THE OKUN-YORUBAS
The Fulani/Nupe Conquest and Salvation.
Before 1703 AD.

HRH, Late Sir, Adesoji Adeyemi, the Ooni of Ife in 1931 mentioned the Okun people among the twenty six kingdoms founded by the sons of Oduduwa. In ile Ife, the Genesis of Yoruba race (1985), Chief E.A. Fabunmi stated that an Ife man, the older of the two brothers founded Kabba, which is a contraction of Oke Aba.

Bridel H.S. Bridel Esq. 1933, Assistant District officer, Ekiti said of the hag as the largest group of the Okuns. It is difficult nowadays to find Yagbas who know much of their history owing to the devastating period of the Nupe raids which lasted throughout some three generations prior to 1900(1840-1897) when some of the able bodied men were either killed or taken to Bida as slaves. The old men died or were killed without passing on their knowledge and the following generation grew up without the chance to find out much about their ancestors.

Bridles statement above has general application to the entire Okunland and people of 1840-1897. He wasn't too conversant of the plans of the Okuns then to conceal everything within their wealth avoid being deceived further into slavery. Even all through the war there were remnants of Yagba who refused to be taken by holding in caves which could not be reached by the horses of the warrior, as the aborigines rolled bigger stones from the top of the hills to kill them. So some people survived the Nupe/Fulani raids and lived to tell the stories of their tribes to the younger generation.

Indeed hundreds of freed Okun people returned from Bida elsewhere after the cessation of the Nupe/Fulani raids to their homes and villages and joined the remnants to rebuild them. A good example is the group from Ipao in Ekiti state, they reportedly migrated to Ejuku in Kogi State around 1800 at the beginning of the raid commander by Aburbarkar, a Nupe warlord, and returned 40years after to rebuild it during the reign of Oba Nla Oba Amusain (Opekunsoro) Oluyomi. There were cases of remnants who escaped to hilltops and thick forests of Yagbaland but later returned to resettle in their towns, ponyan, Iye (iyemero) are good examples.

Cases of returnee from Bida and Ghana (Gold coast) were established all over Okunland, hence the reason some peoples great grand parents were referred to as Babangana and Iyengana (father and mother from Ghana).

Yagba west, HRH, late Oba Owojaiye (Aina Aganyin) of Egbe who reigned 1942-1955 was a typical example. He returned from Ghana and because of his exposure to western civilisation when in Ghana and his outstanding personality his clan put him forward as the Oba of Egbe.

Late Mr Oshanaiye from Oggawas a freed slave whose master hailed from Abeokuta, Osainaiye became a Christian and a member of the Baptist church, Araromi Lagos. He later received the call to take the gospel to his people of Ogga in Yagba West in 1902.

A sizeable number of returnees from Bida rebuilt their towns and villages in Gbedde and introduced the Islamic religion to their people.

TRADE LINK

Stories have it that there was a prosperous trade route in 1700 linking Akata- Ere in Yagba west LGA with Katunga, the capital of Old Oyo Kingdom. The route was one of the vestiges of the centuries of movement to and fro Benin through Okunland, and the involvement in the reported " lucrative trade" in slaves, pepper and ivory between the south and the north. In the core language of Kabba people it is the trade interaction ps that affected the language of their people. Oranges too were called lemu and caps Fula just like the Hausas.
All these and many comments by renowned Yagba historian Prof. Ijagbemi, on the Yagba are further proofs that Okun are Yorubas. The Owe,s, IJumu,s, Bunu,s and Oworo,s also claim to have migrated variously to their present location from ile Ife, Ejuku, Iddo and Omuo.

The Okuns immediate neighbours have been the Igbominas, the Ekitis, the Akokos, the Igbirras are among the descendants of Oduduwa

Culled from prince philips orebiyi FBW

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HRH, Late Sir, Adesoji Adeyemi, the Ooni of Ife in 1931 mentioned the Okun people among the twenty six kingdoms founded by the sons of Oduduwa. In ile Ife, the Genesis of Yoruba race (1985), Chief E.A. Fabunmi stated that an Ife man, the older of the two brothers founded Kabba, which is a contraction of Oke Aba.

Adesoji Aderemi

Thanks. Oodua a gbe wa o.

Jealouzzy:
THE OKUN-YORUBAS

Yagba west, HRH, late Oba Owojaiye (Aina Aganyin) of Egbe who reigned 1942-1955 was a typical example. He returned from Ghana and because of his exposure to western civilisation when in Ghana and his outstanding personality his clan put him forward as the Oba of Egbe.

That's my great grand father right there... Aina Owojaiye of Isaba clan, Odo Egbe.