Within the heart of Osun State in southwestern Nigeria, the drums are being beaten, the women are singing, and the men are gathering in numbers as the people of Ijesaland — from the North and South of the country, and the Diaspora — trip into Ilesa, the cultural stronghold, and the historical capital of Ijesaland to witness the magnificent display …

This Friday, the new Owa Obokun of Ijesaland, Oba Adesuyi Haastrup, would be presented with the staff of office to formally announce the commencement of his reign as the supreme sovereign of all Ijesha. The Friday ceremony is to emphasise the new arrangement imposed by the Nigerian state on the old order in Yorubaland. In precolonial times, obas were sovereign …