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National Association Of Osun State Students, Ekiti State University Chapter (NAOSS EKSU)'s visit to the ancient city of İLÉ IFÈ and most especially the OONI OF ILE IFE.
The National Association Of Osun State Students EKSU CHAPTER paid a visit to the ooni of Ile ife, the 51st king of ife on the 4th of may 2019.
The trip which was led by
Comrade Ilesanmi Gbenga Ashaolu, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF OSUN STATE STUDENTS EKSU CHAPTER PRESIDENT started around 11:30am in the morning in EKITI STATE UNIVERSITY ADO EKITI.
Getting to the palace of ooni of Ile ife as at few minutes past 1 o'clock.Tourists proceeded to the emesè for directions.
The emesè are like soldiers to the king, better still, they may be called the king's "everywhere you go"
The emesè has half of their hair skinned and the other half hairy a bit as shown in the picture below.
This people are very close to the king. They determine "your meeting the king" even if the king wants to meet you and has ordered him to bring you in.
THE FOUR COURTS IN ILE IFE
Listening to the emesè, he told several ancestral stories, which he began with the FOUR COURTS IN ILE IFE.
This world is full of people with different characters and point of view. With this, our differences causes quarrels and disagreements sometimes.
This courts are meant for conflict resolvement.
1. EMESÈ'S COURT:
This court is the first and primary stage of the courts. The king's emesè will attend to and solve the controversies between each quarreling terms.
Below are tourists in front of the emesè court.
2.OLOYE AGABA(HIGH CHIEFS) :
This is a court designed for the intervention of the chiefs, most especially the high chiefs. Cases that does not suit the satisfaction of each quarreling party are transferred to the high chiefs for better settlement.
3. KABIYESI(THE KING) :
Cases that does not suit the satisfaction of each quarreling party are further transfered to the king for intervention.
4.SHRINE( İLÉ ÀSE) :
In this court,cases which needs clarity of innocence are attended to.
Each party is taken to the shrine to swear before the gods and the guilty dies before 7days. Tourists were told not to play with curses here. As everything said here will come to pass. They were given a minute to pray in this shrine. No pictures were allowed here as it's strictly against the culture of the land.
ORIJI OLOFIN
The next place the emesè took tourists to was THE ORIJI OLOFIN.
Oroji olofin is a very powerful deity who was a being before it entered the ground before it was covered as in the picture above for preservation and worship. Every powerful herbalist in the world must worship this.
DEITIES IN ILE IFE AND YORUBA LAND ENTIRELY.
The emesè furthermore moved into the deities in yoruba land.
He said there are 401 deities in yoruba land and out of this deities, 201 is in Ile ife alone while the remaining 200 is shared amidst other yoruba land.
He explained further that only 1 out of the 201 deities in Ile ife is alive till date and is also the one controlling and managing the remaining dead deities. This deity that is still alive and controls the remaining 200 is the OONI OF ILE IFE.
He also revealed that out of the 365 days in a year,it's only a day that there is no celebration or worshiping of idols in the land,which is only known to the king.
Preceeding to the palace pavilion.
There inscriptions and carves narrating events in the past.
In the picture below, there are carves that shows slaves in their various assignments in the past.
Some of this slaves are tapping wine, riding horses(ooni does not ride horse), some are entertainers:singing, blowing trumpet and dancing.
In addition, the emesè chipped in a statement
"No one is allowed to enter into the palace with an umbrella, only the king can."
Also in the palace pavilion is the Great horn and idà iségún(sword of Victory).
The picture above shows an elephant's horn and a sword called idà isegun.
This horn was gotten from the king who turned to an elephant because his people betrayed him and wanted him dead.
The idà isegun is a sword every yoruba king must come to receive at the ooni's palace before they can be traditionally called a king.
He proceeded to The obalufon statue.
OBALUFON was a king who reigned for 415 years, he was wanted dead due to this, and was chased away, which he later created ife odan.
Obalufon alayemore is the son of obalufon. His carve his shown below (the smaller head below the bigger statue)
ADÉ ARÈ :THE KING'S ANCESTRAL CROWN
ADÉ ARÈ as shown in the picture above is the ancestral crown for all ooni of Ile ife.
This crown is 50kg in weight(as heavy as a bag of cement).
The king uses this crown once in a year (during the olojo festival only)
During this festival, "a 5 toed chicken is used to make this crown light for the king to put on. The hen will be stretched forward to the hen and will be incanted to start sucking the crown till it becomes dry while the hen dies afterwards.
The king then carries this crown to oke mogun and other ancestral places, due to the power of this crown, no curses are allowed near it, as everything said will come to pass, so therefore the king prays for Ile ife, Osun State and Nigeria at large when he is on this crown. But before the king visits all this places and returns back to his palace, the crown is becoming heavy again and therefore the king is becoming tired,during this time, prayers are answered most.
Another interesting myth about the crown is that it sizes every head, regardless of the age and size. Oduduwa came with this crown from eledumare, it wasn't made by any man or being.
SUPERIORITY BETWEEN ALAAFIN OF OYO AND THE OONI OF ILE IFE
A young, curious man popular known as AUTHORITY asked a question over the controversies of the ALAAFIN of oyo been superior to the ooni of Ile ife.
The ooni of ife is superior to the alafin, the emesè answered.
I will give you just two of the many reasons.
1.Ooni is the son of Oduduwa while alafin is the son of oranmiyan.
Oduduwa is superior to oranmiyan because Oduduwa was sent by eledumare himself to create the earth.
2. The two parties has ADÉ ARÈ(CROWN), but the alafin of oyo can never and has never worn the ade are.
Our king is a peace making king, which is why he went to the alafin of oyo for the visit he paid. According to tradition, the alafin of oyo is meant to come to the palace of the ooni.
İLÉ ÀSE
As earlier stated, Ile ise is one of the four courts in Ile ife. It is the last court where people swear to the gods and the guilt dies after 7days.
A man who comes from heaven in the ages past to make cutlass and hoes is the spirit behind this shrine.
He has a chain around his waist that limits him from walking about the earth, so the only thing he does his make cutlasses and hoes and return back to eledumare.
He puts price tags on his products(stones as it is been done in the olden days)
The king beseeched him to teach his people, he refused because he doesn't want anything to do with the people of the world. But later agreed to teach the people of his land.
His apprentice developed jealousy and they started planning his death because their products were less preffered to his's.
The wife given to him by the king revealed his secret of best food to get him from heaven, they prepared lots of it, he ate to the fullest, became tired and slept off.
The chain around his waist was cut off.
Through the process of surviving, he disappeared into the ground and covered himself, the people angrily cut off his wife head for refusing to reveal his whole secret.
White men who were on research mission noticed there is a fossil under the rock (he turned to rock, along side his tools and the snake he reared)
They dug the place and will come back the following morning to meet the back to normal just as if nothing was done earlier.
Seeing this for days,they concluded that it's the work of a powerful spirit
The white men prayed at this spot and went back to thier destination, but to their surprise, everything they requested for came to reality.
They came back to renovate the spot and since then it became a place to worship, where prayers are made and curses are advised not to be laid because everything said here will surely come to pass. Clarity of innocence is also sworn here.
Other places visited include the oranmiyan staff and the Moremi Statue (biggest Statue in Africa)
MEETING WITH THE KING
The ooni of ife appeared before the students around 8:00pm in the night.
Also present was kanu nwakwo, one of the Nigerian football legend.
He attended to the students kindly, prayed and blessed them, entertainments followed, presentation of portrait to the king before he finally left for his chambers at 11:00pm.
The ooni of ife with his kind gesture ordered his cook to make dinner and offered the hall which abodes his ancestral throne to sleep overnight before the students returned back to their destination.
COMMENTS FROM THE TOURISTS.
"I never expected this fun, Ile Ife is a tourist attraction to the world at large, its a place everyone must be," biola said to Kilonshele Media Team.
"My name is tunde, I am not from Ile ife, even though I have heard lots of bad things about the town, the king and his kind gesture has convinced me enough that Ile ife is the father of all yoruba land. Another person commented.
" What else do I want again, eating a royal's food, sleeping a royal's house, seeing the throne enough is a privilege for me, place where presidents and governors meet, I am sleeping right now!... God bless ooni if Ile ife!. Dunmade prayed.
The tourists zoomed off back to their destination on Sunday 5th May 2019.
BROUGHT TO YOU BY
SOLA
KILONSHELE
BHAMS
-members of Kilonshele Media Team.
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