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The Alaafin (Know Your History)
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DIALOGUE WITH NIGERIA AKIN OSUNTOKUN
By a consensus of research opinions, Oduduwa arrived and founded the Ife monarchy not later than the 11th century. Afolayan (2004:33) said that ‘Oduduwa might have arrived in Yorubaland sometime around 1100 AD, and Oyebade (2004:53) said sometime around the 7th, 10th or 11th century AD) and Oranmiyan founded the Oyo monarchy in the 14th century’.
These dates give us a time span of 300 years. The first implication of these dates is that Oranmiyan could not have been the son, grandson, great grandson or even great great grandson of Oduduwa. Neither would Oduduwa be alive to delegate a proxy to Ighodomigo.
The same oranmiyan was improbably credited with being the founder of the Oyo empire, the first Oba of Benin and the fourth Ooni of Ife.
If Oranmiyan was at any time the Ooni of Ife, it challenges the conspiracy theory that the Ooni was not the son of Oduduwa but the chief priest in the palace who came to fill the regnal vacuum inadvertently created by the absence of the seven princes who had left to to found their own monarchies across Yorubaland.
There is also the peculiarity of one legendary individual (Oranmiyan) straddling three significant monarchies that are not really contiguous (turning himself into something of a professional monarch).
Just to be sure, we should ask, how many years did Oranmiyan reign in Benin? How many years did he spend as Alaafin in Oyo? Did he also abandon Oyo as he did Benin? When and how long did he reign as Ooni? These posers collectively speak to the conflictual representations of time and event by vested interests, especially the Yoruba and Benin, to suit their different narratives.
The prior acephalous village communities eventually pooled together to form the Benin city-state at about 1300 AD and shortly after statehood was established, a foreign official named Oranyan became leader of Benin. Was he invited? No one knows for sure.
According to Benin oral tradition, Oranyan came to power because he married a local chief’s daughter and formed a kinship connection that led to ruling rights. Others argue that this story is just a cover-up and that Oranyan’s rise to power was most likely the result of an invasion.
‘In either case, during Oranyan’s rule, he fathered a son who was called Ekewa. Historians agree that Ekewa was considered the first king, or oba, of Benin’ www.ushistory.org
According to the “Benin history project” and oral traditions, Oduduwa is Izoduwa, the exiled son of the last Ogiso. In this imagination, an emissary was sent to Izoduwa (Oduduwa) asking him to provide one of his sons to rule over Benin. Iziduwa sent his son, Oranmiyan who would later leave Benin after fathering a son that became Oba Eweka”
“According to early accounts, Oranyan founded Oyo as its first Alaafin in the year 1300 shortly after establishing a new dynasty in Igodomigodo”.
If we eliminate all references to how Oranyan came to become the king of Benin, there are still two outstanding facts. One is that Oduduwa founded a dynasty in Ife not later than the 11th century. The other is that Oranmiyan founded the Oyo monarchy in the 14th century.
The extrapolation from this timeline is that the gap between the two historical personalities is about three hundred years. Were this to be the case, it is impossible for Oduduwa to have been the Ife monarch who granted the request of Edo delegation and sent his son Oranmiyan as proxy to resolve the intractable crisis suffered by the Edo people and stabilise their polity.
There are two possible compelling reasons why the Edos will seek the intervention of the Ife monarch in their polity. One is that the latter must have been sufficiently strong such that members of the local community would not dare defy his authority by acting ultra vires of his proxy. The other is that they might have been so directed by oracular divination.
After a bit of research the only specific reference to the time of Oranmiyan in Benin was “After leaving Benin at about 1290, he moved north with his ever loyal entourage and settled close to the river Moshi (a tributary to the Niger River). He founded a city there, Oyo-Ile, which his descendants then expanded into the Oyo Empire”.
The convention of primogeniture accounted for Ajaka becoming the successor to Oranmiyan. The peculiarity of Ajaka was that he was both the predecessor and successor to Sàngó, his fiery junior brother.
Ajaka was of recessive temperament who peacefully and readily gave up the throne for his imperious and impetuous brother. He thereafter retired and lived to take back the throne following the short reign of his brother. .
Sango (Olubambi, Adegoroye Adegorite) was a revelation indeed. After his death, the throne reverted to the long suffering and tolerant Ajaka. According to Professor Mason’s Mythological Account of Heroes and Kings, unlike his peaceful brother Ajaka, “Sango was a powerful and violent ruler. He reigned for seven years which were marked by his continuous campaigns and many battles’
‘His reign ended due to the inadvertent destruction of his palace by lightning’. He had three wives, namely Queen Oshun, Queen Oba, and Queen Oya”. That he was husband to these three women was also unique. These were the most powerful women of the realm who subsequently became deified as goddesses of rivers Osun, Oya and Oba.
As a matter of fact, there is an odu Ifa where it is claimed that Oya was more powerful and implacable than her husband. The ese Ifa is ‘Oya rorò ju Sango lo’. Oya is river Niger and not far from Katunga (Oyo Ile).
River Osun practically traverses half of Yoruba land and she is the preeminent and most prominent of female deities credited with the power to grant fertility to barren women and wealth to her devotees. If I say my great grandmother was the chief priestess of Osun, you can easily deduce this from my surname.
River Oba is synonymous with Iwo city and equally featured in ese ifa that says “toromini la ba odidere (parrot) l’ori odo Oba” (calmly perched you will find the parrot atop River Oba). There is the popular proverb that “Oba ran ni nise, odo obà kún” translating to ‘the king sent you on errand that requires you passed through obà but the river is dreadfully swollen and turbulent.
The dilemma here is that the king’s word is law with which you are compelled to comply. Yet an insurmountable challenge lies across your path, rendering you to the choice between the devil and the deep blue sea or that of the rock and the hard place.
In order for readers to grasp the sort of fellow, Sango was, here is a snapshot “ti Sango ba fe ja, a koko yan lo bi Ede, a ku fisan fisan bi Ejigbo. Ko to de, onija a ti gba gbe, onilaja a ti sun lo. O ba bale jeun tan ninu ile, be’ri omo e si’ta. O be omo l’ori f’ese ti ri e wo. O fi omo laka laka na iya e. Ti Sango ba ku, tigbo tiju a mi titi
Translation :(when rearing to fight, Sango terrifies endlessly, by the time he is ready to strike, his opponent would have forgotten and the potential peacemaker would be fast asleep. He dines with a father and decapitates his son thereafter, and goes further to kick it. He picks up the child to club the mother). It seems quite clear that here we are dealing with a (heroic) psychopath!.
Deified after the Jàkúta divinity of similar propensities, ‘Sango is, perhaps the most popular (notorious) Orisha; he is god of thunder and lightning. Popularised by the legendary theatre artist and traditionalist, Duro Ladipo in his stage play “Oba kòso, Sàngó is gifted with the ability to breathe fire and smoke through his nostrils and is known for being angered by his quarrelsome wives’.
These narratives encapsulate the ‘virility, bravery, and governance of Sàngó. While he was feared for tyranny and destructive powers, he was also highly revered for his bravery, fairness, and tremendous powers’.
Even his fellow deities live in dread of him. Orunmila, the witty interlocutor, once joked, Orisa ti Sango o ba le mu, ere l’omo sa (the divinity Sango cannot pounce on it, must be a fast runner).
At the 7th year ceremony of his installation about two weeks ago, my friend, Iba Gani Adams took time to dispel the fear of premature death that had somehow become synonymous with the commander-in-chief title of Aare Ona Kankanfo of Oyo empire. In reality, as he took time to clarify, this is more a myth than substance.
This notion is grounded in the fate of Afonja and the two penultimate holders of the title (Ladoke Akintola and Moshood Abiola, by which time the title had become a relic, nonetheless a prestigious one). Instituted by Alaafin Ajagbo in 1560, it has had a very colourful history which reached a climax with Afonja, the tragic anti-hero. Kakanfo Edun of Gbogun, also played the stool pigeon against the brave Alaafin Oluewu.
The immediate occasion for this column today was the appointment of a new Alaafin. The choice of the factionalised electoral college (the seven member council of the kingmakers) was Prince Lukman Gbadegesin, who had enough resources and inclination to compromise the kingmakers. In full knowledge of what had transpired, the approving authority, Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State, discountenanced the recommendation and sought the intervention of Professor Wande Abimbola.
They don’t come better recommended. Abimbola is incorruptible and an outstanding achiever in his own right as a reputable scholar. More unique is that he is a native of Oyo and holds the consequential title Araba (the presiding babalawo of Oyo). At the request of Makinde, and as tradition requires, he consulted Ifa on who best the crown fits.The process yielded the name of Prince Hakeem Owoade who consequently met with the approval of the Governor.
The increasing marginalisation of this cultural instrument in the specification and selection of kings corresponds to the tragic fall in the quality of contemporary traditional rulers across Yoruba land. This is consistent with the view that ‘Ifa remains the most systematized and authentic source of clarifying significant Yoruba matters, in all aspects of life’
Just as it was the case with his predecessor, the role accorded Ifa in this process is a manifestation of the sociological continuity from pre colonial Yoruba society to contemporary post colonial Nigeria; a functional state-society continuity.