ABSTRACT
Oríkì are attributive epithets or appellations, often translated as “praise poetry,” though this term does not do justice to the full range of the concept’s connotations. Oríkì do not necessarily praise, let alone flatter, the subject to whom they are addressed. Rather, they hail what is remarkable, distinctive and essential to that subject’s being. And in hailing those qualities, they are considered to evoke and activate them. Performing oríkì gratifies a human subject, causing their head to wú (to “rise up” or “swell”)—a Yorùbá expression also used to describe encounters with the extra-human. The electrifying effect of intensive oríkì-chanting can be seen in the way human addressees, often against their better judgment, are induced to dig deep into their pockets to find suitable monetary reciprocation for the performer—in the case of prominent “big men,” sometimes even stripping off their priceless handwoven robes as a gift. And it can be seen in the way an ancestral masquerade, inert throughout the year, is awakened into vigorous life when its devotees kì í, kì í, kì í—keep saluting it with oríkì. The verb kì means “to hail” or “to salute”; it also means “ramming something in,” like gunpowder into a gun barrel—suggesting the forceful impact of the act of hailing. Orí means “head” and is both a physical and a metaphysical concept, the seat of every individual’s life prospects, chosen before birth but subsequently forgotten, so that only Ifá—the god of divination who witnessed the originary choice—can reveal the person’s path and, if the portent is not favourable, help him or her to ameliorate it by hard work and sacrifice. Orí + kì is thus a matter of hailing or saluting an entity’s inner principle of existence.
