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“Oduduwa descended directly from heaven through a chain to where is now known as Ife today” – Ooni of Ife, Oba Okunade Sijuwade, Olubuse II

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Ooni tackles Erediauwa on Yoruba history THE argument over the history of the Yoruba and the Bini reached a new height yesterday with the Ooni of Ife, Oba Okunade Sijuwade, Olubuse II disputing an earlier claim that the Yorubas originated from Benin Kingdom.

The Ife monarch was reacting to a claim by the Oba of Benin, OmoN'oba Erediauwa, in his biography, "I remain Sir, Your Obedient Servant." launched in Lagos last week that the Yoruba migrated from Benin. Sijuwade spoke in Lagos yesterday at the launch of the memoirs of the wife of the late elder statesman, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Hannah.

The Ife monarch stated that Oduduwa, progenitor described Oduduwa on Page 205 as one Ekalederhan, a Benin prince who had once escaped the community's axe-man later reappeared in Ife after wandering in the bush from Benin for a very long time.

According to him, the same Ekalederhan, having become the ruler in Ife refused to go back to Benin on request but instead sent Oranmiyan his son basically on a "Home-coming mission" to start the present dynasty in Benin. of the Yoruba race had no link with the Ogiso Dynasty in Benin history as claimed by Erediauwa. Rather, according to him, the Oba of Benin whose dynasty began in 1191 AD, was an Ife prince "who was lent to the people of Benin on their request after the rule of the Ogisos had ended in Benin history."

Sijuwade's statement read in part:
"At this juncture, it is just right to allow the entire world to know that the name Oduduwa, the founder of our dynasty and from where we derive the present title of Mama, can never be corrupted or bastardised by any living being in an attempt to create for himself an unnecessary distortion of historical fact.

Oduduwa the legend, the father of the bigger Yoruba dynasty, has no connection whatsoever with Ogiso dynasty in Benin history as portrayed by the Oba of Benin, because Oduduwa descended directly from heaven through a chain to where is now known as Ife today in company of four hundred deities.

Last Thursday, April 29, 2004, OmoN'oba Erediauwa, the Oba of Benin, goofed during the launching of his book entitled: "I Remain Sir, Your Obedient Servant", in this same building where he It will interest the public to know the facts about the Ife-Benin relationship which are as follows: the Oba of Benin whose dynasty commenced in 1191 AD was an Ife prince borrowed to the people of Benin on their request after the rule of Ogisos have ended in Benin history.

it was a request that Ife must help to provide them with a ruler, then Oduduwa the legend decided to send prince Oranmiyan who established that dynasty and whose first son in Benin from a Benin woman was Owomika (Eweka) the progenitor of all Benin Obas, including OmoN'oba since 1191 AD. since Oranmiyan dynasty started in Benin all the heads of the Obas of Benin on demise were buried in Ife in a sacred place called "Orun-Oba-Ado" up to the year 1900.

Records in the archives made it clear that since 1191 AD, the Ooni of Ife had to be informed, and clearance must be given by him on the new Oba of Benin to be installed up to 1916. The official language in the palace of Oba of Benin till 1934 was Yoruba.

The father of the present Oba of Benin was a member of the House of Chiefs in the old western Nigeria under our late revered father, Sir Adesoji Aderemi, my predecessor and the first African Governor in the whole African continent. The Oba of Benin should go and read what his forefathers told the Portuguese explorers during their visit to Benin on July 2, 1550 AD about the relationship between Ife and Benin. So, it is too late for OmoN'oba to rewrite our history.

The word Oba, which is part of any of Benin Oba's title, shows clearly that they are from the bigger Yoruba Dynasty. It is rather too late in the day to rewrite our history, which cannot be backed with any documentary evidence.

I have to thank the Benin first historian Jacob U. Egharevba for his publications, which contained the correct account of the relationship between Ife and Benin, which the Oba of Benin is now condemning.

At this stage, Mama Mrs. H.I.D Awolowo you are Mama Oodua, covering the entire Yoruba nation both here and in diaspora, including the Benin kingdom where OmoN'oba Erediuawa by the grace of God is the Oba". And the fight continues as the Oba of Lagos call Ooni a liar.

Check this out:
Akiolu, who spoke to newsmen, said Erediauwa could not be faulted on the history of the Yoruba.

According to him, Omo N'Oba is a man of integrity who could not lie on this matter.

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Yoruba History: Lagos Oba Backs Benin Monarch - This Day (Lagos)May 5, 2004, Shaka Momodu, Lagos

The controversy surrounding the correct historical
background of the Yoruba race continued yesterday with the Oba of Lagos, Oba Rilwan Akiolu I agreeing with the Oba of Benin, Omo N'Oba Erediauwa that the Yoruba originated from Benin Kingdom.

Erediauwa had on page 205 of his autobiography, I
Remain Sir, Your Obedient Servant launched in Lagos last week traced the history of Oduduwa, the
progenitor of the Yoruba race to "one Ekaledehan, a Benin Prince who had once escaped the community's axe but later re-appeared in Ife after wandering in the bush from Benin for a very long time."

In a swift reaction, the Ooni of Ife, Oba Okunade
Sijuwade at the launch of the biography of Yeyeoba of Ife, Chief (Mrs) H.I.D. Awolowo on Monday in Lagos said Oduduwa had no link with the Ogiso dynasty in Benin history as claimed by Oba of Benin. Adding his voice to the raging controversy, Oba Akiolu submitted that what the Oba of Benin said on Yoruba history was correct.

Akiolu, who spoke to newsmen, said Erediauwa could not be faulted on the history of the Yoruba.

According to him, Omo N'Oba is a man of integrity who could not lie on this matter.

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The Oba of Benin's Book: The Ooni of Ife Did Not Respond But Reacted.
By Hilary Odion Evbayiro - evbayiroh@yahoo.com

I have carefully thought it over and concluded that the Ooni of Ife, Oba Okunade Sijuwade, Olubuse II, has not responded to the presentation of Omo N' Oba N' Edo,Uku Akpolokpolo, Oba Erediauwa II, the Oba of Benin, concerning the Oduduwa and Ekaladeran saga. The Ooni merely reacted in a manner unbefitting a traditional ruler in sumptuous truculence, which conveyed his disdain and resentment for the entire Edo or Benin people. What the Ooni should have done was find a better thing to say to debunk that Oduduwa was not Ekaladeran. He did not do that but publicly stated that "Oduduwa descended directly from heaven through a chain to where is now known as Ife today in company of four hundred deities."

We have heard of the many different wonders of the world. We have heard of the magical or spiritual conception of Jesus Christ in the bible. We have heard of his crucifixion and supposed ascension from the dead. But none is like the one flaunted by the Ooni of Ife, in utter display of fusillade of hate and acrimony toward the Oba of Benin and the entire Edo people, that Oduduwa descended from the heaven on chains at Ile-Ife. The Ooni did not stop there to allow reason and science to prove him right. The Ooni went further and proclaimed the wife of the late Yoruba patriarch, Mrs. Hannah Dideolu Awolowo, saying, "you are Mama Oodua, covering the entire Yoruba nation both here and in diaspora, including the Benin kingdom where Omo N'Oba Erediuawa by the grace of God is the Oba" in apparent rage and clear protestation of delusive royal importance.

When he offhandedly declared Mrs. Awolowo "Mama Oodua" maybe he was following the laid down traditions of chieftaincy conferment in the Yoruba land. Even Mrs. Awolowo herself must have been taken aback by such an unplanned pronouncement. And when he took it a step further and said "including the Benin Kingdom where Omo N'Oba Erediuawa by the grace of God is the Oba" in a most flippant manner, our revered Ooni of Ife went too far in his slipped up by allowing the composure and tact needed to address this kind of matter to elude him. The Ooni should have schooled himself on the proper culture of a true royalty. He could have put up a good rebuttal without being overtaking by anger and losing his temperament and control. He could have waited, just like the Alafin of Oyo. He could have demanded for more concrete facts or evidence, rather than exhibiting inappropriate mannerism and frowardness quite inappropriate for a traditional ruler and man of his stature in the society.

Even if one is forced to accept the claim and assertion that Oduduwa descended from the sky on chains with a grain of salt, a thing that is profusely incredible, all the Ooni was actually saying is Oduduwa was alien to the Yoruba people. In essence, Oduduwa is not Yoruba but someone supposedly from an outer space. By distending this thinking further, it is clear then that the Yorubas, by virtue of the Ooni's claim, are tacitly accepting and acknowledging, without admitting or even knowing it, that an alien from the outer space descended at Ile-Ife and started to rule them. What this means is Oduduwa was not Yoruba and could not have possibly founded the Yoruba race, notwithstanding that he ruled part of the Yoruba people. Holding this logic and thinking intact, that should also suggest that the Benin Royal family is not Yoruba as has been claimed but a direct descendant of Oduduwa, the alien, who came from the sky on chains at Ile-Ife.

To look at the whole thing from a different perspective, the Ooni and some of the Yoruba people are saying that Oduduwa was not born on this earth. The Ooni and some of the Yoruba people are saying Oduduwa did not go through the natural and human stages of conception, birth, and growth. In that regard, one is free to advance then that Oduduwa was devoid of human qualities. If so, he could not have died because that would have defied the natural order of things as we have it on earth. Even Jesus Christ was born and also died!

It is mind boggling how people could be so credulous to believe and accept someone dropping from the sky on chains. Accepting that Oduduwa is the Edo or Benin Ekaladerhan should not make the Yoruba people feel inferior to Edo or Benin people, just the same way as accepting that the Oba of Benin is a direct descendant of Oduduwa should not make the Edo or Benin people inferior to the Yorubas. It only makes us to know our historical link, connection, and relationship that we should cherish greatly.

What the Ooni has told the world is that Oduduwa did not have a history. However, the Oba of Benin has put a human face to the account of Oduduwa's origin the Yoruba people have told over the years. The Oba of Benin has told the world how this man that became known as Oduduwa was born. He has told the world how and where this man who became known as Oduduwa grew up. He has told the world what happened to this man who became Oduduwa. In a nutshell, the Oba of Benin's account of the event surrounding the birth and early years of Oduduwa is very compelling and preponderates the claim of the Ooni of Ife that the man descended from the sky on chains. Any right-thinking being can easily weigh the Ooni's version of Oduduwa's origin that is rooted in myth and forced belief against the Oba of Benin's account that is humanly, logical, and plausible.

Are we to really believe that Oduduwa came to this world with all the human qualities as he descended from the sky on chains? Who is the God that lowered him from the sky? Is the Ooni of Ife claiming that Oduduwa is the first recorded incidence of a UFO, aliens coming from the outer space? The people in the Guinness Book of World Records will be very interested in this, and maybe, correct their previous records of UFO sighting. In essence, this is what the Ooni is saying of the man who formed some of the most dynamic dynasties in human history. History should have meanings. History should have human face and dimension. History should be factual and not miraculous. History should be human and not mythological. The truth needs to be told so that people may not continue to be deceived and fooled.

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Cultural wars and national identity:
The saga of the Yoruba and the Bini-Edo

MOBOLAJI E. ALUKO, PhD
Alukome@aol.com
Burtonsville, MD, USA
May 19, 2004

INTRODUCTION
Recent discussions about the relationships - or non-relationship - of the Yoruba and the Bini-Edo have been quite interesting, but in some instances pretty disconcerting.

On April 29, 2004 at the Lagos launching of his forty-year-in-the-making autobiography, "I remain, Sir, Your Obedient Servant," the Omo N'Oba N'Edo Uku Akpolokpolo, Oba Eradiauwa, threw a stink-bomb onto the Yoruba cultural space by claiming on Page 205 that the Yoruba progenitor Oduduwa was really the runaway prince Ekalaredhan from Igodo (Benin), then being ruled by his father Ogiso Owodo. The story was that about 70 years later, still without a royal male heir to rule after the death of Owodo, a pleading Bini-land sent off to now Ooni of Ife Oduduwa to be their king. Pleading old age, he instead sent his (oldest or youngest?) son Oranmiyan (alternatively called Oranyan and, according to the Bini, corrupted from Onomoyan). Unable later on to assert his royal authority despite the invitation, Oranmiyan returned to Ife in anger, but not before renaming Igodo(migodo) "Ile-Ibinu" (the land of anger) and siring a son Eweka who, being born by a Bini princess on Bini soil, became accepted as the first Oba of Benin Eweka I. [Oranmiyan was by tradition reported to move on to found Oyo -- or was it his son Oranyan?]

The dynasty of the Ogiso thereby gave way to the dynasty of the Oba around 1190 AD.

This story has been told before, no doubt, but coming anew in writing from the Omo N'Oba in the year 2004 has been a little too much to bear for the Yoruba. Certainly, the Ooni of Ife, Alaiyeluwa Oba Okunade Adele Sijuwade (Olubushe II) would hear none of it - and promptly denounced it as he was obliged to as modern-day hagiography - nor would the eminent Professor of History Jacob F. Ade Ajayi, who has now been commissioned by the Yoruba Council of Elders (Igbimo Agba Yoruba) to do a scholarly rebuttal

Mind you, the Oduduwa-Oranmiyan-Eweka connection from the side of the Yoruba history is also well-agreed, but to the Yoruba, certainly Oduduwa came from the Eastern Sky on a Chain from Heaven. In short, the Yoruba are uncertain where he came from, but he certainly did not come with a Bini twang, breathing heavily with would-be-executioners on his tail. To make such a claim smacked of both cultural hegemony and imperial arrogance on the part of the Bini-Edo - not to talk of a hint of monarchical superiority - a move assigned to a disingenuous attempt to re-write history on the part of the Omo N'Oba. Whether the mythical Oduduwa-from-the-Sky (in Yoruba creationism) got conflated with a human Oduduwa who later performed political and mystical wonders in Yoruba - as speculated by E. Bolaji Idowu - remains a mystery, which the Bini cannot, should not, dare not thereby try to solve for the Yoruba.

The Bini (not the Edo actually) are free to make all kinds of cultural claims, but are not free to annoy the neighboring people around them - the Urhobo, Itsekiri, Etsako, even the Ishan and Owan, or the Yoruba for that matter. In fact, as some of the discourse has since revealed, some of these neighbors, even those termed "Edoid" have been tactically bailing out of these "neo-colonial" claims.

THE INFLUENCE OF EMPIRE AND MIGRATION
The fact of the matter is that otherwise autochthonous but geographically-nearby indigenous people have, over many centuries, received waves and waves of Bini immigrants, displaced either because of internal oppression within Bini-land (whether as Igodo, or Ile-Ibinu, or Ibini or Ile or Edo), or else assigned as resident overseers after numerous external aggression campaigns during various great empire periods of the Ogiso (ending with Owodo) and the Obass (starting with Eweka I). This statement is not a reflection on the Bini people but on their monarchs; it is axiomatic that the history of people should not be confused with that of their monarchs, nor should the villainy of the monarchs be confused with that of their often-time victim-subjects.

These indigenous peoples have naturally been influenced by both Bini language and culture, only later to be described as "Edoid" by foreign linguists seeking patterns of language, much to the chagrin to those who know, but strangely welcomed by some of them who are ignorant of their own hi-story,. Sometimes "high-story" has thereby turned into "low-story." To have what has been classified an "Edoid" language does not make you "Edo" just as to have a "Germanic" language does not make you German, or "Slavic" language make you - a Slave! :-)

The Etsako language and the Bini language are for example mutually unintelligible, but they are both classified "Edoid" because fragments of Bini language and culture can be found in Etsako-land (Afenmai)! The very Bini language description "Ivbiosakon" ("The people who file their teeth") from which "Etsako" is purportedly derived is either the complimentary appellation of a commendable hygienic practice, or else the derogatory characterization of a primitive engagement.

On the other hand, the Urhobo appear to trace their migrant relationship to the Bini to the Ogiso period that is notoriously remembered in their folklore. In fact, to them there is this one single proverbial "Ogiso" whose first wife was the troublesome "Inarhe," making all troublesome Urhobo women "Inarhe," according to Urhobo men. Whether this Ogiso was Iwodo whose wife Esagho tried to get her stepson and heir to the throne, the 14-year-old Ekaladerhan, killed on wrong accusation of infanticidal witchcraft is unknown and unknowable - and purely my speculation!

My point is that the Bini to many of these people are like what the English are to say Wales, Scotland and (Northern) Ireland. Outside the UK or Great Britain, "British" or "English" are virtually the same, to the unknowing or to the careless or carefree. For example, many of the British colonialists were Welsh and Scotsmen, but who cared? They were all "Oyibo" to many a Yoruba, although "Geesi" became "English" as the Yoruba got wiser to their antics. But call a "Welsh" person "English," and watch out: he might just punch you out!

EPILOGUE
In all my cyberspace contributions on this interesting saga - which predate this latest Ooni/OmoN"Oba royal spat, I have borne in mind my own triple heritage as an Ekiti-Yoruba (on my father's side, from Ode), Western Ijaw (on my mother's father's side; from Ikoro) and an Owan-Edo (from my mother's mother's side; from Arokho). My maternal grandfather's mother was Itsekiri and his first two wives were Itsekiri before he married my Owan grandmother, so the Itsekiri culture is strong, almost overwhelming in my mother's family. My first four years in life were spent at Ekpoma (Ishan-land), ward of my grandmother while my parents went abroad to seek the "golden fleece". So I spoke Esan before I could speak a single word of Yoruba.

Consequently, my abiding principle has been simple: any cultural people can make all kinds of INTERNAL CLAIMS that they want, however fantastic, including their progenitor climbing down a chain from Heaven (as the Yoruba claim Oduduwa to have done). However, they must be VERY CAREFUL to be sensitive when such claims cross their own cultural borders and intersect the history of others, else they degenerate into claims of superiority or inferiority, which are the first bus stop to hatred and wars, which we really cannot afford.

For example, I cannot prove or disprove whether Oduduwa and Ekalaredhan are the same person or not. But for the Bini, particularly a high person like the Omo N'Oba, to make such an assertion without being able to prove it - and to make it so positively - is to invite major angst, which will not go away very soon.

We should all remain vigilant, and confront with class and civility any attempts at cultural hegemony and revanchist internal re-colonization. All of these have some bearings on what it really means to be at the same time both a local indigene AND a national citizen of Nigeria with inalienable rights. It is the lack of resolution of these knotty issues that has had some disastrous consequences in Ife-Modakeke, Aguleri-Umuleri, Warri (among the Urhobo, the Itsekiri, and the Ijaw), in Ogoni-land, in Zaki-Biam as well as in Yelwa-Shendam, just to name a few ethnic hotspots in Nigeria,

By the way, in closing, I am not a monarchist, and would not miss a moment of sleep if they all walked away from their thrones and shed their crowns. But that should be the democratic choice of their "subjects" who currently tolerate them, not mass regicide by decree.

Best wishes always, and farewell to these particular arms.

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Yoruba origin controversy:You can’t just wake up and say Oduduwa was a Benin prince — Prof. Ade Ajayi - Sunday, May 16, 2004

“People don’t just wake up and say that Oduduwa must have been a Benin prince rather than an Ife king, that Ife took their kingship from Benin, that a Benin prince that they wanted to execute escaped and ran and ran to a village and you call Ife a village”. With these words, accomplished historian and former vice-chancellor of University of Lagos (UNILAG), faulted the claim by Oba of Benin, Omon’oba N’edo Uku Akpolopolor that Yoruba progenitor Oduduwa originated from Benin. Excerpts of interview:
There is this on-going controversy sparked off by different accounts of the Ooni of Ife and Oba of Benin on the origin of Yoruba progenitor Oduduwa. What is your position?

The thing is that none of us was present when the world was created, so we just accept story of creations and myths of origin as a matter of belief, we cannot as a matter of fact because none of us was present. So, we just believe what the ancestors handed over to us. We can ask questions to why the ancestors took a certain position. But if we are to find out what the Yoruba believe about the origin of the Yorubas, I don’t think we will go to Benin, we will go to Ife. The Oba of Benin actually said that the controversy over the Yoruba progenitor was caused by historical experts in Ibadan. Do you share such a view?

I think what the Oba is trying to say is that a Bini historian, Jacob Egharevah, wrote a book and he says that the fourth edition of the book was edited in Ibadan. So, there is no contradiction between the first and the fourth editions of the book. But Oba of Benin says he is dismissing Egharevah because Akoko-Edo blood in him (Egharevah) made him favour the Yorubas.
He didn’t say that the man is a Yoruba man but that he has Akoko-Edo blood in him. Akoko-Edo people are no longer under Edo State. I think the Oba of Benin has been saying things like this before. He just wanted to use the opportunity of this book to provoke a controversy and I think he is getting that already.

He did not cite any evidence. At least those who said that Benin tradition agree with Ife tradition quote Egharevah who was a Benin chief, who actually did a lot of research not only on Benin but on Akure and surrounding areas, Urhobo and Itsekiri. He even wrote a book entitled a short history of Benin. And any day, I will rather follow that book than follow what an Oba who is not an expert in the field and whose only interest in the matter is to be able to assert his own opinion and everybody is entitled to his own opinion.
So what you are trying to tell us now is that the account of Oba of Benin as recorded in the book is not the correct position of things regarding Oduduwa?
Of course not, he himself knows that. The book is an auto-biography and about his experience as a civil servant. How did he suddenly drag in the question of Ife and Benin? He says this is because during his coronation rites, there is a point he had to take a name, every Yoruba Oba takes a name, and in every way, the monarchy in Benin is very similar to the monarchy in Ife. Now, from his own personal opinion, he wants to say that it is the Ife who took from Benin not Benin that took from Ife, that is just his own modern politics.

His own father used to attend and meet at the conference of Yoruba Obas regularly during the colonial rule. His own father did not object to this but he, from his own point of view of politics, thinks it is departure from his own status to say that Ife monarchy is derived from Benin monarchy.
Does it mean from all these, Oba of Benin is playing politics?
Of course he is playing politics. From where did he get his own information?
He said from his own studies?
What studies? What did he study that was not available to Egharevah? How can his own studies in Benin tell him more about Ife than Ife people themselves?
Omon’oba’s contention was that Oduduwa could not have been the father of Yoruba kings?
Yes, on what evidence, you don’t say something without evidence to back it up. The Yoruba say that Oduduwa came from somewhere in the far East, others say he descended from heaven like Johnson wrote. What did the Oba of Benin study? Did he study Johnson? Did he study Egharevah? Did he study the historians of Ife who had written about Ife, the cradle of Yoruba and so on? Although I say that myths of origin is a matter of belief and because none of us was present there, some beliefs are more credible than others, so you go by probability, there is no certainty in history, you go by probability and many people will say the story told about Ife in Benin is less likely to be credible than the story told about Ife in Ife.
The Oba of Benin went further in the book by saying that the modern historians tried to confuse Oduduwa with Orunmila?
On what basis did he say that because Orunmila used figures 16, the latest figure in Ifa? We have 16 Odu and people have pointed out that modern computer goes more by the figure 16 than the figure 10 or 12. In English, you will rather say ten or eleven. The Yorubas in anticipating computer science in their own mathematics, use 16. 16 is the figure that is 2x2x2x2.
What you are trying to tell us is that Oduduwa is not different from Orunmila?
Oduduwa is different from Orunmila. Orunmila founded Ifa and that is the religious basis of the Yoruba, but Oduduwa is reckoned with as introducing monarchical system, the obaship and the culture. You see, people don’t just wake up one day and say that Oduduwa must have been a Benin prince rather than an Ife king that Ife took their kingship from Benin, that a Benin prince that they wanted to execute escaped ran and ran to a village and you call Ife a village.
The thing is that people who studied languages say that Yoruba must have been spoken for about 4000 years in order to explain the similarity surrounding languages so the people who used to say that Yoruba people migrated from Middle East backed up their research work because the Yoruba people themselves who speak Yoruba language must have been here a long time ago, we have dug up a skeleton near Akure which was said to be the oldest skeleton that has been found, it s about a thousand and nine hundred years old.
So, we then conclude that the myths around Oduduwa must be myths about kingship. That is the tradition, they derive from Ife. If you go to Oyo, the people there believe they are from Ife. Only the Ijebus are disputing that they are from Ife. Again, that is probably because of the modern politics of the current Awujale who does not want to agree with other Yoruba obas, that they came from Ife.
Now, who is the Oba of Benin to come and tell the Yorubas what they should believe about themselves? I think it is very very wrong and impertinent to assume that you know more about the Yoruba people than the Yoruba know about themselves. On what basis? What information could he have? When he says from his studies, what did he study? What books? Is it in the colonial days or before then or is the books written by educated Yoruba people of the 19th century?
Another dimension was added to the controversy by the Oba of Lagos who said that he believes the story of Omon’oba of Benin?'
Yes, because Lagos itself used to be a Benin colony. If you go to Lagos, you have the evidence of the Benin connection, some of the places in Lagos, I mean the names of places, evidently shw the Benin connection. The Benin says that Eko means Oko, a farm and nobody is disputing that. So, nobody says that the monarchy in Lagos is derived from Ife even though there are other subordinate chiefs in the villages outside Lagos on the road to Badagry, as an example, who believe that their ancestors came from Ife. But we do know that the kingship of Lagos, the Oba of Lagos derives more from Benin than from Ife.
The Oba of Benin also said that Oduduwa could not have been the father of Yoruba nation because he said that before the arrival of Oduduwa in Ife, the Ifes had had five rulers?
This is also emphasising kingship, not the coming of the people. Oduduwa represents the coming of monarchy, and not the coming of the Yoruba people. We acknowledge this fact, but to say that Oduduwa has seven children, one was deformed, anther a cripple and so on, I don’t agree.
There are several traditions and what we need really is a more intensive and more extensive research so that we can collate all these stories and interprete them in the light of what we know, in the light of chronology, for example, in the light of what we know about slave trade. The trend is that there is enough evidence that Ife is the origin of Yoruba people.
If the Oyo people can say that their coronation rites will not be complete until they go to Ife to take certain paraphernalia to complete the coronation, they are not disputing the fact that Oranmiyan was the founder of Oyo, the same Oranmiyan the Yoruba people believe founded the Benin kingship and he started from Ife. We now have to interprete all these in the light of what we know about others, what we know about Benin and so on. So, what we need is more research and not political speculation such as the Oba of Benin is trying to provoke.
From your own research, is there any link between Ogiso dynasty in Benin and Oduduwa dynasty?
The Yoruba believe and I don’t think the Oba of Benin is in position to dispute that, that Oranmiyan was an Ife prince, the other people will say he is the eldest or the youngest of Oduduwa’s sons. This is immaterial but there is no doubt that Oranmiyan founded Oyo and he also founded Benin and later on he returned to Ile-Ife where “Opa Oranyan” (Oranya staff) is still located.
From what you have been saying, you believe the story as told by the Ooni of Ife?

Yes, I believe the story as told by the Ooni of Ife. It is better founded than what the Oba of Benin is trying to tell Nigerians. The Oba of Benin has no locus standi, as it were, to tell the story of Oranmiyan.
And what he is trying to deny, his own father accepted for many years and took his place among Yoruba obas without questioning and this is what Benin well known historians Egharevah told us. You cannot just come along with no evidence at all because you are an oba to say that your father was wrong, that Egharevah had Akoko-Edo blood in him and therefore was wrong and from your own studies, what did he study?
Was it in Cambridge that he studied and discovered this or from the two or three months coronation rites he underwent? Let him come out with the historian who taught him that during his coronation rites, he has been touting this for long, he just wants to provoke controversy, that is why he dragged in the story in the book about his life which is not relevant to the book. He is evidently playing politics.

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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.

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Oduduwa: Saving history from ethnic propaganda

CHUKWU EKE
Lagos, Nigeria

sparkstoday2000@yahoo.com

Tuesday, June 8, 2004

I do not know why the Yoruba 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 Bini 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 Yoruba 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 Bini, he chuckled sardonically before telling me that Oduduwa escaped from Bini prison and went on to found the Ife dynasty. Is it possible that the Yoruba 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 Bini?

On the face of it, one can easily pitch one's tent with the Bini in this Oduduwa saga, as Oba Akiolu of Lagos has done. Besides having lesser of the Yoruba sin of making spurious historical claims, the Bini 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 autochthonous Igbo 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 for 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 Bini and the Yoruba 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 the Igbo.

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 Igbo were brave, but the invaders had more sophisticated weapons of war. The Oyo and Ife areas which, it seems, did not have dense a population of the Igbo, 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 Fulani, used the natives against their own in other parts.

In the Ekiti areas, where the Igbo 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 Yoruba what Delila was to the Philistines.

Oduduwa was the leader of the invaders.

Having conquered the native Igbo of Southwest, Oduduwa 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." [See: 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 Igbo, Dr. N. A. Fadipe 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 than 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 Igbo of Delta, Abia, and the Waawa 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: "Nke a bu onyeodudu wa" or "Nke a bu Odu wa." (This 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 Igbo colonised by Oduduwa and his people in the Southwest were of the same stock as the Igbo 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 autochthonous Igbo of Southwest but asked me if I thought his Igbo ancestor were of the same ethno-cultural makeup 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 Southeast and Southsouth.

But if the Yoruba 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 Igbo and the Yoruba 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 Igbo had used for the Oyo people. Before Oduduwa and his Oba put the whole Southwest to rout, the Oyo, who thought they were enjoying Oduduwa's civilisation, would call the Igbo "bush people." The Igbo, 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 deliberately 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 Igbo of the Southeast. Would we not be having a real handshake across the Niger? But truth is like smoke which nobody buries and celebrates 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 Igbophobists, whose education has not purged them of the fear of the Igbo. Besides its glaring Igbophobia, 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 brackets was as a disclaimer. It said that those the Oduduwa people invaded were "Ugbo" (not being able to discover that Igbo Ukwu arts had existed for more than four centuries before Ife/Benin, that Ife/Benin diffused 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 backed up by related disciplines of archeology, linguistics, and anthropology.

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Re-Oduduwa: A Rejoinder to Chukwu Eke-Benin Have No Cause to Imitate Yorubas
By Ewaen Edoghimioya - ewaenfedo@yahoo.co.uk

Let me start this rejoinder by first correcting a supposedly inadvertent error in your write up. The word BINI is a derogatory name the British coined and used for the purpose of divide and rule of the Edo people. It is insulting and therefore unacceptable to us. The British have no right to impose a name on us and so we reject and renounce it. Please respect us by addressing us with the name our ancestors called us which are either EDO or BENIN.

The impression one gets from your write-up is that the Edo represented by Omo n’Oba n’ Edo, Uku Akpolokpolo, Erediauwa, are just being imitative of the Yoruba. People imitate just to look like or pretend to look like what they are not. You went on cite examples of Edo people bearing Yoruba names and titles , whereas the yorubas have never had cause to borrow or imitate others .To crown it all the yorubas are pace setters and inventors, whom others struggle to imitate.

My Edo people say A TA ERINMWIN, A I KHIN ERINMWIN meaning you can imitate the spirit, but you cannot become the spirit. It is like the saying in that popular Nigerian advert that IF E NOR BE PANADOL, E NOR FIT BE LIKE PANADOL. So no matter how much we try, we can never be yoruba’s. Any way for your information we have no cause for wanting to be yorubas. It is the yorubas who rather want the Edo to be yorubas and they go all the way to try to force us into an Oduduwa family , try to ram down our throats an oduduwa ideology and include us without our permission into an oduduwa republic-see
www.geocities.com/yorubacountry. If we want to be Yoruba or imitate Yoruba,