We call incantations ofo not Ogede

Octogenarian Oba James Aladesuru, the Onigede of Igede-Ekiti, headquarters of Irepodun/Ifelodun Local Government Area of Ekiti State, ascended the throne in 1959 when he was still acquiring formal education. He speaks with Sam Nwaoko on his experiences and the community since then. Excerpts:

Your majesty, what remarkable changes would you say have taken place in Igede between 1959 you ascended the throne and now?

The most remarkable one is the current size of the town. Igede is twice the size it was then and now. There were also numerous thatch and mud houses. So also was the road. I had been on the throne before it was tarred to Ado Ekiti and the road became so very different. Another remarkable landmark was when  Ondo State was created. We trooped to the palace of the Deji of Akure to felicitate with him and discussed the state long before Ekiti was created. The creation of Ekiti meant that Ondo State had grown and we pray that Ekiti would continue to wax strong.

 

You were in school when Queen Elizabeth ascended the throne and seven years after, you became the monarch of your community. Were you thinking about kingship or how did it come to you?

You’re correct. I recall that as students, we were told a lot about the British monarchy and we knew when she became the queen. When I was in school, I never thought about becoming the king. When I set out in search of greener pasture too,  being the king never occurred to me. When it was mentioned to me, I dismissed the idea and scolded the person. I had even prepared my mind to travel to Ghana. However, my elder siblings didn’t joke with the idea. They took it seriously and insisted that I come home. They later came to my base in Oyo, after I had learnt photography as a trade in Iseyin. I was based in a small community near Ilora.

 

What are those things that stand Igede out as a community?

The history of Igede is a mystery. But what we know is that the founder migrated from Ile Ife. When he got to a place we now call Omi Ebo, he consulted the Ifa oracle which told him to continue with his journey. He was told to proceed and that he would locate a hill and that that would be his destination. When he got to Oke Esú, he settled there. At that Oke Esú, the former Post and Telecommunications (P&T) sited a mast there. As the construction of the mast was ongoing, we tried to secure a deity we had there by building a concrete wall around it. But the object of worship we tried to secure was eventually stolen by thieves and all we have there today is the cemented site. When the founder of Igede, named Àkè, and his wife Erindò as well as their servants got to  that hill, they settled there. When Àkè died, his 16 children, including Elémi, Òsun, Ògbèsè, Òrunrò and the others began a supremacy argument which led to a serious fight over who would take the position of their father. This caused them to scatter. Each of them used all forms of powers in their possession to prosecute the fight. They used all forms of incantations, called ‘Ògèdè’ or ‘Ofò against one another so much that some of them transformed  into a pool of water; some simply disappeared. That’s why in Igede-Ekiti, we don’t use the language ‘ogèdè’, we say ‘ofò’ (for incantation) here. It is not in our culture to refer to ofò as ògèdè. The one among the children that turned into a pool of water is the popular Elémi we still find in the town today. In those days, when there were no doctors or hospitals, the Elémi did a lot for the people of Igede. When people took ill and they take from the water for a bath or to drink, the person would get well. When people suffer from Guinea worm, Elémi water treats the ailment like magic. So also is it for people looking for children.

We all hear of Osun. Osun is one of the children of Àkè that left Igede in anger. She migrated until she married Sango when he was the Alaafin. When Sango left the throne, she also decided to return to her home and when she got to where we call Osogbo today. She met two persons there and helped them and that’s how Osun became popular. Despite all their quarrel, the question of who would take the place of their father was still hanging in the air. Their last born, who had gone on a hunting expedition when the elder siblings had their fight, took the position. Then we were not called Igede. But when he got there, what people used to explain what happened among the siblings was “where they engaged in a war of incantations (ogede)” and that is why “Igede” became the name of the community.

 

Were you in school when you became the king?

No, I had completed my elementary education. I completed my education by December 1954 and by January 1955, I had left home. I finished from Baptist Central School which has now become Ekiti Baptist High School.

 

Igede has a very strong Baptist presence. How come?

There’s a man in Igede called Jemiriye. He was kidnapped and sold into slavery when he was a young boy. However, he happened to have been sold to some white people who took him away with them overseas. There, he received formal education and was well trained. He was trained in the Church Missionary Society (CMS) tradition. But when he returned, he became a member of the Baptist mission and he was well accepted by the local people because he happened to be one of us who was lost but found. Before he came to Igede, he had been in Lagos and had also worked in other places before he came to Igede to establish the Baptist mission. That was how the Baptist mission became a part of the life of the Igede people.

 

And what are those things the community has benefitted from the Baptist  missionaries and the mission itself?

There are so many of them. They have tried a lot for us and the chief among them is education. In the old Ondo Province up to Akoko, Kabba, Kwara and so many other towns bring their children to Igede for education. It was so powerful and that is why it was called Baptist Central School. Those who are older than we were educated here just as some of our peers received education here too. Igede was the centre. Later, as the school and mission grew stronger, they thought of establishing a secondary school. They got ready by 1955 and in 1956, the secondary school took off. But I had migrated by then.  It was admitting only boys then. When I became the Onigede, I thought it wouldn’t be nice for the girls not to have a place to go regarding secondary education. So, we created the opportunity for the admission of girls in the school. Through our humble intervention, the secondary school became a mixed school.

We thank God and we could see that there have been development. When I became the king, just one indigene of Igede, was a university graduate. He was Obawoya. There could be others who obtained degrees overseas or elsewhere, but Obawoya was the only one around us we knew as a university graduate when I became the Onigede. Today, there are about four secondary schools in Igede today established by either private individuals or missions, apart from government schools.