That the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Olayiwola Adeyemi 111, is a story teller and great performer, is not hyperbolic, but a reality.
During the Paramount Ruler’s invitation by the Faculty of Law, University of Ibadan (UI) to give a lecture on Secret of Language and Culture, Alaafin left no one in doubt that he could have made good money had he opted for a career in public speaking or academic.
Even when he visited the institution’s management on arrival, the then Deputy Vice-Chancellor [Administration], Professor Aiyelari Ambrose, who represented the Vice-Chancellor, noted that ‘’one enviable and remarkable highpoint in the life of this great monarch is his deep knowledge and high sense of recounting historic events with facts and figures; and with an accuracy that will beat the imagination of youthful intellectuals.’’
In his welcome address, the Dean of the Faculty of Law, Professor Adeniyi Olatunbosun, described the Alaafin as “embodiment of Yoruba culture, as well as the synthesis of the aspirations and goals of the nation’’.
Said he “the foremost traditional ruler is of the conviction that a people without a cultural identity of their own would be lost in the forward march of world history, and their contributions to human civilisation forgotten very easily.’’
He added that all these attributes informed the Faculty’s decision to invite the Imperial Majesty to grace the occasion.
In his lecture at the colourful event, Oba Adeyemi decried what he called ‘’’gradual extinction of Yoruba customs and traditions.
The paramount ruler, who was disturbed at how modernisation has been allowed to bombard Yoruba traditions, warned that ‘’as things move at the present time, it will be disastrous if we fold our arms allowing our traditions to dwindle into oblivion in the face of permissiveness’’.
“How many Yoruba sons and daughters can brilliantly articulate their local language? It is frightening that our own language are dangling on the pit of extinction while preference is accorded foreign language, which is English.
Languages often hold the only record of a people’s history, including their songs, stories, praise poetry and ancient traditions.’’
Alaafin went further: “In particular, many indigenous cultures contain a wealth of information about the local environment and its floral and faunal resources, based upon thousands of years of close interaction, experience, and problem-solving.
“With the extinction of a language, therefore, mankind also loses access to local understanding of plants, animals, and ecosystems, some of which have important medicinal value, and many of which remain undocumented by science. Thus, the survival of threatened languages, and the indigenous knowledge contained within, is an important aspect of maintaining biological diversity.”
Oba Adeyemi asserted that “languages are now becoming extinct faster than birds, mammals, fish or plants. Of the estimated 7,000 unique languages spoken in the world today, nearly half are likely to disappear this century, with an average of one lost every two weeks.”
According to the Royal Father, “it is most likely then that in less than 50 years from now, even some major Nigerian languages, if not encouraged, can become extinct, and lecturers in our Universities would have cause to excite their students with great lectures in a course on, say, ‘ancient’ Igbo or “ancient.
” Yoruba languages, and of which they would speak thus, with nostalgia, ‘They once flourished in the distant past but have now become extinct’. This is a disheartening possibility for anyone who cares about our indigenous languages, the history and unrecorded
knowledge they carry within them.’’
He also spoke on African traditional religion which he said clearly plays a distinctive role as the ultimate source of supernatural power and authority that sanction and reinforce public morality..
‘’ It is pressed into full service to maintain social order, peace and harmony. Traditional Africans believe that success in life; including the gift of off-spring, wealth and prosperity, are all blessings from the gods and ancestors.
” They accrue to people who work hard, and who strictly adhere to the customs, and traditional norms of morality of the community, people who strictly uphold the community ideal of harmonious living. Only such people could entertain a real hope of achieving the highly esteemed status of ancestorhood in the
hereafter.
‘’The vast majority of norms, taboos and prohibitions is directed towards protecting the community and promoting peace and harmony, communal farmland, economic interests like the market-place, stream, or shrine are generally surrounded with taboos, including who may or may not enter, and when and under what circumstances people are permitted or not to enter such places. Stealing is abhorred. It is in
fact, an abomination to steal things relating to people’s vital life-interests and occupation’’
Religion, Alaafin stated, may be distinct and separate from morality, as many scholars have rightly argued.
‘’For traditional Africans, however, the line dividing the two is very thin indeed. African traditional religion plays a crucial role in the ethical dynamics of the different groups. In the traditional African background, ‘gods serve as police men’. African traditional world-views invariably outline a vision of reality that is, at once ethical in content and orientation.
“Human beings and their world are the focal centre of a highly integrated universe. Human conduct is seen as key in upholding the delicate balance believed to exist between the visible world and the invisible one.’’
Alaafin’s speech, which was interjected with rounds of applause both from. students and the invited guests, coupled with his unique dance steps to delightful traditional beats, was epoch making.
The audience hailed the monarch amid, resounding ovation.
Alaafin pledged the donation of a bus to the Faculty, following students’ request.
He was later presented with an award by the Faculty’s Dean, Professor Olatunbosun.
