quote:Today more than 20 million people speak some dialect of Yoruba, which belongs to the Kwa group of the Niger-Congo languages. Most Yoruba speakers live in southwestern Nigeria. They form a majority in Lagos, Africa's second most populous city.
Yoruba speakers are traditionally among the most urbanized African people. For centuries before British colonization, most Yoruba speakers inhabited a complex, urbanized society organized around powerful city-states. These densely populated cities centered on the residence of the king, or oba. The basic social units were patrilineages in which inheritance, descent, and political position pass through the male line. Though they lived in cities, traditionally most Yoruba men farmed crops such as yams, maize, plantains, peanuts, millet, and beans in the surrounding countryside. Many men also engaged in crafts such as blacksmithing, manufacturing textiles, and woodworking. Traditionally, Yoruba women specialized in marketing and trade, and could gain considerable independence, status, and wealth through their commercial activity. While many Yoruba speakers continue to farm and trade today, they generally also grow and sell cash crops such as cocoa. Meanwhile, the millions of Yoruba in modern cities such as Lagos pursue a diverse array of manufacturing and service occupations.
Originally Hausa speakers used the name Yoruba for the people of the Oyo kingdom. Europeans appropriated the term to refer to all speakers of the Yoruba language. Yoruba speakers identify themselves as members of several different groups, including the Ife, Isa, and Ketu. Some of these Yoruba-speaking groups identify with the larger community of Yoruba speakers. Others, such as the Sabe, Idaisa, and Ketu consider themselves separate ethnic groups and do not feel a sense of community with other Yoruba speakers, though they share Yoruba origin myths. All of these groups, however, share a similar material culture, mythology, and artistic tradition.
Art historians consider thirteenth- and 14th-century Yoruba bronzes and terra-cotta sculptures among Africa's greatest artistic achievements. Yoruba oral histories, folklore, and proverbs have also won international acclaim. Traditional Yoruba religious beliefs recognize a supreme god presiding over a complex pantheon of hundreds of lesser gods. Over the past several centuries Islam and Christianity have spread to Yorubaland. Many Yoruba take a pluralistic approach to religion that integrates traditional religious elements with Christian and Muslim beliefs, as in the Aladura spiritualist movement.
According to folklore, the Yoruba originated from the mythical Olorun, God of the Sky, whose son, Oduduwa, founded the ancient holy city of Ile-Ife around the 8th century C.E. Linguistic and archaeological evidence suggest that, in fact, speakers of a distinct Yoruba language emerged near the Niger-Benue confluence some three to four thousand years ago. From there they migrated west to Yorubaland between the 8th and 11th centuries. Strategically located on the fertile borderland between the savanna and the forest zones, Ile-Ife was the center of a powerful kingdom by the 11th century, one of the earliest in Africa south of the Sahel. Its rulers taxed both food surpluses and trade. While the institution of kingship probably predates the emergence of Ile-Ife, the holy city became the preeminent Yoruba spiritual and cultural center.
Oyo, however, became a powerful military state by the 17th century. The rulers of Oyo acquired horses by selling slaves to Europeans and reselling the manufactured goods to Hausa traders. The Oyo cavalry invaded neighboring Yoruba and non-Yoruba kingdoms alike, including Dahomey. By the late 18th century, however, Oyo, suffering from internal rivalries, began to disintegrate. During the early 19th century Dahomey won its independence in a war that further weakened Oyo. During the 1830s Muslim Fulani from the Sokoto Caliphate conquered northern regions of Oyo and cut off its access to trade with the Hausa. By 1840 the Oyo kingdom had completely collapsed.
Wars among Yoruba groups and city-states raged for much of the rest of the 19th century. The protracted warfare left many Yoruba vulnerable to enslavement. Large numbers were sold to traders who brought them to Latin America. To this day, Yoruba culture remains influential in Brazil and Cuba, where Santería religious practice carries on Yoruba traditions.
Aiming to repress the slave trade, encourage the production of raw materials, and open markets for British manufactures, Great Britain sought a foothold in the region. In 1851 the British navy seized Lagos, allegedly to shut down the slave market there. In 1888 most of Yorubaland became a protectorate of Great Britain. The colonial administration imposed peace among warring groups after 1892 in an effort to promote its commercial interests. Under the British policy known as indirect rule, Yoruba kings lost their sovereignty but retained a role in local government. As the capital of British Nigeria, Lagos, dominated by Yoruba, became the center of Nigerian political and economic life. Colonial authorities introduced cocoa as a cash crop in Yorubaland and developed a modern infrastructure of railroads, highways, and schools in the region. As a result large numbers of Yoruba earned substantial cash incomes, became literate in English, and gained positions in the colonial civil service. By the time of independence, Yoruba speakers occupied a dominant position in Nigeria's economy and government. Since independence, however, the more numerous northern Hausa have dominated the elected and military governments that have ruled Nigeria, and the relatively prosperous Yoruba have tended to remain political outsiders, often subject to repression. _____________________________________________________
Kujichagulia (KOO-GEE-CHA-GOO-LEE-AH) - So that we will remember that it is we -- not other people, places, things or events -- that shape and determine our present and our futures. "You Must Come Home To Your Own"
posted
Great culture, nice music, possibly beautiful people but closed minded, very much withdrawned to themselves and socialization with others is limited. Individualism is discouraged, Oba is the marshal law. They are the confused and over blown brats in Biafranigeria with no collective source of physical strength, that explains why they are seen as cowards with vulnerable tendencies by the conquistedors [Hausa/Fulani]. Intellectually, thank you but no home runs. These are symptoms of an abused nation compounded with contentious of four religious belief, the Vooddoo, Ogun, Christianity and Mohamedanism.
I probably do not know what it feels like to be a Yoruba, but I sense a historical/pattern of generational abuse from outsiders, particularly the Hausa moslems. Now, one can understand why the Yoruba race are so close cultured and unwilling to modify their way of life due to the incessant abuse, sometimes sporadic, metered to them by outsiders. They view other tribes as suspects. Ilorin is still internally colonized by the Hausa, that could explain why there is so much buffer line between them and Hausa/Fulani. I coud be wrong, but there is some truth as to why they collectively display such a defensive behavior to outsiders.
Hail Biafra
[ February 10, 2003, 08:25 AM: Message edited by: Waypoint1Biafra ]
Posts: 1672 | From: Minnesota USA | Registered: Mar 2001
| IP: Logged
posted
So bababoyz could be a long lost cousin to biafra or WayPoint since Etiki his home state is said to be more Igbo than Yoruba. Says this learned gentleman On the spread of the Igbos, Dr. Fadipe N. A. wrote in his book, 'The Sociology of The Yoruba,' thus: “It is tolerable certain that the Ekiti people, the greater bulk of Ijesa people and to some extent Ondo belong to this older culture group.
Wonders.
quote:What is the meaning of Oduduwa? As I said earlier, the name Oduduwa or Odua for short is an Igbo phrase - Odudu wa or Odu wa, all meaning 'their leader.' `Odudu' in Igbo is `one who leads' or `leader.' `Wa' in Asaba Igbo and some other Igbos of Delta, Abia and the Wawa area of Enugu and Ebonyi States is `them.' The `defeated Igbo of Southwest Nigeria' could have, on identifying the leader of their tormentors, say among themselves: `Nkaa bu onye odudu wa or `Nkaa bu Odu wa' (That is their leader).
Oduduwa: Saving History From Ethnic Propaganda
By
Chukwu Eke
sparkstoday2000@yahoo.com
I do not know why the Yorubas are so unsettled by the recent claim made by the Oba of Benin to the effect that Oduduwa was a felon expelled from Benin kingdom. The story is not new. The Binis have known and told it before now. I know because I heard it two years ago from a Bini friend of mine. My friendship with the Bini prince has been oiled by my interest in the history of his people.
On that day I had asked him if, as the Yorubas claim, Eweka, the first Oba of Bini after the dethronement of Ogiso, was indeed a grandson of Oduduwa. The story he told me varied a little from the Oba's. In that conceit typical of the Binis, he chuckled sardonically before telling me that Oduduwa escaped from Bini prison and went to found the Ife dynasty. Is it possible that the Yorubas have not heard this Bini version of Oduduwa story before now?
Or is it a case of being rattled because the almighty Oba of Benin has lent his voice to it, raising it high to the bookshelves from mere mumbling of village folks. Even if the story is `revisionist' as they claim, is it so difficult to swallow a little dose of their own pill of historical propaganda from the Binis?
On the face of it, one can easily pitch one's tent with the Binis in this Oduduwa saga as Oba Akiolu of Lagos. Besides having lesser of the Yoruba sin of making spurious historical claims, the Binis have at least identified Oduduwa with a real name, Ekalederhan, while the Yoruba Oduduwa remains a mythical entity without real name except the descriptive words used for him by the autochthon Igbos he invaded and colonised. But the Bini version also fails to achieve a clear historical perspective on the man and how he became the overlord over the natives of Southwest. As the Yoruba version, it is exclusionist. It then follows that to know, not just the true Oduduwa but the ethno-cultural circumstances of Southwest before him, we must set aside the contending stories of the Binis and the Yorubas and go to reliable oral traditions and books written without tribe in mind.
What indeed is the fact about Oduduwa? To answer this question we need to acquaint ourselves with the political development in Southwest Nigeria at about A.D. 1100. According to Yoruba oral tradition, the aboriginal inhabitants of Southwest were Igbos.
One morning, when the dews were still heavy on the leaves because the sun had not ascended their sky, they woke up to discover that their land had been invaded by a foreign army. The fight that ensued was fierce. The Igbos were brave but the invaders had more sophisticated weapon of war. The Oyo and Ife areas which, it seems, did not have dense population of the Igbos, were the first to fall to the enemy army. Here, in Ife to be exact, they established their headquarters, installed their leader as king and, as the Fulanis, used the natives against their own in other parts.
In the Ekiti areas, where the Igbos were large, coherent and strong, the invaders were given a good sum for their money. They were held back for a long time by the `Igbo warriors who masqued themselves with raffia,' until they too capitulated, not to the superior fire power of the invaders, but to the bottom power of a certain Moremi, who was to the `Yorubas' what Delila was to the Philistines. Oduduwa was the leader of the invaders.
Having conquered the native Igbos of Southwest, he appointed his lieutenant as Oba in all the towns and became the overlord of the Southwest. And `the defeat and conquest of the Igbo in Southwest Nigeria was celebrated by the Yoruba at the annual Eid festival' (The kingdom of the Yoruba-Robert Smith, 3rd edition, University of Wisconsin Press).
Writing under the heading, `The Igbo origin of Egba Yoruba,' Ishaq Al-Sulaiman, an African American researcher, had this to say: Southwest Nigeria marks the location of the present day Igbo tribe. However initially the Igbo were the rulers of the entire South including Southwest which is currently classified as Yoruba territory. The Yoruba first entered the Southwest part of Nigeria as invaders and coloniser of the original Igbo inhabitants.
On the spread of the Igbos, Dr. Fadipe N. A. wrote in his book, 'The Sociology of The Yoruba,' thus: “It is tolerable certain that the Ekiti people, the greater bulk of Ijesa people and to some extent Ondo belong to this older culture group. It is possible that the group comprises much larger number of tribes that those just specified, which is to be regarded as minimum denotation term for the early wave of immigrant……” What is the meaning of Oduduwa? As I said earlier, the name Oduduwa or Odua for short is an Igbo phrase - Odudu wa or Odu wa, all meaning 'their leader.' `Odudu' in Igbo is `one who leads' or `leader.' `Wa' in Asaba Igbo and some other Igbos of Delta, Abia and the Wawa area of Enugu and Ebonyi States is `them.' The `defeated Igbo of Southwest Nigeria' could have, on identifying the leader of their tormentors, say among themselves: `Nkaa bu onye odudu wa or `Nkaa bu Odu wa' (That is their leader).
Anybody whose mind has not been foreclosed by ethnic bias must see this meaning more tenable than `knowledge of how to behave,' which some Yoruba meta-historians postulated as the meaning of Oduduwa.
The next question to consider is whether the Igbos colonised by Oduduwa and his people in the Southwest were of the same stock as the Igbos of Southeast and Southsouth. I was asked this question by the writer, Akin Adesokan, who is now living in The United States of America.
He traced his ancestry to the authocton Igbos of Southwest but asked me if I thought his Igbo ancestor were of the same ethno-cultural make up as my own Igbo of Southeast. My answer was `Yes,' `because in the first place in the absence of written records going back to the childhood of the world when the Igbo emerged as a culture, scholars have been persuaded to treat linguistic relationships as providing by far the most dependable evidence of historical connection……' Thus wrote the erudite professor of history and the first indigenous awardee of doctorate degree by the University of Ibadan, Professor A. E. Afigbo.
I am convinced that I have been able to provide such linguistic connection between the Igbo of Southwest and the Igbo of Southaest and Southsouth.
But if the Yorubas think otherwise, I will still refer them to their friend, the poet and philosopher, Odia Ofeimum. In a thought provoking article he wrote recently, he had said among other things that `the Igbos and the Yorubas speak the same language apart from the borrowed words' (the words brought in by Oduduwa). Unless they think also that the poet lied.
In addition, the Igbominas who are among the Southwest towns that retain their Igbo name, have another name - Omu Ara. They say it is in honour of their founder, a woman named Omu. `Omu' in Igbo means `one who gives birth' and by implication `woman'. In Ekiti State, there is still a town that celebrates New Yam Festival like their brothers in Southeast. These are besides the fact that the Igbo and the `Yoruba belong to the same language group - kwa.
Even the word 'Yoruba' metamorphosed from a derogatory phrase the Igbos had used for the Oyo people. Before Oduduwa and his Obas put the whole Southwest to rout, the Oyos, who thought they were enjoying Oduduwa's civilisation, would call the Igbos 'bush people.' The Igbos, to pay them back their insult, would call them 'Oyo Oru Oba' (Oyo, slaves of the Oba). That is how the name Yoruba came about.
From the foregoing it is clear that the Oduduwa children have deliberatly revised and falsified the history of Southwest Nigeria for the sole aim of covering the Igbo root of most Southwesterners, thereby denying Nigeria the long-sought-for unity. What unity could we not achieve if the Oduduwa people had not denied a larger population of Southwest people the knowledge of their blood affinity with the Igbos of the Southeast. Would we not be having a real handshake across the Niger? But truth is like smoke which nobody buries and celebrate victory for a long time. It must surely show itself indomitable.
It is on this understanding that I think the The Comet Newspaper deserves our pity for the editorial they wrote on Monday, May 11, 2004. That editorial epitomised how lowly a people could go to falsify and revise history without recourse to any oral or written evidence. The writer must be one of the die-hard Yoruba Igbo-phobist whose education has not purged them of the fear of the Igbo. Besides its glaring Igbo-phobia, the editorial was empty.
For instance, while it conjured up all the ancient city states under the sun and even those in Mars and claimed Yoruba affinity with them, it never mentioned Igbo. The only place it mentioned Igbo in bracket was as a disclaimer. It said that those the Oduduwa people invaded were 'Ugbo (not be able to discover that Igbo Ukwu arts had existed for more than four centuries before Ife/Benin, that Ife/Benin difused from Igbo Ukwu and not the other way round.
My last words: history is no longer ““myths that have no proofs but only can be believed by those who wish to believe them.”” History, oral or written, must be back up by related disciplines of archeology, linguistic and anthropology.
___________________ BIAFRA: The land of my ancestors now, yesterday and always. So it will be! Posts: 2482 | From: Ala Igbo | Registered: Apr 2004
| IP: Logged
quote:Chief Adegboyega who is the Arole Aare Latosa of Yoruba dynasty and the custodian of Yoruba culture told newsmen in Ibadan that it was the height of insult for anybody to regard the forefather of Yoruba people as a criminal.
quote:According to him, "Omon’oba himself is a Yoruba man, he can not dispute that; the people of Itsekiri, Urhobo and Asaba are all Yoruba people. His late father accepted that Oduduwa was his forefather.
posted
I'll continue to inform the confused and conflicted yoruba that we, the Igbo/BIAFRANS are the landlords. Read your history then let's sit down and discuss it.
___________________ BIAFRA: The land of my ancestors now, yesterday and always. So it will be! Posts: 2482 | From: Ala Igbo | Registered: Apr 2004
| IP: Logged
posted
The fiasco over the Origin of the Yoruba is very entertaining not just because it seems as if there is no uniformity in Yoruba accounts of their origins but because an otherwise simple matter such as this is threatening to divide the Edo and the Yoruba. Personally, I am interested in such folklores because it helps to build a collective sense of identity, but I try not to get too serious with the material I am presented with because there is no scientific way of telling which account may be true.
It is not up to me to judge which of these accounts have more elements of truths, or are likely to be the truth. However, I am more inclined to believe other accounts of Yoruba origins that do not mimic/echo the popular meaningless fairytale that Oduduwa climbed directly down from heaven on a rope and set foot at Ife. If Yoruba people believed this in times past, I hope they do not get offended if people listen to this account and simply dismiss them as midsummer night dreams.
So where are Yorubas from? What account of the history or origin of Yorubas should interested people buy? They have a very rich CULTURAL history; however, this should not automatically mean that Yoruba elders have to advance rather laughable or incredible stories to explain the Origin of Yorubas.
What, for example, is wrong with the account given by the Omo n’Oba n’ Edo, Uku Akpolokpolo, Erediauwa, the Oba of Benin, in his book, to the effect that Oduduwa was an Edo prince who absconded and later founded the Yoruba Empire? Isn’t this view a little bit more credible? Wouldn't this view be a little more in line with reality a la the Trojan Prince Aeneas and the Origin of the Ancient Romans? Frankly, this "Oduduwa dropped from the sky with a basket and a kolanut" or other variations of this same theme just does not go down smoothly with me. Sorry!
Oga Tijani:
You are an Edo son, so I hope you won’t kill me if I misspelled the Oba’s full title, but say, why would your Oba include this in his book if in the final analysis, there is no way of ascertaining the veracity of his claim that the banished Benin Prince Ekaladerhan was indeed the same person as Oduduwa?
The Oba of Benin traced his ancestry from the Ogiso kings all the way to Prince Ekaladerhan who supposedly fled from Benin in those days, bearing a brand new name Oduduwa, to Uhe (Ile-Ife) to become the father of the Yorubas. If one was to believe this account, does it then mean that the present Oba of Benin is an impostor to the Benin throne judging by the fact that he REALLY is/should be Yoruba? Please, something doesn’t add up here, at least to me.
posted
Folks, there's no other way to share this copious post since attachments are not allowed. The article below will help further expose the ancestral lineage of the yoruba who remain clueless to their origin.
quote:On Yoruba origin controversy: Professor Ade-Ajayi's view is politicised, ethnicised, and ahistorical
EWAEN EDOGHIMIOYA, B.A(Hons) & M.A.History Member, Institute for Benin Studies, Benin-City, Nigeria
ewaenfedo@yahoo.co.uk
Monday, May 24, 2004
The interview granted your paper by the Emeritus Prof J. F. Ade-Ajayi of the University of Ibadan on the Yoruba origin controversy and his views are most disappointing and most unbecoming of an emeritus professor of his calibre. To say the least, it lacked the objectivity, professionalism, and decorum which you expected him to bring to the issue. He allowed his ethnic bias and accompanying anger to take the better part of him, and it could be seen that he only just managed to restrain himself from resorting to insults and abuse. But the harsh tone of his language was suggestive enough of his disrespect for the Omo n’ Oba n’Edo, Uku Akpolokpolo, Oba Erediauwa, who is his elder and a royal father. As a leading light of African history and culture, I started to wonder what kind of African history he was teaching his students and the kind of example he was giving to us younger historians who are expected to look up to him.
A reading of the interview shows that Prof Ade-Ajayi has either not read the portion of the book dealing with the origin of the Oduduwa published in Nigerian dailies or he was too disoriented by the content as to be able to articulate his comments or replies to the questions posed by the interviewer. Otherwise, he would not have resorted to falsifying the Omo n’ Oba's statements as contained in the book. The first and major falsehood he fabricated is his claim that Omo n’ Oba wrote that Egharevba “….has Akoko Edo blood in him.” There is no where in the book where Omo n’Oba made such a statement. What Omo n’Oba wrote was “…Apart from the fact that Edo n'Ekue (Edo-Akure, partly Benin and partly Yoruba by birth) blood in the man” (Egharevba) manifested itself….” So one does not know how Prof Ade-Ajayi got his "Akoko Edo," which he used to replace Edo-Akure. He went further to ask: “Akoko Edo people are no longer under Edo State”? This latter question based on his fabrication was obviously aimed at ridiculing the Omo n’Oba as one who does not know the ethnic belonging or categorization of the Akoko Edo.
Another outright falsehood is Ade-Ajayi’s statement that “…there is no doubt that Oranmiyan founded Oyo and he also founded Benin.” To state that Oranmiyan founded Benin is a mistake, which I am sure an elementary school pupil who studied social studies in Nigeria will not make. For an emeritus professor of African history to make such public gaffe, without retracting it after it was printed, is, to say the least, disappointing. Prof. Ade-Ajayi’s statement is the big lie of Nigerian history of the twenty-first century.
The most terrible blunder of Prof. Ade-Ajayi was the statement that “The Oba of Benin has no locus standi, as it were, to tell the story of Oranmiyan.” If the Omo n’Oba , who is a direct descendant of Oranmiyan, has no locus standi to tell the story of his forebear, I wonder who has the local standi? Is it Prof Ade Ajayi, (though a historian) whom I am sure cannot even trace the relationship between his native sub-Ekiti groups relations with Oduduwa? If anybody has the locus standi anywhere in the world, it is the direct descendants of Oranmiyan, of which the Omo n’ Oba is the foremost.
On the professional level, Prof Ade–Ajayi only exposed his ethnic bias and politicking rather than engage in historical analysis. The major areas of his comments in which he abused professionalism are his use and source of historical evidence, and definition of a professional historian. The major plank of Ade-Ajayi’s comments is the claim that “His (Omo n’Oba’s) father used to attend and meet at the conference of Yoruba Oba [kings] regularly during the colonial rule. His own father did not object to this….” The evidence of Oba Akenzua II attendance of such meetings is one issue which many a Yoruba historian have struggled over the years to force down as “fact” or evidence of history, and they cite the seating arrangement in the meetings of Yoruba Oba (attended by Omo n’ Oba n’Edo, Uku Akpolokpolo, Oba Akenzua II (1933-1978) in which the Ooni sat at the head of the table. This development has been falsified and projected as evidence of Oba of Benin subordination to the Ooni of Ife. Though Ade-Ajayi stated that these meetings were taking place under colonial rule, he deliberately refused to state the context and circumstances in which these meetings took place. The silence on the context and circumstance misleads the public into thinking that the meetings were traditional and customary and creates the impression that a relationship of superiority andor affinity has always existed between the Oba of Benin and the Yoruba Oba and even within the ranks of Yoruba Oba. Professionally, Ade Ajayi should have told us why and how these meetings came into being, the purpose, and interest which they served.
Until Oba Akenzua II, no Oba of Benin attended any conference or meeting of Yoruba Oba. Such kind of pan-Yoruba Oba meeting never existed in history as a pan-Yoruba consciousness and state never existed. These meetings were not started until the late 1930s. Attempts by some Yoruba Oba in present day Ondo and Ekiti states to pay customary tributes to Omo n’Oba, Uku Akpolokpolo, Oba Eweka II -- after restoration in 1914 -- were stopped by the British and prohibited. This shows that the British were not interested in such interactions. But in the late 1930s, certain administrative changes were implemented by the British which divided Southern Nigeria into Western and Eastern provinces. The British colonial administration initiated and instituted these meetings of Sole Native Authorities (wrongly called conference of Yoruba Oba) in the western provinces to discuss and solve common problems of the provinces. Oba Akenzua II, as the only Sole Native Authority in Benin Province under the directive of the colonial government, was always “invited” by the government and was bound to attend. The meetings were held under the auspices of the British and it was the administrative mechanism for foisting regionalism and formed the basis of the latter western region house of chiefs which Oba Akenzua II also attended by virtue of his status as a first class ruler.
While the house of chiefs lasted, the Egbe Omo Oduduwa and Action Group government foisted Yoruba leadership on the house. Late Obafemi Awolowo went as far as trying to control the traditional rulers and forcing them to toe his party line. He did not hesitate to subtly threaten or “advise” Oba Akenzua II on 8th March 1955 to desist from party politics, and Oba Akenzua reminded him of the partisanship role of the Ooni and the Alake. What happened to traditional rulers in Western Region who did not toe Awolowo’s party line is well documented. When Midwest Region was created, the Omo n’ Oba stopped attending the meetings. That Oba Akenzua II attended these meetings had nothing to do with any history or traditional affinity, as Ade Ajayi would want to mislead the public into believing. It was sheer colonial administrative politics and later day Action Group-influenced ethnic politics.
Another major and faulty plank of Ade-Ajayi’s comment had to do with evidence. He harangues that “He (Omo n’ Oba) did not cite any evidence.” But he did not ask a similar question in the case of Egharevba, and he went ahead to uphold Egharevba's work as some gospel. If I may ask what is difference between the sources of Omo n’Oba and Egharevba and are both not based on oral traditions! Egharevba selected the oral traditions which he presented as history and Omo n’Oba did same. Why the double standard , and what makes Egharevba traditions acceptable? Is it because the “traditions” he cited are supportive of Oyo Yoruba-biased history of Samuel Johnson? Omo n’Oba even went as far as showing the Akure-Yoruba influence on Egharevba in order to prove the bias and context of Egharevba's history, and this is an application of historical method.
Permit me to further buttress the context and sources of Yoruba biases and influences on Egharevba's work. Apart from the Akure ancestry, Egharevba had part of his early education in Yorubaland; he was a benefactor of Bishop James Johnson (a Yoruba); he was Anglican (CMS) and worked with Reverend Payne, who introduced him to the CMS Press controlled by the Yoruba intellingentsia; his first editor was C. J. Smart, a Yoruba letter writer resident in Benin City; and he was also influenced by Ajisafe, another Yoruba author with whom he consulted for his publications.
To claim that Egharevba was right to continuously revise his books was another gaffe. Ade-Ajayi did not explain the kind of revision and their basis expected of a professional. The revisions were not based on credible evidence and were largely introduction of materials that suited his fancy, pet theories of his mentors. All these are evident in his works. He was continuously challenged for his biases. Even in his later life, Egharevba stated that and I quote that “...Oduduwa was not a Yoruba man. Oduduwa found the Yoruba already living in Ife when he arrived” (Text of interview, 3rd May 1975). I am sure that if Ade-Ajayi (and the Yoruba whose cause he is championing) were aware of this , he (they) would start having a second thought on calling him for evidence to support their case.
Permit me to ask what qualifies Egharevba as a better historian on Benin Kingship history than the Omo n’ Oba? Is it because Egharevba was the first to write or less educated or less interested in politics than Omo n’Oba? Egharevba selected the tradition that suited his fancy and published it to the exclusion of other traditions. That he was the first to write neither makes his work nor the traditions he selected gospel. Egharevba was no less a politician too and his political leaning was the (CMS/Yoruba- initiated Reformed Ogboni Fraternity influenced) Benin Tax Payers Association, which was allied to the Action Group. Other traditions have always existed and Egharevba attention was drawn to them and were used to challenge him too. If these traditions were not published then, it does not mean that they must be silenced for the sake of the Yoruba.
Let all the traditions be published for critical examination and enrichment of our history. Ade-Ajayi cannot just wake up and dismiss one tradition and try to force his favoured version down our throat. What he has done is no history, but politics and an ethnicised one.
I'm not sure you really want to read the so-called Prof. Ade Ajayi's tirade since no attempt was made by him to present a differing view instead what he did was react angrily at the bini monarch's presentation. On your insistence I'll gladly post his junk too. Good for them!
___________________ BIAFRA: The land of my ancestors now, yesterday and always. So it will be! Posts: 2482 | From: Ala Igbo | Registered: Apr 2004
| IP: Logged
posted
So who are the Yorobas? Is this an aberration or normality for this society?
quote:ABOMINATION! Woman catches husband having sex with daughter By Tunde Raheem, Akure Thursday, June 24, 2004
Crime Watch Index A woman in Ondo State, has told how she caught her husband having sex with their 19-year-old daughter. The woman (names withheld), who was weeping profusely , as she narrated the incident, said her neighbours had earlier told her about the secret love affair between the husband and her only daughter, adding that she took it with a pinch of salt. According to her, the whole story sounded funny, until she caught her husband in the act.
She said when she first heard the rumour, she tried to confirm from the daughter, who not only denied it, but also cursed those behind it.
The embittered mother disclosed that the husband had in the past, disclaimed the girl as his biological daughter. "We have quarrelled several times over this issue, and his family condemned him for making such utterances," she said.
But she said she noticed that he suddenly stopped laying emphasis on who the biological father of the girl was , even as the relationship between him and the girl improved. "I thought he had turned a new leaf, not knowing that he had been having a love affair with his own blood daughter," she said.
She said that the paternity of the girl was not in contention, adding : "He should have his head examined." "I never had an affair with any other man, when he started going out with me or after our marriage." Investigations by Daily Sun showed that the man had told members of his family that the girl was not his biological daughter, alleging that his wife was two months pregnant when she moved into his house. He claimed he had all the facts to prove that the girl was not his daughter. Our source revealed that he actually took the girl to a hospital for a medical test, when she was a year old, but the wife did not suspect the motive behind such a test . The man could not be reached for comments, as he was said to have travelled to a cocoa farm settlement, in the state.
The woman told Daily Sun that arrangements had been concluded to seek a divorce in the customary court, saying, her husband’s action was an abomination, not only in Yoruba land, but also in the entire Africa. "No amount of pleas, from his family or friends would make me change my mind," she vowed
___________________ Feel me? Ofu onye ana asi unu abia go. - Ednut Igbo-American . www.airamericaradio.com visit her. Posts: 2447 | From: Mother Earth | Registered: Mar 2001
| IP: Logged
posted
Isn't it surprising that the Yorubas who claim to be the "most educated" folks in Nigeria are yet to know their roots. What all this confirm is that western education is not equivalent to one knowing him/herself.
Where is my good friend 'Addy'? I would love to read his imput in this Yoruba-related matter. For despite our often disageeable and somtimes hostile positions, the fellow seems to have a deep knowledge of Nigerian history, and especially when it has to do with Yoruba-related matters. Addy, come out of your hiding. Please come and tell us who the Yorubas are.
MeBiafra: As I said in my last mail in Chiboy's thread, NOTHING will make me contribute a word there. So below WAS and IS STILL my e-mail address: nwaaro@yahoo.com Hope to read from you. Peace!!
Posts: 997 | From: Germany | Registered: Mar 2001
| IP: Logged
quote:So who are the yorubas? Is this an aberration or normality for this society?
My dear brother, are you really asking, these guys are as bad as they come and they know it. I lived in Lagos and anyone who has had some type of interactions with these guys will confirm their abhorrent behaviors. Yes, they screw their offspring mind you little kids (6yrs) are not spared. A yoruba ex-girl of mine and her sisters, mom included used to discuss the dick sizes of the men in their lives. Equally whose boyfriend is better in bed and all that junk in fact the temptation to go round the family, mother and all existed but you like I know the Igbo don’t indulge in stupid stuff like that. In addition to this, one of my town folk's mom who's also a yoruba discusses her sexual escapades with her sons (30ish) openly, isn't this some shitty s*h*i*t?
Add the drug running yoruba moms to this unspeakable acts their flawed character begin to make the most noxious in Igbo nation look like Abraham. Clearly we cannot continue to share the same country unless we’re ready to be dragged into their doodle. In my family my sibling and I never discussed our sexual encounters I used to tell them during their youths to be real careful that’s about it.
Nwa Aro,
I'm wondering what happened I posted here before ya then edited, by the time I reposted you jumped ahead of me. Please no skipping of the line here, will you go back behind me? Lol. Thanks I got your e/address will communicate.
quote:Where is my good friend 'Addy'? I would love to read his imput in this Yoruba-related matter. For despite our often disageeable and somtimes hostile positions, the fellow seems to have a deep knowledge of Nigerian history, and especially when it has to do with Yoruba-related matters. Addy, come out of your hiding. Please come and tell us who the Yorubas are. - Nwa Aro
Please visit a topic started by me ”A great Read: Who the yoruba really are, answered” and posted June 18, 2004 04:20 PM to read/see your ‘friend’ addy in hiding.
quote:What the .... is going on here?. Don't guys have better things to do with their time anymore? – addy, posted June 19, 2004 04:40 AM
The above quote was his response to their origin. He(me) laughs.
___________________ BIAFRA: The land of my ancestors now, yesterday and always. So it will be! Posts: 2482 | From: Ala Igbo | Registered: Apr 2004
| IP: Logged
posted
MeBiafran: Please forgive me. Didn't know that Addy has already made an unput on this matter. I wonder why the Addy who seems to be worried on who and what is good for the Igbos is not able to tell WHo his people are. Surprised I must say.
Uzodima: Why help the Yorubas? I would have guessed that we let the Yoruba members on this board SPEAK FOR THEMSEVES ON THEIR ORIGIN. I say this because I hate to see an Igbo tell a Yoruba what he/she is or should be, or vice-versa: Haven said the above, I still believe you posted the pro-Yoruba website IN GOOD FAITH.
All: While we are it, it seems this controversy is not going to go away anytime soon. Another Yoruba has gone on record to say among others that the Binis are in his words, "Africa's proof of Sex is a ****** "! More:
------------------------------------------ Oduduwa and bini politics By Olu Ademulegun PROFESSOR Ade Ajayi was right when he said that the Oba of Bini was playing politics with regard to the Oduduwa issue. The current campaign of calumny by the Bini monarchy and its elite against Oduduwa and Yoruba people is deeply motivated by imperial politics, dose of envy and irrepressible ego. It is part of an agenda to hijack the enviable fame of Yoruba dynasty and superimpose it on the subdued ego of the Bini people who have lost the glory of their once powerful Bini empire to the greater might of the British colonial masters.
It will be recalled that since the defeat and exiling to Calabar of the Benin monarch, Oba Ovaramwen N'Ogbaisi in 1899, following the massacre of a visiting British Consul General and several other British, Bini has continued to diminish in size and stature in the comity of the once great African nationalities. The rich golden era of their great empire, with its world-class bronze works, is gone and most of its masterpieces are carted away to foreign lands. Fortuitously, the situation has become sorely saddened in recent times by the obscene image being given to the Bini people in the length and breadth of foreign countries, particularly in Europe, North Africa and America. They have become Africa's proof of Sex is a ****** , a queer belief held and propagated by Naiwu Osahon, a Bini writer of the book with that title. As the proud and concerned citizens among the Bini watch painfully and helplessly as these things happen, a few ingenious but disoriented leaders among them must have thought of some old ploys often employed by failing empires. They re-invent history to inspire their demoralised subjects. In preparing for a new resuscitated era, the Bini in 1997, marked 100 years anniversary of its conquest during which time some far-reaching resolutions must have been made, scripts of which are now being played out systematically. The Guardian on Sunday of February 9, 1997 reported the top ranking Prince Akenzua as lamenting the traumatic situation of his people in these words. "Benin has been sliding backwards for the past 100 years, ... the centenary event is designed to partly draw attention to this fact that since that time, the kingdom which was already in the hob of an empire has been sliding down the slope since 1897... We are still in trauma and what we are doing now is to rouse the people and say to them don't brood over the past, look forward with confidence towards the future". The amicable Prince truly captured the genuine angst and desperation of a people in historical distress. Within the present Bini itself which now constitutes Edo State, Oba Erediauwa seems to have embarked on desperate measures aimed at subduing any Enigie (traditional ruler), Chief or political stalwart that tries to challenge him or aspire to any pre-eminence that threatens his supreme authority in the domain. He does not even tolerate any other traditional ruler sharing the title of Oba with him in his domain. These tendencies have naturally resulted in serious internal dissent and crisis. According to a report in ThisDay newspaper of May 9, 1999, such crisis "led to the administrator suspending the Oba from membership of the State Security Council, and Chairmanship of the State Security Council". It took a lot of pressure and open defiance to get the Oba to concede some iota of honour to his Enigies. Oba Erediauwa still wants to rule over Bini in the manner of his ancestors when a king was god and the subjects were vassals. In fact, some Bini commentators still irreverently refer to the Urhobos, Itsekiri, Ijaws, Uzebu (Ijebus) and some other neighours as favourite ritual meat of ancient Bini gods and goddesses. A Benin chief was anonymously quoted as saying that Oba Erediauwa "kept stressing that he inherited the Benin nation as personal property". If the Chief was quoted right, then the Obas undisguised ego, even if divine, is bound to create complex problems in the political landscape of today's republican Nigeria. Edo people, like their Yoruba cousins, are highly cultured, well educated and their tradition is solid. There is nothing wrong if Bini want to restore their own past glory. Indeed, they need to, and all Africans and well-wishers will do well to support them. But the Bini must not do things at the expense of the honour and pride of others. Their Yoruba cousins have built an enviable culture of excellence and accommodation over many centuries of unbroken Oduduwa dynasty, and they have attracted the attention and admiration of blacks in the diaspora and people of all races in the world. Any attempt to poach on their much-cherished and well preserved ancestry and culture can only be counter productive. The present penchant of some members of the Bini ruling class and elite for engineering aggravation, dissent and distrust among the royalties and people of other communities, in pursuit of a revisionist political agenda, will only illuminate the image of a place once labelled the land of anger, Ile-Ibinu (Ibini) by Oranmiyan, the lineage ancestor of the present Oba of Benin.
Ademulegun is a member of Egbe Omo Oduduwa, Lagos. --------------------------------------
The Omo Omoruyis who think Ojukwu and the Igbos are their only "enemy" should read this.
Posts: 997 | From: Germany | Registered: Mar 2001
| IP: Logged
UBBFriend: Email this page to someone!
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
