By Remi Oyeyemi
One has just finished reading the intellectually stimulating piece by my dear brother, Dr. Lasisi Olagunju, titled – Yoruba Elders and Ulli Beier’s Dog. A very analeptic piece that was aimed at instructing the tenor and the nature of our public discourse. It was meant to be a restorative tonic. Its objective is to revitalize an aspect of our Yoruba Culture that is decaying because of vanishing values.
In the piece, it was obvious that Dr. Olagunju was trying to rebuke the irreverence that is plaguing our public discourse and how such could be consequential. The analogy of the trajectory of Ulli Beier’s dog was very succinct. It was clear in its message for those who can grasp it. To this writer, the pertinence of this perspective could not be minified.
Dr. Olagunju’s piece is an ode to the beauty and substance of the Yoruba philosophy of life as encapsulated in our culture and tradition. With that simple analogy, he was able to point out the importance and value of “respect” to elders in the worldview of the Yoruba people. He was also able to remind us of the consequences of lack of it, especially by those who are protagonists of such.
We concede a lot of rights and liberties to our leaders in Yoruba land. But what we have never done in our history is to give them any license to do what they like. There are serious responsibilities attached to the rights and liberties they enjoy. There are expectations aproned to the privileges they are given. There are expectations of decorous carriage, conduct and utterances.
Dr. Olagunju’s beautiful piece was too one sided in its postulation about the Yoruba philosophy of respect for elders. It was not encapsulating of our entire philosophical context about “respect” in Yoruba cosmological milieu. In Yoruba parlance, this is tantamount to “Ki a fa ori apa kan.” Literarily, it would mean “Barbing one side of the head.” As an aphorism, it suggests imbalance. As a maxim it means unfairness. As a precept, it is patchy. It is axiomatic of incompleteness. By implication, it could be interpreted as “injustice.” Without any scintilla of doubt, it symbolizes partiality.
In Yoruba land, our elders have rights and liberties. But they do not have any license to be obnoxious in character. They do not have any license to be careless and destructive. They do not have any license to foster, either directly or indirectly, unfairness, injustice, and imbalance. The do not have license to engage in noxious exudations of charlatanism and unbridled brigandage.
To maintain their respect in the society, the Yoruba elders are expected to be edifiers of all things noble and credible. They are not allowed to be hawkers of intellectual dishonesty and somersault. They are expected to be consistent within the framework of our value system. They are allowed to be diplomatic when the need calls for it and to be blunt when things are on the precipice. The Yoruba elders have no license to do what they like. They are expected to do what would earn them the “respect” and the “reverence” reserved for them.
As characteristic of our culture, we have checks and balances in all spheres of life. Our monarchy symbolizes how we organized our society with permeating reverence across all strata. No stratum is without reverence accorded to it. And no stratum is bereft of any sense of responsibility in concomitance to the respect or reverence accorded to it.
The piece under reference by Dr. Olagunju was patently oblivious of the epigraphs of our culture. It ignored the responsibilities of an elder within the milieu that would guarantee the unceasing streaming of respect and reverence. The piece isolated “respect” to be an end, or as a “whole” in itself, when in fact, and indeed, it forms part of a stream of recurrent values that are mutually dependable, as well as irretrievably intertwined.
As an elder in Yoruba land, one gets “respect” as a matter of course. But this is conditioned on how one exudes the virtues of eldership. These virtues ensure and foster the “respect” and “reverence” that an elder gets. The exudation of such values is the basic characterization of an elder. They include honesty, fairness, balance, conduct and caution among others.
Our forefathers insisted and our culture instructs that “Agbalagba to so yangan mo idi, lo so ara re di oniyeye adiye.” An elder who misbehaves makes himself an object of derision, literally interpreted. This is a direct reference to the conduct of the elder in the milieu. The wisdom in this maxim is that an elder must not conduct himself in a manner that would ridicule his or her status as an elder in the community.
“Obe kii mi ni ku agba” encapsulates the combined wisdom of caution in expression and need for circumspect by an elder. When an elder goes to town to say things that could engender crisis on a wider scale, such an elder loses “respect” and “reverence.” He generates consternation and anger. Therefore, our forefathers advised that “Agbalagba kii se langbalangba.” An elder does not behave licentiously.
When an elder behaves licentiously, he fosters crisis if he did not create it by his conduct deemed obnoxious by the wider spectrum of the society. At that point he is called to order. The old and the young would call such an elder to order. And in some cases, some sanctions could follow if his conduct was too egregious.
In fact, and indeed, our forefathers instructively insisted through this axiom that “Agbalagba ti ko ba mo eran e l’obe, nse laa yo fun,” to show and demonstrate that an elder who is oblivious of his place and responsibility within the community must be redirected and guided. During this process, mischievous and diabolical ones could ascribe “disrespect” of the elder in this process to shield the irresponsible elder from the social consequences of his noxious conduct. This is not always the case.
Dr. Olagunju’s beautiful piece did not show the necessary balance on the issue of “respect” to elders in Yoruba land. It failed to point out the indispensable requisites of eldership. It failed to point out that there are pre-conditions to enjoying the privileges of eldership encapsulated in the concept of “respect” and “reverence.” The Yoruba does not care for an elder that is arid of the responsibilities of its stratum and status.
That is the message not delivered in the piece – Yoruba Elders and Ulli Beier’s Dog.
By Remi Oyeyemi
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