Of all the corpuses of Ifa , Eji Ogbe is seen as the head or
father of them all. It is this corpus of Ifa that talks about the origin of
creation and its first inhabitants. It also talks about the four elements that
make up life and they are the earth, the water, the air and the fire .Ejiogbe
says the mother earth gave birth to water while the water in turn gave birth to
the air. The air finally gave birth to the fire. And these four elements begged
the creator for relevance in life and
the creator asked them to sacrifice two squirrels , two fishes and two hens for
this purpose .They did and thereafter sand was given to the world . But one day
the sand begged the creator for relevance and usefulness, and the creator asked
her to sacrifice two squirrels, two fishes and two hens for her wish to be
EJI-OGBE
accomplished. She did this and thereafter the first man known as Akoda (Adam)
was molded and blew life into by the creator. From then on, Adam was left alone
with other creatures of the creator like the trees, the birds, the rivers, the
animals, the sun, the moon, the stars etc . But the first man too got tired of
loneliness in the world and begged the creator for a partner that would be
assisting him in the world. And the creator asked him too to sacrifice two squirrels,
two fishes and two hens for this purpose which he did. After the first woman
known as Aseda (Eve) was created from the right ribs of the first man Akoda
(Adam). Ejiogbe further says that the first man (Adam) and the first woman
(Eve) were then left all alone to themselves in the world by their creator, an
idea which they did not like as time went on. So, one day, they begged their
creator for childbearing and the creator asked them to sacrifice two squirrels
, two fishes and two hens so that their wish could be accomplished . They did
this and thereafter mated to give birth to all sorts of colored people in the
world today. Be it white, red , black or indigo colored people , we are all
children of Adam and Eve . From then on they have been paying home age to the
first man (Adam) and the first woman (Eve). Conclusively Ejiogbe is the
beginning of creation and everything in it.
What are Ikin? Ikin are the palm kennels used by Orunmila to
divine and bring messages forth from Ifa oracle. Orunmila is the god of
divination. From the very beginning before the divining chain known as OPELE
was being used by ORUNMILA to divine, it was the palm kennels that were used
to know the things from the past, the present and the future. While divining, a
yellowish powdery substance known as IYERI OSUN is used to indicate the
corpuses of IFA that will come out on a wooden tray.
Unlike the divining chain
that is owned by the Ifa priest alone, palm kennels are used to divine for all
and sundry and it is allowed to be kept personally by the individuals that are
divined for. Palm kennels are kept in a white dish during and after divination
by their owners. Once a corpus of Ifa is indicated for somebody, that is the
ODU IFA of the person for lifetime. From that moment on, whatever Ifa decrees
to be done from time to time must be adhered to by the person.
In addition to
that, both positive and negative attributes of the corpuses that come out must
also be followed very well by such person. The destiny of any individual is the
corpuses of Ifa that come out during divination by the Ifa priest. All the necessary
things are then followed and done to appease the oracle of the person by the
Ifa priest. This is a special day for any person because a lot of merriment is
followed by all the well-wishers around.
While all this is going on, the palm
kennels would have been kept back in the white dish with the reminder from the
Ifa priest that its appeasement must not be neglected from time to time. The
white dish is either taken home or is kept with the Ifa priest.
Where are the
palm kennels got from? They are got from the palm trees. And the palm oil is
got from palm kennels. This is the reason why the palm oil is used during IFA divination with the palm kennels for customers or people by the Ifa priest.
In conclusion, the
corpuses of Ifa that come out during divination for any individual must be
remembered by such person at all time.
Yams have been the
foods for both humans and deities from time immemorial and they are either
boiled and eaten with palm oil or pounded and eaten with soup. Sometimes yams
are roasted and eaten with palm oil or fried stew. According to Mrs Lateefat
Akinpelu, a yam seller of note for so many years said that yams have many
different species and they are gotten from different parts of the country. The
first specie of yam is called 'Paper' by the Hausa people and another one is
called the
BENUE YAM
Benue yam from the Gara people of Nigeria. Another specie of yam is
Abuja yam which is also from the Hausa people from the Northern part of the country while another one is called Efuru
and it is from the Yoruba people who are from the south west of Nigeria. Mrs
Lateefat Akinpelu said that unlike the farmers from south western part of
Nigeria whose farming skill is no longer on the high side anymore owing to white collar job, the northern farmers
are farming all the time and they are the food basket of the nation. She said
that if not for the northern farmers today, yams production would have gone
into total extinction because our young farmers down here in the south have
left
ABUJA YAM
farming for white collar jobs in the urban areas. Tubers of yams are very
expensive depending on the sizes that one’s money can afford. Like i said at
the beginning, yam is not only eaten by human beings because it is also used to appease deity like
Ogun (the god of iron) during its festive period. The Ogun devotees do not joke
with the importance of yam during their festivity because they can either make
it as pounded yam or have it roasted to appease their deity. The Efuru yam
belongs to the people in the south west and it is going into the extinction
right now as a
YORUBA YAM
result of neglect from our farmers who do not get enough back up (financial assistance) from the government in their chosen profession. This is the reason why all the yams
being consumed by the people in the
south west today are brought by the farmers from the northern part of the country, a development that
is not very good. Mrs Lateefat Akinpelu urged the government to assist our
farmers who are in the yam business to give them incentives for farming so that
yam production will not be a thing of the past. She also begged the government
to assist the yam sellers association in the market to give them opportunity to
receive loans so that they can also
PAPER YAM
continue to be in their yam business. As one of the sayings of our elders say, if hunger is eliminated from the problems of the poor, the poverty is vanished! Let us encourage our youths who are out schools to go into farming business. And this is only achievable through support in terms of loans from our local, state and federal government by making farming to be an attractive business to all and sundry. After all, we all can not be working in the offices! Thank you!!
.JPG)
