Pan-Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere, has praised President Bola Tinubu and Nobel Laureate Professor Wole Soyinka for embodying core Yoruba values on the international stage.
Gatekeepers News reports that in a statement issued by its National Organising Secretary, Otunba Kole Omololu, Afenifere said Tinubu’s act of cultural deference towards Soyinka during a recent state banquet in Brazil projected the true essence of the Omoluabi ethos.
Omololu explained: “Recent events underscore the unique prestige of the Yorùbá nation and the timeless power of its culture. In faraway Brazil, during a state banquet, President Tinubu vacated his seat in deference to Professor Soyinka, addressing him with the dignified word ‘egbon’ – elder brother.
This act, simple yet profound, reflects the essence of Yorùbá tradition: reverence for wisdom, humility in leadership, and the omolúàbí ethic that demands respect across generations.”
The group recalled historical precedents of Yoruba cultural pride on the global stage, including the 1987 reception of the late Ooni of Ife, Oba Okunade Sijuwade, by then Cuban President Fidel Castro.
According to Afenifere, Yoruba traditions and language remain deeply rooted across the Americas.
“Across Cuba, Brazil, Haiti, Trinidad, Jamaica, the United States, and much of Latin America, Yorùbá culture continues to thrive through faiths like Candomblé, Santería, Vodou, and Orisha traditions, where sacred words such as ‘àṣẹ’, ‘adúrà’, ‘oríkì’, and ‘Ọlọ́run’ are still spoken more than a century after the transatlantic dispersal.”
The organisation stressed that no other African culture has preserved its traditions so widely across the diaspora.
“Afenifere celebrates the Yorùbá spirit as resilient, dignified, and eternal, an inheritance that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Professor Wole Soyinka exemplify with grace,” the statement concluded.
