I really enjoyed reading through all the posts/comments. Very nice thread! *following*

Funjosh:
If only we can consult an oracle

Brilliant point. Where in Odu-Ifa was "Yoruba“ mentioned to describe us, as it does now?
All these people killing Yoruba history on this forum just make me laugh

Instead of looking to Yoruba culture for Yoruba history, they look at middle eastern cultures for Yoruba history

blacko:
All of u who write and make lies about the origin of the Yoruba's shall be punished by our ancestors

You are talking of your wicked ancesors I believe.

My ancestors were scholars and I'm a scholar like them. They are not vulgar and agonizing people fill with hate.

This is the precept of Yoruba history:

B'omode o ba 'tan,
o nl lati ba aroba,
Aroba ni baba itan.

If a young mind miss out at the historical facts,
He cannot miss the speculations about the fact,
The speculations will give birth to the historical fact.

So these were my ancestors who believe that if the young mind continue searching and utilizing the speculations at their disposal,
they will somehow unlock the secret held up tight in history.

But your own ancestors are all about punishing people who dare to scrutinize what is at their disposal. What manner of ancestors!
We have different ancestors anyway. I'm not afraid of yours.

you people are making mockery of yoruba though.

blacko:
The origin of the name Yoruba is a very simple one first of all the yo was. Coined from oyo then ruba means people so Yoruba means people of the oyo empire the name was most probably coined by neighbors

So, what should the ancestors do to you?
Give you an award?

PeterKbaba:



From your analysis, what about:

Yo = Bright= Sun
Ru = Oru= Night
Ba = ba = Ruler

Sun that rule's the night.
Remember the Arab sign is the Moon and the European sign is the Star, while the black man sign is the Sun.

Therefore, the Yoruba's are either the Sun that once ruled the night (Arabs - Moon & Europeans - Stars) in the past. Meaning our forefathers gave us the name which tells a reminder story of our past before we arrived Nigeria or the Yoruba's (Sun) are destined to Rule the night (Arabs - Moon & Europeans - Stars) in the nearest FUTURE!!!

It is not the sun that rule the night, blessed soul, it is the moon that rule the night.

The Yoruba have the one that has to do with the sun that rule the day. But that version got corrupt along the way:
Sonpono Elenpe nana Ajobo. Thats Obaluaye, that is, Oba- Olu-aye. The Yoruba has vilified this with Olode, tita, Igbona.

They were only trying to spot that term "Yoruba" with the lighthouse. They were mariners of old.

I still enjoy my cognomen as a descendant of the great Ohori people,
from my paternal grandma. She's from Ketu. So grandma says my oriki thus:

Jaka ara weme,
Omoba tente lori omi.

Jaka's brethren, people of the book.
The prince that float on the edge of the sea.

Then, our folksong goes thus:

Oyinbon fun gala o,
omo alaketu, ketu kenafe.

By the way, Ohori is a Yoruba word: Oho ri
The discovery of the people who fled.

Ho is the same as Sa, to flee from home.

Happy nu year.

Some say Arab, Hebrew, Yoruba, Igbo are all ancient African words meaning the same thing in different dialects. Pastorialist and/or sheperd. The "GB" sound is the same found in "GB" the Earth deity of Kemet (Egypt.)
In Igbo there is still the words "ebunu, ebulu, and evulu" meaning the male sheep/ram.

Most of African history is still yet to be written.
I recommend 'Words & Meaning in Yoruba Religion: Linguistic Connections in Yoruba, Ancient Egyptian & Semitic' by Modupe Oduyoye.

Its almost a year since we last discussed in here.

I have additional information to bring, a lot of new perspectives.

MetaPhysical:
Its almost a year since we last discussed in here.

I have additional information to bring, a lot of new perspectives.

Absolutely,

how time flies.

Very interesting topic for discussion. Thankyou Family.

Before I can give my own opinion, I would like to share some Yoruba Phonetic and grammatic rules as set and taught by Our Elders and most specifically Our Ancestors both Biological and Spiritual or Ancestral.

1) Yoruba i s a phonetic language. Every consonant has its vowel ( the nasal, 'n' being the only exception). If therefore two consonants follow one another in a foreign word, a vowel will be inserted between them. In some cases, one of the consonants is dropped.

2) All syllables in Yoruba are open. If a syllable in a foreign word is closed, the final consonant either drops out or receives a vowel, thereby forming a new syllable.
For example, the word 'pan' becomes 'panu' in Yoruba (see also the next rule).

3) The double consonant 'th' becomes either 't' or 'd'. e.g. 'that' becomes 'dat' in West African languages generally. In Yoruba i t must become 'dati' . But the form 'da' is well known in the pidgin English spoken in West Africa e.g. 'that boy' become 'da boy'.

4) Final vowels are often nasalized. This is especially the case when a final consonant has been elided or the word has .been abbreviated.

5) The short 'a' does not exist in the Yoruba language. Whenever it occurs in a foreign word it is generally changed to the long sound of 'a' as i n 'bar', or is
deflected in 'e' as in 'pet'.

6) The vowel sound 'er' as in 'her' becomes the long 'a' in Yoruba.

7) The vowels ' i ' and 'u' are sometimes substituted for one another. This also applies t o the vowels 'a' and 'i' and 'e' and 'o'.

The letter 'h' ('h' with a diacritical mark) representing a deep guttural sound does not exist in the Yoruba language. Whenever i t occurs in a foreign word it
becomes modified into 'g' (hard sound) or 'd'.

9) The double letter 'kh' also does not exist in Yoruba. Before a foreign word containing it can be incorporated into Yoruba it must be treated as follows : when it is
followed by a consonant it receives a vowel which forms a new syllable with it in accordance with rule 2 above; if it is followed by a vowel and the word is not
a monosyllable, the 'kh' is omitted.

10) A prefix consisting of a vowel or a vowel and an initial consonant is sometimes added to an adopted word to denote a possessor or an agent.

11) 'p' (as in pat) sometimes becomes 'b' in Yoruba e.g. Bishop becomes 'Bisobu' in Yoruba.

12) The aspirate is often elided.

13) 'r' is often substituted for 'n'.

14) A pure Yoruba noun begins with a vowel, unless it is a noun phrase. A noun adopted from another language may be left without any modification , or it may have a vowel prefixed to it , so that it may look like an ordinary Yoruba noun.

The whole world believes that the ancient languages of Ancient Egypt (Kemet), Sumeria, Aramaic are dead. They are not at all. We all in the sub-sahara Africa still speak those very ancient languages in denegrated version and without its written system which are still kept fresh in the custody of our Elders.

The word "Ye" in the Kemet language mean "exist" Thus Yeye mi ( My mother according to some Yoruba dialect) and Iya mi (note from the rules no 14 above; Consonant would be added to a most noun started with a vowel and 'a' can be substitute for 'e'). Thus Iya or Oya.
The words 'Yeye' or 'Iya mi' does not just mean mother (it is weak); It really means "SHE WHO CAUSES ME TO EXIST".

What is the meaning of Yoruba. 'Yo' comes from the word "Ye" to exist.
Ruba comes from the Kemetic word/God Rpa. Rpa is one of the attributes of Seb/Geb/Keb
P can be substitute for B according to the rules and There must always be a vowel between two consonant in Yoruba language. thus Ruba.
Yoruba means "The Living Rpa" or "The Creator of Rpa".

Yoruba is the same meaning with all the Black tribes of the world. All our names are the best that can be.

pls can you mail me titialayo25@yahoo.co.uk,very important,thanks

MetaPhysical:



Rabzy,
Just few years ago I discovered the use of root words to decrypt sense and meanings in ancient tongues like Yoruba, and ever since I have uncovered a lot of treasures hidden in Yoruba tongue, language and culture.

On this topic I want us to focus on the root word YRB.

Use your imagination to twirl and toss YRB in variety of combinations to create a set of words, terms and ideas limited to the 7 Yoruba vowels a,e,e,i,o,o,u. Sorry I could not put diacritics where they belong, I do not have Yoruba keyboard installed on this phone.

Share with us what you come up with.
Thanks.


I want to add that in case the root YRB is not cooperating with you, use IRB instead.

Y and I in Yoruba are interchangeable if used broadly, ignoring the standard Yoruba dictum.

"Omo to Ba gbagbe Orisun, So Apo'ya Ko."

THE WORD IS UNDOUBTEDLY ISLAMIC IN ORIGIN. IT CAME FROM SONGHAI TO DESCRIBE PEOPLE TO THE SOUTH THAT WOULD NOT SUBMIT TO ISLAM. THE NAME MEANS THUGS! SONGHAI WAS CONTEMPORARY OF THE MOORISH EMPIRE, THE MOORS HELD SW EUROPE WHICH THEY CALLED ANDALUSIA. THEY WERE DRIVEN BACK BY CHARLES OF THE HAMMER. THE REST OF EUROPE REJECTED ISLAM AND THE MOORS WERE LATER DRIVEN OUT OF SW EUROPE OR ANDALUSIA. ANDALUSIA FOR A LONG TIME WAS THE LIGHT OF EUROPE.


THE ANDALUSIANS CALLED NON MUSLIM LANDS TO THE NORTH EUROPE WHILE THE SONGHAI CALLED THE NON MUSLIM PEOPLE TO THE SOUTH YORUBA. CAN YOU SEE THE SIMILARITY? I BELIEVE NOW THAT IT IS THESAME NAME. SOMEONE POINTED IT OUT TO ME AND I HAVE RUMINATED OVER IT. I THINK IT IS THESAME NAME. THE NAME MEANS RELATIVELY ADVANCED PEOPLE WHO WOULD NOT SUBMIT TO ISLAM. THEY WERE SEEN AS THUGS BY BRAINWASHED MUSLIMS!. THE JAMAA.

I stumbled on this piece today and read every single post. I will therefore love to add my opinion.

It is indeed true that whenever a culture interacts with a more powerful culture, overtime, it begins to redefine itself in relations with the dominant culture. This is particularly so in an era before or without writing.

That said, all attempts to associate Yoruba roots with Jewish, Arabic, Egyptian, Akkadian or Sumerian era cultures is at best speculation and can only be supported with scanty evidence or none at all. Speculation is not a bad exercise however it must not be elevated beyond what it is and assumed to be fact by its proponents.

Similarity in languages, words and cultural practices may be assumed to be evidence of oneness of two cultures at some point in their history, however, there is evidence of dissimilar cultures sharing remarkable similarities e.g. the the English "No" (I.e. a negative response) is similar to the Hindi "Nei". No one has yet suggested that British peoples migrated from the banks of the Granges nor have I heard that the Dravidians came from fishing on the Thames river in time past.

Bottom line; you will need archeological finds and more evidence to promote the idea of Yoruba origins being from Mecca, Jerusalem or Sumer.

Consequent on the above, the more logical theory on the origins of the Yoruba people and the name Yoruba itself is that which relates it more closer to home. The denonym, Yoruba, appears most likely to have been invented by any of Oyo's neighbours; Borgu, Hausawa, Songhai, Mali, Nupe, Igalla etc. Other names were likely used in contemporary terms e.g. Katunga, Zamana etc and these were most likely referring to Oyo alone and not all the peoples we refer as Yoruba today. Oyo later went on to amass a massive empire running from the banks of the Oya (I.e. the river Kworra, Niger etc depending on whose language you settle for) all the way to the Ekiti highlands and the Ogun river. Please note that Oyo never ruled over Awori, Eko, Bini, Esan and all other peoples further south. Interestingly today, we refer to the Eko and Awori peoples as Yoruba. These people, in the time before the Yoruba civil wars were more related to the Itsekiri, Bini, Akoko etc than to Oyo or any of its "Yoruba tributaries".

The modern day promotion of the name Yoruba and its ascription to all of the peoples south of the Niger and West of Benin was the work of the British colonials led particularly by one Samuel Ajayi Crowther!

This Mr. Crowther, later ordained a bishop, was a freed slave who most certainly hailed from Ilesha and is an Ijesha by ethnicity. He was heavily employed by the British as the go to guy on anything to do with the peoples around the Basin of the river Niger. Crowther translated the bible into Yoruba, was on the team that rendered both the Igalla and Igbo translations and contributed many of the place names, denonyms and concepts, that has remained till our time, to the British. The place names; Owerri, Aboh, Badagry, Onitsha etc were the creation of Crowther and are obviously wrong rendition compared with the native pronunciation.

Another key wrong done by Mr. Crowther (and indeed the worst crime he ever committed against the Yoruba) was his presentation of the Yoruba deity Esu as the Jewish/Christian Satan in his translation of the bible. This is a cultural crime without comparison in our colonial history.

The summary of my epistle is that the name Yoruba was likely given to Oyo people by their neighbours. Overtime, this name was extended to cover many other ethnicities similar to the Oyo. Samuel Crowther sold the name to the British who rubber stamped it on the people referred to as Yoruba today and this has remained so to this day.

kjhova:


Similarity in languages, words and cultural practices may be assumed to be evidence of oneness of two cultures at some point in their history, however, there is evidence of dissimilar cultures sharing remarkable similarities e.g. the the English "No" (I.e. a negative response) is similar to the Hindi "Nei". No one has yet suggested that British peoples migrated from the banks of the Granges nor have I heard that the Thames river in time past.

While I do share your premise, which is that there are no concrete evidence that link the Yoruba or southern Nigerian groups in general with the Middle East, your Hindi-English example is not a good one.

It has been known to linguists since at least the 18th century that such Asian languages as Hindi, Persian, Afghanistani (Pashto), etc are related to most European languages (English, German, Italian, Russian, etc). They are all collectively called the Indo-European languages.

The ancestors of Hindi speakers were therefore related to the ancestors of English speakers and entered Northern India some 4,500 years ago where they met and mingled with the ancestors of the Dravidians.

The indigenous languages of the Dravidians, such as the Tamil language (which are still spoken in South India) are very distinct from Hindi, and does not share these similarities which we observe between Hindi and European languages.

Oyo Oba, but the Hausa pronounced it Yoruba

kjhova:
I stumbled on this piece today and read every single post. I will therefore love to add my opinion.

It is indeed true that whenever a culture interacts with a more powerful culture, overtime, it begins to redefine itself in relations with the dominant culture. This is particularly so in an era before or without writing.

That said, all attempts to associate Yoruba roots with Jewish, Arabic, Egyptian, Akkadian or Sumerian era cultures is at best speculation and can only be supported with scanty evidence or none at all. Speculation is not a bad exercise however it must not be elevated beyond what it is and assumed to be fact by its proponents.

Similarity in languages, words and cultural practices may be assumed to be evidence of oneness of two cultures at some point in their history, however, there is evidence of dissimilar cultures sharing remarkable similarities e.g. the the English "No" (I.e. a negative response) is similar to the Hindi "Nei". No one has yet suggested that British peoples migrated from the banks of the Granges nor have I heard that the Dravidians came from fishing on the Thames river in time past.

Bottom line; you will need archeological finds and more evidence to promote the idea of Yoruba origins being from Mecca, Jerusalem or Sumer.

Consequent on the above, the more logical theory on the origins of the Yoruba people and the name Yoruba itself is that which relates it more closer to home. The denonym, Yoruba, appears most likely to have been invented by any of Oyo's neighbours; Borgu, Hausawa, Songhai, Mali, Nupe, Igalla etc. Other names were likely used in contemporary terms e.g. Katunga, Zamana etc and these were most likely referring to Oyo alone and not all the peoples we refer as Yoruba today. Oyo later went on to amass a massive empire running from the banks of the Oya (I.e. the river Kworra, Niger etc depending on whose language you settle for) all the way to the Ekiti highlands and the Ogun river. Please note that Oyo never ruled over Awori, Eko, Bini, Esan and all other peoples further south. Interestingly today, we refer to the Eko and Awori peoples as Yoruba. These people, in the time before the Yoruba civil wars were more related to the Itsekiri, Bini, Akoko etc than to Oyo or any of its "Yoruba tributaries".

The modern day promotion of the name Yoruba and its ascription to all of the peoples south of the Niger and West of Benin was the work of the British colonials led particularly by one Samuel Ajayi Crowther!

This Mr. Crowther, later ordained a bishop, was a freed slave who most certainly hailed from Ilesha and is an Ijesha by ethnicity. He was heavily employed by the British as the go to guy on anything to do with the peoples around the Basin of the river Niger. Crowther translated the bible into Yoruba, was on the team that rendered both the Igalla and Igbo translations and contributed many of the place names, denonyms and concepts, that has remained till our time, to the British. The place names; Owerri, Aboh, Badagry, Onitsha etc were the creation of Crowther and are obviously wrong rendition compared with the native pronunciation.

Another key wrong done by Mr. Crowther (and indeed the worst crime he ever committed against the Yoruba) was his presentation of the Yoruba deity Esu as the Jewish/Christian Satan in his translation of the bible. This is a cultural crime without comparison in our colonial history.
umented
The summary of my epistle is that the name Yoruba was likely given to Oyo people by their neighbours. Overtime, this name was extended to cover many other ethnicities similar to the Oyo. Samuel Crowther sold the name to the British who rubber stamped it on the people referred to as Yoruba today and this has remained so to this day.

The Awori are one of the subtribes of the Yoruba nation .Their Origin in Ile Ife and how they settled in Lagos led by Olofin their king is very well. Known and documented . Even my friend who is Ghanaian told me her tribe migrated from Ile Ife. In ancient times Ile Ife was to the Yoruba's what Rome was to the Romans

2prexios:


that's true pagan9ja, sometimes some words are used by a people and it becomes area-code, they may later drop it but their neighbours may still hold on to it, we can research and find out more about it: my believe is, the Yoruba is like bariba and like borgu and so on.

But the Yoruba people were not answering that because every Yoruba tribe has its name as her identity, then when Clapperton came, he got the Hausa version of it, and when he traveled through Yorubaland, he confirmed its indigenous version and uphold it.

If the names are hard to find, the same should apply to all other Yoruba neighbours and there should be some conspiracy theories around every ethnic names. But Yoruba has always been pronounced Yoba, which is like queen mother, Iye Oba.

Who knows if it pertains with a queen mother of historical repute in annal of Yoruba history and as fate will have it, it was plucked from repertoire of antique phrases to serve as eponymous name?

similar sounding words:

Yeye, matriarch,
Yewa, our matriarch.
Ayaba, kings wife.

Yoruba was a name that had it foundation right from ILE IFE, if one consider,the etymology of the word “O ba" , which showed that “Yoruba" came forth through Oranmiyan to his neighbourhood when he left ILE IFE . After all, Ogun left ILE IFE before Oranmiyan and he died, somewhere in present day Shaki, and before his death ,he was a warrior,that was referred as Ogun Ooni rè ,which became corrupted as Ogun onirè and he was referred to as “Ba/Uba", likewise every Prince or king of that magnitude, which was a word for father .The word was more more a ritual word used to identify, he who reign over all .To understand the meaning, one need to do a breakdown of the word into two or three or more if possible, so as to understand how the word became contracted from this probable reference to a Prince or King, which can be deduced from; U yi O ba– E yi O Oba — O-yo-U-ba . From this, it can be decoded that the name was a way to salute a king or a prince with a crown from ILE FE. Furthermore, U yi O ba– È yi o O ba — O yo U ba , was more less a eulogy to praise Oranmiyan ,in form of “ È yi O ba —Oyo O ba — Yoruba"(This one is a King/This is a king). The cognition, I used is from the last part in Ooni's Oriki (eulogy) ,which reference him as “ O ba". The point here is that many ancient Yoruba words gave way to new ones,either as result of contraction for easy pronunciation or corrupt pronunciation to suit the speakers

Why can't we come together to work on this heritage and history?

The name was given by Songhai Muslims, it is thesame way Arab Muslims coined Europa to identify Europe. Europa and Yoruba are thesame word

lawani:
The name was given by Songhai Muslims, it is thesame way Arab Muslims coined Europa to identify Europe. Europa and Yoruba are thesame word

How? Clarify.

lawani:
The name was given by Songhai Muslims, it is thesame way Arab Muslims coined Europa to identify Europe. Europa and Yoruba are thesame word

Yoruba couldn't have been given by Songhai People or Songhai Muslim ,because, nobody could call you a name except such came from you as a descriptive form of introduction of oneself, one's people or one's prince with a crown. For example Bini had such knowledge of Oba through Oranmiyan . The point here is that people can't call one a name except it first came through one before it can become popularised. Ibn Battûta had recorded a traveling account of IFE in 1325–1354, but with no knowledge of Yoruba as a name for the migrants of IFE that built Katunga but referred to them as Youfi(IFE). The account was in 1958( page 40, 9-10) . And again these Muslims from songhai don't speak Yoruba,how would they call them such name ? There is no way the word could emanate from Muslims from Songhai or Mahli. The etymology of O Y o U O ba couldn't have came from Songhai Empire or Mahli's

Olu317:
Yoruba couldn't have been given by Songhai People or Songhai Muslim ,because, nobody could call you a name except such came from you as a descriptive form of introduction of oneself, one's people or one's prince with a crown. For example Bini had such knowledge of Oba through Oranmiyan . The point here is that people can't call one a name except it first came through one before it can become popularised. Ibn Battûta had recorded a traveling account of IFE in 1325–1354, but with no knowledge of Yoruba as a name for the migrants of IFE that built Katunga but referred to them as Youfi(IFE). The account was in 1958( page 40, 9-10) . And again these Muslims from songhai don't speak Yoruba,how would they call them such name ? There is no way the word could emanate from Muslims from Songhai or Mahli. The etymology of O Y o U O ba couldn't have came from Songhai Empire or Mahli's

I said EUROPA and YORUBA means thesame. It is a phoenician word meaning West by which the Arabs referred to the europeans, it later came to be used for any non Muslim people with a high degree of civilization. It is also certain that the word Yoruba is not of Yoruba origin, it was first found in the account of the Songhai scholar Ahmed Baba of the 16th century and it was popularised by the Hausa usage of it
https://www.nairaland.com/3641149/yoruba-europa-muslims

lawani:

I said EUROPA and YORUBA means thesame. It is a phoenician word meaning West by which the Arabs referred to the europeans, it later came to be used for any non Muslim people with a high degree of civilization. It is also certain that the word Yoruba is not of Yoruba origin, it was first found in the account of the Songhai scholar Ahmed Baba of the 16th century and it was popularised by the Hausa usage of it
https://www.nairaland.com/3641149/yoruba-europa-muslims

EUROPA could not have been Yoruba because , etymologically ,it does not fit . Muslims were the last set of people, to get in contact with Yorubas. Arabs dont call father — Ba, nor do they had kings as their overlord,who is always secluded from the public . And O ba in É yi / U yi O ba or OyO Oba ,shows stem connection from where the word came out of from. The Oyo dialect was the beginning of the continuum of development of the Yoruba language. Take for instance, Aba/Uba/Ba means father and not Baba. Baba means Yoruba ancestor. But Oyo made the word more popular,but in deeper Oyo dialect, Ba is maintain for father. The same is applicable to Olodumare.Eledumare was the correct form or ancient form for it. What about Èri which was the correct form for pronouncing Òri ,so on and so forth.

Olu317:
EUROPA could not have been Yoruba because , etymologically ,it does not fit . Muslims were the last set of people, to get in contact with Yorubas. Arabs dont call father — Ba, nor do they had kings as their overlord,who is always secluded from the public . And O ba in É yi / U yi O ba or OyO Oba ,shows stem connection from where the word came out of from. The Oyo dialect was the beginning of the continuum of development of the Yoruba language. Take for instance, Aba/Uba/Ba means father and not Baba. Baba means Yoruba ancestor. But Oyo made the word more popular,but in deeper Oyo dialect, Ba is maintain for father. The same is applicable to Olodumare.Eledumare was the correct form or ancient form for it. What about Èri which was the correct form for pronouncing Òri ,so on and so forth.

It is known for a fact that the first written reference is in Ahmed Baba of Songhai's books of the 16th century and it is known for a fact that the word was popularised by Hausas

lawani:

It is known for a fact that the first written reference is in Ahmed Baba of Songhai's books of the 16th century and it is known for a fact that the word was popularised by Hausas

Truthfully, it was Baba Ahmed who wrote in his travelling account that Yoruba' exist as a name of a people. But there was no way he was the one that gave us the name, because he couldn't have imagined the name without hearing it from the people. The etymology of the name itself doesn't have any link with the language of Songhai .

Olu317:
Truthfully, it was Baba Ahmed who wrote in his travelling account that Yoruba' exist as a name of a people. But there was no way he was the one that gave us the name, because he couldn't have imagined the name without hearing it from the people. The etymology of the name itself doesn't have any link with the language of Songhai .

The name was not given by our people

Olu317:
Truthfully, it was Baba Ahmed who wrote in his travelling account that Yoruba' exist as a name of a people. But there was no way he was the one that gave us the name, because he couldn't have imagined the name without hearing it from the people. The etymology of the name itself doesn't have any link with the language of Songhai .

The name was not given by our people

lawani:

The name was not given by our people

If the name was not given to identify Princes how come Bini had such knowledge? After all, the Igodo people didn't practice Obaship but use the word for Oranmiyan son. And again, I am one of those that believed eulogy is a key to unravelling some information. At the very tail end of Ooni's descendants eulogy(Oranmiyan's descendants) always end as Kaare O ba mi or input his name if he is an Ooni. The point is that Oba did not exist before Oyo and when Oranmiyan established her properly , O ba as a term for king took root. And from Oyo ,Yoruba begun a new contact with other set of people on trade. This is my submission.

Am very happy to talk about this topic
before I go further let me take you the old relationship between the Hausa's and Yoruba's, before the Hausa use the word Yorubawana to call we in the western part of Nigeria before advent of British, with trade interaction we from western area also call north Hausa due to their product they sell called awusa or asala ,since then we've both been calling each other that name Hausa or Yoruba.

Olu317:
If the name was not given to identify Princes how come Bini had such knowledge? After all, the Igodo people didn't practice Obaship but use the word for Oranmiyan son. And again, I am one of those that believed eulogy is a key to unravelling some information. At the very tail end of Ooni's descendants eulogy(Oranmiyan's descendants) always end as Kaare O ba mi or input his name if he is an Ooni. The point is that Oba did not exist before Oyo and when Oranmiyan established her properly , O ba as a term for king took root. And from Oyo ,Yoruba begun a new contact with other set of people on trade. This is my submission.

The Songhai copied it from the Phoenicians who were proto Arabs. Uropa in Phoenician means west and it was used to refer to Europe and Europeans, The Songhai being Muslims copied from the Arabs the word which has now gained another meaning of a non Islamic but advanced people.