THE SCRIPTURAL CONCEPT OF ILE (DUST/SAND) AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE AMONG THE YORUBA

Abstract

This study examines the Scriptural concept of Ile (dust/sand) and its significance among the Yoruba. Ile is an inevitable phenomenon of human existence. Man was created with dust through moulding. Yoruba cosmogony also alludes to the creation of the earth via the instrumentality of dust. Orisanla (arah divinity) was commissioned by Olodumare to come to the earth in order to create the solid earth. Olodumare handed over to him a loose earth, five toed hen and a pigeon. When Orisa-nla arrived, he threw the loose earth on a suitable spot on the watery waste. Then he let loose the hen and pigeon and these immediately began the work of scattering and spreading the loose earth. This, they did, until a great portion of the waste was covered. When enough of it had been covered, Orisa-nla went back and reported to Olodumare that the work had been accomplished. Virtually everything about man is hinged on land, even after creation. Basically, he is walking on land, he travels on land. He is equally feeding on things that are produced by land. The Yoruba cosmogony glaringly states that land is quite wide or broad which is derived from the nomenclature, Ile-Ife. Arguably, Ile-Ife is not “House is wide’ but “land is wide or broadâ€. The Yoruba have migrated both far and near. It is on the basis of this that the Yoruba autochthons can be found in places that are several kilometers away from the cradle of the Yoruba, which is Ile-Ife. We have the Okun-Yoruba in the present day Kogi State and we have them in both Igbomina and Offa in the present day Kwara State, just as they are found in the Republic of Benin, Cuba, Brazi etc.