Masculinity as a Trace Element of Relationship: The case of IFÁ and AYÒ OLỌ́PỌ́N among Yoruba of Southwestern Nigeria

Abstract

Different cultures of the world have gender specifications for cultural and professional activities- religious or social. Among the Yoruba, Ifá is the foundation on which the culture rests. That is, every cultural activity is connected back to and referenced in Ifá. Ayò ọlọ́pọ́n is an indigenous Yoruba game that has gained an international nomenclature in the present time. Despite the influence of Ifá on every aspect of the Yoruba life, no work has been carried out linking or relating ayò ọlọ́pọ́n with to Ifá, particularly on gender. This gap is filled by this study. Cultural studies, which emphasize the social power that encodes the culture in society are adopted using the comparative method. Adopting a cultural approach offers an opportunity for using appropriate analytical tools necessary at any point of analysis. The scope of cultural studies accommodates interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary fields of academic inquiry. Relying on Ifá corpora texts, incantation and interviews from Ifá practitioners and ayò ọlọ́pọ́n’s players and author’s observations from the field, gender specificity in Ifá is compared with gender roles in ayò ọlọ́pọ́n to establish gender synergies between the two cultural elements. It is found that there is a cultural confluence between male gender activities in Ifá and ayò performances. It is also found that there is communities’ cultural change resulting in growth and development, with the involvement of the female gender in ayò ọlọ́pọ́n in contemporary times among the Yoruba. This study concludes that the male gender relates ayò ọlọ́pọ́n to Ifá.