It was Sunday, day three. The
environment I see looks like cities built out of the rubble of a
long past nuclear war. My pictures will not capture
the reality of what I’m beholding. I returned from my travels in
China with the expression SLI meaning ‘something like it’!
The infrastructure of China, Southeast Asia, and Nigeria look like
someone
tried to build the infrastructure of modern Western Civilization using
a blueprint that had pages missing and coffee spilled on some of the
important pages. There is a strange mix of the brightest and most beautiful
colors of clothing and the utter blight and filth of the inhabited
part
of the environment. This fusion wedged in the midst of a lush jungle
terrain that speaks to the Origins of First Source.
A friend of mine had traveled to London a few years ago and met Chief
Adeyela Adelekan. He lives in London and Nigeria when he is not traveling.
The friend gave me the Chief’s phone number and address and we
corresponded a few times. I expressed to him in a letter my interest
in learning more about the Orisa tradition and to gain the knowledge
and have my initiation from The Source, Ile-Ife. A year or so passed.
I heard from the Chief again and he invited me to attend the 7th World
Congress on Orisa Tradition and Culture as his personal guest. I agreed!
My role as a participant in Paradise Valley Community College’s
International Education Program, and as the coordinator of the Afro-Asian
Studies Component of the PVCC Complementary Health Care Program gained
me the support of the administration in making the journey. The benefit
of this relationship between administration and faculty (I’m also
a sociology teacher) is that students have the opportunity to learn
from educators who have direct experience with the subject matter that
they teach.
Chief B.A. Adelekan was born in Ife in 1936. His maternal grandfather
was the late Araba of Ife, who reigned from 1910 to 1934. (The Araba
is the head of all Babalawos (Ifa High Priest) worldwide.) Chief Adelekan’s
father, Chief Laadin, was descended from the Ooni Ilare Quarters, one
of the three royal households of Ile-Ife. (the ancestral home of the
Yoruba). Chief Laadin was fifth in rank to the Ooni. Chief Adelekan
began his training as a babalawo in 1944 under Oluwo Akoda Akanni the
son of the Araba. He also underwent a Western education, unlike many
of his predecessors, in order to prepare him for his work as an instructor
in Yoruba traditional philosophy outside of Yorubaland. It is on record
that Chief Adelekan was born with a green leaf wrapped around a sixth
finger on his left hand, which was a sign that he was the reincarnation
of his grandfather, Araba Akanni. The sixth finger later disappeared.
