JOURNEYS ACROSS SPACE AND TIME
Toyin Adepoju
"There is a great contrast [ between Trafalgar Square in central London] and the [central location represented by the] Benin Ring Road [ in Nigeria], in the manner the latter is saturated with spiritual life and practicality. For instance, in Benin...where African Traditional Religion and knowledge still run deep, the Ring Road is widely regarded as the `world[s] centre stage', similar to `Edo ore Isi Agbon' (Edo is the Centre of the Universe).The early Edo astrologers, before the advent of...western civilization, have always used the Ring Road symbol to emphasise its place in the Benin worldview".
Tony Erha, "A Trafalgar Square in Benin City". NEXT . July 23, 2010
Are these lines a summative key that will help me consummate a quest of almost a decade? As I sit here in a room overlooking a road in a village in the English borough of Cambridgeshire,my mind tries to unify the symbolism I ascribe to the road in front of me with that of the roads I walked in the Nigerian city of Benin before I left there to study in England eight years ago.Those walks proved to have monumental value for my understanding of the universe.Most of my research in England,through two MA degrees in Comparative Literature and the PhD I am completing in that field can be described in terms of an attempt to unify my experience of the hermeneutic implications of the concrete reality of Benin with the abstraction represented by the Yoruba/Orisa tradition Ifa cosmology and hermeneutics.
This unification might seem to pass through the concept of `Edo ore Isi Agbon' (Edo is the Centre of the Universe).Edo is the name the Bini people use in describing themselves.
This unification facilitates my understanding of my own history and the significance of that history for understanding fundamental aspects of the universe and the universe as a whole.This unification may also be used as a means of understanding experiences and interpretations of navigating space and time that share some similarities with my experience of navigating space in Benin and the correlation of that with Ifa hermeneutics.
Edo ore Isi Agbon' (Edo is the Centre of the Universe)
"...the Ring Road is widely regarded as the `world[s] centre stage', similar to `Edo ore Isi Agbon' (Edo is the Centre of the Universe).The early Edo astrologers, before the advent of...western civilization, have always used the Ring Road symbol to emphasise its place in the Benin worldview".
This passage from Erha refers to both the central location of the circular structure of the Ring Road in relation to Benin and the interpretation of this structure in classical Bini thought in relation to the universe.I dont have other information on the details of this concept but certain interpretive possibilities can be deduced from the manner in which Erha describes it.
Erha's description of this idea could be understood as suggesting that the centrality of this road to Benin is correlated with the centre of the universe.Two possibilities could be developed from this.One possibility is that this road could be understood as the centre of the universe in a literal sense. This understanding could be reinforced by the self valorisation of the Edo in classical Edo thought.This valorisation can be seen as centred in an understanding of the Oba as Benin as synonymous with Osanobua,the creator of the universe.From this centre this self valorisation can be understood as diffused to the notion of the Edo person as preeminent among other humans so that whenever an Edo person is among others,the Edo person is understood as senior.Such perspectives could also be strengthened by the historical imperial spread of Benin.
Another possibility of interpretation is to understand the conception `Edo ore Isi Agbon' (Edo is the Centre of the Universe) in relation to the Benin Ring Road in a metaphorical sense.This metaphorical interpretation would indicate that this centrality be understood in an abstract sense that emerges not so much from the intrinsic character of the universe but as demonstrating interpretive possibilities that may be applied in relation to any physical space. This possibility is reinforced by the exquisite art of the Benin Olokun graphic symbol of igha-ede which depicts the divisions and unity among and between units of space and time.This symbol is used with great flexibility of location and form while being ephemeral,since it is created in chalk on the ground and erased in the course of ritual action.This flexibility and ephemerality of use suggest an understanding of sacred space as defined by human creativity since any space delineated by the igha-ede becomes sacred,or as identifying the sacrality invested in particular sacred spaces represented by the shrines of the Olokun ohen,the Olokun priest,on the ground of which the design is drawn.The multipicity of locations where this design is drawn implies a flexible approach to sacred space different from but ultimately related to the centralisation realised by the concept of `Edo ore Isi Agbon' (Edo is the Centre of the Universe) in relation to the distinctive character of one location,the Ring Road at the centre of Benin-City.
This second possibility of interpretation may be related to the conjunction between sacred and secular space represented by the siting of sacred trees,groves and shrines throughout the city side by side with the other structures central to civic life,such as roads and residential houses.The pervasive presence of these sacred spaces throughout the city makes the city a demonstration of the classical African,Diaspora African,pantheistic and panentheistic concept of the universe as sacred,as permeated by a creative force that may be activated in relation to any phenomenon,thereby modifying or even nullifying the notion of the division of being into the sacred and the secular.This notion of the sacralisation of the universe may also be appreciated in the Bini symbolism of mud in relation to Olokun veneration in which mud is described by scholars of this world view as representing the unity of spirit and matter,along with the convergence of other fundamental conceptions,thereby representing in a concrete form the unificatory symbolism of the graphic abstraction represented by igha-ede.
Also blogged at Great Benin.
TO BE CONTINUED
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