YORUBA RONU

“Yoruba Ronu” in its literal translation emphasizes the need for the Yoruba people to think, reflect, plan and appraise the cultures and tenets of their Yorubaness. Yoruba Ronu aims at preserving and promoting the rich heritage of the Yoruba people. The ideology has over time transformed into a movement of actively involved people in the rights and welfare of Yoruba people.

The late Chief Adedeji Hubert Ogunde, Dean of African Theatre, great dramatist, philosopher and a Yoruba patriot,popularized the Yoruba Ronu ideologythrough a play in the year 1964. With a musical recording entitled, ‘Yoruba Ronu,’ Ogunde called on the Yoruba people re-appraise their lifestyle in light of their history in order to appreciate their greatness. The ideology which sprang up soon after Nigeria’s independence, had Ogunde’sdirect use of words, just as the Yoruba language itself offers a depth that is incomparable with Nigeria’s current official language. To fully appreciate the work of Ogunde, one must understand the dire state of Yoruba culture prior to its establishment. The satirical play included singing and choreographic dance moves that described the political happenings of the Western Nigeria at that time, which was as worrisome as the present day’s government.

The Yoruba have a series of beliefs and ideologies that guide their behaviors and society at large. They maintain high religious commitments through conscious recourse to the deities and ancestors. Without these specific components, the culture is incomplete. Prominent among socio-cultural and political principles of the Yoruba are (1) Language (2) Morals which form the basis of relations with communities both at home and abroad.

Language

Before I started to write this essay, I conducted a small sized enquiry amongst my Yoruba roommates on what they thought Yoruba Ronu was all about, this was to test their understanding of the language and the application to the ideology. Not surprisingly, one of them had something funny to say about it. It was rather a fun experience although the answers I got only confirmed my fears on how far our culture and history were slipping away.

17 year old Ayomide, shared that when she hears the phrase Yoruba Ronu, her mind is cast back to the past and how the elders are unwilling to let go of unacceptable doctrines and inhumane beliefs. Although her views are not completely unreasonable, when it is translated in her own words it is something to scrutinize, because she said “to embrace modernization”. The question this poses is, how much more modernization could we as a race accommodate?

25 year old Itunuoluwa, conveyed her own understanding of Yoruba Ronu to be a conscious effort of the Yoruba people both at home and in the diaspora to build, strengthen and expand the Yoruba dream, ideologies, culture, past, music and the people ties itself. And she had a pretty good idea about what exactly it was talking about.

The survey proved that a seed planted long ago had sprouted into a warped mindset that, the Yoruba language is inferior to the language of the colonizer and her neighbors. This has been a major player in the gradual stifling of our language, soon to be followed by the death of our culture and finally our identities. In the words of Professor Chinua Achebe, “the white man (colonizers) helped us commit cultural genocide” and studying the downward shift in the language speakers among Yoruba, it is safe to adopt the saying in this essay as well. Affirming this, Professor Wande Abimbola in 2010 had sounded a note of warning that “Yoruba language will go into extinction in the next 50 years if we don’t address the trend of neglect afflicting the language”. The Yoruba language is a powerful force and a major means of learning and transmitting culture and a tool for distinguishing different races, culture and people

According to Harvard’s “introduction to African languages”, Yoruba language has around 45 million speakers and is the one of the most widely spoken languages of Africa, discovering it made me feel oddly uncomfortable as I came to a realization that although there is a statistical claim, I am aware of the severe loss of vocabulary and a lot of watered down terms in the language. Most of the speakers have lost the depth of the language and supposed native speakers can barely rank as a B2 language user.

Oral Tradition and Proverbs

It is the nature of most African societies to place worth on oral tradition because it was the primary means of communicating culture, likewise the Yoruba Ronu idea, was also established and preserved by the oral tradition system. Oral tradition has delivered explanations to the mysteries of the universe and the meaning of life on earth.  Most Africans, including the Yoruba believe in passing histories on from one generation to another by word of mouth. Another integral part of oral tradition portrayed by the philosophy is the integration of music. Music is an important component in the Yoruba community because, it transmits knowledge and values and is a way of celebrating important communal and personal events.

Proverbs and the African culture in general have a strong relationship. Speech without proverbs is like a soup without salt in our community. The words of the elders are full of proverbs and they are not taken with levity because, these proverbs are self-evident truths which give the gist of what one wants to say briefly and unmistakably. It is the understanding of how important the proverbs are in a Yoruba community and to the people that makes it one of the ideologies of Yoruba Ronu, focused on preserving cultural values for trans-generational survival.

Values and ethics in Omoluabi Tenets

A Conscious recourse to ancestor is important in the form of remembrance. Remembrance is a cultural tenet in itself, the Yoruba call for constant need to remember their forbears and their history. Morals are a very important part of the Yoruba culture and tradition as seen within social relations of the Yoruba. Ogunde emphasized on how “Yoruba nse r’awon nitori Owó, Yoruba jin r’awon l’ese nitori ipò Won gbebi f’alare, won gba’re f’elebi, won pe olè ko wa ja, won tun pe oloko wa mu;(Yoruba people are hurting one another for the sake of money, They are blaming the just, and exonerating the unjust, They call the thief to steal and then call the owner to catch him) ‘this referred to in-house hatred and spite that was already festering in Yoruba communities as far back as the 60s. He emphasized on how their loss of values and morals was dragging them back in terms of development; “Awon ti won ti n s’Oga lojo to ti pe, tun pada wa d’eni a n f’owo ti s’eyin”. (The ones that were the bosses, have now been reduced to the relegated ones).

The ‘Iwa Omoluabi’, is a perception of Yoruba’s concept of the reality and belief in disciplined and dignifying lifestyle. One of the most important values that conduct the behaviors of members of the Yoruba community from childhood into adulthood is ‘Iwa Omoluabi’, meaning, a morally upright citizen who has proven to be of impeccable character in all spheres. An Omoluabi also possesses characteristics including meekness, patience, humility and intentional painstakingness.  It was the intention of the Yoruba Ronu movement to remind the Yoruba people on their lost identity and teachings on Omoluabi behavior and persona, and refrain from turning themselves into a play thing for anyone to mess with. ”Yoruba so’ra won di boolu f’araye gba, to n ba gba won soke, won a tun gba’won s’isale o, eya ti o ti kere te le ni won ge kuru;”(Yoruba turned themselves into a football, for the world to kick up and down, The tribe that was struggling to enlarge is now cut short).

The culture of greeting and respect in today’s system is not peculiar to Yoruba communities, however, the impact of urbanization and colonialism on respect and greeting have made the communal trust and coexistence ‘unYoruba’ in nature, ‘Yoruba Ronu’ is a call to return to our cultural communal lifestyle and decolonize the individualism lifestyle we have adopted. 

It is unbecoming to see the state of Yoruba offspring’s and their relationship with hard and honest work. The quick money mentality and the urge to “blow fast” has and is dragging the youths to an early grave. The ideology is a reminder of the dignity of labor and the reward of hard work.

The Yoruba people with their vibrant traditions and artistic expressions face a gradual erosion of their cultural identity. The influence of westernization and the neglect of indigenous practices posed a grave threat to the survival of the Yoruba heritage. The ideology emerged as a result of this alarming situation, determined to reverse the tide of cultural decay.

The Yoruba Ronu also means the making of a new Yoruba nation which is against my education as a law student but is in total alliance with my ideology of putting the development of my people and community first. Ogunde called on all Yoruba-speaking people to sit down and reflect on their plight. Unfortunately, the Yoruba people were however slow to react and did not pay much attention to the message. They didn’t look back and seek to understand the true meaning of his message.  The idea of a new nation doesn’t necessarily mean a call for secession, it means a call to readdress the Yoruba people and their way of life.

The lines of the satirical musical play contained a pained cry for the helpless situation of the only home we as a race would ever have the chance of owning. “Yoruba joko sile regede, won fi owo l’owo” This is a reference to the carefree attitude that Yorubas had developed relating to their language, culture and people. During my research I had a conversation with a theater artist whose profile on Instagram read out, “awon ti Ogunde”(in the likeness of Ogunde), when I approached him to educate me on what he meant by that title, he gave me a narrative on how the title thespians was anti-Yoruba identifier and how one of his focuses as an individual is to decolonize the Yoruba and Nigerian community. Yoruba Ronu can be said to have a dominant theme of decolonization.

Chief Obafemi Awolowo in the late 80s told the Yoruba people that the time when the Yoruba people would be fed up and would seek self-liberation and put an end to their enslavement was fast approaching. 

In the 2023 Elections, reigniting ethnic tension in the form of Igbophobia and an unending battle of ethnic superiority built on the foundation of the deliberate reinvention of ‘Yoruba Ronu’, has destabilized the weak foundation the Yoruba were managing in relation to the Yoruba Ronu ideology. The ideology itself, could have both a negative and a positive connotation. The intention of Ogunde when he came up with Yoruba Ronu was a request to stop bastardisation, misplaced priorities and a form of motivation to awaken the hearts of the people. The negative meaning is what non-Yorubanist and anti-Yoruba people have taken to over the years. The attacks and deliberate targeting on the Yoruba nation has shifted the mind from Yoruba Ronu as a simple ancient ideology to Yoruba Rori, a call for strategic thinking as explained by Bola A. Akinterinwa, in This Day Newspaper, because in Ogunde’s words “Leyin okunkun biribiri, Imole a tan;”(after the darkest night, light comes at daybreak).

Yoruba Ronu is now an urgent cry on the Yoruba to reflect and engage in legitimate self-defense methods and activities. In response to the need for self-defense, the Amotekun was initiated by the government of Yoruba states to protect the people and their interests. The methods then initiated the clamoring of the Yoruba people to join the Unprotected Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO). The Yoruba people are now conscious of the fact that they have been marginalized and that their progress as a race and a community within Nigeria is unnecessarily and consciously being hindered with the federal system of government and its centralization and concentration of powers, wealth and energy in the center to the detriment of other components.

Concerning self-determination, the Yoruba people are re-uniting themselves worldwide on the basis of Yoruba Rori: the Yoruba World Congress (YWC) has set aside a Yoruba Day to be celebrated from 23rd through 30th September. As announced by the YWC Council, the one week-long global event is an important date in Yoruba history to which the YWC organizers want to begin to draw public attention for reasons of posterity, and especially that little or no emphasis is now given to the study of Yoruba history in Nigerian schools. September 23rd as commencement date is purposely chosen to mark the end of the Kiriji War and to declare the YWC Manifesto for a Yoruba Nation. The Yoruba Day Celebration is hosted by YWC Chapters in Nigeria, and other parts of the world. This is a manifestation of non-forceful self-determination agenda. 

 It is heartwarming to see that the culture, language and morality of the Yoruba people has hope and might just yet survive these turbulent and destabilizing times, if the people fully  embrace and implement the ideologies of Yoruba Ronu and Yoruba Rori.

Omotoso Ewaoluwanimi Excellence

Ibadan, Nigeria.