Opinion
| By Ebho Abure |
EVERY now and then, one reads an article that makes one laugh and think seriously at the same time. For me, it is often when politics, religion, or ethnic history is being discussed; and the reason is very simple. It is because there is usually such palpable intellectual dishonesty and an underlining assumption that we who are reading and/or listening are either fools or lack the power of critical thinking.
A case in point is the still raging controversy as to who owns Lagos generated by the spat between the Oba of Lagos and the Ooni of Ife. A friend posted a story on our Chat Group’s platform which made me laugh but also made me to think seriously simultaneously. The story allegedly written by an Awori claims Lagos belongs to the Aworis and by extension the Yorubas. And in an attempt to give us a history lesson, he can only be said to have presented a comic relief to any serious student of History. The writer by his own admission is not a historian but claims to know the history of the Aworis passed down to him orally by the generations of his Awori ancestry. I too, am not a historian, but rather an educated engineer who is a witness to history. Therefore, I would like to examine the history of Lagos and who owns it. I will also look at the history of the Yorubas, particularly the story of Oduduwa and his Ife kingdom.
It is a well established fact that Eko was a trading post of the Bini Kingdom who traded mainly with the Portuguese in ivory, species, slaves, etc. And up to 1897 when the British conquered the Bini Empire, Lagos (EKO) was a very sparsely populated bush without roads or any meaningful urban infrastructure. And Eko in Bini language means a resting place or an outpost. I struggle to find a suitable meaning for the word in Yoruba. And in fact by 1950, the population of the Lagos protectorate was a mere 272,000 people. So what we know as Lagos today was largely uninhabited farmlands with scattered small communities connected by footpaths, streams, and lagoons up until 1960. And if you talk to anybody today who is 80 years or older and had lived in Lagos before independence, they will tell that VI, Ikeja, Agege, Bariga, Shomolu, Mushin, Oshodi, Isolo, Idi Araba, etc were mainly virgin bush with very few or no inhabitants. This in part accounts for the multiplicity of Obas in Lagos, because any group that moved into virgin territory created its own Oba. The Aworis, few and largely uneducated, know where they belonged when the Bini Empire held sway in Lagos, and that is why they are not the land owners in the entire Lagos state. The question that begs for answer from the writer of the above referenced article attached herewith is this: Are the Onitiris, Aturanshes, and other myriads of land owners known as ‘omo oniles’ today in Lagos, Aworis?
It was at independence and the economic prosperity envisioned for the new nation that made Nigerians of all nationalities to flood into Lagos and develop it. Of course because of the proximity of Lagos to the Yoruba heartland, more Yorubas flooded Lagos and hence the claim that it is Yoruba land. Before then, Eko was mostly virgin territory owned by Nigeria.
In a nutshell. Lagos was built by the Nigeria State and all Nigerians. Historically, it belonged to the Bini Empire, The Aworis, the other indigenous peoples of the State, and maybe the later arrivals; the Yorubas.
And that brings me to the history of the Yorubas. As we all know, there is the mythical story of Oduduwa climbing down from heaven on a ladder or iron chain in and around Ile-Ife. We also know that mythology is not history and only the uneducated or uninformed among us will believe such a silly story. The other story about the origin of the Yorubas that has a semblance of history is that of migration from Egypt or Mecca or Israel, to in and around Ife and the struggle with the indigenous people there to establish a Kingdom. And out of nowhere emerges the strong and powerful Oduduwa to stamp his authority on the people and establish the Oduduwa dynasty.
If this was really history, then they should be able to tell us who was Oduduwa’s father? Who was his mother, his brothers and sisters if any and his relatives? What was his early childhood like and where and what did he do? Who was his wife or wives and what did his other five children apart from Oramiyan do or achieve for the Ife Kingdom? Oduduwa was not God, so some woman gave birth to him and the woman must have been made pregnant by a man. How come nothing is known or said about them in Yoruba history? Therefore, the mythical story about Oduduwa I believe was a cynical fabrication and an obscurantism in History by those who should know. It was meant to obfuscate the true history of the Yorubas that they feared other people knew or could know.
Finally, one would like to make some observations about the Ife Kingdom and ask a few questions as a learning witness of History. Oduduwa built a strong kingdom in and round the hills of Ife according to the Ifa divination which people seem to rely on heavily when they talk about Yoruba history. But there is no evidence which can be verified anthropologically that that kingdom was extensive or its influence far and wide. There has been no archaeological dig anywhere in Nigeria that showed an expansive Ife Kingdom or of superior civilization. By contrast, the Oyo Kingdom developed into an Empire whose territory extended as far as the Fom kingdom in Dahomey (now Republic of Benin), and northwards to the River Niger in what is modern day Nigeria. Ile-Ife had no such Empire at any time in its history. At best it occupied only a few square kilometres of landmass in and around Ife. So any imperial pretentions had to be political. Therefore, this talk of Ife being the “credo/source” of the lives of black people is an insult and an affront to all black people which should not be tolerated.
— May 9, 2017 @ 15:45 GMT
Tags:
