Oríkì: Praise Poetry, Genealogy, and the Naming of Essence
What oríkì are, the different kinds, who performs them and why, and how they carry history that written records do not.
intermediatehigh·
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What oríkì are, the different kinds, who performs them and why, and how they carry history that written records do not.
The Yorùbá wey dem quote, the proverbs, oríkì, ẹsẹ Ifá, word list headwords, Odù names and citations dey exactly as the corpus record dem, for every language.
oríkì na praise poem, but to call am "praise poem" no reach wetin e really be. oríkì na collection of attributes wey dem dey direct give person or thing, to name wetin that subject really be for inside, and dem fit direct am give person, family line, town, òrìṣà, animal, or plant. Karin Barber, wey im study of oríkì for the town of Òkukù be the standard work for English, define the genre as attributes or appellations, collections of praise names, whether short or elaborate, wey dem direct give a subject . To perform person oríkì na to tell the person who dem be by reciting where dem come from and wetin their people don do.
The word na orí (head) plus kì (to greet, to salute, to praise). For Yorùbá thought, head mean both the physical head and the inner destiny, so oríkì literally mean to salute head: to address the true self.
Oríkì no be mainly for entertainment and dem no be biography.
Dem dey form identity as dem dey call am. To recite person oríkì dey confirm their place inside lineage and history. Na why to hear person own oríkì as dem dey perform am dey touch body well well for many Yorùbá people: na because dem dey tell you open-open, with formal words, exactly who you be.
Dem dey talk directly give person, no be to narrate story. Oríkì dey talk give the subject in second person far pass as dem dey describe in third person. Na why dem fit use am ginger person, praise person, put shame for person body, and to invoke spirits.
Dem dey join the living and the dead together. For Barber account of Òkukù, oríkì performance dey connect members of the community across time, dey tie together the living, those wey just die, and those wey don pass tey-tey . Dem no just dey recall the past, dem dey talk directly to the past.
Dem be master discourse. Barber central claim na say oríkì dey function inside Yorùbá life no be just as one genre among many, but as form wey spread everywhere wey dey happen continuously for everyday life, in many ways, wey full every social interaction .
Dem fit dangerous and dem fit also praise person. Oríkì dey call wetin dey essential, and wetin be essential no be always praise-praise. Some of dem contain direct mention of lineage violence, defeats, or bad deeds. This na genre of accurate naming rather than flattery wey no get critique.
Yorùbá classification of oríkì dey by subject, and Bọlanle Awe foundational article propose to sort dem by whether the subject na town, lineage, or individual .
Oríkì orílẹ̀ na lineage or origin oríkì, wey attach to descent group and to the town or territory wey the group trace their origin go. Na dem deep pass and load with history pass, as dem dey record origins, migrations, ancestors, and the special character of the lineage. Person dey inherit their oríkì orílẹ̀ and share am with everybody from that descent. Solomon Babalọla's later ethnographic compilation document the oríkì of twenty-seven lineages, including Olúfẹ̀, Olúkòyí, Ìrènímógún, and Arẹ̀sà .
Oríkì ìnagijẹ na oríkì wey attach to individual person, typically built on top nickname or praise title earned by deeds, and dem dey specially use am for prominent people like rulers, warriors, and political figures . Awe own worked example na the oríkì of Balógun Ìbíkúnlé, the nineteenth-century Ibadan military leader .
Personal oríkì na the ones wey dem dey give individual, often for childhood, and dem dey gender-marked. Common set of gendered personal oríkì, familiar to almost every Yorùbá person, include Àkàndé, Àdìsá, Àjàní, Àlàó for men and Àdùké, Àbẹ̀ní, Àṣàkẹ́, Àyọ̀ké, Àbẹ̀bí for women. These ones no be the same as birth name; dem na affectionate praise names wey dem dey use address, soothe, and honour person.
Oríkì ìlú na town oríkì, wey dey praise settlement, how dem take found am, the main features of the place, and the people.
Oríkì òrìṣà na the ones dem dey direct give divinity, and these ones dey overlap with liturgy: the praise names of Ṣàngó, Ògún, Ọ̀ṣun, and the others na wetin dem dey recite for worship and to invoke spirits.
Adjacent genres, distinct from oríkì proper but related and wey people often dey confuse with am, include ìjálá (hunters' chant, associated with Ògún), rárà (one chanted genre wey praise singers dey often perform), ẹkún ìyàwó (the bride's lament), and ẹsẹ Ifá (the verses of the Ifá corpus, wey dem discuss for 05-ifa). Babalọla's The Content and Form of Yoruba Ijala na the standard study of ìjálá and e include annotated anthology with English translations .
Performance no be something wey dey restricted only to professional caste, and this point dey important.
For Òkukù, Barber find say na mainly women dey perform oríkì . This na one of the more important findings for the study of Yorùbá oral literature, because e place central form of historical knowledge and social authority with women instead of male titled specialists. Women dey perform oríkì at ceremonies, during greeting, for mourning, and for ordinary daily life, and na dem dey hold and interpret the corpus . Barber subtitle, Oriki, Women and the Past in a Yoruba Town, name this as the subject of the book.
Alongside general competence, specialists also dey. Praise singers, wey dem dey variously call akéwì, onírárà, or arọ́kin depending on genre and region, dey perform professionally for palace and ceremonies. The arọ́kin na court chroniclers attached to royal households, and Crowther 1852 dictionary record ológbò as title of one of the king's private counsellors wey also dey act as chronicler or narrator of ancient traditions, plus the proverb "Ológbò bàbá arọ́kin", Ologbo is the father of the chroniclers .
Praise performance also get economic side, and na so e don always be. The person wey dem praise dey reward the performer, wey dey shape wetin dem dey talk. This continue for modern form: Nigerian "hype" performance today for parties and events na direct commercial descendant of oríkì practice, and dem don analyze am like that .
Na here oríkì take matter beyond literature, and na here care dey needed.
Bọlanle Di 1974 article wey Awe write for Africa argue say oríkì na proper historical record for society wey no get written records, and say historians of Yorùbá make mistake neglect oral literature, dey treat oral tradition like ordinary wetin person remember while dey ignore di literary forms wey dey preserve historical memory . Awe argue say oríkì dey celebrate important events and achievements just like written record dey do for literate societies, and say oríkì of individuals really get value for reconstructing history . Di position wey she take, say proper use of oral tradition to reconstruct history no fit ignore dis category, na wetin many people don gree with, and dem don apply di approach to oda Yorùbá sub-groups .
Di limits dey real and make person state am clear like dat too.
Oríkì no dey follow time order. Na pack dem pack epithets togeda across generations, without any story order or date. To pull timeline comot from am go need support from outside.
Dem dey take side by design. oríkì na to praise. If defeat dey, e dey appear like say na enemy betray dem or dem no go mention am at all, and rival lineages get oríkì wey no match each oda about di same events.
Dem dey cut talk short. One line for oríkì fit use four words point to one event, wey na only person wey already know di story fit understand. When di story don lost, di line go remain like piece wey person no fit explain, and scholar interpretation of dat kind lines na rebuilding work.
Dem dey change during performance. Performers dey select, expand, and join things togeda according to occasion, so no single fixed text dey for one lineage oríkì, na only performances dey.
Wetin Barber contribute here na to show say di aesthetic form itself carry historical information: di change of style for praise poetry of cultural heroes dey track how Yorùbá idea of who be great man take change . Di poem na evidence not just for wetin e talk, but for wetin e value.
Di three-layer presentation wey dis corpus need dey hard especially for oríkì, because di genre dey point to things indirectly and di direct meaning often dey produce English wey no dey clear without commentary. Dat kind unclearness dey honest: na wetin di Yorùbá talk.
Note on source. Full oríkì texts wey get reliable Yorùbá originals and di names of translators dey mostly inside printed scholarly work instead of online. Di published corpora wey person fit work from na Babalọla's The Content and Form of Yoruba Ijala (1966), wey print ìjálá texts with English translation side-by-side and notes , Barber I Could Speak Until Tomorrow (1991), wey print and analyse Òkukù oríkì , and Awe article, wey print di oríkì of Balógun Ìbíkúnlé in English translation . Readers wey want complete authenticated texts suppose check those ones. Di examples wey dey below na short, widely circulated formulae whose Yorùbá dey sure; na di compiler of dis corpus do di direct glosses and everyday translation, and confidence on top dis translations na medium because of dat reason.
Ọmọ a-jà-ní-gbàgbé, ọmọ a-kú-ní-jà-lẹ́nu.
Child of the one who fights and lets it go, child of the one who dies with the quarrel still on his lips.
Translator: Ìpilẹ̀ṣẹ̀ editorial rendering, unreviewed
Di construction a-jà-ní-gbàgbé na nominalised clause wey dey work as epithet, di a- prefix dey turn whole predicate to agent noun, exactly di process wey dem describe inside yoruba-etymology-and-word-formation. English gats unpack am into relative clause, wey dey make am lose di compactness wey dey allow performer shoot twelve of dat kind epithets for one breath. Ọmọ, pikin, na di standard opening for lineage attribution and e no mean literal direct pikin of specific person; e mean one of di people wey carry dat kind character. Make you note too say di two lines no agree as character description: one dey forget fight, di oda dey die while still dey argue. Oríkì dey pack different attributions togeda without trying to reconcile dem, and reader wey dey look for one coherent portrait dey bring wrong expectation.
Ògún ọlọ́mọ nílé, ìrè l'oko. Ògún alákàrà ẹ̀yìn ọ̀nà.
Ògún who has his household at home and Ire as his farm. Ògún of the bean-cake seller at the roadside.
Translator: Ìpilẹ̀ṣẹ̀ editorial rendering, unreviewed
Di first line depend on Ire, di town wey Ògún connect with pass, and di line claim double residence: dey for house for one place, dey work for anoda place. Ìrè still be common noun wey mean benefit or gain, so di line carry wordplay wey translation gats choose to lose. Di second line na di kind concrete, small-scale image wey oríkì dey use every time, placing big divinity beside roadside food seller, and readers wey dey expect heavy grammar throughout dey often surprised. Ògún na di divinity of iron, war, hunting, and di road, and traditionally dem believe say ìjálá, wey be di hunters chant genre, start from am .
Ilé ògbóni, ilé àwọn baba wa.
Home of the Ògbóni, home of our fathers.
Translator: Ìpilẹ̀ṣẹ̀ editorial rendering, unreviewed
Wetin dey about di translation. Ilé mean house, home, and as e extend reach homeland and lineage compound all at once, and English language must pick one. Town oríkì dey normally mention di institutions and di ancestors wey start di town together, because for inside dis kind framing, town na di people and di office-dem wey dey inside, no be di physical territory itself.
For person wey dem train make e see Yorùbá tradition as darkness, oríkì na useful evidence, for one specific reason. Dem no be mainly religious tins. Na technology of memory, of identity, and of history, wey women mostly dey hold, wey dem dey perform for when pikin born, for wedding, for burial, and for greeting, and dem carry genealogy for inside society wey no get writing dat time.
Dem still carry one idea about person wey make sense to sit down think about: say who you be no be only your own doing, say people fit address you as di continuation of people wey come before you, and say di correct way to honour person na to tell dem, with correct detail and well well, where dem come from.
Most Yorùbá people wey dey alive today get oríkì orílẹ̀ wey dem never hear dem perform before. To get am back dey usually mean say make person ask di oldest women for di family, wey be di practical result of wetin Barber find out about who dey hold dis knowledge .
The categories of Yorùbá names, the naming ceremony, the names given for birth circumstances and for children thought to return, and a worked list of common names with their literal meanings.
What Yorùbá proverbs do in speech and in law, and a worked collection of more than forty proverbs in original, literal gloss, and idiomatic English.
The machinery Yorùbá uses to make new words, and a worked, confidence-flagged examination of the etymologies of the key religious and philosophical terms.
The Yorùbá press, D. O. Fágúnwà and the Yorùbá novel, Tutuola's contested place, the travelling theatre, Yorùbá film, and where the language stands in education and online.
How Yorùbá came to be written in Arabic and then Roman script, who decided the spelling rules, and why the subdots and tone marks are not optional.
Bolanle Awe's case for oríkì as historical evidence, worked through two towns' founding oríkì, with a plain statement of what a historian can and cannot recover from the form.