigenous people of Australia, the indigenous people of America; the indigenous people of the US are probably two million today, their land has been taken, and their culture is near extinction. That’s what Nigerian Christians and Muslims should remember. I’m sure most of our Christian and Muslim friends in Yorubaland would not be happy if our culture and tradition become extinct to the extent that it obliterates our identity. On a recent visit to my home in Oyo, I charged Christians and Muslims to stop saying that worshippers of Ogun, Sango, Oya, babalawo or any orisa would go to hell. I asked them if they would be happy if I went to hell, and they all said no. So, let’s all find a common ground on which to tread. The point I’m making is this: you’ll never hear it from my mouth, that Christianity is not good or Islam is not good; it’s not any of my business. And that’s why those of us who practise our indigenous way of life don’t proselytise; you don’t find a babalawo going about saying Islam is bad or Christianity is bad. Christians and Muslims say that their expansionist injunction is in their holy books. The Islamic religion doesn’t mind killing people they term as infidels. We should let them know in unmistakable terms that that would not be tolerated in our Yoruba country. That’s why, since time immemorial, the Yoruba have been worshipping 400 plus one divinities. The plus one on top of the 400 represents the principle of possible accretion or increase (in the number of the divinities). This means that if a Yoruba man marries an Efik woman, in those days and up till now, that woman would learn the religious practices of her husband. One day, the husband’s family members would ask her, ‘What is the religion or orisa of your people in Calabar?’ If she says she worships Anansa, they would ask her to teach them about her orisa so they could worship it as well. There are at least 20 divinities that the Yoruba and the Fon people of Benin Republic have in common. That’s the best way to go; millions of people practise Yoruba religion all over the world today. Some of them are white and mulattos folks, who live in Cuba, Brazil, Trinidad and Tobago, Europe, the United States, etc, where Yoruba religion is spreading like wildfire today. At the risk of sounding immodest, I think I can safely say that I’m one of the agents of that worldwide spread of the Yoruba way of life, but you can never hear from my mouth any utterance that condemns anybody else’s belief or way of life. You won’t see an Oya worshipper fighting with a Sango worshipper or babalawo because there’s religious tolerance among traditional religious worshippers. This lesson should be imbibed by Christians and Muslims. Religious intolerance is not the way to peace. Whenever I get to Nigeria, you will see Christians and Muslims coming to visit me. They know I’m a babalawo, they know I’m the Awise, but they still come to me because they know I symbolise peace and tolerance.
(Punch)
