By Kehinde Aderemi
Pa Ademola Onibonokuta is a renowned artist, singer, sculptor, author and traditionalist. He is a practitioner of traditional medicine known for creating herbal remedies which he claims could manage and even cure various diseases considered incurable, including HIV/AIDS, stroke and snake bite, among others.
For close to five decades now, the Osogbo, Osun State-born retired civil servant said he has continually focused on using indigenous traditional powers and knowledge to develop medicines for diseases considered by conventional medical practitioners as incurable.
Contrary to claims by medical doctors, the octogenarian insisted that there are traditional anti-venom medicines and incantations that can cure snake bites and scorpion stings immediately.
In this interview, the multi-skilled former artist emphasised the importance of proper dosages and measurements when using herbal medicines. He insisted that Africa, including Nigeria and Yoruba land, is blessed with traditional herbal products and indigenous spiritual knowledge that can cure all known ailments.
How was your growing up like?
I was born in Osogbo and I grew up with my parents who were also from Osogbo.
My parents were Muslims and my family home is the popular Ile Samata in Osogbo, but we will soon change the name to Ile Janbebe to reflect the true identities of our ancestors who were foremost warriors in Osogbo in those days. We have concluded plans to change the family name and very soon we will have it changed.
How old are you?
I am above 87 years old now. Let me just put it at that. I started my modern elementary school education at St Michael school, Ikosin and later proceeded to Methodist school also in Osogbo. I was still a student at Methodist school in 1960 when I played the role of Oduduwa descendant in one of the inter-school stage plays then.
The stage play was organised to foster a healthy competition among different schools at the time and at the end of the event, my school came second in the cultural competition.
With the success recorded in the play, I decided to join the late Pa Duro Ladipo in 1961.
Please tell us about your time with Duro Ladipo
Interestingly, I became the assistant manager of the Duro Ladipo group the first day I joined the group. My Muslim name is Hammed, but it was the late Duro Ladipo that gave me the name Ademola Akanbi Onibonokuta. The late Duro Ladipo chose me to be the assistant manager of the group because he saw my talents, especially in areas that had to do with traditional cultural display.
The late Ladipo began as an actor that was producing religious drama. But when I joined him in 1961, he changed the pattern and started producing plays that had cultural relevance.
The late Duro Ladipo was a great actor and manager. I was with him till 1964 when we travelled to Germany for the Berlin Festival of Arts. Oba Koso was the play that gave the late Duro Ladipo and his group the opportunity to travel to Germany to be part of the Berlin Festival of Arts. There were stories attached to the success recorded with the play.
Oba Koso became popular then because it was tied to core Yoruba tradition. I acted the role of Gbonka Ebire Ajibogunsoro. And as the Gbonka Ebire, I did a lot of spiritual research and findings on the mystery of Yoruba traditional medicine and that singular efforts later paid off for not only me, but also for the entire members of the late Duro Ladipo group.
In the play, there was a scene that had to do with putting Gbonka Ebire in fire. That scene was cancelled because many believed it could be dangerous for the group. But even before the encounter, I had consulted widely, both physically and spiritually that even if I was thrown into the fire, I would disappear and nothing would happen to me.
Another interesting story was that there were two popular actors that competed for the Berlin slot. It was between the late Kola Ogunmola’s play titled “The Palm Wine Tapper” and Duro Ladipo’s play “Oba Koso.”
The late Duro Ladipo had asked me if I was interested in going to Berlin Festival and I responded that I was interested. I told my late father that two groups were competing to showcase their plays at the international fiesta and that he should assist us so that our group- the Duro Ladipo group would emerge victorious.
My father asked me to do some sacrifices which I did and on the day we were to have the final auditioning, former Premier of the Western region, Chief Ladoke Akintola and his wife Faderera were present at Obisesan Hall in Ibadan for the final audition between the two groups. So, shortly after our performances, Akintola announced to the hearing of all the audiences that our group had emerged victorious and we would represent Nigeria at the Berlin Festival.
That was how we got the only slot as Oba Koso emerged the best and we were offered the ticket to represent Nigeria at the Berlin Festival.
Our victory at the final auditioning wasn’t ordinary. The following day, it became the leading story in major newspapers of those days. Newspapers like Daily Sketch, Tribune and others in the western region put the story on their cover page and I became the face of the Duro Ladipo’s group.
After that, we travelled for the trip and immediately we came back to Nigeria, I left the Duro Ladipo Organisation in 1965.
Why did you leave the group at the peak of your career?
I left because my father wanted me to succeed him as a hunter, farmer and indigenous herbal medicine practitioner. He was a strong man in the whole of Osogbo and being his first son, he believed I should inherit all that he was leaving behind.
But my mother had another idea. She wanted me to further my education. Unfortunately, she died in 1964, just two weeks before we travelled to Germany.
So, when I left the late Duro Ladipo, I went to do a certificate course in DramaticArts at the University of Ibadan. I then worked at the Institute of African Studies, also in Ibadan, where I did the translation of the play titled Oba Koso to English. I was the one that did the translation. I even wrote a book on the late Duro Ladipo titled ‘The return of Sango.’
As an artist, author and retired civil servant, how did you get into trado-medical practice?
I retired as a director at the Osun State Council for Arts and Culture in 1996 to concentrate on providing healing for people through herbal medicine and other means.
Some diseases are believed to be incurable and can only be managed. Are there traditional medicines for such diseases like HIV/AIDS, stroke, hypertension, high blood pressure, etc?
As a professional herbalist, I have cure for diabetes, stroke, HIV/AIDS and a lot of other diseases.
Unfortunately, the conventional or orthodox medical practitioners, with their knowledge and exposure, can cure most of these diseases we are talking about, but they would not because of their economic interests.
Their strategy is to keep managing diseases, rather than cure them permanently so that Africans can continue to be at their mercy. They didn’t want us to be liberated from their economic bondage that is why they produce medicines that can only manage diseases for some time and not have complete cure.
But for us as Africans, God has blessed us with special spiritual powers and knowledge. We have medicines that can cure any ailment completely.
For instance, it will take just five days for me to cure diabetes completely. I have an indigenous anti-stroke medicine that once you use it, you will never have a stroke in life. I can also cure sickle cell anaemia, prostate enlargement, tuberculosis and other diseases that they call terminal diseases.
I am 87 years old now and with my age, I haven’t been admitted to a hospital in over 45 years.
Don’t you fall ill?
Lke every human being, I get sick. Whenever I am sick, I take herbs. And once I take them, I am healed. My children will dare not call a doctor whenever I am sick and even if they do, they would instruct the doctor not to give me an injection.
Why?
Because they know once I take herbs, I will get better and get back on my feet. So getting injections or any orthodox medication is not meant for me.
Have you taught your children all these herbal knowledge?
Well, there are a few of them that are showing interest. I teach them gradually. And, God willing, I hope to hand it over to them before I die.
I don’t have any excuse for saying this. I always ask God why it took Him this long at my age to get me to start taking care of people’s health needs. But one thing I am sure of is that in all my life’s trajectory, God keeps me for the future so that I will not suffer in life.
A popular lady singer, Ifunanya Nwangene, died of snake bite recently, because of lack of anti-venom drugs in the hospital. How then can anyone survive snakebite?
There is anti-snake venom in herbs. I have different ones. One of these is used annually, and for the whole year, no snake would dare touch you. Apart from that, there are other different traditional medicines that can take care of snake bites. There are traditional medicines that can cure snake bites or scorpion stings.
There are also incantations that cure snake bites. It depends on how far you have gone in your spiritual research as well as knowledge of indigenous spiritual medicine. It took me over 30 years to get some of these drugs.
Many believe indigenous drugs have no dosage or measurement like conventional drugs. How true is that?
There are dosages or some forms of measurements for indigenous herbal drugs. However, it depends on the nature of the diseases. More importantly, we should be careful when using any of the herbal medicine and we should also be conscious of the dosages and measurements as it was prescribed to us.
What religion do you practise? Are you a Muslim, Christian or herbalist?
I was born a Muslim. My name is Hammed and my father’s name was Gbadamosi. My father and my mother died as Muslims. It is from my family home in Osogbo that the second in charge to the Chief Imam is appointed. But I was the first in my family to convert to Christianity.
Why was that?
Because of the experiences I had with my Muslim friends during my low moments. They lack love and empathy among themselves.
So you are now a Christian?
Yes.
And you’re still a herbalist?
Yes. Because God created all the herbs for our healing. Using herbs for healing has nothing to do with your faith as a Christian or Muslim. It is unfortunate that there are a lot of misconceptions and deceits in the way we practise religion in Nigeria.
You mentioned low moments. When was that, and how did it happen?
After Festac 77, I lost everything and my life changed. Things became so difficult that I was so poor. But rather than supporting me during those low moments, my Muslim brothers and friends abandoned me and I became their subject of ridicule. But God later changed my story when Chief Adebutu Kessington (Baba Ijebu) gave me a contract to decorate one of his Casinos then.
I am a sculptor, an artist, a musician, a dancer, a textile man and a priest. I was the first person in the whole of Africa that first designed the Adire with multiple colours in 1967/ 1968. My colour Adire was displayed at the Institute of African Studies. I am also a musician. My first record was titled ‘Africa jiire loni.’ It was released in 1974.
If you go to the Palace of the Alaafin of Oyo, I did most of the sculptures and artistic designs there. It was the late Alaafin Oba Lamidi Atanda Adeyemi that gave me the name Irunmole Oosa, which I bear till date.
You’ve been into many things for many decades. You should be very rich
I have so many artistic works to show for all these gifts, but it is unfortunate I could not manage the success. I was too generous and it affected my income. The first book I wrote was entitled: ‘Ilepa Dudu Aiye.’ That was in 1964. It was used at the Linguistics Department of the University of Ibadan and Colleges of Education in some of the states in the South West.
That was the only book I wrote in Yoruba. There are many other books like Return of Sango, Keg of Wisdom, Gifts of the Gods and several others that were written in English. Some of these books were also published and printed in the prestigious Centre for African Studies, University of Bayreuth in Germany. I was to write a book for the university but I ended up writing five, which led to my first award and honour as a Research Fellow for the university. I was later honoured as a Visiting Professor at the University of Bayreuth in Germany.
But I am not poor. I am comfortable and God has continued to bless me in whatever I do. To the glory of God, my children are all doing well in their different endeavours. God has really shown me favour, especially in this area of herbal healing.
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