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215 At the Back of the Black Man's Mind By R. E. Dennett His ensign of office consists of a string of beads of various colours worn always round his left wrist; a cow's or bullock's tail which he always carries about with him; and a staff which is sometimes an Opa Osu, i.e., a staff sacred to Ofu; at other times an Opa Orerere, the Orerere staff, and at other times an Opa Osororo, or the Osororo staff. The office is supported from regularly prescribed consulting and divining fees which are sometimes and indeed often exceeded on account of what is thought to be the superior financial position of an applicant for consultation of Ifa; the sacrifices and offerings made to the gods; and gifts from those whom they serve which these account it a duty and a privilege to make to them, especially at stated festivals. The moral system of Yoruba heathenism teaches reverence to the gods, which is to show itself in, amongst other things, a daily early morning worship to them before their images before any business is done, the exercise of faith in them and their guidance and other assistances by consulting them on all important matters; respect and reverence for age and for all authority; filial regard and reverence for and obedience to parents-on the part of children always, and care and concern for them under the infirmities of sickness and old age, and in times of necessity produced by other circumstances; a great regard for marriage and the perpetuity of the bond, submission to their husbands on the part of wives, and care and protection on the part of husbands; the exercise of the duties of hospitality to all, and especially to strangers; fidelity to friendship under all circumstances; chastity, truthfulness in speech, honesty, kindness, and amongst some tribes courage also; whilst under its influence murder and theft, and sometimes the practice of witchcraft are punished with death; adultery and fornication with a severe social disgrace and fines and a selling into slavery, and, where the honour of a king's wife is concerned, with death sometimes; suicide, with a dishonoured burial; and neglect and indifference to pay a debt, and insolvency, with much social dishonour; and it discountenances, amongst other things, pride and vanity and extravagance. Among these may be reckoned revenge and retaliation, hatred, jealousy, malice, ill-will, worldliness, anger and wrath and selfishness, some of which have contributed to supply a basis for the system of slavery and the slave trade, and for the life of Polygamy which have ruled the country for centuries, and for the very long incessant inter-tribal warfares which have ruined it. The motives for virtue are a belief in a retributive providence, either for good or for evil; the fear of social disgrace and of punishment also, which would fall not only upon an individual wrong and evil doer, but upon his relatives and other connections also; the prospect of a long life on earth, desire for prosperity, and dread of the anger of the gods and of punishment from them. It teaches that the soul of man is not liable to death, and that after the death of the body, which results from its quitting it, it hovers about the earth for some time, and after this departs into the world of spirits above. Hence the following parable referring to the death of a Babalawo, and which is applicable to other persons also who have died:-"Awo www.globalgrey.co.uk
216 At the Back of the Black Man's Mind By R. E. Dennett ki i ku:-Awo lo si Itunla. Itunla ni ile Awo." "Awo-or a Babalawo does never die; he goes to Itunla (the world where men live again after death). Itunla is an Awo's home." The spirits of all the dead go after death to "Orun," the heavens or the world above. It is divided into two parts. One part is commonly called "Isala Orun" or as a mark of excellence; "Orun" merely, or "Orun Afefe rere," the heaven of sweet air, or "Orun Alafia," the heaven of peace and happiness, where the souls of all the good from this world are admitted and live after death; and another part is called Orun Apandi, the world of potsherds, where the spirits of the wicked here pass to and live in after death as a heap of refuse and rubbish, a mass of God rejected souls-and who are treated there as potsherds are here where they are commonly flung to a dunghill. Sometimes this world is described as Orun ihariha, the heaven of the dry leaves, covering an ear of corn, or the heaven where the spirits that go there are treated as such leaves generally are here by being thrown into the fire, and it is also thus described, "Orun ihariha, ibi ti Orun ati ina pade ti nwon nho ye," "the heaven of the Ihariha, where both the sun and fire meet together, and where the roar of their united flames and heat is like the shout of a great multitude." The spirit of a good dead returns from the spirit world to be again born into this world as had been the case with it before and into the family of which it had been before death a visible part. Hence it is that after a child's birth and when a name would be given to it a Babalawo is consulted by the parents that they might know whether or not the child who is a departed one that has returned to them has come through the father's or the mother's line, that the family might know with what line they would formally connect it by the name that would be given to it. This accounts for such names as these given to children:-" Yeye-tunde"-"Our mother has returned to us; " and "Babatunde"-"Our father has returned to us." This transmigration is spoken of as "Yiya"-or the shooting forth of a branch. There is some faint notion of a judgment after death, as may be inferred from the following occasional remarks of Yorubans, smarting under a sense of wrong and of their inability to revenge it- " Ohun ti o se mi yi, ati emi ati iwo ni i ro o niwaju eni ti o ri wa." "As to this thing or this wrong which you have done me, I say, both yourself and myself will have to relate it to and before Him (God) who sees us." "Nigbati emi ba ku, ati emi ati iwo ni ilo ro o niwaju Olorun." When I die, both you and myself will have to relate it (our case) or (the alleged wrong) before God." "Ohun gbogbo ti a fe li Aiye a fere di idena orun (oju ibode orun) ka gbogbo www.globalgrey.co.uk
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