Moremi: Olugbo is wrong to rewrite a Yoruba ancient history
By Jadesola Taiwo Babalola (Part One)

Who are the
Yorubas?
The Yoruba dominates the
Southwestern Region of Nigeria and occupy the present-day
Oyo, Osun, Ondo, Ekiti, Ogun, Lagos and part of Kwara and
Kogi States in Nigeria which are the areas defined as
traditional homeland of the Yoruba people up to the Republic
of Benin (former Dahomey).
According to a
source, ‘Yoruba’ consist of a number of semi-independent
people loosely linked together by geography, language,
history and religion and they are black people of Negroid
Stock who speak a common language which belongs to the
‘Kwa’ group of Niger-Congo group linguistic family.
Though the origin of the Yorubas remain
enmeshed in controversies between the myth and the
realities, legends and myths of origin are not peculiar to
the Yorubas. In the study of history, archeological and
anthropological researches have been employed times without
number to extract historical facts on origin where they
contrast with the mythical tales of creation.
For instance, critical historical-archeological
analysis on Ora Hills revealed that stone, hand axes,
polished stone axes, flakes, grinding stones and blades were
definitely products of either a late Stone Age settlement or
an early Iron Age settlement. At Uffe Ijumu, radio carbon
date of 160 A.D obtained from the site indicated transition
of a stone-suing technology and the occurrence of iron
smelting activities at an old Ijaye town near Moniya, Ibadan
which serves as potential sources of understanding of
pre-colonial Yoruba history.
For most part
of Yoruba legend, what is known from tradition indicates
that its founder (Oduduwa) migrated from the East and
settled at Ile-Ife, died there and from his descendants
sprang the various groups of the Yoruba nation. Captain
Clapperton in his travels mentioned that he found a book
written by ‘Bello’, Sultan of Sokoto, which made
references to the tribe of ‘Yarooba, which originated from
the remnant of the children of Canaan, of the tribe of
Nimrod’.
The various versions of Odudua
descent from heaven and the reign of Oranyan, the eldest,
who was the 1st Alaafin who founded Old Oyo (Katanga) and
whose obelisk is seen today at Ife, sustain the fact that
Ile-Ife is universally recognized as the most senior and
most ritually important Yoruba city (the cradle of the
Yorubas).
The founding of Ife is believed
to date back to 850 AD while the rival Oyo town to the
Northwest was founded around 1350 AD. The Ooni of Ife and
the Alaafin of Oyo are still the most highly respected
Yoruba kings in Nigeria. Other major kingdoms were Ijesha
and Ekiti to the North East; and Shabe, Ketu, Egbado, Ijebu
and Awori in the Southeast and the Ondo, owo and Itsekiri in
the Southwest. The third child of Oduduwa, a prince, became
the king of Benin people. However, the Itsekiri Yoruba
origin is still a subject of debate.
The
first variant of cosmogony of the Yoruba myth identified
orishanla (obatala) – the choice of Olodumare (the supreme
deity), as errand to create a solid land out of the
primordial water that constituted the earth and populate the
land with human beings. Obatala successfully completed this
task and olodumare was greatly satisfied. Because of the
success story above, Obatala was also given the task of
making the physical body of human beings and he became
‘Obarisha’ (the king of Orishas).
The
second variant of the cosmogonic version does not credit
Obatala with a successful completion of the task assigned to
him and Olodumare became worried and he sent Oduduwa to find
out what was going on. When Oduduwa found Obatala drunk he
simply took over the task and successfully completed it and
the land created was called Ile-Ife, the sacred and
spiritual home of the Yoruba. References can be sourced from
Samuel Johnson History of the Yorubas, and History of
Nigeria by Alan Burns, 1948: and R.C. Niven (1958) among
others.
Yoruba traditions have agreed that
the original founder of the race is Oduduwa who settled in
Ile-Ife at some time in the 14th century. Before his
arrival, 13 semi-autonomous settlements were recorded as
existing and operating a loose confederacy at Ile-Ife.
Oduduwa settled among them and subsequently subjugated them,
imposing his authority over them. The pre-existing groups
organized themselves into a resistance group known as the
Ugbo and harassed Odudua group and the new settlement for
long until solution was found to their troubles, which was
eulogized in Moremi’s legacies in Ife history. It has been
suggested that the aboriginal who inhabited Ile-Ife were
conquered and absorbed. The Yoruba dislodged them to
establish a relatively new political systems.
Robert Smith in his Kingdoms of the Yoruba
wrote that ‘Oduduwa and his original followers came
more...probably from the Savannah land to the North than
direct from heaven to Ora hills’ (1969, p..
Significantly, therefore, there was a pre-existing
civilization at Ile-Ife to its invasion by a group of people
led by Oduduwa. When oduduwa and his group came, they met
aborigines of Ile-Ife, including Obatala, Ereluere, Obameri,
Agboniregun (Ifa). They came to Ile-Ife, fought and
conquered the pre-existing Ugbo (unrelated to the present
Igbo) inhabitants by the Orewere (Obatala), integrated and
assimilated them into Yoruba culture and system to form a
uniquely new order and society. Hence, Oduduwa is widely
accepted as the progenitor of the Yoruba people, a closer
scientific investigation will reveal that he might not have
been ‘a foreigner’ as many authors have thought.

Hmmmmm

Omo I can't fit read it all, Captain Summary, take centre stage..

this copy and paste eeeehhhh... at least re-arrange...