I am grateful to Professor Yiwola Awoyale for breaking the news of Professor (Chief) Oludare Olajubu's passing, and for providing a befitting remembrance of this great scholar of Yoruba culture. Professor Oludare Olajubu's contributions to Yoruba Orature and Literature are vast, especially in his role as the foremost exponent of Iwi Egungun orature and performance.
I first met Professor Olajubu in 1990 through Professor Babatunde Agbaje-Williams when I was serving as the later's assistant on a research that sought to document the "cultural resources of Ijesaland". We combed the nooks and corners of Ijesaland during the project. Professor Olajubu was one of the people that we interviewed. What a great conversationalist! He didn't just speak, he performed speaking. His gestures and booming voice were great to watch. Always animated, he would break into chants of iwi during conversation, and would even dance. Jovial and full of life, Oloye (Chief), as many of us called him, never held back his thought, wisdom, and knowledge. He shared liberally.
It was through those early encounters with Professor Olajubu that I was encouraged to focus my doctoral archaeological research on his hometown, Ilare. In fact, Prof. Agbaje-Williams handed me over to Professor Olajubu to guide me. What a blessing! Chief opened the paths for me. He knew the importance of archaeological research to the understanding of history, and he encouraged the use of that western science to uncover the deep roots of Ilare history. However, he also emphasized many times that I must take oral traditions seriously. He took me to some of the most important places and peoples in Ilare. Places that an ordinary ogberi (uninitiated) like me at that time would not have dared enter. He opened my eyes and senses to the inner recesses and deep knowledge of Ilare history and its place in the broad Ijesa and Yoruba world. Somehow, he trusted that I will use that knowledge responsibly. He also encouraged me to apply folklore to historical and archaeological research; and to make connections between and across Western disciplines. He reinforced what I already noticed at that time that Western disciplinary boundaries and their exclusionary methodological practices are a bane to the fruitful understanding of Africa's deep past.
On many weekends in 1997 when I was completing my fieldwork in Ilare, we talked about the progress of my research, and he offered valuable advice on the nature of my sources and evidence. Yet, he gave me full liberty to interpret my data as I saw fit. He was a true scholar and a great mentor. I always looked forward to his weekend visits to Ilare; when we would debate and discuss over pounded yam and bush meat, and soaked ourselves in palm wine.
Oloye walked royally and chiefly but he was down-to-earth. He was egalitarian in spirit. He spoke a lot but he also listened and respected dissenting views. He had no fear of any authority but he respected authority.
Chief Oludare Olajubu belonged to that dwindling generation of African scholars who truly sought and used indigenous philosophy, praxis, theories and methodology to interrogate and explain African humanism and cultural subjects.
Ilare has lost a great son. Yoruba Studies has lost a leader. Like Professor Ade Obayemi, Dr. Omotoso Eluyemi, and Prince Adedoyin, Chief Olajubu has gone to the land of the ancestors! O di gbere, o darinako. O tun doju ala.
I join Ilare in bidding you farewell:
Oludare, the son of Ilare,
The child of Olajubu, arole Irele
Descendant of Ajalorun Oro
The ancient one who existed before time
The first among the potentates to lead
The great one who fought from Ibokun to Ikirun
Before making Ilare his home
Contemporary of Oduduwa
The supreme head of the lords of Eka Osun
He who owned the vast farm of kolanut trees
Bearing the fruits of money
Dispenser of the healing leaves and barks
Owner of the deep wells where metals sprout like yam
The great masquerade of Irele
Sleep well.
Akin Ogundiran
Chair and Professor, Department of Africana Studies
UNC Charlotte
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