Ironic Reversals: Gender, Power, and Sacrality in Ilé-Ifẹ̀

Olupona’s “indigenous hermeneutic” offers a privileged guided journey into the dense ritual space of a vital city. I underscore a subtle leitmotif—gender and female agency—running throughout this interpretive account to show women’s power to be both a sustaining force and source of ironic reversals in the fate of Ilé-Ifẹ̀