The transition of Alaafin Adeyemi, who straddled the throne for fifty-two years, was an admixture of history and political astuteness. His journey to eternity brings back, once again, the conflict between tradition and an interpretation of ‘modernity’. The irony that the stool of the Oyo kingdom is once again under the beam light is not lost. For it was in Oyo that the melodrama that subsequently played out across the colonies gained prominence. In 1953, the quest for dominance in the political transition from traditional mores to the newer institutions of the colonial state and modernity played itself out. As chairman of Oyo Local Government, the urbane, engagingly clever lawyer, and deputy leader of the Action Group, Chief Bode Thomas had insisted on administrative and, indeed, supremacy of protocol over the then reigning Alaafin who, in another twinge of irony, was the father of the recently passed Alaafin. It did not end well, as it is well-known.
The suspicious tragic death of Bode Thomas eventually led to the removal of the Alaafin. Further down the road in the heady 1960s, the government in the same Western Region, with macabre humour, reduced the government’s honorarium to the “problematic” Odemo of Ishara to one penny (1p). Thereafter, tradition and changing administrative and constitutional arrangements led to clashes all over the place. In the post-colonial consolidation of Ghana, the ruling Convention Peoples Party (CPP) enforced its supremacy, particularly in areas where it was electorally weak, by embarking on a ‘destooling’ binge that continued right up to the coup d’etat which overthrew Osayegfo Kwame Nkrumah government in 1966.
The response in post-colonial India, after a lot of twists and turns, was the eventual abolition of the prince’s states and the rule of the Maharajahs, most of who sulked off to places like New York to take abode in less salubrious circumstances than the massive campus-style palaces they had been brought up in. With the aforementioned developments, one phase of the contestation for space was resolved.
Recent developments highlighted by the discord over the rites of passage of Alaafin Lamidi Adeyemi a few days ago, have brought up new dimensions. This is to be expected. The tussles for cultural hegemony in the post-colonial state replicates the foreboding of the Italian political philosopher, Antonio Gramsci, a tragic figure who reached his apogee in the 1920s, who stated that, “The crisis consists precisely in the fact that the old is dying and the new cannot be born; in this interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms appear.”
New conflicts have emerged in the culture clash. The tussle in the post-colonial state between the traditional institutions and the new political elite has been resolved in favour of the latter. More recently, the battleground has shifted to the contest between the Abrahamic religions and indigenous spirituality. The issue was latent in the past but it has now come up to the fore.
Which ‘morbid symptoms’ are revealing themselves here? Is it the invigorated and assertive Christian Pentecostals or the burgeoning Islamic fervour, with both faiths often verging in interpretation? How about the echoes of fundamentalism rooted in the “morbid symptoms”? Unfortunately, indigenous religion now has to contest for a living space. All these converge and bring up issues and inconvenient questions to be answered about compatibility. Isn’t it presumptuous and a contradiction in terms for the adherents of the Abrahamic faiths to ascend the traditional stool and then try (insist?) to reshape it to the mores of these Abrahamic religions? Since money and politics have replaced the Ifá oracle, maybe we should have them sign contracts with terms and conditions with the people.
The new age of monarchs often imposed by jockeying political forces for self-serving electoral reasons and as control mechanisms, appear to be bent on the undermining, if not outright dismantling, of the traditional essence and spirituality of monarchical institutions. A lot of these new monarchs are a far cry from, say, the present Awujale of Ijebuland or Alaafin Lamidi Adeyemi and Ooni Adesoji Aderemi, both of who have transited to the other realms of existence. These men have been exemplars of custodial effectiveness of what they inherited, or had bestowed on them. Many of the new Yoruba kings are dodgy characters who come with baggage that the political establishments that installed them know about, and find useful, as potential means of blackmailing them – a sword of Damocles hanging over their necks to keep them in check. This machiavellian strategy is astute on the part of the politicians but has already begun to erode the Yoruba confidence and authority. Sadly, there are now few places in Yoruba land with the deep institutional roots that the Benin Kingdom has demonstrated, which is necessary to withstand their being undermined by politicians and often destructive transient personalities.
The imperative of the present generation of the Yoruba is for us to make our voices heard, to do something to counteract this incipient decadence, and preserve our traditional institutions for succeeding generations. It matters, otherwise, that there will be mass disorientation, a lack of focus will set in, making us easy preys for predators. This is already manifesting itself in the current political season. Any society that is short-sighted, that throws away its institutional and spiritual stability buffers, is playing with extinction and engaged in a political turf war of annihilation.
The time is now, to speak out against those who seek to devalue our culture and traditions from within and without. The Alaafin stool is a revered one. The time has passed when we installed boy kings. We cannot continue. Many people are psychologically and emotionally immature these days. We the Yoruba do not want kings who advertises themselves on Instagram and YouTube. Being a king and sitting down all day, sequestered in a town for a long time, is not a job for video game playing guys. It is a serious job. We should look at the issue of age, and set the minimum age qualification at 50.
Immediately, we must make our voices heard on the selection of the new Alaafin. If we botch this, the Yoruba may never recover. We should let those who appoint political allies and their likeness to sit on revered traditional stools, know that they should not toy with the Alaafin stool. We should warn those who seek to transplant or destroy the Yoruba culture by installing less than stellar characters not go near this one. Those who sell the throne to the highest bidder should please respect themselves. They should desist now! We don’t want kings who abuse psychotropic drugs, kings whose raison d’être is money, kings who are land grabbers or those who can steal the crack of dawn from God. We have had enough!
Bámidélé Adémólá-Olátéjú, an advocate, strategist and political analyst, is Commissioner for Regional Integration and Diaspora Relations in Ondo State. Twitter: @BamideleUpfront; Facebook: facebook.com/Bamidele. BAO