TRIBAL MARK- A SIGNIFICANT MARK OF IDENTIFICATION AMONG THE YORUBA PEOPLE OF NIGERIA.

With a knife or some sharp objects, the local surgeon begins his traditional journey deep into your flesh. Almost immediately some red colour liquid substance ooze out to the depth and length of the surgeon’s design, then you have vertical and horizontal cuts as the case may be on each side of your cheeks, a little above the corners of your mouth. Now you can be identified wherever you go with that identity that would permanently be kept on both cheeks, rather than in your wallet. Facial marks have a long history on the African Continent. The archaeological findings reveal bronze heads fashioned in Ile-Ife, Osun State-Nigeria, 700 years ago with facial lines that are thought by many to be ethnic markings. Ancient Nigerian Kingdom of Benin also had sculptural objects carrying facial markings. The Greek Historian- Herodotus wrote in the fifth Century B.C. about Carians living in Egypt who cut their foreheads with knives as a means of proving that they were foreigners and not Egyptians.

In Yoruba Land, tribal marks are usually connected with a tribe or tribes; tribal art of people. If we check the cheeks of the vast majority of the people of Nigeria, especially the Yorubas, we would observe that a great variety of tribal marks consisting of a number of scars on the cheeks are arranged in different patterns. Quite a lot of people do not know the reasons for the tribal marks.

Why Yoruba people of Nigeria wear tribal marks? There was a story of this popular King who reigned in the old Oyo Empire. The king was said to be in possession of so many slaves which was common to all kings at that period. There was a day that one of the slaves- a female, misbehaved, she was caught in the act of adultery with one of the guards. The King inquired from his youngest wife the kind of punishment they should give to that very slave who misbehaved. The woman looked at the slave in question very well, she discovered that she was beautiful to behold and to her, that was why she was committing adultery. She then requested the guards to take the slave somewhere and be tortured. She gave them order that they should use various kind of sharp objects like razor, knife and so on to deface her so she would not look attractive to any man that come her way. The guards acted according to the instruction given to them by the Madam and they locked up the slave for seven good days. After the seven days, the King’s wife requested that the slave should be released and brought to the palace for her to examine. When the King’s wife and guards saw the tortured slave, they saw beauty in another dimension because the scars that came out of the torture have added another beauty to the slave and according to the giver of this account, that marked the beginning of tribal marks in the kingdom.

Another account attributed the reason for tribal marks to the incessant wars in the past which made some tribes, families to lose their loved ones. We mean those days when war was rampant in Nigeria, that was the period that children were missing. The strong folks sold into slavery the children of the powerless/less privileged folks, and along with their wives. Not only that, several adults were also missed. They were been sold into slavery to other countries. Those sold to slavery usually finds it very difficult to recognize one another, if by any means they met elsewhere- even if they are from the same family or from the same town. It was then, the elders thought that there should be an identity or means of identification when they see or meet one another elsewhere. This would make them know from which family or town the other person is from as soon as they see the tribal marks.

In Yorubaland, if you see some men or women wearing tribal marks, you would notice that it looks good on majority of them. Definitely, those one regard wearing tribal marks as an act of beautifying themselves. With close examination, one would observe that these tribal marks differ from one area to the other, one community to the other. These marks serve as identification of "membership" of one of the major sub-tribes among the great people of Yoruba: Igbomina, Oyo, Owu, Ijebu, Egbado, etc. The marks can be vertical or horizontal. In this case there is a pair of four short horizontal marks on each cheek. Four horizontal scars, in a number of variants, are typical for the Oyo region in Yorubaland. Most Scholars and researchers of African History believed it was a necessary means in the days of tribal wars and the slave trade when children were frequently lost or got mixed up

Today, the practice of facial markings is on the wane. Hardly will you find parents subscribing to the idea anymore. This is especially true in the cities. The pain and the risk of infections coupled with scorn from people not properly disposed to the tradition are some of the factors taking facial marking off many lovely faces.

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Olawale S. Olaniran is a freelance writer, youth advocate and Social Entrepreneur. He can be reached on olaniransundayo@gmail.com +234 7033955770, 8054031719 and BBM: 22666BFB.

BRAVO TO MY ALMA-MATER, UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN

…….Here shall be the University of Nigeria

The above was the statement made by Sir William Hamilton-Fyfe, the leader of the Inter University Council for Higher Education in the Colonies then, when on the mission to inspect the site provided by the Ibadan Native Authority for the proposed University College and ascertain its suitability. On that fateful Saturday, on the 28th December, 1946, Sir Hamilton-Fyfe and his team arrived at the pre-arranged clearing in the thick undergrowth, he stuck his walking stick into the ground and declared Here shall be the University of Nigeria. That famous walking stick known as ‘Sir Fyfe’s walking stick’ is still on display at the Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan. This declaration heralded the series of activities that resulted in the opening of the University College, Ibadan as a college of the University of London in February 1948, thus completing the plans to establish a University in the Niger area of the British territories of West Africa. There was an urgent need to establish centres of higher education in Nigeria in the early twentieth Century. During this period, prominent Nigerian families had begun sending their children to the United Kingdom for University education. In fact, the recognition of this need led to the establishment of the Yaba Medical School and Yaba Higher College in 1930 and 1934 respectively. This made Yaba Higher College which was founded in 1934 to be the first institution of higher learning in Nigeria. However, Yaba Higher College could only award diplomas and its products were mostly employed as assistants to expatriates. Thus, another need to establish a degree awarding institution. The eventual establishment of degree awarding institutions in Nigeria was stimulated by four distinct factors (Raji-Oyelade et al, 2010). The first was the experience of experimental stations linked to research institutions in the United Kingdom which took advantage of the colonial potential. Secondly, the role of university-trained scientists in ending the Second World War. The third factor was the continued agitation of the nationalists, for the establishment of degree-awarding higher institutions in the country as part of their demands for independence as they saw the establishment of these institutions as a pre-requisite for the success of a post-independence Nigeria. The last factor was the pace of progress of the Yaba Higher College towards becoming a full-fledged University which was considered as too slow and inadequate enough to satisfy the intellectual yearnings of the increasingly enlightened middle class. It was too clear at the time that the cadre and number of products of the Yaba College gradually became grossly insufficient to service the needs of the country. The nationalists were joined in this quest by returnee graduates from the UK, several of who had joined politics. All these factors increased the pressure on the colonial government to establish full-fledged universities in the colonies. Two Commissions , the Asquith and Elliot Commissions, set up in 1943 to consider the principles to guide the promotion of higher education in the colonies, eventually recommended the establishment of universities in the colonies. Ibadan, the ancient City, was chosen to house one of such universities to be built in Nigeria. A generous donation of a vast expanse of land by the Ibadan people made Ibadan the first choice location. This led to the establishment of the University of Ibadan in 1948, as the first degree awarding institution in Nigeria. Academic work began on January 18, 1948 with 104 students under the Vice Chancellor (then known as Principal) Dr. Kenneth Mellanby. Then, the University was housed in the buildings of the General Hospital, Jericho, Ibadan. University of Ibadan grew rapidly in response to global and local academic and manpower demands. It had 104 students and three faculties in 1948, today, the University now has 14 Faculties with over 20,000 students running both full-time and part-time programmes. One interesting thing to note is that, University of Ibadan produced almost all the Vice Chancellors of other Universities in Nigeria, this actually made the University a pace setter in all ramifications. The University’s motto is Recte Sapere Fons meaning ‘For learning and Sound Judgement’. This has been the guiding principle for the university. Today, graduates of the university of Ibadan are found in leading positions in every facet of society in all nations of the World. As we celebrate another convocation and founders’ day ceremonies this week (15th-17th November, 2012), all I want to say to my ALMA-MATER is that-…….Continue Towering High. Further Reading Raji-Oyelade, A, Olapade-Olaopa, E.O., Aderinto, A and Obi-Egbedi, N. (2010) The Flagship: Six Decades of Postgraduate Education in Nigeria. Saphire Prints: Ibadan. ……………………………………………………………………………….. Olaniran, Sunday Olawale is a Youth advocate, Social Entrepreneur and Community Change Champion. He can be contacted on +2347033955770, 08054031719 and on BBM – 22666BFB.

OLAWALE BAGS LEARNING CONFERENCE AWARD AT THE UNIVERSITY OF LONDON

A Nigeria scholar, Olaniran Sunday Olawale, has bagged an award at the Institute of Education, University of London in the U.K. He was the only Nigerian out of 17 scholars recently honoured by the university. Olaniran, who is presently pursuing his Master’s programme in Community Development in the Department of Adult Education, University of Ibadan, was conferred with the ‘Graduate Scholar Award’ by the institution after an international conference held last week in the U.K. Meanwhile, Olaniran has advocated for the speedy establishment of community radio stations across rural and urban communities in Nigeria if the goals of EFA will be realised by 2015. He made the call at the International Conference on Learning held at the Institute of Education, University of London, UK between 14 and 16 August, 2012. Olaniran, while delivering a paper, titled ‘Towards Meeting EFA Goals by 2015: The Role of Literacy-by-radio Programme in Nigeria,’ highlighted some significant contributions of the radio literacy programme of the National Commission for Mass Literacy, Adult and Non-formal Education (NMEC) to literacy promotion, especially in providing basic literacy skills for non-literate adults and out-of-school youths in Nigeria’s rural communities. Olaniran, a graduate of Adult Education from Adekunle Ajasin University, Ondo State, started his literacy campaign in Abia State where he won NYSC honours award in 2011 for establishing Literacy Library for Adult Learners in the state. He pointed out some reasons why the literacy-by-radio programme is dying, which include funding problem and proliferation of commercial programmes and advertisements on Nigeria’s public radio stations at both federal and state levels where Literacy-by-radio programmes were aired. He, therefore, advised the Federal Government to take a critical step in establishing community radio which is seen as a formidable tool for poverty reduction and literacy promotion, especially among rural dwellers. “It does not speak well that only community radio stations available in Nigeria are the ones being operated by the universities which only covers university communities,” he said. This year’s Learning Conference theme is New Media, Multi-Modality, and Learning with well over 500 participants across the globe who dealt extensively with learning issues, especially in the context of global knowledge economy. http://pmnewsnigeria.com/2012/08/23/nigerian-bags-varsity-award-in-uk/