By Adebola Feyikemi Adedokun THE worship of Olokun is peculiar to Yoruba communities that live near the sea, or who had lived near the sea before the sea receded to where it currently is, or before the communities migrated from their original lands. Specifically, Ile-Ife, Benin-City (an extension of Yoruba kingdom), Ugbo (an Ilaje town in Ondo State), Ijebu-Manuwa (an Ilaje town in Ogun State), Ode-Irele and Igbinsin-Oloto (Ikale communities in Ondo State) are noted for the worship of Olokun or Malokun, which is either a god or goddess of the sea, depending on the people’s oral tradition or the community’s gender preference. Among the gods and goddesses worshipped in Yoruba kingdom, Olokun or Malokun is very significant.
In Benin City, it is the most widely worshipped. Olu means ‘the owner,’ ‘caretaker’ or ‘controller,‘ while okun means ‘the sea.’ To the Ikale and Ilaje Yoruba, Malokun is a contracted name from Umale Okun, a deity or spirit of the sea.
Several scholars have written either on Olokun or Malokun. Among them are Adeoye, Willet, Parrinder, Eluyemi, Awolalu, Idowu, Rosen, Audu. Eluyemi explains that Olokun was one of the wives of Oduduwa, very beautiful but barren.
She was also said to have started beads-making industry in a grove in Ile-Ife known as Olokun Grove. Fragments of crucibles and furnaces for fusing bead and smelting iron ore could still be found in the said grove with fragments of beads littering the entire place. Similarly, Audu has.