The Goodluck Of The People Of Oriire

Something almost exactly divine in terms of naming and naming systems in Africa has just been seen in the metonymic correctness of what has just happened in Oriire Local Government in Oyo State of Nigeria. The phrase “Oriire” means goodluck or simply “lucky” in the Yoruba language. In the Oriire community in the Ogbomoso area of Oyo State, the name of a community just fulfilled its meaning, reinforcing the semiotic, signifying index of African words and meanings. In simpler non-teleological lingua, it can be said that the people of Oriire just got lucky. The people’s name has just re-discovered them, in a telling historic moment. The Yoruba in converting this into a greeting, with their accustomed manner of having a greeting for every occasion would capsulize it as: “eku oriire ni Oriire oh.” The figure of speech is at once synecdoche and metonymy depending on how you look at it. What is common from both angles is the element of “goodluck” and the correspondence between name, place and circumstance.

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