Religion of Ile Ife

Ever heard of a place called Ile-Ife? Way before the time of cars, television, and cell phones. In Ile-Ife, spare time was used to worship, in their very strong and cultured religion. By music, dancing, and art, their faith is expressed. This whole kingdom mainly revolved around religion. Similar to Greek mythology, there are multiple gods and goddesses with distinct purposes. Everything in the world that occurred was usually associated with the god or goddess’s will. Imagine the logic of the mind set of Ile Ife.
The male gods, or referred to as orishas, had distinct powers over affairs in Ile-Ife. Shango, for example, was the god of thunderstorms. He was believed to strike a bolt of lightning to the individuals who chose to disrespect him, or just to show off how powerful he really is. Or, there are gods, like Ogun, who is associated with blacksmiths, making him the god of tools, weapons, and metals. All gods were very powerful.

There were very few goddesses being worshipped in Ile-Ife compared to male gods.

Some are known to be very fierce like Oya the wife of Shango. She is also known as “ The wife who is fiercer then her husband.” Oya had power over the whirlwinds and she got angry easily , was not patient and very demanding. Oya was not the only popular orisha, there was also Oshun the goddess of love. Female orishas can be really fierce but they also can be kind and gentle.

So, with the knowledge of the divine lives of the orishas, and the communication and guidance of the Babalow, the kingdom of Ile-Ife had great hope for the after life, as well as great faith in their creator and providers, the orishas. This religion made a great foundation for their way of life because they lived in either fear, or respect for the orishas. So, instead of other wasteful, past times we have today, the kingdom of Ile-Ife used their time wisely, in religious activities.

In the Yoruba religion,the babalawo is a person who tells the future and helps people talk with the gods. In order to talk to the gods he uses a tray and palm nuts or a chain. In the life and religion of Ile-ife i broken into two world. The real world and the spirit world. The spirit world if full of different types of gods (orisas). There is Ogun. He creates and clears paths for the other orisas to go to the spirit world. Another orisa in Ile-ife is Shango, the thunder god in Yoruba. He hurls stones with electricity at the earth.
Also there are female orisas such as Oya a female goddess the wife of shango, called “the wife who is fiercer than the husband”.a symbol of the orisa shango

The way people connect to the real world to the spirit world is by dancing to the sounds of the drum. The drums tell you to move left, right, or around.

Government

Is the government structure of Ile-Ife different from the one we have today? Yes!!! The Ile-Ife had a monarchy government, very similar to the late kingdom of England. The government of Ile-Ife was made up of a king (Oni), many councils, and province and village chiefs.

The overall government of Ile-Ife was very complex for its time. It was very much like England, in that they had a king, but there were also councils (parliament in England’s case) who, at many times had as much power as the king. This would balance out the power in the nation, making it a democratic-monarch hybrid. Ile-Ife was also very much like are government insofar that Ile-Ife was made up of provinces and there were chiefs appointed to these provinces to rule them, just like our governors. Ile-Ife also had many towns and villages where lower chiefs called Bales would rule. Ile-Ife had a very advanced government and a few its only privations were the lack of a nationwide electoral vote for the head of state and a term in power.

The King (which was called the Oni) had the most power over the land. He had a very powerful role in the religious world. The Oni had a special connection between the other world and the real world. The Oni was considered God on Earth because they were descendent of Oduduwa. Oduduwa was the creator of Earth and he was the first Oni. Every Oni after Oduduwa was related to him. So therefore, Oduduwa was considered as the father of Ile-Ife.

Ile-Ife, as explained in the last paragraph, had a very strong connection between government and religion. Both of these two parts of their society were very complex and they worked well together for the Yoruba for a long time. This setup of government was one of the main reasons the civilization lasted so long, and ruled as the greatest nation of West Africa for more then a millennia.

Click here to listen to an audio track.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ile-Ife

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoruba_people

http://www.edo-nation.net/origin.htm