I did not like the way the late Olubadan’s body was being bandied as seen in the images and videos viralizing online; it reeks of indignity and dishonor.
For peasants and even for the worst of men, death is like a waiver that commands at least a denarii worth of dignity for their lifeless bodies; however, for a King, it should command even more in metric tonnes of honour. I don’t even think it was right that a death this grand should have been allowed to become what media houses and blogs will jostle for as ‘viral content’.
In the Scandinavia-themed series titled Vikings, one of my favorite episodes had scenes that chronicled the burial of Queen Lagertha. It depicted so much honour and reverent order befitting of a Royal to chilling levels. And trust me, it was just art imitating what obtains (or what should obtain) in real life.
Looking at the images from Olubadan Oba Saliu Adetunji Aje Ogungunniso 1’s supposed burial yesterday, for dignity I saw disorder, for honour I saw disdain, for reverence I saw ruckus, and my mind couldn’t help but screech, “Guys, Guys, common! You can’t be tossing and crowding up his body like that! This is a King, the King of Ibadan!”
The same Ibadan mesi ogo. The same richly prehistoric Ibadan of Oluyole, Ogunmola, Ibikunle, Ajayi, Latoosa and Lagelu. The same Ibadan whose pacesetting precedence is locked safe in history. The Ibadan whose legend needs no re-story or reintroduction even to the farthest stranger.
But her late King was interred in a manner that looks desecratory and leaves much to be desired. Inadvertently, because of this, Yorubaland seemed to have buried something else too – a chunk of the majesty and gravitas erstwhile customary with our culture.
I fell to the temptation of doing a mental comparison and imagining how this couldn’t have happened if it were the Oba of Benin.
We’ve been poor at preserving culture;
We’ve been poorer at communicating salient tradition;
We are becoming a classless people;
And royalty in Yorubaland has not been spared.
Kò da. Kò da rárá.
#Konisewu
©️sayo aluko
