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Key Details
Type
Sacred SiteMythology
African Pantheon (Yoruba)
Coordinates
7.4833°N, 4.5667°E
About This Location
Where the chain came down
Ile-Ife is the Yoruba city of origin: Oduduwa (or Obatala, in competing recensions) descends a chain, pours sand on the primordial water, and land spreads with a five-toed fowl. Ifa verses and Ife palace tradition keep the story; archaeology shows an early urban center of glass and brass. The Ooni's kingship claims descent from that descent. Do not flatten Obatala and Oduduwa into one agent; the corpus argues. Ife remains a living ritual city, not a closed myth.
Primary Sources
“Oduduwa came down the chain to the water, and the sand he poured became land at Ife.”
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