Alaafin’s Palace Mourns Death Of 420-Year-Old Tortoise, “Baba”

The palace of the Alaafin of Oyo is mourning the death of Baba, a tortoise believed to have lived for about 420 years and regarded as a treasured relic of the ancient Oyo Kingdom. Baba died on Monday after falling ill and was subsequently buried, ending what the palace described as a centuries-old presence that outlasted successive Alaafins. The Director of Media and Publicity to the Alaafin, Bode Durojaiye, disclosed this in a statement issued in Ibadan on Thursday.

Durojaiye said Baba represented more than a pet, describing him as part of the oral history and cultural heritage of the Yoruba people. Oral history traced the tortoise’s origin to Oyo-Ile, the ancient Oyo Empire capital, from where it was brought to the present palace in Oyo town, becoming a familiar attraction cared for by two palace officials who fed him watermelon, corn pap and grass.

The palace described Baba as the “oldest indigene” in Oyo and the paramount ruler’s most cherished pet, inherited by successive kings as part of the relics of their ancestors. It linked Baba’s symbolic place in Oyo history to Yoruba beliefs about the relationship between the living, the dead and the unborn, referencing Wole Soyinka’s play, Death and the King’s Horseman, describing his death as the loss of a longstanding companion and cultural attraction.