Yoruba kingdom rejoices as the Ooni of Ife celebrates another year!

Ki ade pe l’ori! Ki bata pe l’ese! Today, we join the Yoruba kingdom as one of their most chromatic kings to date celebrates another year. Ooni Adeyeye Ogunwusi, the Ooni of Ife celebrates his birthday.

I have not agreed with all of his actions since donning the revered crown, but I cannot work he’s done for the Yoruba kingdom. Doing away with tradition that the ruler must stay hidden away in his palace (?), this Ooni has taken Yoruba culture and heritage to the world!

He is articulate in Yoruba as he is in English; he is gracious, he is regal, and he is charming. The Ooni of Ife makes us proud everywhere he goes, and it is for this reason and no other that we celebrate him today.

Anyone who has even a drop of Yoruba blood in them must be proud of our monarch; the keeper of our ways, the custodian of our culture. He is a god made man; the embodiment of all of our legends and stories. A king indeed!

We wish you long life, Ooni. May our ancestors continue to guide you. May the prayers of the king makers and the elders of our land never steer you wrong. We pray your reign be long and bring benefit to our land. Asé!