Thursday, 28th March 2024
To guardian.ng
Search
Breaking News:

Why it ’ll be difficult to fill vacuum left by Alaafin Lamidi Adeyemi III, by Adedayo

By Rotimi Agboluaje, Ibadan
24 April 2023   |   3:22 am
A Renowned columnist, author and journalist, Dr. Festus Adedayo, has said that it will be difficult to fill the vacuum left by the late Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi III, who joined his ancestors on April 22, 2022.

Aláàfin of Ọ̀yọ́, Ọba Làmídì Adéyẹmí III. Photo/FACEBOOK/dabiodunMFR

A Renowned columnist, author and journalist, Dr. Festus Adedayo, has said that it will be difficult to fill the vacuum left by the late Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi III, who joined his ancestors on April 22, 2022.

Adedayo, who spoke with The Guardian in Ibadan, at the weekend, described the late Alaafin as a living connect between Yoruba’s ancestors and their living progeny.

He said that it would be take many generations to come for the Yoruba to have a recreation of Oba Lamidi Adeyemi.

He said: “What the Yoruba are already missing in Alaafin is, essentially, his culture. Alaafin lived the culture of his Yoruba people and personified it. I knew Alaafin closely for about 23 years before his demise and related with him in public and private.

“In all these, I never saw him chew or drink. He closely manifested that myth that a Yoruba Oba must never be seen eating or drinking. His dressing portrayed him as personifying the culture of his people. One other thing I believe Yoruba are missing in the Alaafin is his profound sense and knowledge of history and historiography. I’m not aware of any Yoruba – living or dead – who understood the people’s history as the Alaafin.

“It will be difficult to fill Alaafin’s vacuum. This is because he was constantly investing in knowledge and saw the Alaafin stool as an embodiment of the paterfamilias role he had come to play for his people.

“I remember once telling him that what marked him out from his traducers was that he was constantly in his library, reinforcing his precinct of knowledge. He saw himself as a living connect between Yoruba’s ancestors and their living progeny. So, whatever he did on the throne, he would tell you that his ancestors would ask him whenever he goes to meet them.

“Few people have that sense of connect to the roots of Yoruba ancestry and that marked him out.”

So, when they say that no man is indispensable, in the case of anyone mirroring the culture of the Yoruba people, it ‘ll take many generations to come for us to have a recreation of Oba Lamidi Adeyemi.”

0 Comments