I Could Speak Until Tomorrow: Oriki, Women & the Past in a Yoruba Town 9780748699186, 074869918X

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International African Library 7 General editors: J. D. Y. Peel and David Parkin

. JTCOULD SPEAK UNTIL TOMORROW

In affectionate memory of Elvania and Pio Zirimu

International African Library General Editors

J. D. Y. Peel and David Parkin The International African Library is a major monograph

series from the International African Institute and complements its quarterly periodical Africa, the

premier journal in the field of African studies. Theoretically informed ethnographies, studies ofsocial relations ‘on the ground’ which are sensitive to local cultural forms, have long been central to the Institute’s

publications programme. The ZJAL maintains this strength but extends it into new areas of contemporary

concern, both practical and intellectual. It includes works focused on problems of development, especially on the linkages between the local and national levels of society; studies along the interface between the social

and environmental sciences; and historical studies, especially those ofa social, cultural or interdisciplinary character.

Titles in series: 1 Sandra T. Barnes Patrons and power: creating a political community in metropolitan Lagost

2 Jane I. Guyer (ed.) Feeding African cities: essays in social history*

3 Paul Spencer The Maasai of Matapato: a study of rituals of rebelliont

4 Johan Pottier Migrants no more: settlement and survival in Mambwe villages, Zambia' 5 Giinther Schlee Identities on the move: clanship and pastoralism in northern Kenya 6 Suzette Heald Controlling anger: the sociology of Gisu violence

7 Karin Barber I could speak until tomorrow: ortki, women and the past in a Yoruba town* 8 Richard Fardon Between God, the Dead and the Wild: Chamba interpretations of religion and ritual* * Published in the USA by the Smithsonian Institution Press t Published in the USA by Indiana University Press

Editorial Consultants

Kofi Agawu Pierre Bonte John Comaroff Johannes Fabian Paulin Hountondji Ivan Karp Sally Falk Moore

I COULD SPEAK UNTIL TOMORROW Oriki, Women, and the Past in a Yoruba Town

Karin Barber

| EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY PRESS for the INTERNATIONAL AFRICAN INSTITUTE, London

© Karin Barber 1991

Edinburgh University Press 22 George Square, Edinburgh Set in Linotron Plantin by Koinonia, Bury, and printed in Great Britain by The Alden Press Limited Oxford British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

Barber, Karin

I could speak until tomorrow: Oriki, women > and the past in a Yoruba town. —(International African Library. 7) 1. Nigeria. Yoruba. Cultural processes I. Title II. Series 305.89633 ISBN 0 7486 0210 0

CONTENTS

Maps, Diagrams and Tables Vil

Acknowledgements Vill Note on orthography x 1. Anthropology, text and town 1

2. The interpretation of ortki 10 1. The place of ok: among oral genres in Okuku 10 2. Onki, definition, and the transcendence of time 12

3. Encounter with ortki 16 4. Ortki as literary text 21 5. Ortki as a relationship with the past 25 6. Paths to interpretation 34

3.1.Oritki in Okuku 39 Okuku today 39 2. Okuku history 50 3. What oriki do 67 4. Contexts of performance 87

1. The variety of styles 87 2. The mastery of ortki performance 96

3. The bride’s enjoyment 105 4. Death and other worlds 117

5.1.The orki of origin 135 Introduction 135

2. The idea of origin 138 3. Identification through town membership 146

4. Ile in Okuku 153 5. The demarcation of ile by ortki ortle 165

6. Ontki orile of the mother 168

7. Emblematic language 172

6.1.The ortki of big men 183 Big men, reputation and ortki 183 2. Hierarchy and the dynamics of self-aggrandisement 187

3. Big men in the early nineteenth century 195

4. Wartime big men up to 1893 203 5. The basis of big men’s competition 212

6. Big men 1893-1934 220 7. Farming, trade and big women , 230 8. Big men 1934-1984 | 236

7. Disjunction and transition 248

1. Introduction 248

2. Crossing boundaries and merging identities in oriki 249

3. Disjunction and juxtaposition . 261

4. The ortki of women 270 5. Profusion and difference , 277

Appendix : 292 Notes | 304 Bibliography 329 Glossary 336

Index 341

MAPS, DIAGRAMS AND TABLES

MAPS, DIAGRAMS AND TABLES

Map 1: Nigeria: showing position of Okuku xii

compounds 40

Map 2: Okuku c. 1975: showing public buildings and principal

Map 3: Okuku and neighbouring towns 42

Map 4: ‘Towns of origin’ 53 Fig. 1: Genealogies of the Olokuku 56

Fig. 2: Descendants of Awotutu and Aworoka 169

Fig. 3: Asapawo’s ancestry 251

Table 1: Reigns of the Olokuku 54

Table 2: Chiefs in Okuku (1975) 188 Appendix: Ile in Okuku

Plate 1. His Highness James Olosebikan between pages 134-135 Oyclousi II

Plate 2. Sangowemi Plate 3. Sangowemi Plate 4. A bride Plate 6. A royal bride Plate 6. Faderera

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

It would be impossible to thank individually all the people who did me kindnesses in Okuku. Many of them are named in the following pages, as performers of oriki or as interpreters, explainers and tellers of history. However,

there are some to whom I owe special gratitude. During the three years that I lived in Okuku, I stayed with the family of Mr G. A. Akindele. To all of the Akindeles I extend my heartfelt thanks for their generosity, hospitality and tolerance. I had the privilege of being made an honorary daughter of the late Olokuku, His Highness James Olaosebikan Oyewusi II. From the moment of

my first arrival, in July 1974, to his untimely death in March 1980, the Olokuku showed me every kindness. Always entertaining, unfailingly gracious, he was also in his way a man of genius. It was an honour to be admitted into his confidence. In 1977 I left Okuku to take up an appointment at the University of Ife, but our connection did not come to an end, rather it expanded as our spheres of operation diverged. My parents, Charles and Barbara Barber, and my brother John visited Okuku at different times. The Olokuku also visited my parents in Leeds, where he liked to say he had been offered ‘seventeen different kinds

of meat, including zebra’. He made my Ph.D. graduation day at the University of Ife memorable by attending it with an entourage of eight of the town chiefs, even though he was by then very ill. His successor, the present Olokuku, His Highness Samuel Oyebode Oyeleye Oluronke IT, has continued the gracious tradition and made me feel as much at home in Okuku as ever.

Our connection was symbolised and cemented through his kind action, supported by the chiefs and the Okuku Welfare Association, in conferring on me the chieftaincy title Iyamoye in 1984. As the Olokuku said, “We want you to know by this that you can never leave us, except physically’. I also owe special gratitude to Joseph Faramade Ajeiigbe, who helped me enormously with my research during my second and third years in Okuku. Not only did he transcribe almost all my recorded texts, he also went through

them with me, word by word, commenting in Yoruba on local allusions,

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ix obscure meanings and poetic idioms. His guidance and contacts were also very helpful in the rest of my field work. At Ife, I was fortunate enough to be supervised in my Ph.D. research by Professor Richard Taylor and Professor ’Wande Abimbola. I am also grateful to Professor ’Sope Oyelaran and Professor A. Akiwowo for many illuminating discussions over the years, first as a student and later as a colleague. Professor Olabiyi Yai has long been a formative influence in my thoughts about Yoruba literature. When I began the long drawn-out process of rewriting my thesis for publication, Jane Bryce and Ruth Finnegan gave me the benefit of detailed

readings and comments on the first draft. John Peel has been a patient, constructive and encouraging critic throughout the production of the present version, and Chris Wickham also made many helpful suggestions. Iowe most

of all to Paulo Farias, who read all my numerous drafts with unfailing perceptiveness, and provided constant support and encouragement.

NOTE ON ORTHOGRAPHY

Yoruba is a tonal language, with three underlying pitch levels for vowels and syllabic nasals: low tone (indicated with a grave accent: ko, ‘n), mid tone (not marked: le, n) and high tone (indicated with an acute accent: wi, ‘n). Speech is characterised by continual glides between these levels.

The orthography adopted in this book is the modern standard style recommended by the Yoruba Orthography Committee. The following symbols are employed: e roughly as in English ‘get’ (cf. e as in French ‘chez’) 9 roughly as in English ‘pot’ (cf. o as in French ‘eau’)

s the sound written in English as sh |

p the voiceless labio-velar sound Kp where k and p are simultaneously pronounced. Poetic texts in Yoruba are written with full tone markings. Lineation is partly subjective, but is based on a combination of the performer’s breathpauses and the linguistic structure of the text. Where the texts reveal features of the Osun area dialect, these have been preserved, e.g. Enikoyi [for standard

Yoruba Onikoyi], ségi [for standard Yoruba ségi], mid-tone third person possessive re (for standard Yoruba low-tone ré].

When Yoruba sentences or phrases are quoted in passing, they are italicised and tone-marked. However, isolated Yoruba words are not tonemarked, because the frequency of their occurrence would cause problems for the typesetters. For reference, all such words are listed with full tone marks in the glossary. The word ‘oba’ (king) is not italicised because it is used in English constructions such as oba’s, obas, obaship.

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