Perspectives on: OFO'

OFO

Ofo in Igbo tradition is a wooden stick, carved or not, gotten from a sacred tree to serve specific purpose.

The specific purpose of ofo is for anchoring volitions of a people to their soil.

Once a volition is anchored it starts having effect on/for the people. 

Ofo is taken as symbol of justice.

 

In many communities it is gotten from branch of ofo tree that falls off on its own because It is forbidden to cut a living ofo tree.

The stick is consecrated by the people for the purpose it will serve with spoken words from the priest of the concerned deity in a ritual called 'isa-ofo'. 

Ofo could only be moved to another person when it's custodian passes into the beyond. It moves to another custodian in a manner set by tradition.

Ofo links the volitions of the ancestors with that of the people still living on earth because it embodies the volitions of the ancestors i.e the  resolutions or volitions the past custodians & the people anchored to the soil with it. The volitions they now hold fast as tradition, and on which they could add more.

The volition or resolution is anchored to the soil i.e. to coarse gross matter with the words spoken on behalf of the people by it's custodian as he held the ofo.

As the custodian speaks, the people concur & so it becomes for them.

A custodian of ofo must strive always to keep his thoughts pure, to be truthful & upright i.e. he must strive always to stand on 'ogu'. 'Ogu' means uprightness, integrity.

Ofo and Ogu must go together.

Where an ofo is lost and is to be reinstated or reinstituted, or where it is to be instituted for the first time through the desire of a people, another stick is gotten from a sacred tree and consecrated by the people as earlier narrated.

For reinstating a lost ofo, words spoken will incorporate what the lost one embodied.

In some communities, the custody of community's ofo befalls (comes as of right to) one in a style set by the community. The person thus becomes 'aka-ji-ofo' of that community. Aka-ji-ofo gives ofo to the traditional ruler in communities that have such. In the early years, most Igbo communities do not have traditional rulers.

Now almost all of them have due to government interest.

For communities that have no designated family as royal, the 'aka ji ofo', gives the community's ofo to traditional ruler-select or elect on the coronation day.

In such communities, the traditional seat rotates in sections or villages on passing away of an incumbent ruler. 

On his passing, the ofo is retrieved from his family by the 'aka ji ofo' and kept till a new ruler emerges from another section or village.

For communities that have royal family or families, the ofo moves within the family or between the families on the passing of an incumbent ruler to a new person it goes to as of right according to tradition.

It is not retrieved by 'aka ji ofo' as it is done in communities without royal family.

Apart from ofo of the community, every family also has ofo.

In nuclear families, the custodian of ofo are parents and it moves to their eldest sons on their passing to the beyond, from the eldest sons to the next eldest in the family if they have no male children otherwise it moves to their own eldest sons on their passing into the beyond. 

And as each family expands into subfamilies and keep expanding, they unit as kindred. The eldest in a kindred is usually the custodian of ofo for that kindred. 

In traditional council of communities headed by traditional rulers of the communities, every kindred has a representative called 'ichie' in some communities. 

The 'ichie' i.e. the representative of a kindred may not be the custodian of ofo of his kindred. The representative is usually a person whose kindred considers suitable & knowledgeable to  represent them, and who can best convey their resolution or volition that concerns tradition to the traditional council for harmonisation with that from other kindreds & be issued out as culture of the community after it was anchored to the soil with the community's ofo given to the traditional ruler.

In igbo believe, ofo cannot be stained or corrupted because it is from sacred tree. However the custodian could sully himself or soil himself with unworthy acts. 

Ofo, in the hand of sullied custodian, ceases to be efficacious because ofo knows it's custodian. Once sullied, any volition anchored through him will be ejected by the ofo unknown to the people. 

From thence anyone contravening tradition will no longer be harmed. People could start contravening the tradition anyhow unharmed until that custodian passes on and cleansing sacrifice made to the deities. This is so because ofo cannot be moved to another person until the custodian passes on.

So the community would be in peril until the unworthy custodian passes on.

Once the sanctity of the land is restored by cleansing, anyone that does wrong will then be harmed unless he performs cleansing sacrifice to the deity of the land concerned.

The use of ofo has root in the religion of origin of the igbos which has mostly now been demonised and really deteriorated to demon service and connected to many dark cult. 

Now, with multiplicity of religion & believes, the use of ofo is getting stronger in some but less popular & losing strength or efficacy in many.

The believes of some religions are either adopting, modifying or rejecting ofo. The reasons for modifying or rejecting being that it binds people to matter and it is connected to deities, and also compels people to obey out of fear.

The highest knowledge about God which opened recognition of the Will of God to truly seeking human spirit stresses that anything that could bind one to matter or impede the use of one's free-will is wrong, that the Almighty God demands that we must be free in making choice of or deciding what we do, how we live our life because we alone are answerable for it by ourselves, that God ordains that the intuition of the spirit should lead the intellect of the body in choice & decision making if man must choose or decide rightly, that we should avoid whatever will attach us to matter & firmly hold us there, that we should look upwards to Him for everything to avoid being held in matter. Our treasure should be laid in heaven, for where your treasure is there will your heart be .

Our home is not in the world of matter but in the spiritual realm, above matter. 

Anything anchored in matter can easily hold one to matter and could easily draw one to darkness.  

In God's Will, obedience should not be in fear or compelled.

Therefore we must live in the Will of God. It behoves everyone to personally strive to identify it and live it. It is expressed in nature as the natural laws.

Everyone must strive to hold believes that respect the Will of God which is perfect, unchangeable & inviolable otherwise he would suffer the wrong believes when he departs from the physical body & be held in the planes where what he believed are anchored until he gains clarity. *As one believes so is it for him.*

Anything that cannot lift one above matter, holds whoever inwardly adopts it in matter.

Many now utter the word ofo to symbolically indicate that they are innocent and pure in thoughts (ofo na ogu), which is better if it expresses their inner being, our they stand at the time. 

*Let us free ourselves and become new*

Mezue Edmund O