Warri Dead Kings

In this write up, J.O.S Ayomike gives the significance of the final resting place of man, while highlighting the need for the Warri Royal Cemetery, at Ijala, where the first Olu of Warri, Ginuwa 1, as well as 17 of his successors, were buried, to be turned into a monument by the government.

All over the world, right from the dawn of history, where one is buried has always been of tremendous importance. It is so, and has to be so, because a burial place is the aggregation of man’s physical, emotional, cultural and ethereal existence. It is the bottom-line indicator of where one comes from; one’s homeland. We will leave out the well-known religious “holy” burial sites in Israel and just dwell on some ancient historical sites here.

When the individual happens to be an important personality, such as a king/queen, a traditional head or someone in such similar, titled position, it is imperative that he/she gets buried in the homeland – a homeland that is indisputably and incontrovertibly his or her own. History is replete with examples.

Let us take two cases to explain the importance or otherwise of having a burial place. Let us take two of the greatest music legends – Handel and Mozart – the former has marked grave, the latter has none.

George Frideric Handel (1685 – 1759) was born in Halle in Germany. Handel naturalised in England and composed all his music in English language, a fact which made him very unpopular in his native Germany.  (Eventually, the Germans could not resist the polyphonic power of his famous “Hallelujah Chorus”). Thus by the time of his death in 1759, Handel, the natural leader among composers of choral and majestic music, had earned a place for himself at the Westminster Abbey where he was buried. Today, lovers of Handelian music troop from all over the world, to the Westminster Abbey, just to see the burial site of Handel. Unfortunately this cannot be said of Mozart.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 – 1791) was only three years old when Handel died in 1759. Mozart, more than Handel, his senior by 24 years, and Beethoven, his junior by 15 years, excelled in every musical medium current in his time. All scholars claim him to be the most universal composer in the history of Western classical music. In spiritual circles, it is believed that he, more than any other composer, went into the deeper recesses of the heavens of God to access and bring down the original sound of God. Child prodigies are not that rare, but there is none that stands in comparison with Mozart.

From his sister’s piano book, he learned music at the age of four; at five, he started composition and at six, he started giving public music concerts, at which he conducted his own music, while standing on table tops. At seven, he started playing the violin without being taught; and first published his works at eight years. At the end of his short life – he died at the age of 35 – he left behind such volume of music works that is beyond imagination. For instance, from the age of 21, he turned out some 27 compositions yearly until the end of his life. Mozart remains a phenomenon till today.

This is not meant to be a biography of Mozart per se, and it cannot be. What we meant to emphasise here is that this giant has no burial place or site which would have become a ‘Mecca’ for millions around the world who enjoy his music, and hundreds of thousands who today perform and live on his works.

Due to a combination of factors, he died a poor man and had nobody to bury him. But for his few Freemason friends (he was a Mason) who put together the money to bury him at a public cemetery, it would have been a different story. He was dumped in an unmarked grave. A week later, when more people heard about his death and questions were asked, the grave-man had been changed. So, the whereabouts of Mozart’s remains became permanently lost to humanity. Today, all that is left for people to see is the Church in Vienna where he was Music Director.

Among the burial sites that are preserved, though in different ways, and both running into centuries back, are the Warri Royal Burial Grounds and Escoria in Spain, two hours by car outside of Madrid. In the case of Escoria, a building is the site, not a regular Mausoleum. This is a huge ancient building, which once you enter, you are immediately struck by a quaint aura and eerie quiet of the ancient Greek. Nether world stories – a heaven under the Earth crust – and you immediately lose your power of speech. Everywhere around you, up on galleries, as far as you can see, you are surrounded by the remains of Spanish kings in polished wooden caskets – a stupendous sight indeed.

The second one is the Warri Royal Burial Grounds at Ijala. Today, is it not a wonder that from the end of the 15th century, when monarchy was instituted in Warri Kingdom, all their Olus (kings) to date have been buried in marked graves?

Against the foregoing background of Mozart’s unmarked grave, due essentially to his people’s lack of vision of his future image as a music-wizard, credit must be given to the early Itsekiris who secured Ijala, (less than two kilometers behind the Warri refinery) as the burial site of their Warri kings about 1500.

Ginuwa I, who left Benin about 1480 to found Warri Kingdom, died at Ijala and was buried there. Since then, all other 17 Olus who had reigned and died were buried there, including eight baptised Catholic Christians: Olu Sebastain, Atuwatse I (Dom Domigos); Antonio Domingos, Mathias Ludivico, Luigi, Sebastian II, Miguel and Dom Agostinhio. Huge Iroko trees, most over 300 years old, planted to mark the graves are standing fresh, lush and green. Pieces of relics of articles strewn on the water-front area still exist till date. Trained foresters recently commissioned have assessed the ages of the Iroko trees and assigned different ages now tied to the various monarchs resting there. We think this is the greatest piece of evidence that can be given of the existence of several civilized communities that existed before in the territory, subsequently “manufactured” by Lord Lugard in 1914 as Nigeria.

I, therefore, hope the royal cemetery in Ijala will, in no time, assume a world status.

Pa. Ayomike, Chairman, Itsekiri Leaders of Thought, sent this piece from Warri.