Who are the Yoruba People?
By the seventeenth century, the Yoruba People had already established themselves as a distinct people thanks to their long-standing customs of holy kingship, urbanization, and sculptural arts. These facets of Yoruba culture are best exemplified by the historical history of Ile-Ife (also known as Ife), as well as Oyo. Nevertheless, Yorubaland was home to a number of other flourishing realms in addition to these well-known kingdoms.
The most noteworthy of them were founded among Yoruba-speaking dialectal groupings such as Ijesa, Ekiti, Egba, Ijebu, Igbomina, Ibolo, Awori, Ondo, Akoko, and Okun. Before the eighteenth century, many of these states had acquired varied degrees of authority and influence within the Yoruba nation. The earliest of these was the kingdom of Owu, which eventually gained such prominence that it competed with Oyo for the dominance of central and northern Yorubaland.
This competition continued until the reign of the third alafin (king), Sango, who successfully broke Owu’s stranglehold over Oyo and effectively ended its temporary paramountcy in northern Yorubaland. After that, the kingdom of Ijesa, which was located in the east central part of Yorubaland, rose to prominence. Ijesa was founded by Ajibogun, a son of Oduduwa and the father of the Yoruba people. As it expanded, it absorbed numerous polities to the east of Ile-Ife, such as Ilemure, which was governed by the Ita, and Ilesa, which was dominated by the Onila.
Ijesa is considered the cradle of the Yoruba people. During the reign of Atakunmosa (about 1500), the kingdom extended into the regions of Osun, Ekiti, and Igbomina. This expansion was made possible by a succession of ruthless Owa who followed him. The land that belonged to the Egba people, who did not unify under a single ruler, was located to the west of Ife and south of Oyo. They instead formed a loose confederacy composed of four independent but linked factions, which served as its organizational structure.
These were the Egba Gbagura, which was governed by the agura and was headquartered in Ido; the Egba Oke Ona, which was governed by the osile and was headquartered in Oko; the Egba Ake, which was governed by the alake and was governed by Ake; and finally, the Egba Ageyin, which was governed by the ojoko of Kesi. When the Egba fell under the influence of the Oyo empire in the late seventeenth century, the Alake was the most powerful of these monarchs.
After absorbing the Agbeyin group, he was well on his way to emerging as the paramount ruler. In the latter years of the eighteenth century, the Egba, who were led by Lisabi, were able to effectively declare their independence from Oyo and seize control of their own destiny. The kingdom of Ijebu might be found to the west of the Egba river. Ijebu was first discovered by European travelers in the fifteenth century.
It was founded by three waves of immigrants who came from Ile-Ife in quick succession. Despite their enormous population and the fact that they speak a common language and share a common culture, the Ijebu did not become politically integrated until the eighteenth century. A faction known as the Remo recognized the paramountcy of Ofin Sagamu’s akarigbo as their leader, in contrast to the bulk of people who acknowledged the Awujale paramountcy, which was centered in Ijebu Ode. Due to the strategic position of the city, Ijebu was forced to wage a never-ending battle for its independence from the imperial aspirations of both Oyo and Benin.
The kingdoms of Lagos, Ikale, and Ilaje people were located to the south of Ijebu, along the coast of the Atlantic Ocean, and south of Ijebu. Lagos, like Ijebu, was founded by successive waves of Awori-Yoruba migrants from central Yorubaland. However, unlike Ijebu, Lagos quickly came to be governed by Benin during its imperial period. This imperial link, on the other hand, did not prevent the region’s development as a major transatlantic slave trafficking entrepôt or its subsequent success in that role.
Before the nineteenth century, a number of powerful kingdoms existed in what is now known as western Yorubaland. Ketu, Sabe, and Idaisa were the most noteworthy of them, and out of the three, Ketu went on to become the most significant. Due to its location between antagonistic and more aggressive neighbors, Ketu spent a significant portion of its history battling to maintain its independence. Ketu fell under the imperial dominion of Oyo at some point during the eighteenth century, despite the enormous and formidable walls that protected it at the time.
In the year 1789, a marauding army from Dahomey raided and devastated the town. The majority of the town’s people were then sold into slavery. The land of the Egbado may be found to the south of Ketu. The Egbado were quickly conquered by Oyo, whose economic and strategic interests led it to reshape the political map of this region beginning in the seventeenth century. The Egbado were loosely organized into numerous and autonomous mini-states such as Ilobi, Erinja, Ado, Ipokia, Igan, Egua, and Aiyetoro.
Some of these mini-states include: Ilobi, Erinja, Ado, I The rugged topography of the land of the Ekiti, which is located in eastern Yorubaland, allowed for the emergence and proliferation of several centers of power, many of which eventually developed into kingdoms. This was made possible by the fact that the land was divided into a number of different kingdoms. The names Ado, Ijero, Otun, Aye, and Akure stand out as the most important among the 16 names that are historically gained prominence in oral traditions.
The closeness of these kingdoms to Benin brought them, at different periods and to differing degrees, under the imperial and cultural dominance of the Benin empire. However, all of these kingdoms claimed that their royal ancestry originated in Ile-Ife. The kingdoms of Owo and Ondo were located to the southeast of the Ekiti region. Due to the fact that they were located in a cultural frontier zone, they were subject to significant cultural and political influences from Benin and other Yoruba communities.
The most noteworthy of these prior groups were the seven independent villages of Idasin, which were governed by the Alale, in addition to Iyare and Iso. The founding of Owo by a prince of Ile-Ife included the conquest and incorporation of numerous other preceding tribes. In a similar manner, the establishment of Ondo took place at the expense of the indigenous people, specifically the Idoko, Oka, and Ifore, who had to be conquered and forcefully assimilated into the infant state. This occurred at the expense of the indigenous groups. Groups known as the Ibolo, Igbomina, and Okun-Yoruba made their homes to the north of Ekiti and to the east of Oyo.
Also Read: Kongo Kingdom: Conflict for Regime Control in a Kingdom, 1542–1568
By the beginning of the eighteenth century, this area had already been inhabited by a great number of autonomous state institutions. These individuals belonged to the Igbomina people, and their names were Ila, Ajase, Omu, Aran, Isanlu-isin, Iwo, Oro Ora, and Igbaja. Ofa, Igosun, Ijagbo, Ipee, and Igbonna were all constituent states of the Ibolo confederation. The Okun-Yoruba were divided into five large subgroups, including the Owe, Yagba, Bunu, Ijumu, and Oworo.
These five major subgroups were populated by migrants from a variety of different backgrounds, including the non-Yoruba-speaking Nupe, Edo, and Igala. Although there was significant connection between them, and although the Orangun of Ila and the Olofa of Ofa were granted some respect, none of these tribes ever established a single political organization, despite the fact that there was considerable interaction between them. The sociopolitical organization was characterized by the mini-states, which were made up of independent villages in which no right or authority was acknowledged beyond the confines of each of the autonomous settlements.
With a few notable exceptions, the sociopolitical organization was comprised of independent villages. This decentralized sociopolitical existence made the northeastern Yoruba groups particularly vulnerable to the constant military pressures, imperial conquest, and human depredations that were perpetrated by their more powerful and imperious neighbors, such as Oyo, Nupe, and Benin. These neighbors did not hesitate to make short work of their nebulous independence.
