Seeker of Mysteries: A Journey of Twenty Years from Benin-City to Ijebu Ode in Search of Sacred Space: Part 5
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 last and perhaps most consequential location of classical Yoruba spirituality, particularly in its relationship with nature, which I visited in that eventful day at Ijebu-Ode was Itoro, an embodiment of Ijebu history as well as a dramatization of the inspirationally generative potential of landscape, a zone rich with eloquently beautiful trees in a panorama suggestive, to me, of harbouring great happenings, historical depths and creative possibilities, resonating with the mind contemplating the scenic space regardless of the gazer's knowledge of the significance of that space, a generative capacity inhering in the relationship between the landscape and the human mind.
Image Above
Collage by myself integrating pictures I took at Itoro. The collage suggests the location's synergy of natural grandeur generated by stately trees and that created by humanly created monuments.
Various monuments in that space gesture towards its historical significance as an axial point, a generative centre in Ijebu history, but these markers are in different states of care.
The most significant of these has its roof caving in even as its interior is unkept. It is a medium sized white building described as the site of the centuries old epochal sacrifice of a diviner, Enisemu, who consulted an oracle to determine what should be done to stem the expansion of a lagoon at that point which threatened Ijebu land.
The oracle revealed that the diviner would have to give up his life for the lagoon to contract, upon which he positioned himself upon the water and it took him away to a zone unknown, upon which the lagoon dried up.
This is a turning point in Ijebu history commemorated by the shrine being the point of commencement of the installation rites of the Awujale, the monarch of Ijebu land, which includes other Ijebu sub-groups beyond Ijebu-Ode.
The descendants of Enisemu, the diviner who sacrificed himself on behalf of Ijebu land have been exempt from tax from the time of that great sacrifice. The family converge on the site of the sacrifice to commemorate that incident towards the end of every year, a historical narrative told to me by Mr. Sunday Joseph Adesanya, Secretary to the Ijebu-Ode local government, whom I met at Itoro.
Images Above
Picture by myself of Obanta shrine in Itoro and of a plaque on the shrine wall describing its significance. I understood this shrine to represent Enisemu, from what I was told. I am therefore puzzled that the plaque describes it as representing Obanta, an early king at Ijebu Ode. I will need to clarify this through further enquiries.
A Google search reveals that the full name of this self sacrificing figure is Enisemu or Onisemu Leguru and that he was a babalawo, an adept in the esoteric knowledge of Ifa, the central Yoruba divination system, as stated at the Ijebu RewaFacebook page, which presents a story identical to the one I was told. A yearly festival is celebrated in his name, as described in ''Ijebu Festivals'' at the Egbe Bobakeye site and of which there are videos on YouTube.
There is also a street and a chieftaincy title named after him. A holder of that title is shown in this video by Ambassador TV presenting another version of the story, emphasizing it as a duel between Enisemu and the spirit of the river that constituted much of what is now known as Ijebu land, Enisemu's victory over that river enabling the emergence of dry land on which the larger community was eventually built.
Rather than erect a building at the site, though, a building now falling into disrepair, why were the clearly once large trees the stumps of which are all that remains, having been cut down, not sustained, and even if they fall, are replaced, therefore preserving the sense of natural power the environment may have possessed as a location in a forest, suggested by the large tree beside it?
Images Above
Collage by myself correlating the pictures I took of the interior of the Obanta shrine.