Ifẹ̀ ( , also called Ilé-Ifẹ̀) is an ancient Yoruba city in south-western Nigeria founded sometime between the years 1000 BC and 500 BC. By 900 AD, the city had become an important West African emporium producing sophisticated art forms. The city is located in present-day Osun State. Ifẹ̀ is about 218 kilometres northeast of Lagos"World: Africa Arrests after Nigerian cult killings". BBC News. Monday July 12, 1999, Retrieved on October 31, 2011. with a population of over 500,000 people, which is the highest in Osun State according to population census of 2006.
According to the traditions of the Yoruba religion, Ilé-Ifẹ̀ was founded by the order of the Supreme Deity Olódùmarè by Ọbatala. It then fell into the hands of his brother Oduduwa, which created enmity between the two.Bascom, Yoruba, p. 10; Stride, Ifeka: "Peoples and Empires", p. 290. Oduduwa created a dynasty there, and sons and daughters of this dynasty became rulers of many other kingdoms in Yorubaland.Akinjogbin, I. A. (Hg.): The Cradle of a Race: Ife from the Beginning to 1980, Lagos 1992 (The book also has chapters on the present religious situation in the town). The first Ọọ̀ni of Ifẹ̀ was a descendant of Oduduwa, who was the 401st Orisha. The present ruler since 2015 is Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi Ojaja II, Ọọ̀ni of Ifẹ̀ who is also a Nigerian accountant.Olupona, 201 Gods, 94. Named as the city of 401 deities, Ifẹ̀ is home to many devotees/votaries of these deities and is where they are routinely celebrated through festivals.
Ilé-Ifẹ̀ is famous for its ancient and naturalistic bronze, stone and terracotta sculptures, dating back to between 1200 and 1400 AD.
History
Origin of Ife: Creation of the world
According to Yoruba religion, Olodumare, the Supreme God, ordered Obatala to create the earth, however on his way he consumed too much of palm wine and got drunk. Thence, a contemporary Orisha to the former, Oduduwa, took the items of creation from him, descended from the abode of the Orisha on a chain and cast the handful of earth on the primordial ocean. The earth rose and became a mound called Oke Ora. He then put a five-toed cockerel on this primordial mound so that it would scatter the earth around, thus creating the land on which Ile Ife, the first city would be built. Oduduwa planted a palm nut in a hole in the newly formed land and from there sprang a great tree with sixteen branches, a symbolic representation of the 16 clans of the early Ife pre-urban confederation; Elu Merindinlogun, (Thirteen initial and 3 later ones).
The usurpation of creation by Oduduwa, gave rise to an ever-lasting conflict between him and his contemporaneous rival Orisha, Obatala. This symbolic rivalry is still re-enacted in the modern era by the votary groups of the two divinities during the Itapa New Year festival.Olupona, 201 Gods, 144–173; Lange, Ancient Kingdoms, 347–366; idem., "Preservation", 130–1. On account of his creation of the world, Oduduwa became the ancestor of the first divine king of the Yoruba, while Obatala is believed to have created the first Yoruba people out of clay. The meaning of the word "Ife" in Yoruba is "expansion"; "Ile-Ife" is therefore in reference to the myth of origin as "The Land of Expansion" (the word, Ile, as pronounced in modern Yoruba language, means house or home, which would make the name of the city mean "The Home of Expansion").
Origin of the regional states: Dispersal from the holy city Oduduwa had sons, daughters, and grandchildren, who went on to found their own kingdoms and empires, namely; Ila Orangun, Owu, Ketu, Sabe, Egba, Popo IJESHA [OWA AJIBOGUN] and Oyo. Oranmiyan, Oduduwa's last born, was one of his father's principal ministers and overseer of the nascent Edo kingdom after Oduduwa granted the plea of the Edo people for his governance. When Oranmiyan decided to go back to Ile Ife, after a period of service in Benin, he left behind a child named Eweka that he had in the interim with an indigenous princess of Benin, Erinmwinde, daughter of the King (Ogie) of Egor, a neighbouring settlement to nascent Benin. The young boy went on to become the first widely accepted ruler and Oba of the second Edo dynasty that has ruled what is now Benin from that day to this. Oranmiyan later migrated north-westwards into the savanna plains to found the Oyo. Oyo later became an empire that stretched at its height from the western or right bank of the Niger River to the eastern or left banks of the Volta River. It would become known as one of the most powerful of Africa's medieval states, prior to its collapse in the mid 19th century.
Traditional setting
The King (Ooni of Ile-Ife)
The Oòni (or king) of Ife is a title of the godking Oduduwa, and some of the other powerful dynastic families of UFE is counted as the spiritual and political leader over the race now called yoruba. The OONI is the stool and title that every King in IFE took after ODUDUWA’s reign. He is the head of spiritual political and military affairs across all the lands before other kingdoms went out of ife to establish their own territories. He is traditionally considered the 401st spirit (Orisha), the only one that speaks. The royal dynasty of Ife traces its origin back to the founding of the city more than ten thousand years before the birth of Jesus Christ. All of the other kings or rulers of today’s “yoruba kingdoms” are referred to as “igbakeji orisha”. Second in command to the ORISHA- OONI. The present ruler is Oba Enitan Adeyeye Ogunwusi (Ojaja II). The Ooni ascended his throne in 2015. Following the formation of the Yoruba Orisha Congress in 1986, the Ooni acquired an international status the likes of which the holders of his title hadn't had since the city's colonisation by the British. Nationally he had always been prominent amongst the Federal Republic of Nigeria's company of royal Obas, being regarded as the chief priest and custodian of the holy city of all the Yorubas. In former times, the palace of the Ooni of Ife was a structure built of authentic enamelled bricks, decorated with artistic porcelain tiles and ornaments.Cheikh Anta Diop's Precolonial Black Africa, pg. 203 At present, it is a more modern series of buildings. The current Ooni, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi Ojaja II, Ooni of Ife, (born October 17, 1974) is a Nigerian accountant and the 51st Ooni of Ife. He succeeded the late Oba Okunade Sijuwade(Olubuse II) who was the 50th ooni of Ife, and who died on July 28, 2015.
Cults of Divinities Ife is dubbed "the city of 401 deities" (also known as irumole or orishas). It is said that every day of the year traditional worshippers celebrate a festival of one of these deities. Often the festivals extend over more than one day and they involve both priestly activities in the palace and theatrical dramatisations in the rest of the kingdom. Historically the King only appeared in public during the annual Olojo festival (celebration of the new dawn); other important festivals here include the Itapa festival for Obatala and Obameri, the Edi festival for Moremi Ajasoro and the Ugbo with their Igare (Oluyare) masqueraders.Walsh, "Edi festival", 231–8; Bascom, "Olojo", 64–72; Lange, Ancient Kingdoms, 358–366; Olupona, 201 Gods.
Art history
Kings and gods were often depicted with large heads because the artists believed that the Ase was held in the head, the Ase being the inner power and energy of a person. Both historic figures of Ife and the offices associated with them are represented. One of the best documented among this is the early king Obalufon II who is said to have invented bronze casting and is honoured in the form of a naturalistic copper life-size mask.
The city was a settlement of substantial size between the 12th and 14th centuries, with houses featuring potsherd pavements. Ilé-Ifè is known worldwide for its ancient and naturalistic bronze, stone and terracotta sculptures, which reached their peak of artistic expression between 1200 and 1400 In the period around 1300 the artists at Ife developed a refined and naturalistic sculptural tradition in terracotta, stone and copper alloy—copper, brass, and bronze—many of which appear to have been created under the patronage of King Obalufon II, the man who today is identified as the Yoruba patron deity of brass casting, weaving and regalia. After this period, production declined as political and economic power shifted to the nearby kingdom of Benin which, like the Yoruba kingdom of Oyo, developed into a major empire.
Bronze and terracotta art created by this civilisation are significant examples of naturalism in pre-colonial African art and are distinguished by their variations in regalia, facial marking patterns, and body proportions. Ancient Ife also was famous for its glass beads which have been found at sites as far away as Mali, Mauritania, and Ghana.
Shrines, altars, and temples Igbo Olokun: Igbo Olokun used to be a forested, sacred grove (igbo) that housed shrines at which the goddess Olokun was worshipped. Igbo Olokun in the city of Ile-Ife, in south-western Nigeria, was said to have a history of glass makers with unique manufacturing techniques in West Africa. Glass beads and associated production materials were found there during excavation. Analysis of the composition of the artefacts and preliminary dating of the site puts the main timing of glass-working between the 11th and 15th centuries AD. The results of these studies suggest that glass bead manufacture at this site was largely independent of glass-making traditions documented farther afield, and that Igbo Olokun may represent one of the earliest known glass-production workshops in West Africa. The location is not divulged except on request and permission of the keepers of the shrine because it is a sacred grove.
Oduduwa Shrine and Grove: The shrine of the progenitor of the Yoruba race. Worshippers and initiates flood the place seeking blessings and paying obeisance to the originator of their civilisation.
Agbonniregun Temple: The grove of Ọrunmila, an Orisha. He is the Orisha of wisdom, knowledge, and divination. This source of knowledge is believed to have a keen understanding of the human form and of purity, and is therefore praised as often being more effective than other remedies.
Archaeology
Burnt pipes (or tuyere), stone tools, broken calabash, decorated potsherds, and pottery (e.g., rimsherd, plane-sherd body, broken, and washed pottery) were excavated at Iyekere. Iron smelting, charcoal utilised in the process of smelting, and iron slags involved in pitting were also discovered.
Iron smelting occurred in the Ife region. The yield and efficiency were quite high as the iron smelting process yielded ore grade near 80 percent iron oxide, lean slag possessed less than 60 percent iron oxide, and no greater than the required amount of iron oxide in the slag was left for slag formation. While more excavation is needed to produce a more accurate estimate for the age of the smelting site, it can be approximated to likely being precolonial, during the Late Iron Age.