WHY OONI'S PALACE?

Yoruba is one of the  3 major ethnic groups in
 Nigeria, together with the Igbo's and Hausa's. The yoruba's are base in the western part of the country, it is believed that all Yoruba's came from Ile Ife, since their fore father named Oduduwa who descended from the sky on a chain landed in Ile Ife.

Ooni's palace is the palace of the highest ranked king in Yoruba land, the king him self is called god. This palace is located in Ile Ife, Osun state Nigeria.

As different tribes has their deities/gods so the Yoruba's has theirs. There are 401 gods in Yoruba land, Ile ife has 201 and the Ooni is one out of it. It is said that everyday at the palace all through
 the year is for celebration but just a day is excluded, only the Ooni knows the day. The frequent celebration is due to the worshipping of all the gods in Ile Ife.

Talking about the judgement system at the palace. There are four system of court at Ooni's palace, they judge and if the complaints is not cool with the judgement he/she moves to the higher court. The Ooni of Ife is the 3rd court and after his judgement and you are not satisfied then you go to the highest court where their is no mercy or sentiment. If you lie in this last court the reward is death between 7days.

As  trained security
 guards follows the president of a country, so also different level of security personal (police, mopol...) follows the Ooni of ife but this official security personal have their boundaries. The emese Ooni are the only traditional security men that has the full authority to follow Ooni anywhere he is going according to tradition. These set of men are provided by a certain family in Ile Ife and their uniqueness is that their hair are half cut and usually on white when seen with the Ooni.

There is a special crown called Ade Aare that weighs 50kg. It is a special crown that the king wear only once in a year. A week to when the king is to go out with the crown, they must have started worshipping the crown. A hen with 5 toes is stretched to the crown and the blood of the hen dries up immediately, this sign signify the crown is ready to go out and the weight will be reduced for the king to be able to put it on. As the king work round the community with the crown people will point their middle finger to the crown and pray, the more they pray the more the weight of the crown increases on the head of the king. People around the king will always tell him not to say any negative words but to bear the pain and pray for the people of Ile Ife, Osun state and Nigeria at large.

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COMPOSED BY MAKANJUOLA IBRAHIM

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