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Moremi: Olugbo Is Wrong To Rewrite Yoruba Ancient History by IROHINOodua: 10:57am On Dec 09, 2016 |
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. |
Re: Moremi: Olugbo Is Wrong To Rewrite Yoruba Ancient History by CHOPUP411(m): 10:57am On Dec 09, 2016 |
Hmmmmm |
Re: Moremi: Olugbo Is Wrong To Rewrite Yoruba Ancient History by sleekydee1(m): 11:01am On Dec 09, 2016 |
Omo I can't fit read it all, Captain Summary, take centre stage.. |
Re: Moremi: Olugbo Is Wrong To Rewrite Yoruba Ancient History by hushshinani(m): 11:07am On Dec 09, 2016 |
this copy and paste eeeehhhh... at least re-arrange... |
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