1. ÌTÀN and ÀRỌ́BÁ are two Yoruba words which describe the Yoruba power of story telling. They are conveyors and storage of accounts of events from the past.
Both are oral, unwritten accounts of past events.
2. ÌTÀN is a body of stories generally known by all and more or less straight-jacketed accounts of what happened in the past which is retold from time to time and generation to generation. It is however possible that a man may miss those stories if he didn’t have any opportunity to be told. It is also possible that such stories may be altered with time in the course of endless oral transfers.
For example if one is not told the story of Mọ́remí of Ilé-ifè or Efúnseítán Aníwúrà of Oja’ba he will never know about them and he may have different accounts of the same subjects told by different people such as we now see the children of Zik recently claiming the same Moremi story of Ile-ife so carelessly.
3. But ÀRỌ́BÁ is different. It is generic and organic. It most often has to do with families and communities. It is stored in Names, Oríkì, Ewì, Arò, Family Heritage, cemented in peculiar traditions, rituals and some many other things which are uniquely transmitted within smaller circles.
If you have a family history stored in Names, Oríkì or Arò for example, even children who may never know such recent stories like that of Chief Obafemi Awolowo would most likely learn of his own family peculiar history and pedigree because his parents are saying it into his ears from infancy and he can see and hear many things.
And the accounts of ÀRỌ́BÁ are therefore usually more accurate than ÌTÀN even if some parts of it become lost.
4. Our Elders have always told us that ÀRỌ́BÁ is the father superior to ÌTÀN and they have been proven right again as always.
In taking up the tall dream and ambition of emerging from the Jadiara lineage of the Fusengbuwa Ruling house Wasiu was relying on ÌTÀN that he may have read from wherever forgetting that there were elders in the house who are experts of ÀRỌ́BÁ, ancient stories they have always known from their childhood even before Wasiu was born.
And Yoruba are very good with Àrọ̀bà and Ìtàn and I can say that Ijebu people in their fierce conservative attitude are especially good at it.
They will tell you your story chapter and verses.
It is the lesson of Àrọ́bá and Ìtàn that we are about to learn in unfolding drama of Wasiu Ayinde’s ambition to become Awujale of Ijebu land.
5. Yesterday I wrote about what I noticed of the similarity between the succession process of Ooni Ile-ife and Awujale in the sense of its swiftness, a pattern which may soon be upturned in Ijebu-ode very soon as things are going unchecked.
Somehow my attention fell on the Osinusi name and something struck me.
6.. Ọ̀sínúsì is a very popular family of Ijebu-Ode, of the Royal House of Fìdípọ̀tẹ̀ which Wasiu Ayinde is from. There were two very prominent men from that family who were great socialites in their time; Wahab Oṣinusi and Bode Oṣinusi, the junior brother who was made very popular by Ebenezer Obey praise songs on him.
It is common knowledge that most names that ends with “NÚSÍ, for example names like Onanuga, Adenuga, Oyenuga, Odunuga etc are most often, if not always, Ijebu names. The “NU” in the Ijebu dialect is shortened form of “Ní nú” which literarily translates to “it is inside”.
Adenuga = Ade-ni-nu-iga, where “Ìgà” is usually a sacred enclosure or sanctuary, will therefore mean ” Crown is inside the sanctuary”.
7. It was just a few days ago I stumbled on the fact that Ọṣinusi is a name actually abbreviated from “Ọṣhi n’nu Imẹsi”.
That is Ọshi Ni Nu Ìmẹ̀sí = ỌsiNuSi = Ọṣinusi of today.
That’s very interesting.
Ọshi = Ancestral lineage or some kind of Òrìsà
Ni Nu = Inside
Ìmẹ̀sí = A town in Ekiti in today’s Ekiti State
8. That Ekiti connection is of great interest to me.
In the ancient history which we have always known or being told, OLÚ-ÌWÀ and OLÚ-ÌSÀ were brothers.
OLÚ-ÌSÀ had migrated ahead to be in the place called Ijebu-ode today. He is today’s Oba Olísà of Ijebu-Ode.
OLÚ-ÌWÀ came much later with his own contingent FROM EKITI via ILÉ-IFÈ. He is said to have been led by the Agẹmọs. In that contingent was Ogborogonda, the one who was called Ọbanta who later became Awujale.
It is said that OLÚ-ÌSÀ and AWUJALE being brothers had well-defined cordial relationship with OLÚ-ÌSÀ having more authority over all the areas called IJEBU LAND.
That was before the British came into Yoruba land from the coastal Lagos and the Osuka-carrying Àáfàs galloped through the jungles into Ijebu-Ode.
So many things changed and power re-alignments happened.
9. That settin was what Alhaji Sikiru Adetona Ogbagba II met.
His ancestors came from Ekiti/Ile-ife but he suddenly told Ijebu people that he was from the Arab lands of Waddai in Sudan perhaps to please his Moslem friends in Sokoto and Saudi Arabia.
This is where had has led us. The Throne of Awujale is now going before Judges who may it even be Ijebus to understand what is at stake.
He demystified the Awujale institution before he left. He spent 65 years on it. That’s long enough time to do destruction if one is determined.
10. Wasiu Ayinde is about to hear the history of his lineage.
It is said that Ijebu land is a very strange land where mighty men don’t slip in the wetness of the rainy season when they are vulnerable but in dryness of the dry season when the grounds are very dry and hard and you are confident.
#Igbimoomoyoruba
#ThinkYorubaFirst
© Adedamola Adetayo
