Random: There is a site in Ile Ife called Orun Oba Ado(the Benin royal ancestral grave). Up till 1914 Benin Obas(Kings) were ‘buried’ in Ile Ife. It’s known as the final resting place of the Obas.
It’s widely believed that the decapitated heads of the demised Obas were sent from Benin to Ile Ife for burial and Ife would send bronze heads back to the Benin palace. Back then, a living Oba of Benin was prohibited from seeing Ile Ife.
During the reign of Ooni Adesoji Aderemi, Benin Obas visiting Ile Ife for conferences stayed in Modakeke, a town outside the Ife wall for the duration of the conferences.
There are contradictions and incongruity in the story though, because when archeologists examined the site they only found nails and hairs in the burial pits.
The Oba of Benin (Esigie*) sent Portuguese explorers to Ile Ife as part of the Benin-Portugal diplomacy. The Portuguese recorded that the Ooni of Ife “is considered among the Negroes as the Pope is among us”
Were the decapitated heads used for some other rituals? Possibly.
The arrival of the Portuguese led to the emergence of the first Christian Oba. The then Ooni of Ife was baptized as Ooni John Thomas and his people embraced Christianity. For a while.
Christianity thrived so much that a big Church was built. The ‘Elders’ felt threatened and started to plot against the new religion. It was survival of the fittest - the Ooni was dead within days of his baptism( probably poisoned)and the church was pulled down.
The people took a vow never again to embrace Christianity and to mark a break with the alien religion they erected the temple of Orisa nla at the site where they made their vow.
Since then, no news of Christianity was heard anywhere until Christianity was again brought through Badagry by the British.
Powder from poisonous plants were used as biological weapons/poisons in those days. And, it was the cause of many deaths attributed to ‘awon aiye’(witches).
