Ife (Ile-Ife) is an ancient Yoruba city in south western Nigeria. The city is located in the present day Osun State.
Ife (Ile-Ife) was an ancient African city which flourished between the 11th and 15th century CE in what is today Nigeria in West Africa. Ife was the capital and principal religious centre of the Yoruba kingdom. Ife is particularly famous today for the magnificent metal sculptures its artists produced which include serene-looking human heads so masterfully crafted that Europeans once wrongly considered them the work of another civilization.
Ile Ife is where the Yoruba’s believe the gods descended to earth and civilization began. The name Ile Ife means place of dispersion. According to Yoruba tradition, Ife was founded by the deities Oduduwa and Obatala when they created the world. Obatala fashioned the first humans out of clay, while Oduduwa became the first divine king of the Yoruba people.
According to Yoruba mythology, Ile-Ife was found by Oduduwa, the younger brother to Obatala; whom the supreme God Olodumare sent to create the earth. Legend has it that Obatala on his way to create the earth drank palm wine and became drunk as a result, Oduduwa had to take over his assignment.
Oduduwa took the three items of creation from Obatala, climbed down from the heavens on a chain and threw a handful of earth on the primordial ocean, and then put a cockerel on it so that it would scatter the earth, thus creating the land on which Ile-Ife would be built.
The creator god Oduduwa separated earth from water. Living creatures were made by Obatala. The first humans were sent forth to rule over twelve cities and so became their first kings and queens. From these figures all subsequent rulers claimed descendance. Specifically at Ife, the first divine ruler was Oni, whose name means ‘king’.
Archaeological excavations have revealed that the occupation of Ife was interrupted several times, and this may explain why little is known of its early cultural practices as traditions were not passed on orally to subsequent generations.
By the beginning of the 11th century CE, Ife had grown to become a large walled city with several large stone buildings and including a palace, workshops, and shrines. Some of the city’s streets were paved with terracotta tiles to make them more resistant to rain.
The metal sculptures of naturalistic and life-size human heads for which Ife is today most famous are so masterfully executed.
The heads were made from the 11th to 15th century CE according to chemical analysis and cast using the lost-wax process. Twelve heads were found all together in a royal compound at Ife in 1938 CE and several more have been discovered since including a pure copper mask.
The current ruler of Ile-Ife is Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi Ojaja II, who has held the title since 2015.
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