Artigo Acesso aberto Revisado por pares

A Reconsideration of the History and Iconology of Yorùbá Equestrian Figure through Two Ifá Verses and the Ojúde-Ọ ba Festival

2022; UCLA James S. Coleman African Studies Center; Volume: 55; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1162/afar_a_00655

ISSN

1937-2108

Autores

Abiodun Akande,

Tópico(s)

Vietnamese History and Culture Studies

Resumo

This study probes into the iconology, history, and representation of the horseman figure in Yorùbáland and art. Although literature abounds on this topic, many such writings have approached the topic from the investigation of visual cultures and plastic representation of the horse. The present study employs multidimensional and uncon-ventional approaches arising from considerations of iconology, religion, orature, and socioreligious performative festivals among the Yorùbá. The aim is to expand the research frontiers of the his-tory of the horse and representation of the horseman figure in Yorùbáland and add new narratives to existing discourse on the topic. Following extensive and perplexing scholarship on the horse and equestrian figure in Yorùbáland, the present research is pre-mised on sources guided by the Yorùbá maxim ọrọ sùnùkùn, oju sùnnùkùn ni a fi nwòó, meaning, “a bewildering situation requires an infrequent approach.” This maxim is generally recalled when a situation seems to defy known solutions. Such puzzles require unusual approaches. Here, the proverb is recalled to justify dif-ferent methods of inquiry, especially those unexpected from an art historian like me.Beyond the historical importance of the horse as a war ma-chine and object of prestige—which I can justifiably say has been overflogged by scholars from different academic disciplines—the iconology of the equestrian figure in Yorùbá society is so strong that the horse's importance is reflected far beyond academia; it even has a place in the play of Yorùbá children. I remember quite vividly how, as a seven-year-old Yorùbá boy, at playtime we used to climb on the backs of our elder siblings and, sometimes, our bigger mates, while they rested on their hands and knees, imitating the horse, while surrounding playmates clapped their hands and sang “kútúpà kútúpà” (mimicking the rhythm of a horse's hooves in motion and hailing the human “horse”), and “ ẹṣ in do ndo” (“the horse, high up”), as other children applauded and acknowledged the superiority of the child on the back of the “horse.”1 At that time the interesting and enjoyable thing, for me, was riding on some-one else's back. I also recall that we sometimes fell and sustained injuries from such antics. Now, as an adult, especially an art his-torian, the performance reverberates in my memories. Now that I am aware that my ancestors were trans-Saharan traders from Mali, I have more personal associations with the idea of horseriding. The history of the introduction of the horse to Yorùbáland suddenly becomes germane to the discourse that connects my present place with my ancestral space.2My family history was gathered from my uncle, Olaide Abass— professor emeritus of computer science at the University of Lagos—while we were discussing matters concerning our family compound at Ẹdẹ3; he asked if I knew the reason why our family compound is called Ilé-Ìmàle. I told him I thought it was because the members of the compound were mostly Muslims, who are often referred to by Yorùbá Christian groups as ìmàle (a compression of ìmọlíle, meaning “difficult understanding”) as a way of casting a sneer at Islam and its practitioners. However, the professor showed me that I was wrong—the name Ilé-Ìmàle was an inac-curate way of saying Ilé Mali (“Malian home”). Our ancestors, he told me, were trans-Saharan traders who travelled from Mali to Ilorin4 on horseback and later came to settle down, by the invitation of the then-timi (king) of Ẹdẹ town. He went on to narrate the story of how our ancestors found their way to Ẹdẹ, which we now know as our native home.Much more, the horse assumes a symbolic phenomenal position in the worldview of the Yorùbá by its association with very vital histories and sociopolitical systems, such as the founding of historically important settlements in Yorùbá mythology and its as-sociation with key kingship positions. Samuel Johnson (1921: 4) discussed how Oranmiyan, the mythological founder of Old ̣Òỵ ó, the acclaimed political headquarters of the Yorùbá, rode on a horse from Ile-Ife (the celebrated spiritual home of the Yorùbá) to found Old ̣ Òỵ ó. Wole Soyinka's book Death and the King's Horseman (1975) captures the importance of the position of the king's horse-man and, indeed, the horse in Yorùbáland. Soyinka's “emblemization” of the social relevance of the king's horseman rubs on the sociopolitical importance of the horse as an animal in Yorùbáland. Another notable scholarly work that showcases Yorùbá belief and the importance of the horse is Rowland Abiodun's exposition of the Ifá poem on “the horse, its rider, and Orunmila” (2014: 129–31). Abiodun expresses the association of honor and kingship for Ifá diviners by pointing to an Ifá praise-poem, in which Orunmila5 stated that “henceforth, Ifá priests will ride horses.”My interest in the frustrating and perplexing history of the horse and its artistic representation in the ̣Òỵ ó-Yorùbá region may, per-haps, be partially personal but, in the main, it is an attempt to re-visit the past by investigating art, orature, and performative acts that reflect the internalized history of a people as they play it out. It is also an attempt to understand the cultural repositories that hold plausible solutions to erroneous histories of indigenous commu-nities such as ours that have become almost ahistorical because of the lack of formal records. I choose to reduce the present historical discussion to the ̣Òỵ ó-Yorùbá group as a geographical and cultural delineation referring to Yorùbá communities that trace their an-cestry to Old ̣Òỵ ó Empire.Initial studies on the horse and horseman figures in Yorùbáland and art have been mostly deduced from archaeological materi-als and extant pictorial representations of the horse and its rider. Several scholars have written about the horse and horseman in Africa, notably Robin Law (1975: 1–15; 1995: 175–84), Nii Quarcoopome (1984: 80–81), Malcolm McLeod (1995: 127–40), John Picton (1995: 203–26), Herbert Cole (1995: 269–85), Peter Morton-Williams (2005: 72–73), and Rowland Abiodun (2014: 121–41), to mention a few. Many of these writers rely on plastic representations of the horse and horseman in their investigations. Ordinarily, one would expect that such material evidence would go a long way in resolving the history of equine and equestrian figures, especially now that accurate scientific dating methods and machines are available; unfortunately, the materiality of the equine, according to McLeod (1995: 127), is more widespread than the animal itself, and its representation can be found even in communities that never had direct contact with the animal. This is a problem that further necessitates a different methodological tool, other than plastic art, in the historical search for the origin of horses in Yorùbáland. Art historians and archaeologists mostly depend on material evidence to construct fresh histories and reconstruct lost or distorted ones, especially those of indigenous communities. The present endeavor requires more methodologi-cal tools to unravel its historical mystery. McLeod (1995: 139) cited the artistic practice among Yorùbá woodcarvers of including the horse among the conundrum repertoire of images taught to ap-prentice carvers, who may have never seen a horse in real life; inev-itably, the artist's first contact with a horse will be later than his first attempt to represent one. The material existence of an equine and equestrian figure, therefore, requires additional corroborative evi-dence to establish its history and iconology. Evidence such as local histories of horses, connected histories, oral traditions, and con-temporary performances are required in the construction and re-construction of its sequential and authentic history and iconology. Although the present study may not answer all questions about the history of horses and their representation in Yorùbá art and, indeed, may raise further questions, it draws from proven reliable oral sources of odù6 of Ifá (ògúndá-wọnrín and ọyèkú òhunọbàrà) and the recently revived annual socioreligious performance of the Ojúde-Ọba festival to elicit potential realities based on verbal and performative rather than visual pieces of evidence. As a matter of necessity, two wood carvings of Yorùbá equestrian figures were an-alyzed for the elucidation of the discussions and understanding of varied iconographic symbolism of the horseman figure. This paper decidedly pushes further discussions on the history and iconology of the horseman figure in Yorùbá communities.The Yorùbá people, on whom this study focuses, are located mostly in the southwestern part of Nigeria and are known for their elaborate cultural art practices (Vogel 1989: 10) and for ornamenting bare surfaces in their art (Clapperton 1829). They apply deco-rative motifs to sumptuously embellish bare and negative spaces on their wood carvings, such as ọp̣ ón Ifá,7agere Ifá,8ìṛ óké Ifá,9òpó,10iḷ èkùn,11 and others. These decorative motifs have equally been eclectically applied to their arts in other media, such as leather-work, textiles, and metalwork. The people also produce freestanding figures in various media, and they are renowned for traditional and contemporary freestanding figures in bronze, brass, pure copper, and wood (Filani 2012: 5). As a result of this age-old art tradition, the Yorùbá have built up an intriguing corpus of images that have been important subjects of discussion and historical investigation. Among the body of Yorùbá images, the equestrian figure stands out as one of the most emblematic and controver-sial. The horseman figure has been simultaneously evocative and provocative, and this is one of the issues that has further stimulated interest in its history and iconology. The varied representation and application of the repertoires—many of which Picton (1995: 212) referred to as contextual attributes of the images representative of the horse and horseman figure in Yorùbá art—have become so vast that they constitute a material body of cultural epistemology that can be employed in the understanding of the history and culture of horses, horseriding and, indeed, as part of the development of war-fare strategies among the ̣ Òỵ ó-Yorùbá people. Abiodun Akande (2014: 64) observed that, although many equine representations reflect a general symbolism, they also have circumstantial iconol-ogy in the different contexts of their application. Akande further observed that because of its general semiology and fixed iconog-raphy in the Yorùbá world, equestrian figures qualify as Yorùbá cultural icons (Akande 2015: 238; Cole 1989: 128).This study combines art, history, and ethnography in the in-vestigation of the history and iconography of Yorùbá equestrian figures in odù Ifá and the Yorùbá performative festival of Ojúde-Ọba.12 The specific objectives are to trace the direction of argu-ments in notable histories and submissions on the horse and its iconography in Yorùbá art and culture and to engage and eluci-date the historical with verbal allusions embedded in the odù Ifá of ògúndá-ẉ ònrín and ̣òyèkú òhun ̣ òbàrà and the performative visual allusions and symbolism suggested by the Ojúde-Ọba festival in Ijebu-Ode, all in the search for the historical timeline of the horse that can yield a cogent statement on the history and representation of the horse. The study also engages the Ojúde-Ọba festival to identify evolving and contemporary iconology of the horse and its appearance in Yorùbáland.The primary data for this research were derived from the rec-itations, interpretations, and elucidations of Baba'awo Ojebode and Baba'awo Fasakin of Ìsàḷ è-̣ Òỵ ó quarters, ̣ Òỵ ó, on the under-standing and the implications of the visual and verbal allusions in odù ògúndá-ẉ ònrín and ̣ òyèkú òhun ̣ òbàrà of Ifá. I also obtained information from Baba'awo Araoye Fasakin and Fagbemisola Morakinyo. Equestrian woodcarvings by Folorunso Adebayo-Alaaye at the National Museum, Ibadan, and Adebola Odekunke of the Odekunle carvers’ atelier at Elekara, ̣ Òỵ ó, were analyzed as examples of the iconographic symbolism of Yorùbá equestrian figures. Observations, photographs and video recordings, and in-terviews were carried out at the 2019 Ojúde-Ọba festival. Horse-riding families of Abimbola Adesanye of Soye compound, Oke Ijasi, Ijebu-ode, and Balogun Obaabi, a chief of Ijebu-ode who resides at Ago-Iwoye, were interviewed to elicit information and symbolism about the adoption and usage of horses at the Ojúde-Ọba festival. My key informant was Alagba Saheed Abdul13 of Kosemubori compound of Ago-Iwoye, who introduced me to the Ojúde-Ọba personages and also supplied information about the festival. Existing literature on the history of the horse and the equestrian figure formed the secondary data for the study.Underlying theoretical frameworks—such as formalism and iconology—are germane and, indeed, are unavoidable theoret-ical stratagems in the analysis of the forms and iconography of the equestrian figure; however, they form only a part of the the-oretical multidimensionality of the study. As earlier stated, the maxim ̣ òṛ ò sùnùkùn, oju sùnùkùn ni a fi nwòó, though an aph-orism, is the umbrella conceptual basis that encapsulates other theoretical overtures. Similar theoretical frameworks have been advanced by Hebert Cole and Chike Aniakor (1984: xii) and Henry Drewal (1990: 40) and demonstrated by Rowland Abiodun (1990: 63–89). The authors all suggest eclectic approaches to the study of African arts.Abundant literature14 exists on the history of the introduction of the horse to West Africa and its representation in the arts of Africa. However, how the horse became a prominent animal and subject in the lives and arts of various West African cultural groups is yet to be deeply interrogated.In the written history of the Yorùbá, the first mention of the use of horses appears in Johnson (1921: 161), who stated that a certain Aláàfin Orompoto,15 a sovereign of the Old ̣Òỵ ó Empire,16 a king in an ancient Yorùbá kingdom, employed horses in warfare. Aláàfin Orompoto is estimated to have reigned in the latter half of the six-teenth century (Davidson 2014: 114). Robert Smith (1965: 74) puts Orompoto's reign at about 1560. Johnson's account is mostly based on oral traditions and therefore cannot be taken unquestioningly. However, when his present position is considered along with the travelogue of Clapperton, an early nineteenth-century British ex-plorer, Johnson's account appears reasonable. Clapperton (1829: 113)—who saw the Old ̣ Òỵ ó Empire when it was still populated, albeit on the verge of total collapse—reported seeing horse stables. He described in passing that the horses were small in size com-pared with the ones in Europe. The physical appearance of horses at that time may be accounted for by the dwindling strength of the ̣ Òỵ ó army, as pointed out by Atanda (1971: 481–82), who wrote that at that time Old ̣ Òỵ ó was a shadow of its former self. The empire was unwilling to further expand because it had suffered several attacks from neighboring communities. The cavalry that Johnson described and the one described by Clapperton were 200 years apart; as such, it seems plausible that the army had dimin-ished in stature and strength. Johnson's and Clapperton's histories become more convincing when considered with the evidential use of horses in the Old ̣ Òỵ ó Empire as recorded by Snelgrave (1734: 55) in his account of the attack by Old ̣Òỵ ó on Dahomey (ca. 1720).Fage (1969: 42) suggested that the horse was part of Yorùbá history from the dawn of the earliest (ca. twelfth century) Yorùbá states. Fage's dating of the founding of Yorùbá states to the twelfth century becomes questionable in light of the potsherds gathered by Agbaje-Williams (1986: 1–3) and Flight (1973: 549). The mate-rials gathered by Agbaje-Williams from Old ̣Òỵ ó date back to the eighth century, while Flight's radiocarbon dating of terracotta from Ile-Ife dates to the tenth century. The two archaeologists described the civilization of Old ̣ Òỵ ó and Ile-Ife as advanced at the time of production of the material evidence they gathered.Law (1975: 1–15) drew up an argument combining mythology and history. He stated that the horse must originally have been introduced into the Yorùbá area from the countries to the north, but he did not provide a definite date and circumstances of its introduction. Law opined that the tradition of horseriding may have been borrowed from Borgu (north of Yorùbáland) as a lesson learned from the invasion of Yorùbáland by the Nupe. He ob-served that in the origin myth of Benin, Oranmiyan, the mythical Ile-Ife prince who was said to have founded the royal dynasties of both ̣Òỵ ó and Benin, is associated with horses. Based on this, Law argued that the horse probably first arrived in Yorùbáland before it diffused to Benin and, probably, Igbo-Ukwu.Relatively recent scholarship on equine history and representation that deserves attention includes Law (1995: 175–84), Picton (1995: 203–26), and Abiodun (2000: 182–92; 2014: 121–41). Some of these authors wrote on the history of the introduction of horses, while others wrote on the representation of the horse and horse-man figures in Yorùbá art. My research will concentrate on two of the writers who focused on Yorùbá history of horses, riders, and their representations because of their far-reaching implications on the study of equine history in Yorùbáland and art.Picton (1995) made several suggestions about what the horse and the equestrian figure represent in Yorùbá art and history. He viewed the displacement of the Yorùbá community of the Old ̣Òỵ ó Empire by Fulani jihadists as instrumental to triggering a series of wars in Yorùbáland, which peaked with the adoption of the horse as an instrument of war. In light of the use of horses in ensuing wars, he conjectured that the representation of the horse and its rider could be a memoir of Yorùbá experience.In his visual assessment of the horseman figure in Yorùbáland, Picton suggested that the image of the horserider, especially as rep-resented in religious objects, is to reflect the domination of a deity over its worshippers. He arrived at this while attempting to recon-cile the verbal application of the Yorùbá word gùn (“climb”), as it is used to refer to the mounting of a horse, with its religious phrase-ology, which translates to being possessed by the spirit of a deity (ẹlégùn). In my opinion, the two words gùn and ẹlégùn may share literary meaning but differ widely in their contextual meaning and usage. I consider the first interpretation to mean “climb” or “mount” while the other means “possessed”—each referring to distinct phe-nomena. However, one of Picton's very important contributions is his attempt to sever the usually lumped-together histories and assumptions that the entire Yorùbá group is one. He points out that the history of ̣Òỵ ó-Yorùbá people very likely developed separately from northeast Yorùbá towns such as Ekiti and Ondo.The second writer whose work is compelling in the consider-ation of the iconology of equestrian figures is Roland Abiodun. Abiodun (2014: 121–41) specifically wrote on the iconography of the horseman figure in Yorùbá Ifá art objects. He traces the earliest representation of horses in Africa to the Stone Age rock paintings of North Africa. Abiodun paid particular attention to the appli-cation of the horseman figure on agere Ifá.17 He observed that the popularity and quick acceptance of the horse in Yorùbáland is a result of its adoption as an instrument of war. Again, Abiodun pointed out that the exploits and victories wrought by the ̣ Òỵ ó-Yorùbá cavalry compelled their iconography in Yorùbá arts. Yet as much as Abiodun (2014: 123) acknowledged that the popularity of horses sprang from military exploits, he worried about how and why the horseman figure could, at the same time, emerge as an important motif in Ifá (a revered Yorùbá deity and religion) verbal and visual oríki.18 After all, Ifá priests do not fight wars.Abiodun therefore searched Ifá verbal and visual oríkì for rea-sons for the adoption of the equestrian figure in the Ifá art reper-toire. He observed that Ifá priests, due to their unavoidable every-day spiritual role, were regarded as kingly personages and, there-fore, befitting of royal paraphernalia such as horses: horses were for prestigious personages. Also, he pointed to the itinerant nature of the business of the babaláwo,19 which may have required riding on horses, as another reason for the depiction of equestrian figures in the Ifá repertoire.Other literature that discusses the origin of the horse and horse-man figures is mostly about Benin and a few other wider West African communities. The list includes Philip Dark (1960), Irwin Tunis (1979), Paula Ben-Amos (1980), Peter Karpinski (1984), Joseph Nevadomsky (1986), Herbert Cole (1989), and Norma Wolff (1992). It is important to mention that some of these writers (Dark 1960: 47; Tunis 1979; Ben Amos 1980) conjectured that there are links between Yorùbá horse history and that of Benin.Some of the contextual iconologies of the equestrian figure are demonstrated in Figures 1 and 2. Figure 1 is a woodcarving of “Èṣù the flutist on a horse.” The woodcarving was produced by Adebola Odekunle at the atelier of the Odekunle family at Elekara, ̣Òỵ ó. The entire Èṣù figure is proportionally larger than the horse, and the figure's head is also larger than the torso and the rest of the body. These two overbearing proportions conform with the canons of Yorùbá woodcarving. The Èṣù figure holds a flute to his mouth. Interestingly, the horse appears extremely dwarfish compared with what would be its real-life size in proportion to its rider. The head of the horse is almost in a relief form rather than being in the round. Kelvin Carroll (1967: 51) and John Picton (1995: 222) have observed that the image of Èṣù the flutist and horserider is common within the repertoire of Yorùbá woodcarvings.John Picton observes that the contextual iconology of deities depicted on horses acknowledges the deities as gods over and above the worshippers. However, the representation of Èṣù as an equestrian calls for further inquiry, because Èṣù is perhaps the most controversial of all Yorùbá deities. Its characterization is fluid and elusive. According to John Pemberton (1975: 20–27), Èṣù's characterization may not be easily understood. Some believe that Èṣù is a messenger of Olodumare (the Supreme Being of Yorùbá), and some believe he is the mediator between the pantheon of òrìsà and Olodumare. Some others associate Èṣù with diabolic mayhem (Idowu 1996: 18). Therefore, in a sense, Èṣù on horseback may be iconic of his position as a supreme deity wielding enormous wisdom and power over other deities as well as human beings.Figure 2 is also a woodcarving, created by Folorunso Adebayo-Alaye, whose studio is at the National Museum, Aleshinloye, Ibadan. The figure is that of an equestrian armed with a spear and wearing a cloth that looks like that worn by a warrior. The carving has elaborate surface texture and decorations. The figure itself appears to be Yorùbá because of its pélé facial marks, but the hat looks more like a stylized European helmet. This horseman figure has sumptuous details. The rein (perhaps attached to a bit) extends from the horse's mouth over the horseman's shoulders, at which point it merges into a fly-whisk. The horse is carved with stirrups and the figure is seated on a saddle. The carving seems to show ele-ments of the attire of a traditional Yorùbá warrior after the adoption of horses in Yorùbáland. Furthermore, the horseman's Western-type hat shows that the carving was done after Yorùbá contact with Europe and the adoption of the horse as an instrument of war.Figures 1 and 2 project the equestrian figure as something iconic of both a god and a veteran warrior—positions reflected in the high-up grandeur of being on a horse. They also exemplify Abiodun's description (2000: 183) of the position and grandeur of the horseman above men on foot as “the mounted against the un-mounted.” The same position is described by Picton (1995) as a “deity and worshippers” relationship.It is important to state here that odù ògúndá-ẉ ònrín and ̣ òyèkú òhun ̣ òbàrà, in some of their parts, may possess concealed mes-sages that contain sufficiently self-explanatory narratives that are needed for the present engagement. I shall write out the odù and then translate to reflect their interpretative meanings.Verbal Allusions to the Horse in Odù Ògúndá-Ẉ ònrínHaving examined the trend of discussion on the history of the equine and equestrian figure in Yorùbá art, I wish to interrogate particular odù Ifá—perhaps one of the most reliable repositories of Yorùbá history and culture. I got the recitation of this odù Ifá from Babalawo Ifayemi Ojebode of Oroki Street, Isale-̣ Òỵ ó, Nigeria. He recited odù ògúndá-ẉ ònrín (also called ògúndá òun ̣òẉ ònrín).Èmi òrí eni tí nlọ AláráKó bá mi kí Olú Ọmọ n’ílé AláráÈmi òrí eni tí nre Òde-ÈjìgbòKí ó kí Òrìsá Tàlàbí ará Òde-ÈjìgbòIfá mo gb̩ ó, ó ta sí mi létíẈ ón ní oore lo ṣ e fún Olú ti Olú fi lówóIfá mo gb̩ ó, ó ta sí mi létíWón ní oore lo ṣ e fún Ọwáràngún ÀgaNíj̣ ó tí Ọwáràngún Àga kuEṣ in ni wón fi ru òkú Ọwáràngún Àga lóríTímo bá gbó gbó gbó, tí mo bá ṭ ó ṭ ó ṭ óẸṣ in ni kí ọmọ ó fi ru òkú èmi lórí dan dan danI wish I see someone going to Alárá [ancient Yorùbá town]I would have sent greetings to Olú Ọmọ at AláráI wish I see someone going to Òde-Èjìgbò [an-other ancient Yorùbá town]I would have sent greetings to Òrìsá Tàlàbí, a denizen of Òde-ÈjìgbòIfá, it came to my hearingThat you favored Olú and he became richIfá, it came to my hearingThat you favored Ọwáràngún ÀgaSo much that the day Ọwáràngún Àga diedHe was carted home on a horseWhen I am full of age, and I dieLet my children compulsorily carry me home honorably on a horseThis odù starts with salutations of great rulers and personages of ancient Yorùbá towns: Olú Ọmọ at Alárá, Òrìsá Tàlàbí, a deni-zen of Òde-Èjìgbò, and then Ọwáràngún Àga the knowledgeable in languages, a king in his own right (ìṃ òta èdè, aṛ óba té té té). The odù recounts the favors that Ifá bestowed on these nobles. Ifá at-tracted riches for Olú-Ọmọ at Alárá. Surprisingly, the favor Ifá did for Ọwáràngún Àga was that when Ọwáràngún Àga died, he was carried back home on a horse. This verse alludes to the gesture as a “favor”; it simply shows how strongly Yorùbá people crave riding on a horse—even at their death.Generally, writers on the history of horses in Yorùbáland believe that the horse gained a reputation as a “machine of war” before it became an “object of prestige” (Abiodun 2014: 123). Obviously, from the odù Ifá, ògúndá-ẉ ònrín, the prestige of riding on a horse goes beyond both of these to even prestige in death. This association of the horse with affluence has for centuries formed the cen-tral iconic semiotic connotation of the horse and horseman figure in Yorùbáland and art. The same view of the horse as an iconic and prestigious animal is shared by Law (1995), Cole (1989), Picton (1995), and Abiodun (2014). These authors, in their different observations of the iconology of the horseman figure, agree that riding on a horse is prestigious. This odù points out the importance of being carried on a horse, even in death, as glorious.Verbal Allusions to the Horse in ̣ Òyèkú òhun ̣ Òbàrà (also called ̣Òyèkú pàlàbà)A young babaláwo from Ìsàḷ è ̣ Òỵ ó, who also happened to be my student when I was a lecturer at the Emmanuel Alayande College of Education, ̣ Òỵ ó, Nigeria, recited this verse of ̣ Òyèkú òhun ̣ Òbàrà for me. It is one of the odù of Ifá that has, perhaps, the largest number of verses addressing the history and iconol-ogy of the horse. However, in this paper, we shall concentrate our discussions on two that have strong historical and iconological al-lusions about horses.Òyèkú pàlàbà ipàbóAwo Eṣ in ló dífá fún Ẹṣ inẸṣ in nsawo lo sí òde ̣Òỵ ó ÀjàkáẸbọ ni ẉ ón ní kó seẈ ón ní kó rú ti ọlàKó rúbọ Èṣù ̣ Òdàrà kó lè kóre wáléẸbọ ọlà nìkan l’órúẸṣ in kò r’ówó rú'bo Èṣù ̣ ÒdàràNígbà tí Ẹṣ in dé òde ̣ Òỵ ó ÀjàkáÓ gbé ọbaÓ gbé ìjòyèẈ ón ṣ e Ẹṣ in l’ ̣òṣ̣ óẸṣ in kò kóre wáléÒyèkú the revered odùIt was the diviner of the horse that carried out divination for the horseThe horse was on a mission to the city of ̣Òỵ ó ÀjàkáThe horse was told to make sacrificesIt was told to sacrifice to get wealthIt was also told to sacrifice for bringing back home wealthThe horse only made a sacrifice to get wealthThe horse did not have enough provision to make a sacrifice to Èṣù ̣ Òdàrà to bring back home wealthWhen the horse got to ̣Òỵ ó ÀjàkáIt carried the kingsIt carried the noblesThe horse got wealthBut, unfortunately, could not take back home the wealth it madeThe odù verse relates the story of a period in history when the horse embarked on a mission to ̣ Òỵ ó Àjàká. The horse consulted Ifá and was asked by Ifá to carry out a sacrifice so that when it got to ̣Òỵ ó, it would get wealth. Again it was asked to make a sacrifice to Èṣù so that it would be able to bring home the wealth he got in ̣ Òỵ ó. The horse only made a sacrifice to get wealth and neglected the one to Èṣù that would enable it to bring the wealth back home.I wish to point out that the odù transverses a historical timeline that addresses the time of the introduction of the horse to Old ̣Òỵ ó. In line 3, the odù reads “ Ẹṣ in nsawo lọ sí òde Ọ̀ ỵ ọ́ Àjàká” (meaning the horse was embarking on a journey or commercial travel to ̣Òỵ ó Àjàká). The reference to ̣Òỵ ó Àjàká may mean one of two things; it may refer to the location of Old ̣Òỵ ó called ̣Òỵ ó Àjàká or, perhaps, it may refer to the time of Alaafin Ajaka's reign. It appears to me that the time mentioned in the odù holds som

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