Oríkì: The Section

Oríkì na di biggest and most important body of Yoruba oral literature: praise wey dey go to lineage, town, orisha dem, individual people, spirit companion dem and animal dem, wey dem treat across dis corpus as di master discourse wey Karin Barber scholarship describe say e be. Two file for another place don already introduce dis form: yoruba-oriki for inside 02-language explain di classification, who dey perform oríkì and why, and wetin e fit do and wetin e no fit do as historical evidence; towns-oriki-orile for inside 12-towns treat specifically how origin oríkì dey make town identity dey easy to carry travel, even across Atlantic. None of di two file try to bring big collection of transcribed text. Dis section do am.

Wetin dis section dey add

Twenty-two file get roughly seventy individual oríkì text wey dem present one by one, wey dem bring out from forty-seven piece of research wey dem gather wey cover published scholarship (Babalola, Barber, Awe, Abiodun, Verger, Idowu, Beier, Badejo, Lawal, Villepastour and others) and, for where scholarship no plenti, material from internet wey dem clearly and honestly flag. Every text dey carry, where di source permit, di original with any diacritics wey di source print, literal gloss, idiomatic English translation wey name di translator, and note on performance, meaning, and wetin English no fit carry.

Thematic file dem (01-08). Di typology of oríkì beyond wetin yoruba-oriki don already cover; di poetics of accretive, non-narrative structure and why e dey hard to translate; performance occasion dem wey di genre-level file dem for inside 13-oral-literature no treat; women as custodian dem, wey dey work through Karin Barber Òkukù fieldwork; wetin oríkì fit and no fit recover as history; drummed oríkì on di dùndún; published collection and archive dem, including honest breakdown of wetin dey circulate online without scholarly backing; and oríkì for modern life, from praise of doctor for party to gospel oríkì for Christian God.

Oríkì orílẹ̀, lineage and origin praise (09-12). Ọ̀yọ́, Ẹ̀gbá, Ìjẹ̀bú and Ọ̀fà; Ekiti, Ọ̀wọ̀ and Ìjẹ̀ṣà; di Òkukù lineage dem wey Karin Barber document directly, plus Olúfọ́n and Oníkòyí; and Ọ̀wu, Ìrẹsà and di lineage material wey dis corpus find but no fit verify.

Oríkì òrìṣà, divine praise (13-17). Ògún across six text and four source dem; Ọbàtálá and Ṣàngó; di three water divinity dem Ọ̀ṣun, Yemọja and Ọya; Èṣù, Ọ̀sanyìn and Ọ̀ṣọ́ọ̀sì; and Odùduwà, Ìyámi Òṣòròngà, Ìbejì, Ajé, Aganjú, Òrìṣà Oko and Ọba.

Oríkì ìlú, town praise (18-19). Ìbàdàn, Ọ̀ṣogbo and Ọ̀kà Àkókó; Ado-Ekiti, Òndó, Ìlọrin and Ìwó.

Coverage table (22). oriki-coverage-table list every lineage, town and divinity wey dis corpus search oríkì about, and e mark which one carry complete three-layer text for inside named file, which one exist only as unverified record for inside di harvest, and which one be open gap dem. Read am to find out whether dem cover any particular subject before you go dey search through di file dem.

Personal, ìnagijẹ, ẹgbẹ́ and ẹranko (20-21). Map to every personal and royal ìnagijẹ text wey dey spread across di thematic file dem, plus di Àkànbi sobriquet formula; and di section two rarest subject class dem, spirit-companion praise and animal praise.

Wetin dis section no dey do, and why

E no dey repeat 13-oral-literature. Dat section get di genre system, ìjálá, rárà, drum poetry mechanics, performer training and gender, and di connection to fuji, juju and Afrobeats, with plenty deep explanation wey pass wetin subject-organised collection need to repeat. File dem for inside dis section wey touch performance, drumming or modern music dey cross-reference dat section file dem instead of to dey re-explain dia content, and dem dey add only di oríkì-specific text dem wey dat section no carry already.

E no dey repeat di deity theology for 06-orisa and 23-orisa-deep. Dem sections carry di cosmology, myth and worship practice for each òrìṣà. Dis section òrìṣà file dem dey present di praise text dem as text, with only di theological context wey reader need to understand wetin any line dey claim.

E no dey present every oríkì wey di harvested research bring out. Two record dem cut commot completely: di Alápà lineage snake-totem oríkì, wey e only source na just social-media URL without author, title or date, and small number of other web-only fragment dem wey dem flag for di relevant file dem say dem too light to present even with caveats. Where text survive with only Yoruba and no translation, or only translation without recoverable original, or without tone mark dem, dis section talk am for where e present am instead of to fill di gap.

Where source dem get conflict, and how dis section handle am

Several subject for inside dis harvest get document from more than one independent source, and where di text dem differ materially, dis section show di two instead of to choose one:

• Ọ̀fà's founding oríkì appear for shorter version wey dem credit to Karin Barber and longer version wey dem credit to Babalola and Olafimihan, wey dem present side by side for inside oriki-orile-oyo-egba-ijebu.
• Di Ìrẹsà/Àrẹ̀sà lineage oríkì appear for version with full English translation and version with di identical Yoruba words but no translation recovered at all, wey dem present side by side for inside oriki-orile-owu-iresa-and-gaps as evidence of how di same text dey circulate for different state of transcription.
• Di Ọ̀ṣun Ṣèégèsí praise appear, word for word, one time correctly credited to Diedre Badejo 1996 scholarly monograph and one time without dat attribution for inside one general web compendium, wey dem document for inside oriki-orisa-osun-yemoja-oya as direct evidence of how published oríkì scholarship dey lose e source as e dey circulate online.
• Ìbàdàn and Ọ̀ṣogbo's civic oríkì each appear for two transcription of different length from wetin likely be di same underlying source; dem note di two, and dem present di fuller version as primary.

Confidence across dis section

Confidence dey vary from file to file and dem state am for each file im frontmatter and, where single file mix strong and weak source dem together, for the level of individual text dem. Highest confidence: material from Babalola Content and Form of Yoruba Ijala, Barber I Could Speak Until Tomorrow, Awe 1974 Africa article, Verger fieldwork, Idowu, Beier, Badejo, Lawal and Villepastour, all na named scholars wey get publications wey person fit cite and wey get date. Lower confidence: material wey dem take from general Yoruba cultural websites, personal blog dem and social media, wey dem keep where the Yoruba text plenty and the content make sense, but dem clearly mark am say e no get source or the source weak for the place wey dem use am.