Ifa Temple, Oketase, Ile-Ife
We have three dominant religions in the world, Christianity, Islam and traditional religion.
The purveyors and adherents of Islam and Christianity ensured that the deeds, acts and works of Our Lord Jesus Christ and Holy Prophet Mohammed are not only documented and protected; they ensured agrarian evangelisation of the faiths through various means.
The adherents also make sure that the birth places and center of operation of our Lord Jesus Christ and Prophet Mohammed are not only made points of religious reference but a must visit for all.
The governments of the lucky countries where these towns are located have seized the opportunity of tapping into the glory and blessing of what God planted in their domain.
The governments and people of Isreal and Saudi Arabia smile to the banks all the year round just because of the economic chain reactions of the influx of millions of visitors and tourists who frequent Jerusalem and Mecca to see where our Lord Jesus Christ was born and performed wonderful miracles, and where Prophet Mohammed (PBOH) launched and propagated Islam, the religion of peace.
But to God be the glory, it is not that God Almighty has forgotten us in Nigeria. No. God Almighty is a just God and he abundantly blessed us too with what we can use to attract millions of tourists, adherents of faiths and go –getter visitors to Nigeria.
Orimolade Tuolase, of the Cherubuim and Seraphim church; Apostle Ayo Babalola of the CAC, Pa Bilewu Oschoffa of the Celestial Church, all of blessed memory have their points of origin.
But what has become of them?
All of us have our own faiths which we must not allow to contradict the economic relevance of others.
Whenever the Muslims celebrate, all other faiths benefit economically; ditto when Christians celebrate, too.
But Nigeria and Nigerians can still benefits more if we can lower our various religious bigotries, prejudices and colonial indoctrination to explore the benefits inherent in enhancing the different religious sites.
The Tribune Tourism Magazine crew of Wale Ojo–Lanre and Olajumoke Akintunde was on tour of the World Ifa Temple, situated at Oketase, Ile Ife, Osun State (the hill where all of us originated), on Tuesday 24 April, 2012.
It was a rewarding voyage of discovery of a world class tourism gold and a potential UNESCO World Heritage Site. Only the Ifa adherents probably are aware of its importance.
At Araba Agbaye‘s compound
Locating Oketase in Ile–Ife, Osun State, was not a difficult task, as an okada operator was quick to direct us to Enu Owa, the street where the Ooni of Ife’s palace is located.
“You just pass through this Ilare road, straight down, just look out for a radio mast on your left. You cannot miss it. The World Ifa Temple.”
Excatly as directed, when we got to the far end of the road before joining Enuowa on the left, we saw a churchlike building with well paved and cemented rolls of steps leading to its entrance.
But before mounting the steps,we pulled a call through to a young Ifa practitioner, Babalawo Owolabi Awodotun Aworeni, a student of Yoruba Language at the Obafemi Awolowo University, who is a son of the Araba Agbaiye.
He surfaced promptly and led us into a big compound on the gate of which was written. Ile Orunmila Barami Abgoniregun: Agiri baba, Oketase.”
As we entered the large compound, one noticed a Volvo 747 with a plate number Araba agbaye “parked in the front of the house.
Babalawo Aworeni ushered us into the large room where four young men sat around an ifa tray with another young man kneeling down, holding two fowls and having beside him other entrails of sacrifice.
Baba Araba Agbaye Chief Awoyemi Adisa Aworemi Makanranola, planted himself on a chair watching the proceeding of the day.
The house was filled with different wood carvings and fearful sculptures of human shape. Hung on the wall is a photograph of a man whose half body was painted in the color of a leopard. Jumoke was heard murmuring ‘the blood of Jesus.’
Our entry did not truncate the divination process being carried out as we exchanged brief greetings with Baba Araba who motioned us to some chairs opposite him.
“Welcome to the root of all races of the world,” Araba-Agbaye said
Perceiving our curious look , Araba pointed towards Oke–Itase: “That is the root, the origin, the source of every human being on earth. Orunmila had been in existence with Olodumare 4,000 years before the emergence of other deities.All other deities met Orun–lo-meni– ma – la (Heaven knows who will prosper and survive) on water and Oduduwa himself met him here at Oketase.”
Here, Baba Araba pointed out, “we worship and venerate, the Ifa divinity, the deity who holds the wisdom and who employs the wisdom to tell yesterday, comment on today and reveal tomorrow. Ifa comprehends the inner thinking of all being, Ifa holds the ace to all problems.”
As Araba Agbaye was telling us the noble role of the Ifa deity, one of the young men sitting round the Ifa corpous smashed a big snail on the ground, and the liquid therefrom was collected into a calabash while the diviners were said some incantations. After this, the calabash was passed round and all those present touched the liquid with a finger and rubbed the liquid on their heads praying and wishing themselves well.
We were left out of the processes and Baba Araba Agbaye continued “Everything started here, the creation, the Ark of Noah and other process that pertains to the existence of humanity emanated here.
That is why all Olu-Awos and Ifa practitioners and adherents all over the world always converge here at the temple on the first Saturday in June, every year, to commemorate and thank Olodumare at the root and source of existence. This year’s will come on June 2 and it is going to be great. For that day is the commencement of the of the new year of Ifa divination. It is a day synonymous with New Year as it marks the beginning of another Ifa year.”
Responding to the view that Ifa is fetish and engages in sacrifice, Araba Agbaye said: “These words were employed by the white men to downgrade the superiority of Ifa and to underpin the fact that the act of creation is from this part of the world. Every faith has its modus operandi. The Christians have theirs, some even go as far as having a bath in the stream or river. The Muslims offer zakat and so on, we appease the God in our own traditional way that is known to us and practiced before the incursion of the two dominate modern religion. These are words created to stain our traditional practices. There is nothing fetish in our own way of talking and appeasing Olodumare.”
Araba-Agbaye is not happy that the Osun State government has not been forthcoming in assisting the World Ifa Festival celebration: “The Osun State Government has not helped this celebration which magnetise over five thousand Ifa adherents all over the world to the state every year. Although, we don’t know whether the government of Ogbeni Aregbesola will be different, we have feel the impact.
“We pray here for the peace, prosperity and harmony for the state, its people, Nigeria and the world.
World Ifa Festival is supposed to enjoy good sponsorship and support from all.”
He pointed out that “contrary to the notion that Ifa adherents are ritualists, the era of using human beings for sacrifice is now a bygone period in the history of the festival, as the occasion is meant to showcase the origin, culture and tradition of the Africans to the world’.
Chief Araba said the colonialists only exploited the Africans by putting enmity between the Africans and their culture by portraying the African tradition as evil.
He said the colonialists used this opportunity to cart away many valuables from this part of the world and used such to decorate their museums, which tourists pay exorbitant fees to view today. He gave several examples of such artifacts stolen from Africa in museums world-over: “A particular case is that of ‘Osupa Adio’ (Diamond), a gift to Ife, which was stolen with some insiders’ help’.
Baba Araba – Agbaye blessed us and informed that the Ifa temple in Oketase was built around 1936 with solid stone.
As we were leaving the Ifa temple, a set of people were alighting from cars coming to know their fate from the Ifa and Baba Araba prayed again for us. “You will go in peace.”
At the temple
Araba’s office is about 50 metres to the temple, with having some houses and shrine in between.
The temple itself stands like a gigantic orthodox church, silent, yet loud with rolls of steps spread from the hill to the bottom for easy accessibility. It looks as the hunter that watches over Ife. The exterior of the temple which sits atop a knoll, is painted white, and the floors of the stairs red.
The temple has two floors, On entrance to the temple also known as “Ile Agbonmiregun,” one notices the floors of white and red tiles, well arranged, leading to the altar which only the Araba-agbaye sits and presides over the rituals like a priest. At the altar, the Araba-agbaye’s photo hangs conspicuously on the wall. Although he had no clothing on, the intricate designs made by white chalks only depicts one thing, a leopard. Our tour guide, said the make-up vividly portrayed the picture of the Orunmila when he got angry and turned into a leopard when he and the Ooni had a rift some millennia ago. The leopard made its way to the Ooni’s palace to tear him apart, but the people appeased him and he later changed back into a human being. Thus, the leopard is an important animal to the Ifa adherents.
Babalawo Owolabi, an Ifa practitioner, said the 10 pillars of the temple, five on both sides and the ten windows do not really have any spiritual significance, that they are normal structures to support the building and for ventilation. Offering boxes made of wood were strategically placed on each side of the pew where the worshippers can drop their gifts.
The tombs
At the right side of the temple by the pillars are the spots where some gods enter the ground through. Some mini platforms are constructed to commemorate the gods. The first is that of Agiri – baba oketase, next to this is Sopona’s platform.
Our guide, Babalawo owolabi told us that Sopona is not a friendly deity and hates being disturbed. An instance of this was when the temple was being renovated, and the god was moved from its position, it was really a near-disaster as a plague broke out on the town before it was appeased and the plague stopped. Baluwe Orunmila (Orunmila’s bathroom) is the third platform. This was so because the Orunmila deity loves water.
At the interior of the ‘’Ile Agbonmiregun’’ is a quadrangle, and within this is the “ojubo ifa’’, the Ifa shrine.
Noah’s ark
There is a spot by the altar which our guide claimed to be the place where Noah’s ark rested after the deluge, just like it was recorded in the Bible that the flood occurred.
Orunmila’s room
A room built like a sacristy in an orthodox church building, is named the Orunmila’s room where only the Araba-Agbaye could enter to consult with the deity.
The top floor
The upstairs buildings has a large space for reception. It also has 13 windows and two doors that serve as emergency exits apart from the staircase at the entrance into the temple. The Babalawo, a student of Yoruba in Obafemi Awolowo University, OAU, Ile-Ife, Osun State, married to an afro-american who is a Lecturer at the Geology department of OAU, decried the dilapidated state of the building, saying hat despite the lots of money being generated worldwide on Ifa oracle consulting, the headquarters should be in such a state of disrepair. He said the temple was built in 1936, of stones and mudbricks, rather than blocks, as is the norm these days.
The Omo-Awos
Some young people were seen in the room that serves as Araba-agbaye’soffice, attending to the people who came to consult the Ifa. These young people our guide called the “Omo-awo,’’ he said they are divinely chosen by the Ifa oracle itself. Although some of them are biological children of Ifa priests, others are divinely gifted or chosen. They can recite the incantations off-hand and are understudying the priests.
The palm tree
There is a palm tree beside the temple which must be worshipped every first Saturday of June in the morning before the commencement of the celebration, after the women must have swept the surroundings of the temple. This practice is as a result of the promise the Orunmila made to a particular palm tree some era ago when it helped him. He promised, as a reciprocal gesture, that every part of it shall be a money spinner. And so it is till today, as no part of the palm tree is a waste.
As, we headed out of the Temple, Babalawo Owolabi remarked that “We shall be expecting your crew on Saturday, 2nd June. Then, you will be able to appreciate in full the essence of this temple, as you will be surprised by the number of ifa adherents not only from Nigeria but from the diaspora. The white adherents almost outnumbered the black last year. And come June 2, Ile-Ife, Osun State will welcome the world’s Ifa adherents. You are all invited to come and seek solutions to the problems confronting your lives.”
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