YORUBA NOT BENIN BUT CIVILIZED BY BENIN.
See Commentaries from Anonymous Contributors:
There is nothing like big or small brother about the Edos and Yorubas because they were never related until a heir to the throne was sent out wrongfully from the land of Benin but when he got through the bush to ile ife, he was seen there spiritually as king which he was supose to be and because the orumila had told d people of ife before then that a king will be seen in a pit that he shall in turn rule over the land, it then played out to be the prophesy and he was then installed as the Oba there. Just in case you are confused why we the Edos now use the same word "Oba" for a king instead of "Ogiso" as it use to be, it was when the truth finally came out about who was causing the commotion in the land and not the sent away prince, the Edos decided to search for their king who was already an Oba in ife. Because he could not leave his God given throne there, he then sent his pet son who he called "Omo no yan" which the Yoruba referred to Oromiyan because they could not pronounce it the exact way to come and rule over the land for him, it was during that era, the Edos now changed from Ogiso to Oba... (Just a summary anyway)
"The Oba said, inter alia: "Another important traditional ruler whose origin deserves examination is the Oduduwa of Ife whose origin is also shrouded in myths and legend. He is believed to be the father of the principal rulers of Yorubaland, the father of Oranmiyan who was the the father of EWEKA I of Benin and who was the founder and the first Alafin of Oyo Kingdom; Ife traditional history says Oduduwa descended from heaven ( in a like manner to the Edo account). Some modern historians say that the great Oduduwa was a fugitive from the Moslems of the Middle-east and that he came to settle in what is present -day Ile-Ife. We in Benin believe, and there are historical landmarks for such belief, that the person whom the Yoruba call Oduduwa was the fugitive Prince EKALADERHAN, son of the last OGISO OF BENIN by name OGISO OWODO; he found his way to what is now Ile-Ife after gaining freedom from his executioners and wandering for years through the forests. It was after the demise of his father and when, in the interregnum, Evian, and later his son Ogiamien, tried to assume the kingship, that those who knew that Ekaladerhan was still alive organized a search party to fetch him. It was this search party that emerged at Ile-Ife and discovered Ekaladerhan, known then to the people of Ile-Ife as Oduduwa and already enjoying the status of a King. After failing to persuade him to return with them to Benin, they succeeded in getting him to send his son, ORANMIYAN, to rule Benin..
I have been very busy elsewhere. First let me quickly answer you. The general language of the Yorubas ( like the igbo's) evolved through commerce and has little to do with common roots. You may wish to note that, even their most bias historians admitted that Oduduwa met people living in Yoruba land. That fact is shared with us who believed that Oduduwa is our Prince Ekaladeran. Also note that Oramiyan left Benin to become the first Alafin of Oyo. That again means people were in OYO before him. Oramiyan is the father of Ajaka,Shango and grandfather of Ogun. When OYO later became the most predominant state in Yoruba lands, these sons of Oramiyan were then deified.( it still beats me why our Oba Eweka his first biological son was not accorded divine status by the Yorubas even when they agreed that he is the first don of Oramiyan.
Further note that we have Yorubas in Republic of Benin, Togo and some other African suburbs who are not in anyway related to Oduduwa and his mythical sons. This means that those speaking a variant of the language came from different areas and were only joined together in nigerian via commerce,geography and acculturation by the most powerful tribes amongst them. As for what Donatus said about Esan being independent of Benin. He may be right to say this post Ovonranwen era brought about by the advent of the imperialist programme of the British. But he is however wrong to say that Esan is not a Benin settlement. If he insists, he is insulting the Esans and not only muddling their history to a labyrinth of untruth but he is also condemning them to a people who suddenly emerged in as recent time as the 19th century. That I believe is not correct. Esan ( Esan-fia) left Benin to their current location some hundreds of years ago and have not in anyway shelved their Benin identity. In fact, I am one of those who still hold the strong view that the Benin dialect of Esan is still the least adulterated of all the dialects being spoken by all the Benin people currently constituting the new State Edo. Pardon my typos.
Note, Ado Ekiti, Ondo, Lagos and some communities in Ogun trace their roots to Benin. Out of 19 communities of Edo in Yoruba, only Sobe has been returned. They even returned Sobe by taking away Imheri through the politics of Bode Olajumoke who about 15 years ago was an Edo man. Note also that all the Ilajes in Yoruba land are also Benins.. Concerning Igala, we have it on historical account that Igala in kogi and Nsukka in Anambra were founded by twin brothers from Benin. “ –
OBA IS NOT A YORUBA WORD.
I find it embarrassing when some Edo/Benin historians misunderstand the origin of the name, Oba. I wonder why they have not been able to connect the title to an Edo word and the series of events that took place in then Igodomigodo just as I have done. Sometimes ago, since I have always wondered how the name came about, I ventured into a little research on my own using the stories that took place at that time, and the meaning of Oba in Edo language to arrive at my conclusion.
Firstly, I wold like to let you know the meaning of ‘ba’, ‘O ba’ or ‘Noba ‘in Edo language.
- Baa or ba means ‘to shine’
- O’ baa means ‘it’s shining’ or ‘he/she is shining’
- Noba means the ‘colour ‘red’ or in a phrasal verb N’Oba meaning ‘the one that shines’
The last one N’Oba will be more relevant to the explanation below.
The name, title or word is not an original Yoruba word. After a series of events that led to the death of Ogiso Owodo, the departure of Ekaladerhan(heir apparent) and the emergence of Evian as the temporary head or Ogie of Igodomigodo , the kingdom was going through tough time ranging from the struggle for power amongst different groups . The Kingdom was plagued with famine, sickness and diseases. There was exodus of people from Igodo. The people attributed these to the anger of the gods as regard the injustice done to Ekaladerhan and the activities going on then. This made Oliha to lead a party to bring back Ekaladerhan who was rumoured to be alive in Uhe(Ife). Oliha and is party technically succeeded by bringing back Oranmiyan who was one of the Sons of Ekaladerhan (Oduduwa) to Igodomigodo. Oranmiyan met strong resistance from Ogiamien and his supporters. He relocated back to the land he was used to since he wasn’t able to cope with the ongoing turmoil in his fatherland and left behind a child he had with the daughter of Enogie of Ogida, Eweka.After Eweka became of age to assume the throne of his forefathers, he was still being challenged by Ogiamien and his supporters. Many wars were fought between them to enforce their authority as the sole head of the Igodomigodo Kingdom. After several years of warfare, Ogiemien finally conceded the head of the Kingdom to Eweka. Note that during the reign of Ogiamien as the head of the Kingdom, The name Oba was already being used to refer to Eweka by his supporters as ‘omo no do baa n’Igodo’ or ‘Omo n’obaa n’Igodo’ meaning ‘the child that came to shine for Igodomigo ‘ or ‘the child that shines for Igodomigodo’. Then he has not yet adopted the name Eweka as his Kingship name. Some simply referred to him as ‘Omo’ in a short form. So, after the truce reached between him and Ogiemien , the people still referred to him as the child that have come to shine for the Kingdom and brought peace and prosperity to the Land and felt he should adopt the name as his title. The name was finally adopted as his Title for the King of Igodomigodo considering the events that led to his emergence. (omo n’obaa n’Igodomigodo in Edo language and the short form, Oba).
In view of the above, it is logical to say the word Oba was first used to describe the new king to be by those around him and the people of Igodomigodo. This was later adopted and used to refer to the King of Igodomigodo. The name was later changed from ‘omo n’oba n’Igodomigodo’ to ‘omo n’oba n’Edo’ after Oba Ewuare changed the name of the Kingdom (empire) to Edo.
Finally, I hereby conclude that the true meaning of the word Oba is in the literary meaning and the full pronunciation of the sentence ‘Omo n’oba n’Edo’.
NB.
• Ukpon Noba (Red Cloth) was adopted to emphasize the significance of the new title of the monarchy.
• Also note that during the Ogiso dynasty, there was an Ogiso named Ogiso Obagodo. Obagodo literarily means ‘he’s shining very bright’. This is to buttress the points raised above as regard the true origin of the word Oba.
• I have come to understand that Edo/Benin history can best be explained in the names given to places, persons and traditional titles and idiomatic expressions which still exist up till date.
Edo people are not igbos and igbos are not Edos. We are not related to those biblical names you are mentioning. A handful of people who now resides in the South Eastern part of Nigeria Migrated from Edoland and others have Camerounian origins. The first ethnic group that arrive in what is now known as Nigeria are Edo people and we're ruled by Great Ogiso, equivalent of what they know as Pharoah in Egypt/Kemet. I will advice you to take a tour of Cameroun and you'll find your igbo genesis. Onitsha was supposed to be included in Bendel due to its cultural and historical affiliations to Benin Kingdom. We understand that most of you from south east and south west are very angry because there is an Oral and a written history about how Edos colonized the inhabitants of parts of southwest and south east, how their monarchy was installed by our Great Obas. Because of British forced union in which WAZOBIAns are beneficiary, you guys are now trying to re-write history by trying to say Benin migrated from igbo or Yoruba. Before you guys can achieve this, you need to build a stronger traditional institution like the one in Benin where kings will not be in duplicity in small villages as you can find in Igboland and yorubaland.
LEARN FROM THIS WRITE UP.
My Edo people say A TA ERINMWIN, A I KHIN ERINMWIN meaning you can imitate the spirit, but you cannot become the spirit. It is like the saying in that popular Nigerian advert that IF E NOR BE PANADOL, E NOR FIT BE LIKE PANADOL. So no matter how much we try, we can never be yoruba’s. Any way for your information we have no cause for wanting to be yorubas. It is the yorubas who rather want the Edo to be yorubas and they go all the way to try to force us into an Oduduwa family , try to ram down our throats an oduduwa ideology and include us without our permission into an oduduwa republic-see www.geocities.com/yorubacountry. If we want to be Yoruba or imitate Yoruba, we wouldn’t have fought our way out of western region, we would not have been correcting the distortions of our history as Omo n’ Oba Erediauwa has rightly done with his autobiography.
Your argument that if Oduduwa was actually a Benin Prince, why did he not impose Edo language on the Ife people turns logic on its head. I say this because I do not see how it is possible for one person to impose his language on a multitude. Rather it is the other way round. It is the language of the multitude that one person or the few adopts. Let us even use your example of such recent historical happening - the Fulani who organized a jihad that gave them the leadership of the Hausa and some parts of yorubaland, but have almost lost their fulfulde language. Other examples are the cases of Obis of Onitsha, Olus of Warri and Obas of Lagos who are all proud of their Edo ancestry without speaking or imposing the Edo language. One characteristic of Edo imperialism was a refusal to impose Edo language on the subject people.
About the titles Oba and Olu, which you claim that the Edo and Itsekiri borrowed from the Yoruba ,you need to prove that these words are exclusive to the yoruba language and do not exist or did not mean other things in other languages. The title Olu of Warri used by the Itsekiri King is derived from the name of the Olua(Omo n’Oba) of Benin whose son Iginua founded the Itsekiri monarchy. Rather it is in Yoruba land that you find the wholesale adoption of Benin titles and royal paraphernalia. In Owo the titles Sasere is derived Iyasere(Edo),Ologbosere is derived from Ologbose(Edo),Ojomo is derived from Ezomo(Edo) and so on.There are more examples in Akure and Ekiti. Even some of the monarchies in these places are of Edo origin(consult Prof Isola Olomola’s “Eastern Yorubaland before Oduduwa”).Edo derived names starting with OSA are legion in the same Owo, Akure and Ekiti area even as far as the Ookun yoruba areas of Kogi state.
We Edo people do not grudge Yoruba achievement and are not competing with them. We neither desire to imitate them as we know that EDE OKPA O YE ERIMWIN YO VBIE meaning that It is one day that one who frequents the spirit land , goes and sleep there never to return. If we imitate you, we will lose our Edoness, which we cherish more than your achievements.But one thing we plead is that we be left alone and out of your ODUDUWA REPUBLIC. I thank you for the decorous language you have used in your write up and stay well.
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