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-flffl 36
FHINTCOINU.S.A.
Cornell University Library
DT 515.D39
Nigerian studies
3 1924 028 648 776
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You may use and print this copy in limited quantity
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NIGERIAN STUDIES
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MACMILLAN AND CO., Limited
LONDON . BOMBAY . CALCUTTA
MELBOURNE
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
NEW YORK . BOSTON . CHICAGO
ATLANTA . SAN FRANCISCO
THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd.
TORONTO
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FlSHKRMEN AND TRAP AT OLOKEMEJI.
{Frontispiece.
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NIGERIAN STUDIES
OR
THE RELIGIOUS AND POLITICAL SYSTEM
OF THE TORUBA
BY
R. E. DENNETT
AUTHOR OF "AT THE BACK OF THE BLACK MAN'S MIND "
With Illustrations
MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED
ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON
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Richard Clay and Sons, Limited,
bread street hill, e.c., and
uungay, suffolk.
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TO
BEATRICE DENNETT
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PREFACE
Administrators and missionaries are often
blamed for adopting methods of administration or
evangelising which we all know are not suited to the
uplifting of the negro race. Destructive criticism of
such methods is easy, and in this case, where both parties
have sincerely done their best, quite unnecessary.
The construction of a correct native policy is much
harder to build up, and it is a question whether we yet
have sufficient data to work with any certainty. I
have been very much struck with Dr. Arthur Keith's
first series of Hunterian lectures on the "Anatomy
and Relationships of the Negro and Negroid Races."
There he expresses the opinion that before further
progress can be made in anthropological investigation
it will be necessary to revise our methods, substitut-
ing for the present empirical measurements others
founded on a more certain and scientific basis.
In the following pages I have approached the study
of the native from a philosophical (in the old-fashioned
sense of the word) point of view.
One of the most hopeful signs of the times in
Nigeria is that natives (who, by the way, owe their
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viii PREFACE
education to the missionaries) are beginning to look
upon their native lore in a more serious light than
their dear old masters did. Bishop Johnson gave us
a little work on Yoruba paganism from which I quoted
largely in At the Back of the Black Man's Mind.
Bishop Phillips wrote a little book called Ifa. The
Rev. Lijadu has given us Ifa and Orunanila. Mr. Sobo
wrote Arofa odes or poems. Dr. Johnson has lectures
on Yoruba history, and Mr. John O. George has
written a short account of Yoruba history. Dr.
Henry Carr, the Chancellor of the Diocese of
Equatorial Africa, a native of Egbaland, is an author
of many interesting papers and keys to mathematical
works. Mr. Adesola is now engaged in writing a
most interesting account of Yoruba Death and Burial
Secret Societies, which are appearing in the
Nigerian Chronicle. Mr. Johnson is the editor of this
paper which is doing such good work in this direction.
Then Mr. Williams and Mr. Jackson, both also
Africans, are editors of the Lagos Standard and the
Lagos Record. These papers can be seen in the
Royal Colonial Institute. In other lines of life the
colony has produced many distinguished natives, but I
have only mentioned the above because I am now
only dealing with literature. That an African colony,
not yet fifty years old, should have produced in so
short a time so many men distinguished in letters is a
very hopeful sign for its future and speaks for itself.
I am indebted to so many for help in producing this
little work that it is difficult for me to know how
many to thank. Captain W. H. Beverley has kindly
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PREFACE ix
supplied me with the little map which will at a glance
show my readers where Yorubaland is.
Mr. H. Dodd took the photographs of the fishermen
and hunters. A native photographer, Mr. Holm, has
supplied the rest.
Dr. Henry Carr, who is at present in England, has
gone through the proofs with me and corrected as many
of my mistakes in spelling native names as he has
been able, which adds very greatly to the value of the
work.
As I have to leave for Africa without seeing the
final proofs, Mr. T. A. Joyce has generously promised
to undertake this arduous task for me.
And away yonder in Africa are many to whom my
thanks are due for their hearty co-operation and
patience, among whom are the Forest Rangers Taylor
and Pellegrin, the priest or Babalawo, Oliyitan, the
sons of Agbola and other chiefs.
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CONTENTS
PAGE
EXPLANATORY CHAPTER I
CHAPTER I
A FEW NOTES ON THE HISTORY OF YORUBALAND .... 6
CHAPTER II
CREATION AND THE SACRED STONES AT IFE 17
CHAPTER III
DEATH, BURIAL, AND DEPARTED SPIRITS ORO, EGUNGUN, ETC. . 28
CHAPTER IV
THE FOUR GREAT ESTATES IN THE NATIVE FORM OF GOVERN-
MENT 60
CHAPTER V
JAKUTA. THE FOUR WINDS 65
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xii CONTENTS
CHAPTER VI
PAGE
ODUDUA AND THE FOUR DAYS OF THE WEEK .... 73
CHAPTER VII
OBATALA 8l
CHAPTER VIII
IFA AND THE FOUR WALLS OF THE YORUBA KINGDOM . . 86
CHAPTER IX
ESHU 94
CHAPTER X
AGANJU, YEMOJA, THEIR OFFSPRING, AND THE OGBONI OR
COUNCIL 97
CHAPTER XI
OLOKUN OLOSA AND FISHERMAN Io6
CHAPTER XII
OGUN, OSHOWSI, AND THE HUNTER Il6
CHAPTER XIII
SEASONS 130
CHAPTER XIV
OKE, OJO, AJESHALUGA, AND FARMING 140
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CONTENTS xiii
CHAPTER XV
PAGB
ODUS OF I FA 147
CHAPTER XVI
SHANGO — OYA— OBA— OSHUN . 1 56
CHAPTER XVII
LAND LAWS 195
CHAPTER XVIII
CONCLUSION ... . . ... .209
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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
FISHERMEN AND TRAP AT OLOKEMEJI
LAGOS TYPES
THE ALAKB AND SOME OF HIS OFFICIALS
THE LATE BALE OF IBADAN AND SOME OF HIS
OFFICIALS
STONES SACRED TO OGUN
GROVES SACRED TO ORE, WIFE AND CHILD .
IN ORE'S WIFE'S GROVE
STONE CHAIR PRESENTED TO SIR W. MACGREGOR BY
THE ONI OF IFE, NOW IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM
A CHAIR MARKET AT BADAGRY, S. NIGERIA .
OPA ORANYAN AT IFE
TREE PLANTED OVER GRAVE WHICH THUS BECOMES
SACRED . .
MEMBERS OF A FUNERAL SECRET SOCIETY IN
LAGOS CALLED ADAMORISHA, WEARING DRESSES
SIMILAR TO THE EGUNGUN, EGUN
"PORO" HOUSE
AGBOLO'S SONS. GREAT NATIVE HUNTERS
METEOROLOGICAL CHART
SACRED CAVE AT ABEOKUTA
Frontispiece
To face page 10
>j »
14
Page 19
„ 20
21
To face page 23
. Page 24
To ] ace page 28
» » 32
» 119
. Page 131
To face page 164
MAP
THE COLONY AND PROTECTORATE OF SOUTHERN
NIGERIA, 1910 ... ...
End of Vol.
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Nigerian Studies
ERRATA
Page Line
19 2*, after " Ogun " add " 3 " and, footnote, " s About the same distance on
brought us to another screen of palm leaves."
34 12, for And read He.
35 I 5*> f or retained read regained.
36 2, for grave read grove.
43 16, for Egbas read Egba.
56 9*> for Kakong read Kakongo.
62 12, for Jayse read Jyase.
85 2, yiw- Yorubas raj*/ Yoruba.
90 3* > for J. T. Palmer read I. T. Palmer.
97 2*, footnote, jfo' offices read officers.
101 6, 7, transpose " light" to read after " Imole."
103 1*, 104, 14, for Orishaula read Orishanla.
145 8*, for Shalua read Shaluga.
190 17, after small pox insert " 2 " and add footnote, " 2 See Addendum,
page 231."
200 12*, for that read than.
203 8*, after Ajele insert " 1 " and add footnote, " l See note, page 204."
215 diagram, last line, after Storing insert Memory.
216 9*, for and read but.
228 3rd col., 1 3*, for Nervous system read Memory.
229 3rd col. , 8, transpose entries Akpena and Odofin.
229 1st col., for The Speaker read The Chief Justice ; for The Lord Chief
Justice read The Speaker.
* From bottom.
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NIGERIAN STUDIES
EXPLANATORY CHAPTER
In trying to impart one's ideas on a foreign people
to one's readers, a great difficulty arises, i.e. the
fact that for the most part one's public knows little
or nothing about the surroundings of the natives
about whom one is endeavouring to write. Well,
it would take many volumes to describe fully so
interesting a people as the Yoruba, even if one
had the ability, so that I must leave those interested
in this general branch of knowledge to others who
have written on the country. Then I sometimes
find it impossible to explain many foreign words that
will keep suddenly cropping up, so that my collection
of apparent facts at times resembles bits of a mosaic
which the collector has to leave to his successor
to put together. I take for granted that these
pieces are very precious to those who are ever
on the look out for something new that may throw
light on the many problems that are still puzzling
the thinking world, I do not hesitate therefore to
mention them. In presenting this little work, then,
B
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2 NIGERIAN STUDIES
it is to be understood that I am fully conscious
of its faults, but I am fearful often to correct them
lest in so doing I may spoil the native colouring
and inculcate some erroneous idea that may be
really foreign to the people whose mental outlook
I am trying to illustrate.
A new name of a personage or a deity suddenly
appears on the scene, and I know that my reader
requires a far more accurate account of him than
I or my informant can give him ; well, all I can say
is that it is in this sudden fashion that we who
try to gather information in some foreign fields
obtain it.
I know that this jumpy style, which one of my
friends describes as "writing in seven league boots,"
is very irritating to the earnest student, and, I
am very sorry for this also, and I wish to assure
my reader that I have tried to say as much as
possible about these sudden apparitions, either at
the time of their coming on to the stage or in notes
which refer to other places in the book where more
is said about them.
All my information is drawn from native sources
on the spot, the arrangement and order is not
mine. The order is taken from the order of the
Odus (palm nuts used in divination by the priests
of I fa) 1 as given to me by the babalawo (priest) Oli-
yitan, and from the seasons.
There is one more difficulty that I may be able
to clear away. In At the Back of the Black Mans
1 Ifa is the name of the Yoruba oracular deity.
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EXPLANATORY CHAPTER 3
Mind the formula given is 4+£j.xy+4 or 32 parts
in all, that is forming one whole. Now among the
Yoruba the formula is 4 + 2x6 or 16 parts. This
is the pith of the work. Thus I commence the
book by giving my reader a very short account
of the history of the Yoruba as we know it as
well as from a native point of view. I then take a
legend of creation given to me by an old priestess
called Oja through the mouth of a man called
Togun. This takes me to a short account of the
sacred stones at Ife the religious capital and cradle
of the Yoruba people. As these stones are said
to be men and women who on their death have
turned to stone, I then say a few words about death
and burial customs from which I find I cannot
dissociate some secret societies. A consideration of
these subjects points to the fact that the Yoruba
have beatified their ancestors. This being a natural
and so a general practice, there are in consequence
thousands of such Orishas or deified spirits, all of
which must be most interesting studies of family
history. But a great philosopher called I fa (who
is mentioned in the story of creation as one of the
four great deities) is said to have chosen 16 persons
out of these different classes of people and formed
them into a kind of council. These 16 had their
1 6 family Orishas 1 and thus we get at the number
32 and the formula of the Bavili and the Bini as
shown in At the Back of the Black Mans Mind.
Crawley, in The Idea of the Soul, writes " Frazer
1 See note 1, page 12.
B 2
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4 NIGERIAN STUDIES
gives the following description based on Maspero
and Wiedermann." Every man (Egyptian) has a
soul, ka, which is his exact counterpart or double
with the same features, the same gait, and even
the same dress, as the man himself. Many of the
monuments dating from the eighteenth century
onwards, represent various kings appearing before
divinities, while behind the king stands his soul
or double as a little man with the king's features.
In modern Egypt every child born has a djinnee
companion born with it. It is an angel, but often
hurts its protege. It is an exact counterpart of
the person himself, except that for male it is female
and for female male. Something like this exists
in the naming of the child's Orisha among the
Yoruba and will be found in the chapter on
marriage.
To continue, I give my reader what information
I am able about these chosen Orisha and find that
they are connected with certain occupations, i.e.
those of fishing, hunting, marriage, planting, market-
ing, and construction. I find that the native form
of Government official for Orisha coincides with
the heavenly one and I give the lists of Officials
and Orishas. Further, the meaning of the Odus
in the order given are connected with the Categories
of thought, which I have shown exist at the back
of the black man's mind in the Congo and in Benin,
i.e. those of water, earth, fire, germination or
conception, reproduction or pregnancy, death and
life.
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EXPLANATORY CHAPTER 5
In my concluding chapter I suggest that the
elements of native religious and social government
are to be found in the black man's nervous system,
which in my opinion responds to the will of the
Almighty Architect of their Universe.
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CHAPTER I
A FEW NOTES ON THE HISTORY OF YORUBALAND
Introductory Historical Remarks
From Dalzel's History of Dahomey, i793,<4t would
seem that Yorubaland about the year 1700 was under
one King, or Alafin, who resided at Old Oyo 1 or
Katunga. That this kingdom when united was a
very powerful one is shown from the fact that until
the year 1818 the Dahomi paid tribute to the Alafin
of OyoT)
It is only from this date (1700), when the decadence
of the Yoruba Kingdom had set in, that the native
chroniclers can give us any definite knowledge of the
Yoruba history. From this time we have a list of
Alafins given to us.
1 . Ajagbo.
2. Abiodun.
3. Arogangan ; during whose reign his
nephew Afonja raised an insurrection and so
hurried on the downfall of the Kingdom.
4. Adebo.
5. Maku.
1 Pronounced Awyaw.
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ch. i THE HISTORY OF YORUBALAND 7
6. An Interregnum during which the Oba-
shorun or Prime Minister of the Alafin seems
to have kept the State from actual ruin.
7. Majotu.
8. Amodo, about 1825.
About 1830 Lander visited -Qld-Qyo, but /between
1833 and 1835 the Mohammedans captured and
destroyed the old town, and the Yoruba were obliged
to found a new capital where Oyo now stands)
it was about this time also that the Egba declared
their independence. They were finally driven out of
the country that they, as a section of the Yoruba
people, occupied, and_in 1838 they founded their
present capital, Abeokutay
A chief called Lishabi is said to have led them to
Abeokuta, and to show how near to the mythological
period of their history we even now are I am able to give
you the story of how Lishabi when defeated by the
Dahomi descended into the earth.
f How Lishabi descended into the Earth J
Lishabi was a great warrior who lived at Ikija,
Abeokuta. One day when there was a great battle
between the Egba and Dahomi, and the Egba
were put to flight and many killed, Lishabi was so
ashamed that he would not return to Abeokuta, and so
pointing his sword to the earth asked her to open.
She opened and he went headlong into her depths.
His sword is there to this day marking the place where
he thrust it into the earth. His brass chain is also
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8 NIGERIAN STUDIES chap.
there ; and if anyone begins to draw the chain out he
can pull about 40 feet of it out of the ground, but then
Lishabi pulls it back again/) Many people have seen
pigeons fly out of the place, they feed here and there,
and then go back, so they know Lishabi has his house
there. One man tried to make a farm there and
started felling the bush, but he died, so now no one
dares to farm in this place./<A.nd the people of Ikija
go there yearly to worshifhJbim. They offer rams,
goats, fowls, and yams to hi m. )
By the year 1840 the seeds of dissension sown by
Afonja had spread so rapidly that we find the proud
Kingdom of the Yoruba people split up into a number
of so-called independent states.
Illorin had been lost to the Alarm, and is now
inhabited by a mixture of Hausa, Fulah, and
Yoruba.
Ibadan, a semi-independent state, still recognises
the Alarm and pays tribute yearly,
The Egba, a fine race of agriculturists, declare
that they are quite independent, as also do the
Ijebu, Ilesha, Ife, and Iketu (now in French territory).
From 1840 to 1886, when the British Government
intervened as peace-maker, wars between these parts
of the Yoruba people were constancy From that
date until 1892 the peace-maker has had to punish
the Ijebu and Egba for closing their trade roads.
In August 1861 Docemo ceded Lagos to the
British. In 1863 Kosoko ceded Palma and Lekki,
much to the disgust of the chief of Epe, who refused
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i THE HISTORY OF YORUBALAND 9
to cede his rights and was punished for it. And in the
same year the chiefs of Badagry ceded their territory
to the British.
Lagos became a great slaving port about the year
1815 when the King of Benin and a few other chiefs
refused to allow slaves to be exported from their
territories. The original inhabitants of Lagos were a
mixture of Bini and Yoruba people, j) When it became
a port of export for slaves, sucn slaves as became
residents as labourers and servants of the slave dealers
and merchants added their quota to the population ;
and when after t86i it becam e a British co!ony_many
freed slaves from Sierra Leone and other parts, more
especially Brazil, made their homes there.
The Colony of Lagos in 1863 rejoiced in a separate
Government, but in 1866 with the other West Coast
Settlements it was attached to Sierra Leone.
In 1874, after the Ashanti war, Lagos became part
of the New Gold Coast Colony and in 1886 it became
a distant Crown Colony) since when its progress
has been phenomenal.
The formation of the Niger and adjacent territories
into a Royal Charter Co. with Mr. (now Sir) G. Goldie
as Deputy Governor, following the declaration of a
Protectorate of the Niger Territories by the British
Government) in June 1885, is so well known a fact
that the mere mention of the event is sufficient.
And I need only jog my reader's memory to call to
his mind a knowledge of the time when that part of
the West Coast which finally became S. Nigeria was
more or less governed by Consuls resident in the
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io NIGERIAN STUDIES chap.
Island of Fernando Po, called by Burton the Foreign
Office Grave.
The time came when the Foreign Office having
worked up the " Raw Material " the finer processes of
the Colonial Office were applied.
In 1889 I was present at a meeting in Calabar
when the Special Commissioner Major (now Sir)
Claude MacDonald interviewed the Chiefs, and on the
</fst August 1 89 1 the Oil Rivers commenced a new
era^under the title of the Oil Rivers Protectdrat^
^The Oil Rivers Protectorare became what is now
- known as Old Southern Nigeria while the-test of the
Niger Protectorate became Northern Nigeria;;
.- In 1906 Southern Nigeria and the Colony of Lagos
and Protectorate were amalgamated, and the Colony of
Lagos and Protectorate became the Western Province
of what is to-day known_jis the Colony and Protecto-
rate of Southern Nigeria^/
The following notes refer chiefly to ^his Western
Province, known generally as Yorubaland. \
J
The Origin of the Seven Yoruba States
^ In "At the Back of the Black Man's Mind" I
pointed out that the Congo was composed of a central
Kingdom surrounded by other six states, also that
ach of these states was divided into seven provinces,
six surrounding a seventh where the Fumu or Chief
of the sub- Kingdom resided.
F.S., in the Nigerian Chronicle, in a paper entitled
Chapter in the History of the Yoruba Country,"
writes : — "Hforuba is one of the seven countries or
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i THE HISTORY OF YORUBALAND n
states which the Hausa people term Bansa Bokoi
(the vulgar seven) in contradistinction to Hausa Bokoi
(the Hausa seven); the latter term is applied to the
original Hausa states and the former to seven
countries or states originating from the same races as
the Hausa people, but which do not form part of the
Hausa nation."_J
He goes on to say, " There can be little doubt that
the Yoruba people are at least intimately connected
with the Orientals. Their customs bear a remarkable
resemblance to those of the races of Asia. Their
vocabulary teems with words derived from some
of the Semitic languages ; and there are many
natives of Yorubaland to be found having features
very much like those of Syrians or Arabians."
Most natives I have talked to on this subject are
conscious of this origin from a superior race, and the
marked superiority of the Yoruba people to their
neighbours certainly points to something of the
sort.
But many also are only too anxious to ignore the fact
that the country was peopled by pagan Africans and
that they are consequently in reality a mixed race
among whom paganism persists.
fNow these dear old pagans are said to have given
thVname of their Creator Odudua to the leader of
the Bornu immigrants whose real name has been
forgotten, and there is a legend that a Hausa
Mussulman came to Ife, the religious capital of
Yorubaland, and told them to " worship Allah/* " He
created the mountains, He created the lowlands, He
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12 NIGERIAN STUDIES chap.
created everything, He created us." J But in a critcism
by the editor of the Nigerian Chronicle the coming of
the Mussulman must be placed at a much earlier date
than that given by F.S., i.e. many years after the
eleventh or twelfth century of the Christian Era.
It is possible, however, that Mussulman influence, at
whatever date it first made its appearance, may have
been the cause of fhe reorganisation of the religion of
the pagan Yoruba/ It was perhaps the means of
putting Jakuta or Shango, the thunder and lightning
God, in his place and the substituting of Olorun, the
owner of heaven, for that great Orisha. 1
\To this time, then, the Yoruba pagan may owe,
not the origin of his Orishas, but the order in which
the greater ones have been handed down to the
present generationy
Mr. George, in Historical Notes on the Yoruba
Country, gives us another variant of the historical
traditions of the Yoruba. Mr. George says : —
" There are many traditions about the Yoruba
Kingdom. We quote one which says that the Yoruba
Kingdom was peopled by six brothers ; that at the
departure of their father to his home in the north,
they left their mother, whose name was Omonide, and
travelled downward. These formed six distinct
kingdoms and are known to this day by the respective
regal titles : Alake, Alaketu, Onisabe of Sabe, Onila
of Ila, Oni Bini or Ibini or Benin, and Oloyo of Oyo.
Some time after they migrated downwards, their
mother hearing that they were settled decided to visit
1 Orisha = deified departed one.
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i THE HISTORY OF YORUBALAND 13
them. On leaving home, she took with her the piece
of cloth, the band or Oja, with which she had secured
them on her back when they were young, and the
small pot, or Oru, in which she had prepared their
infant drink. She thought that perhaps, as they had
become Kings, they might ungratefully despise her,
and she was ready to curse all and any of them
that might do so. Accordingly, she went first to
Alaketu l the eldest. She was received with all the
honours of her position. She was pleased at this
reception, and after remaining some time she went to
visit the Alake, where she was similarly treated. She
spent some time here purposing to visit her other
children. Ultimately she fell ill and died.
"It is said that she, being pleased with her recep-
tion by the Alaketu, gave him on her departure the
band or Oja with which she had secured her children
.... She told him that the cloth was an important
charm which possessed the power of good and ill ; that
good or evil will follow anyone according to his wish
or utterance while he holds or puts on this cloth. It
is said that one of the Kings of Ketu, who never
would go out on any public occasion without having
on this cloth, was once upbraided by his Chiefs for it,
and was threatened to be driven away from the
throne.
" An altercation ensued, during which he made
certain imprecations which are said to be operating
upon the country and people to this time. That since
1 Most of the Ketu country is now French and so separated from the
old Yoruba Kingdom.
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i 4 NIGERIAN STUDIES chap.
he was disgraced for having on an old cloth, made
brown by the dust of age, their country will ever be
red and dust covered, and their garment be it ever so
clean will appear and remain dirty."
" During Omonide's stay with the Alake of
Abeokuta she gave him the small earthen pot or
Oru in which she had always boiled infant drink
for her children. She told him that that pot was
a charm which had the power to establish himself
and his brothers in their cities ; that it was to be
kept in memory of her, that she would often visit them
and that the pot should not be removed from the
watch-care of the Alake by any of his brothers.
The Oru, a small earthen pot, is spoken of as being
now in the care of the Alake and in the Egbas'
former town, which is about twenty-five miles from
Abeokuta. There it is adorned and venerated in
respect of their dead mother up to the present.
Kings of the Interior seek and invoke the aid
of their dead mother Omonide or Iyamode before
coronation.
"At the departure of the father, he gave to his
youngest son Oloyo a small Ado or gourd receptacle
into which he had put some ingredients together
with common sand, as it might be of service to him
and his brothers in their travels. It was of great use
to them, for, when they travelled southwards, they
met a large river which they determined to cross.
They got into a canoe and pulled off; for a whole
day no land was visible. The next day Oloyo
remembered the gift of their father; he opened the
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The Ai.akf. and some of his Officials.
The late Bale of Ihadan and some of his Officials.
[Face p. 14.
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i THE HISTORY OF YORUB ALAND 15
small Ado and poured some of its contents into the
river. Immediately dry land was visible. Hence
he is said to be the ' land owner ' . . . . The Yoruba
Kingdom was once a great Power in West Africa.
It had Dahomey, Hausa, Tapa, and many other
important tribes and countries under its control.
" It lost its power through internecine wars, which,
together with foreign invasions, brought about an
entire disruption of the Yoruba Kingdom. The
remains formed themselves into small towns, their
once tributary towns, and these countries of course
became independent.
"In these small towns the remnant of the Yoruba
nation remained in peace for about two hundred and
fifty years. After this another war broke out, which
we are told began at Apomu, a market in the Ijebu
Country. In this war the whole Yorubaland was laid
waste, and from this the exportation of slaves from the
Yoruba Countries commenced."
Mr. George describes how a General called Maye,
the Balogun (or war chief) of Ife, with his Captains,
Abe and Laboside, overran the whole of the Yoruba
Country. He appears to have become a great slave
raider.
At his death the whole nation was again scattered.
He continues : " These wars which have laid our
country waste one hundred years ago, still continue
from that time to this" (somewhere in the nineties
of the last century). "The whole country has not
had ten years' rest. The Ijaiye War of i860 which
extended to Iperu, Makun and Ikorodu and the
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1 6 NIGERIAN STUDIES ch. i
Eketiparapo and the Ibadan-Ilorin war are the
offspring of this Opomu War. We are inclined to
believe that the different tribes themselves cannot
yet settle these differences, seeing that^each tribe 1
has a hand in the causes which led to them.''/
Anyone wishing to know how this peace was
accomplished by the British should read " Papers
relative to the Reduction of Lagos," 1852, and
" Correspondence respecting the War between native
tribes in the Interior," 1887 — two very interesting
papers presented to both Houses of Parliament by
command of Her late Majesty.
1 This is interesting as at the present day many half-educated natives
are apt to put down the ruin of their country to its occupation by
British Government.
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CHAPTER II
CREATION AND THE SACRED STONES AT IFE
Creation
There are many stories of creation among the
Yoruba, but the story which I have chosen to open
this study on the Genesis of the Yoruba is remark-
able, I think, owing to the statement of Oja that
the three parts representing God in Creation turned
to stone when once they had set Creation going,
leaving the carrying on of the work, it would appear,
to sixteen great Orisha. Togun (see below) does not
mention the word Olorun, the word now used to
represent God, who is also known as Eleda the
Creator, Elemi (the owner of breath). I think we
shall learn as we proceed that he, as the owner of
heaven, is a development of Jakuta, the father
thunder god.
£""Tt was in the village of Ilobe in the Egbado
district, S. Nigeria, that the following account of the
Creation was given to me by an old lady called
Oja who, the Bale or Chief told me, knew all
about^it?) She was a Priestess, and spoke to me
through a relation of hers called Togun, who was also
17 c
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1 8 NIGERIAN STUDIES chap.
connected with the Priesthood. Deputy Ranger
Edwards acted as interpreter. Togun said, " In
the beginning two people made the world, one
Yemuhu and the man." "What man?" I asked.
" Orishala, the husband of Yemuhu, who is also
called Obaba Arugbo. When Yemuhu and Orishala
came to the world they were afraid, and they were
accompanied by Ajajuno, a person who was not
made by anyone, and who acted as a messenger
and war chief. She was a woman whose business
it was to fight the world.
" When Yemuhu and Orishala had finished their
work of Creation, and their visit to the world, they
turned to stone — and when Orishala was about to
turn to stone Yemuhu said she would also turn to
stone again. But before they turned to stone
Orishala had a ram tied to his waist by a rope, and
Yemuhu had a gourd or calabash containing the
sixteen snails, 1 and when she turned to stone these
sixteen snails became the head of Eleda " (as we
have noticed one of the names by which Olorun is
said to be known).
" And what became of the ram ? "
"I do not know."
" When Eleda arose he noticed that Ifa had no head.
"One day Eleda fighting with Ifa knocked him
down, and his head came out, then his chest came
out, then his nose, then his mouth and eyes.
Orishala did this."
1 These 16 snails are symbols of Odudua, another name evidently for
Yemuhu.
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ii CREATION AND SACRED STONES AT IFE 19
Here Togun paused, and the woman Oja gave
him a small tin of palm oil. With this Togun
oiled his tongue and then proceeded. " These stones
are to be seen at Ife up to the present/^)
The Grove Sacred to Ore
On one of my tours through Yorubaland I went
to Ife and stayed a day there (I should like to
have stayed a year) and managed to hear a good
deal of the departed changing into stones.
The Oni * of Ife was kind enough to send his
clerk with me to show me over the ( " Grove
Sacred to an old Oni of Ife called Ore."4*
They say that to avoid a war this okr Oni, his
wife and son, retired to this grove and died, and
were turned to stone. This grove is situated on
the road about ten minutes outside the Eastern
Gate of the city of Ife^ Leaving the road and
turning to the right we marched about 1 1 1 feet
down a lane when we passed through a «>.
screen of palm leaves hanging from two / f Jff
Perigun trees. About ninety feet from VJol '1 ? [ |
this entrance on the left of the pathway ^^%£&£k'
we reached three stones, which they stones sacred
called Ogun ; thirteen feet from here
we passed through a kind of gateway which led us
1 Oni is the title of a chief who is much in the same position as the
Archbishop of Canterbury is in England. It is also the name given to
the firstborn.
2 Ore means " Spirit of the departed." Not only did Orishala and
Odudua turn to stone, but, as we shall learn, Ifa also.
C 2
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20
NIGERIAN STUDIES
CHAP.
Hoad to Ife
Scale of FeeD
o ffio ep M *o go
■igun trees
'.m trees
Xv4
O 1 Use's
Oiie's Wife's.
Shed where the meat is
. cooJred ; and eaten
Groves sacred to Ore, Wife and Child.
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ii CREATION AND SACRED STONES AT IFE 21
into a small square with two other gateways leading
out of it, one to the East, and one to the South.
We first passed through the eastern gate and
there under a small shed in the centre of the grove
we saw the stone figure of Ore. He was only two
feet eight inches in height, but three feet round the
waist, so I came to the
conclusion that this
hero shrunk some-
what in height in the
process of turning to
stone. Near to him
were two kola boxes
or dishes in stone each
one foot long and six
inches wide. A stone
which looked very
much like a grave-
stone was standing to
the south-east of the
image. They said it
had grown out of the
ground. The width
of this grove was
about seventeen feet,
feet.
We went back to the porch and now passed
through the entrance to the south which led us down
a passage fifteen feet in length, and then we entered
the enclosure, oval in shape and about sixty feet long,
which was sacred to the wife of Ore.
In Ore's Wife's Grove.
and the length thirty-two
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22 NIGERIAN STUDIES chap.
About thirty-one feet from the entrance was a
small circular shed under which the figure of Ore's
wife stood. It measured three feet in height and two
feet round the waist. Sixteen feet from this shed was
a collection of interesting stones. Two were flat (one
of which was broken) and measured four feet six inches
by one foot and, three feet three inches by one foot
respectively, and, rising from a mound of stones, a
carved stone representing an elephant's tusk two feet
six inches in height stood erect.
Passing out of this grove by a lane forty-three feet
long we came to a clearing measuring twenty-three
by twenty-eight feet near the side of which was a
hut with mud walls, where, they said, the worshippers
who had sacrificed to Ore came to cook and eat
the flesh of the animals sacrificed. The clerk told me
that this hut once contained a slab of rock upon which
a crocodile was carved. We had a good look for it,
but it was not there.
Other Sacred Stones at Ife
I Morimi and Alashe, mother and son, having also
/turned to stones, are now worshipped as Orishas at
/ Ife.
/ The Oni of Ife said that Alashe (the law-
/ giver) was Jesus, 1 the father of all white men, and he
I was not sure but he thought that he also was
\ descended from him.
Alashe, he said, was the only child of Morimi who
*
1 Did the Oni mean Moses ?
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Stone chair presented to Sir W. Macgregor by the
Oni of Iff., now in the British Museum.
A Chair Market at Badagry, S. Nigeria.
{Face t- 23.
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ii CREATION AND SACRED STONES AT IFE 23
was worshipped for having sacrificed her son to save
the city from destruction. He pointed out the house
she used to live in, which is quite near to his palace.
I also saw the house Alashe is said to have
inhabited ; it is situated down the hill to the east of
the palace. In front of the house two poles had
been placed in the ground and a sheet of white cloth
was hanging from a string tied from pole to pole.
Seven trees formed a kind of arbour in which were
one or two sacred stones. Women dressed in white
were kneeling here and there as if in prayer. Alashe's
festival was then being held.
(^The story goes that when war was being waged
against Ife, God threatened to destroy the city unless
a woman with only one child, and that a male, was
willing to sacrifice it. Now Morimi, who had only
one child, Alashe, was a rich woman and did not
wish to lose her wealth so she agreed to sacrifice her
son.
When Alashe was about to be killed he and all
his property were turned into stone. A chair or
stool now in the British Museum was the property
of Alashe. He had sent all his property to the palace
of the Oni for safety while the war was on. j)The Oni said
that when Captain Bower was pacifying the country he
took the stool from Ife and gave it to Sir W. Macgregor,
and he added, "when I went down to Lagos Sir William
offered to give me the stool back but I refused to
take it. I have another one left."
/Quite close to the palace there are two large out-
crops of quartz evidently similar to that from which
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24
NIGERIAN STUDIES
CHAP.
these stools and other stone images were made^so we
may conclude that they were made on the spotJ)But
by whom? I am inclined to think that they must
have been made by some black mason, possibly one of
those natives sent to the King of Portugal in the
fifteenth century and educated by the Portuguese,
He may have returned as a lay brother or even
as a priest and
found his way
to I f e. He
then possibly
introduced a
form of Chris-
tianity and built
two Churches,
one dedicated
to Jesus and
one to the
Virgin Mary.
The stools were
perhaps part of
the furniture of
these Churches.
But in Ife all sorts of people and things are turned
to sf!one;'the Oni has the figure in stone of a man
caught in the act of having connection with his sisterj
/fust outside the town is the " stick " of Oranyan, 1 a
1 Togun called the stone pillars, still to be seen in Ife, Orunmila, but
the present Oni of Ife on my visit there called the pillar still standing
Opa Oranyan, the stick or pole of Oranyan. Captain Elgee in his
paper to the African Society translated the words as the walking stick of
Qpd,
Opa Oranyan at Ife.
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ii CREATION AND SACRED STONES AT IFE 25
rounded pillar eleven feet in height and three feet six
inches in girth, with the remains of a second in two
pieces by its side, also what may be the remains of a
third. I asked the Oni if there had not been three
pillars at one time and he gave me to understand that
there had been, but that during the wars his enemies
hadlaken one.
(About a foot from the top of this pillar the present
Alafin of Oyo on his visit to Ife had tied a piece of
white cloth as a kind of act of submission, thereby
putting on one side his religion as a Mohammedan.
Near the centre of the pillar a horn and an axe are
carved. Above these figures forty-five copper headed
nails in three rows had been driven into the stone, on one
side of it ten, and on the other eight, while below
twenty of these curious nails still remain. I measured
this stone with a tape and made it eleven feet in height.
Captain Elgee makes it twelve, so that I can only con-
clude that we measured different sides of it.
I asked the Oni where the three sacred trees were, 1
but he hesitated to tell me. Then I told him about
th^T:hree pillars of mud called Eshu and the three
sacred trees at IaiiuJ " Ah ! " he saidj^^hey got their
religion from here^?
Later on, while wandering about the town, I
happened to descend from the plateau on which the Oni
has his palace and march in an easterly direction.
My attention was drawn to a woman who was standing
before what seemed a heap of stones praying. As
soon as she had gone I went into this grove and
1 See Page 195 At the Back of the Black Maris Mind.
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26 , NIGERIAN STUDIES chap.
foundQiwo mounds of stones with the stumps of old
trees in the centre and the remains of another heap of
stones. This then was thoolace where the three
Oyisa trees had once existed*^
Opa Oranyan, 1 the stick or pole of Oranyan, is what
the one standing pillar is called, and upon making
enquiries I learnt that Opa is sometimes used as a
slang word for penis. <Qt is possible then that here in
Ife, the cradle of the religion of the Yoruba people, as
in Iaiu, the three pillars represented the three procrea-
tive persons, Father, Mother, Son, while the three
trees (Oyisa) 2 figured the same three persons in their
God?)
Not far from the grove where I saw the woman
j addressing the three mounds of stone, and on the
opposite side of the road, is an altar composed of stones
sacred to the moon, called Oshupa Igio. Upon a large
block of granite surrounded by some smaller blocks
of the same substance are two slabs of granite on which
rest two smaller stones about the size of one's fist. It
is said that when the Babalawo rub the slabs with
them they shine with a light like that of the moon.
Amongst the stones alongside the altar were two
>ieces of cut quartz which evidently once represented
the moon.
I should say that they were carved by the same
artist who made the stools. < \CTose to the altar were
three smaller stones which they called Eshu (devil),
and in a little clearing in the bush were two large pear-
1 Called by Togun Orunmila.
f Bini for Orisha.
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h CREATION AND SACRED STONES AT IFE 27
shaped stones which they called Orisha Omu, meaning
breast, udder. Near to the palace of the Oni of Ife
there is a well which is said to have no bottom, and
they said this was not made by man but by the
Orisha 01okoro gbo\
<?
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CHAPTER III
DEATH, BURIAL, AND DEPARTED SPIRITS ORO
EGUN GUN, ETC.
Egun.
{. [ro, Oro, Egun, Egungun, and Eleko, are all now
Orishas representing the spirits of their ancestors,
and it is during festivities connected with them that
the " bull-roarer " appears.y At Ilaro I noticed three
trees with all their branches cut off 1 and the bark
1 Note by Adesola in the Nigerian Chronicle.
The whole company of gods and men proceed outside to what is called
the Oro pagi (Oro kills the tree) or Oro jegi (Oro eats the tree) ceremony.
For its performance the newly deified takes the company to the highest
tree in the neighbourhood in order to show proof of its divinity by " eating "
up every leaf thereon to the latest shoot. At a convenient distance from
this tree gods and men accommodate themselves as best as possible —
the gods crying with all their might and the men drumming very loudly,
singing and dancing at the same time. As it is not permitted to the un-
initiated to know how this spirit feat is performed, suffice it to say that one
wakes up in the morning to see that particular tree completely denuded of
its leaves : and it will require the service of the most powerful microscope
to discover even the tiniest and latest shoot anywhere about the tree up to
the loftiest branch or on the surrounding surface or anywhere about the
vicinity of the tree. These leaves are supposed to have been literally
eaten up by the god. " A ki ri ajeku Oro " (No mortal ever sees the
fragments of food devoured by the Oro god) has now passed into a by-
word. Suspended on this tree between any two of its branches which are
topmost, or sometimes left streaming on one of the branches which is the
highest, is a new mat or a white or red piece of cloth. In rare but
important cases the cloth is stretched from the branch of this particular
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Tree Planted over Grave which thus becomes Sacred.
[Face p. 28.
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ch. in DEATH, BURIAL, AND DEPARTED SPIRITS 29
round each stumped branch curled like a frill around
it. On the top of each tree was a white flag. It
was down these trees, I was told, that the spirit of
the departed came to visit his relations. One of the
chiefs of Ilaro had died some days before, and so,
when I arrived there, people playing drums kept
passing through the market on their way to the late
chief's house. Just before dark, as the market people
were assembling, an " Egun " presented himself before
my tent, and told me that he was the father (deceased)
come from heaven, and what was I going to give him.
The men, they said, know that the Egun is a man
tree to that of another tree or trees in the same neighbourhood or at the
nearest or furthest corner. You see it floating in mid-space high up in
the air. What these mats or cloths are intended to symbolise ought to
be evident from what I had pointed out in a previous article. [In the
Nigerian Chronicle^ Unlike the Egungun (No. II) and Agemo (No. IV)
the incarnated form of the Oro is never habited in cloths and mats.
What its nature and habiliments are is supposed to be a mystery and
jealously guarded up to the present from the gaze of women. In fact Oro
is worshipped more in its inane and spiritual form than in a materialised
shape. It is to the former that sacrifices are offered, not to the latter.
Among the Egbas who are the originators of this cult, the Oro awe
ceremony is the only funeral rite performed in connection with this
worship when the spirit is supposed to pass from the " unburied " ( No. 1 1 1 )
into the " buried " state. Viewing it in this connection the mat or cloths
suspended on the tree must be taken to represent the mats or cloth with
which the dead was buried ; and its suspension to signify that the spirit
of the deceased now purified with funeral rites and having entered into
that stage of spirit life in which it can be invoked and worshipped, casts
behind it in its flight into the spirit world these earthly encumbrances as
being useless to it.
After the completion of this Oro-pagi ceremony they (gods and men)
again repair to the house ; and having regaled themselves with the
remnants, they re-form into a procession, remove the mariwo from the
gate, march direct for the Aborts and thence to their own house ere
break of day. In the morning the inmates return to the houses of
mourning, set a mark to the dedicated spot, and congratulate one
another that the departed had passed into the Oro stage and can be
invoked at any time for worship.
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3 o NIGERIAN STUDIES chap.
dressed up, but they respect the dress and keep
up the play for the sake of the women-folk whom,
they say, need this assurance (that the chief has
risen from the dead). This Egun wore top boots
made by the Hausa. He also wore pants instead
of the native cloth. His shirt and overcloth were
of a rich texture, but not different from that worn
by the well-to-do. But he wore a net-like mask
in front of his face which gave him a weird appearance.
Men and boys followed him, and seemed to be much
impressed when the Egun cried out in a voice
evidently not his own : " I am from heaven, therefore
you must respect me."
When an important man dies in these parts, his
relations wash his body, and then shave off all hair.
Then they smear the body over with redwood and
water. The body is now placed on a mat on the
ground. The two big toes are tied together, and
the hands are placed on the chest. The mouth and
nostrils are filled with cotton wool. Each of the
children of the deceased then brings a fine cloth and
covers the body. Then they call all the people, who
come and condole with them. If the deceased's
daughter has a little one, it is this grandchild who sits
near to the deceased's bed and fans him. During the
night they have four or five lights burning. People
from all around come playing the gong-gong drums.
They remain all night and are given food and drink by
the children of the deceased. Among the rich this
feasting is kept up for seven days before the body is
buried. If the deceased has left a married daughter,
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in DEATH, BURIAL AND DEPARTED SPIRITS 31
it is her husband who digs the grave. He gets ten
or twenty men to help him, and pays them in goods.
On the evening before the burial the son and
daughter give money to buy a sheep or goat. Then
they take the corpse to the grave, and having placed
the body in it the goat or sheep is killed over it, so
that the blood falls upon it. The sons and daughters
must next weep so that their tears may also fall on
the corpse. The grave is then filled in.
Regarding these expenses Adesola writes :
" Otalelegbeje ro gba
Omo re a san ligbehin o
The amount you have received
Will some day be paid by your children. r
" [Otalegbeje is 1460 cowries, or 36 strings and
a half. It is not intended to be interpreted
literally. One of the many things which contribute
to the heaviness of funeral expenses in Yorubaland
is the amount that must be paid the various social,
religious and political guilds to which the deceased
is attached, apart from presents of yams, oil, goats,
and other cattle and provisions which must be made
at some definite time after interment or during the
celebration of the funeral ceremonies. The amount
is for making etutu (propitiatory sacrifices) for the
dead ; the provisions to maintain the members when
they meet. There is no native but belongs to one
or another of these guilds. Some belong to several
and a man's rank is estimated according to the
guild or guilds to which he belongs. Whatever
amount remains after the necessary expenses are
made is distributed among the members and every
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32 NIGERIAN STUDIES chap.
individual is given a portion, however small, in
proportion to his official status. The enjoyment of
this benefit is regarded as an accumulated debt for
every individual and imposes an obligation upon
their children to make similar contribution to the
guild towards their parents' funerals at their deaths.
This song repeated at funerals is to keep them
always in recollection of this fact. This expense is
always heaviest in connection with the Ogboni
(Senatorial) Society. This is both a political, social
and a secret Society. In fact it is the King's chief
consultative chamber in all matters and its principal
members form the Cabinet. They lay the corpse
with full masonic rites. In their passage to and from
the house of mourning, they sound alarms with
their state drums of various height and sounds so
that every woman or uninitiated man might flee their
presence either in the street or in the house of
mourning. For a woman to see them or their
drum (in the old days) meant death ; for an uninitiated
man a very heavy fine with compulsory initiation.
During the process of corpse-laying they continue
beating their drums and so at intervals whilst the
corpse is still lying in state when they go to make
their etutu. At each time they are generally pro-
vided with palm wine and native beer. The
members are sometimes called Oshugbo. A few
elderly women are always admitted and these are
generally distinguished from others by having
certain cotton strings (okun) tied round their wrists :
such women are supposed to be for ever precluded
from marriage. Members of this Society some-
times professed Christianity in order to free their
children from the above obligation.]"
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Wmm
!
c
o
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in DEATH, BURIAL AND DEPARTED SPIRITS 33
They present all who condole with them with kola,
gin, rum, or palm wine. In the olden days, if they
had not the money, they would rather sell themselves
to be able to stand the expense than not entertain in a
fitting manner. They would work one week for their
owner, and one week for themselves until they had
saved sufficient to redeem themselves.
To prove to the women folk that man rises and goes
to heaven a person is placed in a private room. Then
when all the family is assembled in an adjoining room
someone will strike the ground three times with a
stick crying out, " Father ! Father! Father! Answer
me." And the Egun, the person in the room, answers
and every one rejoices. Food has been placed in the
Egun's room by the women, and when the Egun has
answered each guest goes in there and helps himself
as he or she likes. The Egun is not dressed up when
in this room, but if he wishes to go outside and join in
the dancing then he dresses himself and puts on his
mask.
Oro or the Bull Roarer.
asg^olonel Ellis (p. 3, The Yoruba-speaking Peoples)
writes, " Just as Egungun is now used for social
purposes, and to preserve order in private life, so
is Oro used for political purposes, to preserve order
in the community at large^yet, from the analogy
of other peoples, and from the fact that it is death
for a woman to see the instrument which produces
the voice of Oro, there can be no doubt that Oro
was the spirit that presided at the celebration of
D
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■U NIGERIAN STUDIES chap.
male mysteries^.,) such as are found among the
Kurnai of Australia, and he has perhaps been
diverted from his proper purpose by the influence
of the Ogboni."
A story which rather bears out the phallic origin
of Oro is as follows : —
Another name for Oro is Iro, a chimpanzee or
slave of a rich man. His master had no child,
and so, when he bought Oro, he asked him what
work he could do. Oro said that the only work
he knew how to do was to offer sacrifice to the
Orishas. And promised his master that if he
would allow him to do this kind of work only he
would see that he got a child. Then Oro went
to search for camwood and made two flat pins.
In these he made holes at the end and tied strings
to them. And anyone who heard the sound when
he whizzed them through the air had children.
Then his master had children also and asked Oro
what he would take for the good work he had
done for him. He asked for a ram and pito 1
and that is why the Oro cries, " Mu de lewe, lewe,
lewe, lewe" ("I come with young, young, young").
And now his worshippers sacrifice ram, dog, and
pito, and never eat dog and horse. And he who
offends him brings a dog as an offering. But his
followers will not eat it. When his master had
some children Oro killed one and ate it. Then
the master asked him : " Why did you kill my child
and eat it ? " Then Oro ran away and lived in
1 Corn beer.
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in DEATH, BURIAL AND DEPARTED SPIRITS 35
the forests and became a chimpanzee, 1 and from
that time he was called Iro Omo Nenun the
chimpanzee, the child of Nenun.
And now if anyone wants a child from Oro
he will get a ram and pito and take it to the forests
and call him three times " O-o-oro, O-o-oro, O-o-oro."
The third time he answers, " Mu de lewe, lewe, lewe."
All the people went to Nenun and asked him
where his slave "Oro" had gone? He said to
the bush. He did his best to get him to come
back but he would not. So when men want a
1 Nigerian Chronicle.
Adesola's Version of the Iro Story.
"An ape (Iro) who had the power of transforming itself into a human
being made love during one of his transformations with a woman who was
in the habit of collecting jungle products for the market. Several
children (boys) were the result of this amorous affection. Their ren-
dezvous was a retreat in the woods where the ape who often came in the
guise of a hunter signalled his approach and arrival by means of what
now becomes the Oro spirit cry. For the amusement of his children and
to give them a dance, he beat his breast for a drum. The sound of it was
what is now imitated by the Obete and Asipelu drums used whenever an
Oro function takes place. He greatly enriched both wife and children by
means of the product of the chase, the latter of whom also embraced his
profession. He ultimately retained his human form and at his death was
buried on the spot which was their meeting place. Having shown him-
self a very extraordinary personage during his lifetime, he was worshipped
as a god after his death ; and whenever his children would invoke his
manes they produce the same sound by the same means and beat the
same drums as their father was in the habit of producing and beating."
This story evidently is an invention with a purpose. It is to explain the
Oro as a deified spirit ; only it makes it the deified spirit of one individual
rather than of many. The tradition of the man ape is to give it (the Oro)
a divine origin ; for apes and other species of that genus are sacred
animals in the Yoruba country. Parents of twins and people who worship
Ibeje (the twin gods) will never kill or eat monkeys, as twins are supposed
to be the transformations of these creatures that often displace the fcetus
of children. The derivation of Oro from Iro as explained by the above
tradition cannot therefore hold.
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36 NIGERIAN STUDIES chap.
child now they first bring the ram and pito to the
Oro grave, 1 and ask Nenun to take the offering
to Oro. The reason why women may not see
Iro is that having killed the child, they told the
mother that the child was lost and so deceived her
but they took Oro's clothes from him so that he
was naked, and ashamed to see women.
Women run away because his master has punished
Oro by not allowing him to wear clothes and return
to town. It is not Oro but only his symbol that
comes to town.
The flat piece of camwood is called I she and
1 Nigerian Chronicle, September loth, 1909.
Burial Customs in the Yoruba Country by Adesola
Oro's grove is a sanctum sanctorum and no one, whatever be his rank
or status dare enter it unless he is a devotee and that on special and
rather rare occasions. As a matter of fact it brooks no interference ; and
wherever and whenever an Oro cry is heard no Egungun or Eluku dare
cry there at the same time. It is regarded as the chief of the spirit gods
and it maintains its awe and dignity intact even under modern conditions.
Apart from the rites and ceremonies performed in the grove, there are
other demonstrations performed in the public ; but from all, whether done
within the grove or without it, women are rigidly excluded. All males
from the baby at the back to the centenarian have access to the
witnessing of its public demonstrations. I have made independent
inquiries from several people who are Egba-born whether that special
privilege, that is extended to some elderly women, called Iya Agan, of
initiation into the Egungun mysteries is ever granted to any woman in
the Oro mysteries and in each instance have received a negative reply.
One gentleman alone it was who told me this privilege was conceded to
his late grandmother but I have every reason to doubt his veracity. It
was reported of that wealthy Egba woman who gave a name to one of our
public Squares in Lagos with some of its buildings that on her return to
her native country she offered to buy the exceptional privilege of being
initiated into the mysteries of this spirit god and of gaining its acquaintance,
To this end she used all the influence her great wealth gave her, but she
had to spend an equal if not a greater amount to recant and that within
doors and on her knees when the god and his attendants came in front
of her compound to accept the invitation.
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in DEATH, BURIAL AND DEPARTED SPIRITS 37
the string is called Asho Oro or Oro's Cloth. The
stick to which the string is tied is called Papa Oro,
Oro's stick.
Another form is the Agbe- which is a piece of
flat wood about two feet long attached to a string
tied to a ball of cloth, grass, or string called Ibowo
Oro, Oro's handle.
Ishe represents a young man, but Agbe a full
grown man.
Ishe~~isthat which makes. Agbe is that which lives.
And my informant told me that they were symbols
of- the Phallus.
Co is a man's Orisha, and all men should worship
He was the first man slave bought from God by
Nenun, therefore men should recognise and worship
him, as the giver of children/
When a person dies the relations cry out, " Oro
o Baba o," because Oro was the first Orisha and
first father who caused men to have children. < To
refer to the living father is not solemn enough ;
the death cry refers to their first father Orb.'
The calling of Oro by the Ogbonis" is only to
frighten women away, as they do not wish them to
see how they execute a criminal.
Mr. Pellegrin told me that when the first yams
are ready the Egba worshipped Oro. No woman
enters the Oro bush, and if he comes out night or
day the women must go indoors. A ram is killed
and cooked, and its head is placed on the wall near
to the worshipper's father's grave.
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38 NIGERIAN STUDIES chap.
They draw a figure of a man in white chalk on
the wall near the grave, to represent the departed.
It is on this figure that they hang the head of the
ram. And a stranger will know if the head has not
been replaced each year.
They used to appoint a man called Ologbo Ijeun,
the chief of the Oro ceremony, who noted the seasons
and appointed, the time for the beginning of Oro
ceremony,
In the "Head Hunters" Dr. Haddon gives a
description of the Malu ceremonies, 1 and I am sure
that any of us who have seen Oro will be quite
ready to recognise the masked Zogole as some very
near relation.
This Malu ceremony, however, has to do with the
initiation of youths to certain male mysteries, while
our Oro, as figured by the bull roarer, is said not only
to be the giver of children, but to arrest disease and
sickness, and prevent so many people dying. In this
it more nearly represents the " Maduh " (p. 107) that
used to "turn devil" at night time, and go round the
the gardens, and swing bull roarers to make the yams
grow. Or perhaps Uvio is still more like our Oro,
for "if anyone is sick, food is given to Uvio, who is
placed on the top of a big house (clarino) and he
is addressed 'Oh! Uvio, finish the sickness of our
dgarr one, and give life.' "
It is strange that the Yoruba do not connect
)ro " with the male mysteries^)when it is so openly
1 Vols. V. and VI. Reports of Cambridge Expedition to Toms
Straits,
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in DEATH, BURIAL AND DEPARTED SPIRITS 39
a male ceremony, but of many people I have asked
some say they have never heard of Oro in this connec-
tion, and others will not hear of any such thing being
mentioned. I say strange, 1 because the bull roarer is
certainly used at Ovia's yearly festival in Benin terri-
tory, at which as certainly youths are initiated into the
male mysteries. It is also used in the worship of
Ovato at Geduma, and during the Ebomici festival
and Ihoho dance at Ugo, both also in the Benin
Kingdom, which, as you may be aware, is a King-
dom adjoining the Yoruba conntry and said to
have been founded by a son of a Yoruba Oni of Ife.
But it may be that while " Oro " is present on these
occasions it is only as a deterrent to women and others
not to pry into the secrets of the Orisha, or so-called
Deity.
At Igbore the Oro festival is held always about
September, and it is at this time that members are
initiated into the secrets of the fraternity. Certain
youths known to be capable of keeping secrets are
chosen as novices.
The Oro of the Bini is known as Oloawon Ovato
Oloawon Ovia, and Usaokwhaiyi, that is the Oloawon
in connection with the Orishas Ovato, Ovia and
Okwhaiyi.
Oloawon means the owner of the turtle or tortoise, 2
the essence of deceit and meanness. He is described
as one who is constantly deceiving men and other
animals, and leading them to their death by making
1 See At the Back of the Black Man's Mind, page an,
2 The turtle is called the sea-tortoise.
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40 NIGERIAN STUDIES chap.
use of secrets with which he has been entrusted. He
leads women also to seduction and other crimes.
To prove that boys are not like women and the
tortoise, such as are chosen as novices to be initiated
into the secrets of the fraternity of Ovia or Ovata are
first given a supposed secret to keep. After a time
if it is found that the boys have not told even their
mothers anything about it, they are tried again and
again, seven times in all, when, if considered trust-
worthy, they are taken to the Orisha's grove at the
beginning of the yearly festival, and gradually taught
the secrets of the craft. The Festival of Ovia
continues for some three months, and at the end of
this time Oloawon (or Oro) comes down for seven
days, and Ovia is then said to be dead until next year.
During these seven days women are not allowed out-
side their houses.
Anyone at other times of the year is allowed to
enter the grove or temple of Ovia, and to ask its help
to destroy his or her enemies. If the enemy has done
something worthy of death, Ovia gives him a certain
medicine in the making up of which parts of the
tortoise or turtle are used. 1 The criminal is said to
swell up and die.
It is interesting in this connection to read in the
Head Hunters (page 106) : " Before going out
turtling the men marched round the Agu and whirled
the ' bull roarers ' alway circling clockwise."
When a great man dies the " Ogboni " 2 go and
1 Vol. V. of Cambridge Expedition to Torres Straits.
8 Native council.
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m DEATH, BURIAL AND DEPARTED SPIRITS 41
lay him out and help to bury him. On their way they
cry out ' Ehpa Ogboni Enu ! Enu ! " translated to me
as : — The Ogboni are coming, catch him ! catch him !
(referring to anyone they may find outside their
houses). When they have buried the defunct Oro
comes.
When the " Ogboni " are holding a palaver or try-
ing a case they beat certain tunes on a drum ; if they
condemn the person to death, the tune beaten on the
drum is changed to Oro * and all the people know of
1 Nigerian Chronicle, 17th September.
Burial Customs in the Yoruba Country.
Oro or Spirit- Worship among the Egbas.
By Adesola.
The political aspect of Oro Worship.
Oro worship has a political side. The god assisted the State to give
capital punishment to criminals in return for services rendered it by the
state. As with punishment meted out by its companion gods, social
disgrace follows because of its implications. The Oro decapitates {pa)
in which case the head of the criminal is nailed to a tree as a warning to
others ; or takes away {gbe) the criminal, body and soul, out of the arena
of life when neither the living man nor the lifeless is ever seen after. To
the shades of such criminals no funeral honours are given, no shrines
erected, no worship paid. Their spirits are supposed to be doomed to
roam eternally outside the spirit world. With the Oro they revisit the
earth on festive occasions only to wander about in corner places. Hence
they are called Pakoko (loiterers in the corner). They are often referred
to as Eru Oro (Oro slaves). For these reasons an Egba man would
quickly resent the imprecation Oro re ma gbe e or Oro re ma pa e (May
you fall a prey to the Oro god).
The Oro is also employed as an instrument of banishment. If the
state considers it expedient to expel anyone from the country and the
authorities find themselves powerless to accomplish the object, they
concede the business to the Oro god. As soon as ready, an Oro
confinement is, declared, i.e. every woman is to keep within doors. The
gods then begin to walk the streets (Oro gbode). As many of them
surround the house of the individual giving out their weird cries ; and
eventually the man is heard miles off away from the town. He is then
said to be banished by the Oro (wonfi Oro le nilu).
In times of great political crisis or whenever the state would undertake
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42 NIGERIAN STUDIES chap.
their decision. When some of the " Ogboni "
belong to the Oro fraternity they can call " Oro " out
and there is no doubt that at times they have abused
this privilege.
After witnessing the Egungun ceremony already
described, a semi-educated native, who evidently
thought he had got me in a favourable position to
annoy, volunteered the statement that the Government
for some reason or other would not allow Oro to kill
inquisitive women he found out of doors and that in
consequence they were getting quite out of hand.
What were they to do ? I looked at that semi-educated
barbarian who had certainly been sufficiently in touch
with civilisation to know exactly why the Government
put down this class of murder, and suggested that he
should write to the " Society for the Protection of
Aborigines." (This class of native has got to look upon
this Society as something a little more powerful than
the Secretary of State for the Colonies and the
Government he represents, and appeals to it in some
cases after appealing to the Secretary of State to
redress some fancied grievance.)
Mr. Pellegrin remembers how on one occasion Oro
was called " accidentally " at Abeokuta when three men
the consideration of any new law or measure that will seriously affect the
several sections of the country, an Oro confinement is also declared. The
streets being thus cleared of traffic and women save such as are carried
on under the circumstances by the men, the several heads and sub-heads
of the various townships often travel to attend conference. Any decision
arrived at in this assembly becomes law and is considered binding on the
whole country. Confinements are again declared whenever a state
sacrifice is to be offered on behalf of the town. In this instance the gods
parade the streets and the dull monotony which would have prevailed is
relieved by singing, dancing and other Oro displays.
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were to be executed. Jaguna the executioner killed
the first, killed the second and when he got to the
third, who was the youngest of them, his cutlass would
not cut. He tried it three times without success, so he
went back to his seat and got a revolver and shot him
in the head. The young man cried out and put his
hand to his head and took the bullet and said, " Jaguna,
here is your bullet." Jaguna then fired into the young
man's ear. He shook his head and the bullet
dropped out of his other ear into his hand. He gave
the bullet to Jaguna. Then the people cried out
Oro and the women ran away. Then the people
hacked the criminal to pieces with their knives.
These criminals had been condemned to death for
selling salt to the Ibadan, then the enemies of the
Egbas.
Asani, who says he remembers the tragedy, declares
that three days afterwards the third culprit was seen by
him in the town, and that his people begged him to go
away as it was against the law of Oro for a man who
had been killed by Oro to come to life again.
A man who will not be killed and lives in spite of
being executed in this way is called Ologun or a
medicine man. Alateshe, an Egba Chief, refused to
allow a man who had been thus executed to be killed
again, as he said some day this rascality would save
them.
When the Egba go to war and set the I she (Oro)
whizzing and the enemy hears it he runs away.
Anyone who is an Oro worshipper must attend the
funeral of a member of the craft. The one who is
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44 NIGERIAN STUDIES chap.
burying the worshipper gives the Oro, a ram, pito, and
kola. With the kola they touch the dead man's head.
Then with their fists closed, thumbs inside and one
hand on the other, they touch the dead man's head
three times and then the head of his son who
is succeeding him. They next take the kola again
and touch the dead man's head three times and then the
child's head, asking the dead to bless the living.
Then they kill the ram, and the children of the
deceased rub their foreheads with the blood. This
sacrifice is repeated every year by the children, and
they tie the head of the ram on the wall near to the
grave (in the house).
Talking of the persecution of the early Christians
Miss Tucker, in her book Abeokuta, writes :
" Idinui . . . died in the Ake Mission house. His
master (Mr. Hinderer) obtained the consent of his
relatives and buried him in the Christian burying
ground ... It was the first case of the death of a
native convert ; and the Ogboni who have by law, it
appeared, the arrangement and the profits of all the
funerals, considered their right was infringed upon and
lost no time in taking advantage of the alleged
misdemeanour. Six of the converts were seized and
confined in the Council House of Itoku . . . Mr.
Hinderer . . . procured their release after five days of
suffering, not however without severe scourging.
" The Missionaries received intelligence from
the Obashorun . . . who was unvarying in the friend-
liness of his conduct towards them, that the Chief of
Igbore was intending to follow the example of Itoku."
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" Nothing," writes Mr., afterwards Bishop, Crowther,
" was omitted that could make the circumstances
appalling to the poor sufferers ; Oro was called out
. . . the Ogboni drums were beating furiously and
a great multitude armed with bill hooks, clubs and
whips were catching and dragging our poor converts
to the Council House . . . The women were cruelly
scourged and pinioned without regard to age or sick-
ness ; and while all this was going on in the Council
House, the houses of the imprisoned were being
plundered, their household utensils destroyed, their
doors unhinged and carried away."
Page 148. — " The fear of man kept back another
person from becoming a candidate."
" It was a Priestess who had formerly been a violent
opponent .... She feared lest if it were known she
had embraced the new Religion she should in revenge
be given to Oro, or in other words be murdered."
"This mysterious power Oro is an object of the
greatest dread to the women of Abeokuta, who are
forbidden to appear in the street during any of his
visits under pain of death." (Ibid., page 173.)
The above was written in 1853. The Rev. R. H.
Stone somewhere about the year i860 (there is no date
in his book, " In Africa's Forest and Jungle," neither
has the publisher given the date of publication) says :
" During my ten years' residence in Abeokuta the
town was frequently given to Oro and on three
occasions malefactors were punished and political
matters of importance were transacted. The Voice of
Oro was frequently heard in the streets after dark. It
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46 NIGERIAN STUDIES chap.
began in a low moan, then rose to a kind of scream
and then sank into a moan. This noise was made by
the whirling of a flat stick, but it was a capital crime
for anyone to imitate as much. 1 It was a capital crime,
also, for any woman to remain in the streets after the
voice of Oro was heard at any time.
My friend, Mr. John Parkinson, collected two
versions of the origin of Oro, which I have also
heard, but take the liberty of giving in his own
words. (See "Man" 1906, 66.)
The Legend of Oro?
By John Parkinson.
In the olden days Olorun made six people,
four men and two women, to whom after a certain
time children were born, but these children always
died.
And the people said to Olorun, " O Olorun, how
is this ; you made six people, and although children
are born, they never live ? " So they said, " We
will find out another god who will let the children
live."
Now amongst the four men, two were Babalawo
(a priesthood who used the palm nut as a means
of divination).
Then said the Babalawo, " Olorun is your
father, but you must have some ' idol ' 3 to worship
1 Small boys now use it as a toy, 1909.
2 Oro, the bull-roarer. See Ellis, The Yoruba-speaking People of the
Slave Coast of West Africa, 109.
3 " Idol," used in the sense of a visible and tangible object of venera-
tion.
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in DEATH, BURIAL AND DEPARTED SPIRITS 47
too." The others replied, " We are ready, let
us know the name of this god " ; and the Babalawo
replied, "It is Oro, you must worship him."
So the Babalawo made the Oro, and brought it
to the others and said, " You must give food every
day." They answered, " That is good, but how
shall we make him talk if we want anything of
him ? " To this the Babalawo replied that when the
food was given the people should dance, and sing
and clap their hands. And so doing, the Oro began
to talk, saying, 1 " Baba ma mu-o " (" O father don't
take them "). 2 Since the people did this none of
their children died, but the women were hidden in
the house. Slowly the numbers of the people
increased, and after a time they thought they would
like to have a king, and they made a king. The
king said, " I will worship only Oro, the god that
makes us populous."
When the time for the yearly feast was come,
the king gave a bullock to be killed, and he said,
" I am king, and I do like a king. All my wives
are to be present when Oro sings." And the
wives were brought, and the bullock was killed, and
the people danced and sang.
Then the king said, " I am king ; how is it
that common wood can talk and say 3 ' Baba ma
mu-o ' ? "
But when Oro saw that women were present he
1 Approximately onomatopoetic of the sound made by the "Bull-
roarer."
2 The pronoun them is not expressed in the original.
3 " A woman was once splitting fire-wood in the streets. Accidentally
a chip of it flew up and made a sound ; she took up the piece and shewed
it to the husband, he took it from her, contrived the Ise or Abe after it
and ingeniously evolved the Oro worship.
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48 NIGERIAN STUDIES chap,
kept silence- Then said the two Babalawo, "It is
against the rules that women should be present
when Oro is made, but since you are king we
could not dictate to you at first, but now you your-
self have proved that this cannot be done, for Oro
does not cry where women are. This is not simply
wood but Eru Male, the slave of Male (Male =
Oro)."
And the king said to his wives, " Go home,"
and they went ; and the Babalawo said, " Sing
again."
Then as once more they sang, the Oro cried,
" Baba ma mu-o." Hence it is from that day Oro
is not made in the presence of women.
A Second Legend of Oro. In the earliest time
six men were made by God, and the place where
they lived was called Aking-oro (full of Oro). In
those days this place was surrounded by bush and
trees, and now and again the people could hear a
sound, or cry, of " Mamu, ma mu," and so afraid
were they that they dared not go into the forest.
On a certain day one of them said, " I had
a dream, and in the dream Olorun said, ' You must
go from this place because it is Aking-oro, full of
Oro.'"
But they answered, " We will not go from
here ; we will find animals and kill them as a
sacrifice, sprinkling blood upon the ground to ap-
pease Oro." This ceremony they carried out, but
the dreams came again, and, worst of all, their
children died.
Now in those days Oro was a hunter, and Oro
came into their country. When the people saw this
hunter they were surprised and said, "Where do
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you come from ; we thought there were but six of
us?" Then Oro replied, " I came to tell you that
this place belongs to me, and I will show you a
spot where you can see me always," and he showed
it to them and they cleared it. He told them that
when they wanted to perform the ceremony of
sacrifice to appease the spirit calling "Ma mu, ma
mu," they should sing, and he would come and see
them in the spot they had cleared. Moreover, Oro
said, " When this spot is cleared, come every seven
days and bring fowls, and sheep, and Fufu" 1 (fufu is
mashed yam), and they went on the days indicated
and Oro came as he had said.
When Oro had done eating he said, " I will
make you a present." Then said one, " May I ask
you something ? You are the owner of this place,
and since we have been here we hear the sound of
' Ma mu, ma mu.' What is this noise, since you are
the owner of the place ? "
And Oro replied, " I am the man who
makes that noise every night." Then he cut a
piece out of his forearm and gave it to them. But
they said, " What shall we do with it ? " Oro re-
plied, " I am very old and cannot always come here
every seven days, but when you come, bore a hole
in the flesh and place a thread in it, and when you
fling it outwards it will cry like me, being part of
me. Take care, moreover, that no woman comes,
and when you have finished with the piece of flesh
put it in the ground before going home. You
dare not take it to the house. And you will call
this place Ebu Male" (Ebu = bush, Male = a
name for Oro).
1 Fufu is not a Yoruba word, mashed yam is called " Iyan."
E
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50 NIGERIAN STUDIES chap.
Then they worshipped Oro every seven days,
and the children ceased from dying, and the people
multiplied.
When they became populous they elected a king.
Now the king had a wife whom he greatly loved,
and the wife said, " I know you love me very much
and I have a favour to ask of you. It is this :
May I see the thing that cries at night ? " And
. the king said, " It is against the rules, but I will
let you see it, for I love you greatly."
So when the day for the feast came the king
had a big chair made with a seat inside for the
woman.
Arrived at the place they made the usual feast,
and, as before, took the flesh from the ground and
flung it out, but there came no sound. Then one
of the four elders said, " Something is wrong here;
the hunter said, 'No woman must come,' or he
would fail to answer. We have called upon Ita
(Oro) but there has been no answer, let us look at
the king's chair." Then one went to the king's
chair and broke it and saw the king's wife inside,
and they began again to fling the flesh of the
hunter into the air when suddenly the thread broke
and the flesh flew off and cut the throat of the
woman.
Then said the small piece of flesh, "I go to my
father and will tell him what I have seen here
to-day, but since you have broken the rule I must
change myself, and on the next feast-day you will
see what I have taken to fill my place.
When all had gone the piece of flesh told the
hunter what had happened, and Oro the hunter
came back, and Oro said, " Come to my flesh
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again," and Oro cut a stick and tied a string to it
and left it in the ground.
Then Oro departed from the world, being
offended because a woman had seen part of him.
Note the legend adds that Oro went into the
cam- wood, hence any " Oro" made from cam-wood
is held to be especially good. These stories of
Oro, the bull-roarer, do not seem to be opposed
to Ellis's suggestion that Oro was originally the
spirit presiding at male mysteries, but my carriers
do not know, or do not admit this idea. 1
John Parkinson
1 Nigerian Chronicle, September yd. by Niefios ara Orun.
In regard to derivation the word Oro is a purely onomatopoetic one
and is derived from the sound heard at the discovery of the Abe or Ise
of the musical God.
With respect to the origin. Although I am neither a missionary nor a
parson, but only a grandson of Oro worshippers, I am almost ashamed to
narrate the circumstance which led to the apotheosis of the God of my
fathers. On a certain day in Orun (" Sun "), a town in the Egba Province
of Gbagura, situated about 8 miles from Ibadan and lying on the route
between Ijebu and Ibadan, as a certain woman was splitting wood for
culinary purposes, there flew from the clefts of the wood something which
made a whizzing sound similar to the " voice " of the God Oro. The
astonished woman looked round and picked up that whizzing something
which corresponded in shape with the Ise or Abe now employed in the wor-
ship of the god. Her husband being hard by, she shewed him the whizzing
material and said in the dialect of " Orun " Ese ti ro baun (" why did it
sound like that?") and the husband answered O ro be nani ("it simply
sounded like that") or something to the effect which led to the coining of
the word Oro. The wily husband took the material from her and ere
long invented the Ise or Abe, and with the aid of his companions the
mystifying Oro worship was soon evolved. The old town of Orun is now
called Podo or Oke orun, and is like Ibadan and a few other towns at the
present time chiefly inhabited by Oyo people after it had been evacuated
by the -Egba as a result of the Owu war (1 821-1830) which caused the
dispersal of the Egba people and the destruction of the Egba towns.
As a proof of the truth of this story of the Origin of Oro custom it may
be stated here that in the township of Orun in Abeokuta where the
remnant of the people of old Orun now dwells since the founding of Abeo-
E 2
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52 NIGERIAN STUDIES chap.
In each account it says that six beings were
made by God. We shall note as we proceed how
this number six keeps recurring as the number of
the pairs of members of the council of different
Societies.
Oro means, I am told, "lamentation," such as
we now hear at funerals; as soon as the "father"
dies, the family cry out Epa ! Oro o ! Baba Lo, I'oni o.
Alas the departed one, the father has gone to-day !
In the second version Oro comes to the six as a
spirit of the departed (Ore) or as Oro is now said
to come.
In this version Oro cuts a piece out of his fore-
arm, but I heard that it was another part of his
anatomy (and I must here add that the time has
not yet come for the people of this country to be
quite frank in these matters, the followers of Oro
are still very powerful and will punish the divulging
of secrets of this sort, if they can).
I would draw your attention to page 65, " Great
Benin," where Mr. C. Punch is made to say, " With
these parts of the slain men and women the Oba
is said to have made certain medicine for fetish
purposes."
Although I have not been able to procure a leather
" bull- roarer " it is well to remember that in the
first version Oro is made to say, "this is not simply
wood," and in the second, " when you have finished
kuta in 1830 to this day it is a woman that " Heralds the Oro " (Lo Oro) at
the annual Oro festival which takes place in this township about Easter
time each year.
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in DEATH, BURIAL AND DEPARTED SPIRITS 53
with the piece of flesh" and "then said the small
piece of flesh."
Certain parts of the dead Father are preserved
by the Bakutu. The penis is cut off and smoked
and then worn as a charm by his first wife's eldest son.
" Come to my flesh again," says Oro, and he cut
a stick and tied a string to it and left it in the
ground. Then Oro departed from the world, being
offended because a woman had seen part of him.
Another reason given to me for the exclusion
of women from affairs of state apart from their
inability to keep a secret, was that wherever a
man was, a woman came from here and another
from there and both wished to become his friend
(lover) and hence quarrels and fights ensued, and
that men had formed this fraternity of " Oro " out of
self-protection.
The following uses of the word Oro given by
Mr. Adesola in The Nigerian Chronicle, September
24, 1909, appear to me to be most interesting : —
"The important place assigned to the worship
of this god by the Egbas and other Yoruba tribes
who have adopted it, the strictest privacy with which
its rites and ceremonies are observed and the un-
flinching severity with which it punishes criminals
give rise to an extended use of the term Oro to
denote (1) anyigod, especially those with whose worship
private rites and ceremonies are associated ; (2) any
secret society ; (3) any secret rite or ceremony ; (4) any
strong or wicked man ; (5) any very severe punishment ;
(6) any unpleasant and habitual characteristics of a man,
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54
NIGERIAN STUDIES
CHAP.
(7) an expression of great surprise. The following are
illustrative sentences of the above.
(1) Egungun l'oro ilu wa
ati ti idile wa.
(2) Awon ol'oro li eyi.
(3) A mi s'oro loni No III.
(4) Oro nini
Oko yi ti m'oro.
Oro agbolu aje.
(5) Kini se omode ni ti
nke ? Iya re nsoro
fun ni.
Okonrin na mbo. Jowo
re ma soro fun u.
Wa ki nforo han o.
(6) Omode napuroju. Oro
re ni ati ti idile won.
(7) Oro o ! or Oro Baba o !
Egungun is our national and household
god.
These are the members of a secret or
friendly society.
We are performing the rites to-day. No
III.
That's he, a very wicked man (lit. He is
an Oro indeed).
You have not known the tyrant (lit. the
Oro).
A strong man that can dare anything
(the expression literally is : — Oro that
can remove from the arena of life the
chief of the craft of witches. Any
woman termed the head-witch is
always supposed to be inaccessible to
punishment even by the state; the
business is often entrusted to the Oro).
Why is that child crying ? The mother
is giving him a severe punishment
(lit. doing Oro for him).
The man is approaching you. Leave him.
I'll teach a lesson (lit. I'll make the Oro
for him).
Come near and let me teach you a
lesson (lit. show you Oro).
That boy tells awful lies. It is charac-
teristic of him and his people (lit. it is
the Oro worshipped by him, &c. A
man's disposition is here regarded as
the moral god to which he bows).
" By Jove " (lit. Thou Oro of my father.
This cry is heard all about the streets
from men and boys whenever the Oro
gods are out ; and it is that by which
the spirit is invoked. Although the
'spirits of females are supposed to enter
into the deified state yet the Oro spirits
of males alone are invoked and
worshipped. Really the Oro is re-
garded as the deified spirits of males.
This is so because men only take part
in its rites and ceremonies).
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in DEATH, BURIAL AND DEPARTED SPIRITS 55
In the Burial customs in the Yoruba country
Mr. Adesola gives a most interesting account of the
annual worship of " Eluku" 1 the Oro of the Ijebu,
to which I must refer you if you wish to learn all
about these death and burial customs. For the
purpose I have in view I will here only quote a note
of his. Eluku is described as the God Iraye born,
offspring of the Royal House of Oniloku. " Oniloku "
is the title of the monarch of Iraye, an ancient royal
town. In one of the existing Jebu towns a
descendant of Oniloku has lately been installed
into that office in the Iraye quarter of the town.
There is a similar secret society in Calabar called
Egbo and I have been informed by " Harry Hartze,"
the only European member, that it appears to him
to be a modified and simpler form of Freemasonry.
There are nine degrees and the cost to obtain the
right to wear the peacock's feather, the sign of the
highest grade, is about £70. I could not, of course,
ask this famous African trader to tell me any of its
secrets, but he assured me there was nothing phallic
about it.
The noise made by the Egbo is done by means
of a leaf and the Egbo's mouth, and when Egbo thus
announces himself women and non-Egbos have to
keep out of the way. The Society was formed for
the purpose of aiding the chiefs to keep their slaves
in order.
But the Poro Society, so ably described by
Mr. T. J. Alldridge in his interesting book, " The
1 Nigerian Chronicle, to be seen at the Royal Colonial Institute.
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58 NIGERIAN STUDIES chap.
The Bavili give their dead the most imposing
funeral they can, and they bury their dead in places
set apart for the purpose. The Yoruba, however,
always buried their important departed in their houses
and„set apart a day in every year to do them honour.
*Ehe Yoruba seem also to connect ideas with which
they have surrounded natural phenomena with
personages whose characters seemed to them to fit
in with these impressions, and then on the death
of these persons to have deified them and gradually
to have looked upon them as the cause of the effects
produced by these natural phenomena/N
Thus the darkness before dawn they looked upon as
the beginning of the things that followed. It was
harmful to them because they could not see.
Some person learned in Genesis they called Odudua,
and on his death this person was deified, and as an
" Orisha " became the Creator out of whom all things
were made.
Again, their history tells us that "Shango," their
lightning Orisha, was the fourth Alafin of Oyo and
explains how he became deified.
But I will allow the native, as nearly as I can,
to continue to tell his own story, and to convince you
that whatever his methods, instinct or inspiration
coupled with natural observation has led him to the
foundation of a remarkably interesting mythology.
(To conclude, we have thus far noted that Egungun
is the Father come from heaven/N x.
^ -That Oro was the Orisha of the first father?
Kjiat Eluku was the offspring of the Royal house of
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in DEATH, BURIAL AND DEPARTED SPIRITS 59
Oniloku. And on the death of Ogbola, a famous
hunter near Olokemeji, I witnessed the women coming,
stamping and singing Epa ! Oro ! * Baba lo l'oni o !
Baba wa l'amwa, awa kori o ! Epa ! Oro ! We are
looking for our Father ! and we do not see him !
However much then the stories and their explan-
ations may differ, enough has been said to allow us to
conclude that the beatification of their ancestors is a
very ancient custom of the Yoruba\
With this fact fixed firmly in our minds we can now
proceed to consider their more developed Social and
Religious systems.
1 May not Oro be a contracted form of Ore-o and simply mean the spirit
of the departed (father) — Adesola writes : Now Oro worship is undeniably
spirit-worhip. Every Oro is itself supposed to be the Manes of a
deceased parent or ancestor to which prayers and sacrifices are offered, and
invocations made.
[Note. — I should like to remark in passing that West African secret
societies seem to fall under three heads, i.e., phallic, medical, and
funerary. To the second class belong such organisations as the Leopard
Society described by Aldridge, loc. cit., the object of which is to obtain
human kidney fat with which to make powerful medicine. These
societies have only by degrees and at a later stage acquired political
powers.]
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CHAPTER IV
THE FOUR GREAT ESTATES IN THE NATIVE FORM OF
GOVERNMENT
The death of the founder of the family, presumably
sthe grandfather, caused a great impression on the
father, mother and son who were left, and I think I
have said enough to show that the Yoruba reveres and
beatifies his dead. The family that once was
composed of three, i.e. father, mother and son, now
became one of four, i.e. the Orisha (the departed father),
and the father, mother and son. The father fished, the
mother gathered vegetables, and the son hunted. It
was the duty of each one of this little family to see
that the Orisha was fed. In this way perhaps
commenced the Yoruba first division of time into
weeks of four days, the Orisha's day, the father's day,
the mother's day, the son's day, and it was probably
rather owing to the necessity of supplying the needs
of the Orisha than their own humble wants that the
necessity to exchange products first arose, hence the
Orisha's day became the market day. j
/As the family became more numerous and developed
into village life we find that the woman has fallen out
60
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ch. iv THE FOUR GREAT ESTATES 61
of what one looks upon as her place and that her roorrT
has been filled by her brother in the family council
The head of the village now worships the village
Orisha through the spirit of his dead father for his
people, and is helped in regulating village affairs by
the counsel of his wife's brother and his son.
/ Later on in Town life we find a further develop-
ment, i.e. a kind of quadruple control composed of
the dowager Queen mother or Iyalode and her Court,
the Oba, and his Court, the Balogun and his Court,
and the Bashorun and his Court.
(i) The dowager Queen's Court is now composed
of:—
(a) Three women named respectively Oton
who proposes where meetings shall be held,
Osi who goes round gathering information which
she reports to the Iyalode, and lastly Ashipa who
collects money and distributes it.
(b) A Bale who acts as Iyalode's interpreter
with Bada the chief of her messengers.
(c) Small boys called Amade.
(2) On the other hand we have the Oba attended
by three courtiers jointly called Igbi but respectively
Oton, Osi, who hold up his right and left arms, and
Jaguna the captain of his bodyguard and executioner.
As these three are always near him they wield (or did
so) very great power^/
Barbot, in his " Coast of Guinea," book 3, chapter 27,
page 290, mentions the names of three men as great
Chiefs of the Court of the King of Fetu. (1) Dy, a
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62 NIGERIAN STUDIES chap.
high treasurer, (2) Brasso or standard bearer, and
(3) the Fataira. On page 479 he says, " The Jagos
have three governors, Singe, Kobak and Kabango."
In Benin city the Oba had three great ones,
Onegwa, Offade and Arribon, whose titles appear to
have been (1) Osuma, messenger connected with the
King's wants (2) Esogban, messenger connected
with King's gifts and (3) Esawn, the King's captain.
'(3) The next great officer of state is the Balogun or
waY-e-hief whose Court in Abeokuta is composed of
Seriki, Bada, and Ashipa and their attendants/)
(4) Then comes the Bashorun (the Iayse of the
ini) who is head of the Council and is attended by
the three officers of the Council called the Ogboni,
about which something has already been said and of
which much more will be written.
Thus out of the simple govefnment by the Grand-
father (who became the Orisha) and father, mother,
son, we have arrived at the development of a govern-
ment by four great chiefs, each the head of a court
of three and their followers.
(1) The Iyalode the relict of the grandfather.
(2) The Oba the father representing Fatherhood.
(3) The Balogun representing the brother of the
mother or Motherhood.
C(4) The Bashorun representing Sonship.
Nefftzer has called the Roman Gods the super-
natural magistrates of the republic. We shall, I hope,
be able to show that these four great chiefs have also
their counterpart in heaven.
t is interesting and very important to note that
('
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iv THE FOUR GREAT ESTATES 63
these four great ones fall into their places as pairs,
Iyalode and Balogun, the female duality, and the Oba
and the Bashorun or the male duality^.
Bishop Johnson has sard or written that so far as
his studies go he canonly \i\d duality among the (so-
called) heathen Godsy Now while the Dualities are
plain enough, the puzzle is to find the Trinity.
/"May I offer the following as the solution.
( Iyalode represents the mother in the past, the
\ Balogun as the brother represents the wife of the
JKing, the mother of the son.
*\ The Oba equals the Father.
J The Bashorun the Son.
In heaven the Orishas,
"~\i) Odudua represents the Creator in heaven or the
Iyalode on earth.
(2) Obatala the Balogun, the mother's brother or
Motherhood.
(3) Jakuta Fatherhood, and
(4) Ifa the Sonship.
Among the Bini the days of the week are said to be
(1) the Regent's or lyase's day, (2) Osuma's day, (3)
Esogban's day and (4) Esawn's day. Among the
Yoruba they are not only connected with the Oba and
the three great chiefs but they are called Odudua's
dayyjakuta's day, Obatala's day and I fa's day.
/Thus the Orisha's (or market) day is now known as
Oaudua's or Iyalode's day, the father's day has become
Jakuta's day, the mother's day has become Obatala's
day, and the son's day has become I fa's day. Thus\
altogether there are two dualities, a female and a maley
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64 NIGERIAN STUDIES ch. iv
One person of the female duality belongs to the past
and the Trinity is represented by the father, mother,
son, Jakuta, Obatala and I fa or the Oba, the Balogun
and the Bashorun,J
I will now proceed to say something more of these
great Orishas whose names are now known to us.
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CHAPTER V
JAKUTA. THE FOUR WINDS
Jakuta
The Yoruba have confused Jakuta with Shango until
they are to-day almost identical, but there is in reality
a difference between Jakuta the great " procreator "
and Shango, the son of Yemoja, the so-called god of
lightning and the great marriage deity.
Jakuta may be said to be Shango in a former period,
and Shango is to-day worshipped on the day called
Jakuta.
Jakuta as the thrower of stones, so closely connected
with Odudua who may be said to represent chaos, is
rather the thunderbolt than the lightning, and was
looked upon as the great father in heaven.
He is likened at times to the east wind, the cause
of the coming of the thunderstorm with its clouds,
rain, and wind connected with the first tornado season.
At this time the ancient Yoruba's (father's and son's)
thoughts turned to marriage, and no doubt in the
fights that took place stones were the weapons that
they used. And now a stone fell from heaven. Ah !
6 5 F
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66 NIGERIAN STUDIES chap.
thought the stone throwers, the dead father in heaven
is also at war and throwing stones, and so perhaps
came the name Ija strife, Oko stone, Ta x to produce,
shortened into Jakuta. The verb J a is to fight, and
okuta is a stonejy
I remember travelling behind Chilunga, now in
Congo Francais, and coming across a large stone near
to the top of a hill which had marks on it. These my
companion Tate told me were the foot-prints of God
(Nzambi).
At Adenyoba on the Osse River, or rather in the
bush not far from there, a large stone is venerated in
the same way by the Bini.
1 Also to throw.
2 The verb Ko is to grow hard.
Oko is a stone, 3 also a farm.
Oko bo is a eunuch.
Oko the foreskin.
Oko a husband.
Oko a hoe.
Oko a spear.
Ako beginning.
Ako a male.
Ako obiri a strumpet.
Iko where the pillar is and where they meet, comes to mean
a meeting.
The verb Lo is to engraft.
Lu is to bore.
Olo is a millstone.
Olu is a hammer.
Solu is to copulate.
The verb Le is to engraft.
Ole is embryo.
He means land, a town.
Ilu a nation.
3 Oko, a farm, is pronounced in the same way as oko, a stone, with
change of intonation, but oko, a husband is pronounced awkaw, in the
same way as oko, or awkaw, a hoe.
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v JAKUTA. THE FOUR WINDS 67
Monsieur P. Saintyves in his book Les Vierges
Meres et les Naissances Miraculeuses has given us a
long account of fecund stones, so that we know the
Yoruba is by no means alone in his veneration of
sacred stones.
If Togun had not remarked that Ajaguno was a
woman, I should be inclined to say that Jakuta and
Ajaguno were one and the same person, and that
Jakuta was the power that did the fighting for the
greater gods, as his name is always coupled with
theirs as in the names of the four days of the
week.
C But it must be remembered that Jakuta really
represents the Spirit of the departed Father, the
stone-thrower who has gone to heaven and who rules
through his son on earthA
At the time when Jakuta was worshipped as the
dead father in heaven the Yoruba had not yet
developed the ideas now connected with Olorun (the
owner of heaven).
/These ideas must have come to them when, or
rather some time after, they had come to dwell in
towns. It seems that Jakuta is the first step in the
development of the Yoruba idea of God. Jakuta (or
rather now they say Shango) is said to have been a
King or Alarm of Pyo, the typical and temporal head
of the Yoruba race/ (See Yoruba- speaking Peoples,
page 50).
It is most interesting to read in a description of
South Guinea by Barbot (page 306), in writing of the
natives of the Gold Coast : " When it thunders they
f 2
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68 NIGERIAN STUDIES chap.
say it is the voice of the trumpets, or blowing-horns of
Jan Goeman, so they call God, who, with reverence
be it spoken, is diverting himself with his wives ; and,
therefore, when it thunders much, or though there be
only flashes of lightning, they presently run under
cover if possible, believing that if they did not so God
would strike them with his thunderbolts.
"About the year 1480, the Spaniards trading at the
coast found those blacks extremely covetous and fond
of a sort of seashell, giving anything they had for
them, as believing they had a peculiar virtue against
thunder. Whereupon so many of those shells were
carried out of Spain that at last they were scarce to be
had there for money."
Bosman, writing about thunderstorms, says : " The
stake which supported our Flag was shattered int
splinters from top to bottom, and yet remained stand-
ing, but so torn asunder as if one or two hundred
chisels had been driven into it in order to split it.
The negroes, in the same terrified condition, with us
being of opinion that the force of the thunder is con-
tained in a certain stone, after the storm was over
brought one, which they ridiculously believed had so
shattered our Flag pole. But no wonder they were
of that opinion, for in Europe, where we think we are
better informed, several people don't much differ from
them." Then he goes on to say, " But what I have
observed of the effects of thunder is sufficient to
convince me that 'tis impossible they should be
caused by a stone." All I have to say to this is
" Jakuta!"
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v JAKUTA. THE FOUR WINDS 69
The Four Winds
f The East in Yoruba is known by the name of I la
^Dtrun, i.e. the place where "he that arises appears. "i
Ila also means the act of splitting, possibly the idea
comes from the fact that here darkness and light
become divided. This idea of splitting brings their
thoughts to creation, written Ida, and this word again
can be traced to the verb Da to be and to make or
Ta to produce, as yams are produced by splitting up
the seed yam.
This meaning coincides with the Bavili word (see
chapter Obatala, page 82) Xivanga or Creator, Va
meaning to split.
Ila also means Salvation, and we know that both
the ^oruba and. the Bavili say that their religion came
from the East. /
/The West is I ha I gun aiye ibuwo, the corner
region of the earth (where the Sun lodges); It is
interesting to note while talking of the WesTthat it is
to the South- West of Ife, the supposed centre of the
Yoruba Kingdom, near the beach or where the Sun
sets,, that we find the Ifa sacred palm tree in large
quantities, said to have been first found in Orungan's
farm or where he lodged. Orungan is another name
for Orun the Sun, that is the heat of the Sun at mid-
day.
/The North is known as Ari Wa Otun Ila Orun,
one who finds and comes to the right of the
EasjJ
(The South, or Igun kerin aiye, is the fourth corner
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70 NIGERIAN STUDIES chap.
of the world. It is evident then that the Yoruba idea
of their world was that it was square and that the sun
travelled from the Eastern corner to the Western
corner. Their proverb, " Igun Merin ni Aiye Ini "
says, " The world has or is supported by four corners. 'A
This probably explains the figure marked in challc^on
the ground in front of the altar to the Orisha Olokun
(the sea spirit) noticed by me at Igo near Benin city
(see chapter XXI, page 225, At the Back of the
Black Mans Mind). The mark is
The native
places his back to the East and looks westward and so
has the North on his right. /The Yoruba also have a
figure called Olori merin which has four heads, which
is generally found placed upon a mound near the
centre of the town so that each head faces one of the
four great points of the compass!) (Tour times every
year a new-born infant four "days old used to be
sacrificed to this power in the presence of its mother.
Colonel Ellis calls this sacrifice Ejeodun, the season of
blood, and tells us that while Olori merin protected
the town and watched the four points of the compass
from his mound it was believed that no war or
pestilence could attack it. Now a force of men
attacking a town would come by the roads and try to
enter the city by one or all of the four gates, but
sickness and pestilence, the Yoruba say, are brought
by the winds.
This dual attack may be described as a personal
and physical invasion, and as the gates are in the
centre of each wall while the points of the compass are
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v JAKUTA. THE FOUR WINDS / 71
the four corners of the walled town, thef following
figure may be said to represent these ideas. VThe only
one of the four great Orishas connected with the
winds is Jakuta, translated roughly as the Hurler of
Stones, the Yoruba Jupite^^He comes with the East
wind that brings tornadqsj It would seem to follow
that the four Orishas, Jakuta, Obatala, Odudua and
Ifa shoiild represent the East, North, South and
West winds. \
I have been informed by Babalawo Oliyitan that
ee figure Olori Merin is not in itself an Orisha but
erely a Juju representing the above four great
Orishas, and as it has been stated that this figure faces
the four points of the compass and guards the city
from pestilence and war we can assume the position of
each Orisha.
Looking towards the West Obatala will point to the
North, Odudua to the South, Jakuta to the East and
Ife to the West/
CThe Yoruba calls the winds that bring disease
Afefe Buruku, 1 Buruku being another name for
Shankpana, the small-pox " god," who is said to be a
son of " Yemoja.'y
/"But on the other hand Oliyitan tells me that a
whirlwind, which he called Aja, carries people off to
the bush, and, keeping them there two or three months,
1 Afefe buruku means bad or ill wind.
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72 NIGERIAN STUDIES ch. v
teaches them the use of medicinal herbs by which
diseases are cured.
Olorun (Awlawrun) is the word now used for God.
Olu means owner, Orun heaven or sky. (Jakuta, we
have noted, is the Father God, the storfe-thrower
connected with the wind that blows the mysteries of
the East to the centre of the Kingdom or the walled
cityT) The Sun (Orun) rises in the East ; it is possible
therefore that the wind and storm god as a spiritual
revealer is nearly related to the Sun as the physical
revealer, and I think we can understand, as religious
ideas developed, how Olorun took the place of Jakuta
as the heavenly Father God and how Jakuta u
the name of Shango became a mere marriage Orisha
under
ishaj!>
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CHAPTER VI
ODUDUA AND THE FOUR DAYS OF THE WEEK
Togun said Orishala was the husband of Yemuhu, but
Ellis tells us that Obatala was the husband of
Oduduwa. Are we then to suppose that Yemuhu and
Oduduwa are two names for one person, or that
Orishala had two wives ? I am inclined to believe
that Oduduwa and Yemuhu 1 are two names for one
person. Bishop Crowther also gives this deity the
name of Odua. Bishop Johnson talking of the Odus 2
in Yoruba heathenism says, " Behind each one of
these representative nuts are sixteen subordinate
divinities. Each one of the whole lot is termed an
Odu, which means a chief, a head." Bishop Crowther
gives the word Olu as the chief of anything.
Oduwa and Oluwa then mean the same thing,
i.e. " Owner," which in the form of Olowa Ini or
Oloni is now another name for God. Bishop
Crowther also says Odua or Odudua is a goddess
from Ife, said to be the supreme goddess in the
world. Heaven and earth are also called Odudua —
1 Ye means " Mother,'' and Muhu is to cause to be, to cause to
germinate.
2 Ifa's sacred palm nuts.
73
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74 NIGERIAN STUDIES chap.
" Odudua Igba nla meji ad6 isi. Heaven and earth
are two large calabashes which being shut can
never be opened." And Ellis says Obatala and
Odudua, or Heaven and earth, resemble, according to
the priests, two large calabashes which when once shut
can never be opened. ... He goes on to say, accord-
ing to a myth Odudua is blind. In the beginning of
the world she and her husband were shut up in
darkness 1 in a large closed calabash, Obatala being
in the upper part and Odudua in the lower. . . .
Odudua complained to her husband of the confine-
ment. ... In a frenzy Obatala tore out her eyes. . . .
She cursed him and said, " Naught shalt thou eat but
snails." It will be remembered that Yemuhu's snails
became the sixteen heads of Eleda, or, in other words,
the sixteen Orishas taking part in the creation of the
world. The calabash or gourd in which Odudua was
confined is called Igba. The words for ancestor are
" Obi Ara Igbani, the parent body in the time past,"
and in this sense it is interesting to read in the
Nigerian Chronicle an article on the history of the
Yoruba by one signing himself F. S.
" At the head of immigrants who settled in
Yorubaland about the eleventh or twelfth century
of the Christian Era was Odudua from whom most
of the present day native rulers are descended.
Odudua, however, was not the real name of the
leader of the Bornu immigrants. His name, together
1 The verb Du is to be black. Dudu means black. Odudua is the
goddess in darkness and blind opposed in a sense to Obatala who loves
that which is white, clear and light.
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vi THE FOUR DAYS OF THE WEEK 75
with those of his wives and children and companions
are entirely lost, and his descendants many ages
after his death designated him Odudua, i.e. Odu
ti da wa, which means a " self-existing person-
age." He is also called Adumila (" Saviour ").
His wife, from whom are descended the dynasties of
the leading Yoruba kingdoms, was designated
Omonide, i.e. Onto ni ide, which means a " child is
brass,'" brass being the most precious metal known
to the early Yoruba people. Omonide is also called
Iyamode, a contraction of Iya Omonide " Mother
Omonide."
Odudua is worshipped in every Yoruba town,
and every Yoruba man, woman or child is called
Omo Odudua ("child of Odudua").
Many years after the death of Odudua a Hausa
Mussulman came to Ife. He used to call the
inhabitants together and read to them passages from
the copy of the Koran which he brought with him from
his country. He was wont to say to the people in
Yoruba imperfectly as he could speak it with accents
foreign to the language — E wa e je ki a sin Allah,
On ni da oke, On ni da He, On ni da gbogbo
nkan, On ni da wa (" Let us worship Allah, He
created the Mountain, He created the lowland, He
created everything, He created us"). He did this
from time to time without being able to gain a single
proselyte, and died a few months after his arrival
in Ife. After his death his Koran was found
hanging on a peg on the wall where he had left
it in a bag. Some of the men who saw it said
Hausa ti ku ni so fun wa pe Odu ti da iwa ma ma
ni eyi 0, eyi ni Odudua, e je ki a ma bo 0. (" The
late Hausaman told us this was the personage who
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7 6 NIGERIAN STUDIES chap.
created existence, 1 this is Odudua, let us therefore
worship him"), misunderstanding the Mussulman.
So they removed the bag containing the Koran
from the peg on the wall, put it on the ground,
covered it with a pot and began to worship it. So
commenced the worship of Odudua.
Odudua had by Omonide, his first wife, several
children ; his eldest daughter was the mother of
the founder of Owu, who become king of Owu,
and was consequently styled Olowu. All the
children of Omonide were famous, and became
founders of several towns in the Yoruba Country.
The names of Omonide's children or of any of the
children of Odudua are practically lost. Omonide's
eldest son founded Ketu and became the Alaketu
or king of Ketu. Another founded Benin (Ibini)
and became the Onibini. Another founded Ila
(Igbomina) and became the Onila. Another founded
Sabe and became the Onisabe. The youngest
of Omonide's children founded a town, the habitable
portion of which was so small that it was called
Kogbaye (" It does not afford room "), of which
he became king. Owing to the smallness of this
town the inhabitants left it stealthily, hence it was
said that they slipped off the place. They went to
a locality not very distant from Kogbaye and settled
there. Their king also went and remained with
them. From the circumstance of the people slipping
off (yo 16) from Kogbaye the new settlement was
called Oyo (" slipper "). The youngest son of
Mother Omonide thus became the Oloyo.
Odudua himself died in Ife, and one of his children
1 Odudua is by some regarded as a contraction of Odu ti o da iwa (" the
personage who created existence.")
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vi THE FOUR DAYS OF THE WEEK 77
by his other wives was given a broom wherewith
to keep his grave clean. This child was made the
Oni or king of Ife.
The Alaketu, the eldest son of Odudua, was the
first of his sons to take a wife. His wife soon had
a babe and Mother Omonide, who had hitherto
remained at Ife, came to help her son's wife in
nursing the babe. This babe afterwards founded Ake
and became the Alake. Mother Omonide loved her
grandson very much and came with him to Ake,
where she died."
We shall have a good deal to say about these
sons of the founder of the Yoruba Kingdom. It
will be noted that F. S. calls Odudua a male, whereas
Ellis, Oja, Togun, and Crowther speak of her as a
female.
Upon asking people the question, who first gave
the days of the week their names ? I have always
been told that Odudua inspired them. The names of
the days of the week were first given to me by Oja
in the following order : —
Eshu.
Orishala.
Odudua.
Jakuta.
This was at Ilobi, South-west of Egbaland. An
old lady called Tinnawe living near Olokemeji gave
me the days in the following order which she said
had been inspired by Odudua : —
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78 NIGERIAN STUDIES chap.
A wo. I fa's day.
Ogun.
Jakuta.
Obatala.
Oliyitan l gave the days and names as follows : —
Awo.
Ogun.
Jakuta.
Orishala.
Ellis gives the first day as a day of rest, but
gives no name for it, and then the following.
Awo or Awu.
Ogun.
Shango, another name for Jakuta.
Obatala.
The differences apparent in the above list are (i)
Eshu for Awo. Awo is the day set apart by the
priests of I fa to renew the chalk marks made on the
earth in front of the altars of the Orisha. As Eshu
the devil shares all the sacrifices made to I fa, it is
called Ifa's day — Eshu's day, or the day of Awo or
mystery.
Sttango worship has taken the place of the worship
of Jakuta in some places, but Shango has been
described to me as the servant or son of Jakuta who
attends to the lightning. Again Shango is a son of
" Yemoja " who is the daughter of Obatala.
1 A priest of Ifa.
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vi THE FOUR DAYS OF THE WEEK 79
Ogun is a son of Yemoja and has become a very
important power as the " god " of iron and patron of
hunters. Here we have a minor power, as a part,
usurping the place of Odudua as the earth goddess
who was the first protector of hunters, much in the
same way as Shango has taken Jakuta's place.
Orishala and Obatala are one and the same.
An Ibadan named Moredaio gave me the days in
the same order, so that I think we are justified in
looking upon Oja's order as wrong, but in this
case Odudua has her right place, i.e. that of Ogun in
the other lists.
Another reason for Ogun taking Odudua's day may
be that very often Obatala and Odudua are spoken
of as if they are one. As Ellis put it, " according to
some priests Obatala and Odudua represent one
androgynous divinity, and they say an image, which is
sufficiently common, of a human being with one arm
and one leg, and a tail terminating in a sphere,
symbolises this." This being so, the part of the
earth Ogun may have come to take Odudua's
place.
The four days of the Yoruba week, then, are :
Jakutds day which is looked upon as a Sunday. On
this day they clean their houses, and rub their floors.
Then they " split " Kola for the Orishas Shango,
Yemoja, Oshun and Buruku.
Obatala s day, sometimes called Orishala. On this
day they rub the walls and floor of the houses, and
fill a pot of water on the altar ; and when they eat
they give part of their food to him. The following
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80 NIGERIAN STUDIES ch. vi
" white " Orishas are worshipped on this day : — Larun.
Ijaiyi, Iluofun, Ijemdori, Ogiyan, Alajugun, Owa
Olufon. These white Orishas are appealed to by
barren women, and they must not be offered palm oil
or pepper.
Awo, or Ifas day. The people cannot consult Ifa
except through a priest. In this way he is consulted
about everything. On this day the Ifa priests re-
new the chalk marks on the ground in front of the
altars.
Oshun and Odu are also consulted on this day.
I have more to say about Ifa later on.
Odududs or Oguris day. When they build, or clear
a farm, or cut a tree, or hunt they split kola to Ogun.
Ija and Oshowsi are also worshipped on this day.
Odudua representing the creation, it is quite natural
that they should consider her day as first in their week.
The first, the fifth, the ninth and seventeenth, which
they look upon as the beginning of a new month, are
sacred to Odudua, and are all market days.
In Benin city there are four markets, one of which
is called the " Queen Mother's market," and this, as
we have already seen, is the position of Odudua.
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CHAPTER VII
OBATALA
Four Gates
The literal meaning of the words Obaba Arugbo,
the other name by which Togun told me Orishala
is called, is Father Greybeard.
Orishala, Bishop Crowther says, is another name
for Obatala, whom he calls the Great Goddess (?) 1
of the Yoruba, the framer of the human body in the
womb. But Togun called Orishala the man, the
husband of Yemuhu.
The word is evidently formed of the words Orisha
and nla.
Ellis says the word Orisha seems to be compounded
of Ori (summit, top, head) and Sha (to select,
choose), though some natives prefer to derive it from
ri to see, and isha choice, and thus to make it mean
one who sees the cult. Bishop Johnson says these
deities are generally known among us as Orishas, and
that they were spoken of as "Awon ti o ri sha,"
i.e. those who were successful in making their
collection of the wisdom strewn about by the son of
1 Mine R. E. D.
Si g
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82 NIGERIAN STUDIES chap.
God. But it is more likely that the word is composed
of Ore departed spirit, and Isha one who is chosen,
selected or cut off, or, in other words, the beatified
departed one. Among the Bini the word Orisha
is pronounced Oyisha, 1 a compound of the word
Oye a title of honour expressing wisdom of the
elders, 2 and Isha, one who is chosen. La in this word
Orishala has the meaning of to split. 3
Oba, in Obatala, the other name for Orishala,
is also a title of honour, meaning Emperor, King.
Ta means to produce as yams are produced from split
seed yams. There is therefore little or no difference
in the meaning of the words Orishala and Obatala,
and, as Bishop Crowther says, Orishala and Obatala
are one. 4
Orishala.
A story told me by an Egba called Salako shows
that Obatala as a god is the person who sensitises
matter :
"He is the son of Odudua, and was sent to
do good on earth. When anyone is sick he
1 Oye may be derived from Yeye Mother, while Oba may be shortened
from Baba Father, so that Oyishala and Obatala may be the female and
male form of the same idea. The word Orisha and Oyisha is, however,
used in much the same sense as the word Nkici (plural Bakici ba ci
among the Bavili, which I have translated as the speaking powers on
earth. The late Bishop Crowther translates the word as deity, gods,
idols.
2 Compare Kulu in the Congo.
3 I may point out that the idea of splitting, separating, is also
connected with the idea of Creator in the Congo — Xivanga=one who keeps
on splitting, or Creator. Orishala may be a dialectical form of Orishanla
Orisha and nla ; nla being an adjective meaning big or great.
4 See his Vocabulary and Dictionary of the Yoruba language.
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vii OBATALA 83
will tell them what leaf to get and they will get
well. If any woman wanted a child, any leaf he
cut and gave to her would have the desired
effect. Then the people thanked Odudua for
sending him, and said he was a good man. Then
Odudua made the body of man and called
Obatala to do the rest, and so Obatala made the
fingers, the eyes, the mouth, the ears.
They who worship him used to call him
Obatala to da oju, imu, eti, emi, ati apari
shikokanlelogun — Oba who makes the eyes, the
mouth, ears, nose, and the skull to be, twenty-
one. 1
When he finished the work, Olodumare breathed
into the body and it became a living being. And
so Odudua gave orders to all the world to worship
Obatala, and those who now worship him are the
descendants of those who benefited by his goodness
when he came on earth. And now he is Odudua's
mason and sculptor.
All things that Obatala and his followers wear are
white — white chalk, beads, cap and cloth.
Mr. Pellegrin gave me a story of Obatala as a
person or King ; he said : —
" Obatala was the poorest of the four Kings ;
he bought an Albino as a slave. And when
famine was raging he had nothing to eat, and he
had a wife and child ; so when they were starving
he told the Albino to go and find his own chop. 2
1 I believe the numeration of the Yoruba to be a kind of summary of
the Orishas and their attributes.
2 Chop = food.
G 2
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84 NIGERIAN STUDIES chap.
He went crying about the streets. He stood at
the gate of the town, as some people with food
might be coming. That day a European with
his retinue came accompanied by a dog. The
dog, who came first and met the Albino, was
frightened and ran back to his master. The
master came to find out what had frightened
the dog, and found the Albino at the gate. He
asked him what was the matter, and he told him
his story. Then the European asked him to take
him to his master. And he asked Obatala why,
if he had food for his wife and child, he had
none for his slave ? The master told him of the
famine, and said he had sent the Albino to find
his own 'chop.' Then the white man, seeing
their condition, mixed some milk for them
and stayed that night. Next morning when
going he gave them food and money, and left.
Obatalaka 1 called the slave to come and count it.
But they did not dare to touch it, as it was too
white, 2 so they took a matchet to divide it, hence
silver is called Fadaka. 3 After this Obatala
became the richest of all the Kings. The white
cloth they wear to-day is owing to the coming
of the saviour whiteman. The milk they mistook
for palm wine, so they do not drink it.
They do not eat dog because he was the means
of pointing out the Albino."
In the olden days each great town was enclosed
1 Obatalaka means the master of a poor man.
2 See page 89, where Obatala is said to have made the brain, nerves and
skull, or the white parts of the body. The dark part, i.e. the blood and
flesh, are evidently the part Odudua created.
3 Fa to shave, scrape ; Da to be scarce, hence a time of dearth ; Ka to
take a quantity out of a soft mass.
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vii OBATALA 85
within four great walls in the same way, as the
Yorubas say, that their kingdom was ; and leading
out of the city were four great roads (God's roads,
as the Bavili called them), which passed through
four great gates. The Balogun, or war chief, is the
guardian of these on earth, and Orishala or Obatala
is said to be the spiritual Balogun and protector
of these gates. 1
The mother among the Bavili, and also the Yoruba,
acts as a kind of Treasurer. She guards the wealth
of the family. In the case of the town, the war chief,
representing motherhood, guards the wealth of the
town from pillage. It would seem as if Orishala
(the female form of Obatala) referred to the mother
in the oldest form of parental government, and that
the name was altered when the family had increased
and multiplied, and the mother's brother had, under
the name of Obatala, taken her place in the developed
Council.
1 The names of the gates at Abeokuta are now :
Bode Alafinwa.
„ Shodeke.
„ Owu.
,, Aro.
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CHAPTER VIII
IFA AND THE FOUR WALLS OF THE YORUBA KINGDOM
Oja through Togun told me that Eleda fought with
I fa, in consequence of which he became a hearing
speaking, seeing, thinking being, and that this sensi-
tising of I fa was accomplished through Obatala.
Bishop Crowther translates the word Eleda as Creator,
Supreme Being. Ellis says it is another name for
Olorun, the Yoruba sky god, in his capacity as the
controller of rains.
The literal meaning of Ele is " a piece patched on,"
and da means to make, which seems to back up
Togun's statement that Eleda was a creative power
told off to perform the perfecting of I fa. Bishop
Johnson tells us (see Appendix, At the Back of the
Black Mans Mind) that Ela is another name for Ifa,
although the name is often used as if it represented a
separate and distinct divine personality. From this it
would appear that the word Eleda is composed of Ela
and Eda, Ela meaning a piece severed from a larger
piece, and Eda the making ; thus Eleda would mean
not God, but the act of making Ifa or Ela, the word
Ifa meaning apiece that is scraped off or created.
86
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ch. viii IFA AND THE FOUR WALLS OF YORUBA 87
Ifa is the first-born or Oni 1 of Odudua and Obatala.
He is known by the names Awnomila, the calabash in
which the sixteen sacred palm nuts are kept, the name,
also, that Oja gave for the sacred stones at Ife ; Akpani
ebora ynagiddi Odudua, or Odudua's private secretary,
Elerin ipin, or one who laughs ; Afo yo manitaw ;
or a man who shakes his mouth but does not speak.
He is the Oracular 2 deity about whom most is
known, and who is most often consulted. A very
good descripton is given of him by Colonel Ellis in his
" Yoruba-speaking People," page 56, and by Bishop
Johnson in his " Yoruba Heathenism," and many of
his wise sayings are to be found in Bishop C. Phillips'
book called " Ifa."
That I fa's Councils are god-like can be inferred from
the following quotation of one of his sayings given by
Adesola in the Nigerian Chronicle : —
E so'tito e se rere
Eni so'tito ni imole i gbe
Be faithful be good
For the faithful and good are favourites
of the gods.
Olotito ab'ona tororo
Osika ab'ona gbarara
K'eni ma seke
K'eni ma dale
Odale bale ku
Eni dale a bale lo
1 Ifa calls the first-born Oni, the one who has ; the second-born Ola, the
saviour ; the third Otunla, the day after to-morrow ; and the fourth Kokoro
Kundu Eru Oni. 2 See Chapter XV.
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88 NIGERIAN STUDIES chap.
Narrow yet straight is the path
of righteousness.
But broad and many-sided are the ways
of the wicked
In purpose be thou true
Not given to perfidy
For the work of the perfidious will o'er-take him
The evil of the wicked shall slay him.
I fa as head of the priestly government of the Yoruba
is the greatest Orisha or Nkici, the priestly King in
Heaven, who, as the first Oni, is the priestly King (or
Nkici'ci ) on earth. The following legends describe
him as a great prophet on earth: —
Mr. Oyesile Keribo, 1 in a Yoruba pamphlet
published in August, 1906, on the History of the Gods,
writes on I fa (page 19) to this effect: —
" Ifa was a native of Itase, near Ife country, and
of poor parentage : in his youth he had great
aversion to manual labour and therefore had to beg
his bread. To better his condition he applied to a
sage for advice, and the latter taught him divination,
traditional stories with matters relating thereto and
medicine as an easy means of obtaining a livelihood.
He afterwards became very popular. The sixteen
original Odus correspond with the sixteen original
stories taught to Ifa, etc. His parents being poor
were not known in the country, hence he was after-
wards considered to be without parentage and deified
after death."
1 Mr. Keribo's pamphlet was printed by the Egba Government
Printing Press (August 22, 1906), and widely circulated at 6d. a copy
there and in other parts of the Yoruba country.
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vni IFA AND THE FJ?UR WALLS OF YORUBA 89
In the Nigerian Chronicle of March 12, 1909,
writing on I fa, Mr. F. S., a correspondent of that
paper, says : —
"I/a was born at Ife, the cradle of the Yoruba
people. He was a skilful medical man, who had an
extensive practice and was an eminently successful
diviner.
After he had become famous he founded a town
called Ipetu, and became king of the place and was
styled Alapetu.
He was very popular, and was regarded by his
contemporaries as a true prophet. People from every
part of the Yoruba country flocked to him and
patronised him. His fame was so great that hundreds
of persons from different towns begged him to admit
them as disciples and apprentices under him. Out of
these, we are told, he chose only sixteen men from
about as many different towns — from Ekiti, from
Oyo, from Ijebu, and many other places widely
separated. 1 The names of these apprentices or
disciples are said to be identical with the names of
the sixteen divinitatory signs called Odus, and the
order of precedence among them, which was probably
based upon priority of appointment, is said to be still
preserved in the present order 2 of the Odus."
An intelligent native called " Ifebode " gave me the
following story about I fa : —
" Ifa was a human being who used to make
medicine, and sell it. While doing this he got to
Ife, and made that his headquarters. One day all
1 See Chapter XV.
2 This is most important. See Chapter XV.
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go NIGERIAN STUDIES chap.
the Ife people joined together to fight him. Then
he got vexed and went into the earth, and when
they asked him to come out he refused unless they
agreed to worship him. The day he entered the
earth he cut four palm leaves to mark the place,
and they each immediately became a palm tree —
each tree had four branches, or sixteen in all. He
told them to pick sixteen nuts, which he said they
must worship, and ask him whatever they wanted.
From then, anyone who got these nuts became a
Babalawo and became diviners, and these nuts teach
him what leaves to pick to cure any sickness.
The Babalawos at Ife wear cloths of light blue."
We have noted that one of I fa's names is Awnomila,
and that he was the first Oni, that the present Oni of
Ife called the pillar of stone, which Oja called
Awnomila, the stick of Oranyan, the first Oni of Ife.
Now the word Oraniyan 1 means " a matter of dispute,"
so that we may conclude that there is some dispute as
to the first Oni's name. 2
In a later chapter we shall discuss the names of the
Odus, or 16+1 sacred nuts of I fa, which we only
mention in this place because the number of the
sons of the first Oni is said to be 16, and the number
of his daughters 1, or 16+ 1 offspring.
A hunter, said to be a priest of I fa, was introduced
to me by Mr. J. T. Palmer, a native trader residing at
Sapele, and the number and names of the offspring of
the first Oni, Oranyan, given by him were confirmed
1 Crowther writes the word Oraniyan or Oroiyan (see his Dictionary,
page 231).
2 We should say Mr. What's-his-name.
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viii IFA AND THE FOUR WALLS OF YORUBA 91
by my friend Oliyitan, another priest of I fa, three
years afterwards, at Olokemeji.
The hunter said that the Oni was suffering from
some eye complaint, and thought he was going to die,
so he divided all his goods amongst his children and
ordered them to go to certain villages and live.
Alafin was forgotten, so he was given all the land
owned by the Oni.
The present Oni of Ife showed me the door through
which on another occasion the future King of Benin
City passed when he was sent away to occupy the
land of the Efa. 1 And he stated that Ilesha was not
sent out for a long time after his brothers, because the
Oni of that time loved him, and wished him to be near
to him.
In all matters referring to land, the Alafin takes
the place of his progenitor the Oni, and the present
positions of the two great Yoruba chiefs, Alafin and
Oni, are equivalent to those of our King and of the
Archbishop of Canterbury.
The list of the names is as follows : —
(1) Alafin, the youngest son, the head of the
Oyos, the owner of the Palace, the one who
takes the place of the Oni in mundane
affairs, the head of the officers of the
Council 2 or Ogboni.
(2) Olowu, from whom the Egbas are des-
cended, who, as an officer, may have repre-
sented the treasurer.
1 This custom of the Kings' sons being sent out to govern provinces has
been handed down and strictly adhered to by the Bini.
2 See Chapter X. on Yemaja and the Ogboni.
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92 NIGERIAN STUDIES chap.
(3) Awujale, from whom the Jebus are descended,
who, as an officer of this ancient Ogboni,
may possibly have acted as executioner.
(4) Alaketu, from whom the Ketus are des-
cended, and who, in this Ogboni, appears
to have acted as the arbitrator.
These four great ones, the officers as it were of
the first Ogboni, are compared to the complete
Yoruba Kingdom, which they say was enclosed by
four walls. Their saying is Igun merin ni ile ini, a
house is composed of four corners {i.e. four walls),
and is not otherwise complete.
We find in Abeokuta four kings, the Alake being
at present the paramount chief, so that I conclude
that each of the above four great ones, composing
the Yoruba Kingdom, took three other sons of the
first Oni with him. I regret to say that I cannot
say who the three were in each case, so that I must
leave this matter in the hands of some future
historian, but the names of the Councillors or sons
are as follows : —
Obalado, the founder of Ado, where I fa is said
to have been born.
Oba Baruba, the founder of Barita, a town
north of Ilorin.
Oni Moba, said to be another name for
Shango.
These three possibly accompanied the Alafin.
Oluhu, said to be one of the four Kings of
Egba land.
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vni IFA AND THE FOUR WALLS OF YORUBA 93
° wa \ said to be part of Ifa's talk.
Ore )
Oba Shabi, possibly the founder of the county
in Ketuland, where Orungan had his
farm, and from where I fa is said to
have procured his sixteen sacred nuts.
Ajeru, Ifa's messenger.
Orogun, to do with divination.
Ewi u Osoin, an Orisha said to speak in a
small voice.
Ajank Moba, part of Ifa's talk.
Alara, the owner of thunder.
The Babalawo Oliyitan described all the above as
parts of I fa, and as among these parts we find the
ancestors of the Oyo, Egba, Ijebu and Iketu
(the four walls of the Yoruba Kingdom), the con-
nection between I fa, the first Oni, and the walls is
self-evident.
It is very difficult to separate Eshu from I fa, as
we have noticed in considering the days of the
week, so I will now tell you something about this
personage.
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CHAPTER IX
ESHU
Elegba and Eshu are translated Devil. In the form
of an earthenware pot with a hole in it, Eshu is repre-
sented in many villages. In some form or other
under a small shed, Eshu is found at the entrance of
a town or house. Whatever Orishas the people may
have, Eshu appears to be the most widespread (see
At the Back of the Black Mans Mind, pages 197, 190,
221, 223, 234, 246, 265).
The first blood of a sacrifice is generally splashed
over Eshu, so that he may not prevent the Orisha
to whom the sacrifice is made from accepting the
offering.
I think the explanation of the fact that the native
looks upon the number of Orishas as 201 or 401 is
that Eshu possibly has the same number of malevolent
Orishas as I fa has of beneficent.
I have pointed out in At the Back of the Black
Mans Mind, page 197, that Eshu represents the pro-
creative trinity, as opposed to the spiritual Oyisa.
(see also chapter on the Odus of I fa, where Odu is
the name of the sign of the new moon called Oshu).
94
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ch. ix ESHU 95
Eshu 1 is the Being of Darkness, while Ifa is the
Being of Light and Revelation, personalities whose
signs are Oshu the new moon and Orun the sun.
At Akure some people came dancing up to the rest-
house where I was staying holding palm branches in
their hands and beating drums in a violent way. I
asked them what they were doing. They answered
that they were sacrificing to the devil. Well, I
assured them, " I am not the devil." They laughed
and ran away, leaving me rather in doubt as to
whether they thought me so or not. On inquiry I
heard that in three days they were going to keep the
feast of Ifa, and that preparatory to doing so they had
to feast Eshu or the devil.
The three Phallic pillars at Iaiu were called Eshu
(See At the Back of the Black Mans Mind, page 195).
Ellis tells us "He is supposed always to carry a short
knotted club, which, originally intended to be a rude
representation of the Phallus, has partly through want
of skill .... and partly through the growing belief
in Elegba's malevolence, come to be regarded as a
weapon of offence. . . . The rude wooden representa-
tion of the Phallus is planted in the earth by the side
of the hut, and is seen in almost every public place,
while at certain festivals it is paraded in great pomp,
and pointed towards the young girls, who dance
round it."
It was Elegba who told Ifa where to go for the
sixteen palm nuts and who taught that personage how
1 See note, Chapter VI., and note, Chapter X.
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96 NIGERIAN STUDIES ch. ix
to divine, 1 and he stipulated that in return for this
instruction he should always be allowed the first
choice of all offerings. This possibly accounts for
Eshu getting the first part of the blood of every
sacrifice.
Eshu
As the story goes, Odudua has no other Orisha
except I fa, and, whenever he 2 consulted anyone, he
consulted I fa. I fa came one day to sacrifice to
Odudua, and he was very satisfied with the offering.
As it is a rule when a chief is pleased with the
services of a person to give him something, so, on
this occasion, Odudua gave Ifa Eshu. Thus Eshu
was the slave of Odudua, and became I fa's messenger.
And when anyone wants to sacrifice to Ifa they say
that it is best to square his messenger, 3 as he is a
wicked person.
1 See appendix At the Back of the Black Maris Mind, page 270.
2 Odudua is here spoken of as he, and if we remember that Odudua
stands for the Dowager Queen Mother and so for the ancestor her
husband this confusion is easily understood.
3 Opele (See At the Back of the Black Maris Mind, page 233) is
spoken of as Ifa's messenger and offspring.
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CHAPTER X
AGANJU, YEMOJA, THEIR OFFSPRING, AND THE OGBONI
OR COUNCIL
The Bashorun is not only one of the four great chiefs,
but also the chief officer of the Council of State or
Ogboni. 1 We may expect, therefore, to find that Ifa is
not only one of the four great Orishas, but also the
chief officer of the godly Council of Orishas. And
so it is except that here Ifa is represented by Eshu. 2
Aganju and Yemoja are said to have been the
offspring of Odudua and Obatala, and it is related that
they had a son called Orungan. These then are the
three officers presided over by the great procreative
Orisha Eshu. And it is interesting to note that here
again we have the formula of four, Eshu representing
the past, and Aganju, Yemoja and Orungan, the
Trinity of Father, Mother, Son.
Aganju is sometimes described as a younger
brother of Jakuta, but very little is known about him,
except that the word means " Space " or " Expanse."
1 Ogboni is both the society of that name containing many members
and also the council and offices of the King's cabinet.
2 See page ioo, Chapter X.
97 H
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9 8 NIGERIAN STUDIES chap.
Yemoja a great River Spirit (the mother of the
shining light) is the mother of Orungan, the heat of
the sun at mid-day (passion ?).
Orungan is known as Fi rin pon na yanju omo
Yemoja — The son of Yemoja (who) cleans his eyes
(with) a hot iron, or Erin re bi ija omo Oba Afeleja —
His laugh is like fighting the son of the King who
fights with the sword (or Ogun).
Yemoja, or Ye mo aja, is the most important
perhaps of these three, as from her sprang the twelve
or thirteen Orishas forming the deified Ogboni or
Council.
Yeye means mother, and Aiye means earth ; Mo is
to shine, and Aja is short for Aja-Osu, a name by
which the dog star is known, whereas Orun is the
name of the sun or day star. Thus we get the picture
of earth, mother (of the) shining star or sun.
Now Orungan (Ellis 1 tells us) "fell in love with his
mother, and, as she refused to listen to his guilty
passion, he one day took advantage of his father's
absence and ravished her. Immediately after the act
Yemoja sprang to her feet, and fled from the place
wringing her hands and lamenting, and was pursued
by Orungan who strove to console her by saying that
no one should know of what had occurred, and declared
that he could not live without her. He held out to
her the alluring prospect of living with two husbands,
one acknowledged, and the other in secret, but she
rejected all his proposals with loathing, and continued
to run away. Orungan, however, rapidly gained upon
1 See Ellis, Yoruba-speaking People, p. 54.
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x AGANJU, YEMOJA, THEIR OFFSPRING 99
her, and was just stretching out his hand to seize her
when she fell backward to the ground. Then her
body immediately began to swell in a fearful manner,
two streams of water gushed from her breasts, and her
abdomen burst open. The streams from Yemoja's
breasts joined and formed a lagoon ; and from her
gaping body came the following offspring."
Before we continue our study of Yemoja's offspring
I should like to interpret this story of creation as
far as we have gone in my own words.
I do not think it follows that because there is such
a sameness about these stories of creation that they
must necessarily be different variants of any acknow-
ledged version. "Great minds think alike," the
saying goes, and in this way great men in many parts
of the world still come to much the same conclusions.
The intelligent Yoruba is, however, constantly
discovering resemblances in his laws, customs and
folklore to that of the Old Testament ; it may
therefore be well, without changing the natural order
of the Orishas, to point out where their ideas, though
differently expressed, evidently refer to the same
phenomena.
Odudua has been shown to express the ideas of
self-existence, heaven and earth, darkness,
and so as a heading may easily be made
to stand for " In the beginning God made
heaven and earth .... and darkness was
upon the face of the deep."
Jakuta has been connected with thunder, and so
electricity. "And the Spirit of God moved
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too NIGERIAN STUDIES chap.
Obatala upon the face of the waters " (or white 1
vapours), just as Fatherhood and Mother-
hood meet in marriage. Obatala, though a
male personage, it must be remembered,
stands for maternity.
I fa Ideas of speech and revelation and light are
connected with I fa — " And God said, Let
there be light : and there was light."
Eshu 2 The personality connected with darkness :
" And God divided the Light from the
Darkness."
Aganju Expanse, space. Ferrar Fenton in his
translation of Genesis instead of the word
" Firmament " uses the word " Expanse " —
" And God said, Let there be an ' expanse '
between the waters and the waters and let
it be for a division between the waters and
the waters."
Yemoja is a great water spirit as well as mother
earth : " Let the waters below the heavens
be collected in one place, and let dry land
appear."
Orungan the heated rays from the sun which produce
— " Let the earth produce."
CThe Yoruba has only four days in his week, and
we find that each day is dedicated to an OrishaS
In the first place we have God separating from
himself two great persons to help him in Creation.
1 White is sacred to Obatala.
2 In Eshu's other name Elegba we have the words gba to strike with a
stick, Ela another word for Ifa, meaning that which is stripped or split off.
In each of the three parts we have a division or splitting off— light from
darkness, division of waters and waters, land from water.
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x AGANJU, YEMOJA, THEIR OFFSPRING 101
Arranging these personages and phenomena in sets
of fours in the manner in which the sons of Oranyan
were arranged, we have :
Odudua Jakuta Obatala I fa
Eshu, Devil Aganju, space Yemoja Orungan
Dudu, black Orun, heaven Aiye, earth I mole,
light
Oshu, new Omi, water He, land Orun, sun
moon
From this it will be noted that the sun and moon
fall into the fourth line, but I do not think the native
would say that the sun and moon were made on the
fourth day, but rather that they were manifestations
of Odudua and I fa in the fourth place.
To return to the Ogboni of Orishas, Ellis gives the
list of Yemoja's offspring as follows : —
Dada god of vegetables
^Shaogo^ ^ „ lightning
Ogun ,, iron a'nct'war
Olokun
,, sea
Olosa
Oya
Oshun
goddess of the lagoon
,, ,, River Niger
„ Oshun
Oba
,, Oba
Orisha Oko
god of agriculture
Oshosi
,, hunters
Oke,
,, mountains,
Aje Shaluga, ,, wealth,
Shankpana ,, smallpox,
Orun the sun, and
Oshu
the moon.
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102 NIGERIAN STUDIES chap.
From this it is seen that Ellis gives Yemoja as
the mother of the sun and moon. I have made
many inquiries about this, and none of my in-
formants have included them in their lists of the
offspring of this Orisha. And from what I have
written above I think it is clear that the sun and
the new moon, as personalities, are I fa 1 and Eshu.
Neither have I ever been able to get anyone to
agree with the order given by Ellis. The names,
however, of the other Orishas agree with those I
have collected.
The names and order, so far as I have been able
to discover, are : —
{Olokun, the owner of the sea which murmurs.
Olosa, owner of the lagoon which evaporates,
f Ogun, the one that pounds.
1 Oshowsi, the enchanter that is.
( Oke, the one who cherishes.
( Shango, Lightning,
f Oshun, the one who gathers together.
\ Oko, the one who collects.
{Oya, the one who plucks.
Shaluga, who elevates, enriches.
( Oba or Ibu, the one who bakes or boils.
( Buruku (or Shankpana), to rot, to die, and
Dada, the Orisha of birth.
As I have travelled nearly all over the Yoruba
country I have obtained the order of sacrifice
to Orishas in towns widely apart, and now give
them to show how far the worship in these different
places agrees, firstly as to the Orishas worshipped,
1 See figure, page 1 50, Chapter XV.
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x AGANJU, YEMOJA, THEIR OFFSPRING 103
and secondly as to the order in which their festivals
are kept. As some fourteen years have passed
since Colonel Ellis wrote his Yoruba-speaking
People, it is possible that some changes have
taken place, not only in the original order, but also
in the number of local Orishas, or it may be that
local traditions have been too strong, and that the
order in which the Orishas set apart by Ifa as the
offspring of Yemoja to be worshipped has never
been fully adopted.
The following are the lists as given to me in a
few important towns.
Akure.
Isehin.
Aw aye.
I.
1
Alia.
2.
2
Oshun.
3-
4-
5-
(0
(*) ,
6.
3
Ifa.
II
Ifa.
19 Ifa.
7-
4
Iweshu.
12
Elegba.
20 Shango.
8.
5
Agbarigbo.
13
Yemoja.
2 1 Orisha
Oko.
9-
6
Olokun.
14
Oshun.
22 Obatala.
10.
7
Idala.
15
Shango.
23 Yemoja.
11.
8
Aiyarigbi.
16
Orisha
Oko.
12.
9
Oile and
Oloba.
17
Oke.
'3-
10
I begun.
18
Orishaula.
>
c
o
rt
<u
CO
>-.
1 and 2 See chapter on the Seasons and the original division of time
which only took note of the Rainy Season.
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104
Egbados.
lUiJL.
24.
Shango.
35-
25-
Orisha Oko.
26.
Oshowsi.
36.
27.
Oshun.
37-
2 8.
Ogun.
38.
2Q.
Ifa.
39-
3°-
Orisha Oko,
40.
wife.
41.
3i-
Shapana.
3 2 -
Olofin.
42.
33-
Yewa.
43-
34-
Eserikika.
44.
No sacrifice.
45-
do.
46.
47-
HAN STUDIES chap.
Orishala or 48. Egungun.
Ole. 49. Shanpona.
Alashe. 50. Oke.
Orisha Teku. 51. Kuku.
Ogara. 52. Shango and
Okun. Oya.
Ifa. 53- ^a.
Ogun and 54. Orisha Oko.
Oranyan. 55. Eynile.
Mori mi. 56. Yemoja.
Oranfe. 57. Oshun.
Odudua. 58. Eshu.
Ojumo. 59. Orishaula.
Iro. 60. Oro.
Ikeri.
It is possible that in the last three lists two Orishas
are worshipped every lunar month, or one every
seventeenth day during the rainy season.
It is evident that at the present day there is no
order common to the different sections of the Yoruba
people, as Ifa is about the only one to whom they
sacrifice at the same time, i.e. at the beginning of
the rains, or about the sixth month.
We have now considered the four supernatural
great chiefs and the four supernatural officers of the
spiritual Ogboni, and given the names of the offspring
of Yemoja, who evidently form the supernatural
Ogboni or Council.
Before describing these Orishas more at length I
think it will not be out of place to give a complete list
of the names of the officials in the native Government.
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x AGANJU, YEMOJA, THEIR OFFSPRING 105
The names of the officers are as follows : —
1. Iyalode, the Queen Mother.
2. Oba, the King. Four
3. Balogun, the War Chief. Great Chiefs.
4. Bashorun, the Prime Minister.
5. Bashorun, the President.
6. Apena, the one who convenes"
the meetings. The
7. Oluwo, the Treasurer. 1 Officers.
8. Adofin, the Arbitrator.
The Council.
9. Lisa, one of the Iwarefa.
10. Egbe Iwarefa, or assistant Iwarefa.
1 1. Bisa.
12. Assistant.
13. Bala.
14. Assistant.
15. Asalu.
16. Assistant.
17. Malakun.
18. Assistant.
19. Ashipa.
20. Assistant.
These last fifteen members of the Government are
called the Ogboni, composed of three officers and a
Council of six Iwarefa and six assistant or Egbe
Iwarefa, but there are many members of the Ogboni
as a society.
I will now show how the offspring of Yemoja are
connected with the life and occupation of the Yoruba.
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CHAPTER XI
OLOKUN OLOSA AND FISHERMAN
Fishing
As we approach the coast of Africa from Europe the
first Africans we meet are fishermen. It is true that
we seldom get near enough to the tiny fishing canoes
to see much of the fisherman, but then he is far from
us and sometimes out of sight of land. The sea in
some places is dotted quite thickly with the canoes of
these venturesome natives, whose courage and manli-
ness we must all admire. Confined as we all are on
board even the most comfortable of steamships nearing
the end of our trip we almost envy the fisherman his
freedom and loneliness. He has left the coast early
in the morning with the land breeze and when the
calm sea is rippled by the coming sea breeze he hoists
his little sail and returns to his home.
As we pass these crowds of specks upon the ocean
we feel that this sort of thing has been going on for
centuries and that the earliest foreigner to approach
these shores must have been equally touched .as our-
selves on our first contact with these hardy inhabitants
of the Black Continent.
106
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ch. xi OLOKUN OLOSA AND FISHERMAN 107
Barbot evidently took a great interest in fishing and
fish as connected with the natives of the Gold Coast,
and in his Description of the Coast of South Guinea
writes :
"At my first voyage, whilst we lay before
Conimendo, some fishermen, near our ship, took a fish
about seven feet long. . . . The Blacks call it Fetisso,
but for what reason I cannot determine unless it be to
express that it is too rare and sweet for mortals to eat
and only fit for a deity. ... As I remember the
Blacks would not sell it but only allowed me the
liberty of drawing its figure. ... I am apt to believe
the Blacks look upon this fish as a sort of Deity ;
though I did not hear they paid it any religious
worship. If they do, there is nothing new in paying
adoration to a fish ; for the Philistines in the first ages
of the world adored Dagon, which was an idol half man
half fish : the word Dagon in their language signify-
ing a fish : and that those Gentiles looked upon as the
great god, Judges xvi., 23. ' Dagon our God hath
delivered Samson our enemy into our hand.' Dagon
represented Neptune the God of the Sea and by him
perhaps was meant Noah. The Syrians according to
Cicero and Xenophon, adored some large tame fish,
kept in the river Chalus, and would not suffer any
person to go about to disturb them. The Syro-
Phoenicians according to Clemens Alexandrinus, adored
those fishes with as much zeal, as the Elians worshipped
Jupiter : and Diodorus Siculus affirms the Syrians did
not eat fish but adored them as gods. Plutarch
mentions the Oxindrites and Cynophites, Egyptian
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108 NIGERIAN STUDIES chap.
nations which having been long at war about killing a
fish they esteemed sacred, were so weakened, that the
Romans subdued and made them slaves."
One feels inclined, after reading this, to exclaim
" Dear old Barbot ; " for we can so fully enter into the
spirit which seems to have permeated the minds of the
great African traders of olden days, and which, in spite
of the rush of this day of steamships and railways, still
influences so many of us.
- The Kings of Benin had to be supported under
each arm by two chiefs whenever they attempted to
walk because they claimed to be descended from such
a deity as mentioned by Barbot (see plate XVII.
Antiquities from Benin in the British Museum), and
by way of proof they say that one of their Kings
" Ehenbuda " by name was born with legs with no
bones in them. Perhaps in reference to this myth the
late Mary Kingsley wrote : " The manners and
customs of many West African fishes are quaint. I
have never yet seen that fish the natives often tell me
about that is as big as a man only thicker, and which
walks about on its fins at night in the forest, so I
cannot vouch for it."
When in due course we land on the beach in Africa
we find fishing is of a more sociable nature, for here
we see numbers of men and boys launching their great
nets in canoes and casting them into the sea four or
five hundred yards away on the far side of the surf.
Having left the end of a grass rope, attached to one
end of the net, in the hand of a small boy, on the
beach, the fisherman in the canoe after discharging the
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xi OLOKUN OLOSA AND FISHERMAN 109
net brings in the rope tied to the other end with all
possible speed. As the canoe rushes merrily through
the surf and almost before it grates upon the sandy
beach willing hands seize the rope, and, together with
those who have now gone to the help of the small
boy, begin to haul the net and its contents to the
land.
A fishing beach is not a pleasant place to walk
about on, unless the sea breeze is strong enough to
blow the stench of half cured fish away from you.
Barbot's words of nearly 1 50 years ago may be said to
still stand good in many places where he writes (page
42, " Description of the Coast of Nigritia ") : " It is very
unaccountable that these people, having such plenty of
several sorts of large fish, will not dress it while fresh
and sweet, but let it lie buried along the shore ;
especially the pilchards, as I suppose to give it a
better relish or else that it may keep longer. In short,
whether this be any particular fancy of theirs or that
the continual violent heat immediately corrupts it, this
is certain, that they eat none but what stinks, and
account it the greater dainty. To instance somewhat
more particularly, as to pilchards, they only let them
lie some days buried in the wet briny sand along the
shore, and perhaps it may be on account of its saltness ;
but afterwards dig up and expose them to the sun for
some time to dry ; and then lay them up in their huts
which are all the day like stoves ; and thus they daily
eat and sell them to the inland blacks who come down
to buy them, to supply the country markets. I have
seen whole cabins or cottages full of these dry pilchards
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no NIGERIAN STUDIES chap.
at Rusisco, and the sand down before it next the sea
so stored that there was an intolerable stench about
the place."
The great sea Orisha of the Yoruba people is called
" Olokun." The Benin river is called after him and
the Bini say that he married when poor the spirit
of the river Oha which runs into the Olokun near its
mouth.
His second and favourite wife, however, was the
Sapoba river called by the natives Igbagon (see At
the Back of the Black Mans Mind).
The Lagos people who were governed by chiefs
crowned by the Oba of Benin, say that Olokun
married Olokunsu or Elusu who lives in the harbour
at Lagos. She is white in colour and human in shape,
but is covered with fish scales from below the breasts
to the hips. The fish in the waters of the bar are
sacred to her, and should anyone catch them she takes
vengeance by upsetting canoes and drowning the
occupants. (See Ellis, The Yoruba-speaking People).
When the sea is rough and the people cannot fish
they say Olokun is angry. In the olden days the
people would then sacrifice a human being to appease
his wrath and so be able to fish, but as a rule his
wrath seems to have been calmed by offerings of
animals and foodstuff.
In Bishop Phillips' Ifa Odu No. 3 Ejiogbe, the
Oracle is made to say : " All the honours of the waters
upon earth cannot be as great as the honour of the
sea. All the rivers that have their source above are
not so beautiful as the Lagoon."
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xi OLOKUN OLOSA AND FISHERMAN in
The sea Olokun is said to be in the first place the
Lagoon Olosa in the second as Orisha.
Many kinds of nets and traps are used by the
fishermen in the Lagoons in Africa and it is a pretty
sight on a bright day to watch the busy fishermen at
work, some in canoes patiently fishing with hooks,
some throwing a round shaped net, an importation
from Accra, some busy arranging their traps, and
others on the beach dragging the shallows for small
fish and prawns.
Olosa the Orisha of the Lagoons looms large in the
mind of the pagan fisherman and when floods prevent
his operations he concludes that she is annoyed and
offers some sacrifice at one or other of the many altars
erected in her honour along the banks of the Lagoon.
Human sacrifices, it is said, used to be offered to her,
but she is now satisfied with animals and vegetable
products.
Crocodiles are her messengers and Ellis tells us
" Food is regularly supplied to these reptiles every
fifth 1 day, or festival, and many of them become
sufficiently tame to come for the offering as soon as
they see or hear the worshippers gathering on the bank."
But leaving the Lagoons and entering the man-
grove banked rivers everyone will have noticed the
shy fisherman in his tiny canoe perhaps spearing fish
and have passed his wife carrying her baby on her
back just as she wildly steers her canoe out of your
sight up some tiny creek.
These fishermen live in small bamboo huts some-
1 The 5th day is the first day of a new week and is Odudua's day.
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ii2 NIGERIAN STUDIES chap.
times built on piles in a surrounding swamp and some-
times on the sandy bank of a river in the midst of a
sea of grass. A solitary lonely life it must be.
And now we come to where the river passes through
country more or less cultivated and governed by some
responsible chief, and we find that certain fishermen
have fishing rights along specified reaches of the river
with a number of fishermen under them.
In this district (Olokemeji) this head fisherman is
called " Baba Olodu," Father or owner of the river.
All fishermen under him are supposed to give him part
of their catch, and he in turn is supposed to give the
Alake of Abeokuta, in whose Kingdom we live, a
certain quantity or its equivalent every year. There
are two such Baba Olodu near to Olokemeji, Akitunde
and Idowu by name, and it is from them that I have
obtained the following notes.
Anyone may fish, but if a stranger fishes he is
supposed to give the Baba of the district part of his
catch. They have four kinds of traps : —
i. The Kolu, a net-like trap made of the tie-tie or
native rope or string known as Agba. When the fish
enter this trap the float above is pressed down.
2. Ogun called Owa, a trap made up of the leaves of
the palm tree which is used in both large and small
streams and is left in them all night and examined in
the morning.
3. Koko, a trap made of Agba and placed in large
and deep rivers. A string is tied to the trap and fast-
ened to a shrub on the river bank, and when the shrub
shakes they know a fish is in the trap.
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xi OLOKUN OLOSA AND FISHERMAN 113
4. Agbagba, a trap made of Egburo or Awkaw tie-tie.
This is for shallow rivers and is placed between rocks
with its mouth just above the level of the water, and
fish coming over the fall drop into it.
Before the fisherman starts to fish he gets a pod of
pepper, atare, and places it in a hole on the bank of the
river, he then puts seven grains of corn on the top of
this. This is to secure good luck. If his catch has
been a success the fisherman makes a thank-offering to
Yemaja or Yemoja, the mother of Olokun and Olosa.
He fills a pot with cooked maize and on the top of it
places seven kola nuts. He then pours palm wine, or
corn beer, or gin over the whole and puts it into the
river. Yemaja is said to carry this offering to her
offspring.
In going to fish if he stumbles and strikes his right
foot no matter, but striking his left foot means bad luck.
This sign is called Akilo.
When the bird Kowe crys or sings Krrr it is a good
sign, but if it is silent it is looked upon as a bad
sign.
Another man will know his luck by the quivering of
his eyelid. The quivering of the left eye-lid is a sign
of a death in his family.
The time for fishing in the interior is the dry season
and best just when the rains cease and the rivers begin
to fall.
Although fishermen have in this district their head
man or Baba Olodu, they have no guild or secret
society like the hunters. (See next chapter.)
When a fish black in colour, with two horns in its
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n 4 NIGERIAN STUDIES chap.
head, called Aro (the owner of the river) is caught,
it is quickly returned to the river. (This is, perhaps,
the copper fish {Ostracion quadricomis). Its young,
however, may be killed. Then the Abori, fish with
one horn, are sacred to Yemoja.
They do not like catching the Ojiji {Malopterurus
eleclricus), as they say, when large, they can kill a
person; and the Adede, called "Owoternu" by the
Lagos people, does not please them, as they say that
when full he turns the waters black.
This life of the fisherman is perhaps the most
simple and wanting, from its solitariness, perhaps, in
organisation. We are, perhaps, nearer to what we
may imagine primitive life to have been in this study
of the life of an African fisherman than in any other.
But primitive as it may be, the fisherman thanks his
god, Yemoja, for his good luck, and knows that sin,
such as theft or adultery, is hurtful to his luck.
A Flood Story.
(According to Ellis, page 64.) Sometime after
settling at Ado, Ifa became tired of living in the
world, and accordingly went to dwell in the firmament
with Obatala. After his departure, mankind, deprived
of his assistance, was unable properly to interpret the
desire of the Gods, most of whom became annoyed
in consequence. Olokun was most angry, and in a
fit of rage he destroyed nearly all the inhabitants of
the world in a great flood, only a few being saved by
Obatala, who drew them up into the sky by means of
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xi OLOKUN OLOSA AND FISHERMAN 115
a long iron chain. After this ebullition of anger,
Olokun retired once more to his own domains, but
the world was nothing but mud, and quite unfit to
live in, till I fa came down from the sky, and, in
connection with Odudua, once more made it habitable.
Thus are Olokun and Olosa the first offspring of
Yemoja and Orungan connected with the category
" water " and the occupation of the fisherman.
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CHAPTER XII
OGUN, OSHOWSI, AND THE HUNTER
One catches glimpses of the rule by father form of
Government in Africa in a fisherman's or hunter's
camp, often a long distance from any village, they live
solitary camp-like lives. The fisherman's life we have
described ; the hunter smokes and dries the product of
the chase and exchanges this for other necessaries of
life in the nearest market. He is more or less
governed by his senses and his desires, but he believes
thoroughly in his Orisha "Ogun." He accumulates a
certain amount of goods and as he desires to marry he
invests his capital in obtaining a wife. They have
children and the result is a hunters' village. Other
hunters ask his permission to share his hunting-grounds
and on certain conditions he allows them to do so.
These hunters in all probability marry the head
hunter's daughters.
The men hunt and the women do the marketing and
cook for their husbands. Men living in the wilds of
Africa facing death in numerous ways become what
some people call superstitious and others religious.
This may account for the fact that most of the old
116
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ch.xii OGUN, OSHOWSI, AND THE HUNTER 117
Coasters, though they were not credited with leading a
religious life but rather a kind of unlicensed patri-
archal one, were generally found to be believers
in their Bible and could always produce one when
needed.
Now the hunters in Africa are nearly all thorough be-
lievers in their Orishas, and before going out on their
expeditions in Yorubaland they offer kola nuts to the
Orishas Eshu, Ogun and Oshowsi. Their great time
for hunting is when the grass has been burnt and it is
then that the greater sacrifices are offered. In the
district of Olokemeji no human sacrifices were offered
to Ogun, so Agbola's son told me, but, he added,
in other districts human beings used to be killed. He
said that when a hunter goes out he sacrifices to the
three above-named Orishas ; they kill a cock giving
Eshu a dash of its blood, and then leave it at the foot
of Ogun's altar. After a while they come back and
take the bloodless body of the cock away and eat it,
they also give Ogun kola. To Oshowsi they give
roasted beans, and just before leaving on a small hunt a
hunter throws pieces of a kola nut into the air and as the
pieces fall upon the earth, so he knows he will have
good or bad luck.
A second good point about the hunter is respect
for the head hunter and obedience to his commands.
Having rubbed his body all over with soap mixed with
some powder, and placed chalk marks on his head so
that animals shall not smell him, he presents himself
before the head hunter and tells him where he is going
to hunt, so that there may be no overlapping. Should
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n8 NIGERIAN STUDIES chap.
one hunter meet another on his way he salutes him
and walks on in silence, and should he omit to tell the
head hunter where he is going to hunt, or then shoot
somewhere else than in the appointed place, the head
hunter will take his gun and money from him and cast
him out of the camp.
If one hunter tries to poison another he will meet
with no luck.
If he commits adultery he will have no luck, and if
while away hunting his wife commits adultery he will
see a male and female animal copulating. If he loves
his wife he dare not shoot either of these creatures,
since, if he killed them, his wife would die. So he goes
back at once to his town and taking his wife before
Ogun's altar accuses her of the sin. If she admits her
guilt, the adulterer is fined one dog to be sacrificed to
Ogun, one goat for Ifa, and three bags of cowries to-
gether with kola for the husband. But if she denies
it they ask her to take some of the kola from Ogun's
altar, and if she eats the kola (being guilty) Ogun in
two or three days (unless she confesses) will kill her.
Sometimes a ram will run after her and butt her to
death.
And when the hunter cannot kill anything and he
hears the nightjar crying in the day he knows some-
thing has happened in his town and he returns to Ogun
knowing that some relation is dead or very ill. Or
when the bird that cries " Ko ! we ! " and then " tche !
tche! " cries " Ko ! we!" three times without adding
" tche ! tche ! " he knows someone is dead.
But supposing a man has had a woman illicitly, he
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Agbolo's Sons. Great Native Hunters.
[Face />. nq.
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xn OGUN, OSHOWSI, AND THE HUNTER 119
takes a big snail, some shea butter and the leaves of
the Odudun, Tete and Renren, and pounding all
together (after first sacrificing to Ogun), smears his
whole body with the mixture and goes his way
rejoicing knowing that all is well.
Should a hunter happen to kill an animal that is
pregnant he makes an offering of one dog, palm oil,
and kola to Ogun.
If a hunter tells a lie he will kill nothing, and if two
hunters have gone before Ogun and sworn to keep a
thing secret, and one then goes and reveals it, some
animal will fight with him and may kill him.
And when a hunter knows that he has not com-
mitted any of these crimes, and still has bad luck, then
he knows that Ogun wants a present.
I have often had to spend the night in one or other
of these primitive fishermen's and hunters' villages,
and in the morning when I have asked to see the
" Father " to say good-bye to him I have been told
that I must wait if I wish to see him as he has
gone to the grove sacred to Ogun, to pray for his
people.
And so the hunter believes in his Orisha and obeys
his father's will and knows that he will be punished for
any offences against the divine and human father's
will.
Agbola's son told me that there are strong beasts
in the bush such as leopards, elephants, lions,
chimpanzees, unicorns (?), bush cows, etc., and that
when a hunter shoots at one of these he immediately
sprinkles a medicine called Kaji in front of him in the
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iao NIGERIAN STUDIES chap.
direction of the animal so that it will not get up and
charge him.
Hunters, he said, do not believe that men can
turn themselves into leopards, but they do believe
that certain people called Ologun have the power to
influence these beasts and so cause them to kill
people. Hunters protect themselves against this risk
by buying and wearing a belt with medicine in it
called Ishora. Their ancestors gave them the pre-
scription according to which these belts are made.
The leopard in this country is known by the names
Ekun, the fearless one, Ogida the one ready to scratch,
and Jakumu the striker. An Ibadan hunter told me
that the leopard represents the land, and that the
Alafin alone could call himself "the Leopard," be-
cause he inherited all the land from the first Oni of Ife.
The Alafin's warriors, called Kakamfu, who, by the
way, number 201 x (the original number of Yoruba
Orishas, or rather the number said by the priests of
I fa to have been in the right hand division), used
to wear an apron of the leopard's skin.
When the leopard was killed its face was covered
with a cloth (a custom they have in common with the
Bavili) because, as the hunter said, it is a king. The
king is not supposed to look anyone in the face for
fear of frightening him.
The Leopard king, or Alafin, is known by his
crown of blue beads, six marks on each cheek,
Orania's sword (Ida orania), and a calabash wrapped
in cloth called (Ibayiwa), a stick covered with beads
* The Yoruba heathenism, At the Back of the Black Man's Mind,
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xii OGUN, OSHOWSI, AND THE HUNTER 121
called Okpaleki, and he does not wear a necklace,
whereas his chiefs do.
Elephant-hunting regulations in the Benin Kingdom.
The hunter wants to kill an elephant.
1. He goes to the King and asks permission.
2. The King gives him a boy.
3. The boy stops in the village, the hunter goes
into the bush.
4. When he kills the elephant he comes and tells
the King's boy what he has done.
5. The hunter then returns to cut up the elephant.
6. The leg nearest the ground when the elephant
falls is for the King.
7. The fore leg belongs to the village landowner.
8. The neck belongs to the hunter's wife.
9. The back round about the kidneys is for the
King's mother, Iyoba.
10. The upper fore leg to the hunter's boy.
1 1. The upper hind leg to the hunter.
12. The head belongs to the village boys who
accompany the hunter.
13. The two tusks and the King's leg are given
to the King's boy.
14. Some of the meat that is over is given to the
King's boy.
15. The hunter and the King's boy take the leg
and tusks to Benin city.
16. The village paramount chief takes them to the
King.
17. The King then takes one tusk and gives one to
the hunter,
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122 NIGERIAN STUDIES chap.
i 8. The hunter next states that he has no wife, the
King then may give him a woman or not, just as he
thinks well or not of. the hunter.
One of the causes that influenced the King was
whether the hunter always killed the large elephants
and left the small ones.
The King kept his tusk either as a juju, or for a
future present to a white man or some foreign chief
who visited him.
Should a hunter kill an elephant without permission
he would be arrested and fined.
" Obodo, Adji, and Oluku and others shot an elephant
without a license at Ubogwi. They refused to come
in, so the King sent Ogiromeci with plenty of boys
to arrest them ; one fought and escaped.
" When they came the King accused them of killing
an elephant, and as a punishment sent some of
them to Igwihollo and some to Igwinigbo to hunt
elephants for him, and kept them there for three
years.
"When the hunter (stranger) came he generally
brought a present for the King, but before he could go
before the King he had to ' dash ' (make a present to)
the paramount chief."
Hunters in Yorubaland have societies or guilds, and
they appear to be of two kinds, the Egbe Omode an
ordinary hunter's society, and the Egbe Oluri Ode
which has its headquarters at Abeokuta.
Ogbolo of Olokemeji was one of the four great
officers of the " Egbe Olori Ode," the other three
residing in Abeokuta^ The titles of the four are :—
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xii OGUN, OSHOWSI, AND THE HUNTER 123
1. Oyeshile, meaning the throne is vacant.
2. Bi eyi oku, If this is not dead.
3. Ojo, The afterbirth sticks to his head.
4. Ogbolo, meaning near the Ogun.
Their council is formed of six hunters and six assist-
ants. Thus it would seem that the hunters with their
great Orishas, Ogun and Oshowsi, have an " Ogboni "
on earth, the members of which, we may presume,
have their Orishas in heaven.
Ogbolo's son told me that the name of the first great
hunter was Akoka, but that the Orisha Ogun first
directed men to start hunting. He pointed out to them
also his sacred trees, the Peregun, Akoko and Atori :
and made them dig four holes and plant four sticks to
uphold a kind of altar or shelf, upon which they place
the heads of all animals they kill and where they also
sacrifice dogs to Ogun.
Ogun after Shango and I fa is perhaps the best
known or most popular Orisha in Yorubaland, and this
probably arises from the fact that in almost every village
there is a hunter or a number of them.
One hears Ogun's name constantly and he appears to
be the owner of some very potent medicine. As Ellis
says, " Any piece of iron can be used as a symbol of
Ogun and the ground is sacred to him because iron ore
is found in it." On a visit to the Asehin of Isehin I was
taken through various courts to the court where he
holds his palavers. I was astonished to find goats,
sheep, and women here, quite contrary to custom, and
the place was filthy. Across this court from north to
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124 NIGERIAN STUDIES chap.
south an iron chain was tightly stretched and pegged
down. Near the middle of this line was a stone newly
covered with the blood of a dog that had been sacri-
ficed. I asked what it meant and was told by the
Asehin that it was Ogun medicine.
In the palace yard at Akure and also in one of the
streets there are mounds of mud about three feet high
on the top of which lie large flat slabs of wood and
these they call Isi Ogun. They are sacrificial tables
where dogs are, and at times human beings were
sacrificed.
Ibegun, which is the name of the dog sacrificed, is also
worshipped at Akure. It is strange how the compan-
ions of the Orishas are sometimes talked of as wives,
sometimes as brothers. The following story given to
me by Asani an Egba describes Ogun and Oshowsi as
brothers.
Oshowsi.
Oshowsi and Ogun are two brothers, and when
they were young they were very wicked, and were
driven away from their home by Jakuta because they
refused to acknowledge his authority. They became
great hunters. The natives say that Oshowsi is
Ogun's wife, but this is not so, they were both the
sons of one father. Oshowsi used to go ahead and
Ogun followed. Oshowsi's real name is Olu fu si,
Ogun's other name was Ija, he that beats and fights
the game that Qshowsj points out to him. Oshu
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xii OGUN, OSHOWSI, AND THE HUNTER 125
osi x was a left-handed man. In this case Ogun and
Oshowsi are connected with the category Earth and
the occupation of hunting.
Ogun and the Blacksmith.
From the fact that the blacksmith has the same
Orishasasthe hunter it may perhaps be presumed that
the necessities of the calling of the hunter have, at
a much later period, brought his occupation into
existence.
He is an industrious and interesting person, and
does not like you to ignore him as you pass his
smithy. Tang, tang, tang, strikes his hammer on his
anvil as you approach, as if to say, " Here I am, a
cheery good day to you ! " and so you are invited to
go up to him and return his salute.
The mysteries of heat and cold, and light and dark-
ness have been revealed to him. He cannot, it is
true, explain them in words to you, for to him each
process is a mystery, and his language is still a poor
one from the European's standpoint.
But he has observed, and the knowledge is his.
See how the metal expands as it gets red hot
and contracts as it gets cold, and how, when he
thrusts the heated metal into water, evaporation and
condensation take place. He has seen all this a
hundred times. Again, heat dissolves and melts, and
cold consolidates and solidifies. He notes this daily.
Divided or broken bits of iron by heat and cold be-
1 Oshu osi is contracted into Oshowsi.
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ia6 NIGERIAN STUDIES chap.
come fused and conjoined and made hard. He
watches the ebullition of the molten mass which, as it
cools, subsides and passes from motion to rest. Activity,
inertness, energy, pressure, sensation, numbness, light
and darkness, are wonders that impress themselves
upon his receptive mind as he day by day manufac-
tures his hoes, knives, spear heads, and what not. It
will not surprise us at a later period if we find in the
philosophy of the Blackman an Orisha for each of
these phases in a natural process.
After reading Barbot's account of the blacksmiths of
his day in a description of the Coast of North Guinea it
is pleasant to turn to Mr. C. V. Bellamy's sympathetic
account of "A West African Smelting House." I
cannot help quoting largely from this very interesting
paper :
"Not far from Oyo, not more than three days'
journey from the coast, there is a small village whose
inhabitants have been engaged in the extraction of
iron for generations past, and where the methods
are the same probably as those practised by the
earliest workers in this metal They are
simple and unsophisticated, but they practise an art
which is unknown to the savage and which places
them high above him in the social scale, while it
entitles them to be considered to have reached a
higher degree of civilisation than many of the tribes
met with in European countries where the people
have been looked upon as domesticated.
" The shale is excavated with the aid of a rude
pick in pieces weighing from three to five pounds,
and is carried to the works for treatment.
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xii OGUN, OSHOWSI, AND THE HUNTER 127
" They first roast it over a fire of green
timber ; this is done during the night ; the next
morning it is pounded in a mortar. The poundings
are screened until there is nothing remaining in the
mortar, the sieve consisting of a native made basket
rather openly woven, and they are then borne away
to the river side for the purpose of washing or
panning .... The washed ore is conveyed to the
smelting house and poured into the kiln as occasion
may require, in a damp state."
For a description of the smelting house, the arrange-
ment of the shed, and the cupola, etc., I must refer you
to Mr. Bellamy's paper. 1
" Probably the most remarkable feature in the
whole of the process is the use of selected clinker
for a flux. This may throw light upon what is now
frequently a matter of doubt, namely, the medium
employed by the ancients in their smelting opera-
tions.
" The pig iron, after it has cooled down sufficiently,
is broken up into convenient lumps for the purpose
of sale or barter." This pig iron is sold to the
blacksmiths whose work Mr. Bellamy describes.
"The bellows consisted of a pair of circular
wooden bowls about a foot in diameter, connected
by an air passage constructed of the same, from
which two wooden pipes to do duty for the tue-iron
lead to the earth ; over the top of each bowl is
loosely secured an undressed goatskin, to which is
fastened in the centre of the bowl a long bamboo
rod, one of which is held in each hand.
1 To be found in the Royal Colonial Institute.
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i 2 8 NIGERIAN STUDIES chap.
" The skin is very slack, and by raising and lower-
ing the rod alternately a more or less continuous
current of air is supplied to the hearth. There is no
inlet valve to these bellows, and the air supplied
enters by the wooden tue-pipes, a space being left
between the hearth stone and the nozzles for the
purpose ; the bellows and hearth rest upon the
ground. . . .
" For heavier work a large smooth, undressed
and water-worn stone does duty for an anvil, but for
smaller work another anvil is provided like a silver-
smith's, made of metal produced locally. The
hammers look at first sight like so many rude lumps
of iron roughly handled with the same, but a closer
inspection shows them to be systematically shaped
and diamond-wise in section so as to expose a flat or
an edged surface by a single turn of the wrist ; it is
an ingenious pattern. . . . With such simple means
as these the smith puddles the iron which has been
smelted after the manner already explained.
" These smiths prefer their native iron to the bars
imported."
Mr. Bellamy continues, " Not the least important
feature in this industry is the marked regularity which
characterised each operation and the enthusiasm
which seemed to inspire the workers. Strangely at
variance with the usual custom of the Ethiopian,
there was no noise, no bustle ; no confusion ; no
sound but the hum of preoccupation was to be
heard throughout the whole village ; at the right
moment the kiln was prepared, and lighted, sealed
charged and drawn ; at the right moment
when the fire was drawn, little boys stood ready
with their calabash trays to take away the live
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xn OGUN, OSHOWSI, AND THE HUNTER 129
charcoal, and at the right moment they brought the
necessary green creepers with which to draw the pig
from the cupola, or water to quench the fire. All
this indicated systematic control and the strong hand
of authority, and method only acquired by long
practice and passed on from one generation to the
next.
K
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CHAPTER XIII
SEASONS
It is quite impossible to understand the philosophy
of the African without some knowledge of his seasons.
Meteorologically this is not very hard, at any rate, in a
place like Olokemeji where the seasons are marked.
A glance at the chart will be sufficient. It will be
noted that the year is divided into thirteen lunar months.
Many natives will tell you that there are fourteen
months in their year, but this we will explain further
on, we are now only considering the lunar months
as they are looked upon by many followers of
Ifa.
The Yoruba are now more or less skilled farmers
and live chiefly on the products of their farms, so far
as farinaceous food is concerned, but we know that
there was a time when they were far more dependent on
forest products. It is most remarkable how many
semi-wild products the natives have to fall back upon
which at one time their ancestors may have had to live
on almost entirely. And a great advantage is that, as
far as my knowledge goes, they are able to feed on either
the leaves or the fruit of most of the undermentioned
130
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CH. XIII
SEASONS
131
plants all the year round. The names of some of these
are the Ogunmo (?), the Oyo or Chorchorus olitorius,
the Awsun, one of the Solanacese, the Agbagba or
Musa sapientum var : paradisiaca, the Yanrin or
Lactuca sp, the Tete Aramanthus sp, the Ebolo or
Gynura sp, the Odu (?), the Ajefawu (?), the Ebure or
1 3
Native lunar months
3 48 67 89W
11 T2
13
(\
w
CD
I
2-00
1-SOJ
1-2S-
1
1
-75-
-50-
Gynura cernua, the Yangobi (?), the Ishapa or Hibiscus
sp, the I la or Hibiscus esculentus, the A win or the
Dialium guineensis and the Igba or the Parkia
filicoidea.
The end of the rainy season and the beginning of the
dry (about November) forms a kind of season by
itself and is called Odun (year). The farmers go on
k 2
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132 NIGERIAN STUDIES chap.
weeding their farms to give the crops of their second
harvest a chance. It is about the end of this season
that babies of parents married in the spring are born.
Before the long grass becomes dry and brittle they cut
and stack it for re-roofing their houses.
The Dry Season.
The dry season is divided into two sections of two
months each. White mists x cover the land, it is very
hot during the day, and the temperature during the
night falls as low as 5 2°, which we regard much
as you at home look upon your freezing point.
Bosman considered this great change of temperature
as the cause of much of the sickness on the coast :
" The unwholesomeness of this coast," he says, " in my
opinion, seems chiefly owing to the heat of the day
and coolness of the night, which sudden change I am
induced to believe occasions several effects in our bodies,
especially in those not accustomed to bear more heat
than cold, by too hastily throwing off their clothes to
cool too fast." Then Barbot tells us that " the air tho '
not so cold is much thinner and more piercing than in
England, and corrodes iron much faster." The cold
wind blowing from the East is called the Harmattan by
us and Oye by the natives, who liken it to a giant who
lives in a cavern somewhere to the North of Ilorin, or
then in the mountain Igebeti where the Devil rules
supreme.
1 It is possible that the ideas surrounding "Obatala" have been
connected with this whiteness in the heavens, which commences as soon
as the rains are over in November and December.
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xin SEASONS 133
The farmers now gather their second harvest of
corn, and that of beans and guinea-corn. They clear
land for their next season's crops, and burn the drying
bush they have already felled.
They now enjoy eating crickets, and the fruits of
the Idofin tree and Ketemfe are added to their veget-
able bill of fare. The leaves of the Ketemfe are
called Ewe iran, and they are used also for roofing
their houses.
This is their fishing season, when traps are placed
at the mouths of all small streams.
Part II.
This dry season (Erun) continues for the next two
months, but during the latter part of the second month
rumbling thunder is heard, and small rains fall. The
farmer goes on preparing the ground, and starts plant-
ing yams. They still eat crickets, and make good use
of the semi-wild products already mentioned. Fishing
of course goes on, but the long grass having been
burnt and the fresh herbage making its appearance,
this part of the dry season is the hunter's ideal time.
It is now perhaps time to consider the so-called
fourteen months of the ancient Yoruba year. We
have already pointed out the confusion in some
observers' minds concerning the four days of the
Yoruba week, which some say is composed of four
days, and some of five. This same mystification
recurs in the number of days said to complete one of
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Digitized by Microsoft®
136 NIGERIAN STUDIES chap.
their months. Some say that there are sixteen, and
others seventeen, days in a native month. The
natives, as we have already explained, rest on the
fifth day, that is to say, having counted four days,
they really rest on the first day of the next week,
counting that day as one. So in their next great
division of time they say that they rest on the seven-
teenth day, which is a great market day, and this is,
of course, the first day of what is their second so-
called month. Fourteen of these months completed
the ancient Yoruba so-called year. In other words,
the ancients only valued the rain season. It was the
first rumble of thunder that recalled the fisherman
and hunter to their huts, and caused them to com-
mence to count the days. They thought the father in
heaven had set his Forger Ogun to work to make his
thunderbolts so that he might carry on his war to
secure wives.
The ancient Yoruba then counted four weeks of
four days, and on the seventeenth day put one cowry
in a calabash or gourd, and when he had counted four-
teen of these he knew it was nearing the time when
his pregnant wife should bear him a child. That is to
say, the eighth month which he feared for his wife's
sake was now ended. This was the all-important part
of the year to him, the rest of the time after the birth
of his child he occupied in fishing and hunting. Thus
to him the year was composed of 4x4 x 14, or 224
days. And thus we hear of the Yoruba speaking of
his having fourteen months in his year, and the
traveller, concluding that he is referring to lunar
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xni SEASONS l37
months, is puzzled. And in many localities we still
find that it is only during the rain season that the
worship of local Orishas takes place. In asking
natives for the names of the months of the lunar
year seven or eight Orishas' names only have at times
been given to me. This seems to me to show that
the I fa lunar calendar system is of a later date, which
has not even yet, in many parts, become general.
We will now return to our lunar calendar.
The Rain Season.
The season of rain may be divided into two parts
separated one from the other by a little dry season.
The first section is composed of five lunar months of
rain, the latter of two lunar months, one nearly dry
month intervening.
The first two months of this section of the rains is
called Asheroh ojo. It is the tornado season when
thunder, lightning, wind and rain, and Jakuta, the
stone-thrower, all do their best to frighten the timid
into a proper consideration of their powers. And I
think no one of us who has experienced some of these
great storms will dare to say that on some occasion
or other a very loud clap of thunder has not made
him jump, as the saying goes. I remember once at a
place called Musuku on the Kongo river a man and
his wife and child were all struck senseless by thunder,
as they were not struck by lightning. Luckily, I have
never experienced any accident of this terrible nature,
but I have been caught in the bush by " Zaci and
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138 NIGERIAN STUDIES chap.
his twenty-four dogs," as they call thunder and light-
ning in the Kongo, and wished myself well out of it.
While on this subject I think we may all congratu-
late ourselves on not having been in Axim in the year
1693 or 1694, when, Bosman says, "the thunder broke
all the drinking glasses of the Factor's chamber, and
raised up his child with the bed under it, both which
it threw some feet distant, without the least hurt done.
What do you think, Sir ? Was it possible for a stone
to do this? I believe not." I think we are all wise
enough to-day to agree with Bosman, but the stone-
thrower, Jakuta, has a good deal to answer for in
Yorubaland.
At the beginning of this season the farmer plants his
first crop of corn and groundnuts, and later Bara, Igba,
and Agbe, or gourds used by them for all manner of
household purposes. Mushrooms are now added to
his bill of fare. This is the ancient season of
marriage.
The next two months compose the season when the
rainfall reaches its maximum. The farmer weeds and
keeps his farm as tidy as he can, but everything grows
apace, and he has to work hard if he wishes to reap a
fair harvest. He is rewarded towards the end of the
second month by being able to eat new corn. His main
crop, however, is left standing until it is quite dry,
which is not until the little dry season sets in, in the
next season. He gathers the fruit of the Emi ori or
Shea butter tree, and mushrooms are still to be
found.
This subdivision of the rain season is called Aga,
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xin SEASONS 139
probably because the corn has grown tall during the
last month. The Yoruba have a saying that the
woman who is married in the month of Aga will eat
pounded corn.
The Awori season is composed of one month of rain
and the little dry season. The farmer digs up his first
crop of yams, and gathers in his corn and ground nuts
and gourds. Before the rains have stopped he has
sown the seed for a second crop of corn, beans, ground
nuts, and guinea-corn and he also now sows cotton.
This is said to be a marriage season also, but it is
evidently a time of harvest.
The next two months are called the Arokuro season,
and, like the first two months of the rains, they are
tornado months. Farmers fell the bush for next year's
farms, and keep on weeding.
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CHAPTER XIV
OKE, OKO, AJESHALUGA, AND FARMING.
Farmland and Farmers, and the Orishas Oke, Oko and
Ajeshaluga.
Yorubaland may be divided into three great zones,
one of very little use to the farmer as farmland, but
of service to him as the zone that in the olden days
provided him with salt, i.e. the Mangrove belt. Here
the seaside inhabitant used to cut down the salt bush
and manufacture salt, which he sent with smoked fish
into the interior and exchanged for farm produce.
Here also oyster shells were burnt and lime made,
but this does not appear to have been used by the
farmers, and I think we may conclude that the
industry was acquired from the early white settlers.
The native farmers have long known that leguminous
crops nourish the land, but they have not yet learnt
the use of lime as a manure, although it is perhaps
the manure most needed in this country.
The next zone as you travel inland is composed of
evergreen tropical forests and mixed forests, in which
we find the excellent Egba farmers.
The third zone is that which is called the dry open
140
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ch.xiv OKE,OKO, AJESHALUGA, AND FARMING 141
forest, where the rainfall is from thirty to forty-five
inches per annum. For a full description of these
zones I must refer you to the Conservator of Forests'
Report on the Forest Administration of Southern
Nigeria for 1906.
The Yoruba call the forest land Igbo, the mixed
forest Odan, and the open grassland Pappa.
Forest land is generally felled during the latter rains
and the dry season.
In the open grass country the grass is burnt in the
dry season, and the land cultivated for three or four
years, and then allowed to lie fallow for some years,
but the forest land will stand from five to seven years'
crops, and even then water yams and plantains may
be grown on it. This land is then allowed to lie
fallow for two or three years, when it is again brought
into use for two or three years : then it used to be
allowed to lie fallow for twenty or thirty years. Farm
land is known as Oko, and fallow as Ashale.
The farmer also knows a great deal more about
soils than is generally credited to him. He prefers,
naturally enough, the good loamy forest land which
he calls Ebole, a stony loam he names Ebole olokuta,
the sandy loam Hero : then he talks of red and
black soils as Ilepa and Iledu. Clay he terms Amo,
and it is of a yellow colour, the white clay he calls
Amofunfun, and that which is mixed with sand and
cracks in the dry season is known by the name Tara.
Sand is called Yanrin.
It will be readily understood that in this study of
the native farmer I am not attempting to write an
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U2 NIGERIAN STUDIES chap.
up-to-date paper on the state of agriculture in
Southern Nigeria. On the contrary I am purposely
leaving out all mention of all our Agege and other
advanced planters, of whom we are all so justly proud.
I am, in fact, dealing only with the less favoured
so-called pagan farmer in his capacity as a worshipper
of certain Orishas.
The Egba farmer is a very pleasant and hospitable
man to meet, as well as most interesting. One of
these simple folk told me that when it was time
to fell the bush to make a new farm he gave a
present to his chief, and asked him to give him
some people to help. On the day fixed for their
coming he prepared food for them. They cut the
bush, and ate and drank at his expense. He and
his family then burnt the felled timber, and when
the first rains came he sowed corn. For two or three
years he planted corn and yams on this land, he
also planted beans with the corn. He said Ebole
land might be used for as many as ten or eleven years
before it was exhausted. Hero soil was good for
corn and yams for two or three years.
If the land belongs to the farmer the produce is
his own, but if he has been allowed to farm it by
the owner he has to give him a part of the product.
Before planting they generally offered some sacrifice
to their departed parents, and asked them to see that
their crops were successful. He said he knew a man
who, to get good beans, used to mix a powder with his
seed.
When yams begin to sprout, and the first leaves
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xiv OKE, OKO, AJESHALUGA, AND FARMING 143
begin to appear, women are not allowed to go on the
yam fields. A man at Ilaro, that he knew, was very
strict on this point, and prohibited all women from
walking through the fields, lest any with menses
should go, and so spoil the yam crop. He also told
me that the farmer's Orishas were Oke, Oko and
Ajeshaluga.
Agbolo's son, a great hunter and farmer, told me
that the farmers near Olokemeji had a society for mutual
help, called Aro or Owe. This was composed of four
great officers, Ashipa, Obawunju, Oluri and Ekesin,
and that these four were helped by a kind of Council
of twelve, composed of six Iwarefa and six Egbe
Iwarefa. It was a semi-religious society, and Ashipa,
when the rains failed, about April, was asked to offer a
sacrifice to Oke. They made a little mound of earth,
and planted bananas round it. They then killed a cock,
and took four kola nuts and placed them on the mound.
They next went home, and cooked some yams, and
pounded them into a kind of pudding. This they
carried to the mound, and taking the cock whose blood
had all soaked into the earth, they cooked it and ate it
with the yams. They also poured rum or gin or palm
wine on the mound. Then, as they danced and prayed,
the rain came. At the time of the new yams they sacri-
ficed to Oko, who was their Orisha of harvest. And
at the end of the year, when all their crops were stored,
they assembled in Ashipa's house, and he sacrificed to
the Orisha of wealth, Shaluga or Ajeshaluga. I visited
the Ashipa, and he confirmed this. I then asked him if
these three were the only Orishas the farmers wor-
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144 NIGERIAN STUDIES chap.
shipped, and he said " Yes." I mentioned that I had
been informed that Yemoja had thirteen children.
"Yes." I continued, "I can account for seven —
Olokun and Olosa, the Orishas of the fishermen ; Ogun
and Oshowsi, the Orishas of the hunters ; Oke, Oko x
and Shaluga, the farmer's Orishas ; could he tell me any-
thing about the others?" "Yes, Shango, Oshun, Obaand
Oya were marriage Orishas, and Shankpana was the
Orisha of sickness, and Dada the Orisha of babies and
things created." He was kind enough to refer to me to
one Odedaino, who, he said, could tell me all about
marriage.
Just as the farm Orishas, Oke and Oko, have become
associated with the marriage Orishas Shango and
Oshun, so the marriage Orisha Oya, one of the wives
of Shango, cannot well be separated from the farmers'
Orisha of wealth and colour, Ajeshaluga. In fact, the
literal meaning of the word Ya is to pluck Indian corn.
These Orishas will finally fall into their places, in
accprdance with the seasons they appear to influence,
^jje beginning of the rain, or Ashero ojo season, is
the old marriage season, thus Shango, the great
marriage Orisha/ and Oke, the rain Orisha, clearly
lead the way. Then we have the marriage Orisha,
Oshun, and the harvest Orisha Oko ruling the follow-
ing season of two months called Aga, leaving us with
Oya and Ajeshaluga as the gatherer and wealth maker
ruling the season of harvest of dry corn, and of all
fruit.
1 A minor Orisha is called Agbarigbo, who is said to be a guardian at
the gate or entrance on the way to the farm.
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xiv OKE, OKO, AJESHALUGA, AND FARMING 145
I mention this now, as I wish to be free to describe
the Orishas separately and independently of the
seasons under the heading of farmer or marriage.
Ajeshaluga
Ajeshaluga, or Shaluga, is a very interesting Orisha,
and it is easy to see why he is the farmers' deity, for
they were possibly the first to accumulate wealth.
The word Aje is translated " money " ; Aje means
trial by water, and Ajeh is a witch. (No doubt the
people envying the wealthy declared them to be witches,
and put them to trial by water. In the Congo even
the so-called " King," while he might own a large
house, had to reside in a small one, so as not to cause
the envy of his people. This, incidentally, may be one
of the reasons why the natives of Africa have never
advanced beyond a certain stage of civilisation.)
Shalu is to recur, and ga is to be tall, high : gan is to
despise.
The word seems to convey the idea of a stretching
out to add money to money. Naturally he presides
over money transactions, and Bishop Crowther quotes
a proverb "Aje Shalua, ofi eni iwaju sile she eni
ehin ni pele, ori ki awran ki aw tan : Aje often
passes by the first caravan, as it comes to the market,
and loads the last with blessings " (i.e. the race is not
always to the swift).
The prevailing colour in the market where wealth is
acquired is indigo blue, and in this way perhaps Aje
Shaluga has been and is the patron of colour. The
L
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146 NIGERIAN STUDIES ch. xiv
large cowry is his emblem. The Yoruba for cowry is
Owo, which also means money, wealth, trade, craft.
Weight is evidently also connected with wealth, as a
great number of cowries weigh a good deal, in fact the
word used for weight, heaviness, importance is Wuwo,
the act of increasing cowries.
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CHAPTER XV
ODUS OF IFA
The If a Priests and Odus
Just as it is necessary to know something of the
seasons before understanding the place the farm
Orishas take in the philosophy of the Yoruba, so
before touching on marriage we must pause and
consider the priests of I fa, and their system of divin-
ation.
The sixteen snails of Yemuhu (or Odudua), Oja
told me, became the head of Eleda, and apparently
in the worship of I fa sixteen (plus one) palm kernels,
or Odus, take their place. The Yoruba word for
a snail is Igbin, and the verb Gbin is to breathe with
difficulty, so that Igbin means literally that which
breathes with difficulty. Igba, you will remember,
is the calabash cut in two representing heaven and
earth, within which Obatala and Odudua were
enclosed. I quote later on a native legend from
Historical Notes of the Yoruba People by Mr. George,
where the breaking of Igba causes famine. Igba
also means the number 200, and is said to be the
calabash in which the 201 Odus of Ifa are kept.
147 l 2
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148 NIGERIAN STUDIES chap.
Awnomila is the Bini for Orunmila, another name
for I fa, and amongst those people it is the name
of a small basin wrapped in cloth containing the
Iviawnomila, or sixteen sacred palm nuts of I fa.
Bishop Johnson says: "He (Ifa) is represented
chiefly by sixteen palm nuts, each having from
four to ten, or more, eyelets on them. Behind
each one of these representative nuts are sixteen
subordinate divinities. Each one of the whole lot
is termed an Odu, which means a chief, a head. This
makes the number of Odus altogether 256. Besides
these there are sixteen other Odus connected with
each of the 256, and this makes the whole number
of Odus 4,096. Some increase this large number
still by a further addition of sixteen to each of the
last number of Odus, but the sixteen principal ones
are those more frequently in requisition.
" There is a series of traditional stories, each of
which is called a road and is connected with a parti-
cular Odu. Each Odu is supposed to have 1,680 of
these stories connected with it."
Bishop Phillips has collected about 105 of these
and given them to us in his little Yoruba book called
Ifa.
Ellis (pages 59-60 the Yoruba-speaking Peoples) says :
" For the consultation of Ifa a whitened board is
employed, exactly similar to those used by children
in Moslem Schools in lieu of slates, about two feet
long and eight or nine inches broad, on which are
marked sixteen figures. These figures are called
' mothers.' The sixteen palm nuts are held loosely
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XV
ODUS OF IFA 149
in the right hand, and thrown through the half closed
fingers into the left hand. If one nut remains in
the right hand, two marks are made, thus — u, and
if two remain one mark — 1. This process is repeated
eight times, and the marks are made in succession
in two columns of four each. In this way are formed
the sixteen mothers, one of which is declared by the
Babalawo to represent the enquirer ; 1 and from the
order in which the others are produced he deduces
certain results."
Ellis then gives the sixteen " mothers."
I obtained the order of the Odus from Oliyitan, an
I fa priest, and to make sure that the order was correct
so far as he was concerned, I asked him to give me
the order again about three months afterwards. As it
was exactly the same I have adopted this as correct.
It may therefore be of interest to give Bishop
Johnson's, Bishop Phillips', Colonel Ellis' and my list
side by side to see how far they agree.
Ellis'.
Johnson's.
Phillips'.
The Writers.
Ogbe
Ogbe
Ogbe
Yekuru
Oyekun
Oyeku
Oyeku
Iwori
Iwori
Iwori
Di
Edi
Odi
Odi
Loshu
Urosi
Iroshu
Iroshun
. • •
Owaran
Owourin
Owourin
. . •
Bara
Obara
Obara
■ ■ •
Okaran
Okauran
Okouron
Kuda
Ogunda
Oguda
Oguda
1 There are 16 plus 1 nuts, and as far as my information goes the 17th
the enquirer.
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i5o
NIGERIA!
si STUDIES
CHAP
Ellis'.
Johnson's.
Phillip's.
The Writer's.
Sa
Osa
Osa
Osa
Ka
Eka
Ika
Ika
Durapin
Oturupon
Oturupon
Oturupon
Ture
Eture
Otura
Otura
Leti
Erete
Irete
Irete
Shi
Ose
Oshe
Oshe
Fu
Ofu
Ofu
Ofu
Ellis mentions also the following Akala, Abila,
Orun, Ode, Buru. Bishop Phillips, in addition to the
above, gives — Ate, Tutu, Oka, Adoka, Egutan Oriko,
Egu, Sete, Dawo, Osutele, and Itegu.
On page 215 of At the Back of the Black Mans
Mind I give as one of the chalk marks renewed
on the first day of the week in front of the sacred
groves, the following :
I will now give you the reading of
this figure.
I fa is known by the name Owa,
the being whose advent filled men
with joy. He is also Orunmila, or
Heaven and the wise Reconciler.
In this figure the sun is called
Baba ye Omo, another name for I fa,
meaning " Father."
This is I fa in his character as the heavenly revealer,
the Sun, but he is also the propagator, and this is
where secrecy and darkness come in, so there is a line
drawn dividing the light side of his character from
that which is dark and secret. As I have pointed out,
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XV
ODUS OF IFA
151
he is here represented by Eshu, which is the next
figure, i.e. that of the new moon ; and this is called
Odu or Edu, that which is black, or, as they say, the
" one that troubles have made black." I have already
pointed out that Odu = Oshu, the moon ; Edu thus is
another form of Eshu, the devil, or I fa, as procreator.
Odu or Eshu is in the place of the Bashorun, as
President of the Council, and as he is helped by three
officers so Odu is helped by the three symbols repre-
senting the three stars. Their names are given as —
Ogbe Meji, the one that succours.
Oyeku ,, the one that heralds.
Iwori „ the one that sets.
Representing the treasurer, the messenger, and the
arbitrator.
As we have noted, there is always a questioner who
asks the Diviners something. In this case it is the
17th Odu, or the one that stands aside, and its name
is Odin or Edi. The verb Di = Da to make or create.
Thus we can conclude that the questioner asks, "What
about Creation ? " Taking the order as given to me
by the Babalawo the answer is :
Iroshun
Owourin
Obara
Okoron
Ognda
Osa
Ika
Oturupon
water
filtration
that which drizzles
that which bears the oil \
seed Egusi J-earth
the dry bed of a river /
that which pounds and -\ , .
, Imarriage
and jrain
creates
that which dries
evaporates
he who reaps, harvest
he who gathers
) f
j-lst harvest ■!
in making of
man " Con-
ception "
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152 NIGERIAN STUDIES chap.
Otura
Irete
■translated to me as ease,
happiness, hope, when
there is no anxiety -
about food, a time of
fruitfulness
'in the making of man,
the time when the
woman shows signs
of pregnancy and
she is happy and
hopeful
(to appear in the "|
wrong month J. pain, suffer-
without being I ing, travail
expected
Taking these Odus in the order thus given to me,
and remembering the order of the seasons, there can
be no doubt that they tell us of the order of propaga-
tion ; neither can one doubt from the literal translations
given that the categories and their order which I
discovered to be at the back of the Black man's mind
in the Congo are also at the back of the mind of the
Yoruba Babalawo. But this will be more plainly seen
when I have finished describing the parts that the
offspring of Yemoja fill in the " Ogboni " of the
Orishas.
According to Bishop Johnson in his " Yoruba
Heathenism," there are three grades of Babalawo (see
page 251 At the Back of the Black Mans Mind),
but I fa's Ogboni is composed of the following priests :
Babalawo, Olowo, Odofin, Asawo.
Ajighona and assistant ) , „• , .,.
A J ° } who oner human sacrifice.
Awaro ,, ,, )
Aro
Asarepawo,, ,,
Apetebi or Ayawo and assistant.
N.B. Bishop Johnson, in Yoruba Heathenism, tells us the priestess
called Apetebi, Esu or Ayawo, who may in reality be the wife of a priest
or of anyone for whom a sacrifice is to be offered, is regarded as the wife
of Orunmila or Ifa.
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xv ODUS OF IFA 153
I have not discovered the name of the sixth and his
assistant.
The place these priests take in marriage and birth
ceremonies will shortly be shown under the chapter
headed " Marriage." We have had a " flood " story,
and noted the part played by I fa in making the world
fit again for human habitation. In the following
extracts from Mr. George's story of the breaking of
Igba at Ife, Ifa as Orunmila plays a notable part in
the fall of man, his punishment by famine, and his
salvation.
As Mr. George says, all I fa's sayings generally
open with some sort of aphoristic verse which in-
variably explains the whole object of the piece. Thus,
the first verse tells how all the world met in the
King's courtyard to discuss the cause of the breaking
of the world-renowned Igba, or calabash, of Ife.
1 . They called Awlawta to come and put it together
again, but he could not.
2. Beni ado from Ife
3. Owo from Etu
4. Ogun also is sent for ; which means that war was
declared over this breakage.
But none of them could put the calabash together
again.
People farmed and waited for the rain, but none
came. Then hunger came, and man and beast mourned
for their dead.
5. The Obalufon from Iyinde.
6. Laberinjo from I do.
7. Jigure from Otun Moba.
8. Esegba, an Egba.
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V were called.
154 NIGERIAN STUDIES chap.
9. Asadu from Ijesa.
10. Akoda from Ife.
11. Aseda Araba (the law-giving cotton tree), their
father.
All these could not put the calabash together again.
Then the pigeon weakens in the Eselu bush.
The snail does the like in the bamboo, etc.
They could not put the calabash together again.
They call
12. Olumo from Imori.
13. OgunofAlara.
14. Ogbon of Ijero.
15. Odudugbundu of Eshemaiva, the Awbawle
bogun Baba wow Ketu Er, the father devil who lived
in Ketu.
But all these could do nothing.
To continue, in verse 3 the people call in
1. Akonilogbon, and
2. Afonahanni, and ask their assistance.
They advised them to call in
3. Ototo Enia, the truthful one. They asked him
to call Olofin. He refused. But the people re-
minded him " that from the beginning at the creation
of the world this duty of trumpeter to the man from
heaven was specially laid on him. Then he blew his
trumpet, and the elephant went quickly to the Eselu
bush, the wild ox to Elugu apako, the bird Kekeke
flies to the ale plant, the rat runs to its hole, the beans
to the brook, the dog to the land of meditation, the
sheep to the country of stupidity, all beasts go to
beastland, beings go to the land of beings." In fact,
as when Oro is sounded all non-members of the
Society fly to their homes.
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xv ODUS OF IFA 155
1. And Ajalaiye, he who strives with earthly affairs,
2. And Ajalorun, he who strives with heavenly
affairs.
3. Ajirilogbon, he who strives with matters con-
cerning sight and wisdom.
The people confess their filth, and pray that he
should patch the broken calabash, and Ajirilogbon
tells them to go and find the leaf of a tree called
Ewe-Alashuwalu (which is said to be capable of re-
modelling a man's evil character). They cannot find
it. He then takes it out of the bag of Egede (the bag
of deep mystery), and mends the broken Igba of Ife,
and rain falls, and so heals all the people, and stops
the calamity from causing further harm.
And in this way we find that I fa and his priests are
not only concerned with marriage, but also with the
rains and the sin that prevents them falling in due
season.
This story of the breaking of the calabash and the
calling of all these worthies to patch it reminds one
of the story of Humpty Dumpty, and how all the
king's courtiers and all the king's men could not put
Humpty Dumpty together again.
With this short account of I fa, his priests and their
Odus, we will close this note and proceed to describe
the marriage Orishas.
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CHAPTER XVI
SHAN GO OYA OBA — OSHUN
Marriage
In African Life and Customs (page 22) that remark-
able African author, Dr. E. W. Blyden, speaking
of Jamaica, says : " Now it is into this region of the
globe so hostile to the most vigorous European life
that Anglo-Saxon incuriousness has introduced the
marriage laws of Europe, with the result that during
the last three hundred years very few Europeans, if
any, born in those islands have achieved anything like
an international reputation. And why ? Their mothers
have not observed the regulation period of rest and
reserve which African mothers enjoy. They were
tired when the children were born, and the children
have suffered the same inability. There have been
exceptional cases of noted men born in the West Indies
sufficiently distinguished to be honoured by their
sovereign with the Companionship of the Bath and
with Knighthood, but these were men of mixed blood,
who were born practically under polygamic conditions,
whose mothers enjoyed the necessary period of
rest."
156
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ch. xvi SHANGO— OYA— OBA— OSHUN 157
There is possibly a good deal of truth in Dr.
Blyden's argument, but the question of mixed blood,
and of passion, must not be ignored as possible factors
in these cases. Trying to look at this from a Black
man's point of view.^cannot forget the fact that not
only among the Bavili (now in Congo Francais), but
also in the kingdom of Benin, and without doubt
among the Yoruba, it is and was the custom for the
daughters of the king to cohabit with such men as
they chose without going through any marriage
ceremon^V'Tt was from these daughters of kings that
the people expected an heir to the throne, and they
naturally wanted the best product possible. Un-
restricted love thenwas the method by which this
result was obtained/ In nearly all the temples the
Orisha to which it is dedicated is figured as a king,
and he is surrounded by the principal officers of his
court. What more natural than that he also should
have daughters to propagate his divine race ?
In Bosman's description of the Slave Coast, letter
XIX, he writes : — "The women who are promoted to
the degree of priestesses, though some of them perhaps
were but slaves before, are yet as much respected as
the priests, or rather more, insomuch that they pride
themselves with the name of God's children ; and as all
other women are obliged to a slavish service to their
husbands, these on the contrary exert an absolute sway
over them and their effects, living with them perfectly
according to their arbitrary will and pleasure ; besides
which, their husbands are obliged to show them so
much respect, as they received from their wives before
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158 NIGERIAN STUDIES chap.
their becoming priestesses, which is to speak to and
serve them upon 'their knees." I do not think that
Bosman is quite correct when he says that these girls
were perhaps slaves.
Coming a little nearer home, Ellis in his Yoruba-
speaking People (page 78), writes : — " There is an
annual festival to Orisha " Oko," held when the
yam crop is ripe and all then partake of new yams.
At this festival general licence prevails, the priestesses
give themselves indiscriminately to all the male
worshippers of the god, and theoretically every man
has a right to sexual intercourse with every woman
he may meet abroad." I do not think that Ellis is
quite right in saying that the priestesses give them-
selves indiscriminately to all the male worshippers,
at any rate as far as my enquiries go. "They, as
bride daughters of the Orisha, cohabit only with
those whom they may love of the male worship-
pers." It is a fact, however, that on these feast
days, in certain large towns, indiscriminate licence
prevails among the rest of the people.
There are two Orishas who have these bride
daughters acting as priestesses, Oke and Oko. 1
1 On Orisa Oko Keribo says, in his pamphlet published August 22nd,
1906, pp. 26 and 27 : —
" His name was ' Kubia.' He was a king and a tyrant. He was
poisoned by one of his subjects and was leprous. His people thereafter
built him a hut in the farm \oko\ and as he was reluctant to leave home,
kingly reverence was promised him in this retreat. This promise was
fulfilled, so that after his death men repair thither to worship him. The
white and red marks used by its devotees indicate the chalk and camwood
he is in the habit of using to conceal the leprous spots in their initial
stage."
In a word, according to this tradition, " Orisha Oko " was a leprous king.
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xvi SHANGO— OYA— OBA— OSHUN 159
Oke and Oko as farm Orishas are worshipped in
the outer districts without any of these phallic
ceremonies. But at the yearly festival at Ibadan
and Abeokuta these priest daughters exist. It is
still considered a great honour to the family to get
one of their daughters elected to the office, which
is hereditary in certain families ; and most of the
members of the family, even the husband, feel
honoured by contributing to the fund to cover the
expense incurred.
The rites connected with Oke and Oko are
evidently intended, as Dr. Frazer has pointed out
in his book, " Adonis, Attis, Osiris," to ensure the
fruitfulness of the ground and the increase of
man and beast on the principle of homoeopathic
magic.
In an interesting discussion in the African Mail
on the marriage question in Africa, a correspondent,
signing himself " A Negro Lover of Consistency,"
poured out the vials of his wrath on the head of
the departed Col. Ellis, and spoke of the passage
quoted above and such stories about the African as
"spurious bosh." I am not quite prepared to credit
On the same god F. S., in the Nigerian Chronicle of the 26th of March,
says : —
" Orisha Oko's name was ' Kubiya.' His first occupation was to catch
wild guinea fowls and sell them. He afterwards became a physician, and
was such an extraordinary man that his powers were considered super-
natural. He resided in a village where all men came to him, for he was
a very skilful medical man and diviner. He was called Orisa-Oko
[' Village god '] because he lived in a village."
Here Orisha Oko was originally a trapper and guinea fowl seller and
ultimately a physician.
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160 NIGERIAN STUDIES chap.
this " Lover of Consistency " with a proper motive
in thus attacking a man no longer able to defend
himself, whom he believed to be a kind of enemy
of his race, but I can pity him as the product of
a spurious form of Christianity which thinks that
by hiding the past, his race is, in some magical
way, benefited. He is like that son full of false
pride who is ready to inherit the wealth and position
his father has left him, but is ashamed of his humble
origin. Great teachers not only have great ideals
to which they lead the minds of their disciples, but
they also know all about the past, and so are able
to warn them of the pitfalls they must try to shun.
The best way to learn how to appreciate the
beauties of a purely spiritual religion is by trying
to grasp all the beauties in a natural one. The
spiritual simply uplifts and fulfils the natural.
When these two great festivals were first instituted,
it must be remembered, wars between village and
village, town and town, were the rule, but upon
these days all united, and, under the protection of
these Orishas, met on more or less an equal footing.
It reminds one of the description given by an old
Arabist writer of the Hajj : — " It (the festival)
formed the rendezvous of ancient Arabian life.
Here came under the protection of God the tribes
and clans which at other times lived apart, and
only knew peace and security within their own
frontiers. Here affairs between states or tribes
were transacted and adjusted. Of course lively
proceedings and dealings went on between indi-
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xvi SHANGO— OYA— OB A— OSHUN 161
viduals, for this was the single opportunity when
men could move freely in and out among one
another without fear. Here slaves are bought or
redeemed, acquaintances made and courtships
arranged between men and women of different
tribes, which could otherwise never be carried on."
The difficulty of obtaining wives in small villages
without incest is one of the possible causes of the
founding of these farm festivals. We must all
remember the difficulty of the sons of Benjamin.
'Then the elders of the congregation said, "How
shall we do for wives for them that remain,
seeing that the women are destroyed out of
Benjamin ? "
"'And they said, "There must be an inheritance
for them that be escaped of Bejamin, that a tribe
be not destroyed out of Israel."
" ' Howbeit we may not give them wives of our
daughters : for the children of Israel have sworn,
saying, " Cursed be he who giveth a wife to
Benjamin."
"'Then they said, "Behold there is a feast of the
Lord in Shiloh yearly in a place which is on the
north side of Bethel, on the east side of the high
way that goeth up from Bethel to Shechem, and
on the south of Lebonah."
" ' Therefore they commanded the children of
Benjamin, saying " Go and lie in wait in the vine-
yards ; and see, and behold, if the daughters of
Shiloh come out to dance in dances, then come
out of the vineyards, and catch you every man his
M
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1 6a NIGERIAN STUDIES chap.
wife of the daughters of Shiloh, and go to the land
of Benjamin."
" ' And the children of Benjamin did so. In those
days there was no king in Israel : every man did
that which was right in his own eyes.'
However pure and good the intention of the
founders of these feasts may have been at the time
of their inauguration, it is certain that in course of
ages the beauty of the original idea was lost and
they possibly became the orgiastic festivals in this
part of Africa that we know they became in Greece
and Italy in days gone by. And now that peace
reigns here and roads and railways are opening
the country, native public opinion is fast siding
against all that is evil in these customs, and they are
once again assuming their true aspect in the form
of " prayers for rain in due season," harvest thanks-
givings, and agricultural shows.
The Orisha Oke may well be called the titular
goddess of Ibadan. When the chiefs of that place
were asked what animal or sign they would like
as an emblem to figure on the medals to be given
away at their agricultural show, they unanimously
selected Oke. They had the photograph of a fine
looking woman taken, her breasts exposed, and
her arms raised towards heaven, as if to welcome
her children. A picture of fruitfulness. She is the
hill Orisha, connected with fire. Her festival used
to be held when the land was at its driest and
rain was most required to quench its thirst. She
would appear to a man in a dream and tell him
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xvi SHANGO— OYA— OB A— OSHUN 163
to go to the Bale and ask him to fix a day for the
feast. Perhaps the Bale would take no notice,
and then she would visit another man in a dream
and ask him to go. If the Bale hesitated she
threatened to send fire down from heaven to burn
his house and cause him a great loss. She sometimes
demanded a man as a sacrifice, sometimes 200 pigeons,
sometimes a bullock or a sheep. Notice would be
sent round to all the villages and the day stated.
Everyone had to be in the town the day before
the date fixed. Anyone coming into the town
on the day of the festival would be robbed of all
he might be bringing with him. No trade was done,
and the Bale threw money away among the crowds
of people, who, in bands of males and bands of
females of different ranks and ages, paraded the town,
throwing open their cloths as they met as if to
invite copulation. Wives told their husbands that
they were going to play and they allowed them to go,
and the wives picked out the men they fancied and
cohabited with them. Bands of women passing down
the streets sang : —
Septeni nascimur, utinam et ipsa septem pariam :
I do niger est, uterus penitus ruber,
Uterus duobus milibus concharum constat, sed
penis quindecim tantum conchis.
Eum cui penis est penem condere oportet, quod
uterum medio in corpore habeo.
Foris est mater olearii
Foris est pater olearii
Filius natu maximus olearii
M 2
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164 NIGERIAN STUDIES chap.
Sub porticu dormit.
Tollo pannum et insero :
" Kerekere " sonit, etpenem quaerere os uteri sentio.
At the foot of the two hills from which Olokemeji
takes its name there is an altar to Oke, and there
is a cavern in the rocks at Abeokuta in which Oke
is said to be worshipped. The Egba say that
if they were defeated in war they could retire into
this cave and it would hermetically seal itself up
until the danger were passed.
The Orisha Oko, or harvest god, whose emblem is
an iron rod and who has the title of "eni duru," or the
erect person, is more in evidence at Abeokuta than
elsewhere. His festival is held about August. His
bride daughters, like the daughters of kings, may
cohabit with whom they please. These Iyawo Orisha
have a red and white mark on their foreheads. The
office is hereditary, but when the mother dies I fa is
consulted as to which of her daughters is to take her
place. The family collects from ^40 to ^50 to cover
the expenses of the initiation ceremony. They make
a shed in the bush and keep the girl there for three
months. She is given what she fancies, and feasting
goes on all the time. She is washed every day, and
the marks are renewed by a male and a female
attendant, called respectively " Baba losha and Iya
losha." After three months they wash her and paint
her head, arms and feet red and white. The people
then sing and dance around her and prostrate them-
selves before her for seven days. She is now called
Olu Orisha Oko.
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xvi SHANGO— OYA— OBA— OSHUN 165
From the fact that these farm Orishas only become
phallic in the great centres of population, I am
i^H inclined to think that this phallic worship is a develop-
ment that only came about when people began to live
in large towns, where great feasts were held.
Agbolo had referred me to one Odedaino as an
expert on the marriage question, so to him I went for
enlightenment on this burning topic. He said they
knew a girl was ready for marriage, as then she first
had her menses (aseh). Girls were given in marriage
sometimes as babies. Two families wished to be
drawn together, and they agreed that their children
should intermarry. A boy or a man took a fancy to a
child and asked the parents through his parents for
their child in marriage. The first thing the father of
the girl did was to consult Ifa. Ifa's priest (Babalawo)
having been called in, he proceeded to divine as
explained in the chapter on Ifa. Then if " Eji ogbe "
turns up, the engagement may take place ; but if Osa
or Ofu turn up, the Orisha not being in its favour,
the application is not accepted. If the Orisha is pro-
pitious, the boy presents the parents with nine yams
and 100 heads of corn, 1 and repeats this offering
yearly. He also makes a sacrifice to Ifa. At the
proper time the boy presents himself before the
parents of the girl and says, " Now she is ready, give
her to me."
The parents again consult Ifa, who may put off the
marriage for a year.
In the olden days marriages took place at the
1 This present appears to vary in different districts.
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166 NIGERIAN STUDIES chap.
beginning of the rains, but as there was very little
food in the house at that season the time was changed
to the time of the harvest of the new yams, which was
a time of great rejoicing (Orisha Oko), and the second
planting season. When the parents have given their
consent, and the young man has come to claim his
bride, he must sacrifice to his Orisha : and on the
day of his marriage he must sacrifice to his bride's
Orisha. The parents give their daughter a white
handkerchief and take her to the bridegroom's house.
She is dressed in costly clothes, beautiful beads around
her neck and waist, silver chains around her neck, and
rings on her fingers. As she is supposed to be a
maiden, plenty of rum and kola is presented. On the
third day the wife goes back to her parents and takes
the white handkerchief with her. If it has blood on it
all is well, but, if not, she is asked to say who seduced
her. The seducer has then to give damages to the
would-be husband, who may refuse to acknowledge
her as his wife. The chiefs on the husband's side
settle the amount of damages. If, on the other hand,
all is well, then they worship the Orisha called Ori
(head) and the girl becomes the young man's wife.
And if after a time she does not conceive, they give
her medicine called " Idadure," and they ask the girl's
Orisha to help them, and if this fails they then say it
is the fault of the man, and they give him another girl
so as to prove it. And if the latter does not conceive
then they are sure that it is the man's fault. They
next ask him to take medicine, and, after a certain
time, if neither of the girls conceive, they take them
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xvi SHANGO— OYA— OB A— OSHUN 167
away, and the man who eventually marries the girl
pays back the dowry to the sterile would-be husband.
From the time of marriage to the time of birth there
are no Orisha ceremonies, but when the child is born
they ask the priest to what Orisha they owe this good
fortune, and when he tells them they sacrifice to it.
Three days after the birth they call in the priest and
ask him to name the child's " Ese entele " or foot-
prints. The Babalawo consults I fa, who, as the priest
mentions an Orisha, shakes his head until that which
is to become the guardian spirit of the child is men-
tioned. The child, as soon as it is able, fetches water
for this Orisha and sacrifices to it on all great occasions
during its life. If Obatala is the Orisha then the
child must wear white and must not drink palm wine
nor eat dog. The grand -parents as well as the parents
on the safe delivery of their child each thank their
separate Orishas. The priest gives the mother
medicine for the preservation of the child. If it be
a girl, a name is given to it on the seventh day, if a
boy, on the ninth.
Except that it is never done in the dry season, and
generally before the tenth year, there is no special time
for circumcision of the boy, or the excision of the
girl's clitoris, but the ceremony is performed when the
child is in good health, and it is marked with its tribal
marks on the same day.
Bosman in his description of the Kingdom of Benin,
which is an offspring of the Yoruba, says : " Eight or
fourteen days after the birth of their children, both
male and females are circumcised, the former are
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1 68 NIGERIAN STUDIES chap.
thereby bereft of their prepuce and the latter of their
clitoris, besides which they make small incisions all
over the bodies of the infants, in a sort of regular
manner expressing some figures thereby."
/ Bala Mimi, who accompanied Odedaino when this
information was given to me, told me that the only
marriage Orishas born of Yemoja were Shango and
his wives Oya, Oba and Oshun, while Dada, Shango's
brother^otherwise called Bayoni, was rather an Orisha
of birth/)
(Ellis gives us a very good description of the Orisha
Shango ; he says : "He dwells in the clouds in an
immense brazen palace, where he maintains a large
retinue and a great number of horses." The Oni-
Shango or priests of Shango in their chants always
speak of Shango as hurling stones, and whenever a
house is struck by lightning they rush in a body to
pillage it and to find the stone, which, as they take it
with them secretly, they always succeed in doing. A
chant of the Oni-Shango very commonly heard is : —
" Oh, Shango, thou art the master. Thou takest in thy
hand thy fiery stones, to punish the guilty and satisfy
thy anger." Everything that they strike is destroyed.
Their fire eats up the forest, the trees are broken
down, and all living creatures are slain, and the lay
worshippers of Shango flock into the streets during a
thunderstorm crying : — " Shango, Shango, great King.
Shango is the Lord and Master. In the storms he
hurls his fiery stones against his enemies, and their
track gleams in the midst of' the darkness." "May
Shango's stone strike you," is a very common form of
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xvi SHANGO— OYA— OB A— OSHUN 169
imprecation. He usually goes armed with a club
called Oshe, made of the wood of the ayan tree, which
is so hard that a proverb says : — " The ayan tree
resists the axe."
His male followers are called Odushushango and
the female Esin nla (the great horse).
I happened to meet an Odushushango, named
Idowu, who gave me the following information.
Jakuta is the name of Shango's day. Shango is
the Alafin of Oyo's great Orisha and is sometimes
called Oba Kuso, the king of Kuso, a hill near Oyo
which is sacred to him.
Another name is Alada Ogun, the one who splits
the mortar that Ogun is said to wear on his head.
Ako aja abinrinja lese, the ako dog that walks
as one about to fight. Aja jumoni koto kpanije,
the one who frightens one before he kills and eats
him. Olilu tun ilu re she, one who puts his town
in order. Ebi ti ka waw ponyin shoro, the one who
with his hands behind his back does him an injury.
Akuwarapa abija kaka, the one who has fits and
is extraordinarily strong.
His wife Oya 1 is she who runs on ahead
when Shango goes out to fight, the strong tornado
wind.
Oshun is the gathering darkness and Oba the
wild clouds that meet. These two stay at home
to keep house.
They sacrifice the cow, the sheep and the cock
1 Oya is said to be the river spirit of the river Niger, and Bishop
Crowther describes her as the wife of Thunder.
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170 \ .NIGERIAN STUDIES chap.
to Shango.]! I His sacred tree is the Ayan from
which his/ staff is made. His ewaws are the
Sese (beans), the Eligidi (pumpkin), the Esuro
(antelope), the Ekun (rabbit), and the Eku ago
or white-bellied rat which the Alafin -of Oyo is
seen at times to raise to his lips as if to kis»s/
Two days after my visit to Akure, where I saw
the people preparing to worship Eshu while at Ipetu,
just after I had finished talking to the chiefs, dancers,
singers and drummers, followed by a crowd, came
prancing to my tent, in a cloud of dust, and I was
informed that the followers of Shango were preparing
to hold their feast. So in this district the feast
of Shango follows close after, or about the same
time as, that of I fa. A very tall and graceful looking
woman, a priestess of Shango, closely followed by
a man, both rattling some seeds in a long-necked
gourd, and three or four women attendants, commenced
dancing in front of my tent. They said this woman
represented Shango. She was dressed in a blouse
of a dark colour and skirt of white. Over this
skirt, hanging from her waist, she wore pieces of
cloth and velvet six inches in width, and perhaps
two feet in length. Her hair was dressed in a series
of rolls running from her forehead to the back of
1 Shango— Bishop Johnson says that he is a deity imported from the
Niger. Col. Ellis says he is the son of Yemoja, the daughter of Odudua
and Obatala. Oja called him the son of Oranyan. As pointed out by
Idowa, Kuso near the town of Oyo is where Shango has his sacred grove.
Mr. E. P. Cotton in his report on the Egba boundary says that Shango
was the fourth king or Alafin of the Yoruba. According to the Ibadan
hunter, Alara (the owner of thunder), was one of the 16 sons of
Oranyan.
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xvi SHANGO— OYA— OB A— OSHUN 171
her head, the largest being near the crown of her
head. I was told that she was collecting money
towards the expenses of the coming feast. Generally
seventeen days' notice are given, so that the feast
of Shango in these parts, it will be noted, takes
place at the beginning of the tornado season.
During the festival the Odushushango dance, carrying
pots of fire on their heads, and this fire they say
cannot be quenched by water. The hair of these
men is allowed to grow long and is arranged like
a woman's. Although this of course gives them
an effeminate appearance I am not able to attach
any homosexual act to the custom. They certainly
are credited with magical powers and they are rather
honoured than hated.
SHANGOyP^
Told by Mr. Pellagrin
Shango is a man like myself, and when young
could not be controlled by his parents, so they left
him to his rascality. He used to waylay people
on the roads and kill them, so all the Orishas (201)
tried to find him, each giving one man. They
heard he was at Egbe. They met him there. He
said he was tired of running away, he would see
what they could do. Ogun said he would catch
him, so he took his pincers and ran after him ;
then Shango sent Thunder against him, but Ogun
caught her in his pincers. Shango said he could
not allow anyone to catch him, so he left his bow
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172 NIGERIAN STUDIES chap.
at Egbe, and ran away. So he is called " Oja ja
forun ti l'egbe," the man who fought greatly and
left his bow at Egbe. Then all the 201 repre-
sentatives went and told Odudua, their chief. Then
Odudua ordered them to go back and catch him.
They went, but he told them that they would not
see him again, and he took a chain and knocked
the earth, and it opened and he went below. He
said they would hear of him for ever. Then they
returned to tell Odudua, and he said as Shango
had left the earth he was glad. Odudua took the
Thunder from Ogun, and gave him a sword to kill
anyone who came his way. Then they met to
arrange who should go on earth to repair the damage
Shango had done, and they elected Truth. And
when he arrived he began to use his influence.
When a child died he visited the parents and told
them that as human beings they would all die.
This kind of comfort they did not care for, so they
sent to Odudua, and told him that Truth did not
agree with them, so Odudua took Truth away from
them. He asked them which Orisha they wanted,
and they said the Iro (He), who made images and
carved eyes, nose, ears, mouth : they said he would
have sense to rule over them. Odudua gave them
Iro to rule them. And when one falls sick and
goes to him he tells them to gather such and such
a leaf, and make medicine and take it, and the fever
will go away. If he hears anyone fighting he hears
both sides, and settles it. When they saw that
matters went well with them like this, the chief
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xvi SHANGO— OYA-OBA— OSHUN 173
of them was called " Ajalorun " (See I fa) — one
who fights in heaven. This Ajalorun sent to Odudua
and asked that the name of Iro should be changed to
Orishala. Ajalorun and Odudua are of the same
mother, Ajalorun being the younger. Ajalorun
called Iro Orishala, alaba la she, iku pa ni pori.
(Orishala means the great Orisha, Alabalashe, one
who commands [the Balogun], Iku pa ni pori,
Death kills us and kills the head). Then Orishala
began to reign in the world, and made eyes, nose,
mouth, ears, head, etc., for them all. And then
the people began to hear Shango in heaven.
Shan go
Shango is Odudua's son and a rascal, and he ran
away. Then Odudua sent to Oshala and Ogun, his
sons, to find out the truth about Shango. And they
fought with him, but they could not catch him ; so
they told Odudua. He used to cut a leaf and chew
it, and then fire came out of his mouth, and people
ran away. Then Odudua called a meeting, and asked
who would catch him, and Ogun volunteered. He
met him at Egbe. They fought : he left his bow
there, and went to Kuso. Then they went to tell
Odudua, and he said they must catch him, and so
they went to Kuso, and Shango said he would not
see them. He threw his chain to heaven, and it
opened for him, and he disappeared. And there he
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174 NIGERIAN STUDIES chap.
thundered and lightened, and everyone began to
worship him.
Oshun
Told by Shotundi of Abeokuta
Oshun is a woman slave of one Oshunmakide, whose
name before being bought was Omujo. She then
became Oshunmakide's second wife. The master first
asked her what she could do, and she answered that
the only thing she knew how to do was to dance, so
he called her Omujo. And he allowed her to dance,
and while doing so she displayed magical powers
by changing her dress in the presence of everyone
instantaneously. When the first wife saw this, think-
ing that her husband would love Omujo more than
her, one day as she was dancing she used some charm
and turned her into water. Then the husband and
the people, thinking that this was part of her per-
formance, waited, expecting her to resume her position
as a woman. And when this did not occur the
husband wept bitterly, and all the people went home.
Afterwards the husband married another woman, and
she bore him no children ; then he went to the Baba-
lawo and asked how this was ? And he said, " You
have got a woman that became water, and so the
new wife must worship water before she can have a
child ; and they must call the water Oshun. * And
when worshipping it she must call out ' Omujo logun
rora gungoke, rora gun okuta : ' O dancer warrior !
1 Oshun is one of the principal rivers in Yorubaland.
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xvi SHANGO— OYA— OB A— OSHUN 175
go gently up the hill, go gently up the rock." And
the wife worshipped Oshun in this way, and had
children.
The Ewaw of the Yoruba.
J. G. Frazer, in an article, " Howitt and Fison," in
"Folk Lore," Vol. XX., No. 2, page 179, referring
to the Australian class system says : " But if the
system was devised to prevent the marriage of
brothers with sisters, of parents with children, and
of a man's children with his sister's children, it seems
to follow that such marriages were common before
the system was instituted to check them ; in short,
it implies that exogamy was a deliberate prohibition
of a former unrestricted practice of incest, which
allowed the nearest relations to have sexual inter-
course with each other. This implication is confirmed,
as Messrs. Howitt, Spenser and Gillen have shown
for the tribes of central Australia, by customs which
can be reasonably interpreted only as a system of
group marriage or as survivals of a still wider prac-
tice of sexual communism. And as the custom of
exogamy combined with the classificatory system of
relationship is not confined to Australia, but is found
among many races in many parts of the world, it
becomes probable that a large part, if not the whole,
of the human race have at one time, not necessarily
the earliest, in their history permitted the practice of
incest, that is, of the closest interbreeding, and that
having perceived or imagined the practice to be in-
jurious, they deliberately forbade and took effective
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176 NIGERIAN STUDIES chap.
measures to prevent it." According to information
I have received, incest is still common in the Ibibio
districts of Southern Nigeria, but any such practice
has been more or less stamped out in the Yoruba
country by the system of " Ewaw " evidently instituted
by the priests of I fa for that purpose, and now incest
is connected in their minds, as a system, only on the
occasion of the festivals of the farm Orishas already
mentioned. It is true that on the death of the father
the son is given one or more of his father's wives, but
generally one who has not had children, the other
wives being sometimes distributed among the other
relations.
On the third day after the child is born the Ifa
priest is called in to give the child its " Orisha
and its ewaws." The Orisha is the child's object
of worship, and it may not marry one of the op-
posite sex having the same Orisha, which thus
becomes its chief " ewaw." This Orisha holds good
as a family deity and ewaw for four generations,
that is to say if the Orisha has been given anew
to the child then it will be his son's, his grandson's,
and his great-grandson's. His son then takes as his
second ewaw his father's wife's animal ewaw. This
one's son takes his father's wife's third or vegetable
ewaw. And the latter 's son takes his father's wife's
fourth omen ewaw, i.e. a rat, bird, or snake.
The daughters take the father's Orisha, but, as
the African says, if you wish to catch a rat you
must go to its hole, or, in other words, in this case we
must begin at the beginning.
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xvi SHANGO— OYA— OBA— OSHUN 177
The Yoruba divide people into six double or
twelve single groups. The Fisherman, male and
female. Fish, snakes, and birds, or omens, male
and female. The Hunter, male and female.
Animals, male and female. Farmers, male and
female. Plants, male and female. In all six
brothers and sisters, and all were of one family.
In the beginning brother married sister, or, in
their words, eat 1 one another. For the sake of
brevity we will number each of the six groups,
and call each brother and sister by a letter. The
Fisherman A, his sister b, the group 1. The Omens,
male c and female d, the group 2. The Hunter,
male e and female f, group 3. The Animals, male
G, female h, group 4. The Farmer, male 1, female
j, group 5. Plants, male k, female l, group 6.
No. 1. No. 2. No. 3. No. 4. No. 5. No. 6.
AB CD EF GH IJ KL
But they soon got tired of this single diet, and the
male product of ab caught the female product of
cd ; ef of gh ; and so on.
ABD CDB EFH GHF IJL KLJ
Even then they were not satisfied, and so the
fisherman made war on the hunter, and the hunter
on the farmer, and the farmer on the fisherman,
and each appropriated the product of the other's
labour. And the result was that the fisherman
1 J e is to eat, dine ; owe ; deserve ; gain ; earn ; win.
N
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178 NIGERIAN STUDIES chap.
eat flesh, the hunter eat vegetables and the farmer
eat fish.
ABDF CDBH EFHJ GHFL IJLB KLJD
Reprisals were made, and the fisherman took
vegetables, the farmer flesh, and the hunter fish.
ABDFJ CDBHL EFHJB GHFLD IJLBF KLJDH
This could not go on, so they called a great
palaver, and finally agreed that they would give
their daughters in marriage to one another, and
now the priests see that there is no confusion nor
disorder. While the wife shall be allowed to
worship her Orisha it shall not be inherited by the
son unless the Babalawo says it is time. By this
the letters b d f h j l, as Orishas, drop out, but
their blood remains as that of the group to which
it belonged, and the ewaws stand
adfj cbhl ehjb gfld ilbf kjdh
Each person's ewaws shall in future be composed of
one Orisha, one omen, one animal, and one plant.
Each shall continue in the family for four genera-
tions, and shall then be renewed. Thus a c e g i k
now drop out, and a male Orisha is needed to
complete the ewaws. Number one or its product
adfj can intermarry with Number two family, because
their ewaws are all different : a and c may therefore
enter each other's group : e and G may exchange : 1
and k also.
The families are now thus represented :
DFJC BHLA hjbg flde lbfk jdhi
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xvi SHANGO— OYA— OB A— OSHUN 179
The next generation the letters d b h f l j.
Number one is now in want of fish, so he marries b
of group No. 2.
Number 2 wants fish, and takes d.
Number 3 wants an animal, so he takes f.
Number 4 wants an animal and takes h.
Number 5 wants a plant, and takes j.
Number 6 wants a plant, so takes l.
The families now stand
FJCB HLAD JBGF LDEH BFKJ DHIL.
The letters fhjlbb now drop out.
Number one is now short of an animal, so he
marries h.
Number 2 wants an animal, so takes h.
Number 3 needs a plant, so takes l.
Number 4 wants a plant, so takes j.
Number 5 desires fish, so takes d.
Number 6 needs fish, and takes b.
The groups now stand jcbh ladf bgfl dehj fkjd
hilb.
And now jlbdfh drop out.
The male Orishas are now again to the fore : the
groups stand
CBHL ADFJ GFLD EHJB KJDH ILBF
Now there are said to be 201 Orishas, and if for the
sake of argument we say that 100 of these are male,
you will see that there is ample scope for an enormous
variation. There are also many omens, animals, and
plants in use as marriage ewaws, as the list given
N 2
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180 NIGERIAN STUDIES chap.
below shows. I may say at once that their practice
does not apparently agree with this theory. Pre-
sumably the groups mentioned acknowledged Olokun,
Olosa, Ogun, Oshowsi, Oke, and Oko as their Orishas,
and so group No. i is a male group, No. 2 a female,
No. 3 a male, No. 4 a female, No. 5 a male, and No. 6
a female.
Such is, more or less, the idea that guides the
Babalawos in their choice of Orishas and ewaws, but
as we know there is always a vast difference between
the ideal and the actual.
A native called Shoremekun, said to be an authority
on this subject, informed me
(1) That the Orisha, given three days after birth
when the father acknowledged the child as his before
all the world, must be one that has been in the family.
(2) That no one could marry anyone of the opposite
sex who might have the same Orisha.
(3) That all the daughters take the Orisha of the
father.
(4) a. That he may not marry his uncle or aunt's
" Ebi," on his father's or mother's side.
(b) He may not marry his brother's or sister's
" Ebi."
(c) That by Ebi he meant
Omo Iya "1
Omo Babaf ^ s father's and mother's children.
Omomi his own children.
Omomome his grandchildren.
Omolala his great-grandchildren.
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xvi SHANGO— OYA— OB A— OSHUN 181
Then he said that he had taken his mother's Orisha,
which was Shango, and that his eldest son, grandson,
and great grandson would all have Shango as their
Orisha.
Next he went on to say that his father's name was
Osho, and that his wife's name was Elekude, and that
her Orisha was Orishako.
His grandfather's name was Nagulo, and his Orisha
was Orishako x : he married Shabeyi, whose Orisha
was Beji. His own wife's name was Moshalo, and
her Orisha was Beji.
He had three brothers Shashino, whose Orisha was
Ifa, Akikumi, whose Orisha was also Ifa, and Oje,
whose Orisha was Oro. And his sons were Adikunle,
whose Orisha was Shango ; Adinakon, a Christian
who had no Orisha ; Bamibopa, a Mohammedan,
whose Orisha used to be Obatala, and Ladile, whose
Orisha was Obatala.
His daughters' names were Shangoedi, Adinoju,
Aditutu, and Shuboola, whose Orisha was Shango.
We note from the above that all brothers do not
take the same Orisha. Shoremekun's father was not
the eldest son of his grandfather, and therefore did
not take the latter's Orisha. Neither was Shoremekun
the son of his father's first wife Elekude. Shoremekun
has given us the names of the chief wife of each of his
ancestors only.
But this study is one that can be only taken up by
someone who has unlimited time at his disposal, and I
only give the above example to show how anyone,
1 Orishako is in full Orisha Oko.
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1 84
NIGERIAN STUDIES
CHAP.
I FA.
Name.
Town.
Sacrifice.
Ewos or Ewaias.
Yes.
No.
Fumiwirji
Akure
Pig, Goat, Fowl,
bandicoot
Fish, dog. May
not carry nor
bail water
I
Komolapi
Ilesha.
Pig, goat, fowls,
bandicoot,
pounded yams
D °&. Pig. tet e
(vegetable)
i
Ojo
Offa
Goat, fowl,
bandicoot,
tortoise
Sheep, oyo
leaves, banana
i
Alade
Ibadan
She goat,
pounded yams
Cock, goat,
Okro, adultery
on the wife's
part
i
Ojuola
Oyo
Pig, goat, fowl,
pounded yam
and b e a ns
(egusi)
Rats, dry fish,
partri dges,
eggs, ducks,
efon (veg.),
palm kernels
I
Makidi
Abeokuta
Goat, fowl,
pounded yams
Dog, pig
I
Ashaolu
Akure
Goat, bandicoot
fish, snail
Igi, Isin(nofire)
I
Shotunde |
Abeokuta
Goat, fowl
None
?
?
Orisha Oya (Awya).
Ige
Makunde
Oyadeji
Offa
Ibadan
Abeokuta
Fowl, pounded
yams, goat and
Ishapa soup
Fowl, goat,
pounded yams,
pito (beer)
Fowl, pounded
yams
Sheep and cow
Sheep, ram
Sheep, snail,
elephant, dog
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XVI
SHANGO— OYA— OBA— OSHUN
185
Orisha Oya (Awya)— Continued.
Name.
Town.
Sacrifice.
Ewos or Ewaws.
Yes.
No.
Belo
Abeokuta
Fowl, goat
S heep, efon
antelope
1
Awyalola
Ibadan
Fowl, goat,
yams
Sheep
1
Sumanu
Ikirun
Fowl, goat, kola
Sheep
1
Adeoti
Offa
Fowl, goat
Sheep
1
Awyawerni
Ikirun
Fowl, goat,
pounded yams
Sheep, beans
1
Abiawna
Ibadan
Fowl, goat
Sheep
1
Shango.
Idawo
Ibadan
Ram, fowl
Antelope
(Eshuo), rab-
bit (Ekun),
pigeon pie
1
Lajidi
Ijaiyi
Ram, fowl
Antelope
(Eshuo), rab-
bit (Ekun),
rat (Ago), dog
1
Abidogun
Ibadan
Ram, kola, cold
water
Rat, dog
1
Shangotola
Abeokuta
Dry fish, beans,
yams
Sheep, hedge-
hog, armadillo,
antelope, alli-
gator, tortoise
1
Adeyauju
Ibadan
Ram
Rat, beans
(sese), ante-
lope
1
Bangbola
Ibadan
Ram, kola, cock,
yam
Rat, beans
(sese)
1
Shangotayo
Ram, fowls, kola
Rat, beans
(sese)
1
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NIGERIAN STUDIES
CHAP.
Orishala, Obatala, Oshala, Orishanla, Oshanla.
Name.
Town.
Sacrifice.
Ewos or Ewaws.
Yes.
No.
Olorishade
Abeokuta
Snail, kola,
yams, fowl,
goat, ducks,
pigeons
Dog, palm wine,
may not use
brass
i
Adeoye
Ibadan
Snail, fowls,
ducks, pigeons,
yams
Dog, palm wine,
tortoise
i
Laleye
Ogbomosho
Fowl, yam,
egusi soup
Salt, palm wine,
palm oil, may
not sleep on
mat
i
Adelafun
I lor in
Snail, egusi,
yam
Salt, palm oil,
palm wine,
pepper
i
Adeshiyan
Ibadan
Snail cooked
with shea but-
ter, fowl
Palm wine, corn
wine and snuff
i
Adedoja
Ikirun
Snail, fowl
Palm wine
i
Aborishade 1
Ijero
Snail, goat,
kola, akara
Dog, palm wine
i
Adeyola
Ibadan
Snail, fowl, Ori
Palm wine
i
Eshu.
Momodu
Otton
Oshoybo
He goat
Nut oil, onions,
dog
i
Ojo
Ede
He goat, sheep
Nut oil, dog
i
Adekunbi '
Iganna
He goat, dog,
pig
Nut oil
i
Odudua.
Lowale
Ife
Sheep, palm
wine
None
i
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xvi SHANGO— OYA— OBA— OSHUN
Orisha Oko, Oshaoko.
187
Name.
Town.
Sacrifice.
Ewos or Ewaws.
Yes.
No.
Akitundi
Ijanji
Dried meat,
egusi, yams
Antelope, and
may not eat
new yams be-
fore Oko's
festival
1
Obasa
Ido
Snail, fish, ekuru
beans
Butter kola
i
Adekunbi 1
Iganna
Goat, fowls, fish,
rat
New yams
1
Aminu
Salami
Oyiwopo
Babatunde
Akande
Tinuola
Adederan
Kaiwo
Kainde
Shankpana, Shankpano, Shakpana.
Abeokuta
Abeokuta
Offa
Abeokuta
Ibadan
Ilaro
Ikirun
Ibadan
Oyan
Sheep, beans,
palm oil
OSHUN.
Rats,gala(ante-
lope), corn,
yams, palm oil
Goat, fowls
Goat, fowls,
beans, youri
(veg.)
Rabbit, ante-
lope, dry fish,
yams, pito
Corn with oil
Goat, fowl
Ibeji.
Fowl, beans,
yams and oil,
kola
Ekuru beans,
all fried things
Yamati seed,
tobacco, not to
sit on mortar,
head not to be
knocked.
Etu (antelope),
fowl, palm
wine, beans
Pito (corn beer)
Pito, snail, ele-
phant
Rats, he goat,
cocks, snails,
ducks, ground
corn), water
yams
None
Corn wine
Monkey
Nut oil, Ire
(Funturia elas-
tica)
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Adeniji
Adeniran
Abiara 1
Fabode '
Fabode !
Abiara 1
Oke
Asani
NIGERIAN STUDIES
Erinle.
CHAP.
Name.
Town.
Sacrifice.
Ewos or Ewaws.
Yes.
No.
Ishola
Ijaiyi
Cock, beans,
butter, kola,
yam flour,
pounded yams,
agidi
elephant and
hippo
I
Abeokuta
Ori.
Fish, beans
(egusi)
New yams be-
fore the Oko
festival
Ibadan
Ibadan
Oyan
Oyan
Ibadan
| Ibadan
Yemaja or Yemoja.
Yams, palm oil,
cooked corn,
yam flour
Sheep, fowl,
snails
Agba.
Dog, alligator,
un s kinned
roasted beef
Dog
Dog, fowl, goat I Palm wine, I I
dried okro I
Aga.
Fowl goat
Ebolo and Odu | I
herbs
Obaluaye.
Goat, f o w 1, | Beniseed
snail
Okejemori.
Snail, fowl
Oro.
Dog, palm wine | | I
Abeokuta I Ram, corn wine I Dog, horse
1 It will be noted that some people now have two Orishas.
Many in these lists may marry women who have their Orishas, but
they could give me no reason for this. It is possible that certain people of
royal descent may marry whom they like.
In Ibadan I have been told that in the olden times twins had to marry
twins.
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xvi SHANGO— OYA— OB A— OSHUN 189
Orishas of Birth, Life and Death
We have left to us the Orishas Oba, Shankpana and
Dada, whose other name is Bayoni or Bayani.
>Oba or Ibu is the third wife of Shango, and represents
the thunder of Shango, the meeting of the clouds and
the crying out^ The word Ibu also means the one who
broils or bakes under ashes, and thus this Orisha may
be said to be the wife that first made native bread.
But I was told that Oshun was the woman bread-maker.
I am inclined to think that there has been some con-
fusion in the occupation of Shango's wives, who are
said to stay at home, as the meaning of Shango's third
wife's name so evidently points to Ibu or Oba as the
bread-maker.
About Dada, the Orisha of Birth, things created and
vegetables, we know very little. Ellis tells us that he
is represented by a calabash ornamented with cowries,
on which is placed a ball of Indigo.
As to Shankpana a story tells us that : —
Erinle and Shankpana are offspring of Shango and
Oya. Shankpana was a wicked boy, and Erinle was
his sister. When they were young Erinle used to
warn him not to be cruel to people's children, because
he was accustomed to beat them. Shankpana asked
her why she cared for other people's children.
Erinle said she liked to have plenty of companions
to play with. Shankpana said he did not like these
crowds of children, so he went on beating them, and
made the parents cry. Then she went and told her
father, Shango, of how Shankpana treated children,
and Shango sent for him and beat him. Shankpana
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i go NIGERIAN STUDIES chap.
then said he would revenge himself on Erinle, and
when he next saw her he flogged her to death, and
took her to the bank of a river, and buried her there.
After seventeen days, as the parents had not seen
Erinle, they began to search for her, but could not
find her ; and Shankpana said nothing. Then they
consulted the Babalawo, and he told them that Erinle
had been killed and buried on the bank of the river,
and, as she died for her love of children, anyone who
wanted children must worship Erinle on the bank of
the river. And so she became an Orisha to be wor-
shipped on the bank of any river.
Erinle means elephant that nourishes on the land.
Elephant is something that is great and loving.
And Shango drove Shankpana into the bush, and
there he became a mysterious and harmful bushman,
throwing smallpox and sickness about.
"The word Shankpana means one that cuts and
kills one on the road. Oba was his real name — a title
given to him as one who should look after, and be a
leader among, children."
We have now connected all the children of Yemoja
with all the occupations 1 of the primitive Yoruba, and
as we were led to expect they fall into their places
under the six or seven great categories.
(i) Dada things made, created, birth, etc.
(2) Water the fisherman and his Orishas,
Olosa and Olokun.
1 It must be remembered that Ifa is said to have chosen his disciples,
or councillors, from all parts of the country. The fact of his having
chosen Olokun and Olosa proves that the dwellers by the sea must have
been included.
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xvi SHAN GO— OYA— OB A— OSHUN 191
(3) Earth the hunter and Oshowsi and
Ogun.
(4) Fire and mar- the priest farmer, and Oke and
riage Shango.
(5) Motion and the farmer and first harvest, and
conception Oshun and Oko.
(6) Energy, Weight women and all the people, and
Pregnancy Oya and Ajeshaluga.
(7) Life and Death, all folk, and Oba and Shank-
Suffering pana.
Thus these Orishas in their order and meaning
agree with the Odus or sacred palm nuts in the order
given to me by the priest Oliyitan. These categories
also are thus identical with those I discovered to be
at the back of the mind of the Bavili in the Congo.
And the heavenly and earthly forms of Government,
office for office, or rather official for Orisha, also
coincide. And as the occupations of the Yoruba are
followed according to the seasons of the year, it
follows that the Orishas of the different professions
should also appear to rule certain seasons.
In the earliest period of man's existence, the period
from marriage to birth and the problems involved
seem to have occcupied his attention, and as he was
driven to shelter by the first rains, and that was the
time of marriage, the rain season was of the greatest
importance to him, hence his primitive calendar of
eight rain months. As he progressed in civilisation
so did his sense of time, until I fa, or some great
philosopher, fixed his primitive observations, and gave
him his present lunar calendar. It seems to me that
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192 NIGERIAN STUDIES chap.
there can no longer, now, be any doubt about either
the order or form of the ancient West African social
and religious system.
In Chapter XII. I have connected the leopard with
the Alafin, and given the insignia by which one may
recognise the head of the Yoruba people. The sign
of office of the Alake, the head chief of the Egba,
is a crown of beads.
In the olden days in the Congo, that is before
European control existed, we had to be very
careful in regard to etiquette in our relations with
the chiefs. As wearers of boots we white men ranked
with the highest in the land, and could command the
respect due to our station, if not our deserts. I
remember on one occasion, shortly after my arrival
on the coast, being called and treated by a rich native
trader as a " small boy " (a person of no importance).
Well, we had no armies or force of our own by which
to maintain our authority, so we had to rely upon the
goodwill of our native chief. On this occasion the
chief was called down, and three chairs were placed
in the yard in front of the house. The chief who,
for the occasion, wore boots, sat in the centre chair,
and I sat in the chair on his right. The wicked
native who had dared to call me a "small boy" was
invited to put on a pair of boots and sit in the vacant
chair. He ran away, and so lost the "palaver," and
was fined. And when we called the chiefs in to settle
some question or other, we had to place so many
chairs with pieces of cloth upon them for the greater
chiefs to sit on, and to spread mats on the ground for
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xvi SHANGO— OYA— OBA— OSHUN 193
the lesser chiefs, while, rich or poor, the rest of the
courtiers or followers sat on the earth.
I find much the same custom exists in Abeokuta.
(1) The Alake, of course, and his three courtiers
have the right to Agas, or chairs.
(2) The Iyalode has the right to an Aga, but her
three courtiers sit on mats.
(3) The Balogun, whose sign of office is his armour,
has the right to a chair. Two of his courtiers,
Bada and Seriki, have the right to Agas, but
Ashipa sits on a mat.
(4) The Bashorun, whose sign of office is a large
umbrella and a staff of beads, has the right to a
chair, but his officers sit on mats.
(5) The Ogboni are distinguished by their leather
bags, a long walking-stick or staff, and the
horse's tail which they carry on their shoulders.
Each chief in his own quarter used to settle disputes
and woman palavers.
When there was a misunderstanding among the
members of the Ogboni, all the members of the craft
assembled and settled it.
The Ogboni tried all murder cases, and, as has
been shown, had to do with funerals. The head
of each occupation and his council, such as hunters,
farmers, priests, market women and crafts, settled
the palavers touching such occupations. But when
death from sickness or famine raged in the town,
the King, nobles, chiefs, and all the people held
a general meeting. Divination took place, and
o
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194 NIGERIAN STUDIES ch. xvi
evildoers were sought out and punished, or killed
as a sacrifice to their outraged Orishas.
Such was what may be called the Home
Government of the Yoruba, but as conquerors
these people have progressed a little beyond this,
for as victors the head chief appointed Ajele, or
Governors, in the conquered provinces. These
regents, while acting as tax-gatherers, interfere as
little as possible with the home affairs of their
districts. A glance at the following chapter on the
land laws in the Western Province of S. Nigeria,
or Yorubaland, will show the place more or less which
these Ajele occupy.
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CHAPTER XVII
LAND LAWS 1
In a paper which appeared in the African Journal,
page 312, No. Ill, April, 1902, "a native of Yoruba
gave an interesting account of the ' Native System
of Government and Land Tenure in the Yoruba
Country.' " In this paper he states :
" All lands in the country are in the keeping
of chiefs for the members of the tribe to whom
the land belongs. There is not a foot of land
that is not claimed or possessed by some tribe
or other, and the members of each tribe can apply
to their respective chiefs for a grant of land to
be used and cultivated for farming or other
purposes. Any land so granted becomes the
property of the grantee for life and for his heirs
after him in perpetuity with all that grows on
it and all that lies under it. (?) 2 But such land
must be made use of ; i.e. it must be cultivated
or used beneficially, if not, the grantee is liable
to lose it, and it may then be given to another
who will make use of it.
1 By kind permission of the African Society.
2 (?) Mine R.E.D.
19s O 2
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196 NIGERIAN STUDIES chap.
" No land is granted for pecuniary consideration ;
that is, no land is given for so much money.
A man to whom land is granted may make a
present to the grantor if he so chooses ; that is
merely a private gift.
"In this way every piece of land is owned
by someone or other, and the boundaries are
generally definite and clear.
"In the native system of Land Tenure not
even a King has a right to alienate any land from
him to whom it has been granted, unless indeed
the man is guilty of negligence or lawlessness,
as above stated : and even then it is the chief
who has granted the land who dispossesses the
grantee.
"It is important to note that the idea of selling
land is entirely foreign to the native system."
In Land Tenure in West Africa, Reports
by T. C. Rayner, Esq., Chief Justice of Lagos,
and J. J. C. Healy, Esq., Land Commissioner,
Chief Justice Rayner writes — " The question as
to how the land, which in my opinion all originally
belonged to the King or head chief of the country,
became divided up among the various persons
now owning it is not always easy to discover :
and the difficulty is increased when we remember
that according to strict native ideas land is
absolutely inalienable. I believe that the notion
that land can be sold, or given in such a way
that the original owner loses all interests in
it, is utterly foreign to the natives of all this coast.
"There is no time limit during which the
grantee may occupy : he can occupy in perpetuity,
but should he quit the land it reverts to the owner,
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xvn LAND LAWS 197
and in certain cases the owner can eject him,
e.g. if he claims the land as his and denies the
grantor's right, or if he attempts to sell the land.
The grantor regards the land still as his, subject
to the grantee's right to occupy, and so long
as he pays his rent 1 (or tribute, as it is more
usually called) the grantee can go on occupying,
and his heirs after him without interference. The
rent or tribute is required and paid in the case
of a stranger, simply as an acknowledgment of
the grantee's title ; it bears no relation to the
value of the land, and is in all cases quite
nominal. I think there can be no doubt that
originally, according to native law, land was
inalienable, 2 and that the chief or head of the
community was the only person who could be said
to be the owner of the land."
The statements of an individual must always be
looked upon as more or less an expression of the
impression he has obtained from the more or less
restricted field of his labours.
1 See further on, where natives who have bought land declare that they
have not to pay tribute.
2 Note.— (MSS. Mr. E. P. Cotton, L.S., B.E., F.R.A.S., Director of
Surveys, S. Nigeria.)
The inalienability of land is firmly rooted in the Yoruba mind. If he
is convinced that his ancestors at one time owned a certain piece of land,
the remoteness of that ownership, or the validity of the present owner's
title, appears to be no bar to his title.
The chiefs of country towns and villages do not understand the principles
of modern land alienation. These chiefs are quite prepared to allot land
to members of the community, or even to strangers, so long as they receive
in return some small periodical payment, generally in kind, as an acknow-
ledgment of title. The grantee may occupy the land for any length of
time, but should he attempt to sublet, or dispose of it in any other way
the grantor may at once eject him.
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200 NIGERIAN STUDIES chap.
Fourth Development. — After many years of pro-
vincial warfare and European intervention, we find
Yorubaland divided into two great divisions, (i) The
Protectorate and (2) the Colony of S. Nigeria (lately
Lagos).
The Protectorate in the Western Province may be
said to be formed of the Oyo, Elesha, Ife, Ibadan,
Egba, Ijebu, and Ondo protected native states.
The Supreme Court has power and jurisdiction in
each of these states for the administration and control
of the property and persons of all persons not being
natives of each individual state, that is, of aliens in the
restricted sense of the word, but it has no control
apparently over the property of the natives in each
state, so that here, at any rate, land disputes are heard
and judged by the natives themselves according to
native law, or its abuse, as the case may be.
Fifth Development. — 1. In that part of Yorubaland
where the Alarm holds direct sway, old customs are
conserved far more strictly that in the other states
where the people have more power, and the sale
of land, although not unknown, is rare. It occurs
at times when the claim to succeed to the ownership
of land is disputed. As a way out of the difficulty,
the farm is sold and the yield divided between the
claimants. But the Alafin has the right to step in
and take away the land from the family and give it
to whom he likes. This is seldom done, but it is
possible.
The custom of buying and selling land is gradually
becoming more common, but it is much rarer here
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xvir LAND LAWS 201
than in other states where more kola and palm trees
are planted.
2. In Ibadan the custom of selling land, it appears,
has crept in through the depravity of certain owners
of farms and the necessity of their paying back
money that has been borrowed.
(a) Moredaiyo of Ibadan, in answer to my questions,
gave me the following information : —
The Alafin is looked upon as owner of all the land.
The Bale of Ibadan received some land from the
Alafin, but he has added to it greatly by conquest.
The Bale took the land from the conquered people,
and it now belongs to him. After making many
of the conquered people slaves, some of those who
had escaped returned to their towns under an Ajele
appointed by the Bale, such as the towns of Ijaiye,
Awaiyi, Iwahun, Okeamu, Ilesan, Takiti, Gbagba,
Gangan, Tide, Ijebure, Otun Iyapa, Iro, Isi, Ileje,
Omujelu, Oyife, Okeako, Tapati, Egbe, Nikinyinrin,
Okeapa, Olofashan, Oye, Aiyidi, Imesin, Ikogusi,
Ifewara, Itaogbolu, Ilofa ; but other towns that had
chiefs with titles recognised by the Alafin, such as Ife,
Elesha, were left alone.
If anyone in the towns with an Ajele 1 wanted land,
he would go to the Ajele with a present (20 heads
of cowries = 10/-) and ask for what he wanted. If the
Ajele agreed, he would take him to the land and
mark the boundaries in proportion to the number of
retainers the petitioner brought with him.
1 This implies that the conquered land belongs to the conqueror and
does not remain in the hands of the conquered chief.
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202 NIGERIAN STUDIES chap.
When the Ajele gives the land he makes the
petitioner promise not to fight or disobey the law, or
the land will be taken from him.
The petitioner now becomes an Onile (or one who
has land).
The boundaries are cut, and heaps of earth are
made at intervals, and on these a peregun tree is
planted.
Every year, as a thank-offering, the Onile gives
the Ajele a present of that product which thrives
best on the land.
The Onile now divides his land among his family
and retainers and they become farmers, or Oloko
(owners of farms). The Onile has the right to call
on the Oloko to work for him for one or two days
in the year, to fire the bush and prepare a place for
him to farm, and the Oloko give the Onile a yearly
present. The Onile may not sell the land to his re-
tainers, he gives it to them and they legally have no
right to sell it. It happens, however, that on the death
of a father the son who has succeeded to the farm
becomes a worthless spendthrift, and has had to borrow
money from some rich man. This money-lender
presses him for repayment, and the wicked son has
told him to take the farm and cease bothering him.
The Onile may if he likes interfere and drive such
a wicked person out of his farm, and, if he has no son,
or near relation, take the farm away and give it
to someone else who, however, must pay the money-
lender the sum borrowed. The money-lender cannot
take possession without the consent of the Onile.
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xvn LAND LAWS 203
(b) Moredaiyo's father was an Onile, and gave
a farm to one of his friends called Lesinpo. Lesinpo
died. His son occupied the farm. He was a wicked
person, and borrowed money and could not pay.
For some years the money-lender lost sight of the
farmer, and so he attempted to jump the farm. He
did this by placing palm leaves on it. The Onile saw
the palm leaves, and threw them away. The moneyr
lender asked who had dared to displace the leaves.
The Onile said he had, as the land was his. The
money-lender then said " the farmer owes me money
and he has gone away." He was told he had no right
to take the farm for the money owed, as the farmer
had relatives. The relatives paid the money-lender,
and he recognised this and gave up his claim to the
farm.
(c) Many Onile, if they have more land than
they require, sell it to third parties, and the price
varies from two bags, or 10s., to twenty bags of
cowries, or £<$. This buyer pays no yearly tribute,
to the Onile or the Ajele, and the transaction is
really contrary to the old customary law.
When one Bale succeeds another, he changes
the Ajele and many of the customs of his
predecessor.
So in the Ibadan territory, in spite of the fact
that according to ancient law, land is inalienable, it
has been pawned and sold for a long time, and is
still being sold.
3. The selling of land with the consent of the
chief in Ijebuland has reached such a pitch that
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204 NIGERIAN STUDIES chap.
when I was last there, the chiefs were trying to
prevent people from selling or buying land in a
certain quarter of the town of Ijebu, which they
held more or less sacred.
4. Mr. Pellegrin, an intelligent and educated
Egba, gave me the following notes : —
" All Yorubaland belonged to the Alarm, but the
Egba after the civil wars settled at Abeokuta, and
by right of conquest took and kept possession of
most of the land now known as Egbaland. In the
conquered towns they generally placed an Ajele, 1
but left the chief in many cases in possession,
exacting, however, a yearly tribute. Thus Otta,
Agege, Isheri Igawn, and Iro belonged to the people
known as Awuri, but now form part of Egbaland.
" Supposing natives in any of these districts wanted
land, they would go to the Bale and ask him for
it, and he, on receipt of twelve kola and one case
of gin, would grant it on condition that they would
abide by the laws of the country.
" One of the customs of the country was to give
the Bale a small portion of the products of the
land, and another was that he could not sell the
land. When one of these farmers dies and his
son does not care to occupy the land, the Bale can
give the farm to another, otherwise, the farm
1 Note. — Ajelehavebeen known to grant land to Onile who have planted
it up with cocoa and kola, and when the trees are bearing, endeavour to turn
the Onile out, without fair compensation. A case of this kind not long
ago came before the notice of the Resident of Ibadan, who insisted on a
fair price being paid to the Onile by the Ajele. In this case the ancient
land law, in view of modern agricultural development, became evidently
unfair.
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xvii LAND LAWS 205
descends to the son. The occupier of this land
can, in his turn, give a portion of the granted land
to a friend or anyone other than an alien. He re-
ceives a present and something yearly from this
person. But if this part that is given to a third
party happens to be thick forest land, and the
receiver has to clear it, the land becomes his, and
as an Onile he can leave it to his son. This man
may not sell the land, but he can give it to another
person and receive the case of gin and twelve
kola.
"A woman may own land. (See below daughter.)
"A slave may not own land, but he may have
a farm on his master's land. In the event of the
death of his master, the slave may become the
property of any of the deceased's relations and be
taken away, or he may be allowed to remain on
the land and go with it to his master's successor.
A slave who has farmed and redeemed himself
becomes the owner of his farm.
" When the land is allotted, Akoko, Atori or
Peregun trees are planted on heaps of earth, and
serve as boundaries.
" The land does not belong to the family, but to
the father, and, later on the son or daughter.
" By family is understood uncles, aunts, nephews,
nieces on both the Obakan (father's) side, and the
Iyekan (mother's) side. On the death of the
father, the chief divides money, goods, slaves
or other movable property among the family. This
division is made in accordance with the amount
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206 NIGERIAN STUDIES chap.
spent by the individuals of the family during the
death and funeral ceremonies, and also in accordance
with the services rendered to the deceased during
his lifetime.
"In the event of the owner leaving the farm without
a representative for a long time he may at any time
come back and claim it. But should he die while
absent, and not have left any planted trees, and the
chiefs have given the land to another, the son or his
heir cannot lay claim to the land, which has merely
been farmed (see Baba Numi's report later on). But
in the event of there being any living trees planted by
him on the farm, the son or heir may claim it. But
these questions are decided on their merits."
Baba Numi, an old Egba, illiterate, but said to
know all about Egba land laws, gave me the following
account : —
" When a man asks for land, the first question to be
considered is — ' Is he a native or an alien ? '
" If he is not an Egba, and goes to a man and asks
for land, that man must take him to the chief of the
district, Bale, Balogun or Osi. If they agree to give
the stranger land, the Balogun is asked to take him
and show him the land allotted to him. When he
dies and has children, they can succeed to it. If the
successor owes money, he can pawn the land with the
Bale's consent, and the moneylender can take the farm
if none of his relations redeem it, but neither he nor
the moneylender can sell the farm.
" Supposing he is not a stranger, he must be the son
of a father who has land. If the land is too small for
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xvii LAND LAWS 207
the son in possession to divide, the Bale will grant him
a portion of land which becomes his property. It is
granted to him and his successors in perpetuity for his
and their use, but he is not allowed to sell it. If he is
in debt, the family censure him and pay his debts, but
if his debt is too large for them to pay, they give their
consent to his pawning the farm, and the moneylender,
with the consent of the Bale, can take the farm.
" Pawning land is a very old custom in this country.
" The moneylender does not plant trees, or then
plants them at his risk, as the family may redeem their
farm at any time, and all the trees planted become the
property of the original owning family.
" The selling of land has been done privately for a
very long time ; people do this without the chiefs
knowledge, and people look upon the new occupier as
one who has been allowed to farm and live on the
seller's land by his consent.
" Should it become known that an owner has sold his
land, the seller gets into trouble, and is driven out of
the country, but the buyer is not punished, and is
allowed to go on farming in peace. If a man simply
farms his land and plants no trees, and is not married,
and goes away, and dies, his farm is given away to
another, and should he have a son while abroad, and
that son comes and claims the farm, he has no right
to do so, and the farm continues in the possession of
the occupier.
"If, on the other hand,' the farmer had a son when
he went away, and took him with him, and he died
abroad, and his son came back and found his father's
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208 NIGERIAN STUDIES ch. xvii
farm occupied, the Bale would call him and the
occupier before him and ask the latter to give the
former a portion of the land. The son, however,
would have to allow the occupier to reap the fruit of
any trees he had planted there, so it generally ended
in the Bale giving the son another piece of land."
Such is some of the evidence which I have collated,
and from this we see that, legally speaking, according
to native customary law, land is inalienable, and that
the sale of land is a crime against the state. But, on
the other hand, land is sold and the buyer is left in
possession.
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CHAPTER XVIII
CONCLUSION
By the fear of death and the desire to propagate and
live, the Yoruba's thoughts were driven to the study
in nature of the phenomena that caused death, or
helped him to live and propagate. And as they
progressed, men in all lines of life, i.e. the fisherman,
the hunter, the priest, the farmer, and, later on, the
market women and the craftsmen, all aided in this
search for the causes of life and death, and the true
nature of the spirit presiding over them all. In this
way it does not seem strange to me that, if man has
developed from a non-speaking animal stage of exist-
ence to his present speaking and cultivated stage, his
knowledge of things and his way of expressing his
ideas should have also developed step by step. I am
not wonder-struck that man, governed more or less by
his senses and environment, should have instinctively
built up trains of thought and ways of expressing
them that have led native philosophers to divide their
mythology into certain well-defined categories. But I
admit that a philologist unaided by a long and great
knowledge of the people whose language he may be
209 p
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2io NIGERIAN STUDIES chap.
studying, will find great difficulty in recognising these
categories in any but a primitive language. I think
that his studies may best be rewarded in Africa
by a thorough investigation of some Bantu tongue,
but even here the student will need a more or less
" primitive mind " attitude to carry out his work.
Yemaja's, or Yemoja's, first offspring by her son
Orungun was the sea Orisha, Olokun. In this word
we have the idea of " murmuring." The first man,
says another legend, was Obalofun, the first speaker.
Among the Bavili, Zimini, a plural word, literally
meaning the male and female Egos, comes to mean
the swallower, and Zimini was the man of the sea.
It seems, therefore, that we shall not be doing the
West African a wrong by concluding that he looked
upon his first parent as a creature from the sea.
(i) As a "merman," shall we say, he was ruled
rather by instinct than by reason, and I may presume
that he knew more about propagation 1 than about
1 The doyen of the senses is that of smell in order of creation. Bishop
Crowther gives the word Imu (Crowther) or Imaw for our word nose.
This word also means "sense" in a general way, thus the sense of taste
is written imu tawwo (towo). Without any accent over the last syllable
imu means the act of drinking. With a grave accent imu means know-
ledge, science, mythology, philosophy. In connection with the word Hu
(to germinate) it means Imuhu, to create. Combined with the words Bi
(to beget) and Si (to be) in the word imubisi, it means propagation.
The offspring Awmaw (otno) that shines or is good (dan) means a
virgin, omidan, another name for whom is wundia (probably a Hausa
word), the one who gives pleasure. Thus virginity and purity gave
pleasure to the ancient Yoruba. On the other hand, that which was lewd
and bad he called Buburu, i.e. that which swelled and sent out an
offensive smell. I need hardly remind my readers of the action of animals
in this regard, and that we still talk of the fires of love and desire. The
native has another word for to smell, " Gborun " (Crowther), which is
connected with the idea of heat (Orun) and to rub (gbo).
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xviii CONCLUSION 211
association, and that for a long time this instinct
occupied most of primitive man's attention. He lived
on herbs and leaves.
At length we arrive at the stage when man busied
himself with certain occupations.
(2) As a fisherman, or still very primitive man, the
elements that he constantly braved and the natural
phenomena that he noticed caused him to ponder and
weigh things. The oft-recurring light and darkness,
day and night, heaven and earth, sun and moon, heat
and cold, the power of the murmuring waves of the
sea, the fierce rushing of flooded rivers, their constant
beating against the rocks, thunder, lightning, wild
winds and torrential rains, marriage and birth, life
and death ; all these kept his receptivity at work.
We will now consider the sense of touch. The verb Kan is to touch,
and Shaw is an adverb qualifying verbs of touching or dipping, and
means "just a touch." The word Shawkan (Crowther) is to copulate.
In this connection it is bad for us when our body aches, and an ache is
" kan." On the other hand, when we are free from ache " Dida ara " it is
good Dida ara = healthiness.
To behold is wo, and iwo not only means sight but also light and
countenance. Primitive man, attracted by her beauty or countenance
(iwo) pursued (de) woman and seduced (dewo) her. That which is (ewa)
is beauty, while that which does not abide (ailewa) is ugliness.
The word to eat (je) means also to win. The idea of following (taw)
beauty (iwo) apparently continues in the idea of taste (taw wo). That
which is sweet, delicious, is called dun, while that which is nasty is
compared to the tasteless husks of Indian corn (eri).
I have now given you the Yoruba idea of good and bad under the
senses of smell, touch, sight, and taste, it is left to trace their idea of
good and bad in a general sense. Well, the Yoruba, like the Bavili,
looks upon that which produces as good, i.e. Da to create, Ara body, or
Dara good. Its opposite Aidara means bad.
It is evident therefore that the Yoruba ideas of good and bad are
associated with the moral emotions of that most primitive of all
religions, which may be summed up in the words " Increase and
multiply."
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212 NIGERIAN STUDIES chap.
His knowledge of all these "powers" may have been,
nay, certainly was, as primitive as he, but in his
earliest stage of existence he commenced to associate
these powers with the life he propagated as the chief
causes of death. He soon learnt that he was all too
impotent to fight these terrific powers, and so kept his
ears open to catch the slightest sound that might
betray their coming. Although these powers were
the cause of death, the waters yielded to the fisherman
fish as the food upon which he lived, and so the sea,
the lagoon and the rivers, and the powers behind
them, and the fish became in a way sacred to him.
More lives would be lost in his search for food in the
waters than anywhere else. Thus, at the foundation
of religion, which commenced in the very earliest
existence of propagating man and his fear of death,
we have a sense of primitive gratitude to the waters
that supplied him in this stage with food. And in
this way these water spirits, Olokun and Olosa, be-
came associated with that which quickened his sense
of hearing. Sound (figured here by the mighty,
murmuring Olokun, the giver of fish, salt, sweetness,
wisdom, and by the rushing of the waters of the
rivers, as they flow from the interior into the sea) is
the great parent of this family or category of thought.
His opposite is the Lagoon, the listener, the absorber,
through whom the salt is made. As a " merman "
he may have heard, made a noise, smelt, felt, seen
and tasted, but he probably knew little or nothing of
associating, in the same way as thinking man does,
outside phenomena with his senses. This, I think, is
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xvni CONCLUSION 213
the first principle that native philosophy points to, i.e.
that animals were credited, figuratively speaking, only
with the senses of smell, touch, sight and taste, and
that the great difference between him and man is the
way in which the latter developed his sense of hear-
ing, and his powers of speech. Hence in the philo-
sophy of the Bavili the ear is said to have been, in his
making, the first thing formed in the womb.
(3) The next stage in the development of moral
man is figured to us by the hunter, and the trees and
herbs growing out of the earth. From trapping fish
to trapping " meat " is quite a natural step. The
lessons about the "powers" which the primitive
fisherman learnt have been handed down, but whereas
the fisherman looked to the " waters" for his food, on
land the hunter has turned to the forests. Long
before the hunter had bows and arrows, he probably
killed animals 1 by piercing them with pointed sticks,
or by beating them to death, or by throwing
stones at them. The hunter must have developed a
great many virtues, courage among the rest. And
hunting and its risks must have been the chief cause
of death. As he beat down animals, so he was beaten
down by the Orisha called "Ogun" (the one who
beats or pierces with a pointed stick). He learnt to
mimic the cries of certain birds and animals to lure
them to their death. Someone then lured him on to
death. This was Oshowsi, or Oshu, the one who
speaks, o, him, si, to (used always with a verb of
1 In fact this manner of huntingand killing with pointed sticks, I am told
by Mr. E. Torday, is still common in the interior of the Congo.
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216 NIGERIAN STUDIES chap.
he mated. The great heat just before the rains
caused fire 1 to come, as he thought, from the hills,
and this phenomenon he called Oke. Then came
the storms and lightning, warning him that it was
time to mate and seek shelter. In this capacity
of watcher of the signs of the times of propagation
he was acting as a primitive priest. As a farmer
he, as head of the house (Bale), provided his
ancestors and family with food. They needed fish,
birds, reptiles, animals and vegetables.
In these 4th and 5th developments of thought,
or categories, we have on the one hand ideas of
heat, fire, smell of burning, imagination, love,
marriage, planting and sowing ; and on the other,
which closely follows it, the first fruits of the contact
of the waters of heaven and the heated earth, the
cold brought by the cooling rains, the quenching
of the fires, impression, satisfaction of desire,
conception, germination, motion and the first
harvest of the self-sown and now planted grain.
In other words all the ideas contained in the
Orishas, Oke and Shango, Oshun and Oko, occupied
the minds of the married couple and the primitive
priest farmer.
(6) And now we arrive at a period of plenty,
when all trees are bearing fruit, figured by the
market women and market places where the abun-
dance of the products brought forth by the waters
1 Before fire was used for cooking purposes and man knew how to make
it, bush fires that are now lighted by men, would not occur until nearly
the end of the dry season, when natural combustion took place.
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xvni CONCLUSION 217
and rains, fish, reptiles, birds, animals and vegetables
were sold. And Ajeshaluga, as we have noted,
is not only the Orisha of wealth, but also that of
colour, which needs eyes and sight to recognise, and
which is best represented by the snakes or rainbows
Oshumare and Ere. I am told that the recognition
of the different colours of the rainbow is a sign
of a high stage of civilisation ; well, this is the
sixth development or category of thoughts, so that
my informant is apparently confirmed in his state-
ment. But " colour " means more to the Yoruba
than hue and tincture, for to the word Awo (Awaw)
they attach the meaning of outward appearance,
fashion, likeness, similitude and image. The Yoruba
call purple, Awo Aluko ; indigo, Awo Elu (after
the indigo plant) ; light blue, Awo Ojuorun, sky
colour ; green, Awo Obedo, vegetable matter on
stagnant pools ; yellow, Awo Pupa ; red, Awo Pupayo,
and another name for reddish purple Awo Pupa
Rusurusu, or somewhat red colour. I am inclined
to think that this interesting word Pupa, red, is derived
from the word Po or Paw to be plentiful (fruit is most
plentiful when it is ripe and red), hence the word Pon
or Pawn to be red or ripe, or to get yellow.
Thus in this category we have ideas of reproduction,
colour, 1 sight, pregnancy, weight, harvest, wealth, buying
and selling.
1 The idea of colour is first perhaps obtained from the Rainbow Oshu-
mare, who is reported to be a great snake (tchama in the Congo). She
is said to send her slave the python (Ere) to destroy towns and collect
slaves and food for her, and is also said to come up above the edge of the
earth to drink the pure water of the sky. In the Congo the six colours
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2i8 NIGERIAN STUDIES chap.
(7) In this development we have a picture of death
and suffering, destruction and construction, figured by
which they recognise are said to be six snakes (page 139 "At the Back
of the Black Man's Mind "). These colours are also recognised by the
Yoruba, who attach some significance to them. When a man in the
Congo is grieving over some misfortune he is said to be swelling. We
should express the idea by saying that he was weighed down by sorrow
and crying. In Yoruba we find the verb Wu is to swell and to be sullen,
while Wu without the accent is to howl like a dog. When the father dies
his relations cry out Or'o Baba O, so that all the people near may know
that the head of the family is dead, and then the mourners do not wash,
and dress in dirty dull red cloth, their nearest approach to purple, and so
show their respect and fear of the departed. And people seeing this
sympathise with them. The Yoruba call purple Awo Aluko, or the colour
of a bird called Aluko. As we have noted, burials are very costly affairs
in Yorubaland, and much money is needed.
Money or wealth is also needed for the purpose of purchasing things in
the market, to pay the priests they call in to divine for them, to make
presents to their chiefs, and to offer sacrifices to their Orishas of harvest,
to propitiate the Orisha of sickness, and to thank their Orishas of birth.
It is a remarkable fact that the prevailing colour in the markets, as that
of the wearing apparel of the market women, is indigo blue, and its popu-
larity is due to the fact that the wearing of cloth of this colour indicates
that the wearer is fairly well-to-do.
Now weighty matters are discussed in these markets, and the sharp
wits of buyers are pitted against the cunning of the seller, but the most
noticeable feature is the noise caused by the people talking to one another.
And so the ideas of intelligence, speech and understanding are connected
with the market and the Indigo colour.
Another weighty matter, as all will recognise, is Religion. Now the
priests of Ifa, I am told by Mr. Taylor, wear light blue cloths, 1 and I
have also noticed more than one instance of a Babalawo dressed in cloth
of this colour. These priests who play so great a part in marriage
believe that they are inspired, and their grave demeanour impresses this
fact upon the people. Theirs, in the olden days, was the office of smelling
out witches, and they are still held in great respect as Diviners. And so
this heavenly colour is connected with Inspiration, and the sense of smell,
Divination and Religion or Marriage.
Green silk is the favourite colour of great chiefs, and the colour is
symbolical of the season of conception and budding, or Spring. The
ordinary individual may not touch the sacred person of a great chief or
1 See also chapter VIII, page 96.
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xvin CONCLUSION 219
Shankpana or Buruku, sometimes written Buluku, and
Oba or Ibu. Shankpana is in the first place the slayer
of children, in the second the smallpox Orisha. Bulu
is to blow vehemently upon, as the tornados blow upon
the trees, etc., but the verb Bu is not only to spoil
through damp, to decay, but also to broil or bake under
hot ashes ; Ru to rise, swell, boil over, and Kaw or Ku
to construct ; Ibu, the name of the river sacred to Oba,
means she that bakes, or decays. In connection with
these meanings we have to remember that these Orishas
in the cycle represent the seventh and eighth months,
the two tornado months finishing the rain season. In
propagation these months are much feared, as children
born now are more often than not still-born. Then
fallen fruits damped by the rain and heated by the sun
swell up and rot. I cannot, of course, say definitely
that from this nature-process primitive man first learnt
how to make his bread or pounded mass by heating and
beating (Bulu is also to beat), but one of the wives of
Shango is said to have been the first bread-maker, and
they now boil cereals or yams, and then pound them
Oba, and so the ideas of Authority, the sense of touch and conception,
are connected with the green of springtime.
The farmers watch the green corn turn yellow and ripe for harvest,
and show their wisdom and discernment in its ingathering and disposal,
and so wisdom, discernment, the sense of sight, and the yellow colour of
the time of harvest are connected.
Then comes the time when all fruits are ripe, and the predominating
colour is orange. This, especially in the olden days, was a time of great
feasting, tasting and appreciation, and discrimination, for all fruits were
not good, many of them being harmful if not poisonous.
And, finally, the last harvest was connected with the time of birth, and
the gathering of the red coloured palm nut, and in the disposal and
harvesting of this crop the farmers and traders had to use their powers of
calculation, sense and judgment.
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22o NIGERIAN STUDIES chap.
in a mortar to make what serves them as bread, and
the meanings of the words Buluku and Ibu point in
that direction. In this season also the angry winds blow
down old trees and many branches, all of which would
burn easily and are still preferred as firewood. This
period then seems to have been one of destruction and
construction, and as it developed gave birth to makers
of bread, potters, hut and canoe builders, black-
smiths, weavers of cloth. The verb Towo (Tawwo)
not only means to taste, but also to anticipate ; and the
word is composed of Taw to correct, educate, and Wo
which means to fall down as a tree or fruit, or W6 to
see, which seems to me, if we take into consideration
the above meanings of the Orishas and the season of
the year, that the Yoruba's idea of taste commenced
when he first tickled his palate with the juicy fruits of
trees that had fallen to the ground. This is perhaps
made clearer when we find that (i) The words for
palate are Imo (Imaw) Itowo (Itawwo) the sense of
taste ; (2) that the verb Mo means to drink, and (3)
that Imo comes to mean notion, knowledge, wisdom,
science, philosophy, etc.
It seems to me that man having no more senses
could not progress further in this direction which, for
the sake of clearness, I will call the perpendicular
direction of the cycle, but in a parallel way develop-
ment appears to be indefinite as season follows
season.
(1) Thus from primitive man's sense of hearing
correctly he progresses through many stages of
civilisation to that of the right hearing which
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xvni CONCLUSION 221
we all connect with our Court of Equity and
Arbitration.
(2) From a primitive power of forming ideas he
marches on to right thinking, reason and justice,
and Courts of Justice.
(3) From his sense of smell and imagination his
primitive superstition may take him through different
phases of marriage and of love to an at-one-ment
with a true spiritual God, which we ourselves have
not yet reached.
(4) His sense of touch and impression may carry
him, step by step, from the fear of touching his sacred
kings and rulers to obedience to law and order, and
a desire to serve his king and country, and ideas
of State.
(5) Through sight, colour and weight, the people
may proceed little by little from their primitive and
impulsive meetings in the market places, and a
representative Council or Ogboni, to more and more
civilised meetings and discussions of the affairs of
the people in a great and more perfect House of
Commons than any that yet exists.
(6) And, finally, their sense of taste may carry
them from a simple meeting of elders to a House of
Lords, composed of the finest intellects in all
branches of thought and industries. To all this the
natives of Africa may aspire in the working out
of their own salvation as a people, if some
inherent and subtle vice does not arrest their
progress.
Now these six categories may be reduced to three
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222 NIGERIAN STUDIES chap.
(i) Hearing and Speech may be headed "Science or
thought." (2) Smell and Touch may be termed
Religion. And (3) Sight and Taste may figure as
Order.
Science
In native communities we have the hunter, a brave
man, who must not be afraid of the fairies when the
whirlwind blows him into the depths of the forest
and into their presence, so that he may learn from these
departed spirits the cure for certain diseases. This
apothecary goes on experimenting and collecting facts
and, in this way, is a primitive man of science. He
uses his knowledge for the benefit of his family.
He may perhaps be called a white magician, at any
rate he is the opposite to the impostor or quack who
trades on the ignorance of the people and who in this
way is a dealer in black magic.
Religion
" Increase and multiply " sums up primitive Religion,
which is in this way bound up in the Creator and
motherhood. We have noted how the chief duties
of the Babalawos or priests are connected with marriage
and birth. So long as these priests confine themselves
to these moral duties for the benefit of their people
they may perhaps be called white magicians, but as
soon as they forget their priestly duties and trust to
priestcraft they become black magicians.
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xvin CONCLUSION 223
Law
The ruler who governs his people scientifically and
religiously in accordance with the natural and moral
laws handed down to him by his ancestors may be
called a white magician, but the ruler who attempts to
govern his people by means of secret societies that
play on their dread of death becomes a dealer in black
magic.
True to the most primitive form of government, i.e.
that of father, mother, son, we conclude that these
three material persons symbolise the three great
spiritual lines of thought, i.e. • Science, Religion, and
Law. Law then is the offspring of Science and
Religion and may be said to be contained in them.
We thus arrive at the great " duality" in man.
There remains the Dowager Queen or Iyalode.
Iyalode as we have seen is the relict of the departed
father and so represents or symbolises the departed
spirit. We have further noted that when the father
dies the mourners cry out Oro O ! Baba O ! and by
Baba or father we are told they mean the first great
father and not the immediate deceased. In this
way we are correct in concluding that the Iyalode
symbolises the first great founder and spirit of her
husband's race.
I now refer my reader to page 237 in At the Back
of the Black Mans Mind, where the philosophy will be
found in table form.
Environment will colour each of these six " estates "
in each perfect kingdom, and each " estate " will need
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224 NIGERIAN STUDIES chap.
many reforms before it is in itself perfect. The
Administrator learned in history will now have no
difficulty in placing the West Coast African in his
exact position in the historical development of civilisa-
tion, and can fearlessly help him upward on what he
knows to be natural lines and nature colouring. We
need fear no danger in being true to nature, for nature
in itself is true to the Divine inspiring Will of the Great
Father in whom we all believe. Danger arises from
the impulsiveness of those whose true instincts have
been perverted, and in whom secondary and unnatural
instincts have been inculcated by association with
abnormal situations, such as slavery, bad living, and a
wrong form of education. These unfortunate people,
having lost the principles of the foundations of the six
estates, think that no form of government is necessary,
and imagine that by destroying the divinely inspired
" structure," or parts of it, they will in some way
benefit. But if we believe that a kingdom is but a
conglomerate form of estates, the output of the senses
in man, we shall at once realise the imbecility and
futility of the endeavours of these ignorant people. A
state can gain no more, for instance, from the abolition
of its Church or Senate, in however crude and un-
developed a stage these estates may be, than an
individual can from the destruction of his senses of
smell and taste. Such a mutilated kingdom is doomed
to fall back to ruin and death in competition with one
that is more sensible and complete.
Conquering or Protecting Powers have enormous
responsibilities cast upon them, for it is to them and
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xvm CONCLUSION 225
to their method of government that the safety and
welfare of the people is entrusted. They must not
destroy, but try to uplift. A study of the condition
of the people of the protected states is therefore
absolutely necessary.
The people themselves through disobedience may
easily cause all the efforts of the best of protecting
Governments to come to nought. The people must
believe and have faith in "the powers that be,"
though they have the right to join in the prayer
that both plaintiff and defendant, among the Bavili,
kneeling and clapping their hands three times,
offer to their king who has just given judgment —
"May you continue to keep the 'seven' well in
hand."
I will now conclude by asking you to glance at
the following lists, which may help to make clear
the philosophy at the back of the Yoruba's mind.
I am sorry that I cannot give lists of the sacred
lands and rivers, trees, omens and animals, as in
At the Back of the Black Mans Mind, but I think I
have gathered sufficient traces of these to prove
that at one time such lists did exist. The Yoruba
has progressed more rapidly in the race of civilisa-
tion than his brother in the Congo, and this symbolic
picture of his philosophy is hard now to find in a
perfect state of preservation.
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226
NIGERIAN STUDIES
CHAP.
Yoruba Development of Calendar.
ut Development.
Odudua
2nd Development.
yd Development.
Week
Cycle
Month,
14 of
which
made one
ancient
year
Jakuta
Obatala
Ifa
/ 1st day
2nd „
3rd „
4th „
17th or 1st '
5th day
6th „
7* „
8th „
9th „
10th „
1 ith „
1 2th „
13th „
14th „
15th „
1 6th „
God's Ogboni,
Ancient
year
Olorun, Owner
of Heaven
9th
fist
2nd
3rd
4th
5th
6th
7th
1.8th
or the Great Orishas.
'Odudua
Lunar
year
Sun or
Originator
Moon Oshu
Creator
Procreator
Star
Star
Star
Jakuta
Obatala
Ifa
Eshu
Aganju
Yemoja
Orungan
Dada
Olosa
Olokun
Oshowsi
Ogun
Oke
Shango
Oshun
Oko
things created
>
Oya
Ajeshaluga
Oba
Shankpana or Erinle
1 am here adherin
m^4mfmm^W xiA
an, see list of Odus.
XVIII
CONCLUSION
227
Abeokuta Hunters' Ogboni or the Egbe Oluri Ode.
Iyalode ?
Akoka or Alake ?
Balogun ?
Bashorun ?
Oyieshile
Bi eye oku
Ojo
Ogbolo
The hunter accused
Hunter
Assistant
Hunter
Assistant
Hunter
Assistant
Hunter
Assistant
Hunter
Assistant
Hunter
Assistant
The Priests of Ifa and the Odus.
Priests. Odus.
Oluwo Osi Awo
Oluwo otun Awo
Olopon ekeji Awo
Babalawo
Babalawo
Olowo
Odofin
Aro
The accused
Ajigbona
Assistant
Aworo
Assistant
Asarepawo
Assistant
Asawo
Assistant
Apetebi
Assistant
?
Assistant
Orun
Odu
Ogbe meji
Oyeku
Iwori
Odin or Edi
Iroshun
Owonrin
Obara
Okonron
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q 2
228
NIGERIAN STUDIES
CHAP.
The Aro or Owe of the Farmers.
Ashipa
Oba wungu
Oluri
Ekeri
The farmer accused
Farmer
Assistant
Farmer
Assistant
Farmer
Assistant
Farmer
Assistant
Farmer
Assistant
Farmer
Assistant
The Market Women and People's Ogboni or the Sense
Common to All.
Sensation
Mind
Body
Inception
Conception
*• Fulfilment
Spirit of departed
Wisdom or science
Faith or Religion
Obedience or Law
Action
Execution
Propagation
Proclamation
Nervous system
Hearing
Association
Speaking
Ideation
Smelling
Imagination
Touching
Impression
Seeing
Reproduction
Tasting
Construction
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XVIII
CONCLUSION
The King's Ogboni.
229
Native form of
Government,
of which the
Oba is the
head
Council
or
Ogboni
Executive ■
Legislative
Justice
and
Life
Church
and
Marriage
Death
and
k Offspring
' Iyalode, the Queen
Dowager
Oba, the King
Balogun, the War Chief
Bashorun, the Prime
Minister
' President, the Bashorun
Akpena, who convenes the
meeting
Oluwo, the Treasurer
Odofin, the Arbitrator
The Plaintiff
Lisa, Iwarefa
Egbe „ Or Assistant
Bisa
Egbe
Bala
Egbe
Asalu
Egbe
r Malukun
Egbe
Ashipa
Egbe
Possible Direction of Development.
Head of the Church
The King
The Lord Chancellor
The Prime Minister
The Prime Minister
The Speaker
The Chancellor of Exchequer
The Lord Chief Justice
The People or Nation
The Court of Equity
The Courts of Justice
The Church
The State
The Commons
The House of Lords
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ADDENDUM
THE SMALL POX GOD.
How Its Priests and Priestesses Ply Their
Inhuman Trade. 1
Suggestions for putting an end to this traffic in human lives.
The method of effecting the cure of the Small Pox disease
among the Yorubas was known only to a class of men (priest
and priestesses) who make a big trade of the affair by eleva-
ting the small pox into a god. One tradition states that
Shoponna (Small Pox) was a very wicked boy who often
excited great commotions in his town. On one occasion
after he had beaten to death several of his townspeople, he
was taken by his parents and sold to a native doctor who
taught him the use of very bad and poisonous drugs.
With these he effected the death of most of his fellow
citizens. No one dared mourn the death of these victims but
will suffer deprivation of his house and property ; and worse
still the relative of the deceased while in that house of mourn-
ing has to pay Shoponna and his master a congratulatory
visit thanking them for having claimed a victim from their
midst. Hence the small pox is ofter termed Alapadupe (a
man who kills and is thanked for the killing). After his
death the shoponna was deified and worshipped.
The following materials can be found in the house of every
small pox priest or priestess as emblems of the presence of
this god: — i. A calabash containing some portion or portions
of the carcase of a small pox victim such as the elbow right
on to the palm of the hand ; and the ankle right on to the
palm of the foot. 2. A pot containing some black liquid
which is made up of water collected from the body of the
corpse or that with which the deceased was washed when
alive. 3. A small vessel of black powder compounded from
the trash of the small pox after it is dried up. It is the
1 From The Nigerian Chronicle, February 25, 1910.
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232 ADDENDUM
water or powder that is always thrown during night time in
front of the houses of individuals who are spotted: the
inmates inhale the germs during the day when at work or at
play and in this way the infection is caught on. Immediately
the rash is seen on any one a priest or priestess is to attend
on him and in nine cases out of ten helps to spread the
disease rather than check it. It is more to his or her interest
to do this, for apart from the heavy amount he receives for
medical attendance, he claims for himself all the personal
effects of his patient in case he succumbs.
These priests do not bury the dead but throw the corpses
into the bush to be devoured either by carrions or pigs who
sometimes drag the inedible portions into the town and
in front of houses. In this way is the disease made to
spread and priests drive a very lucrative trade. When a few
years ago the Government compelled some people in a
hinterland town to bury these corpses, the priest often found
it necessary to dig a dozen or more graves daily to await the
news of small pox victims.
Unless the Government track these wicked priests to their
very recesses in the farms of the Yoruba towns — and there
are a great number of them in Abeokuta, Ijebu and Ibadan
farms — and burn up their materials and houses of worship,
the small pox disease will ever continue its ravages in this
quarter of Southern Nigeria. It is not enough to arrest
worshippers in large towns like Abeokuta only. Those found
there are but the disciples of the real worshippers. Let the
Government pursue them into their strongholds in the Egba
and other farms, if this epidemic is to be checked. A capita-
tion fee paid to any successful detective under this head, I am
sure, will bring the desired end.
ADESOLA.
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"Nigerian Studies"
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Headquarters of Administrative Districts.
Colony of Southern Nigeria .
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p THE COLONY and PROTECTORATE
OF —
•OUTHERW NIGERIA:
1910
Scale of Miles
2° E
If. H. Beverley, Capt. ,1.0., S.N.
Igitized by Microsof t®-
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10°
12°
London: MadmJlsax & Co.Lta-.
Stanford's Geogi Estab%London
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INDEX
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INDEX
Abeokuta, 7, 14, 44, 45, 51, 62, 85,
92, 112, 159, 164, 193, 2°4
Adesola, 28, 31, 35, 36, 41, 55, 59,
87
Aganju, 97, 100, 101, 226
Agbarigbo, 103, 144
Ajele, 194, 199, 201-204
Ajeshaluga, ioi, 102, 143-145, 191,
217, 226
Alafin, 6, 8, 58, 91, 92, 199-201, 204
Alake, 12, 14, 77, 92, 112, 192, 227
Alaketu, 12, 13, 76, 77, 92
Alashe, 22, 23, 104.
Alldridge, T. J., 55, 59
Awnomila. See Orunmila
Babalawo, 2, 26, 46-48, 71, 90, 93,
'49, IS 1 . '52, 165, 167, 174, 178,
180, 218, 222, 227
Bale, 17, 199, 201-204, 206-208, 216
Balogun, 15, 61-64, 85, 105, 173, 193,
206, 227, 229
Barbot, 61, 67, 107-109, 132
Bashorun, 61-64, 97. IO S> 'S'i 193,
226, 229
Basuto, 57
Bavili, 58, 69, 82, 85, 120, 157, 191,
210, 213, 225
Bellamy, C. V., 126-129
Bini, 9, 39, 56, 62, 63, 66, 76, 80, 82,
108, no, 121, 148, 157, 199
Birth, 136, 167, 168
Blacksmith, 125-129, 214
Blyden, Dr. E. W., 156
Bosman, 68, 132, 138, 157, 167
Bull-roarer, 28, 33-53
Burial customs, 28-33, 36, 41-44, 56-
58, 176, 189, 219.
Buruku, 71, 79, 102, 219
Calendar, 60, 63, 77-80, 100-104,
130-139. 191. 215, 226
Campbell, D. R., 198
Categories, 151, 152, 190, 191, 215,
220-225
Chimpanzee, 34, 35
Circumcision, 167, 168
Colour, 217-219
Cotton, E. P., 170, 197
Crawley, 3
Creation, 17, 18, 74, 83
Crowther, Bishop, 45, 73, 77, 81, 82,
86, 90, 145, 210
Dada, ioi, 102, 144, 168, 189, 190,
226
Dahomi, 7
Divination, 148, 149
Egba, 7, 14, 29, 36, 37, 41, 43, 51, 53,
91, 93, 140, 142, 164, 192, 200, 204,
206
Egbo, 55
Egun, 28, 29, 30, 33, 183
Egungun, 28-33, 36, 54, 56, 58, 104
Eleda, 17, 18, 74, 86, 147
Elegba, 94, 95, 100, 103
Eleko, 28
Elgee, Captain, 24, 25
Ellis, Colonel, 33, 46, 51, 70, 73, 74,
77-79, 81, 86, 87, 95, 98, 101-103,
no, in, 114, 123, 148-150, 158,
159, 168, 170, 214
Eluku, 55, 56, 58
Erinle, 188-190, 226
Eshu, 25, 26, 77, 78, 93-97, 100-102,
104, 117, 151, 170, 186, 226
Ewaw, 170, 175-188
Execution, 41, 43, 45
Farming, 130-133, 138-145, 215, 216
Fire, 216
Fishing, 106-114, 133, 198, 211, 212
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234 INDEX
Flood, 114, 115
Food plants, 131, 133, 138, 139
Frazer, J. G., 159, 175
George, Mr., 153
Government, 61, 62, 91, 92, 97, 105,
192-194
Grove (Sacred), 19-22, 25, 150
Haddon, Dr., 38
Hartze, H., 55
Hausa States, 11
Healy, J. J. C, 196
History, 6-16
Hunting, 116-123, 198, 213, 214
Ibadan, 8, 43, 51, 159, 162, 188, 200,
201-204
Ibibio, 176
Ifa, 2, 3, 18, 19, 63,64, 71, 73, 78, 80,
86-97, 100-104, no, 114, 115, 118,
123, 137, i47-'55, 164, 165, 167,
170, 176, 181, 184, 191, 218, 226,
227
Ife, 8, 11, 15, 19. 22-27. 69, 77. 87,
89, 201
Ijebu, 8, ss, 89, 92, 93, 200, 203, 204
Iketu, 8
Ilesha, 8
Ilorin, 8
Initiation Ceremonies, 38-40, 56
Insignia, 192, 193
Iro, 28, 34-36, 104, 172, 173
Iron- working, 125-129
Jakuta, 12, 17, 63-68, 71-72, 77-79,
97, 99, 101, 124, 137, 138, 169, 206
Johnson, Bishop, 63, 73, 81, 86, 87,
148, 149, 152, 170
Kerieo, 88, 158
Kingsley, Mary, 108
Lagos, 8-10
Land tenure, 195-208
Leopard, 120, 192
Lishabi, 7, 8
Malu, 38
Market, 80
Marriage, 156-162, 165-167, 175-182,
191, 216.
Mbundu, 56
Mohammedanism, II, 12, 75
Morimi, 22, 23
Niepos ara Orun, 51
Nkimbi, 53
Oba (Chief), 61-64, 105, 199, 219, 229
Oba (Orisha), 101, 102, 144, 168, 169,
189-191, 219, 226
Obatala, 63, 64, 69, 71, 73. 74. 78, 79.
81-86, 97, 100, 101, 103, 114, 132,
147, 167, 170, 181, 186, 226
Odedaino, 165
Odu, 2, 4, 73, 80, 88-90, no, 147-152.
191, 226, 227
Odudua, 11, 18, 19, 58, 63, 65, 71, 73-
77, 79, 80, 82-84, 87, 96. 97, 99>
101, 104, in, 115, 147. I 7°. J72,
173, 186, 214, 226
Ogboni, 32, 34, 37, 40-42, 44, 45, 57,
62, 91. 92, 97, 98, 101, 104, 105,
123, 152, 193, 221, 226-229
Ogun, 19, 78-80, 101, 102, 104, 116-
119, 123-125, 136, 144, 153, 169,
I7I-I73. 180, 182, 183, 191, 213,
214, 226
Oja (priestess), 3, 17, 77, 86, 87, 147,
170
Oja, 13
Oke, 101-104, 143, 144, 158, 159, 162,
164, 180, 191, 216, 226
Oko, 101-104, 143, 144, 158, 159, 164,
166, 180, 187, 191, 216, 226
Oliyitan, 2, 71, 78, 91, 93, 149, 191,
226
Oloawon, 39, 40
Olodumare, 83
Oloko, 202
Olokun, 70, 101-103, no, in, 113,
144, 180, 190, 210, 212, 226
Olorun, 12, 17, 18, 46, 48, 67, 72, 86,
226
Olosa, 101, 102, in, 113, 115, 144,
180, 190, 212, 226
Oloyo, 12, 14, 76
Omens, 113, 118, 119
Omonide, 12, 14, 75-77
Oni, 19, 22-25, 27, 39, 77, 87, 90-
92
Onile, 202-205
Oranyan, 24, 26, 90, 104, 170
Ore, 19, 21, 22
Orisha, 3, et passim
Orishala, 18, 19, 73, 77-79, 81-85,
103, 104, 173, 186
Oro, 28, 29, 33-59, 104, 154, 181,
lOO
Oru, 13, 14
Orun, 69, 72, 95, 98, 101
Orungan, 69, 97, 98, 100, 101, 115, 210,
226,
Orunmila (Awnomila), 26, 87, 90, 148,
ISO, 'S3
Oshowsi, 101, 102, 104, 117, 123-125,
144. 180, 191, 213, 226
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INDEX
235
Oshu, 94, 95, ioi, 151, 213, 226
Oshun, 101-104, 144, 168, 169, 174,
I75> 187, 189, 191, 216, 226
Ovia, 39, 40, 56
Oya, 101, 102, 104, 144, 168, 169, 184,
185, 191, 226
Oyo, 7, 76, 89, 91, 93, 126, 169, 170,
199, 200
Parkinson, J., 46
Pellegrin, Mr., 37, 42, 83, 171, 204
Phillips, Bishop, 87, no, 148-150
P°ro, 55-56
Property, 142
Punch, C, 52
Rainbow, 217
Rayner, T. C, 196
Sacrifice, 23, 31, 34, 37, 44, 47-49,
70, 94, 102, in, 117, 123, 124, 143,
152, 163, 169, 182-188, 194
Saintyves, P., 67
Salt, 140
Secret Societies, 28, 29, 31, 32, 36, 38,
51. 55-57. 122, 123, 143
Senses, 210, 211, 220, 221
Shango, 12, 58, 65, 67, 72, 78, 79, 92,
101-104, 123, 144, 168-173, 181,
185, 189-191, 216, 219, 226
Shankpana, 71, 101, 102, 144, 187,
189-191, 219, 226
Shoremakun, 180
Slaves, 205
Stone, Rev. R. H., 45
Stones, Sacred, 3, 18, 19, 22, 27, 66, 67,
9°. 95
Taboo, see Ewaw
Tarahumake, 57
Tasso, 56
Thunderbolts, 65, 68, 136-138, 168
Togun, 3, 17, 18, 24, 26, 67, 73, 77,
81, 86
Tucker, Miss, 44
Twins, 35
Westermark, 57
Winds, 65-71
Yemoja, 65, 71, 78, 79, 97-105, 113-
115, 144, 152, 168, 170, 188, 210,
226
Yemuhu, 18, 73, 74, 147
Yoruba States Origin, 10, 12
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