Oríkì Orílẹ̀: Town Identity and How It Travels
The praise poetry that attaches a person to a place of origin, why Yoruba people carry a town identity they may never have lived in, and how that identity crossed the Atlantic.
Town for Yoruba person no be just place where dem dey live. Na attachment wey dem inherit from where dem come from, wey dey inside one body of praise poetry wey dem dey call oríkì orílẹ̀, and e still dey hold even if di person never go dere before, or even if di town no dey exist again. Na dis mechanism make di gazetteer wey dey inside dis section connect to real people: di towns no be only settlement for map, dem be identities wey people dey carry and wey dem fit recite.
Wetin oríkì be
Oríkì na Yoruba attributive praise poetry, and scholarship describe am as di most popular form of Yoruba poetry . E no be narrative. Di way e dey work na to pack plenty epithets together, dey call di subject with series of names and attributes instead of to dey tell story about dem, and person fit extend am without end, wey be why Karin Barber study on top am carry title from wetin one performer talk say im fit speak reach tomorrow .
Dem dey chant Oríkì with rhythmic tones, many times with gángan, di talking drum, wey im tonal register fit reproduce di words wey e dey follow play .
Di different types dey distinct by subject:
- Oríkì orúkọ, di oríkì wey dey attached to person name.
- Oríkì ìdílé, di oríkì of household, clan or family, wey dey talk about dem ancestors .
- Oríkì orílẹ̀, di oríkì of place of origin.
- Oríkì ìlú, di oríkì of town as town.
- Oríkì of òrìṣà, of animals, of plants, and of other classes of things.
Di difference between oríkì ìlú and oríkì orílẹ̀ dey important for dis section. Oríkì ìlú dey praise town give di people wey dey live inside am. Oríkì orílẹ̀ na people wey fit dey live somewhere else entirely dey carry am, and e dey call di name of where dem people come from.
Oríkì orílẹ̀ specifically
Oríkì orílẹ̀ na di oríkì of place of origin, homeland. Wetin people dey talk na say dem people originally come from one ancient town, wey dem still remember di name even when di town don tey wey e no dey exist again .
Dat last part na di striking part. Di attachment dey survive pass di settlement. Lineage for Okuku or Ìbàdàn or Lagos dey recite oríkì orílẹ̀ wey dey call name of town wey fit be say dem destroy during di nineteenth-century wars and dem never build am back, and dat recitation na di whole thing wey remain of di place.
Oríkì orílẹ̀ usually dey revolve around few selected themes wey people feel say dey characteristic of di place: di natural features of di area, di customs of di inhabitants, di òrìṣà wey dem dey worship dere, or memorable events for di town ancient history . So oríkì orílẹ̀ no be chronicle. Na set of markers wey dey make people recognise di place, and e dey keep wetin dem feel say make sense to remember about am.
Wetin dem dey use am do
Three functions dey, and dem dey distinct.
Identification. To recite person oríkì, including dem orílẹ̀, na how dem dey address dem for moments of honour: for naming ceremony, marriage, funeral, chieftaincy installation, or just to greet senior person. If somebody recite your oríkì correctly, e mean say dem recognise who you be, and if dem recite am wrongly, or dem no recite am at all, na disrespect.
Transmission of the past. Barber main argument na say oríkì na di principal medium wey dem dey take hold and interpret di past for Yoruba town, and say women na di main performers, so di relationship between living and dead, human and spiritual, present and past dey pass through genre wey women control . Dis matter for di whole history section: di traditions wey historians dey work with reach dem through performance genre wey get im own conventions and performers, no be through neutral chronicle.
Political claim. Because oríkì orílẹ̀ dey call origin, person fit use am claim right. Claim to land, to chieftaincy, or to seniority between towns fit stand on top di origin wey di oríkì record. Plenty of di disputes for dis section, Ifẹ̀ against Ugbo, Ìkẹ́rẹ́'s two stools, Ọ̀tùn's claim against Ifẹ̀, na disputes wey wetin oríkì talk dey part of di evidence.
Historians don use dis method intentionally. Work boku wey dey explore how praise poems fit help historical reconstruction, including one study of di Idepe-Ìkálẹ̀ for southeastern Yorubaland , and dis approach na one of di few ways to enter di history of towns wey no get written record and no excavation.
One text
Di three-layer treatment wey dis corpus require need transcribed Yoruba original, literal gloss, and attributed idiomatic translation. For oríkì orílẹ̀ di published corpus with full apparatus dey inside scholarly monographs instead of open web, and di material wey dey accessible here no reach di standard. Instead of to fabricate transcription, dis file state di limit and give one short text with wetin attribution dey ground.
One Ẹ̀gbá oríkì orílẹ̀ dey circulate for di following form :
1. Original
Ẹ̀gbá ọmọ Lisabi Ọmọ olóòfin ṣà bí ewé Ọmọ ajíbógun Olúmọ
2. Literal gloss
Ẹ̀gbá, child of Lisabi Child of the owner-of-Olófin, choose/pluck like a leaf Child of one-who-wakes-to-fight-wars, Olúmọ
Di middle line no dey stable. Ṣà bí ewé, to select or pluck like person dey pluck leaf, na one reading; sà bí ewé, to dey fresh or to sprout like leaf, na another reading, and di two differ by tone for way wey di transcription wey dey ground no resolve. Ajíbógun mean person wey wake up meet war or go fight war, kind formation wey common for Yoruba names.
3. Idiomatic English
Ẹ̀gbá, descendants of Lisabi Children of royalty, fresh like leaves Children of warriors under Olúmọ rock
Dat rendering na di one wey follow di text for di source . Dem no mention any translator name, and di corpus standard require make translation get attribution. Make person treat dis one as popular rendering without attribution, no be scholarly translation, and note say e smooth two things: e change olóòfin enter general "royalty" where di reference dey point to specific figure, Olófin, and e take di leaf line as freshness instead of selection.
Notes on di translation. Three point dey. First, di repeated ọmọ, pikin of, na di structural backbone of oríkì orílẹ̀ generally, and e dey do genealogy work wey di English "descendants of" dey flatten: ọmọ dey claim direct parentage, no be say person just belong to group. Second, Lisabi and Olúmọ no be for decoration. Dem be di two main anchor of Ẹ̀gbá identity wey dem treat for di Abẹ́òkúta file, di revolt against Ọ̀yọ́ and di rock wey give refugees shelter, and di oríkì come be compressed political history because of dat. Third, oríkì get tone, and how e dey work dey depend on tone pattern wey roman alphabet dey only record with full diacritics; any text wey dey circulate without dem, as most online Yoruba text dey do, don already lose part of di content before any translation even start.
For oríkì orílẹ̀ text dem wey get proper scholarly apparatus, reader suppose check Karin Barber I Could Speak Until Tomorrow and Olatunde Olatunji Features of Yoruba Oral Poetry , where di two of dem give transcribed original text with dia translation.
How town identity take travel
Oríkì orílẹ̀ na di reason why town identity fit move from place to place, and dis portability na wetin make am fit cross Atlantic.
Two way dey how e take happen. Inside Yorubaland, di nineteenth-century war dem scatter people go different new town while dia oríkì orílẹ̀ continue to name di town dem wey dem leave, na why Ìbàdàn, town wey dem establish in 1829, get lineage dem wey dey recite dia origin from place dem wey dem don destroy many decades earlier, and why dem name di Ifẹ̀ quarter dem according to tradition of town dem wey dey hundreds of kilometre away.
Across Atlantic, na di same genre carry origin identity enter slavery. Di nation name dem for Atlantic òrìṣà practice, Ketu and Ijexá for Brazil, Lucumí and di subdivision dem for Cuba, Nagô across di two place, na town and region name from dis map, and di diaspora file treat wetin dem establish and wetin dem no establish about where people come from. Di specific case of di Brazilian Ketu nation, where wetin dey archive show say di leadership na really Ọ̀yọ́-dominated and say di name work as metaphor for mixed community instead of true statement about origin, dey inside di trans-border file. E be warning: origin name for diaspora na claim wey dem make under specific condition, and e no mean say e must match where people actually come from.
Wetin survive across di water na di practice to dey claim origin, wey clear pass any particular origin wey dem claim.