THE SUN
By Vivian Onyebukwa and Funke Busari
Odunfa is one of the popular streets in Ebute Metta, Lagos. It is popular for being a home of arts and the theatre, with some notable Yoruba Nollywood artistes having their base in the area.
But Odunfa Street, which in English translates to Ifa Festival Street, was made more popular by the presence of a particular building which, in times past, usually hosted scores of Ifa priests (babalawo) who usually converged on the place regularly. The name of the street is Odunfa simply because it was the place where Ifa priests converged to hold their Ifa festivals.
The building in question was the home of the late Chief Akano Fashina Agboola, the late Araba of Lagos, located at Odunfa Street, Ebutte Metta. This building for babalawos also served as shelters for many Ifa priests or those related to Ifa priests who came from far and wide to that part of Lagos to ply their trade.
Saturday Sun recently visited the place to see if the building was still the home of Ifa priests.
In the building was Chief Oyeyefa Agboola, one of the children of the late Ifa chief priest, Chief Fashina Agboola. He had just arrived from his father’s burial ground where he went, according to him, to pay homage and show gratitude to the memory of the deceased. He said his other siblings, including those not practising their father’s traditional religion, would also remember their late father and pray for him on that day.
“My father was 82 years old when he died. He was the head of all Ifa priests called babalawo. He was the Araba. As a result of my father’s popularity and accommodating manner, many of the Ifa priests lived here. I heard them call this place Oke-Igeti in times past and my father would give them money at the end of each month, an uncommon gesture back then. This is where the priests who lived here had free breakfast, lunch and dinner. There were many spaces here for them. Our father was blessed by God and the deity, and he was able to care for the people,” said Chief Agboola.
He informed that beneficiaries of his father’s benevolence are no longer living in the house with him because of the renovation that took place in the building. He said, however, that on August 2, during Ifa Festival, many Ifa priests came to rejoice with the family. According to historical account, that is why the place was called Odunfa Street.
According to him, many of those who benefitted from his father still come to show gratitude, while some no longer come to the place.
He said many of today’s popular Ifa priests spread across Lagos and all parts of the South West were trained by his late father and have become leaders and bosses.
Oyeyefa Agboola, who is also the Aseda Ilu Oworonsoki in Lagos, said he followed the professional path of his late father but also garnered more knowledge for his trade from the feet of other traditionalists. He went down memory lane explaining how he got into the trade.
“I am an Ifa priest like my late father who was from Osogbo, Osun State. I am also a Chief Priest and equally a religious leader at the Indigene Faith of Africa (Ijo Orunmila). I began learning about Ifa after completing my primary school education. I was getting into form two before I was taken to Ibadan where I learned and qualified as an Ifa Priest. I left Ibadan in September 14, 1991.”
On why some people no longer see being a babalawo as fashionable, Agboola attributed it to lack of understanding. He likened a babalawo to a native medical doctor who attends to patients. “But the problem again is that a lot of fake practitioners have damaged the reputation of genuine priests with their falsehoods,” he lamented.
He also tried to explain the differences between herbalists (onisegun) and babalawo. “For instance, it took me 12 years to become a native doctor but that is not the same for someone who says he is a herbalist because, within a week or so, a person could become a herbalist as long as he can access a documented account. Whenever a herbalist fails in satisfying a client, they go to a Babalawo, the native doctor at the end of the day. This is because a native doctor consults the oracle and makes recommendations to clients. In fact, both differ in a lot of ways. Those who consult native doctors do that for various reasons, namely; job progression, childlessness, and so on. Many call themselves native doctors but in truth, they are not, because they are charlatans and those who seek them do so in ignorance, but those that come to us and get breakthroughs to problems in their lives usually refer others to us.”
He also spoke about his mother who hailed from Ijebu in Ogun State, saying she was predestined to marry a native doctor. “My maternal grandfather was a friend to my father. My father married my mother and they gave birth to children. I have elder siblings and younger ones. My mother is happy with my choice of career. In fact, she was helpful and supportive in my learning about Ifa because I did not want to learn about it initially. She told my father that I was lackadaisical about it and that I should be taken somewhere else to learn it. That was why I was taken to Ibadan then. She is happy, though she’s ageing gracefully now.”
He stated that in spite of his father being an Ifa priest, some of his siblings are of other faiths. He reiterated the popular Yoruba saying that a father’s religion may not necessarily save his children.
“But for me, my father made me to understand that I should toe his Ifa path, and that is why I am also a native doctor. I don’t have any iota of regret and that’s why on a day like this, I have gone to pay homage to him, using goats, kolanuts, drinks, and the like to show the depth of my gratitude for the path he showed me.”
In the past few weeks, there have been controversies between adherents of traditional religions and some Muslims, notably in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital aboutn Isese festival of the traditional religion adherents. The latter had insisted that traditional worshippers should not practise their religion in Ilorin.
Chief Agboola faulted the controversies trailing the Isese Festival. According to him, since time immemorial, the traditional religion has been in existence. “Other religions were imported to our country and that’s why we have been seeking government’s declaration of a holiday. We observe the Isese Day on every 20th of August. We are begging for holidays. Christians have holidays like Christmas, Boxing Day, Easter. Even Muslims have about three holidays, like Eid El-Fitr, Eid-El Maulud, and all the religions are aware that the first religion is the traditional religion. Former Osun State Governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola declared a holiday for Isese. Even Ogun State has declared a holiday. That’s what we are begging our government to do. The government knows what is right to be done, because traditional religion precedes others. There’s no family where a traditional believer does not exist. But civilization seems to have pushed traditionalism into insignificance. May God set things right,” he said.
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