How Oba Sijuwade took Ife to Harvard

The story began not with a royal state visit, but with scholarship. Prof. Jacob K. Olupona, a renowned scholar of Yoruba religion and African religious traditions at Harvard University, had undertaken extensive research into Ile-Ife, Yoruba spirituality, kingship and Ifa. His work eventually produced the important book City of 201 Gods: Ile-Ife in Time, Space, and the Imagination.

Olupona later acknowledged that Oba Sijuwade’s assistance was crucial to his research. The Ooni gave him access to places, people and traditional knowledge in Ife that would otherwise have been extremely difficult for an outsider to reach. Olupona specifically said he could not have written the book without Sijuwade’s help.

But the relationship went much further. The Ooni eventually went to Harvard.

Olupona helped bring Oba Sijuwade to Harvard for a major conference on Ifa divination. The conference brought together scholars of Ifa, traditional priests and Yoruba sacred kings and title-holders. Academic accounts describe Sijuwade as one of the prominent Yoruba traditional leaders who participated.

For Harvard, this was significant because the Ooni was not merely attending as an individual monarch. He represented one of the world’s oldest continuing Yoruba royal and cultural institutions. He was the Ooni of Ife, custodian of the traditions associated with Ile-Ife.

According to Olupona, Sijuwade’s visit made a powerful impression. At a later memorial, Olupona recalled that the Ooni’s presence “brought dignity, culture, and royalty” into Harvard and made Yoruba people proud. He was treated like a head of state.

So anytime you hear that “Sijuwade took Ife to Harvard”, this is what is meant.

ℹ️Ethnic African Stories