₦airaland Forum

macof:
You are mixing too many things up. Obatala and Oduduwa existed same era. They fought a war agaisnt eachother not up to a thousand years ago (BC era is out of it)

Who exactly is Okanbi? What are his exploits, what is he known for? What are his other names? This are genuine questions I still ask people. Because oduduwa had many children

Y0ruba:
Nice.

I wasn’t pushing the Mecca theory. I was only saying the word may have originated from Hausa/Fulani description of the people of Katunga as Oyo. The Ahmed Baba angle is an interesting theory I have never really pursued.

At the emboldened: I think your postulation there is quite a bit of a stretch considering Oyo was struggling to exist all through its early years and was grappling with just Nupe under Tsoede as at 16th century.

It didn’t become a power bloc or an empire until 17th century. So I wonder how it conquered Kebbi or had Songhai settlers when Oyo was getting sacked and evacuating to Igboho, Borgu & so on with every invasion.

I am not saying it is impossible, I am only grilling it with hopes of getting boxed in a corner of satisfaction.

Konquest:
^^^^^^
^^^^^^
@ Y0ruba
Thanks for your brilliant summations.

What is the English translation of
"Age re ge?"

Yoruba was derived from "Oyo Oba"...
Please shed more light on the etymology
of the name "Yoruba."

Thank you!

Many Yoruba do not know where the name came from. Every Ethnic group in Nigeria (their cousins) has taken the advantage to interpret the name, Yoruba. Even before, they came in contact with one another, in the recent past.

Combination of OYO and OBA gives YORUBA: OYO-OBA, OYO-ROBA,
OYO-RUBA

So what is Bala Usman’s proof that the name "Yoruba" is an "Hausa name"? It is so, to repeat, because, he says, "the earliest record [sic] we have of the use of the very name 'Yoruba' was in the Hausa language" -- from the writings of a man born in 1595! But in fact the name Yoruba was used by a Timbucktu theologian, Ahmad Baba, who was already a distinguished scholar long before Dan Masani was born in 1595. Moreover, Ahmad Baba (1556-1627) wrote in Arabic, not in the Hausa language. Ahmad Baba was captured along with other Songhai intellectuals by Moroccan Arab invaders of Songhai in 1591 – four years before Bala Usman’s Dan Masani was born -- and was taken to the Maghreb. On his return from captivity, Ahmad Baba complained bitterly, saying Muslims, Arab or African, were not supposed to be enslaved, as he was: "The Muslims among [the Blacks], like the people of Kano, Katsina, Bornu, Gobir, and all of Songhai are Muslims, who are not to be owned. Yet some [Muslims] transgress on the others unjustly by invasion as do the Arabs, Bedouins, who transgress on free Muslims and sell them unjustly" (see Hilliard 1985: 162). But in further argument with Arabs, Ahmad Baba allowed that non-Moslem Blacks, on account of their lack of faith, could be enslaved. Among these were the Yoruba. Ahmad Baba's infamous words were as follows:

Those who come to you from the following [sic] clans: the Mossi, the Gurma, the Busa, the Yorko, the Kutukul, the Yoruba, the Tanbugbu, the Bobo are considered non-believers who still adhere to non-belief until now.... You are allowed to own all these without questioning. This is the ruling about these clans, and Allah, the Highest, knows and judges (please see Baba c1622: 137).
These words were penned when Bala Usman’s Dan Masani was a teenager. There is no evidence whatsoever that Ahmad Baba knew of the Yoruba through the Hausa or the Fulani who, like Dan Masani, spoke and wrote the Hausa language.
I have gone into this matter of the allegation that the name Yoruba was an Hausa derivation because I can see no evidence for it. Of course, if it is repeated frequently enough, it will become the "truth." Let those, like Bala Usman, who shop it around, come up with a better proof than the incorrect allegation that it first appeared in an Hausa writing. My second reason for delving into this matter is that Bala Usman has sought to humiliate the Urhobo by alleging that their name was given to them by the British in 1938, using another version of the insult he hurled on the Yoruba.

Tutu's return: missing Nigerian masterpiece found in London flat

Ben Enwonwu’s 1974 portrait of a princess, a national icon in Nigeria, was lost for decades



The find was described as ‘the most significant discovery in contemporary African art in over 50 years’.

A missing painting of a princess that attained an almost mythical status after going decades unseen has been discovered in a north London flat.

Ben Enwonwu’s 1974 painting of the Ife princess Adetutu Ademiluyi, known as Tutu, is a national icon in Nigeria, with poster reproductions hanging on walls in homes all over the country.

The artist, regarded as the founding father of Nigerian modernism, painted three versions of Tutu and the image became a symbol of national reconciliation. But all three were lost and became the subject of much speculation.

The Nigerian novelist Ben Okri said it amounted to the “the most significant discovery in contemporary African art in over 50 years. It is the only authentic Tutu, the equivalent of some rare archaeological find. It is a cause for celebration, a potentially transforming moment in the world of art.”

The discovery was made by Giles Peppiatt, the director of modern African art at the auction house Bonhams.

Ben Enwonwu’s Tutu (1974).
Ben Enwonwu’s Tutu (1974). Photograph: Ben Enwonwu/Bonhams Press Office
He estimated he gets sent a Tutu every eight weeks and it invariably turns out to be a print. But late last year, a family in north London approached him asking him to come and see a painting they said was by Enwonwu.

“Sometimes you go somewhere on a wing and a prayer, you don’t know what you are going to see ... this was an enormous surprise. It is a picture, image-wise, that has been known to me for a long time, so it was a real lightbulb moment; I thought: ‘Oh my god, this is extraordinary.’”

The family have asked to remain anonymous, but Peppiatt described them as perfectly ordinary. The painting was something their father had acquired, he said, adding: “As is often the way, there are things your parents buy and you haven’t a clue why they bought it or what the value of it is ... you just inherit it.”

The painting will be sold at Bonhams in London on 28 February but such is the anticipated interest – “its appearance on the market is a momentous event”, said Peppiatt – that the sale will also be broadcast live to bidders in Lagos.

It is expected to sell for between £200,000 and £300,000. If it goes over the upper limit it will set a new record for a modern Nigerian artist.

Okri, writing in the forthcoming Bonhams magazine, said he hoped Tutu’s rediscovery would help bring about a wider re-evaluation of African art.

“Traditional African sculpture played a seminal role in the birth of modernism in the early years of the 20th century, but modern African artists are entirely absent from the story of art,” he said.

“This is an oversight that urgently needs rectification if the art world does not want to imply that contemporary Africa has made no contributions to the world’s artistic achievements.”

Okri said Enwonwu was already world-renowned as the greatest living African artist when, in the summer of 1973, three years after the end of the Nigerian civil war, he encountered the princess and was entranced, asking to paint her portrait.

Enwonwu was a student at Goldsmiths, Ruskin College, Oxford, and the Slade in England in the 1940s. He became more widely known when he was commissioned to create a bronze sculpture of the Queen during her visit to Nigeria in 1956, a work that now stands at the entrance of the parliament buildings in Lagos.

However, Tutu is regarded as his greatest masterpiece – the image was on display at his funeral in 1994. The whereabouts of the other Tutu paintings remains a mystery.

AxxeMan:
[s][/s]

Yoruba or whatever you are called by the Fulani's influenced no one rather it is the so called Yoruba's that were heavyling infleuced by other tribes E.g The Great Benin Empire on Ondo Ekiti and the Edo Ownership of Lagos etc and also the Hausa and nupe influence in Oyo and Osun.

So Mr lair think twice before you type nonsense!

Yoruba influenced nothing!! Absolutely Nothing! Get off your hungry and hagard horse and kiss the truth!

Nonsense !!

I will leave the Yoruba to defend themselves. But it is noteworthy that Bala Usman chose Bolaji Akiyemi as a spokesman for the Yoruba, making mincemeat from his weak presentation of the Yoruba case. Even his detractors must acknowledge that Bala Usman’s campaign against the integrity of the history of Yoruba has masterful cruelty in it. It questions the origins of the name "Yoruba." As far as Bala Usman is concerned, that name was an imperial donation from the North. I am intrigued by Usman’s argument on this score. Note his words well. He says,

The fact is that, the earliest record we have of the use of the very name "Yoruba" was in the Hausa language and it seems to have applied to the people of the Alafinate of Oyo. This came from the writings of the seventeenth century Katsina scholar, Dan Masani (1595-1667), who wrote a book on Muslim scholars of the 'Yarriba.' But it was from a book of the Sarkin Musulmi Bello, written in the early nineteenth century, that the name became more widely used. The Bishop Ajayi Crowther, the Reverend Samuel Johnson, and his brother Obadiah Johnson, among others, came, in the nineteenth century, to widely spread this Hausa name to the people who now bear it, in their writings.

So what is Bala Usman’s proof that the name "Yoruba" is an "Hausa name"? It is so, to repeat, because, he says, "the earliest record [sic] we have of the use of the very name 'Yoruba' was in the Hausa language" -- from the writings of a man born in 1595! [b]But in fact the name Yoruba was used by a Timbucktu theologian, Ahmad Baba, who was already a distinguished scholar long before Dan Masani was born in 1595. [/b]Moreover, Ahmad Baba (1556-1627) wrote in Arabic, not in the Hausa language. Ahmad Baba was captured along with other Songhai intellectuals by Moroccan Arab invaders of Songhai in 1591 – four years before Bala Usman’s Dan Masani was born -- and was taken to the Maghreb[/b]. On his return from captivity, Ahmad Baba complained bitterly, saying Muslims, Arab or African, were not supposed to be enslaved, as he was: "The Muslims among [the Blacks], like the people of Kano, Katsina, Bornu, Gobir, and all of Songhai are Muslims, who are not to be owned. Yet some [Muslims] transgress on the others unjustly by invasion as do the Arabs, Bedouins, who transgress on free Muslims and sell them unjustly" (see Hilliard 1985: 162). But in further argument with Arabs, Ahmad Baba allowed that non-Moslem Blacks, on account of their lack of faith, could be enslaved. Among these were the Yoruba. Ahmad Baba's infamous words were as follows:

Those who come to you from the following [sic] clans: the Mossi, the Gurma, the Busa, the Yorko, the Kutukul, the [b]Yoruba, the Tanbugbu, the Bobo are considered non-believers who still adhere to non-belief until now.... You are allowed to own all these without questioning. This is the ruling about these clans, and Allah, the Highest, knows and judges (please see Baba c1622: 137).

These words were penned when Bala Usman’s Dan Masani was a teenager. There is no evidence whatsoever that Ahmad Baba knew of the Yoruba through the Hausa or the Fulani who, like Dan Masani, spoke and wrote the Hausa language.

KUBA1987:
For the fourth and last time, I am not going to debate how research is done with you.
I am focussed on the topic.
You made a claim and you should therefor provide proof of the claim.
And for the 8th time, it is not up to me to prove or disprove your own claim, it is up to you to back it up with proof !
And for the 4th time the document which you provided was written in 1892 that is not 600 years ago !
And you provided only its first page on which only the title is available.

. Most Yoruba ladies would not marry below their “level” unless some circumstances demand it.

Rossikk:
CAN YOU SEE THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN YOU PEOPLE AND OTHER COUNTRIES?

Tell me something. Do you GOATS think they don't have problems in India? In Brazil? In China?

In India they take light till tomorrow. Hundreds of millions are in poverty and illiteracy. Corruption is endemic.

Brazil? Their poor areas resemble Mushin!! Crime rate and corruption is out of this world. Yet, all these countries, despite their issues, STILL FIND TIME TO INNOVATE.

TO CONTRIBUTEE TO HUMAN TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT and ADVANCEMENT.

But our resident GOATS and NAMAS here will list every problem under the sun, as the reason why we MUST NOT do anything apart from filing our bellies.

When shall we wake up?

Useless set of people!!