Homage,my mother,the Osoronga
Mother with the beautiful eyes,
Who has a bunch of hair in her private part,
The mother who owns a brass tray
And a brass fan.
The famous bird of night who flies gracefully.

To the coastal Yoruba,the movement of the sea is a reverberation of the drumming,dancing,and feasting going on in the rambling palace of Iya Nla at the bottom.Hence,the popular saying:

Gbogbo ilu ni mbe i'olokun,Olokun Seniade Ajifgilupe,Oba Omi (All kinds of drumming occur beneeath thec sea,Olokun Seniade The -one -who-wakes-up-to-the-rhythm-of-drums,lord of the waters).

As the Mother of All,she receives and entertains visitors all day,all night-the orisa,spirits of the newly dead,spirits of plants and animals,souls of thousands of children waiting to be born onto the earth,and souls of "returning"Abiku,all flock around her as she dances through her huge reception hall dressed in immaculate white cloth and decked in white coral beads,welcoming one group after another.

As one informant put it, "Iya Nla likes music and dance so much that that she can celebrate for weeks without caring for food".

Her earthly disciplies,the "powerful mothers",have a similar love of the performing arts.Indeed,in one Ifa divination verse, (Odu Ogbe iyonu),the "powerful mothers" disclose to Orunmila that they would favour all those who honor them wioth music and dance (Verger 1965:186).Little wonder that the Gelede performance is considered one of the most effective means of seeking their favours.

Babatunde Lawal on Iyan Nla Yoruba Great Mother, in The Gelede Spectacle