How Odùduwà was rebuilt, mark by mark
From the restoration bench — the working notes on Odùduwà, kept because the process is the proof.
What We Found
The attestation runs through the tradition's own sources: Òdùduwà. Meaning: "Creator of the earth; primordial ancestor of the Yoruba".
The figure behind the name: The stories of Odùduwà circulate within the Yoruba corpus, where the figure embodies progenitor, ile-ife, first king.
What the Name Carried In
Primary Attestation. Odùduwà is attested in the canonical Yoruba sources as a figure associated with progenitor, ile-ife, first king.
Name and Meaning. The name means "Creator of the earth; primordial ancestor of the Yoruba" and reflects the figure's role in the tradition.
A spelling that has to carry stories like these is not a label. It is equipment.
Where It Stood Before Us
Odùduwà is attested in the textual and iconographic record of the Yoruba tradition. The bench inherits all of it — the web temple is the newest site, not the first.
What We Kept
The evidence, mark by mark — 2 features the keyboard form oduduwa cannot hold:
- u → ù — Tone mark. Kept.
- a → à — Tone mark. Kept.
What We Rejected
oduduwa as the primary form. It survives as the convenience it is; it does not get to lead. The hierarchy is full restoration first, and this name can afford to stand at the top of it.
What We Set Down
Odùduwà — What survives here cannot be shown in ASCII: a feature of the original that the fallback alphabet flattens. That is the Tier-1 test, and this name passes it without argument.
For the voice: 'ODUDUWA' — pronounce the restored form with attention to the preserved diacritics and length.
The temple stands at /oduduwa/ — the notes above are public in its Scholarly Edition, sources and all.
At a Glance
- Restored name: Odùduwà
- ASCII form: oduduwa
- Meaning: "Creator of the earth; primordial ancestor of the Yoruba"
- Domain of influence: Progenitor, Ile-Ife, First King
- Pantheon: Yoruba
- Classification: Tier 1
- Original script: Òdùduwà
- Series: The Restoration Files, No. 264 of 406
The File Continues
The temple's founding dispatch tells the name's story; its Resonance File reads the myths into the industries; the blog index holds the whole archive.
Continue the series — previous file: Óðinn (read it here) · next file: Odysseús (read it here).
The Restoration Files are written from the same canonical record as the temples themselves: the lexicon, the lore catalog, the pattern atlas, and the cited scholarly sources. If a file ever disagrees with its temple, the temple is right — tell us, and the file will be corrected.