BABA KEKERE OF OYO KINGDOM

BABA KEKERE OF OYO KINGDOM

Baba Kekere has served 3 Alaafins. His duty is to run errands for the king. He served :

1. Oba Adeniran Adeyemi II, Lamidis father between 1945 & 1956.

2. Oba Gbadegesin Ladigbolu II between 1956 & 1968 and

3. Oba Lamidi Adeyemi III, between 1970 &

2022.

He walks briskly in and around the Alaafin of Oyo palace. He is very popular not only because of his diminutive figure but because of his humility and he does not get angry. Some call him a man with repository of knowledge of the Palace for he has the history off hand and some call him the Palace library or an archive. 

He is called Baba Kekere possibly because of his height. His age is unknown because his birth was not recorded but it is assumed that he should be over 100 years now. His real name is Morenikeji Lasisi.

His Age: Baba Kéjì is not up to 200 years. How did I know this? I have listened to him, while rendering his account of stewardship in the palace. He categorically stated it that he was quite young during the reign of Oba Siyanbola Ladigbolu, the 42nd Alaafin of Oyo, who reigned between 1911 and 1944.

How old is Bàbá Kéjì? Bàbá Kéjì, from the above assertion in no 3, as a young man during the reign of Oba Ladigbolu, was between 20 and 25 years. Oba Siyanbola Ladigbolu joined his ancestors in 1944. That was about 80 years ago. Let’s add his age at that time to 80 years. Bàbá Kéjì is between 100 and 110 years old.

Bàbá Kéjì does not mean ‘second father’. Keji, in this context, means companion. It is just the way we pronounce Morenikeji (I’ve got a companion). He used to be the Alaafins’ companion.

Career

He is not called Baba Kekere. He is called Baba Kéjì. Kéjì means a companion. In his heyday, while he was relatively young, Baba Kéjì was always around the Alaafin. He was Alaafin’s companion. At times, he usually joined the Alaafin on brief hunting inside the palace. That was when the palace was surrounded by bush, where you could hunt snakes and others.