The Ogboni could take energetic and appropriate action in dealing with any threat to the social and political order.The closely related Eluku and Oro ('bull-roarer cult') organisations execute their (the Ogboni's) judgements in the case of felons and other law breakers. In special cases, however, such as severe political offences, executions could take place in the Ogboni Lodge.Our discussion on the Yoruba social, political and religious cultures would not be complete without emphasising the urban nature of Yoruba settlements. According to Bascom, over half of the Nigerian Yoruba in 1952 lived in cities of over 5000, and over 30 percent lived in cities of over 40,000, of which six were larger than 100,000 including Ibadan, the largest native city in Africa. The Yoruba had an index of urbanisation of 39.3 which falls below that of great Britain with 65.9, Germany with 46.1, and the United States with 42.3, but it exceeds Canada with 34.3, France with 31.2, Greece with 25.2, and Poland with 17.4. The Yoruba are the most urban of all African people, and their urban way of life is traditional, dating back to well before the period of European penetration.It can also be claimed that the Yoruba and Bini (of the same Oduduwa ancestry) kingdoms were, as Michael Crowder puts it, '.purely African States whose growth was stimulated neither by contact with Islam nor Europe. They preserved their government, religion, and ways of life in the relative isolation until the Europeans, who had been trading on the coast from the 15th Century onwards changed their roles in the 19th Century and became proselytes of their religions, their economies, their cultures, and finally their political forms.For the Yoruba to appreciate the challenges facing them and fashion out how to surmount them, they must recognise the depth of damage the race has gone through.Let us begin with the hierarchy of money and money worship. Let us resolve from here and now that our forefathers did not regard money or material wealth beyond the fifth position they put it.The United States, a country in North America basterdised our social and economic fabric of communalism and substituted it with the selfish, soulless and egocentric culture of 'me me me' and crass capitalism which places the worship of money and materialism above all else.Religion has been the worst hit. The British basterdised our religion and spirituality. They came with a most illogical concept that tells you to confess your sin, however heinous, to some pastor, and pronto! You are forgiven because someone has paid for an offence that may be committed 5000 years from now!They labelled Yoruba religious beliefs as paganism. There is nothing like 'egbe okunkun' because secret does not translate to darkness.What dereliction and derision of our sacred religious values, concepts and practices caused us are incalculable. Just too horrendous and humongous to enumerate here in a brief paper such as this. (The Egbeleke example. The Malaysian convict on death row. The Telebolt, and the Telecommand. And many more examples!)In our political structure, and at all levels, in every hamlet, village and town, our women were involved in every segment of governmental structure. Of the 38 rulers in Ilesha before Owa Agunlejika, 'Five Obas had been women' the last of them being Yeeyori, the 18th Owa of Ijeshaland (see Robert Smith, The Kingdoms of the Yoruba, page 60). Women were also known to be involved in all wars-both as Calvary or Infantry. But when Europe and North America forced their political systems down our throats, we were inheriting systems from a people who, for centuries, did not allow franchise to their own womenfolk.This address cannot and should not be concluded without some hard knocks. What we have been doing by way of Cultural Festivals, Culture Revivals, Dances, Songs, Re-enactments have all been mere dramatised caricatures, and even, sometimes, debasement of the cultures we pretend to celebrate.As argued by pioneer English Anthropologist, Edward B. Tylor in his book, Primitive Culture, published in 1871 and which I quoted earlier, culture is "that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, law, morals, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society." [Emphasis mine).It is imperative therefore that the Yoruba must go back in history and study the knowledge that produced the supernatural science or sciences which made the Egungun to transform into cobra, or make communication with people thousands of kilometres possible through invocatory wireless facility. Technology, Medicine, Pharmacology, Engineering and several other sciences grew out of people's knowledge and culture. The potency of the Word as a purveyor of command and the credible dictum of mind over matter is product of long and well researched belief-system predicated on culture.The Yoruba had developed and perfected the science of Travel-in time and Kanoko long before any race, just as they developed sign language, wireless telephony, invisible missiles which all belonged to their body of knowledge. No other aspect of Yoruba culture can better and faster restore their dignity than rediscovery and application of their core sciences. In conclusion, the Yoruba must first and foremost rediscover who they are by researching into their authentic history. They must be re-educated on their cherished value system, their spiritual and religious beliefs and their technologies. They must reclaim and restore their identity and dignity, and they must collectively reclaim their destiny. If submitting slavishly to foreign faiths will forever blind them to their true identity, they should reconsider their options.And if remaining yoked in a marriage they did not negotiate will continue to pull them down, they should also reconsider their options.The values that made them the first in every human endeavour within the context of Nigeria and even Africa, should also be revisited.But this tomfoolery is not the destiny the Yoruba chose on bended knees!Thank you for listening.
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