Ogbeni Lanre Banjo, the former gubernatorial candidate in Ogun State, join many Nigerians to celebrate the life of Kabiyesi Alafin Oyo, Atanda Lamidi Olayiwola Adeyemi III. While I am happy that he was not bed-ridden for weeks before joining his ancestors, I am deeply sad that the heart to heart discussion he and I had on the curse placed on Yoruba by Alaafin Aole has not been spiritually reversed. When Chief Lanrewaju Adepoju arranged a meeting for me to discuss the issue with Papa in 1988, Papa concurred that there is a curse. He proved to me that he was an encyclopedia of Yoruba history. He spoke eloquently about the history of Yoruba in a manner that subconsciously brought tears to my eyes. The meeting lasted two hours and 20 minutes and unlike those posterity imposed on us to rule Yoruba States today, who do not know about our ancestral journeys and the little they know, refuse to do something about it, I learnt greatly from Papa and left the palace with grim determination to do something about it.
With his death, Yoruba has lost a treasure. The entire Yoruba land is shaken to its very roots, and for those of us who discern the vacuum, his stand on Yoruba culture and tradition, it is as if a dagger has been sunk into the heart of progressive and right thinking Yoruba. I, in particular, feel the excruciating pain, for Papa was a descendant of Aole absolutely needed and required to revoke the curse placed on Yoruba.
Death has a way of speaking directly to our sense of humanity. Death, dying and the rituals of bereavement, mourning and burial are directly linked to society’s moral codes and choices. The hour of death and burial provides a compass for the evaluation of time spent and how well. Papa enjoyed his life. He wrote his own epitaph when he was alive as a custodian and defendant of Yoruba history, culture and tradition. When the late Olubuse, Oba Okunade Sijuade engaged in acts that he felt would erode the culture of Yoruba, he picked the gauntlet and wrote several letters to the government of Oyo State in protest. He stood firmly against the horrible treatment Sani Abacha met on Chief MKO Abiola, of blessed memory, and that stand earned him heartless incrimination with drugs inserted in his luggage while travelling to London to humiliate and disgrace him and the entire Yoruba race. With diplomatic passport, Alafin was arrested in London and let go and he was unshaken. Papa was good. When a good man dies, we feel intuitively as if an essential part of our lives has been lost, we feel diminished, and Alafin Atanda Adeyemi Iku Baba Yeye was such a strong presence in the lives of Yoruba, Papa was courageous, and he has left a vacuum that would be arduous to fill, definitely not by uncultured hip hop Kabiyesi of today who thrive in selling our culture the same way Afonja sold the Yoruba out.
My condolence to, Mama Ayaba Abibat, my brother, Aremo Babatunde Adeyemi, all his siblings, other wives of Iku Baba Yeye, the people of Oyo State and Nigeria. Continue Reading
