By Farooq A. Kperogi
Twitter: @farooqkperogi

The past few months have ignited impassioned and frenzied political brickbats between the elites of the South and those of the Muslim North. Plus, over the years, the differences between the people of the regions are often magnified and their similarities papered over. In today’s column, I show how this is all elite manipulation.

Centuries before colonialism and the British-supervised formation of Nigeria, much of what we know today as northern and western Nigeria have had robust relational and cultural encounters, evidence of which still endures in the contemporary linguistic and cultural artifacts of the people.

The centuries-long Trans-Saharan Trade between the Arab world and so-called Sub-Saharan Africa, which passed through much of what is now northern and western Nigeria between the eight and seventeenth centuries, brought traces of Islam and cultural interchanges in both places. 

Thereafter, both regions witnessed massive migrations of the Mandinka people from the Mali empire who brought more concentrated expressions of Islam and monarchies. That is why much of what used to be the Oyo empire was actually ethnically syncretic. Take northern Oyo, called Oke-Ogun in Yorubaland, for example. Several of the towns and villages there were founded by people from Borgu who themselves trace their ancestry to Mali.

For instance, Ogbomoso, a major Oyo town, was founded by a Baatonu (Bariba) prince. The title of the town’s monarch, “Soun,” is a corruption of “Suno,” the Baatonu word for king. Kishi, another major town in Oke-Ogun, was founded by a Baatonu prince by the name of Kilishi Yeruma. Kilishi is the Hausa word for rug (which symbolizes the throne) and Yeruma is the corruption of the Kanuri “yerima,” which means prince. But “Kilishi Yeruma” is a fossilized, time-honored title in all of Borgu, which is a cultural melting pot, for the heir apparent to the throne.

Even the town of Igboho whose son, Sunday Igboho, has become the symbol of “Oduduwa republic,” is ethnically syncretic. Apart from the large number of Fulani people in and around the town who have lived there for centuries, some of whom have become culturally and linguistically Yoruba, there is a major neighborhood there that is called Boni.

Boni is the generic Borgu birth-order name for the fourth son. That is why many Igboho people embrace me as their brother when they find out where I am from even though I don’t speak Yoruba well enough to sustain a conversation in it.

Historical accounts also reveal that during the Trans-Saharan Trade, many Hausa people worked as intermediaries between Arab traders and the Alaafin of Oyo. Most didn’t return to their places of birth, and their descendants are now Yoruba people.

Similarly, we read from the late Professor Abdullahi Smith’s account of the tiff between Afonja and the Alaafin of Oyo that a large chunk of Afonja’s army, called the Jama’a, was drawn from Hausa slaves who escaped from the Alaafin’s palace.

And the Fulani presence in Yoruba land preceded the coming of Mu’alim “Alimi” Salihu to Ilorin by several decades, perhaps centuries. As I pointed out in a past column titled “Ilorin is an Ethnogenesis: Response to Kawu’s Anti-Saraki Ilorin Purism,” some of Afonja’s followers, with whom he fought the Alaafin, according to Abdullahi Smith who quoted the Ta’alif, a pamphlet written in Arabic by an Ilorin Yoruba Muslim cleric about the events of the time at the time they occurred, were Fulani pastoralists who were never Muslims. 

The pastoralists had lost their cattle to tsetse fly bites and “had nothing to lose,” according to Smith, so they became Afonja’s mercenaries. One of the Fulani pastoralists whom Alimi couldn’t convert to Islam, was a man named Ibrahim Olufade who spoke perfect Yoruba and Fulfulde and acted as the interpreter for Afonja in his initial interactions with Alimi. 

In other words, Fulani people had been bearing Yoruba names in Yorubaland at least a century before Nigeria was formed. I won’t be surprised if descendants of Ibrahim Olufade are now Yoruba (nationalists) if they are in western Nigeria.

My hunch has some basis in real-life examples. One of northern Nigeria’s most celebrated journalists, the late Hajia Bilikisu Yusuf, was descended from Yoruba people who migrated to Kano generations ago. She was one of the most passionate defenders of Arewa that I know.

When the late Mohammed Sule, author of the famous The Undesirable Element in the Pacesetter Series, told me of Hajia Bilikisu’s Yoruba background in Kaduna in the late 1990s, I was incredulous. But he said they were neighbors in Kano and swore that Hajia Bilikisu’s grandfather still spoke Yoruba.

The ancestors of the late Professor Ibrahim Ayagi of Kano were Yoruba. As he himself told the Daily Trust on September 2, 2018, “Unguwar Ayagi was initially inhabited by the Yoruba and Nupawa, who came from outside and settled here. That’s how the place became known as Ayagi. So most of the people in Ayagi are Yoruba, Nupe and, of course, Hausa.”

In fact, a one-time civilian governor of old Sokoto State (i.e., present-day Sokoto, Zamfara, and Kebbi states) traces his ancestry to a Yoruba man. And he governed the heart of the caliphate. 

Given this depth and breadth of relational interconnectedness, it is no surprise that northern and western Nigeria share an extensive repertoire of cultural vocabularies that are derived from Arabic, Songhai (because the Malians who brought Islam to Hausa land, Borgu, and Yorubaland abandoned their language and spoke a dialect of Songhai called Dendi), and mutual borrowings. 

I will give a few examples. In both Yoruba land and Borgu, the term from an unmarried girl is some version of the word “wondia.” That’s a Songhai word for an unmarried girl. “Bere,” a title of respect prefixed to the names of older people in Borgu and parts of Yoruba land, is a Songhai word. The word “karambani,” which I was shocked to find out occurs in Yoruba, is a Songhai word that is now integral to the lexis of many languages in Borgu.

Asiri, the word for secret in Hausa, Yoruba, Kanuri, Baatonu, and many other languages in Muslim northern Nigeria, is derived from the Arabic “as-sirr” where it also means “secret.” Wahala, which used to be limited to Yoruba and languages in Muslim northern Nigeria but which is now widely used all over Nigeria, is derived from the Arabic “wahla,” which means “fright,” “terror.”

Yoruba and most languages in Muslim northern Nigeria also use “talaka” (talika in Yoruba) to refer to the poor. The word also appears in Mandinka, Songhai languages, Teda, and in other West African polities where Islam is predominant.

Talaka is derived from “talaq,” the Arabic word for divorce. (The chapter of the Qur'an that deals with the subject of divorce is called Suratul Talaq). Talaq is derived from the verb “talaqa,” which means to “disown,” to “repudiate.” In times past (and it’s still the case today in many Muslim societies) if a woman was divorced, she was invariably thrown into poverty. Thus, Tuaregs used the term “taleqque” to denote a “poor woman.” But Hausa, Kanuri, Yoruba, Mandinka, and other West African languages expanded the original Tuareg meaning of the word to include every poor person.

And although the term “alufa/alfa” has now been replaced by “malam” in Hausa, it is still widely used in Yoruba and other languages in Muslim northern Nigeria and owes etymological debt to the Mandinka. It denotes a Muslim scholar but has evolved to other meanings in the languages that use it. It can be a synonym for Muslim in Baatonu and a husband among Yoruba Muslim women. 

It is derived from the Arabic “khalifah,” which means a “successor” or a “representative” (of the prophet of Islam). It was first corrupted to “Alfa” by the Songhai-speaking Mandinka from Mali who later exported their version of the word to western and central Nigeria—and to other parts of West Africa.

The ever-present “lafia/alafia/lapia” that dots the lexis and structure of Yoruba and many languages in Muslim northern Nigeria is derived from the Arabic "afiya," which means "health." And “alubosa,” the Yoruba word for “onion,” was borrowed from the Hausa “albasa,” which Hausa itself borrowed from the Arabic “al-basal.”

There are also direct borrowings from the native vocabularies of Yoruba and Arewa languages. To give a few examples, the Yoruba “lakaye” is derived from the Hausa “la’akari.” Seriki, which is even a personal name in Yoruba land, and which often collocates with titles, is borrowed from the Hausa “sarki,” which means king.

 Jaara in Yoruba (which has spread to other Nigerian languages, including Pidgin English, where it means a courtesy addition after a purchase) is a loan from the Hausa gyara. Pali in Yoruba is kwali in Hausa.

In a conversation with Dr. Muhammad Shakir Balogun, a polymathic epidemiologist at ABU whose parents are from Offa but who was born and raised in Kano, I also learned that many everyday words in Hausa are borrowed from Yoruba. The examples he gave include ashana [asana], akwatu [apoti], alaakun [alakun], kwana-kwana [pano-pano], gwale-gwale [gbale-gbale], tale-tale [tele-tele], agwaluma [agbalumo], saukale [sokale], awara [wara], atarugu [atarodo], teba [eba], alabo [elubo], ayoyo, agushi [egusi], alala [olele], agogo, keke, kia-kia.

Of course, sharing cultural and linguistic similarities is not a necessary and sufficient condition to unite, but it’s a good starting point. It also helps to remember that while we are different in many ways, we are also more alike than the elites want us to acknowledge. 

Coldshisha:




This is ordinary common sense that doesn't need research

Due to geographical proximity , Dahomey (Benin Republic, Togo), Hausa (NorthWest , North Central), Nupe , BIni, Edo , Istekiri (Midwest) and Middle belt (Gwari, Baji) close to Kogi are our cousin


In reality due to river Niger and huge gap, Yoruba and Ibos share absolutely nothing together


.

Even the town of Igboho whose son, Sunday Igboho, has become the symbol of “Oduduwa republic,” is ethnically syncretic. Apart from the large number of Fulani people in and around the town who have lived there for centuries, some of whom have become culturally and linguistically Yoruba, there is a major neighborhood there that is called Boni.

Boni is the generic Borgu birth-order name for the fourth son. That is why many Igboho people embrace me as their brother when they find out where I am from even though I don’t speak Yoruba well enough to sustain a conversation in it.

Historical accounts also reveal that during the Trans-Saharan Trade, many Hausa people worked as intermediaries between Arab traders and the Alaafin of Oyo. Most didn’t return to their places of birth, and their descendants are now Yoruba people.

Similarly, we read from the late Professor Abdullahi Smith’s account of the tiff between Afonja and the Alaafin of Oyo that a large chunk of Afonja’s army, called the Jama’a, was drawn from Hausa slaves who escaped from the Alaafin’s palace.

And the Fulani presence in Yoruba land preceded the coming of Mu’alim “Alimi” Salihu to Ilorin by several decades, perhaps centuries. As I pointed out in a past column titled “Ilorin is an Ethnogenesis: Response to Kawu’s Anti-Saraki Ilorin Purism,” some of Afonja’s followers, with whom he fought the Alaafin, according to Abdullahi Smith who quoted the Ta’alif, a pamphlet written in Arabic by an Ilorin Yoruba Muslim cleric about the events of the time at the time they occurred, were Fulani pastoralists who were never Muslims.

The pastoralists had lost their cattle to tsetse fly bites and “had nothing to lose,” according to Smith, so they became Afonja’s mercenaries. One of the Fulani pastoralists whom Alimi couldn’t convert to Islam, was a man named Ibrahim Olufade who spoke perfect Yoruba and Fulfulde and acted as the interpreter for Afonja in his initial interactions with Alimi.

WesternOligarch:
Lol....this confused social political climber.

The article is full of sophistry, falsehoods and fallacies sprinkled with half truths, sentiments and biases targeted majorly at diluting the indigineous people of Yorubaland while tactically not talking about the ethnic syncretic of the north. Yoruba's and northerners have absolutely nothing in common. From our ideologies and attitudes to life there's a big difference between both people.

We Yoruba's aren't known for religious extremism or terrorism.

Yorubas are largely progressive and socialist liberals. Hausa/fulani are largely retrogressive and conservative extremists.

Yorubas believe in orderliness and don't subscribe to grazing cattle openly destroying people's property.

Yoruba's live in cities and villages like normal human beings. Fulani lives in the forest reserves like wild animals with their cattle.

Yoruba's don't subscribe to oppressing our women or girl children, women in Yorubaland are given equal freedom and opportunities as men(too much freedom in some cases) and we also don't subscribe to child marriages.

Yorubas rich and poor believes alot in education and it's ability to advance societies. Hausa/fulani believe that western education is Haram.

We Yoruba's don't pardon yahoo boy's, terrorists, militants or bandits. Hausa/fulani believes that terrorists are humans like us and should be pardoned and reintegrated back into society.

We believe in freedom of expression; it's why bobrisky is still walking freely in Lagos. Northerners believe in breaking beer bottles and banning mannequins because it is Haram.

We produce Noble laureates, tech Titans, globally recognized scientists, athletes, execs and self made business people. The north produces military men, presidents with school cert results and a large voting population.

There might have been intermarriages and inter relations with neighboring Northern tribes but hausa/fulani are never one or the same people.

Lastly what really makes a person Yoruba apart from his paternal genes is his embodiment of qualities known to Yoruba's and the tribal loyalty you have towards Yoruba, it's people and it's interests, if you find yourself scheming against or working against Yoruba interest it's most likely that you're not Yoruba but either an imposter or a bastard. Yoruba isn't just an ethnic group but a religion, a state of mind and an ideology

Farooq A. Kperogi like most non Yoruba's are quick to talk about Yoruba history trying to delegitimize the rights of indigineous Yoruba people and pushing silly narratives and agendas but would hardly talk like this about their regions or tribes..... ibadan men like me will see straight right through your bvllshit Mr Kperogi.

No bad blood with Northern people but it's an insult to say yorubas and fulanis are alike. It gets me really triggered.

Coldshisha:




This is ordinary common sense that doesn't need research

Due to geographical proximity , Dahomey (Benin Republic, Togo), Hausa (NorthWest , North Central), Nupe , BIni, Edo , Istekiri (Midwest) and Middle belt (Gwari, Baji) close to Kogi are our cousins in Yorubaland


In reality due to river Niger and huge gap, Yoruba and Ibos share absolutely nothing together


.

illicit:


Actually, Yoruba and Igbo languages are in the same group, they are tonal languages and might have been one in the past or descended from a common ancestor

WesternOligarch:
Lol....this confused social political climber.

The article is full of sophistry, falsehoods and fallacies sprinkled with half truths, sentiments and biases targeted majorly at diluting the indigineous people of Yorubaland while tactically not talking about the ethnic syncretic of the north. Yoruba's and northerners have absolutely nothing in common. From our ideologies and attitudes to life there's a big difference between both people.

We Yoruba's aren't known for religious extremism or terrorism.

Yorubas are largely progressive and socialist liberals. Hausa/fulani are largely retrogressive and conservative extremists.

Yorubas believe in orderliness and don't subscribe to grazing cattle openly destroying people's property.

Yoruba's live in cities and villages like normal human beings. Fulani lives in the forest reserves like wild animals with their cattle.

Yoruba's don't subscribe to oppressing our women or girl children, women in Yorubaland are given equal freedom and opportunities as men(too much freedom in some cases) and we also don't subscribe to child marriages.

Yorubas rich and poor believes alot in education and it's ability to advance societies. Hausa/fulani believe that western education is Haram.

We Yoruba's don't pardon yahoo boy's, terrorists, militants or bandits. Hausa/fulani believes that terrorists are humans like us and should be pardoned and reintegrated back into society.

We believe in freedom of expression; it's why bobrisky is still walking freely in Lagos. Northerners believe in breaking beer bottles and banning mannequins because it is Haram.

We produce Noble laureates, tech Titans, globally recognized scientists, athletes, execs and self made business people. The north produces military men, presidents with school cert results and a large voting population.

There might have been intermarriages and inter relations with neighboring Northern tribes but hausa/fulani are never one or the same people.

Lastly what really makes a person Yoruba apart from his paternal genes is his embodiment of qualities known to Yoruba's and the tribal loyalty you have towards Yoruba, it's people and it's interests, if you find yourself scheming against or working against Yoruba interest it's most likely that you're not Yoruba but either an imposter or a bastard. Yoruba isn't just an ethnic group but a religion, a state of mind and an ideology

Farooq A. Kperogi like most non Yoruba's are quick to talk about Yoruba history trying to delegitimize the rights of indigineous Yoruba people and pushing silly narratives and agendas but would hardly talk like this about their regions or tribes..... ibadan men like me will see straight right through your bvllshit Mr Kperogi.

No bad blood with Northern people but it's an insult to say yorubas and fulanis are alike. It gets me really triggered.

Coldshisha:

This is ordinary common sense that doesn't need research
Due to geographical proximity , Dahomey (Benin Republic, Togo), Hausa (NorthWest , North Central), Nupe , BIni, Edo , Istekiri (Midwest) and Middle belt (Gwari, Baji) close to Kogi are our cousins in Yorubaland
In reality due to river Niger and huge gap, Yoruba and Ibos share absolutely nothing together
.

onumadu:

I agree, too.
The Yoruba share far more with Hausa/Fulani than with Igbo, and this fact is clearly visible to any careful observer.
That fact has consistently reflected in the politics of Nigeria such that one cannot reasonably see any future Yoruba country without the Hausa/Fulani in it.
This is reality.

Coldshisha:


Yes Naija - Congo Language source like Yoruba, Igbo, Fula, Shona, Sesotho and Zulu

The that's why we all use Baba, papa , mama

Ase!! Ise!!

WesternOligarch:
Lol....this confused social political climber.

The article is full of sophistry, falsehoods and fallacies sprinkled with half truths, sentiments and biases targeted majorly at diluting the indigineous people of Yorubaland while tactically not talking about the ethnic syncretic of the north. Yoruba's and northerners have absolutely nothing in common. From our ideologies and attitudes to life there's a big difference between both people.

We Yoruba's aren't known for religious extremism or terrorism.

Yorubas are largely progressive and socialist liberals. Hausa/fulani are largely retrogressive and conservative extremists.

Yorubas believe in orderliness and don't subscribe to grazing cattle openly destroying people's property.

Yoruba's live in cities and villages like normal human beings. Fulani lives in the forest reserves like wild animals with their cattle.

Yoruba's don't subscribe to oppressing our women or girl children, women in Yorubaland are given equal freedom and opportunities as men(too much freedom in some cases) and we also don't subscribe to child marriages.

Yorubas rich and poor believes alot in education and it's ability to advance societies. Hausa/fulani believe that western education is Haram.

We Yoruba's don't pardon yahoo boy's, terrorists, militants or bandits. Hausa/fulani believes that terrorists are humans like us and should be pardoned and reintegrated back into society.

We believe in freedom of expression; it's why bobrisky is still walking freely in Lagos. Northerners believe in breaking beer bottles and banning mannequins because it is Haram.

We produce Noble laureates, tech Titans, globally recognized scientists, athletes, execs and self made business people. The north produces military men, presidents with school cert results and a large voting population.

There might have been intermarriages and inter relations with neighboring Northern tribes but hausa/fulani are never one or the same people.

Lastly what really makes a person Yoruba apart from his paternal genes is his embodiment of qualities known to Yoruba's and the tribal loyalty you have towards Yoruba, it's people and it's interests, if you find yourself scheming against or working against Yoruba interest it's most likely that you're not Yoruba but either an imposter or a bastard. Yoruba isn't just an ethnic group but a religion, a state of mind and an ideology

Farooq A. Kperogi like most non Yoruba's are quick to talk about Yoruba history trying to delegitimize the rights of indigineous Yoruba people and pushing silly narratives and agendas but would hardly talk like this about their regions or tribes..... ibadan men like me will see straight right through your bvllshit Mr Kperogi.

No bad blood with Northern people but it's an insult to say yorubas and fulanis are alike. It gets me really triggered.

alanto:

He’s not saying that we have traits in common. What he is saying is the West and the North have been in contact for long and there are evidence left behind. It doesn’t mean anything. There are evidence that the white were here doesn’t mean we possess them or they possess us, evidently blacks have been in America a long time. That’s what I think he’s trying to say.
It’s possible to say the East and the North don’t share enough in common to say they’ve been in contact for long. An example of what he’s trying to say is. How Igbos call the whole of Yoruba Afonja on nairaland when Afonja is only a citizen of Kwara State. The story of Afonja is a proof of contact between the West and the North before the brits.

Coldshisha:




This is ordinary common sense that doesn't need research

Due to geographical proximity , Dahomey (Benin Republic, Togo), Hausa (NorthWest , North Central), Nupe , BIni, Edo , Istekiri (Midwest) and Middle belt (Gwari, Baji) close to Kogi are our cousins in Yorubaland


In reality due to river Niger and huge gap, Yoruba and Ibos share absolutely nothing together


.

illicit:


Actually, Yoruba and Igbo languages are in the same group, they are tonal languages and might have been one in the past or descended from a common ancestor

SlyDev:


Absolute nothing, what pain me is dat Yoruba will leave these cousins to force friendship with ibo they share nothing with.