2 - The Interpretation of Oriki

Summary

THE PLACE OF ORIKI AMONG ORAL GENRES IN OKUKU

The position of oriki as a ‘master discourse’ can be seen immediately in the ubiquitous and manifold realisations of this genre in daily life. Continual performances bind together members of the community, those alive today and those receding into the past.

Okuku is a quiet town with an eventful history. In the eighteenth century it was sacked by the Ijesa and rebuilt. In the nineteenth century, after the fall of Old Ọyọ, it was in the middle of a battle zone. Several times, the town was overrun and evacuated to neighbouring towns. At the end of the nineteenth century it was resettled and began to expand again. In the early twentieth century colonial interventions altered the structure of government and transformed the local economy. There were great changes in the town's way of life as people took up cash-crop farming, first yams and then cocoa. Through all these dislocations of its history, however, Okuku has retained a sense of its own enduring continuity. The identity of the town is enshrined in the person of the ruler, the ọba, whose majesty is reaffirmed and recreated even today in cherished and highly charged ceremonial. But the sense of continuity is also remade by every household in the town in ceremonies connected with marriage, burial, and the propitiation of spiritual beings. In these ceremonies, the performance of oral poetry is virtually indispensable.

Oral performance of all kinds flourishes in Okuku. Old men know itan, stories about family and town history, and tell them when the occasion arises. Until recently, every compound would have evenings telling alo - folktales and riddles - in which both adults and children would join. The babalawo, divination priests of the god Ifa, still master the great corpus of sacred, semi-secret Ifa verses, and perform them during consultations and cult meetings. The annual Ifa festival opens with a night of vigil, during which all the babalawo gather at the palace to perform iyẹrẹ Ifa, a chant based on Ifa verses, in the presence of the oba and a large audience of townspeople.