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History and Historiography in Precolonial Nigerian Societies: The Case of the Ekiti

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 May 2014

C.O.O. Agboola
C.O.O. Agboola*
Affiliation:
University of Ilorin
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Extract

Today the Ekiti, a major dialectal segment of the Yoruba-speaking group, inhabit the Ekiti State and the Oke-Ero and Ekiti Local Government Areas of Kwara State in Nigeria. Otun Ekiti, or simply “Otun,” one of the Ekiti towns (spelt “Awtun” in many colonial records), is presently the headquarters of the Moba Local Government Area of Ekiti State. During British colonial rule in Nigeria, the people of Otun had cause to narrate to the authorities their oral traditions and history. In that process they claimed, like most Yoruba-speaking groups, that they and their oba originated from Ile-Ife, the traditional core of Yoruba dispersal. They also claimed that their oba, the Oore (also sometimes spelt “Ore” or “Owore”) was, and had always been, the preeminent oba among the Ekiti oba.

Based largely on those claims, the people of Otun undertook some major actions, especially their separatist activities in Ilorin Division from about 1900 to 1936. Similarly, due largely to those claims and the resultant reactions from the people, the colonial government took some major decisions and actions. The most important of such actions was the administrative excision of Otun District from Ilorin Division of the Protectorate of Northern Nigeria and its merger with the Ekiti Division of the Protectorate of Southern Nigeria in 1935/36.

There appeared, however, in 1947, a publication titled Itan Oore, Otun ati Moba, written by David Atolagbe, and a second edition came out in 1981. Of relevance to the thrust of this paper are the claims made by the author to the effect that the Oore and people of Otun originated, not from Ile-Ife as had earlier been claimed by some sources, but independently from the Creator of the universe, even though he still maintained the paramountcy of the Oore among the Ekiti oba.

Type
Research Article
Information
History in Africa , Volume 26 , January 1999 , pp. 1 - 10
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 1999

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References

1 Atolagbe, D., Itan Oore, Otun ati Moba (Ibadan, 1948; 2d ed., 1981), 111.Google Scholar

2 Johnson, Samuel, History of the Yorubas (Lagos, 1921), 52.Google Scholar

3 Temple, Oliver, ed., Notes on the Tribes, Provinces, Emirates, and States of Northern Nigeria (London, 1919), 453.Google Scholar

4 Hermon-Hodge, H.B., Gazetteer of Ilorin Province (London, 1929), 37.Google Scholar

5 Akintoye, S.A., Revolution and Power Politics in Yorubaland, 1840-1893: Ibadan Expansion and the Rise of Ekitiparapo (London, 1971), 8.Google Scholar

6 A.M. Obayemi, “The Political Culture of the Ekiti and the Challenge of the Historiography of the Yoruba,” paper presented at the Staff and Post-Graduate Seminar, Department of History, University of Ilorin, 2 April 1981, 4.

7 Nigerian National Archives, Kaduna (NNAK), Ilor Prof 53, “Local Government Reforms in Ekiti Area of Ilorin Emirate, 1954.”

8 Ibid.

9 Johnson, , History, 23Google Scholar; Akintoye, , Revolution, 6Google Scholar; and Oguntuyi, A., History of Ekiti (Ibadan, 1979), 49.Google Scholar

10 Nigerian National Archives, Ibadan (NNAI), File No 301, “Intelligence Report, Ekiti Division 1/1, Ado - Osi, Matters Affecting.”

11 NNAK IlorProf 2438, Vol.1, “Ekitis-Ilorin Province (1) Ilorin-Ondo Boundary (2) Awtun District-Transfer of.”

12 Oguntuyi, , History, 83Google Scholar; NNAK IlorProf 53.

13 NNAK, Nigeria Gazette “Extraordinary,” vol. 39, no. 46, 3 September 1952, Appendix “Y”, 992-93.

14 Interview with Chief Bamgbose, Obanla, at Aiyedun (formerly Aaye-Ekan), 17 February 1988. It must be stressed that initially one of the covert reasons for the agitation against the grouping was the fact that taxation had been introduced into Northern Nigeria as early as the 1903/04 fiscal year while it had yet to be introduced into Southern Nigeria.

15 NNAK Ilor Prof 2438.

16 Atolagbe, , Itan Oore, x, 2.Google Scholar

17 Ibid., 3.

18 Law, R.C.C., “The Heritage of Oduduwa: Traditional History and Political Propaganda among the Yoruba,” JAH 14(1973), 207–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

19 Atolagbe, Itan Oore, 28.Google Scholar

20 Atolagbe provided no details explaining the meeting.

21 Dlagbe, , Itan Oore, 5.Google Scholar

22 Ibid., 8.

23 Ibid., 8-9. According to Atolagbe, “Omo Oluwo” was the son born by an OIuwo, that is, a woman who was meant to have been sacrificed to the gods during Oduduwa's lifetime. The woman was found pregnant and was spared. She subsequently gave birth to a son who grew up in Oduduwa's household at Ile-lfe. Oore's reason for declining the offer of Oduduwa's throne was that he had a mandate from heaven to found a particular town on earth, and he desired to keep that mandate.

24 The issue of the certificate is corroborated by Oguntuyi, , History, 52.Google Scholar

25 Atolagbe, , Itan Oore, 50.Google Scholar The Pelupelu was a gathering by the Ekiti to commemorate an important occasion.

26 Ibid., 113.

27 Ibid., 112.

28 “Moba” refers to Oore and his followers who joined him on his migration to Otun, as well as to the land or areas since inhabited by their descendants. See ibid., 27.

29 Today the Akurepeople claim that they are not Ekiti, but a distinct dialectal Yoruba sub-group called “Akure.” In fact Akure is not in the present Ekiti State, but in Ondo State where it is actually the State capital.

30 Ibid., 28.

31 Akintoye, , Revolution and Power Politics, 106.Google Scholar

32 Oguntuyi, , History, 53.Google Scholar

33 Ibid., 55

34 Ibid.