russellino:

I know not too many ppl know that an african-american mercenary was hired to take part in the kiriji (though I can't recall which side imported him) he was a veteran of the american civil war and was brought in to operate the then new Gatlin gun that the ppl didn't know how to operate. I heard he took a yoruba woman back as his wife. Can any scholars in d house shed more light on this? I heard this story from one old baba

Yinkay:

The words in italics were excerpts from the book by Samuel Johnson when the Ibadan army are complaining of the undue advantage from the expertriate shooters. The complete ebook can be downloaded here, http://www.archive.org/details/historyofyorubas00john

We know that this is not the
actual white man of Ijaye, whom we often saw in the battlefield
:
this one only entered the town a few days ago, hence you have
such easy terms, otherwise we should have killed him right out,
for he fought us, and we had our eyes on him." Mr. Mann we know
did not fight, but reHeved the wounded men; however, there were
two " Afro American " sharp-shooters,^ who harassed the Ibadans
a good deal with their rifles.

@ interested readers
Please ignore those who have nothing intelligent to contribute other than self ridicule.

naijababe:

Katz!!! Why u no tell me about this thread?

The size of my head now will rival a jabulani. Yorubas eh!

DK, I was hoping you'd say more about Ojo Aburumaku's wars. He along with Basorun Gaa are my favourite Ogbomoso scions.

All positive contributors 

shymmex:

@Katsumoto

Can you please give talk about the Ioeru war

I'm interested in knowing the history of my people from the maternal side,

Katsumoto:

Bashorun Gaa

The man who caused for a quick succession of Alaafins before he was defeated by Alaafin Abiodun. The man was a despot. Ojo Aburumaku was the only Kakanfo who took a position held by his father but also the only Kakanfo that fought no battles/wars. Latosa also took the title from him through a show of strength by demanding the staff of office.

Katsumoto:

Bashorun Gaa 

Negro_Ntns:

I think I will ask OAM4J or Jarus to see what they can do for us in this regard.  It will be a central collection of highly valuable and informational materials dealing strictly with the race.  

Did anyone already mention that these wars were also slave raiding adventures by Yorubas to sell their kits and kins to the white man.

afinic001:

@op, pls visit imesi ekiti(in ekiti state) and imesi ile(osun state). U wl see the war camps there. Best of luck.

isale_gan2:

Negro,
I saw your request to the Politics Moderators.  I guess you wanted their input so the thread could be stickied?  Were you thinking of something like this? https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-231017.0.html

Let's see about getting an History Section.  Regardless, I'll be happy to spend some time finding and linking relevant Historical threads and indexing them.  It might be better to have input from other posters as well, by having them recommend threads to be added to the index.

                                                 NAIRALAND NEEDS A HISTORY SECTION
After glancing a post where this was suggested, I have thought about it and fully support it, and have concluded that History Section is exactly what should be requested of Seun.  I make bold to say that it is actually the most essential section that is needed here.  So many of our people are busy copying others, ignorant of their own forebears' greatness, thinking that they walked Unclad climbing trees and eating bugs before colonisation.

Politics section is mostly a place to discuss Current Affairs or Breaking News, and to Debate Policy.  Culture section is good for certain things.  

But Culture is not the place you think of when opening a thread to discuss warfare tactics through the ages, or the right place to share data about events in our history pre-civil war, during colonization and even way before Westerners or others dreamt of coming down the Atlantic to West "Africa."  There are hundreds of topics that can be perused and analysed in the new History Section, I can just picture it.  It will also be a place that will attract lots more readers, including older posters who are sick of the tribal nonsense and just want to discuss subjects in a mature and scholastic way.  There is a million reasons to do this. . .


On Topic:
I thought about that too and it is an unanswered question in my mind and one of the things that bothers me about all the wars and the famous Ogedengbe. 

OAM4J:

There is no need to have History section when there is a Culture section. I doubt that request will be granted. So don't waste your time.

OAM4J:

. . . very funny especially the part "Iya re n be lo bi ewure, baba re nbelo bi igala"  

OAM4J:

Our dear historians,

Another Yoruba war I would like to know more about is Ogun Adubi. Any information.

When I was younger, I used to like the song: Ogun Adubi to to ju mi ja . . ." i still remember part of the song. . . very funny especially the part "Iya re n be lo bi ewure, baba re nbelo bi igala"  

Katsumoto:

[b]The question is where do historians get their information from? They get it from old relics and written materials from the era they are studying. Samuel Johnson himself included information from eras that preceded him through other accounts. The information that Johnson got from being present is far more valuable than information that would have been told as legends, stories, etc. Johnson's account is formidable because HE WROTE it down. You may not know this but Johnson's original manuscript was lost by the publisher. It was his brother Obadiah (a doctor) who wrote the book from Johnson's ORIGINAL notes.

The point of reading a book is not accept it wholeheartedly but to analyse the facts and superimpose your own thought process. It was Aristotle who said 'It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it'. A true scholar will not read Johnson's account alone but others. Many books have been written by other scholars such Akinjogbin, Awe, Akintoye, Smith, Ade-Ajayi, Jeremy Eades. But guess what, many of these other historians quote Johnson because of the level of detail in his notes.

If Christiane Amanpour wrote a book about the Balkan wars, would you disregard it because she was present? Would you instead prefer a book that was written by a man/woman who visited the Balkans 50 years after the war and received information from people who were 7 years old during the war?  

The reason why scholars say Johnson's book is Oyocentric is because Johnson is from Oyo. But should that fact remove from an excellently detailed book? Secondly, Johnson can be forgiven for that because Oyo was the most important Yoruba town. The Yoruba are known as far as Ghana because of the Oyo. When writing Roman history pre Jesus and 800 years after Jesus, how much time do you spend on Florence? Thirdly, Johnson did not ignore other Yoruba towns in his book. The history of about every Yoruba settlement is covered.


@ interested readers
Please ignore those who have nothing intelligent to contribute other than self ridicule. [/b]

anonimi:

It should not be a waste of time.
i second the request and hope it will be carefully and positively considered by Seun either as a completely separate section or as a mini-section under culture, at the least.

naijababe:

Finish the song now baba agba

Katsumoto:

History and politics go together. If you put great threads in the culture or foreign affairs sections, they die early.

Threads such as this should remain in the politics section.

Of what use is a great product if it doesn't reach a high percentage of your target market?

OAM4J:


Well there is no harm in trying. I am only giving an insider information as a moderator. The Aim right now is to reduce the sections for easier management and not to add more (If you noticed lately, some sections are being merged). Also we don't have history threads coming up everyday.

I support having the Yoruba history library thread, and we can also advocate that the thread be stickied.

But then you can open a thread in Nairaland Section requesting for history Section. I will actually be glad it is granted. So I wish you good luck.

Katsumoto:

History and politics go together. If you put great threads in the culture or foreign affairs sections, they die early.

Threads such as this should remain in the politics section.

Of what use is a great product if it doesn't reach a high percentage of your target market?

Katsumoto:

History and politics go together. If you put great threads in the culture or foreign affairs sections, they die early.

Threads such as this should remain in the politics section.

Of what use is a great product if it doesn't reach a high percentage of your target market?

OAM4J:

We can try and make a case for having some of the threads in Politics section possibly with the library thread. What am not sure will sell is having history section.

Reaching the target market is a better argument than the claim of history being closer related to politics than culture. Not many people will agree with that.

ACM10:

Only a revisionist will say that history and politics go together.

This has confirmed my suspicion about you that you have a malicious intention.

History should be objective and devoid of political bias.

So continue to miseducate your tribesmen with your myths