Òkóńkòkó ni mí o
Tí mo kósùpá r’Òṣogbo
Tí mo w’ẹ̀wù oyè r’Ọbaàgùn
Orí tí ó d’olóyè kìí fẹ́
Orí mi ó d’olóyè bó dọ̀la
Ire lónìí, orí mi àfi’re
*
Òkóńkòkó, daughter of destiny,
I lured the moon to Osogbo
Dressed in coronative fabrics to Obaagun
Since the one destined to rule cannot be stopped,
Tomorrow my head will be lifted:
Ire lónìí: It is well with me.
***
A NOTE ON ẸKÚN ÌYÀWÒ
By Akeem Lasisi
Apart from the fact that the bride-to-be had always been conscious of the existence of the practice of Ekún Ìyàwó and, one way or the other, had identified with it, she had to go for a special training months before her wedding day. Her trainers were the mother, other matriarchs (old and young) in their locality, and her friends. She had to master both conventional/existing corpus of the bride’s poetry, and new ones that would mark her out as a creative and intelligent lady on her day of rendition.
She should have in the vault of her head stanzas that were appropriate responses to different movements, segments, settings and scenarios of the performance. For instance, if her bridal train happened to run into another bride’s, she should be able to rise to the occasion of the competition that was bound to ensue.
And she must learn the praise-chants of her parents and those of all the elders she would visit: personal, lineage or town praises. Her performance in the oríkì was what the audience readily used to measure her overall competence. Parents of many a bride indeed went as far as administering on her oògùn ìsòyè – memory-boosting medicine – since the bride who failed the test of culture at those crucial hours had brought shame upon her parents, the mother especially.
In Ikirun, the town where a part of this research was conducted, it was discovered that contrary to what was largely obtainable in the Oyo, Saki and Iseyin areas of Oyo State, a bride could start the chanting spree as early as five/four days to her day of departure for the husband’s house. Each day, she would go round homes of relatives in a convoy of chanter-friends, going from one part of the town or village to another. However, the real big treat came up the day before the departure. The climax it was that attracted the most memorable fanfare: a Passover of poetry, songs, drumming and dancing that would eventually usher the bride into her permanent home.
