History of Yoruba

7/27/2019 History of Yoruba

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August 7, 2006

The ancient Yoruba were one of the most accommodating and the

most adventurous people on earth. They were the explorers, thetraders, and the Oloko (boat people) who traveled by ships, animal

carriers and on foot. They traveled north and south of the Nile, from

one coast to another, to Asia, Australia and the Americas. We all

agreed that mankind started from Africa, see Dr. Spencer Wells

research on Y and X chromosomes, but vacillated on the spread of

civilization.

The Yoruba left marks by spreading their genes, arts, sciences,culture and religion. They are born out by ancient artistic stone

monoliths dated before Christ and later by terracotta. Thanks to

archeology, arts, sciences and devoted scholars that are still

unraveling these past accomplishments. The history of the Yoruba

before present era (BC) and their cousins can be told intelligently

even by what we know now.

I have always wondered why Yoruba wrote on peoples arm and body

and devised systematic numbers by tens, twenty and hundred but

restricted them to a few who could read and write. A book brought

back to IFE by Oduduwa on his sojourns on the Nile Valley can still

not be interpreted?

Many Yoruba do not know where the name came from. Every Ethnic

group in Nigeria (their cousins) has taken the advantage to interpret

the name, Yoruba. Even before, they came in contact with one

another, in the recent past.

Combination of OYO and OBA gives YORUBA: OYO-OBA, OYO-

ROBA,

OYO-RUBA


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These were words that were taken from different orikis in Yoruba

that we hardly connect together. There is no need to look outside

the language itself for where Yoruba name came from. Omo Karo o

jire (Good morning) is understood by most Yoruba, from Lagos to

Sierra Leone, Cuba, Brazil, and Americas. Yet, there are some whohave lost it and even deny their own identity. Mix Africans in Europe,

Asia, Australia, America and Africa refer to their white blood.

Including those with skin darker than char coal, ignore the threat of

one drop of black blood rule.

My own name is so foreign, one has to be familiar with Lagosians to

know that I am a Yoruba. One important identity that my family has,

as all Yoruba, is oriki. It takes me back home to Enu Owa in Isale Ekoand Popo Aguda in Lagos. I will leave it as Omo Aresa. .Yoruba

Lagos original connection. So, please understand my biases. Yes, I

am the same person who refused to join Yoruba organizations in the

seventies, because I am a NIGERIAN! I can be a proud Yoruba and a

Nigerian, no conflict.

ILE IFE has been the ancestral home of Yoruba and most of their

history begins from there. It is the religious, spiritual and artistic

home. There are important people revered by the Yoruba who

marked critical landmarks in the history. Some are even delegated as

messenger of Olorun (God).

Olorun the only God, has always been the belief of the Yoruba before

Christianity and Islam. He created mankind through Orunmila. The

point of this paper is not to deal with myth or gospel of the Bible,

Koran, Tora or Ifa. The rift between evolution and creation is very

strong regarding what to teach in elementary school, not only amongparents in the United States but in other countries including Nigeria.

This paper will assume scientific facts and oral history.

There were generations in between the heroes or icons the Yoruba

revered in history. So there were Obatala, Moremi, Oduduwa,


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I have to emphasize a point Professor Jide Osuntokun made many

times. Dynasty and the people may not necessarily be the same. In

the case of Benin, there were Ogiso rulers before the Obas came.

The Benin Empire and influence came under the Oba rulers. It is thisinfluence that was developed by the descendants of Oba which grew

from the 13th century. This remarkable much later achievement,

rivaled their Yoruba predecessor, but presented no conflict with Ife.

Some have speculated that the transition from Ogiso to Oba was not

so peaceful, autochthonous chiefs undermined Ewekas authority. Up

till today, the land is leased from the Ogiso descendants during the

crowning ceremony of Oba to dampen the rivalry between the two

dynasties. This rivalry, is still in the folklore and still generate somehard feelings.

Another landmark figure was Shango, the Alafin of Oyo whose

mother was Tapa. He was credited with creating gun powder from

kola nuts. After his death, he became a demigod.

He was well known beyond Africa and stories were told about Oba

Koso. Pedral quoted Mories work in Coptic text - Obba Kousso as

he was known, was King Shango and a king of Kush who ruled north

and west of Africa but was born in Ife. Morie had no idea where Ife

was.

Somewhere in there was the Bilikisu Sungbon, whose travel and

exchange of gift, in gold, ivory, spices and the number of eunuchs

that followed her to King Solomon tally with Queen of Sheba Bible

story that happened before Christ. She gave birth to her own

AdeTokunbo who might have started the line of Emperor Hailey

Salashi of Ethiopia. More research is needed here because the mostremarkable wonder she left in Ijebu was the greatest monument in

the world. According to Professor Patrict Darling of Bournemouth

University, U.K, the construction was greater in size than any

pyramid in Egypt. It can still be observed near Ijebu Ode today. So

far, the dating has not matched the Bible story.


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IFE has been studied extensively by foreigners and less by

Nigerians. This is a culture that has been nearly highjack and labeled

the work of whites or black whites. What! Professor Wole Soyinka

noted the irony in the words of the German scholar, Leo Frobenious,looking at the Yoruba chiefs at Ile Ife, wondering if they were the

descendant of the lost civilization of Atlantis. Sir Flinder Petrie,

world renowned archeologist noted the similarity between terracotta

head of Ife and that in Memphis. Osun staff is a serpentine staff

crowned by bird, carried by initiates of Obatala, it is the same

medical symbol of Caduceus.

Africans scholars like Professors Peter Eke, Cheikh Diop, FrankSnowden, Dr. W.E.D DuBois, Marcus Garvey and John D. Balwin e.t.c

worked tirelessly to prove that Egypt was and is in Africa. This may

sound strange to a student new in the field, but a paper such as this

can not do justice to their work. Anyone interested must pursue their

work.

In Egypt we see evidence of earlier civilization of the blacks from

Sudan of today (Nubia), Nok culture, Ife stone, terracotta and

language known before Christ (B.C), Igbo Ukwu 10th century, Sugbon

Eredo, old Oyo walls, Benin Iya ditch, the Great Zimbabwe. There

were the Wolof, Mendes, Akhan. The Shaka Zulu, and the 16th

century Queen Nzinga of Angola who fought against slave trade. An

objective scholar would see these cultures reproduced in Egypt, but

not those who wanted to claim Egypt for the white race. Indeed,

those who painted black civilization white are still working at it

vigorously.

African travel by boat or ship has been demonstrated by the

advanced construction of Dafuna Canoe recently excavated near

River Yobe dated 8,000 years old while the oldest boat in Egypt is

5,000 years old.


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Nazlet Kater, an African skull, the oldest human found in Luxor in

1980 is about 35,000 years old. There were also other white

scholars who had made observation of the Egyptians as blacks.

Greek historian Diodorus Siculus of Sicily, 1st century B.C, creditedthe Ethiopians (blacks) as the first of all men created by the gods

and founders of civilization and religion in Egypt imported to Greece.

Greek philosopher, Aristotle 384-322 B.C.E described the Ethiopians

and the Egyptians as blacks. Greek writer Lucian 125 B.C, described

the Egyptians with African features. The father of History,

Herodotus 490-425 B.C.E, describe the City of Meroe, religion, food,

valuable metals, burial ceremony, elephants and offerings (ebo).

Their first God was Min (Emi Mimo) and that the Greek gods camefrom Egypt. French writer Constantin-Francois Volney 1757-1820,

claimed that Ethiopians were the first to attain civilized way of life

and worship.

Those who have watched the Zar ritual dance conducted by special

women among Fellahin in Egypt saw the replica of Yoruba dance

during worship or Haitian Voodoo dance. But if you ask them or tell

them, some might deny their identity. The Belady who were the

original black settlers of Egypt have been oppressed by different

powers but still hang on to the African tradition which is different

from those who rule them. The culture remains with them. See

Gamal Nkrumah on the Bedja.

They still have melanin in their skin layers, their genes are related to

Africans, still carry the sickle cell trait, practice circumcision and

totem. An X-ray on Pharaohs done by James E. Harris of Michigan

University proved the same. Egypt Arts, Religion, Oracle and theoriginal language of the Beladi mirror that of Africans in general and

Yoruba in particular. The work of Dr. Lucas has been quoted many

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These similarities between Egypt, Sudan, Yoruba and other African

cousins are not coincidence. It establishes the rightful place of

African civilization. The Yoruba civilization has been studied

extensively because of their ancient way of life which predates the

civilization in Egypt. We knew that even Egypt got its civilizationfrom Sudan. An observation that must be noted carefully is that the

Ijebu and the Sudanese have the same ethnic face mark. I have

already stated that it is the Yoruba who traveled north.

There are some three controversies among the Yoruba that I can not

ignore: Ijebu, Ilorin and Benin. Threats, intimidation, trading insults

and ultimatums will not help. While history is subject to research,

sheer convenience of ethnocentricity will not stand up to scrutiny.

Some Ijebu claim that they are not Yoruba, they came from Waddai.

Others claimed that Awujale, Ilari named Agbejaile or Alajaile himself

came from Oyo to make peace between Ife and Owu. There are other

speculations I will not even touch. If you walk like a duck, look like a

duck, speak like duck, you are a duck! That should end it. But there

is validity about Wadai and the Ijebu. The Ijebu said their Oba was

some generations senior to Oduduwa because they showed his child

his way to the Ocean when he got lost. He wanted ocean water to

cure Oduduwas blindness. If my assumption of Oduduwa before

Christ is correct, they might have dealt with Oduduwa descendant

not necessarily the son. As for Waddai, most Yoruba explorers and

traders pass through Wadai, Danfor, Thebes, and Owodaiye in today

Ethiopia on their way to and from the Nile. Not only the Ijebu.

The similarity between the Ijebu dialect, Itsekiri dialect and the

Yoruba palace language of Benin might have to do with Prince Iniguawho led the Itsekiri away. That may disprove any notion that the

Ijebu were sacrifice or slave to other Yorubas.


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Oni of Ife position must be respected. No ancient Yoruba would

crown a usurper Oni if he did not deserve to be there. Let us

separate personal grudges from the unity of the Yorubas.

The Afonja of Ilorin controversy is more pathetic. Today, wemisplaced blame on the Fulani who were invited to help Afonja

against Alafin of Oyo. Afonja became ambitious and wanted to

undermine the Alafin. The story was that Afonja thought Alafin was

going to move on him with an impossible task to accomplish. Afonja

then got help to overthrow the Alafin. Afonja found himself at the

mercy of the Fulani and lost it all, because Alafin put a curse on him.

Where is the blame? The problem today is that the Fulani have

rightly assimilated into Ilorin so much that the Yoruba find it difficultto be the Oba of Ilorin. They have lost the supremacy of Oba and

there is confusion in a Yoruba land. How do you get someone whose

father or mother is a Fulani to deny their birth?

In the case of Benin, all due respect must be accorded the Oba of

Benin as one of the descendants of Oduduwa. He wrote that one of

the kingdoms started by Oduduwa was Ado. He has a brother in the

person of Ewi of Ado Ekiti who is now embarrassed by the

controversy. Oba of Benin told us the meaning of Eweka, Owo mi ka,

line of descendant. That is in the same lingua fraca of his palace up a

point in time. Nobody has so far denied that the head of former Obas

of Benin were buried in Ife. How can the Oba query the facts of

Egbarevas book based on his mothers relation to Yoruba? It is a

popular saying in Edo that only a son of Edo culture can be a ruler of

Benin. Oranmiyan was not, so he married into the culture to produce

a ruler from that culture.

Ekaladerhan was a man of the culture, Benin historians still have to

settle on if he fought to death when Benin soldier went after him in

Ughoton the same way they went after Inigua in Warri. By the way,

this was centuries after Oduduwa.


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In view of these controversies, their subjects who have unflinching

loyalty to Yoruba must be in a difficult position. Embrace novel

theories or walk a fine line. It has been said that special ceremony or

ritual is needed to reverse the curse of Alafin. The none-Yoruba

theory of the Ijebu is hardly taken seriously since majority of themsee themselves as nothing else, but will not stand for any insult.

More problematic, is that of Oba of Benin. He is highly respect and

rightly so. Others with the same theory can be ignored, not him.

One can tell the difference between the comments coming from the

Ogiso and that coming from the Oba descendants. None of the Oba

line can reject Yoruba connection: How safe is Ife is still the

greetings. While the Ogiso trumpet the influence and achievement ofthe Oba, they missed the opportunity to educate us about that of

Ogiso. Indeed, Professor Eke did more to educate us about Ogiso,

only to be chided for not distorting Yoruba influence.

Yoruba must stop fighting one another. Those who have made it in

other lands Cuba, Brazil, Benin Republic, Europe, Asia and other

America must not severe the bridges they crossed. Oduduwa came

back home and proved himself, one day your children will come back

home. YORUBA RONU!

History of Yoruba

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