By Chris Otaigbe
Underlying the death of the grandmother of the current Ooni of Ife is the mixed grill it may have left in its wake, regarding the fate of Oduduwas oral history.
At 103, her passing, on June 7, 2020, commanded national and perhaps global attention, especially among Yoruba race across the world, as one who lived beyond a century and three years.
In the early 1900s, long after Britain annexed Lagos as a crown colony (1861), Lugard conquered the North. Northern Nigeria and Southern Nigeria, established as separate units in 1906, a year before her birth, were merged in 1914 under Lugards direction.
Madam Comfort Faramobi Ajoke Olasoji Soji-Opa was seven years, when Nigeria was amalgamated and she would have, even as a little girl, felt the wave of change that greeted the newly merged nation.
Lugares central government comprised an appointed governor, an executive, and a legislative council. Local administration and jurisdiction, however, depended on traditional rulers and traditional institutions. In some cases, this meant removing authority from the new class of Western-educated Africans and suppressing social change that was already underway. A British resident or district officer served as the liaison between the traditional ruler and the colonial regime, making Lugards system the model for all of British West Africa.
As a developing young girl who lived within the axis of royalty in Osun State, the site of White men coming to consult with the King may have been an experience that ingrained some sensation in her heart.
Beyond her experience with visiting White men and having witnessed a trail of the Oduduwa dynasty, she lived to see her grandson become one of the most powerful and respected monarchs in Nigeria.
She was three years old, when the 46th Ooni, Olubuse I, Adelekan died, after sixteen years on the throne, having ruled from 1894 to 1910. From then, her interest, even as a child would have been kindled on the processes that guide monarchical ascension in Ife, as each coronation and death of a King was accompanied with traditional rites that would affect all; small and old in the community.
She witnessed the shock and horror that would have gripped Ife, when Adelekans successor died barely a year he was coronated as the 47th Ooni, in 1910, participated in the fanfare and celebration that would have come with the installation of the 48th Ooni (Ajagun) Ademiluyi who reigned from 1910 to 1930.
By 1930, when Ajagun left the throne to meet his ancestors, Comfort had become a beautiful and entrepreneurial woman at 23.
So, by the time the 49th Ooni, Adesoji Aderemi ascended the throne in 1930, Comfort followed the reign of the monarch till he transited to join all the Ooni’s before him 50 years later. Now in her old age at 73, still strong and feeling as young as ever, she watched with great joy and excitement one of her younger siblings or cousins being crowned the 50th King of Ife, Okunade Sijuwade, in 1980.
Little did she know that, as an active witness to the coronation of four Kings and death of one, fate was preparing her to witness the crowning of one of her grandchildren to be the 51st Ooni, 35 years later, in 1980, after Sijuades demise.
Over 100 years, she had spent witnessing and celebrating coronations of Ooni’s, five of which, fate rewarded her with being the higher Matriarch of the new, young and glamorous King of Ife, the 51st Ooni, (Enitan Adeyeye Ogunwusi, Ojaja 11) from 2015-Till date.
Ooni Adeyeye Ogunwusi was selected from amongst several well-to-do indigenes of Ile-Ife who were also heirs to the throne on 26 October 2015. He received his staff of office on December 7, 2015. Before his final selection, the fear, anxiety and the consequent excitement she would have felt when the news came, he was the one chosen by the gods as the new Ooni, must be one of her greatest moments in life.
She had danced and feasted everyone who cared to rejoice with her that her grandson had become the new Ooni before her eyes, in her lifetime.
Saddled with the responsibility of making supplications to God and the Òrìṣà on behalf of his tribe and the world at large during annual festivals such as Olojo, Oba Ogunwusi, her grandson, will now be the spiritual leader of the Yoruba people.
The fifth child of her daughter, Wuraolas seven children, Oba Ogunwusi was born on October 17, 1974, to the family of Oluropo and Wuraola Ogunwusi of the Giesi Royal House, Agbedegbede Compound in the city of Ile-Ife. His birth was predicted years before he was conceived. Hence, he was named Enitan by his mother while his grandfather named him Adeyeye, which means the crown befits the throne’. She had done her usual consultation as its traditional to find out the fate of her new grandson and would have been foretold of the prophecy concerning her little grandchild which would manifest 41 years later.
Beyond her centurial participation in the history of Yoruba race, unravelling as a part of an unfolding 20th century nation, Madam Comfort also had the singular privilege of relating with the 18th-century generation that would have taught her the origin of her people.
She would have learnt that the first Ooni of Ile Ife was Oduduwa and the story surrounding his ascension to the Kingship seat of the Yoruba race.
Through the telling of folktales to her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, she would have narrated this pre-colonial existence of the Yoruba people as experienced by her in living colour.
According to history, Oduduwa was a Yoruba divine king, according to tradition, he was the holder of the title of the Ooni of Ile-Ife, the Yoruba holy city.
She would have told them that Oduduwa was not only the first ruler of a unified life but also the progenitor of various independent royal dynasties in Yorubaland and ancestor of their numerous crowned kings.
Teaching the children, who were her usual audience, eager to hear from her tales of a world centuries past, she taught them how to pronounce his name, phonetically written by Yoruba language-speakers as Odùduwà and sometimes contracted as Ooduwa, Odudua, or Oòdua.
Narrating how Oduduwa is today, venerated as the hero, the warrior, the leader, and father of the Yoruba race,” she would inform her children that the first Ooni was said to be an Eastern prince whose people were driven out of their kingdom in Mecca in Arabia and forced to migrate in a long march to present-day southwestern Nigeria.
Illustrating the dramatic war which lasted many years, she narrated how Oduduwa was able to defeat the forces of the 13 indigenous communities of Ife, led by Obatala and formed these communities into a single Ife unit.
She taught them Oduduwas praise names: Olofin Adimula, Olofin Aye, Olufe and his admission into the Yoruba pantheon as an aspect of a primordial divinity of the same name, following his posthumous deification.
Descending from the Hills on a chain and earning the oriki Atewonro (which means one who descends on a chain), Oduduwa was an emissary from the community of Oke-Ora, the easternmost part of the Ife cultural area, which stretches towards the Northeastern Ijesa people.
Bringing them closer to how the South-west as is known today, had influences traceable to Ile-Ife, she taught her audience how Oduduwas children and grandchildren were dispersed from Ife to the outposts that they had previously founded or gained influence over, in order for them to establish effective control over these places, as his time on earth came to an end.
She would have told them of how each offspring made his or her mark in subsequent urbanization and consolidation of the Yoruba confederacy of kingdoms, with each child and grandchild fashioning his or her state after Ile-Ife.
Educating her audience about the Ooni dynasty and the many accompanying conflicts, she taught them how one of the Oduduwas children, Orunto, who was born to his maid, became the ancestor of the families that are entitled to inherit the Obalufe title.
A title held by a noble chief traditionally ranked second in the order of precedence at the Ooni’s court, while Obalufon II Alayemore was on the throne when Oranmiyan, the youngest grandson of Oduduwa, returned from his sojourn and ordered the kingship be given to him and hence, back to the legitimate family of Oduduwa.
That was how Oranmiyans son Lajamisan became the forebear of all of the Ooni’s who have reigned in Ife from his time till date, a phenomenon of about 700 unbroken years, she must have told his history-learning Pupils made Historians, to label it the Lajamisan Dynasty.
At a time, confederacy existed within the 13 communities of the valley of Ile-Ife, with each community or Elu having its own Oba; the Oba of Ijugbe, the Oba of Ijio, the Oba of Iwinrin, Madam Comfort would have taught her children how he was said to have been a warrior who wore armour made of iron.
In her narration of her knowledge of Yoruba history to succeeding generations, she told them of when Oduduwa rose to be a prominent citizen of ancient Ife, how he and his group are believed to have conquered most of the 13 component communities.
Consequently, his conquering army deposed Obatala and subsequently evolved a palace structure with effective centralized power and dynasty, which made him be referred to as the first Ooni of Ife and progenitor of the legitimate kings of the Yoruba people.
This and more historical facts, folklore, customs, cultures, norms and traditions were the benefits descendants of Oduduwa, from her side of the dynasty, we’re blessed with while she was alive.
Fondly called Mama Agba, Madam Comfort gave up the ghost at her residence in Ile-Ife on Saturday, June 7, 2020, at the ripe age of 103 years.
An industrious woman during her lifetime, Madam Confort was a prominent trader who traded, largely, in foodstuff at Oja Ita-Balogun, Oja Titan and other markets in Ile-Ife and environs during her active days.
Dedicated and loyal to any cause she puts her mind to, she demonstrated such uprightness and goodness as a genuine family woman and disciplined Christian, she earned for herself, the enviable position of Iyaale-Opa (Matriarch of Opas Compound) and Alatunse of Ethiopian Church, Ile-Ife. She devoted her old age to meritoriously serving her God and humanity.
Mama would be greatly missed by all, especially her immediate family, relatives, members of Opa Compound (Ile Opa) members of the church, the market women, all of whom she devoted her whole life to, in service, till she took her last breath on the last night of her death.
With that last breathe, left a whole world of history. One hopes that as one who lived and grew under people with connections to the century before this generations, she would have been imbued with priceless tales of the historical life of Ile-Ife, the Yoruba race and its connection to the amalgamated entity that finally became Nigeria, as we know it today.
