Moremi (Edi) Festival
The Edi/Moremi Festival is a celebration of independence for Ife. It started as a means of celebrating the role the legendary Queen Moremi played and the ultimate sacrifice the Queen Moremi Ajasoro made for the people of Yorubaland. During the Edi Festival, everyone is meant to be in a sober mood, and the beating of drums shut down in Ile-Ife in remembrance of the ultimate sacrifice done by Moremi, but once Tele carries the spiritual load, the drums are reopened first at the Ooni’s palace.
Furthermore, several public places are named after her in contemporary Nigeria, such as the female residence halls at the University of Lagos and Obafemi Awolowo University.
The history of the legendary queen Moremi Ajasoro is the story of a 12th-century Yoruba queen who reigned over a thousand years ago and stopped the enslavement of her people, the people of the Ile-Ife kingdom, especially women and children. There was a war between two communities, the Ife kingdom, and the Ugbo people. The Ugbo people come disguised as spiritual invaders. They came during market days to kidnap people especially the vulnerable, who were women and children. She grew up seeing how helpless her people were and took it upon herself to discover the secret of these invaders and allowed herself to be captured as a slave.
Eventually, she found favor in the sight of the king of the Ugbo Kingdom who eventually married her and turned her into a queen. There, she discovered the secret of how they continually invaded the Ife Kingdom. She was able to unveil the secret to her people and they were able to stop the constant invasion.
In 2017, HIM, Ooni Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi Ojaja II erected a statue of Moremi in his palace. The statue is the tallest in Nigeria, It is also the fourth tallest in Africa.