By Tunji Ajibade
In the first part (and second) of this piece published in The PUNCH newspaper, I explained “odu” in the name Olodumare as used by Ifa worshipers and which name is also found in the Christian Yoruba bible. The word odu in Olodumare is from the word “Olodu”, meaning the owner of odu, a word in Ifa panegyric that roughly means chapter or verse. It’s worth noting that a panegyric means eulogistic oration or writing, public speech or published text in praise of someone or something. Everything refers to word. If odu is by inference taken to mean word, it means even traditional worshipers recognise the Supreme Being as the owner of word, or the word himself.
This is very much the same way the Christian bible describes the Supreme Being, and more specifically his son recorded to have become flesh and come into the world: “In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God.” It is both interesting and informative that Ifa worshipers in particular recognize that the Supreme Being has a son just as Christian faith teaches. In their own concept, Ifa worshipers give the son the name Ela. Why should they know about the son? This following is my supposition. What is now known as traditional religion in Africa is sometimes traced to the Middle East before the advent of Islam, and to the the many tribes who migrated with their deities from that direction to settle in Africa. Even the Yoruba say they their ancestors came from the direction of the East, and with specific reference to Oduduwa the ancestor of the Yoruba, pre-Islam Mecca is mentioned.
Take note that when the founder of the Christian faith was born in Bethlehem (Middle East), he was visited by three wise men from the East. The Yoruba bible called these men Amoye, wise men. Of them the bible says: “…and there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem”, saying…for we have seen his star in the east…”. It also says. “…and lo, the star which they saw in the east, went before them,” and they eventual saw it on the manger where the young child was. I’ve heard these men referred to by some in Yoruba as Aworawo, which roughly means star gazers. I assume these were highly spiritual men; they saw things in the spiritual realm which normal men wouldn’t see; they saw a star that was different from every other and they came to Bethlehem to worship him. Note that nothing in this story indicated these men were Christians, nothing indicated they were converted to Judaism. So we can assume that these were men who saw as the oracle see, or they knew the mind of the oracle as Ifa Babalawo are said to be able to do.
The wise men were warned in a dream. Even an Ifa Babalawo could receive warning in a dream; if the reader understands that there are Babalawo who don’t engage in negative things, then they understand what I mean. The Amoye or Aworawo who came to Bethlehem were more than likely to be highly spiritual people who didn’t engage in negative things. They saw a superior power, the son of the Supreme Being (whom they initially mistook to be the son of am earthly king – Herod) so they came humbly to worship. The point I make here is that traditional worshipers reverence the Supreme Being, and they have their sayings with which they express their humble state, thanksgiving, and praise. The manner they say such has never been exclusive to them; such have come into everyday use, and they have become normal sayings that are not limited to traditional worshipers as I explained in the first two parts of the series. The extent to which most sayings have become woven into daily life is demonstrated by how they are now commonly used by gospel singers and preachers in Yoruba art forms such as ewi, Ijala ode, and Yoruba drama.
Against this backdrop therefore, I don’t see anything wrong in how Alabi tweaked well known sayings among the Yoruba and used them with a focus on the Christian God. In any case, every word she used has its equivalence in the English Bible and in Christian doctrines and teachings (see Part 1&2). More than this, I imagine Alabi is moving away from the typical songs among gospel singers. Most sing choruses of thanks, of praise, of sacrifice of praise, of what God has done for them. Alabi does this as well but she has moved to the higher level of explaining that it is even far better for the singer to be the acceptable sacrifice than to just bring an acceptable sacrifice. This makes sense to those who know and practise their religion. Alabi is saying that she herself has been laid down on the altar, has become a sacrifice, a living and acceptable one, which is a Christian teaching most preachers may have a tough time making their listeners understand let alone do.
The listener to Pastor E.A. Adeboye, General Overseer of The Redeemed Christian Church of God would have heard him in the course of his teaching saying something like, “Now we move to the deeper part”. He must be saying what he was teaching earlier was simple, common, everyday, familiar, but now he wanted to move to deeper spiritual matters that might be tougher to understand, digest, and accept. I want to believe it is at that deeper spiritual level that many who profess religion get it upside down. Many don’t even get it at all. I suppose that’s the reason many, when they’re online, would insult people who are their fathers’ age-mates and in their next post they are talking religion, talking “God bless”, and talking bible. It’s a contradiction I find confusing.
If you say you have religion but you insult people who are your grandparents’ age-mates, then what do people who don’t have religion do? The problem here is that many religionists don’t move into deeper things, no self-sacrifice, they’re not dead to what is not right, which was the core message in the song Alabi sang. What has become a sacrifice is dead to what is not right, what is negative. The person that has become a sacrifice doesn’t engage in all those things and this is a part of Christian message that Alabi uses deep Yoruba words to pass across in her song. But many didn’t understand her. They heard the words she used in her message, which to them was Ifa slang, but they didn’t hear the message in the word.
What Alabi was saying in the best manner a thorough Yoruba speaker would was something many preachers don’t go into these days. Many hide under the guise of wanting the message to be relevant to the needs of their congregants, so they leave what makes a religionist a religionist, what make them different – a sacrificed life, one dead to what is not right. With their approach, it’s like these preachers are saying there is an aspect of the teaching of the founder of their religion that is not relevant to the needs of their congregants. In any case, some still do their best to say when the self is placed on the altar, all other things that the religionist needs will follow. This is not being emphasized enough these days though, and so when some hear Alabi saying she’s become a sacrifice, that it’s a living and acceptable sacrifice she herself wants to be to her maker, they don’t comprehend her. Of course that’s what she believes her maker wants more than what she brings to offer, whether as praise, thanksgiving, or money.
The Yoruba language is so rich that gospel singers who receive insights before they sing can’t remain on the same spot, sing about the same issue and topic, and use the same familiar words over the years. They must change, move on to a higher realm based on the deeper insights they get. Deep insights can come in the form of a Yoruba saying, not necessarily in English language. In fact, the more memorable of insights come in the very language the receiver understands best, the very language that leaves the most impression on the receiver. Each Yoruba saying that comes to a singer can evoke a whole new line of thought and explanation that may baffle the singer themselves. When a gospel singer turns this into songs, even the listener is left dazed, dazed like one who can never forget their new experience. But how many gospel singers, even pastors on pulpits wait to receive deep insights these days? Everyone appears to repeat or copy what is generally around them.
Over the years, Alabi has made the Yoruba language her medium of communicating with her audience. It’s a rich language with the kind of depth no one can exhaustively explore. If she doesn’t try to explore it in her gospel songs even more than she’s doing at the moment, she hasn’t started.
