By Abdu Rafiu
The visiting Oba of Benin, Omo N’Oba N’Edo, Oba Ewuare 11 stirred the hornet’s nest when he said Benin founded Lagos. Predictably there have been counter narrations. It is widely seen as expressed in social media as disrespect to the people of Lagos and the people of South-West as a whole–in timing, place and verity of the account.
The generation of those who went to school in the 40s, 50s and 60s would certainly have been taken aback reading what the visiting Oba said. These were generations told about the relationship between Ile-Ife, Benin, the Warri (the Itsekiri), Lagos and Oyo. If some missed it in school, they could not have missed it under moonlight tree story session by their grandmothers. There were episodes such as “Alo o; Aalo!” “Arodan errands” and then stories to bright-eyed children sitting at their feet about history of towns and peoples, those connected with Yoruba towns and mythology.
You would be told for example, that the Ijebus came to Lagos after the Aworis who founded Lagos led by Olofin Ogunfunminire, and that Idunmota, Idunmagbo were where they set up their markets, indeed suggesting that Idun means market in Ijebu dialect. Then the Egbas after them, the Ijeshas, Nupes, the Igbominas. And you ask: Who are the White Cap Chiefs? The answer was they are called Idejos and that they are the land owners of Lagos. They are the descendants of Ogunfunminire. Dr. Patrick Dele Cole, in his enrapturing book, ‘Modern and Traditional Elites in the Politics of Lagos’, said that much. The grandmas of old would tell which quarters, even within towns, came from where. What all this means is that whoever decides to make assertions about histories of peoples and places in these times cannot be too careful. A great many harbour or have access to knowledge of these things.
“The Idejos, says Cole’s book, “claim that Olofin was the son of Oduduwa, the ancestral father of all Yorubas. The Idejos further claim that their ancestor, Olofin, made Ashipa, another Yoruba man who had a Benin wife, mediator between Olofin’s quarrelling children. When Ashipa, died Olofin invited Addo, the son of Ashipa, to return from Benin and take up his father’s role. The Idejos gave him land, a disused pepper farm on which he built his house (Iga Idunganran—palace at the pepper farm)”. After reading the esteemed Oba of Benin’s version of the founding of Lagos, I could not help asking myself: Where is Professor Banji Akintoye? Prof. Jacob Ade Ajayi is of blessed memory and so is Prof. Akinjogbin. But then Dr. Cole listed Payne, Mabogunje, Forde, Akinsemoyin, Losi, Fadairo and the Idejo Chiefs as being on the same page on who founded Lagos. “…all agree that the Aworis of Isheri were the first inhabitants”
Again, man is back at it: The controversy soon widens to encompass questions such as Where did man first set foot on earth? The Edo mythology says, for example, that Benin is the cradle of the world! As far as Oba Okunade Sijuwade was concerned, the Garden of Eden was at Ile-Ife. He orchestrated the myth that man first set foot on earth at Ile-Ife. Scientists who have occupied themselves with finding where man first set foot in human history would not agree with him. Some say it was in Ethiopia while others mention Kenya. Of course, the Garden of Eden could not have been on earth, how much less at Ile-Ife.
As we now know through the enlightenment afforded mankind today, the Garden of Eden is Paradise, the Spiritual Realm more referred to as Paradise. Adam is the generic name of man, that is the representative of man on earth and Eve, that of woman. The issue is arising again since I first waded into the debate in March 1994 following the Time Magazine speaking on the subject. So important I considered it that I had to go back to the subject again in 2021. Understandably, until man has a clearer picture of an issue which gives him conviction, he is not likely to give up in his enquiries and digging for an answer. When the Time Magazine sought to disentangle the debacle, it asked: “When, where and how did the human race arise?” The report was captioned “How man began.” What has triggered my attention is the heated debate going on in certain section of the social media on who founded what place, where, migrations, et al. The issues deserve more than passing interest. What needs drawing attention to without delay and more beneficial is the question raised by Time Magazine: “When, where and how did human race arise?”
Scientists have for ages been unrelenting on the subject and, as usual, wading through fossil records for fresh leads. Anthropologists not content with the Biblical account of the origin of man pace through the forests of the world from the Middle East to Europe, from Africa to China looking for clues to the riddle of the origin of man. There was an initiative at a time by researchers whose findings were published in Nature magazine. The Ifa priests and enthusiasts among the Yoruba people have long “settled” the matter. Indeed, as mentioned earlier, the penultimate Ooni of Ife, Oba Okunade Sijuwade, Olubuse 11, said emphatically that Ile-Ife was where man originated; the Garden of Eden was at Ife. Ile-Ife is thus regarded as the spiritual capital of Yoruba people while Oyo the political capital in the days of yore. I have read only this week in social media publication the reinforcement of the myths that, indeed, began in Africa and from there spread to the rest of the world. It will be interesting to see a Christian who will endorse this narrative and a Bishop who will not regard this as heresy!
The findings by scientists and anthropologists, have always ended stirring up controversies on where man first set foot—in Africa or China? At the end of the day, we are led to the limestone bed and cave where light is flashed for clues in relics left behind by inhabitants now of blessed memory. The fossils have made scientists to suggest that the “first primate to look anything like modern humans and the first to use fire and create sophisticated stone tools,” dating back two million years.
That there is still debate today about the origin of man, if for the sake of argument it is agreed he originated from beyond the earth, and where he first set foot the efforts, shows that all the efforts have not provided man the answer to the all important question, the origin of man. Instead, what the discoveries have supplied are proofs of the age-long journey of man through this earth. And the question remains: “When, where and how did the human race arise?”
How man expects to find the answer to the question of “How man began” by combing caves always beats my imagination. At a certain stage of his development, man for a fact lived in caves. That was long before he developed skills to prepare dwellings resting on structures. But trace of how he began cannot be found in caves—trace that he lived there, yes. No expectant mother will accept that the baby she is carrying may have begun from her dwelling place. Regardless of the nature of the dwelling, a woman will become expectant when she is due. But where does the baby she is carrying come from? What is the origin of man?
Until we answer this question, many may not be able to arouse reverence within them for the perfection and omnipotence that make made the appearance of man possible on the face of the earth. They will also not be able to weigh the consequences of their actions. The mystery has led to lack of accountability and a let-go feeling. Many are wondering: was it here on earth that man was created?
The Darwinists doubt the creation of man. To them he is a product of evolution…he evolved from apes. The arrogant modern man would certainly not accept that he descended from an ape. Ancient people in some cultures long came to the recognition of a home for man beyond the earthly and they say of their departed relations that they have gone home. In some of these cultures the departed is admonished about his path after the earthly, what he should eat and what he should avoid. He is told of helpers he would meet.
What we can deduce from the foregoing is that if there is a home beyond the earthly to which a man returns after his sojourn here, then he must have come from there. In such cultures, searching for evidence of the origin of man in fossils and caves will be laughable. Indeed, it will be hilarity. Although the findings of scientists will nearly always provoke debates and controversies, what is even more likely to ignite contempt is the theory no essential difference human beings from other animals. A school of thought believes that the only wall separating man from animal is that the former makes tools, uses fire, reasons and laughs.
What is often not considered in the search for the origin of man is incarnation. The knowledge of procreation is widespread and birth is self-evident truth. When incarnation is considered, the direction of the search for the origin of man will necessarily change.Incarnation is when man as a soul (baby) takes possession of its mother’s womb and the baby and the mother become separate entities. The stage when incarnation occurs is when the pregnancy has gone half-way in its development and entry is marked by the first movement, some call it the first kick. Once this has happened there is a blissful joy in the mother-to-be and she glows peculiarly. Before the entry the soul hovers around the expectant mother, and many an attentive mother can already sense the presence of a baby around her while the bridge which it will use for entry is being constructed by a species of Nature Beings and as well as the body it will use throughout its sojourn on the earth.
The materials for the building of the body is simultaneously being provided by the mother from what she eats which itself is derived from plants, legumes etc. these themselves are fashioned from the radiations of the soil which gets man to sense of a certain bond with his native soil. It also explains why it is said of the physical body of man, “dust thou and to dust thou shall return.”
If we accept the concept of incarnation, we must accept the concept of disincarnation. And if we accept the concept of disincarnation, we must accept that of reincarnation. Then the next question should be where is the incarnating soul coming from? What is soul itself?
Soul is man without his physical body, the earthly cloak. It is spirit with finer coverings which as he moves from one plane to the other on his journey upwards he discards in their appropriate points of origin beginning with the shedding of the physical covering on earth which we call death. This is as he makes progress towards home—the Spiritual Realm—until he finally appears there, glowing, illuminating in indescribable beauty and size with only spiritual coverings. Of course, the flight home, the Spiritual Realm, also called Paradise, is conditional upon fulfillment of the purpose of his sojourn on earth—the maturity of the spirit.
According to the new knowledge –the revelation of Truth—mediated today on earth to mankind, the Spiritual Realm exists and it is as tangible and firm, indeed, firmer than the ground on which we stand, which in any case is material and subject to disintegration—and tangible as the chair on which we sit. What this means is that spirit which the real man is, is what we encounter daily as we deal with our fellow men. He only wraps himself with substances of the planes of existence he traverses to appear and sojourn temporarily on earth. Each body he carries he sees through it using the substances of which the body is made. Thus, he sees with physical eyes on earth, in the ethereal plane next to the earth, with ethereal eyes, and in the spiritual, with spiritual eyes. On earth, the ethereal eye of a specially blessed man may temporarily open as happened to the shepherds on the Holy Night. Their ears were similarly opened as well. It also happened to the three Wise Men who beheld the Heavenly Hosts who accompanied the Lord Christ on His Mission to the earth.
It is only from a revelation or knowledge brought from outside the earth by beings who may be human beings who have lived on earth before, or by higher beings from Higher Realms or by the Lord that man can have knowledge of his origin and who, indeed, he is. This is the enlightenment man has been afforded for ages, but to which he has paid scant attention; instead, he digs for his origin with shovels in caves!
What then is the place of the Biblical account of creation of man? The account is the correct one; it is the interpretation that has always been amiss. When it is said that man was formed out of the clay and the Most High breathed into his nostrils, it is referring to animation and the forming of the body from matter. The animation is by the spirit. What is described is the entry of the spirit into the material.
In this context, it makes sense not to expect the Garden of Eden to be on the surface of the earth. As a matter of fact, it is the Spiritual Realm, the home from whence he came. To set foot on earth, he had to incarnate in a species of animals which are ape-like which by that time had reached the zenith of their development. After the great event, the species of the animals had long been extinct. Also, it should be pointed out that the occurrence was only once, for it was to enable man set foot on earth. Man took over his own propagation from there.
But right from the beginning what man and animal share in common is the body. Their core differs. While man is spirit, the animal carries soul which emanates from a realm in Creation lower than that of man, the Spiritual. The body which man acquired from the anthropoid was fashioned by man over time into the beauty of today. The sense of beauty is inherent in the spirit. Charles Darwin, the great scientist was only able to trace the externals, and it is these externals which the scientists of our time still pre-occupy themselves with.
In the light of the higher knowledge of these times, we may begin to reflect on the story of Adam and Eve and their two children, Cain and Abel. After the murder of Abel, “Cain went out from the Lord’s presence and lived in the land of Nod, East of Eden. Cain knew his wife intimately, and she conceived and gave birth to Enoch. Then Cain became the builder of a city, and he named the city Enoch after his son. Irad was born to Enoch, Irad fathered Mehujael, Mehujael fathered Methushael and Methushael fathered Lamech. Lamech took two wives for himself, one named Adah and the other named Zillah…” (Genesis 4: 16-19)
If Adam and Eve were the only human beings on the surface of the earth at that time where did Cain and his children find their wives? The only conclusion we can arrive at is that Adam and Eve are no more than generic names for man and for woman—for all mankind.
The Guardian
