Ṣàwárí

The orisa of iron, war, hunting and the road, the massacre at Ire and its variants, Soyinka's reading of Ogun as the Yoruba tragic principle, and the occupational cult that now includes drivers and mechanics.

The hunters' chant associated with Ògún, its vocal manner, the ìjálá artist and how he is judged, the contest setting, and what the chant does as self-portrait and as praise of animals.

An analysis of how praise poetry functions as an oral historical archive, detailing what can be recovered from oríkì, methodological debates on chronology and gender, and structural historical silences.

Ògún is the Yoruba orisa of iron, metallurgy, hunting, warfare, tool-making, and pathways, serving as the cosmic pioneer and enforcer of covenants.

An examination of the week-long festival commemorating the founder of the Oyo Empire, detailing its historical traditions, ritual officiants, performance genres, and modern institutionalization.

Three lineage oríkì from Karin Barber's Okuku fieldwork, plus the Olúfọ́n dynasty and the Ìkòyí warrior lineage whose praise obliges the chanter to include its own dishonour.

Six documented Ògún oríkì texts from four different scholarly sources, showing the deity's seven manifestations, his contradictions, and a chanter's personal claim on him.

The two rarest classes of orikì in this section, praise addressed to a person's heavenly spirit companions and praise addressed to an animal, presented with honest limits on both.