Literary texts tell us things about society and culture that we could learn in no other way. In this book I investigate what oriki tell us about Okuku and what Okuku told me about oriki.

Okuku is a town in the Ọyọ State of Nigeria, small by Yoruba standards, but an important political and cultural centre in its own area, the Odo-Ọtin district. Oriki are a genre of Yoruba oral poetry that could be described as attributions or appellations: collections of epithets, pithy or elaborated, which are addressed to a subject. In Okuku they are performed mainly by women.

Oriki are a master discourse. In the enormous wealth and ferment of Yoruba oral literature, they are probably the best-known of all forms. They are composed for innumerable subjects of all types, human, animal and spiritual; and they are performed in numerous modes or genres. They are compact and evocative, enigmatic and arresting formulations, utterances which are believed to capture the essential qualities of their subjects, and by being uttered, to evoke them. They establish unique identities and at the same time make relationships between beings. They are a central component of almost every significant ceremonial in the life of the compound and town; and are also constantly in the air as greetings, congratulations and jokes. They are deeply cherished by their owners.

The most conspicuous of the genres based on oriki are those performed by specialists, like the hunters who perform ijala chants, or professional entertainers like the travelling egungun masqueraders. Both men and women can make a name for themselves as public performers, by going wherever great celebrations are being held - and, nowadays, by appearing on television and making records. There is also, however, a less conspicuous but much more pervasive tradition of oriki performance carried on by ordinary women, the wives and daughters of the town's compounds, who learn and perform the oriki relevant to the individuals and groups with which they are associated. This less showy, more anonymous, but often more profound tradition of oriki chants performed by women is the central subject of this book.