Ìyàwó mi tí mo féràn – My wife who I love so much
Te ló ti m’órí mi s’ábé – But you said she has subdued me
Sé e mo ohun tí mo rí lára rè- Do you folks know what I saw in her
Tí mo fi yan l’ayò mi ni – Before I chose her as my favourite
Aya t’ó ún m’únu mi dùn – A wife that gives me joy
Tí kò tú àsírí mi f’áyé gbó – And does not expose my secrets to the world to hear
Tí mo na gbe gègè bí eyin – If I handle her delicately like an egg
Sé ó ye kó l’éjó – Should that bring controversy.
The above lyrics are by an Islamic Gospel musician, Alhaji Abdul Kabir Bukola Alayande, who goes by the stage name: “Ere Asalatu.” The thematic preoccupation is to disabuse the notion that once a man loves his wife very dearly, the woman must have hypnotised him. In most African settings, such wives who are loved by their husbands, who, in most cases, fence off their spouses from the prying eyes of relations, are believed to have used love potions to bind their husbands.
The love potion motif, incidentally, is not restricted to Africa. Ancient Greek, Hebrew culture and modern-day science give credence to the existence of substances that can be administered, mostly through the gastronomy, to an individual, usually a man, to make him fall, and stay in love with the one who applies the substance.
Thomas R. Insel, an American psychiatrist and neuroscientist, in a 2001 paper, The Neurobiology of Love, published in “Nature Reviews Neuroscience”, tries to draw a parallel between ancient love potions and the role of hormones in human attraction. He says the “love hormone”, known in science as Oxytocin, “plays a critical role in bonding and social behaviors. Studies suggest that oxytocin release during physical touch or eye contact can strengthen emotional connections, mimicking the perceived effects of love potions in creating intimacy and desire.”
Smith, J.D., in an article, Food as Medicine: Chocolate and the Chemistry of Love, published in 2013, in the ‘Journal of Nutritional Science’, states that there are “Some ingredients historically believed to have magical properties, like chocolate and certain herbs, also have mild mood-altering effects due to their chemical composition. For example, phenylethylamine in chocolate is known to trigger the release of endorphins, contributing to feelings of happiness and euphoria.”
Angie Andriot, a research analyst for the Presbyterian Church, USA, in 2024, published an article, The Science of Attraction: And How to Make Love Potion, where she dwells extensively on the power of scents and the effect they could have on the opposite sex. She posits that “People often underestimate the power of their noses. But really, scent is a superhero among the senses. It’s directly wired to the brain’s emotional powerhouse, the limbic system. What this means is that, while sight and sound take a more scenic route through the brain, scents teleport straight to our emotional core. It’s like express delivery for feelings!” She gives a tabular formula of what she terms: “Love potion Perfume Recipe”, and concludes that “The realm of scents really is a playground for romance.”
In the Holy Writ, it is recorded in Genesis 30:14-15, that Rachael, the favourite of Jacob, gave up her sleeping right to her elder sister, Leah, in order to have a part of the mandrakes, the Hebrew “Love Plant”, harvested by Reuben, Leah’s son, in the belief that its consumption would not only make her fertile, but would also attract the attention of their husband, Jacob.
The scientists of that age recorded that “The Mandrake plant is toxic, causing hallucinations. Its root system is bulbous and resembles a human figure. Although it has a pleasant smell, the only part of the mandrake that is not poisonous is its red fruit. It is called the “love apple” and is considered to be a powerful aphrodisiac (love potion) which could help women in conception.”
In my Yoruba background, the love potion is known as Òògùn ìfé. It can be used diabolically to entangle a man in a relationship he does not want. Likewise, it can also be used as an Ìròjú (mesmerize), to make a woman fall in love with a man she does not like. But in most cases, the love potion motif in Yoruba setting focuses more on a woman who is believed to have used a diabolical means to manipulate her husband to give her undue attention, with the man acting strangely as if he is under the total control of the wife.
Relations of spouses, where the female partners are suspected to have manipulated the males through such a means, don’t usually take the matter lightly with the women so suspected. Ere Asalatu probably composed the above song to establish that it is not often a case of love potion, when a man and his wife appear to be inseparable and madly in love with each other.
The First Lady of the Federation, Mrs. Remi Tinubu, played up the above intendment of Ere Asalatu, when on Thursday last week, in her maternal home of Warri Kingdom, she alluded that for the past 40 years she has been married to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, she “signed, sealed and delivered” the relationship because she served the man with the “Itsekiri love potion.”
Mrs. Tinubu, I must admit, was at her cultural best on that occasion, where the Olu of Warri Kingdom, Ogiame Atuwatse III, conferred on her the traditional title of Utukpa-Oritse (The Light of God). The First Lady, in her traditional element, delivered her extempore speech in a rare mastery of the Itsekiri Language which she code-mixed and code-switched at both the intra and extra-sentential levels with the English Language.
While admitting that she is Yoruba, being the daughter of the late Samuel Olatunji Ikusebiala of Ijebu Ode, Ogun State, Mrs. Tinubu, a Senior Pastor with The Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), traced her maternal ancestry to the Itsekiri of Warri Kingdom and paid glowing tribute to her mother, an Itsekiri woman, and the people of the Kingdom.
