Dolani Ajanaku March 26th 2013 Midterm Paper African Folklore and Myth

Yoruba People and the Talking Drum

Proverbs are an important part of every culture because it represents the communications of important messages between generations. It also represents the preservation of a cultures past and communication of that past and beliefs to other cultures. The focus of this paper is on a Nigerian ethnic group, the Yorubas talking drums. The Yoruba people in Nigeria are one of the three major ethnic groups and they are concentrated in southwestern part of Nigeria. The Yoruba people are a group of people who strongly believe in oral literature, proverbs, and myths. There are commonly referred to as omo oduduwa (child of oduduwa). This is because in the oral history of Yoruba people that describes a myth of how the Yoruba people originated, oduduwa is said to be the ancestor of the people. Oduduwa is said to have descended in Ile-Ife, which is attributed with being the birthplace of Yoruba people. According to popular myth told to most children, myself included, when oduduwa was dropped in ileife, he brought with him three things that was used to create the Yoruba land. The three things was a bird, some earth and kernel. The earth was thrown into the water, the

cocked scratched it to become land, and the kernel grew into a tree with sixteen limbs, representing the original sixteen kingdoms (ALA, 1998). A more factual history is circulated in history books, one that explains the expansion of Yoruba cities beyond the Oyo boundaries. A civil war occurred in Oyo by the 18th century, which resulted in an invasion of the yorubas by the fulanis (another ethnic group in Nigeria). This forced the forced Yoruba people to expand and start new towns. Ibadan and Abeokuta were some of the few main towns formed by this expansion. In the late 1880s, with the help of a British mediator, a treaty was signed between the various warring factions. Yorubaland was officially colonized by the British in 1901, but a system of indirect rule was established that mimicked the structure of Yoruba governance. (ALA, 1998). The Yorubas functioned primarily on an agricultural based economy which was due to the fact that their werent any tangible industrial advancements in that part of the world yet. Therefore, yorubas were primarily farmers, they grew cocoa and yams as cash crops. This extended into the mid 1900s because I recall that my grandfather had a cocoa farm and that was how he raised and sent all twenty of his children through the Nigerian educational system. The farmers did everything by season and there are certain fruits that were only available at some parts of the year, and farmers sometimes tried to preserve their fruits till they became out of season, in order to sell them at a higher price. It is estimated that at one time nearly 70 percent of people participated in agriculture and ten percent each working as crafts people and traders within the towns (ALA, 1998).

The political and social system is different in every Yoruba city. There are some cities that have a king and queen political system and legislative system, while there are some cities that are strictly legislative. The king is also referred to as the (Oba), he is seen as the ultimate leader of the city. A man becomes king mostly through inheritance, while some other towns have a different way of choosing their kings. This is a part of Yoruba culture that still exist in most Yoruba states. Every Oba, however, is considered to be a direct descendant of the past oba in the city, ultimately every oba is a descendant of the founding oba. Every oba also has at least one olori (queen) and a council of chiefs who usually assists the Oba in his decision making. Title associations, such as the ogboni, are known to play an extremely important role in assigning and balancing power within the cities. The Yoruba culture claims that they have only 401 deities; however, in reality it is believed that they have more than 401. All of who are still celebrated one way or the other. There is great complexity of their cosmology, so great that western cultures have likened them to ancient Greeks. Yoruba deities are known as orisha and every orisha has some special and specific ability or purpose. The high god is Olodumar or Olorun. There is no real shrine that exist for Olorun because he is perceived to be the all supreme all knowing being with so many different characters and personality that creating one specific image would not suffice. The spirit of olorun or olodumare is often called upon for blessings, favors, and deliverance. Even the obas call on Olorun. The idea of ancestors and never forgetting your ancestral history is central to almost all of Yoruba believes and ideas. That is because the Yorubas have a strong believe that after death,

they are going to be with their ancestors, therefore it is important to always remember them. They also believe that their ancestors never really left them, therefore whenever there is trouble or strange things are happening in the land, they call on their ancestors for help. They pay annual homage to the gravesites of ones' forbears, and lineage heads are given the great responsibility of honoring all deceased members of the lineage through a yearly sacrifice. Maskers (egungun) appear at funerals and are believed to embody the spirit of the deceased person. Other important orishas include Eshu, the devil; Sango, the god of thunder; and Ogun, the god of iron. In every important occasion in the Yoruba culture (festivals, funerals, naming ceremonies and etc.) the talking drum is an instrument that is usually present. This is because the talking drum has a strong cultural meaning to the Yoruba people. Although talking drums dont play as much of an important role as they used to, they still serve a cultural purpose. Before written words were introduced, yorubas preserved and communicated stories, proverbs and information through drums. Talking drums are an important aspect of the story telling and cultural aspect of yoruba people. This drums originated in Oyo state, which is also the first Yoruba state in Yoruba history, so it can be said that talking drums are deeply rooted in the Yoruba culture. The drums were first assembled for the use of Alaafin of Oyo as his musical outfit whenever he goes to war. He used it to motivate his army. Talking drums are also very useful because Yoruba is a tonal language, and interestingly enough, there are ways to tune the talking drum so that the drums makes sounds that are extremely similar in sound to the Yoruba language tones. It is also used to praise the orishas because it is believed that because it has been

present since the beginning of Yoruba history, the orishas know and enjoy the sounds the drums make. At events, the drummers use the drums to tell a story, proverbs and/or praise the celebrant. The drums play versatile roles. One artist who is known to used the drums a lot is Lagbaja. Lagbaja is by all definition the embodiment of Yoruba culture. He dresses like a masquerade and apart from his family members; no one knows what his face really looks like. His drummers used the drums to praise and provoke him. When the drum is used to communicate proverbs it usually is done in a story telling mode or using a popular saying. A popular proverb is olohun maje n ki ku obirin which means that God please dont let me die because of a woman. Other proverbs include gb pnj l omr; j t b bur l om'ni t f'ni It's during tough times that friends and those who truly love one are known. Agbn t god r t os, ni alm o j lgb giri. The same wasps that humans see and run from are what lizards g ladly feed on. All of the Yoruba proverbs tell a common moral story.

Reference:

ALA. (1998, November 3). Yoruba people. Retrieved from http://www.uiowa.edu/~africart/toc/people/yoruba.html