ILE

Goddess

Ilè, in Yoruba Ilẹ̀, often called Onílẹ̀, the owner of the earth, is the divinised Earth in the Yoruba religion of the south-west of present-day Nigeria. A nourishing power held to be very ancient and sometimes superior to the orishas, since she bears their sanctuaries and sustains human existence, she is a pillar of the moral and social order. Her cult is closely associated with the Ogboni society, also called Òṣùgbó among the Ijebu and the Egba, a brotherhood of elders which dispensed justice, arbitrated land disputes and held great political and religious power in the precolonial era. The emblem of this society, the edan Ogboni, a pair of male and female brass figures joined by a rod and an iron chain, represents Onílẹ̀. The Earth is invoked in oaths: in the ritual called ilẹ̀ mímu, one drinks water mixed with earth to seal a pact, betrayal calling down a dreaded punishment. Ilè forbids the shedding of blood and certain defilements on her soil, which demand rites of purification. She embodies fecundity, truth and a justice that rests upon the earth itself.