The cradle of a race: Ife from the beginning to 1980.
Date
1992
Authors
AKINJOGBIN, I. A.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Port Harcourt: Sunray Publications Ltd.
Abstract
■ Ife Division - The physical;
■ Sources of Ife History;
■ Ife before Oduduwa;
■ The Phenomenon of Oduduwa in Ife History;
■ The Early Beginnings of the Ife State;
■ The Growth of Ife from Oduduwa;
■ The Economy of Ife from;
■ Ife: The Years of Travail;
■ Ife: The Years of Recovery;
■ The Aderemi Era (1930-1980);
■ The Out-lying Towns of Ife; ■ Dispersals from Ife;
■ The Modakeke Question in Ife Politics and Diplomacy;
■ Government and Administration;
■ The Religious Festivals of Ife; ■ Islam and Christianity in Ile-;
Description
Ife as Orirun was the physical, temporal and real place from which all Yoruba and their Obas believed they migrated*’ (and to which they were entitled to return if need be) and the spiritual eternal place where their souls would ultimately rest. This probably explains why the Edo word Uhe means both Ile-Ife and heaven. It also explains why, among the Yoruba, when an old man dies, he is said to have 'gone to Ife’. And until recently, the Yoruba believed that if you went to lle-Ife, you were likely to meet a relative who had long died. This concept of Ife as Orirun, the source of existence and the final resting place after death, gave it its apparently unchanging status which conventional political theoreticians find difficult to understand. It largely explains why, after the 16th century, it continued to maintain its place of honour, in spite of the rise of Benin and Oyo empires. And from this concept How all the other beliefs about Ife: that it was the “father Kingdom” (ebi system); that it must not be attacked by any other Yoruba kingdom; that the sun and moon rise from there (ibi oju ti imo wa - too literally and thus wrongly translated as lying to the east and that all the other praise names given to it originated from there.