One Thought About Textual Beginnings: Ìbà

ÌJÚBÀ or ÌBÀ (noun); JÚBÀ (verb) 

The initial gestures rendered to acknowledge authority figures, sacral or secular, to which a performance production owes its textual and institutional provenance constitute the ìjúbà (ìbà). The conventional words and motions thus presented demarcate the commencement of an iteration, pay homage to sources of influence and inspiration, praise past patronages, solicit audience support and understanding, wish failure for opposing will and interests, and outline the production’s goals.

HISTORY

Two paths stand out in the historical understanding of ìjúbà: one follows the older, text based line in translation manuals and dictionaries, and the other issues from scholarly studies of performance traditions. Although they are more recent and offer longer overviews that extend far back into mythical times, scholarly studies of ìjúbà lean heavily on old traditions recounted in explanations of contemporary enactments, mainly of egúngún and gẹ̀lẹ̀dẹ́ masked entertainments. The usage history of ìjúbà deducible in printed Yorùbá lexicons rarely refers to performance traditions but heavily emphasizes social homage and religious deference. 

Joel A. Adedeji’s interpretation of the oral traditions on the origins of the content and form of early Yorùbá theatrical performance remains authoritative: 

“the prologue or entrance song was called the Ìjúbà. This was a ritualistic opening scene between the leading or chief actor and the chorus. The Ìjúbà contained a pledge and was a form of salute. As a theatrical form it is believed to have been first used by Ẹ̀sà Ògbín, the foremost Yorùbá masque-dramaturg and professional entertainer, as a tribute to Ológbin Ológbojò, the ‘father’ of the traditional theatre” (1973: 32). 

Henry and Margaret Drewal interpret the opening practices of satirical gẹ̀lẹ̀dẹ́ performance to mean “honoring invocations” (1983: 40). Theater as entertainment and play developed out of memorial practices for the dead, and it is in this context that homage making to the benevolent ancestor (and sponsor) grew into set conventions defined by genres and modes. 

A steady trajectory is  traceable in tendencies privileged in lexicons, almost all of them English and Yorùbá bilingual translation manuals. Thomas J. Bowen’s Grammar and Dictionary defines júbà as “to respect, to remember with gratitude” (p. 29). The Church Missionary Society’s 1913 volume, built on the legacy of earlier compilations by Samuel Crowther (1843, 1852)  and. E. J. Sowande (1911), does not list ìjúbà as a stand alone entry in the Yorùbá-English section, translates it in the English-Yorùbá section as “adoration” and includes among its synonyms “ìbọlá” or deference (p. 3). The Yorùbá-English section translates “júbà,” the verb form, as “to have a grateful remembrance of; to regard; respect; think well of” (p. 150). The 1937 edition of the same dictionary includes “ìjúbà” in the Yorùbá-English section and translates it as “acknowledgment, recognition” (113), and adds “to regard, to acknowledge as superior” (p. 135) as meanings of júbà. The root noun, ìbà, first made it into the dictionary/translation genre in Abraham’s volume as a term conventionally used in conjunction with “the mention of noun denoting one of one’s seniors” (p. 264). The illustration—“ìbà a bàbáá mi o (said by a conjurer)”—is taken from the egúngún acrobatic masquerade (apidọ́n) context. Abraham renders the verb form, júbà, as recount “humble respect,” “acknowledge overlordship,” give “sworn fealty,” and “recognize as liege-lord” (p. 354). Isaac O. Delano’s book, the only Yorùbá monolingual lexicon, describes ìjúbà as “jíjẹ́wọ́ ìrànlọ́wọ́” [acknowledging or confessing sponsorship or patronage] and “gbígbà bí ọ̀gá tàbí olórí" [conceding superiority or authority to another entity]” (p. 103). Delano alludes to performance in his definitions of the verb form, júbà, as “tẹríba fún” [genuflect] and “bu ọlá fún” [give due honor], and the root noun, ìbà, as “ìjúbà, ìyẹ́sí ọba tàbí ìjòyè” [acknowledging the superiority, honoring, a king or a chief] (p. 92). More recent collections by Olabiyi Yai and Kayode J. Fakinlede reiterate respect, homage, and acknowledgement of favors and patronage. While the first of the two handbooks on metalanguage (Bamgbose: 1984 and Awobuluyi: 1990) sponsored by the Ẹgbẹ́ Onímọ̀ Èdè Yorúbá (Yorùbá Studies Association) for the purpose of rendering English terms in Yorùbá academic studies translates prologue (ọ̀rọ̀ àkọ́sọ [first utterance]) and epilogue (ọ̀rọ̀ àsọkágbá [deck clearing utterance], neither text lists ìjùbá.

CURRENT SCOPE/MEANING/USAGE IN PERFORMING ARTS

Contemporary ìjúbà practices are of two main kinds: (i) variants of traditional guild and cult performances; (ii) extensions and transformations of the classical type in modern sites, contexts, and rites across media, genres, and forms in music, film, theatre, and print. The “Opening Glee” or “entrance song” in the formerly vibrant traveling theater performances in southwestern Nigeria embodies most vividly the enduring power of ìjúbà in modern performance practices. As noted by Adedeji, the “opening glee” thanks, praises, and “recognizes the category of peoples assembled” (1973: 44) for a performance and highlights the moral and thematic concerns of the main theatrical actions. Musical genres like jùjú, àpàlà, fújì, Christian gospel, and dadakúàdà will typically open with a chant of praise and gratitude to Ọlọ́run Ọba (God the King), the band leader’s parents, places of origin, and patrons. Countless are recorded songs dedicated to Allah, Ọlọ́run (almighty), and àwọn tó nilé ayé (owners of the realm of the living). Most remarkable in this regard is a record by the Chief Ebenezer Obey, the juju music superstar, later turned preacher, gospel singer, and entrepreneur, that offers ìbà to the biblical king David as the first singer (olórin àkọ́kọ́). The musical ìjúbà is usually not connected thematically or structurally to the rest of either a live performance or a recorded compilation. While feature films and videos do not have formal equivalents of homage, portrayals of ìjúbà are part of their verisimilitude strategies. Thus, traditional priests in both evangelical and secular texts are always depicted as offering due thanks to the divinities, even when they are aiding evil plots. 

Named as “praise and worship,” the sung opening section of almost any gathering in evangelical and pentecostal churches, Christian liturgy is another major contemporary performance context into which ìbà has been assimilated beyond recognition. “Praise and worship”— motions and songs of praise, adoration, gratitude, and prayers, these words many times occurring as explicit terms in the texts—draws from traditional hymn books and popular, unattributed gospel songs in English and other Nigerian languages. Preceding readings from the bible, sermons, prayers, and offertories, “praise and worship” includes drumming, keyboards, boisterous singing, clapping, and dancing. Although the strict Islamic order of prayer is hostile to assimilations like “praise and worship,” muslims too record chanted sermons that offer ìbà to the almighty God. 

Beyond straight performances in music and religion, traces of the homage element of ìjúbà could be found in the proliferation of academic academic festschrifts in southwestern Nigeria, one of which is actually titled Ìbà (Ogundele & Adeoti 2003) to honor the late Professor Oyin Ogunba, renowned scholar and exegete of theater culture. A closely related practice is found in dedication, foreword, and other preliminary elements, all called ìjúbà, in books and other publications printed in Yorùbá. 

CURRENT DEBATE/CRITICISM (A SHORT OUTLINE)

Spoken components of some of the contemporary practices summarized above have caused the tendency to think of ìjúbà as serving only reverence, homage, invocation and other obsequious ends. Considered more expansively, however, the practices point at more diverse semantic fields, even in English. Reverence, for example, entails some sense of serious worshipfulness that arises from social distance. Homage, to the contrary, could be mirthful and intimate. Thus, if a performer, be it at a church, a shrine, or at the palace, were to roll on the floor and chant in ìjúbà the phrase “mo súnmọ́’ba níwọ̀n egbèje, mo jìnnà s’ọ́ba níwọ̀n ẹgbẹ̀fà” (I approach the king from seven furlongs away, I distance myself from the king’s presence by six furlongs), whether in fiction, on stage, or in a film, the deliberately muddled up measures of separation combine reverence and playfulness. In other words, ijúbà does not signal the abject subordination of either the performer or play to higher powers. Even when the context is overwhelmingly reverential, the ijúbà maintains playful intimacy still. Hence, evangelical Christians will chant in English, “I have a beautiful Gọọ̀dù [God]/ He’s always by my side/ A beautiful Gọọ̀dù [God] ò/ By my side, by my side” to anthropomorphize the divinity being worshipped and place him in very close proximity. In all the forms are to be found blatant expressions of ill will directed at opponents and, as well, petitions that the authorities being wooed, temporal or divine, help spit vengeful wrath at enemies, sometime named explicitly.

Ijúbà’s combining reverence and playfulness, distance and intimacy, worshipful deference and self-centered assertiveness, enacts the making-to-be (àṣẹ) aspiration, the wish to make spoken words and enacted motions fulfill a desire, that inheres in all performances. Being the lead gesture in dance (ijó), boat reagatta (ọkọ̀ṣí), sacred rituals (imọlẹ̀), worship (ìjọ́sìn), ìjúbà formally marks the first step towards satisfying the felicity condition of a performance. If the ìbà does not appear first, the discipline of ordered sequence (ètò) will be disrupted, associated effects will not be achieved, and disastrous consequences might follow, as the following line cautions, “ewúrẹ́ ò júbà ó di mímúso" (because the goat failed to offer ìjúbà, it ended up in tethers). This is to say that the making-to-be power (àṣẹ) of a performance hinges heavily on following conventions. An accomplished ìbà will pleasing and pleasant enough as to purchase, sometimes literally, the producers of a performance substantial material rewards.

Ìjúbà is a formulaic device for managing internal performance sequence (ètò) and for structuring reception expectations from the audience, physically present or not. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Abraham, R. C. (1958) Dictionary of Modern Yorùbá, London: University of London Press.

Bámgbóṣé, Ayọ̀. (ed.) (1984) Yorùbá Metalanguage (Èdè-Ìperí Yorùbá): A Glossary of English-Yorùbá Technical Terms in Language, Literature, and Methodology. vol. 1, Sponsored by the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council and Compiled by the Ẹgbẹ́-Onímọ̀-Èdè Yorùbá (the Yorùbá Studies Association of Nigeria). Lagos: NERC.

Awobuluyi, Oladele (ed.) (1990) Yorùbá Metalanguage (Èdè-Ìperí Yorùbá): A Glossary of English-Yorùbá Technical Terms in Language, Literature, and Methodology. vol. 2, Sponsored by the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council and Compiled by the Ẹgbẹ́-Onímọ̀-Èdè Yorùbá (the Yorùbá Studies Association of Nigeria). Ibadan: University Press Limited.

Adedeji, J.A. (1973) “Trends in the Content and Form of the Opening Glee in Yorùbá Drama.” Research in African Literatures, vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 32-47  

Adedeji, J.A. (1972) “The Origin and Form of the Yorùbá Masque Theatre” Cahiers D'études Africaines, 12: 254-276.

Bowen, T.J. (1858) Grammar and Dictionary of the Yoruba Language. Washington: Smithsonian Institution.

Church Missionary Society (1913; 2nd edn 1937 A Dictionary of the Yorùbá Language, Lagos: Church Missionary Society Bookshop.

Delano, I. O. (1958) Atúmọ̀ Èdè Yorùbá: a short Yorùbá grammar and dictionary. London: Oxford University Press.

Drewal, H. J. and Drewal, M. T. (1983) Gẹlẹdẹ : art and female power among the Yorùbá, Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Fakinlede, K. J. (2003) Yorùbá: Modern Practical Dictionary: Yorùbá-English, English-Yorùbá, New York: Hippocrene Books.

Ogundele, Wole and Adeoti, Gbemi (2003) Ìbà: Essays on African Literature in Honour of Oyin Ogunba. Ile-Ife: Obafemi Awolowo University Press,

Yai, O. B. (1996) Yorùbá-English/English-Yorùbá Dictionary. New York: Hippocrene Books

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