BY STAFF WRITER,
NOVEMBER 28, 2023.
A way to be represented in a haphazard world, to belong to a unit, or more straightforwardly, to be identified in a pool with many others, or, as the Britannica dictionary defines it, the beliefs, customs, arts, etc., of a particular society, group, place, or time, is all of what culture really is. It is in the way we speak, the food we eat, the way we dance, sing, and dress, how we see the world and interpret narratives, how we carry on traditions and guard them. And thus, it isn't entirely abnormal that, given our recent ways of living, a good number of people see what they hold dear, i.e., culture, disintegrating. We spoke to Olaniyi Tobiloba, an Egba woman from today's Abeokuta, Ogun State, who is one of such people. Interestingly, she blames civilization for this now decayed form of culture: "With what civilization has done in the country [Nigeria], the only thing I can say is true to us is our language. Every other thing is dead. Well, to me, that is!"
Olaniyi Tobiloba, a hair stylist residing in the western part of Nigeria, hails from a part of Nigeria written in history books: In the then-deteriorating Oyo Empire, the Egba refugees led by their leader Sodeke fled from that civilization and migrated to the scantily inhabited Egba forest of that era, establishing what is known today as Abeokuta, which translates into 'city under the rock'. In the 18th century, Abeokuta's success as the capital of Egba and as a link in the Lagos-Ibadan oil-palm trade opened her up to attacks from the unique (as a result of the warriors being women) Dahomey (today's Benin) armies led by King Gezo. A series of wars broke out, and the Egba people won each one. Some claim that a large part of their many victories is attributed to the Olumo Rock, as people were shielded by it when war came. Be that as it may, Sodeke and his people were abetted by missionaries and armed for battle by the British. Present-day Abeokuta is a land with sources of revenue generated from agriculture, the exportation of food products and raw materials, cotton weaving, and dyeing, amongst many others.
Photograph of an Ijebu festival from WIKIPEDIA (slightly edited).
Undoubtedly, this part of Nigeria, as with other parts, is filled with many stories, traditions, and histories, with relics and palaces still in existence today. And yet, it is saddening and almost frightening for some to find that not many people live with awareness of these stories—as they can be credited as the grassroot of who we are culturally—and the practices pertaining to these cultures. Tobiloba attributes this to growing up in a multi-tribal state: "I spent the better part of my youth with my grandparents. And in that time, I didn't do anything pertaining to my culture, nor was I taught our cultural activities. I didn't also experience the culture. I feel like this has a lot to do with growing up in a multi-tribal state. I don't even know my village, nor have I ever been to my parents' villages either." she says. Migration and immigration particularly exist for the reasons that people find their homelands lacking amenities for decent living or want to live different experiences. Hence, multi-tribal living. Alas, moving to diverse places with diverse laws will require that one not only obey these "laws," which can sometimes confront cultural or traditional values and practices, but also lay aside one's heritage. For example, changing one's name, not cooking a certain food or bringing said food into certain spaces, toning down one's accent or completely losing it, etc. Nonetheless, it is glaring how a multi-tribal state can inhibit one's way of living and interacting with their culture.
However, the ruins of culture, if it truly is to be considered so, are far more widespread than a multi-tribal state, as one can still carry on with their individual cultural rites—as we see with traditional songs, e.g., Igbo highlife music, Fuji music, etc., sang in public spaces, village meetings in big cities, etc.—despite the inconveniences of living in multi-ethnic communities. The view on the ruin of culture should be more chiefly rooted in the perception of the importance of cultural education and the inconspicuous need to replace cultural education with westernized education resulting from mingling and civilization. Our interviewee had this to say when asked if civilization should unquestionably be ascribed to the downward drain of culture: "There are different branches of Yoruba, and each branch has something that's peculiar to them. Let's use language, for example. The Ijebus speak a different Yoruba dialect, as do the Egbas. Then there's the "diluted" Yoruba dialect that every other person speaks. I'm Egba, but I can't speak the dialect. And this is the story of a lot of other Nigerians. Our parents didn't want us to speak our mother tongue, and they won't even communicate in other languages aside from English [however botched for some]. I don't know if they believe it to be native and unpolished, or maybe they just wanted to raise "sophisticated" children.
I don't think our parents were nonchalant about our lack of cultural knowledge; they were just following what was 'it' [i.e., having children who could speak fluent English]. Remember when I said I spent most of my youth with my grandparents? So I spoke Yoruba a lot, but whenever my cousins came around, they spoke only English. I would quite literally feel sad and wonder if I was local because they seemed really sophisticated speaking just English. Imagine me, at such a young age, having that feeling and thought. I can only imagine what our parents were feeling when their kids spoke native languages. Even schools forbid speaking in your mother tongue. So, I'll say civilization."
Photograph of Igbo men breaking Kolanut from IBIENE MAG (slightly edited).
Civilization, as defined by Oxford languages, is the stage of human social and cultural development and organisation that is considered most advanced. Another is the comfort and convenience of modern life, which is regarded as available only in towns and cities. Long ago, when humans felt their immediate environment "deficient", solutions in the form of inventions were made. These inventions led to the advancement of knowledge and technology with the advent and progress of each age. And with this progression, necessary inventions began giving room to mere wants. Also in this mix was the barter system, placing fiat as the necessary means for exchange of goods and services, and the need to not only separate people based on 'have' and 'have not' as described by Marxist theory but to conquer and dominate people and lands. From a world where all it took to survive was a stream of water to both bathe, play, and wash belongings in, a dash in the forest for a kill to bring home to a gathered, sheltered family, and having a full barn, we now camp here in the excitement, complexities, and frustrations of the modern age.
Nevertheless, the benefits of civilization have brought the world great advancement and comfort. Again, this world, which survived on the barest minimum, was a limited one. People needed to move in large numbers and in quick succession; they needed to complete many tasks quickly; they needed solutions to ailments, especially on a large scale; they needed food in large quantities too, as well as many others. Population was on the increase, as was demand for social amenities and infrastructure, and scientists and well-meaning individuals saw a job that needed to be done and did it. Thus was the invention of innovation and technology, a more complex social and governmental structure, the invention of complex religious administrations, art, and laws, and the ability to create and maintain large-scale societies.
Unsurprisingly, and maybe even upsettingly, some believe culture more than anything has had to pay the price for a more advanced world. This implication, however, points towards a sort of degrading instead of the up-from-down manoeuvre associated with civilization, as some opine that civilization's advent was to make things better, not ruin them.
It was John Zerzan, the American anarchist and primitivist author, who wrote, 'Discontent with civilization has been with us all along but is coming on now with a new freshness and insistence, as if it were a new thing. To assail civilization itself would be scandalous, but for the conclusion, occurring to more and more people, that it may be civilization that is the fundamental scandal,' and to a very large extent, people agree with him. In his book, Against Civilization, he writes about how the all-revelled advanced world has not only caused a decline in culture but a separation between all of human nature from the rest of nature and a depravity and weakness amongst people, especially our young, that have no idea of their roots and therefore no future to look forward to.
Photograph of Ugochi M. Ihuzue (miss universe 2023) adorned in a regalia
representing the bravery of the three HISTORIC queens of Nigeria (Queen Moremi, Queen Idia, Queen Aminat) from TWITTER (slightly edited).
Perhaps he is right. Civilization as a concept is more concerned with bringing people out of their small, distinct units into bigger spaces, paving the way for a more conjoined and uniformed system of living. It is more concerned with revolutionising the world than catering to small, distinct units with their stories and their histories. Where small people were more in tune with living in small groups, e.g., villages and not having rulers over them but elders and age-grade confederations like the Igbo tribe and the delta city-states, or in the native but centralised Hausa lands that practiced a mixture of Islamic and monarchal systems, each of which had their individual ways of life, civilization created bigger administrations for all to adapt to and thrive in. And with people losing what they consider their 'identity', picking and choosing from the plentiful yet limited options presented to them, these cultures have then been infiltrated, adulterated, and therefore dead. Consequently, we can say that civilization did, in fact, kill culture.
However, the grand question isn't if we should awaken culture, but if it is worth awakening at all. As with all things created by man, there is a certain level of perverseness or incorrectness attached to them—by virtue of man being his incomplete, corruptible self. And culture—a man-made thing—is no different. Certain cultures in Nigeria demand that women "confess" at the demise of their husbands, suggesting that they're their husbands' killers, and are forced to be with dead bodies, drink the waters used to bathe them to prove their innocence, or mourn for long periods with strict rules attached, e.g., restrictions on movement, etc. Certain cultures ensure the mutilation of the girl child (female genital mutilation), a painful procedure to guarantee they don't enjoy sex as it is reserved for their husbands alone, marrying off young girls to older, well-recognised men, in which these girls end up being sick in the long run and are discarded by their spouses. Also, some cultures inhibit women from inheriting properties and wealth because they are not considered real members of the family. Certain cultures inscribe tribal marks on children who look uncannily alike to their parents and on others incisions for protection. In some cultures, people are flogged by masquerades because they are either women or are not indigenes. And in other cultures, young men have to undergo a series of "tests" and procedures to prove the suitability of their manhood. In some cultures, twins are killed off because they bring "bad luck", and a portion of them have statues erected on their behalf to be worshipped. And in most cultures in this part of Africa, there is the necessary erection of alters and groups to oppress and harm people. All these are but a few of the known and documented cultural practices in Nigeria. To then awaken culture would mean to awaken all of these perversive and borderline inhumane practices. It would mean that the past and present fights to clinch the preservation of humans and their rights would be considered in vain. It would mean to relinquish the decisions to mostly live sanely and humanely, but to live by our emotions and idiosyncrasies as our main driving force.
Perchance, what we want is to both eat our cakes and have them, and this spot between the rigidity of culture and the fluidity of civilization might be the only place in the world that affords us this privilege. Perchance, what people truly want is to exist here and choose bits and pieces from these two concepts. To bear their native name, eat their native food, speak their native languages, and have a place to call home and go back to. To feel stamped or identified in the places of their fathers, to feel the pride of their cultures course through their veins like blood without the extremist values and practices, while also using this civilization's provided dishwashers and washing machines. To eat their Abachas and Efo riros while also contributing to meaningful development in their communities and the world at large. And there is no reason both can't be done. What is a socially constructed invention, after all, if it cannot be questioned and defiled within the confines of pious morality?
Photograph 2 men in Hausa regalia from MEDIUM (slightly edited).
We asked Tobiloba about the ways in which she has attempted to interact with the culture she is yet to know: "I'd have said food, but Yoruba people don't have plenty dishes like that [No one should come for my neck please, lol]. But it's just food, really. I don't know the native Yoruba songs or even the festivals. But when I was younger, I loved the moonlight tales, and I still do. So I'd say food and stories. And from stories I've heard from my grandparents, the festivals are really nice too," she replies.
She continues on to say, "Festivals and folklore, goodness! Permit me to share a story for each. For the festival, I remember this particular masquerade festival my mom told me about. When she was younger, there was a masquerade festival, which my maternal grandmother had warned her and her twin not to go to, but they both left the house for the festival anyway. They saw a masquerade, and for some reason, it started chasing them. My mother lost a slipper, and they were both beaten.
Almost all I know of folklore are the infamous tortoise stories. Nevertheless, there are two different kinds of folklore. There's the "alo apamo" (riddles); an example is 'what goes up but never comes down', and then there are actual stories with the purpose of teaching moral values. One I remember is the flying tortoise. The gist of it is that the tortoise was given an opportunity to fly with the birds to a sky meeting because he was gifted a feather from several birds, and when they'd gather, it would eat all the foods they were served. But he was punished for it when the birds collected their feathers, leaving him to land on the bare ground from heaven. This is a very popular one that one can find in some English text books aimed at teaching against greediness. Permit me to say also that most of the tortoise stories in English text books are Yoruba folktales."
TRM: What is one thing you know Yorubas are fond of? Educate our non-Yoruba audience please.
Tobiloba: Yoruba people love partying. I think other tribes do as well, but not as much as us. Especially mothers. My mom celebrated her retirement party last year, and this woman kept saying I was not telling a lot of people about it, saying I've only told 10 people. Girl, I'm telling you that the venue was so small on that day that we had to order more chairs and a canopy. This love is a whole process for us, so let me run you through it.
Most Yoruba mothers always want to be the planners of their events because they have issues trusting event planners. I don't know why. So you might have to spend days, if not weeks, convincing them to get a planner, which, at the end of the day, they might either choose to not get one or will get a planner and frustrate them into quitting, lol.
Then the next phase is the planning. They spread the gospel of the party that they are throwing even before a date is picked. Then there's the cloth selection; that's the Aso Ebi. There can be like 3 to 6 different fabrics at an event. The father side will pick one cloth, the mother's friends will have a different cloth, and then there are different categories for other members. You know how you sit according to groups on a table at parties; each table can have different clothes. During my grandfather's burial party, I think we had like seven different materials at the party. It is usually a lot!
Probably the last thing is food. Yoruba people want everyone to eat and be merry, eat and be happy, and eat and take home. Courtesy of the mothers, there are usually different types of food. I love the stage of the cloth selection, the overall planning, and the cooking, gracious goodness! I am a homebody, yet I love them all. However, attending the event makes me anxious.
Owanbe planning can be interesting yet frustrating at the same time. The tension is high, and everyone is on the edge, especially when there are no planners. To be honest, if you ask me, I feel as though Owanbe for Yoruba people is more of a competition and on a 'what will people say' basis than it is actually letting loose.
Our WhatsApp interview came to an end with these words from Tobiloba: "I recently saw a video of a foreigner speaking fluent Yoruba, and that scared me a bit. The first thing that came to mind was; goodness these people might actually end up teaching us our language with the way in which we are gradually losing touch with it. That would be unfortunate. We should learn to appreciate our individual cultures more. Parents should actively start teaching their kids about their culture—at least what they want their kids to know."
Feature photograph from ALAMY (slightly edited).