Oba Olanes Owosofo, Timi of Ede. The Timi of Ede is one of sixteen Yoruba kings permitted to wear the beaded crown. In the past, the people revered the oba (king) as a god. He wore clothes forbidden to common mortals and he alone took shelter under a state umbrella. He appeared in public three times a year, his face veiled by beaded strands hanging from his crown because it was strictly forbidden for anyone to see his face. It was said that the unbearable intensity of his regard would strike anyone blind who chanced looked at him. Day and night, a corps of emese-odi (page-slaves) attended the sovereign. They tasted his meals, rolled around in his bed and if it passed the test, they declared, “there are no scorpions.” Some of his slaves became ambassadors or spies. The senior Odi was the power behind the throne, a fomenter of palace intrigue. In fact, in Yoruba the same word denotes “servant” and “noble.” The oba was a prisoner of his station; he had no real power. He belonged to the kingdom. Every year, the priests consulted the Ifa (oracle) to determine the king’s fate. If it was decided he should die, the chiefs sent him a parrot egg. Then the sovereign had no alternative to commit suicide. When the new king was enthroned, he performed a complex ritual. To unite his soul with the late monarch’s, he ate his predecessor’s heart or kept his head at home. The myth says that at the dawn of time, the world was nothing but a swamp. Oduduwa, son of Olorun, the unique god of the Yoruba, came down to Earth with the help of a chain. He held a handful of earth, a young rooster, and a palm kernel. Oduduwa tossed the earth into the water, and Ife, the first Yoruba kingdom, emerged from the waves. Oduduwa planted the palm kernel in a hole dug by the young rooster and it produced a powerful tree with sixteen branches – the sixteen dynasties of Yoruba kingdoms.