Another day in the same outer garments. I've had to wash up in the
sink using water from buckets since the plumbing is intermittent. It's
still unpleasant putting the same dirty clothes on each day. Ayo's car
in being repaired and there doesn't seem to be another available to
make the trip. Or perhaps it's a communications glitch. I'll remind
Baba directly that I still have to retrieve my luggage. Americans are
spoiled. There is so much that we take for granted. Just send all of
our road-raged drivers to Nigeria for a week (at their own expense)
and make them drive from Lagos to Osogbo and back. They'll come back
and be the most grateful and courteous drivers on the roads. They'll
thank their god for every white line, every working stop-light, and
every other driver who is taking their time getting where they are going.
Let's send some of our children to Nigeria. The ones who have ten pairs
of Nikes and fifteen pairs of jeans, and still think that the world
owes them something. Lets send them to Nigeria for a summer to help
clean the streets and refurbish the temples and shrines of the Orisa
Tradition. They will come back changed!
I was introduced to and blessed by the Chief Babalawo of the House of
Obatala today. Orisa Obatala is the father of humanity. He is the Orisa
who fashions the physical forms of human beings and also who controls
their Ori (head, consciousness). I knelt in the presence of His Royal
Majesty, Oba Okunade Sijuade, Olubuse II, Ooni of Ife (The King of all
Yoruba) as a son returning home to the house of his fathers. I visited
the statue of Oduduwa, the Father or Progenitor of Ifa and Yoruba, the
archetype of Adam, the first human being. I gathered small stones from
the site as amulets to place on my altars when I return home. I visited
the High Temple of Orisa Ifa and made prayer to Orisa and Ancestors.
Baba Adelekan spoke of his mission to raise the consciousness of practitioners,
Babalawos, and Iyalorisas worldwide that they can not neglect The Source'
and claim to be sincere and true Babalawos. Santeria in Latin America,
Candomble in Brazil, Voodun in the Caribbean, and Orisa and Ancestor
Worship in the U.S. represent surviving elements of the Orisa Tradition
of Ile-Ife, Nigeria. There are a reported 100 million practitioners
worldwide. However, the practitioners throughout the African Diaspora
have not given adequate acknowledgment and support to The Source. Baba
Adelekan pointed to the muddy dirt path that we walked to get to the
Temple. He pointed to the 45 degree climb up the steps that the old
Babalawos of the Temple had to walk in order to enter the Temple. And
he asked, "Are we pleased with this? "No Baba, I exclaimed!"
Are we ashamed of this? "Yes, Baba, I exclaimed again!" He
echoed, "Yes, we are ashamed that when we invite people to the
very Root of Human Spirituality, to the Root of Civilization, they have
to come and see us in this condition." I cried.
