Ooni of Ife-minism -By Oladele Oniororo Orepo

Ooni of Ife. A man who emerged as a one-man-one-woman King, as much as it didn’t look kingly, it was obvious to one, of how he valued his woman, from his first woman. After the marriage broke, he took time to vet the next one, till it broke too and it went on, spaced, as that. It soon became a norm and the world thought the King jinxed and to be an incel. 

It became a controversial issue and suspicious glances in words were made at the King. The problem was with him, many would say, obviously, from the divorce trend. The bet is, he would have been embarrassed, sad and dejected. It was disrespectful for an ordinary man to experience such in his life, let alone a King. If it were the times when kingdoms used to go to war against each other, it would have been the first sling thrown at him to ridicule him. 
The learned King, from his style, persona and choice of women in the past and present, indicates his knowledge and permission of women empowerment and feminism. He surrounds himself with only valuable women who could move him forward and were personally forward. He did not objectify his women, as it is feared by feminist. His conquests in women was incited by the ridicule of his eminence by the women who left him. 

However, the reader should not feel all there is to this is just a clap back. There is more to it. In the Bible, we learnt of Queen Vashti whom the King summoned to himself, but vehemently refused. This mere-looking refusal, to those who understand the dynamics of power, was a call for anarchy, such that the Bible said in Esther 1:18 “There will be no end of disrespect and discord.”.

The disobedience of Queen Vashti fell her from his grace and caused the discovery and reign of Queen Esther. Her replacement was inevitable! The Ooni of Ife is of western ideology and it almost incubated his fall through his women. However, it is noteworthy that healthy feminism has been doing some remarkable work in mitigating the subjugation of women and encouraging women empowerment. A lot of women have been saved by the cause.
Although, like every other western ideology, it came to paint our culture in bad light. Just as our traditional religions were proclaimed to be satanic, dark and evil, polygamy was also criticised to mean women were being commodified by the western propaganda. That is why today, we find the staunch feminists being the third to fourth of wives. Reality is like death, it would always come. In order words, polygamy doesn’t imply maltreatment of women, in fact, it poses as love, respect and the valuation of women.

The only difference is that in polygamy, citing the case of the Ooni of Ife who has been marrying a woman weekly, he, as it is expected from polygamy, gave none of the women the chance to feel too special. That’s how it is in polygamy. In polygamy, the farce of the special one or soulmate is eradicated. It becomes obvious that you weren’t actually made for one person, because that person might neglect you, divorce, die or leave you disrespectfully. By that, it means, satirically, that the one God has made for you just divorced you, died or left you. And you are done for. You can no longer work with another one Laughable!

The most ironical issue that surrounds the cancel of polygamy is that the antagonists of polygamy accept open marriages, open relationships, cuckoldry, intra sexual marriages and other ‘civil’ arrangements but it frowns at polygamy. I would end this by stating that the westernisation of Africa is not the integration of civilization, but the demolition of OUR civilization.

Written by: Oniororo Oladele OrepoIbadan based philosopher. Speechwriter. Idea Bank. Satirist. PoetEmail: obaorepo@gmail.com +2348068091787