The "Great Journey" of Ile-Ife's "Great Crown"

Source: exploringafrica

"In the history of Ile-Ife, 1903 was an earth-shattering year for the yoruba people. It was the year that the Ooni, the god-king of the Yoruba, encountered directly the full impact of British modern colonial rule. From the perspective of the Ooni and from the perspective of the colonial governor in Lagos, the year ended the preceding era and opened a new investiture for Ile-ife City and the Yoruba states of south-western Nigeria.

Although the governor, Sir William Macgregor, referred cursorily to the occasion as the 'Great Crown' case, to Ooni Adelekan Olubuse 1 (1894-1910) and to the Yoruba people, it was a precedent-setting 'Great Journey' because it marked the first time in the history  of Ile-Ife that an Ooni would venture out of his palace and beyond the center of the universe.

For Westerners, the occasion would have been tantamount to asking God to leave heaven to answer the call of a mere mortal.

The Ooni traveled to Lagos, then the center of British regional administration. For the Yoruba, news of the unprecedented journey provoked fear, anxiety, and uncertainty because it was a great taboo for the Ooni to vacate the sacred city of Ile-Ife to travel to another seat of power, however that power might be defined."

Jacob K. Olupona (2011: 77)

City of 201 Gods: Ile-Ife in Time, Space, and the Imagination

Orisha--Triumphing Territorial Challenges

Source: fineartamerica.com

"Currently, new religious movements active in Ile-Ife are engaging in a second wave of missionary efforts (begun in the 1970s and 1980s) to achieve the people's radical and total conversion to Christianity (or Islam), to create a new worldview based on Euro-American conservative Christian values (or conservative Islamic values), and to sow intolerance of indigenous cultures and traditions.

These efforts threaten the destruction of indigenous culture, values, and even language. Indeed, in a number of churches it is forbidden to speak the Yoruba language! There is also an attempt to creat a new space in which these new religions will increasingly challenge the authority and privilege of orisa indigenous culture at the center of Ile-Ife city life.

Although there is ample evidence that orisa traditions are in retreat, there is also significant evidence of their renewal. Throughout the world, Yoruba diaspora communities of the Caribbean and the Americas are repositioning Yoruba-derived traditions--Santeria in Cuba and the United States, Candomble in Brazil, and new orisa traditions among african americans in the United States and Trinidad--as global religious traditions whose influence and consistency extend far beyond the home base in Ile-Ife."

Jacob K. Olupona  (2011: 17)
City of 201 Gods: Ile-Ife in Time, Space, and the Imagination

Ile-Ife: City of 201 Gods

Photo source: wikipedia

"In The Pivot of Four Quarters, Wheatley indicates that no place in sub-Saharan Africa has such cosmic significance as the Yoruba city of Ile-Ife. Known as the City of 201 (or 401) Gods, Ile-Ife is the base of the entire Yoruba civilization and culture, and its significance goes far beyond the immediate geographical boundaries of Nigeria. The religious culture of Ile-Ife has influenced the development and growth of new African religious movements as far off as Brazil, the Caribbean, and the United States.

Ile-Ife, a city of about half a million, is situated at the geographical center of the Yoruba city-states. To the west lies Ibadan... and to the east lies Ondo, gateway to the eastern Yoruba city-states. Isle-Ife is about two hundred kilometers from Lagos, which was Nigeria's coastal capital city for over a century.

Unlike the political, commercial, and administrative cities of Ibadan and Lagos, contemporary Ile-Ife is a ceremonial city par excellence; like the cities of Banaras, Jerusalem, and Mecca. [I]n the people's imagination it is the preeminent sacred place, beyond the secular and the profane."

Jacob K. Olupona (2011: 36)

City of 201 Gods: Ile-Ife in Time, Space, and the Imagination

A Letter From Home

Source: mackieandtate.weebly.com

(E. C. Osondu)--My Dear Son, 

Why have you not been sending money through Western Union like other good Nigerian children in America do? You have also not visited home. Have you married a white woman? Do not forget that I have already found a wife for you. Her name is Ngozi. Her parents are good Christians and her mother belongs to the Catholic Good Women’s League like me. Please do not to spoil the good relationship I have built over the years with Ngozi’s family.

I beg of you not to become like Kaka’s son who was sent to America with the community’s funds, only to come back with a white woman, and then would not let his parents visit him in his white man’s living quarters in the Lagos government reserved area. He has large dogs and his white wife treats the dogs like her children. The only time he visited his family, he refused to sleep in his father’s old house, complaining that it was dirty, and took his wife to pass the night in a hotel. He stretched out his hands to shake the hands of the elders of the community and would not prostrate on the ground like a well-brought- up child.

Corruption Wars: Pro & Anti Camps One & the Same

"Permit me the excesses of generalisation to say that while Nigerians like to mouth anti-corruption rhetoric, we are actually pro-corruption. We claim to hate corruption, but when people we sympathise with are called to account, we begin to stammer and resort to sentiments to justify corruption, while saying: “I’m not trying to justify corruption but...” But what? We whip up ethnic, religious, regional, legalistic or political sentiments and ignore the substance. Indeed, we have devised many pro-corruption responses which we try to intellectualise....

I can identify at least six pro-corruption devices which we regularly deploy to frustrate the anti-graft war. The first is what I call “Our Son Syndrome”. Put a Nigerian on trial for corruption and people suddenly start grumbling about the plight of “our son”. This message, often orchestrated, comes in form of visits by traditional rulers to key government officials as well as stage-managed public protests and a media campaign to defend “our son”.
If someone is arrested for corruption today, rather than allow him to defend himself in court, it is the emirs and obas that will be making phone calls to the powers-that-be to get him released. And we say we hate corruption."

Simon Kolawale

Literature, Widsom, and Freedom

Source: s1.hubimg.com

“The first freedom is mental freedom. We have to seize the freedom to be what we can be, to write whatever we want, with all the mystery and fire of art. It is our responsibility to illuminate the strange corners of what it is to be human.

Literature is the index of our intelligence, our wisdom, our freedom. We must not let anyone define what we write, what we see as worthy of playful or profound investigation in words. “The aim of art,” wrote Aristotle, “is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.”

Not the appearance, but the inward significance, radiated from the genius of inner freedom.”

Ben Okri

Street Art with a Message of Hope and Peace

(TED)--What does this gorgeous street art say? It's Arabic poetry, inspired by bold graffiti and placed where a message of hope and peace can do the most good. In this quietly passionate talk, artist and TED Fellow eL Seed describes his ambition: to create art so beautiful it needs no translation.

Nollywood and Business Moguls Celebrate Yes! Magazine @ 4

The Azuh siblings, L-R: Arinze (Publisher/Editor-in-Chief, Yes! Int'l magazine), Lilian, Fr. Chijioke,
Amatus (Publisher/Editor-in-Chief, DayLight newspaper), and Chibunna (Director, BuNna Fashion)

(Yes!)--YES INTERNATIONAL! Magazine, one of the leading and most respected soft sell journals in Nigeria clocked 4 years on Friday, June 19, 2015 – and on hand to celebrate and rejoice with them were business moguls, top government functionaries, showbiz stars, renowned men of God, friends, families, well-wishers, readers and advertisers. They all came dressed to the nines, ready and happy to say YES! with the celebrity journal which prides itself as being ‘More Than Just A Soft Sell’.

Africa: Tradition versus Modernity

Source: New African

(New African)--Visiting a museum in Auckland, New Zealand, a colleague and I were impressed by a battle-ready Maori warrior, showing his martial prowess whilst doing the Hakka. 

The display was suitably intimidating. My colleague got carried away and began to over-exaggerate its efficacy, claiming a warrior could dispose of their enemies in seconds. I reminded her that the weapons had proved ineffective against European firearms, and this was the most likely explanation why the warrior was now on display in a museum, and not on the battlefield.

Writing Africa to the World

Source: faithmwaura.com

What role should African literature play in presenting the continent to the world?
"To write truthfully, beautifully and to raise high the possibilities of literature. Literature is not advertising; it is all the truths that we cannot take and sometimes all the beauty that we cannot bear. It is about our enrichment and about compelling us, through its dreams, to face ourselves. The best contribution that literature can make is to be the best literature that it can be."

Ben Okri, New African magazine

"I Always Mispronounce My Name...I'm Reclaiming the Original"

Source: anglianwater

(The Guardian)--The Facebook name-pronunciation feature made me realize that, after a lifetime of code-switching, I want to pronounce my name as my mother intended

Facebook’s feature allowing you to choose an accurate pronunciation of your name for everyone to see (and hear) seems simple enough. Helpful, even. But I haven’t pronounced my name correctly in the last 27 years, and I’m afraid to start now.

I introduce myself as a three syllable SAH-dee-uh, when my name is actually a two-syllable Sa-Dhya, adapted from a sharper-sounding Arabic name to roll off a softer, Urdu-speaking palate. The trick is in the D. When I spell out “D as in David” to the Comcast rep on the phone, what I should be saying is “D as in Theo.”

But I don’t say that. Pronouncing my name the way my mother intended is more foreign to me now than the other way around. Here’s the uncomfortable reason why: I’m afraid my name sounds too ... ethnic. That Sa-Dhya won’t fit in with her mainstream white American friends and co-workers anymore. That saying my name “the right way” will somehow negate the fact that I was born in this country and feel more American than Pakistani.

Nollywood Thesis Earns 1st Class at Cambridge

Precious Oyelade; source: voice-online.co.uk

(The Voice)--A CAMBRIDGE graduate has impressed academics with her dissertation on Nigeria’s flourishing film industry, better known as Nollywood, to the extent that she secured a first-class rated paper that is set to be published.

Precious Oyelade, from south London, defied the statistics to graduate with a degree in politics, psychology and sociology from Britain’s leading university with her dissertation, Changing representations of Nigerian identity: An exploration through Nollywood and its audience.

Oyelade, whose parents hail from Nigeria, was inspired by her heritage to explore a new narrative in her 10,000-word paper that fed directly into her final degree grade.

“For me it was the issue of identity. I really wanted to look at how Nollywood impacts those who have grown up in the diaspora, who identify as Nigerian but still see themselves also as British and what distance exists between us and those in Nigeria in relation to film,” the 21-year-old explained.

“In my study, I found that we as a diaspora have the choice and an ability to decide which part of our identity we want to focus on.”

Nollywood: In Promotion of Pan-Africanism

Source: Switsalone

(MarkLives)--Pan-Africanism is defined by “the idea or advocacy of a political alliance or union of all the African nations” — an idea that has been discussed, debated and promoted throughout the entire continent for many decades. In the 21st century, media platforms in Africa have become an important player to unify the underlying voice of ubuntu and cultivate a landscape of independent, yet intertwined, African culture.

One important player in the promotion of an interconnected African spirit is the highly successful Nigerian film industry — which averages an annual turnover of US$250m.

Book Review: Trends in Nollywood

Source: amazon.com

(ThisDay)--My first contact with a Nigerian movie was in 1977. I grew up near a Cinema Hall and the Urban Community School I attended was also located behind the Central Cinema in Abakaliki. The movies trending then were foreign movies like: Enter the Dragon, Game of Death, Heroes Two, Blacula, Saturday Night Fever, Longest Day, One Arm Boxer, and The Ten Gladiators amongst others.

Early in the morning, we used to deploy the promotional signpost “Showing Tonite” at strategic locations which accounted for our gate fees. It was then surprising to see on the coming attraction promo board a Nigerian movie titled “Bisi Daughter of the River” starring Patti Boulaye, a Nigerian celebrity who we had watched severally on LUX soap commercials courtesy of the Lever Brothers’ market activation team at Hosanna hill. 

I have journeyed down memory lane to connect with the title of this book review, which is all about trends. But first, what is a trend? It is a gradual change or development that produces a particular result. As the human society develops, trends emerge. Life evolves in diverse ramifications, creating trendy patterns at every point in time.

Africa's History Through Colonial Films

Source: thisisafrica.com

(This is Africa)--Colonial Film presents “moving images of the British empire” for the viewing pleasure of anyone with internet access. It provides an invaluable resource that I think should be exploited by everyone, especially if you are from a country that was colonised by the British

Colonial Film presents “moving images of the British empire” for the viewing pleasure of anyone with Internet access. On the website, you will find facts, figures and material on upwards of 6,000 films, more than 150 of which can be watched online.