A Sunday worship with Ifa priest, Wande Abimbola – by Festus Adedayo

PREMIUM TIMES

Last week’s ascension to the Alaafin of Oyo throne by then Prince Abimbola Akeem Owoade courted tremendous ruckus in Yorubaland. Why would an unseen Ifa deity and its cloudy, ancient system of divination choose an Alaafin? Implicated in the back-and-forth that followed was 92-year old Ògúnwán̄dé Abím̄bọ́lá, professor of Yoruba language and literature and one-time vice chancellor of the University of Ife, now Obafemi Awolowo University. In 1981, a conclave of Ifa priests in Yorubaland anointed Abimbola as the Àwísẹ Awo Àgbàyé (World Ifa Priest). He was then investured by the late Ooni of Ife, Oba Okunade Sijuwade. It was to this man I headed on Sunday, January 12.  Àwísẹ had given a 1pm appointment for an interview session to which me and two newspaper editor friends of mine – Lasisi Olagunju and Saheed Salawu – responded.

In one week or so, the fierce war between tradition and modernity became manifest. Where else could the war be waged other than Oyo Alaafin, a place which prides itself as the locus of traditional Yoruba society? Oyo was the centrifugal point where traditional power, culture, language, history collaged. When those powers were collapsed by British forces, Oyo manifested how the vapour of the powers drifted away. It was home to traditional heritage, political authority, power and influence. The power of its monarchy was awesome. Today, Oyo is a fragile carcass of the awesome and imposing Oyo Empire founded in the late 14^th or early 15^th century. That empire grew, in the words of historians, to become “the largest and most powerful of the forest states of West Africa.” From its Old Oyo, located somewhere in the Savannah below the bend of the River Niger in the Bussa-Jebba area which was abandoned in 1835, Oyo showcased an extremely impressive internal organization, imposing military strength with the Alaafin as an Emperor. Alaafin, who was the sole king in Yoruba land, reigned over a vast empire. He was the sole king to bear the appellation, ‘His Imperial Majesty’, had governors called Ajele in all the regions. These governors ruled as suzerains from areas that extended as far as to the Popos, Dahomey, and parts of Ashanti, with portions of the Tapas and Baribas. Dahomey is in the present Benin Republic. The Alaafin also had Ilari, messengers who kept the Ajele in check from excessive wielding of power.

This Sunday morning, I was interested in a brand new worship at the feet of the Àwísẹ Awo Àgbàyé. I was ready to abandon everything else for a momentary worship by the Ifa priest’s feet.