Ife, Cradle of the Yoruba A Handbook on the History of the Origin of the Yorubas

By J. A. Ademakinwa

"When this book made its first appearance in 1958, it was well received by lovers of Yoruba history and culture. Indeed, the most famous scholar of the Yoruba at that time, Professor S. O. Biobaku, who encouraged the project, supplied a foreword to the first edition. The reason for reprinting this book is exactly the same reason expressed many y

• Language: English
• Publisher: AMV Publishing Services
• Release date: Jul 17, 2023
• ISBN: 9781088216408

Book preview

IFE, CRADLE OF THE YORUBA

PART I

Generally speaking, the history of Ile-Ife is, to a certain extent the history of the whole race now called Yoruba race; because from time immemorial, not a single tribe of this vast race has once failed to trace its origin back to Ile-Ife, which they all have acclaimed as the Eden of the nation. For this reason, Ile-Ife has earned till this day, among the majority of them, the outstandingly unique honour of being given the enviably peculiar following appellations – (1) Ile-Ife Ile owuro; i.e. Ile-Ife, the land of the most ancient days. (2) Ile-Ife, O-o-daye, i.e. Ile-Ife, where the work of creation took place. (3) Ile-Ife, ibiti ojumo ti mo wa, i.e. Ile-Ife, where the dawn of the day was first experienced. (4) Ile-Ife, Ori aye gbogbo; i.e. Ile-Ife, head of the whole universe.

It was closely round this point that the thought, or belief of the entire people, who are today called Yorubas centred for hundreds of years. On account of this simple belief, not only was Ile-Ife regarded as a sacred place for, and by all of them, but Ooni, its ruler was almost apotheosized, being accorded the position of ranking next to the gods. This was the beginning of the appellation of Iku-Alase, Ekeji-Orisa, given to the Ooni till this day. Later on, other Obas imitated him in the use of this appellation. This term simply means one who is so high and mighty that, in the power of execution he is next to the gods only.

At that time, immediately after the Coronation Ceremonies of an Ooni he would become the sole property of the Chiefs, to the exclusion of everybody else, including the members of his own family. On all public occasion when Ooni was bound to appear in state, the mere long fence of clothes tied together round him, called ‘Paraaso’, or at other time, the state umbrella, for that matter, would be seen, when that came into use. Consequently, no Oba had the right of seeing Ooni personally; and they must not even think of visiting Ile-Ife for anything. Therefore, whatever messages that Ooni might have for any Oba, and vice versa, had to be carried to and fro by state messengers.

In those days, not only Ile-Ife and the Ooni were regarded as sacred, but all the Ifes were considered untouchables. Consequently, even though human sacrifices were rife, yet, no Ife man or woman must be offered as a sacrifice to any idol throughout our country. If by a mistake, an Ife man or woman was caught and intended for a sacrifice to a god, he or she would be released immediately it was discovered that he or she was an Ife. This fact could easily be known from the fact that before a person was slaughtered unto a god, he or she had to declare openly before the idol, the tribe and town to which he or she belonged, when offering prayers on behalf of the people who caught him or her, and for the long peace of their town.

Nevertheless, Ifes were sometimes offered in sacrifices to idols if thorough investigations were inadvertently not made before the victims were slain. However, it was the strong exemption which people of other towns took to the Ifes being offered in sacrifices that led to that ancient saying running thus – Ewo-Orisa, a ki f ’omo onile bo ile i.e. it is forbidden by Orisa that the children of the owner of the land (Oodua) should be offered in sacrifices.

The custom of the Obas of our land not seeing one another personally was a mere imitation of what existed between each one of them and the Ooni in ancient times, until Sir Bernard Bourdillon-Nigeria’s fifth Governor, inaugurated the annual Conference of our Obas, and made them to see one another face to face for the first time at the Oyo Conference of 1937.

S

LIGHT

C

HANGES OF

T

HOUGHT

Until the eighties of the last century, not only were we all not known as Yorubas, but it would be a great cause of offence to all Yorubas, whose ancestors came originally from either Mecca or Egypt. Nevertheless, when in the early twenties of the present century, The History of Yorubas by Rev. S. Johnson, the late Pastor of Oyo, came to tell the world that Oodua, the first Ooni of Ife, and the progenitor of all our Obas, with his large following came originally from either Mecca or Egypt to settle at Ile-Ife; several other subsequent writers promptly started to follow the lead of the wrong notion, which ascribed to us all the strange name of Yorubas indiscriminately.

Being spurred by the pride of intelligence of the western education some of those writers as well as their enthusiastic admires, still maintain that there were, at some really unknown periods, when streams of migrations of the Yorubas from somewhere which hitherto, no historian is capable of locating with authority came. Nevertheless, in order to back up their points more stoutly, not only have some writers recently come to tell us that, instead of either Mecca or Egypt, formerly believed as the original home of the Yorubas, there were streams of Yoruba migrations from Sudan; but that in the earliest group of the migrators, some important people like Luwabi and Oluwa, who they believe to have preceded Oodua to Ile-Ife were declared as being kings in their Sudanese original homes before they came to Ile-Ife.

Certainly, if these assertions were true to facts, the oft repeated unreliable stories that have long enshrouded the origin of the word and name ‘Yoruba’, would have doubtlessly been entirely out of question, because those who have travelled to Sudan to see the original homes of the Yorubas would have before now been fearlessly able to tell us more emphatically about the true origin of the Yorubas than what either Johnson, or any other historians has hitherto been able to do.

Nevertheless, it may be of some interest to know that, from time immemorial, not only was Oluwa unknown anywhere in the history of our country, but Luwabi was merely used as a common proverbial name in connection with any person, who always act politely, and does his work honestly and meritoriously.

Luwabi was more or less derived from the word or name of Noah which is the name of a man, who was remarkably known for his well doing and unflinching fidelity in all things. Consequently, anybody who has acted in the was alluded to above is, from time immemorial termed, Omoluwabi, that is, a person who has acted as a true son of Noah in imitating him. Therefore, it may not be regarded as an overdone business if it is here stated that the term Omoluwabi, is yet equally used throughout our extensive country today as it was before. To prove the veracity of this statement, readers are asked to remember how the word Omoluwabi is often used in the native song which the late Rev. I.O. Ransome Kuti led the Choir of the Abeokuta Grammar School to render in praise and honour of an old member of the staff of that notable institution, when elevated by the Government, as it is frequently relayed to us in the local radio.

In the face of these facts, as well as in those of the other copious proofs, it cannot be hidden that the name of Luwabi, as an important person did not enter into the history of our race until a few years ago, when a political strongly heated argument arose between the Awujale of Ijebu-Ode and the Akarigbo of Ijebu-Remo. The cause was that, although before this time, both of them used to trace their origin back to Ile-Ife whenever there was any dispute of importance, yet, of recent times, Awujale suddenly said that instead of Oodua, Luwabi was the progenitor of the Ijebus; and that he came originally from Wadai (a place first carved by 300 Arabs) in the Sahara Desert. When coming to settle at Ijebu-Ode, Awujale said, Luwabi passed through Ile-Ife where he gave one of his daughters in marriage to Oodua; and consequently, the Ijebus were related to the Ifes only by affinity; but unlike a few others of the same camp with him, he had not the audacity of saying that Luwabi preceded Oodua to Ile-Ife. But up to date, the opinion of this august person has not enjoyed a hearty general acceptance of all genuine Ijebus who virtually became horror-stricken and highly astonished at the first hearing of the strange story. Notwithstanding Awujale’s historical innovation, Akarigbo tenaciously upheld the history of his forefathers by saying openly that his ancestors truly came from no other place than Ile-Ife, and that he knew nothing about Luwabi. This was one of the immediate helpers of the separation of Ijebu-Remo from Ijebu-Ode a few years