IMPORTANT CUSTOMS AND TRADITIONS OF THE AYEDE PEOPLE OF EKITI STATE
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Before the advent of western
civilization any customs and festivals existed in Ayede which today have been
phased out by the influence of modernity which regards some traditional customs
as uncivilized. Ababaric, inferior and unworthy of existing.
Naturally, the customs and festivals
of Ayede are not entirely peculiar to those Yoruba town the marriage customs,
burial, investiture tribal marks, greetings and other ceremonial rites and
festival existed on similar ‘shape and forms’ in various Yoruba towns. But
generally it will only fair to say the customs and festivals of Ayede where you
have a conglomeration of people with diversified cultural origin would only
reflect diversity in its forms. Proportionate to the extent of emigrations
background. That is the customs only reflect the customs and festivals of
neighboring settlement from where people came to settle at Ayede.
GREETINGS:
It would be very pertinent enough to
mention the importance of greetings in the customs of Ayede and Yoruba
generally.
The Yoruba find it very pertinent to
greet each other by expressing mutuality cordiality empathy and various other
feelings, the most prominate of which is communal empathy.
The life style and activities and in
fact every event by one, from birth to death and from down till dusk could
always be accompanied by a particular tupe of greetings, the mastery of which
sends knowledge of them would be discouraged, ill-considered and even held as a
bastard.
MARRIAGE:
The
traditional customs in Ayede, similar to what operates in any other Yoruba town
is very resting and it is largely contracted families as opposed to the
individuals concern.
Charity seems to be the basis of child
given for marriage because it is when a male chap offers some help or kindness
to a particular male or female parent that the parent would decide together to
reply the kindness of such individuals by given him one of their daughters or
the daughter of a very close relative.
Suddenly, then the groom-to-be would
be called upon one day and accused of wickedness or intention to undo his
parents-in-law to be. Then those who come along with him to beg, the parents
in-law-to-be would beg and tell them that the man was not so bad and should be
pardoned subsequent to which the man would be pardoned.
The man would however be pardoned and
the head of his family would then be required to prostrate before their
in-laws-to-be.
There and then would they be intimated
which the knowledge that a girl was to be given to the man for marriage in
appreciation of his generosity. A little celebration would attend this
occasion. There and then the groom-to-be start taking gift like ‘Akara’ 3
‘Ododo’ 4, and iyawoOlorun Yam, especially some yearly harvest proceeds from
the man’s farm to the family of the bride to be, a custom that was generally
referred to as “Idana”. The idana usually take place a long period of time
until the marriage is due.
Prior to the marriage largest feast
would be prepared by the omo-ile, members of the two families especially the
house wives. Among other things beans cake(Akara) would be sent to the
household of the wife to be along with the bride which is paid on the girl to
show how the girl is valued.
The dowry was not fixed but very from
egberunmewa (#10,000) and so on.
A lot of ceremonies attend the taking
of wife from her parent home to her husband’s house, such as drumming, singing
and dancing by ‘Omo-Ile’ house wives. An example of these song are:
1.
Ere kiajoise
O si a dun e dide,
E ee o dupe lola
Eyi ma dayo o
2.
Uwauwaleyi
Ari dele oni
Emariuwaoni
Ainajogolu ma riuwa
ire o.
The
new life always accompanied by “laro”who would help her with the domestic
chores at her husband’s house.
The
new wife was not expected to work until the seventh days when ceremony would be
performed simply to signify the beginning of the time when the new wife started
to really get herself engaged in taking care of her husband and no more
regarded as ‘alejo’.
Naturally,
before she leaves her father’s house, she should have been given blessing of
happily marriage life, prosperity and series of issues, male and female. At
this same time the family of the husband would be told to take good care of the
new wife and not to let her suffer in anyway.
In
contrast to what used to operate in the traditional marriage pattern, nowadays,
marriage contract is almost exclusively between individuals and not families, a
chance obviously reflecting European customs.
BURIAL:
There are however
certain burials which according to Ayede customs not unlike Yoruba customs in
general, should always be associated by special rities and rituals such as that
of a king, a number of special sects or one who dies of a particular or
mysterious death.
However,
nowadays, unlike in the former times when the deceased was always buried inside
the house the influence of western civilization bury replaced this idea with
that of going to bury the dead outside the house hold in such places as the
church cemetery and public cemetery.
Formerly,
no ceremony would even attend the burial of a young middle age person, whereas
nowadays, material or monetary value as opposed to old age value has replaced
this idea with that of a grandiose celebration to the burial of young wealthy
middle aged individuals.
INVESTITURE:
The
investiture ceremony for Ayede kings and chief is similar to that of other
Yoruba towns where the king has to be selected from amongst candidates
presented by the incumbent royal family to the throne by the king makers who
are referred to as “Ijoyelobaloba or Iwarefas in Ayede”.
The
king chooses his chiefs, the choice of which is not just casual but
predetermined according to the particular household holding the particular
chieftaincy title. In both cases, the IwarefaChiefs make their ratification of
the candidature before the investiture could take place.
Special
rites and rituals usually accompany the investiture ceremony such as ‘IjaweOye’
and ‘Ibura’ which together signify swearing of oaths of allegiance before the
earth and our ancestors, to the king and peoples of the town. Then the invested
candidate would be given crown, horsetail, staff or even traditional official
roles as the case may be.
An
important aspect of the swearing includes swearing with a spiritual dusk taken
from the place ground in the room where the mortar remain of ancestors kings up
to date are kept which is believed to be of great significance in case an
invested candidate goes against his sworn oath.
There
has not been a describe shift from the traditional pattern of investiture at
Ayede unlike in some other Yoruba towns where honorary chieftaincy titles has
been hurriedly created for certain wealthy individuals.
BODY AND TRIBAL MARKS
Facial marks existed
on large scale in a large part of Yoruba land. But it is find Ayede peculiar
that the Ayede never made marks on their faces. It is uncustomary to find Ayede
man or woman with tribal marks.
Once
could draw out from this that it is probable that the town was established
after the slave trade era. It was slave trade and slavery from internecine wars
that led the Yorubas to adopt tribal marks as a means of identifying members of
various tribes, so, no Ayede man wears tribal marks even right from Ile-Iye
where they migrated to Ayede.
Apart
from the facial marks, the Ayede also have the customs of putting various marks
on the body for various reasons, most prominent of which is decorative purpose
and to serve as mnemonic for certain event such as case of writing date of
birth of people belly.
TABOOS
The main taboo for
Ayede indigenes is that they are forbidden from pig meat and it should not be
brought into the town. This is because Ayede people believed that pig meat is
dangerous animal since it eat the corps of human beings and that is the same
animal that Ayede people used for sacrifice at the shrine of one of their deity
which is called Esi-Onigogo. This pig now replaces the former sacrifice of
human being to appease this deity. It is also a taboo to make bad medicine or
bring it into the town. It will backlash on the owner.
SYSTEM OF SUCCESSION AND INHERITANCE
In
Ayede, only one from where candidates can rise from the assumption of the
kingship title Ayede and it is the eldest man in the family that assumes the
post.
Also,
in the case of chieftaincy title, succession does not take place by scrambling
for the post; there is also a well-defined pattern of succession here.
In
short from all the major titles in Ayede apart from the women leader or the
hunters leaders these days are rotated by members of specific families each of
whom own these specific title.
The
result of this is that it prevented any case of dynastic struggles or
succession disputes. It is of importance to mention the fact that the oracle is
always contracted before this candidates are invested and if need be sacrifice
are made to prevent disharmony during the tenure of some title holders.
Inheritance
in Ayede like all Yoruba land through the paternal line, so that the children
can inherit their father properties. If decreased man has many wives or the
children are small, his younger brothers or brothers would inherit the children
and wives.
However,
the deceased might have the job of sharing his inheritance to those due for it
to some a trusted person or in the absence of this, the elders of the family
will undertake the sharing of the decreased man’s inheritance.