Seeker of Mysteries: A Journey of Twenty Years from Benin-City to Ijebu Ode in Search of Sacred Space: Part 7
Oluwatoyin Adepoju
Abstract
An exploration of sacred spaces, within an autobiographical context, in Ijebu-Ode, particularly those of the classical African spirituality of the Yoruba, in relation to Islam and Christianity in Ijebu-Ode and pre-Christian nature spirituality in England.
The Ijebu Ode constellation of mosques and churches in their ubiquity, their pervasive presence, in relation to the centrality and yet inadequate positioning of classical African spiritualities in Ijebu Ode suggests to me an urgent need for the sustenance of existing spaces and the creation of new ones dramatizing the value to humanity of the primal spiritualities of African peoples.
Image Above
Football game in play at the open space next to the Obanta shrine. Picture by myself.
The integration of play and gravitas represented by the open space in front of the Obanta shrine where youth play football, watched over by the sage presence of an ancient tree, the location of a library further inward within the space, the positioning of eloquently beautiful trees mapping the grounds, suggest to me the kinds of spaces that need to be built to project the nature centred, intergenerational, cognitively directed values of classical African spiritualities.
These should be spaces doing away with the gender restrictive character of some of its expressions, such as women not being allowed inside the Obanta shrine, as the inscription on its wall states, replacing such restrictions with such recognitions as the Yoruba origin Ogboni recognition of the unity of pluralities in generating a third factor, the Earth Mother present as the unifying force of the Ogboni, akin to the trinity actualised as the unity of the father, the mother and the child in Agbarha Ekene theology of the Urhobo.
Image Above
Itoro at dusk, as seen from the road opposite the historic space. Picture by myself.