Moremi and Ife People

Ile-Ife has statues of Moremi, a Yoruba heroine who gave her life for her people to save them from extinction.

Moremi assisted in the liberation of the Yoruba kingdom of Ife from the neighboring Ugbo Kingdom. Moremi was a folk heroine and legendary Yoruba queen in the Yorubaland region of present-day southwestern Nigeria.

In an exclusive interview with Lagos local news, the custodian of her statue in Ife, Oba Isoro, Sunday Oluwagbemileke, Owa Yekere Otu of Ife explained the history behind Moremi statue and how she fought for the people and delivered them from captivity.

Oba Isoro pointing to the statue of Moremi noted that the compound was there when Moremi was alive and because of her daunting attitude, the statue is named after her.

Translating from Yoruba, Oba Isoro’s narration is as follows.

Moremi is a courageous, strong and determined woman who cannot be forgotten, she dresseed like a queen when she was alive, and got married to four kings out of the fifty-one Ooni that we have. But she didn't give birth for any of them. Moremi is from Ife, Lukungba is her father's name, and she’s from Yekere in Ife.

Moremi was very beautiful, and which engendered her marriage to the four kings, Oranmiyan was part of them. She didn't give birth for him.

Ooni Alayemore was her husband when a huge war befell ife then, Ife enslaved some of them and killed some of them

The ogbo town is stil there, her statue is there, they refer to her as traitor over there

After she won, she sacrificed her daughter according to Promise, the son was thrown to the river life.

People come here to worship her statue here, and they ask for something which she does for them, and if we ask people to buy something and pray with it. After she died, she became a statue.

She was fond of making allback as her hairstyle, and that's how she dresseed when. She was alive. Olonbe, her mother is from offa

This place wasn't like this before, it's Ooni that renovated this place, she was living here then and she hasn't become a deity. People under me are 16, I'm the custodian here

Moremi and the Yoruba people contributed significantly to African freedom, but little research has been done on her life.

Over 41 million Yoruba people live in sixteen West African countries today. However, as a result of the transatlantic slave trade, large Yoruba communities have grown in places like Brazil, Cuba, Puerto Rico, and other parts of the Americas. In addition, there are Yoruba communities in numerous European nations. The majority of Yoruba people emigrated in the decades immediately following the end of colonialism in the 1970s and 1980s, fleeing economic and political instability in their home nations. However, if not for the bravery of some of its early heroes, including the remarkable Queen Moremi, the Yorubas would never have survived to become a prominent black ethnic group in the 21st century.

Due to the lack of written evidence, I also do not know for sure what year Moremi was born or when she passed away. However, we do know that she was a princess from Offa 3 and later wed the Ooni, or king, of Ile-Ife. She married either Ooni Obalufon Alayemoye II 4 or Ooni Oranmiyan, both of whom were direct descendants of Ooni Oduduwa, the fabled Yoruba founder and the first Ooni of Ile-Ife. Q

Because she was probably married to Obalufon II, we can date Moremi's life to around this time. Even if she had been married to Oranmiyan, who became Obalufon II's successor, her life would have ended around 1300. This is due to the fact that Moremi's hometown of Offa was established in 1359 by Olalomi Olofa-gangan, a crown prince from the Kingdom of Oyo, one of Oranmiyan's older kingdoms.

Because Offa is a suburb of the Kingdom of Ife, Moremi consider Ife to be their spiritual home, just as any Yoruba-born contemporary does. Moremi's story is heavily influenced by religion. The Ifa Religion, a divination system that considers the world controlled by Olodumare, the Supreme Being, through spiritual energies, was the original religion of the Yoruba people, and it is still practiced in Ile-Ife and throughout the old Yorubaland. The Orishas (gods) and Irunmoles (deities) are the means by which Ifa practitioners, including Moremi and the early Yoruba, communicate with Olodumare. This spiritualism served as a foundation for Moremi's struggle for freedom. However, Moremi's rise to fame began when she was just a young princess in Offa. She was regarded as one of the most beautiful Yoruba women who ever lived and was well-known for her beauty throughout the town and its surrounding territories.

Moremi's childhood and her move to Ile-Ife, where she married the Ooni, are separated in history.

UGBO Intrusions and Moremi's Classic Spy and Victory

We don't know what influenced her thinking as a child or what might have influenced her desire for independence. However, we are aware that while she was queen of Ife, the kingdom was frequently plagued by raiders who frequently plucked goods from the market and enslaved citizens. Additionally, these raiders frequently snatched homes, staple foods, and domestic animals. They are thought to be members of the Ugbo community, which lives nearby. Despite their outrage over the raids, the people of Ile-Ife lacked the ability to defend themselves. This is because the people of Ife consider the Ugbo invaders to be spirits. The Yoruba masquerades always wear cotton robes, but the Ugbo raiders who appeared to be masquerades had raffia leaves covering their entire bodies. Moremi could not stand two of the raiders' particularly appalling acts: the enslavement of captured Ife citizens and the disruption of the Ife market. Due to its location within the sacred Kingdom of Ife and its commercial vitality, the market in Ife was Yorubaland's most important market. In addition, the people of Ife were Oduduwa's and the Orishas' direct descendants. Ife might have been the target of divine vengeance had they been held captive by the enemy. Moremi was of the opinion that there had to be a means of stopping the Ugbo raiders despite the mystery surrounding their identity. She talked to an Orisha at the Esimirin river to get answers. The Ifa religion holds that major decisions should be made with the help of an Orisha. In the beginning of Yorubaland, the Orishas were the ones who controlled the natural forces. As a result, it was rare for anyone to make a decision about their life without consulting an orisha, either directly or through an Ifa priest like a Babalawo.

After Moremi's request was granted, Esimirin made an offer to assist her in liberating her people from oppression but demanded an offering as payment. Moremi gave her approval, and she went home to work on a typical spy plan. On the following market day, she would pretend to be a trader and let the raiders take her. She planned to use her beauty and magic to sneak into the Ugbo leadership once she was taken captive, hoping to discover a flaw that the Ife people could take advantage of. 

Moremi allowed herself to be captured during the subsequent raid, and she and other captives were brought to Ugbo. Moremi's beauty caught his attention when the captives were paraded in front of the leader of Ugbo, and he ordered that she be brought to his court as a wife. Moremi studied the way of life of the people in Ugbo for some time, particularly the raffia-clad masquerades. She eventually persuaded the Ugbo leader to reveal the masquerades' nature and weaknesses. Moremi was informed by the leader that the raffia-clad individuals were not spirits but humans disguised as such in order to terrorize the people of Ile-Ife into submission during raids. He also revealed that the masquerades could not withstand even the slightest touch of fire because they were covered in dried raffia leaves. Moremi kept this information a secret and quickly returned to Ile-Ife.

She informed the Ooni of her discovery while she was in Ile-Ife and advised that some individuals should be ready with Igita (a short, hard tree branch) and Oguso (a ball made from the middle layer of a palm kennel font) for the subsequent market raid. She explained that the burning Igita should be used to burn the masquerades and that the Oguso should be lit when the marauders were in the market. They did as she instructed. The torch-wielding people of Ife, many of whom were market women, attacked the Ugbo raiders on the following market day. The Ugbo costumed in raffia were terrified at the thought of being killed by the torches. Ife came out on top after the raids were over. The torch and the heroic plan of the Moremi were both successful in freeing the Yoruba people.

Moremi’s Sacrifice after Victory

However, the spiritualism that Moremi's plot relied on will play a final role in her story. Moremi paid her offering by going to the Esimirin River after the Ugbo raids stopped. To fulfill her promise, the river god demanded that she sacrifice Oluorogbo, her sole son. Moremi begged the god for a lesser offering because the demand was unimaginable to her.

However, she ultimately fulfilled her promise and paid the price.

Oluorogbo's sacrifice to the river god grieved Moremi and the entire Ife kingdom. Moremi was consoled by the Yoruba people, who promised to be her children forever.

Her son was twelve when he was thrown to the river.

Oba Rese is the father of her only son, Ela olu orogbo, Lukungba is Moremi father, Olonbe is her mother. People go to the river to make supplication and use the water. They pray beside the water

If people buy schnapps and people are taking it, the prayer will go to the buyer

The song people sing for Moremi, "Moremi Ajansoro, Owo ofunmi mamagba oo, Moremi Ajansoro

Ewure owunmi mamagba oo, Moremi Ajansoro

Omo ofunmi mamagba o, Moremi Ajansoro

Oko ofun mi mamagba o, Moremi Ajansoro,

Ile ofunmi mamagba o, Moremi Ajansoro”