Fwd: [NaijaPolitics] Despicable hidden Yoruba culture exposed:We need legislation to eradicate rituals, cannibalism

[toyin adepoju]

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From: Doc Okwy <doc...@yahoo.com>
Date: 2009/11/8
Subject: [NaijaPolitics] Despicable hidden Yoruba culture exposed
To: NaijaP...@yahoogroups.com

 

I wonder if this brave woman can pull this off. This is a culture in existence since Oduduwa became of Age We need legislation to eradicate rituals, cannibalism - Erelu Lola Ayonrinde -Raises posers on Oba Funso Adeolu’s corpse Erelu Tunwase AyonrindeErelu Tunwase of Ode-Remo, Chief Lola Ayonrinde, who is the Otun Iyalode of Shomolu and Lagos District, and also the Yeye Akinrogun of Ikeji-Ile Ijesa was twice Mayor of the London Borough of Wandsworth. She talks to AYO-LAWAL GBENOBA on her campaign against human sacrifice and cannibalism in Nigeria. Excerpts: WHAT is your campaign all about? The ‘Say No To Cannibalism In Nigeria’ campaign is aimed towards eradicating the ancient and obnoxious practice of mutilating the bodies of traditional rulers after death. The rituals and sacrifices parts of the body of a dead king, especially in Western Nigeria, are used for are barbaric and a disgrace to the country in this 21st century. The movement is out to stop these evil practices which are not in consonant with the will of God and against the fundamental human rights of the affected traditional rulers. When a king dies, they say they have to give his heart to his successor on the throne to eat. They explained that it will make the new king strong and courageous but, is that not deceit? How can eating somebody’s flesh give courage to another person? They mutilate the remains of these kings and engage in fetish and obnoxious activities which add no value to anybody or the society in general. Why do you need to feed an incoming royal father with the heart of a dead one? This cannibalism started with Christopher Colombus who believed that when a king ate the heart, or some other parts of a dead ruler, some major attributes of the dead was transferred to the new king. This is sheer cannibalism and has no place with God. And, I want the chiefs, the traditional rulers themselves and other stakeholders to know that any tradition that does not recognise God is doomed. The government must put a stop to this cannibalism going on in some parts of Nigeria because, it is even against the constitution of Nigeria. Section 38 subsection 1 of the Nigerian constitution gives every citizen the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, while section 17 subsection 26 declares that the sanctity of the human person shall be recognised and human dignity shall be maintained and enhanced. Where is the sanctity of the human person in all these? Where is human dignity? What motivated this campaign? I was very close to the late Alaye of Ode-Remo, Oba Funso Adeolu, the popular Chief Eleyinmi of the rested Village Headmaster soap opera. Few months after his death on August 21, 2008, he started appearing to me and I had months of traumatic haunting. In his lifetime, Oba Adeolu was a Christian and he made it known that he did not partake in anything fetish during his installation as king. He explicitly, several times, demanded that when death came calling, his corpse should be handed over to his family so that he could be given a proper Christian burial. However, his corpse was not released to the family. After his death, he appeared to me several times, and kept telling me about many things. He said his corpse was handed over to the ‘odis’ (slaves) who treated it like that of a criminal. They took bits and pieces of his remains for their own use while some parts were distributed to the four corners of the town. It was while going round that I discovered what happened and I met some chiefs who confessed what happened but asked me to forget it because there was nothing we could do about it. All the ‘odus’ of Ifa do not approve using human beings as sacrifice, the constitution does not approve and to crown it all, God Almighty frowns at this practice, they are doing it to appease whom? Some of the kings today are enlightened and those who are born again Christians, like Oba Adeolu, are renouncing these things. So, why hold on to an obnoxious and barbaric act? Oba Adeolu believed he would be given a decent burial and that is why his ghost has refused to rest. Even in Ijebuland, these things were abolished years ago and Ijebuland under the Awujale agreed they would bury kings according to their religion. So, how do you hope to stop the practice? We are canvassing that our traditional rulers should be buried whole, without being mutilated and it should be in the open. There is secrecy because of the evils attached. It is untenable scientifically that the heart is eaten for so and so reasons. To start with, let us have the installation of kings in the open, no aspect of the installation should be shrouded in secrecy. It should be a celebration of our culture so, why should it be shrouded in secrecy? When everything becomes transparent, it will even help younger ones to know more about our culture and we will be able to restore some of our societal values. Why should obas be laid to rest in a paganic manner? If a governor gives staff of office to a king, giving him recognition and authority, that king is under the governor so, why should the government condone barbarism in this age? The ministry of local government and chieftaincy affairs should do something about this, if not, the government is endorsing cannibalism. True that some of the kings went through these rituals during installation but those who opted out should be given that grace of opting out of the rituals in death. They should be buried according to their faith. The practice is a disgrace to the whole of South West because it is common there. We are appealing to the traditional rulers who were installed through cannibalism to renounce it publicly and declare they don’t want their hearts to be eaten or other parts of their bodies to be used for any form of ritual. Abolition of slave trade took place years ago. So, why do we still have some people in Ode calling themselves slaves (‘odis’)? We need legislation to stop the barbaric act and we are appealing to our lawmakers to rise up to this task of eradicating cannibalism in Nigeria. There should be a law backing a king to opt out of fetish installation and burial and it should become an offence for anyone to tamper with the remains of a king, for whatever purpose, or to give the body to the ‘odi’ for rituals. The penalty should be without an option of fine so that the perpetrators would know how grave the offence is. The ‘odi’ in Ode can be given money to buy goat, ram, cow, or whatever they need for sacrifice, if they must, but there must be total abolition of human sacrifice in the country. Efforts are being made by some Ogun State traditional rulers to stop it but some feel the fetish practice must be protected. The government must detach itself from it. Internationally, human sacrifice, cannibalism, witchcraft and sorcery are illegal so, why should it be done with impunity in Nigeria, a country that is known as the giant of Africa? Infact, politicians should begin to include the abolition of cannibalism in their campaign programmes, and party manifestos by 2010. What efforts have you made so far to network and get people involved? We give glory to Almighty God. I have spoken to so many kings who secretly don’t want it and we are telling them that they should make an open declaration against these evil practices. The campaign would be boosted if they do because people believe they all knew and agreed to these evil practices before being installed. We now call on the royal fathers again, in the name of Almighty God, to declare publicly that they don’t want these fetish practices to continue. I have carried the campaign to the international level so that Nigerians of affluence who are in diaspora would lobby the lawmakers and get a legal backing for the campaign to eradicate human sacrifice and cannibalism in Nigeria. A number of international media like the BBC have aired my interview on the campaign and some Nigerian people abroad are involved in the lobbying for a legislation to stop the obnoxious practices. We call on the ‘oluwos’ and ‘odis’ in Ode to review the entrenched ill that has no value to the society. We appeal to them to accept cows and goats and allow our royal fathers to be buried according to their beliefs. Then, it was about time that the royal fathers are constituted into the House of Royals, like the House of Lords, so that they would have more power, say and patnership in governance. This would help them to contribute meaningfully to issues affecting them and the society at large. http://www.tribune.com.ng/08112009/general1.html

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[basil ugochukwu]

The person who conducted this interview missed out on one important question. Did the late Oba Funso Adeolu eat the heart of the Oba that he succeeded? Or was it after his installation that he became born again and renounced this practice? Sadly he is already six feet under the earth and so cannot enforce the fundamental right to the dignity of his person under the Nigerian constitution because under the narrow standing requirements applied in our courts, it is only the victim of a completed or threatened human rights violation that can lodge a legal complaint. Talking about rituals, I believe they have to be dealt with but the justification has to be that social dynamics have fundamentally shifted. I don't think it should be on the grounds of Christianity with its own rituals as well. Non-Christians should be able to reject the practice as well. We should be able to deal with issues of this nature without aiding ourselves with a borrowed sub-culture.

Basil

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From: toyin adepoju <toyin....@googlemail.com>
To: WoleSoyinkaSociety <WoleSoyin...@yahoogroups.com>; Edo Global <Edo_G...@yahoogroups.com>; nigerianworldforum <NIgerianW...@yahoogroups.com>; usaafricadialogue <USAAfric...@googlegroups.com>; Nidoa <ni...@yahoogroups.com>; nai <naijain...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Sun, November 8, 2009 1:19:58 PM
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Fwd: [NaijaPolitics] Despicable hidden Yoruba culture exposed:We need legislation to eradicate rituals, cannibalism

[Tony Agbali]

What do we mean by "ritual(s)? Does and is every ritual simply a religious act? I would venture to think that we the term ritual permeates the arena of politics, business, sports, and other spheres of human engagements.  Pointed allusions to specific rituals must indicate within which sphere it is occuring. Is the assumed predecessor heart consumption a cultural ritual, it is symbolic ritual, or is it religious ritual? Under what precise arena does it actually fall within? Narrowing rituals to religion alone often does an injustice to the proper conceptualization of the term. When, as it happened on Friday, the U.S. flag was flown half-staff, following the Fort Hood shooting incidence, it is a ritual depicting national morning, that while it might be linked to some religious meaningly represents a purely public, official, and symbolic statement regarding the mood of the nation- and in that ritualistic framework, that act is neither Christian, Moslem, Judaist, or Buddhist. It is an American ritual for state mourning and public expression, especially of loss and grief. Clarifying these usages analytically and conceptual would offer a better appraisal of these issues. Could the eating of the heart be divorced from religiosity as an act that is culturally vested without the adornment of religion? --- On Sun, 11/8/09, basil ugochukwu <ugoch...@yahoo.com> wrote:

[EUGENE NWOSU]

Corruption has no ethnicity!

 

“As most people are aware official corrupt practices are driven by three major factors outside of the personal lack of moral compass and compassion for the masses of the offenders::

 

***Opportunity- -due to lack of appropriate checks and balances

 

***Reduced probability of being caught in the Nigerian context

 

*** Hitherto, Lack of serious consequences even when caught.

 

There are no criminal genes that can be inherited or none inherited. According to a recent scientific finding 80% of our destiny (what we become or not become in life) is driven by environmental factors such as our upbringing and the opportunities that come or do not come our way during our life's journey (i.e. nurture). The balance of 20% is accounted for by our biology--the equalizing template we have inhered from our forbears”.

 

“Criminality is not a biological or acquired cultural trait that is specific to any ethnic group, race, nationality, creed or religious affiliations that human beings espouse.”

 

By Dr. Ola Kassim (Greatly said, Sir)

 

Corruption has no ethnicity let us all condemn and fight it whenever and wherever its ugly head appears.

I am Optimistic because of the Light I see in you.

Cheers!

Because of you, I am

Positively

Eugene

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