HOW I BECAME AN AFRICAN CHIEF!

My 6 and a half foot son Joey and my 6 foot son Joshua were present with me, in Nigeria, in the kingdom of Erin Ijesa, when the people from miles around were invited to the palace courtyard of the king for a special ceremony.  King Adeosun wanted to officially confer upon me an honorary chieftaincy.  The king first presented me with two complete sets of his own royal clothing, which I was to wear.  Then, during the ceremony, the king gave to me a set of very valuable chief’s beads, that can be only worn by a chief.  There was this elaborate ceremony where I was presented with a special handful of branches with leaves, and prayers were made and words were spoken during which, by the grace of God, I became an official African chief, complete with royal regalia, the chief’s beads, a special certificate of chieftaincy, and I was given a special title.  The title is: “Onihirere!”, which, in the Yoruba language, means, “Proclaimer of the Gospel!” 

It is very interesting to me, that the African and Nigerian and Yoruba people take this chieftaincy seriously.  The king himself declared that I was not only a chief, but one of his “high chiefs”.   When the king held court, and the chiefs assembled, I sat among them as one of them.  King Adeosun also had earned and become a justice of the peace in the area, and as such, held court and acted as a judge in personal and legal matters.  In one such case, there was a land dispute.  The accused man had come into disfavor with the king, and lay prostrate before the king and the chiefs during the entire proceeding.  I was sitting in the midst of the chiefs as one of them, dressed in the same kind of attire of ornate robes and beads, and was accepted as one of them.  It was truly amazing.  The citizens of the kingdom, including the police, and the chiefs and the officials, bowed low to the king and queen and spoke to them with averted gaze and deep respect, freely interspersing their conversations with “your highness”, “your majesty”, “your eminence”, over and over again.  Often the king and the queen would conduct royal business and the affairs of state from the throne and the throne-room and the palace.  The king often wore an actual crown and held a royal scepter, which often consisted of an actual horse’s white tail, carefully cured and made into a very fancy scepter.  I myself was presented with one of these scepters, and an official chief’s cape, and an official chief’s cane, and an official chief’s cap, etc.  These items were to be possessed or worn or carried by a king or a chief, and were recognized as such by Africans everywhere.  It reminds, to some extent, of some of the actions and scenes seen in the movie “Coming To America”, although I have never seen any palace quite as wealthy as that seen in the movie, yet the respect was the same, and the mentality, both on the part of the royalty, and on the part of the citizens of the kingdom.

One scene that was typical of this kind of thing from the movie, was when the prince had come to America and was met at a ball game by one of the subjects of the kingdom.  The subject bowed repeatedly and exclaimed excitedly, to the surprise of everyone else.  But that same kind of excitement and respect is common in Africa. 

Kabiyesi Adeosun behaved every bit the part of a wise and revered king, and was also a great and wise and dignified man of God.  He spoke constantly of Christ and of spiritual things.  When we were staying at the palace, the king came with his entourage in the middle of the night, to have night vigil prayers and singing.  He would say, “We will sing moh!”  Often, he himself would lead, “Prayer Is The Key, prayah ees dah mastah key.  Jesus stahted weet prayah.  He hended weet prayah.  Prayah ees da mastah key!”, or, “What Shall I Rendah To The Lord?”,

The king and queen also adopted my sons as their own, and there was much joyful laughter, when they sat on the queen’s lap while she was sitting on the throne, and called her “Mommy”.

The king and queen came to the United States for the first time, and came straight to our home, from Nigeria, stayed for a week at our ministry center in the wilderness, for a special convention of people from many miles around, and, when the convention was over, the king and his entourage, flew directly back to Africa, only stopping briefly to see one of our shopping centers.  When I reminded the king that he could have gone any place in the United States to see any kind of sight, he responded by saying, “My purpose of coming to the United States was to worship God with you in the wilderness!” 

Kabiyesi was amazed that I would be kind enough to feed the birds, and was amazed when I took him and the queen for a ride in the state forest that there were no people anywhere around, because Nigeria has nearly half the population  of the United States in a land area the size of three states the size of Iowa or Wisconsin, so there people everywhere present, in Nigeria.  What an adventure!

Not long ago, on an fairly recent ministry trip to Nigeria, when we arrived in the country, I felt a very strong urgency to go straight to the palace to visit the king, so, even though my host wanted to delay the visit, instead was willing to respect my sense of urgency and we went to visit the king Adeosun.  Oh, it was a lovely time!  Kabiyesi was animated and joyful, with a spring in his step and with enthusiasm.  He described how, in his living quarters, a fire had broken out and he found himself trapped on the balcony, and would have been badly burned.  He described how he had jumped from the second story balcony and landed on a hard surface below, yet miraculously escaped any kind of hurt.  For this, he gave all the glory to God.  The king had diabetes, and was approximately 75 or so.  We had a lovely time there with the king, and I presented him with a lovely walking stick with ornate brass decorations, and with other small presents.  We embraced, then bowed low, and we departed, with smiles and waves.   That night our beloved king kabiyesi Oba Adeosun, passed away quietly in his sleep.  We were the last people from the outside world to see him alive.  How we loved him.

Our ministry, the Great Commission Ministries, has the legal right to confer honorary doctorate degrees upon worthy people.  At the ceremony, in which my chieftaincy was conferred upon me, and at which time my sons were present, without telling the king in advance, I conferred upon him, in front of all his royal family and subjects present, an honorary doctor’s degree, which he maintained for those 10 remaining years, or so, of his life.  I plan to pay a royal visit to his daughter, the princess Adeola, in just a few weeks on my up-coming 6 week ministry trip to Nigeria.