1. Johnson, Samuel, The History of the Yorubas from the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the British Protectorate, ed. Dr.Johnson, O., (London, 1921).Google Scholar

2. See, however, Agiri, B. A., “Early Oyo History Reconsidered,” HA, 2(1975), 1–16Google Scholar; Awe, Bolanle, “Samuel Johnson: History of the Yorubas - Sourcebook for the History of Ibadan in the Nineteenth Century,” paper presented at a seminar of the African Studies Division, University of Lagos, 16 Feb. 1967.Google Scholar

3. I do not exempt my own work from this criticism: se esp. Law, Robin, The Oyo Empire ca.1600-c.1836 (Oxford, 1977).Google Scholar

4. Johnson, History, Editor's Preface.

5. Most obviously the brief chapter called “The Sequel” (pp. 643–50), which summarized developments after the establishment of the British Protectorate in 1893, with which the original version of the History evidently ended (cf. p. 642), but also occasional notes and asides in the main text of the work (e.g., pp. 76n2, 226n1).

6. Dr.Johnson, O., “Lagos Past,” paper read before the Lagos Institute, 20 Nov. 1901.Google Scholar

7. Johnson, , History, 545Google Scholar, where the reference is to the Correspondence Respecting the War Between the Native Tribes in the Interior and the Negotiations for Reace Conducted by the Government of Lagos (1887).

8. Cf. Johnson, , History, 491.Google Scholar

9. Ibid., Author's Preface.

10. See the report of his death in Lagos Weekly Record, 7 Sept. 1895.

11. For the date of Abiodun's death, see Law, Robin, “The Chronology of the Yoruba Wars of the Early Nineteenth Century: A Reconsideration,” Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria, 5/2(1970), 211–15.Google Scholar

12. Johnson does cite material from Hutchinson, Thomas J., Impressions of West Africa (London, 1858)Google Scholar, and from Denham, Dixon and Clapperton, Hugh, Narrative of Travels and Discoveries in Northern and Central Africa (London, 1826)Google Scholar, but in neither case with reference to contemporary events in the nineteenth century; History, xix, 5.Google Scholar He also cites Lander, Richard; Records of Captain Clapperton's Last Expedition to Africa (London, 1830)Google Scholar, but only for the information that Clapperton had visited Oyo in the 1820s: History, 210–11.

13. Johnson, History, Author's Preface and 3.

14. For the Arokin, see ibid., 58, 125–26; Agiri, , “Early Oyo History,” 3.Google Scholar

15. As Johnson, acknowledges, History, xxii.Google Scholar

16. See esp. Babayemi, S. O., “The Fall and Rise of Oyo, ca. 1760–1905: A Study in the Political Culture of an African Polity” (Ph.D. thesis, University of Birmingham, 1979).Google Scholar

17. E.g. Johnson, , History, 167, 188, 246, 354, 455.Google Scholar

18. Ibid., 296, 642.

19. Ibid., 3.

20. See esp. Henige, David, The Chronology of Oral Tradition (Oxford, 1974), chapter 3Google Scholar; idem., “‘The Disease of Writing:’ Ganda and Nyoro Kinglists in a Newly Literate World” in Joseph C. Miller, ed. The African Past Speaks (Folkestone, 1980), 240–61; idem., “Truths Yet Unborn? Oral Traditions as a Casualty of Culture Contact,” JAH, 23(1982), 395–412. Also illuminating as a case study of the handling of traditional material by early literate historians in Yorubaland is Peel, J. D. Y., “Kings, Titles and Quarters: A Conjectural History of Ilesha, I. The Traditions Reviewed,” HA, 6(1979), 109–53.Google Scholar For the impact of literacy see also more generally Goody, Jack and Watt, Ian, “The Consequences of Literacy,” in Goody, Jack, ed., Literacy in Traditional Societies (Cambridge, 1968), 27–68Google Scholar; Goody, Jack, The Domestication of the Savage Mind (Cambridge, 1977)Google Scholar; Ong, Walter J., Orality and Literacy: the Teahnologizing of the Word (London, 1982).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

21. Bowen, Thomas J., Central Africa: Adventures and Missionary Labours in Several Countries in the Interior of Africa, 1849–1856 (Charleston, 1857), 314.Google Scholar

22. For the introduction of Islam into Yorubaland see Gbadamosi, T. G. O., The Growth of Islam among the Yoruba, 1841–1908 (London, 1978), 4–5.Google Scholar

23. For these events see Law, , Oyo Empire, 255–60.Google Scholar

24. The first Christian missions in the Yoruba area arrived at Badagry on the coast in 1842. The first missionary visit to Oyo was in 1853.

25. See further Law, Robin, “Early Yoruba Historiography,” HA, 3(1976), 69–89.Google Scholar

26. Henige, , “‘The Disease of Writing,’” 257.Google Scholar

27. Johnson, , History, 3–4.Google Scholar

28. For the Muslim legend of Nimrud and Abraham see The Encyclopaedia of Islam, s.v. “Namrud.” Although the probable identity of Nimrud and Lamurudu has been a standard assumption since Johnson, the detailed correspondence of the Yoruba and Islamic stories seems generally to have been overlooked. Lest it should be supposed that this criticism is directed only against my colleagues, I should state that I am appalled at my own failure to perceive this obvious derivation during (literally) dozens of readings of Johnson's History over some sixteen years: truly, one sees only what one expects to see.

29. An interesting exception is the account given by Lijadu, E. M., “Fragments of Egba National History,” Egba Government Gazette, 1904, no. 1 (also summarized in Lagos Weekly Record, 26 March 1904)Google Scholar, which makes no mention of Ife and has the Yoruba disperse rather from Oyo. This seems to represent an extreme version of the attempt by Oyo to usurp the dynastic primacy traditionally attributed to Ife, a more common version of which (found, for example, in Johnson's History) is the claim that the seat of government had been transferred from Tfe to Oyo in early times. On this see further Law, Robin, “The Heritage of Oduduwa: Traditional History and Political Propaganda Among the Yoruba,” JAH, 14(1973), 207–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

30. Agiri, , “Early Oyo history,” 6Google Scholar, terms these the ‘cosmological’ and ‘political’ variants: this terminology, however, is misleading, inasmuch as the creation story clearly serves political functions (legitimating the status of Yoruba royalty) as well as cosmological ones.

31. Lander, Richard and Lander, James, Journal of a Narrative to Explore the Course and Termination of the Niger (2 vols.: London, 1832), 2:180.Google Scholar

32. Bowen, , Central Africa, 265Google Scholar; George, J. O., Historical Notes on the Yoruba Country and its Tribes (Lagos, 1895), 28Google Scholar; Johnson, , History, 15.Google Scholar

33. Actually, Johnson seems to be the first to give the name Oduduwa to the dynastic ancestor, though this is also done by some other early sources which seem to be independent of Johnson: e.g. Aturidaolu, H., “A Short Traditional History of the Ijeshas and Other Hinterland Tribes, Part I,” Lagos Weekly Record, 15 June 1901Google Scholar; Sopein, F. S. [Feyisara], “A Chapter in the History of the Yoruba Country,” Nigerian Chronicle, 17 Sept. 1909.Google Scholar Tn the twentieth century, partly no doubt because of the authority of Johnson, descent from Oduduwa has become the canonical version. The earliest recorded version to give a name, however, calls the ancestor who founded Ife Okanbi: Crowther, Samuel, A Vocabulary of the Yoruba Language (London, 1843), i–ii.Google Scholar Other early versions call him Oranyan: George, , Historical Notes, 28Google Scholar; Dennett, R. E., Nigerian Studies, or the Religious and Political System of the Yoruba (London, 1910), 90.Google Scholar Johnson himself evidently knew of the traditions making Oranyan rather than Oduduwa the founder of Ife (cf. History, 9), but adopted the version that both Okanbi and Oranyan were sons of the founder Oduduwa. In the version given by Lijadu, “Fragments of Egba National History,” the dynastic ancestor is oddly called Momo, which is the usual Yoruba form of the name Muhammad. It does not appear, however, that the Prophet himself is intended.

34. For a typical account see, among others, Fabunmi, M. A., Ife Shrines (Ife, 1969), 3.Google Scholar

35. Crowther, , Vocabulary of the Yoruba Language, i–ii.Google Scholar The same account is included in Crowther's later A Grammar and Vocabulary of the Yoruba Language (London, 1852), i–ii.Google Scholar

36. Law, , “Heritage of Oduduwa,” 210Google Scholar; idem., Oyo Empire, 27.

37. Bowen, , Central Africa, 266.Google Scholar

38. George, , Historical Notes, 16, 29.Google Scholar

39. The Yoruba are also said to have migrated from northern Africa in company with the Hausa and Nupe by Atundaolu, , “Short Traditional History of the Ijeshas,” Lagos Weekly Record, 15 June 1901Google Scholar, but it is not clear whether this is presented as a reported tradition or as the author's own speculation. In the version given by Lijadu, “Fragments of Egba National History,” the dynastic ancestor comes from Ogodo, a town in Nupe to the northeast of Yorubaland, but this story (cf. above, note 29) strictly relates to the foundation of Oyo rather than of Ife. For discussion see Law, , Oyo Empire, 31–32Google Scholar; idem., “The Northern Factor in Yoruba History” in Proceedings of the Conference on Yoruba Civilization held at the University of Ife, Nigeria, 26–31 July 1976 (2 vols.: Ife, 1977), 1:111–16.

40. For the classic version see Hallam, W. K. R., “The Bayajida Legend in Hausa Folklore,” JAH, 7(1966), 47–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar For the banza bakwai cf. also Sutton, J. E. G., “Towards a Less Orthodox History of Hausaland,” JAH, 20(1979), 195–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

41. Bello, Muhammad, Infaq al-Maisur, trans, by Arnett, E. J. as The Rise of the Sokoto Fulani (Kano, 1922), 13Google Scholar; ʿAbd al-Qadir, Raudat al-afkar, trans. Palmer, H. R. as “Western Sudanese History,” Journal of the Africa Society, 15(1916), 266.Google Scholar

42. Cf. Sutton, , “Towards a Less Orthodox History,” 195, with note 64.Google Scholar

43. Denham, /Clapperton, , Narrative of Travels, Appendix XII, 163.Google Scholar

44. Barth, Heinrich, Travels and Discoveries in North & Central Africa (London, 1965), 4:472.Google Scholar

45. Flora Lady, Lugard, A Tropical Dependency: an Outline of the History of the Western Sudan with an Account of the Modern Settlement of Nigeria (London, 1905), 239–40.Google Scholar

46. Sopein, “Chapter in the History of the Yoruba Country.”

47. See, e.g. Law, , Oyo Empire, 70, 186, 206, 212, 256–58.Google Scholar

48. Bello, Muhammad, Infaq al-Maisur, translated in Hodgkin, Thomas, Nigerian Perspectives: an Historical Anthology (2nd ed.: Oxford, 1975), 78.Google Scholar Also see Arnett, , Rise of the Sokoto Fulani, 16.Google Scholar

49. Law, , “Early Yoruba Historiography,” 70.Google Scholar I have since been converted to the scepticism of Henige, , “Truths Yet Unborn?,” 406–07.Google Scholar

50. Denham, /Clapperton, , Narrative of Travels, Appendix XII, 165.Google Scholar

51. Johnson, , History, 5–6.Google Scholar

52. Johnson, Chris [no relation to Samuel and Obadiah], “Yoruba Antiquity,” Nigerian Chronicle, 5 Feb, 26 Feb, and 5 March 1909.Google Scholar

53. Clarke, W. H., Travels and Discoveries in Yorubaland (1854–1858), ed. Atanda, J. A. (Ibadan, 1972), 288.Google Scholar

54. Bowen, , Central Africa, 268.Google Scholar

55. George, , Historical Notes, 3.Google Scholar

56. The name Lamurudu is already given to the dynastic ancestor of the Yoruba in Ajlsafe, A. K., History of Abeokuta (1st ed. 1916; 2nd ed. 1924, reprinted Abeokuta, 1964), 10Google Scholar, but his account of Yoruba origins is quite clearly put together from a number of identifiable published sources (including Lijadu and Sopein), and the name will doubtless have come from Johnson. Lamurudu also appears in a recent local history of Oyo by Chief Ojo, S., Iwe Itan Oyo (Saki,[1961?]), 11Google Scholar, which is heavily derivative from Johnson. In a history of his own town of Saki, a subordinate town of the Oyo kingdom, Chief Ojo refers not only to Lamurudu but also to another figure from Middle Eastern legend, Kisra, : Iwe Itan Saki (4th ed., Saki, 1967?), 9–10.Google Scholar Kisra's involvement in the origins of the Yoruba is certainly not derived from Yoruba traditions, but comes from the traditions of neighboring Borgu, via the medium of published European accounts such as Frobenius, Leo, The Voice of Africa (London, 1913).Google Scholar

57. Obadiah Johnson was a patron of the Egbe Agba O Tan, the Ibadan historical society which published Adeyemi's book: see Law, , “Early Yoruba Historiography,” 74.Google Scholar

58. Adeyemi, M. C., Iwe Itan Oyo-Ile ati Oyo isisiyi (Ibadan, 1914), 5.Google Scholar

59. Johnson, , History, 3.Google Scholar

60. Ibid., 6–7.

61. George, , Historical Notes, 63Google Scholar, remarks that the corpus of divinatory poems associated with the cult of Ifa “had their origin from a Mahomedan,” but without any detailed account. Sopein, “Chapter in the History of the Yoruba Country,” gives an elaborate account of the supposed introduction of the cult of Oduduwa and its associated sacred calabashes (igba iwa) by a Hausa Muslim, the calabashes being devised to hold the Muslim's Qur'an. Johnson himself incorporates into his account of Yoruba origins a tradition that a sacred object called idi had originated as a Qur'an: History, 4.

62. See Stevens, Phillips Jr. “The Kisra Legend and the Distortion of Historical Tradition,” JAH, 16(1975), 185–200.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

63. See Law, , “The Northern Factor in Yoruba History,” 113–14.Google Scholar

64. See Johnson, , History, 277.Google Scholar See also the section from the oriki of Atiba quoted in Ajayi, J. F. Ade, “The Aftermath of the Fall of Old Oyo” in Ajayi, J. F. Ade and Crowder, Michael, eds., History of West Africa, II (London, 1974), 144n.48.Google Scholar

65. It may be noted further that, according to Johnson's traditions, Oranyan, having succeeded his father Oduduwa at Ife, set out to reconquer Mecca, but was unable to cross the Niger because of the opposition of the Nupe and therefore settled instead at Oyo lie: History, 10–11. Atiba had assumed the Oyo throne in the 1830s on the understanding that he would reoccupy the old capital at Oyo lie, and was still being criticized for his failure to do so in the 1840s: ibid., 279, 297. It seems clear that the details of the traditions told to Johnson arose in the context of these controversies about Atiba's behavior.

66. Henige, , “Truths Yet Unborn?,” 407.Google Scholar

67. See, e.g. the special issue of the Journal of African History on “Problems of African Chronology,” 11/2(1970)Google Scholar and, for a more sceptical perspective, Henige, Chronology of Oral Tradition.

68. In both Obadiah's paper and Samuel's History, the kinglist is given separately in an Appendix as well as in the main narrative text.

69. Johnson, , History, 149–50.Google Scholar

70. For which, see Law, “Heritage of Oduduwa.”

71. Johnson, , History, 143, 155.Google Scholar

72. The latter possibility cannot be excluded, since in Yoruba a distinction is conventionally made between traditions of origin (itan isedale) and other traditions (itan). My thanks are due for this point to Dr. E. A. Oroge.

73. For a study of this period based on Johnson but extending and elaborating his account see Smith, Robert, “The Alafin in Exile: A Study of the Tgboho Period in Oyo History,” JAH (1965), 57–77.Google Scholar

74. Johnson, , History, 178–86.Google Scholar For the probable dates of Gaha's career (ca.1754–1774) see Law, , Oyo Empire, 53–54.Google Scholar

75. See esp. ibid., 33–34, 50.

76. Smith, , “The Alafin in Exile,” 74n52Google Scholar; also idem., “A List of Alafin of Oyo,” The African Historian, I/3(1965), 52. Cf. Agiri, , “Early Oyo history,” 4.Google Scholar

77. Smith, , “The Alafin in Exile,” 74n52Google Scholar; idem., “List of Alafin,” 52.

78. Frobenius, , Voioe of Africa, 1:177.Google Scholar

79. Smith, , “The Alafin in Exile,” 63–64 and note 19.Google Scholar

80. Smith, , “List of Alafin,” 53–54.Google Scholar Cf. idem., “The Alafin in Exile,” 74n52, and personal communication from Robert Smith.

81. Oriki recorded for the author at the Palace, Oyo, April 1969.

82. Crowther, , Vocabulary, iii–viiGoogle Scholar; idem., Grammar and Vocabulary, iv-vii.

83. See Journals of the Reverend James Frederick Schön and Mr. Samuel Crowther, who… accompanied the Expedition up the River Niger in 1841 (London, 1842), 317–18.Google Scholar

84. Ibid., 318.

85. For Atiba's intrigues for the throne under Oluewu see Johnson, , History, 279.Google Scholar

86. Ibid., 168–69.

87. Crowther, Vocabulary, s.v. “Aganju,” “Odua,” “Oroniyan,” and “Sango.” According to Crowther, Oduduwa/Odua was in fact a goddess rather than a god.

88. Crowther glosses the name merely as “a title of office,” ibid., s.v. “Ga.”

89. Bowen, , Central Africa, 289–90.Google Scholar

90. Ibid., 316.

91. Cf. Ellis, A. B., The Yoruba-Speaking Peoples of the Slave Coast of West Africa (London, 1894), 43–45Google Scholar; Frobenius, , Voice of Africa, 1:198.Google Scholar

92. It is interesting that, according to Ellis and Frobenius, Oranyan raped his mother, Aganju's wife Yemoja, the issue of this relationship being (among others) Sango. Johnson in fact also credits Aganju with a wife who is seduced by their son, but gives different names (the wife is Iyayun, the son Lubego, and the offspring of the incestuous union Alafin Kori, Aganju's successor): History, 155.

93. Bowen, , Central Africa, 316.Google Scholar See also Clarke, , Travels and Discoveries, 281.Google Scholar

94. Another reference to “Ikoso” in Bowen, , Central Africa, 315Google Scholar, suggests that Bowen had confused the Ikoso quarter of Oyo associated with Sango with the town of Kusu, which is said to have been a temporary capital of the Oyo before they settled at Igboho. For Kusu (the “Kushu” of J. O. George), cf. Johnson, , History, 160–61Google Scholar; and Smith, , “The Alafin in Exile,” 63–65.Google Scholar

95. Clarke, , Travels and Discoveries, 192–94.Google Scholar

96. Ellis, , Yoruba-Speaking Peoples, 9–12.Google Scholar Another early writer who collected oral information in Yorubaland but simply reproduces Crowther's list of kings is Dennett, , Nigerian Studies, 6–7.Google Scholar

97. Iwe Kika Ekerin [Fourth Reading Book] (Lagos, 1911; reprinted 1952), 49–78.Google Scholar

98. See Law, , “Early Yoruba Historiography,” 73.Google Scholar

99. See the note of his death in Lagos Weekly Record, 10 Oct. 1896.

100. Hethersett and Johnson would certainly have known each other, and it is therefore quite conceivable that they exchanged information and ideas on Oyo history, but the similarities between their accounts seem no greater than can be accounted for by their drawing independently on the same body of traditions. Note that there is a reference to the historical material in the “Yoruba Reading Book” (Iwe Kika Ekerin), evidently an editorial addition by Johnson, Obadiah, in the History, 156 and note 1.Google Scholar

101. In contrast to both Crowther and Johnson, Hethersett in fact places Maku before Adebo.

102. See the phrase from Onisile's oriki cited in Johnson, , History, 176Google Scholar: Johnson, however, explains “Gbagida” as “an expression of admiration.” The Arokin nowadays attribute female sex to another of Johnson's Alafin, Orompoto. Cf. Smith, , “The Alafin in Exile,” 68.Google Scholar

103. Adeyemi, , Iwe Itan Oyo, 7–14.Google Scholar

104. National Archives, Ibadan: OYOPROF. 4/7, 275/1918, letter of Alafin to Resident, Oyo, 10 Aug. 1918, enclosing “History” taken from the Ologbo, 9 Aug. 1918.

105. Cf. Adeyemi, , Iwe Itan Oyo, 7.Google Scholar

106. The list of kings of Oyo in Talbot, P. A., The Peoples of Southern Nigeria (London, 1926), 282–96Google Scholar, is taken from Johnson (omitting the earliest kings), with the addition of estimated dates. The recent history of Oyo by Chief Ojo, Iwe Itan Oyo, copies both Johnson's list and Talbot's dates.

107. The relatively coherent recollection of the Igboho kings probably owes something to the obvious parallel between the Igboho period and the events of the 1830s, when the Alafin again abandoned Oyo Ile and established his capital elsewhere. The traditions of the Igboho kings may also have been functional for Alafin Atiba (see above, note 65) in demonstrating that the postponement of immediate action to recover possession of the traditional capital need not imply foregoing reoccupation in the longer term.

108. Agiri, , “Early Oyo History,” 3.Google Scholar

109. See Johnson, , History, 44.Google Scholar

110. Boston, J. S., “Oral Tradition and the History of Igala,” JAH, 10(1969), 41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

111. Henige, , “‘The Disease of Writing’,” 249–251.Google Scholar

112. See Smith, Robert, “The Bara, or Royal Mausoleum, at New Oyo,” Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria, 3/2 (1965), 415–20.Google Scholar

113. A newly installed Alafin is said to have visited the Bara at Oyo lie to pay homage to his ancestors in 1946, but it is not clear whether this has been a regular part of installation ceremonies since the 1830s; ibid., 416n1. The site of the Bara at Oyo Ile was, indeed, uncertain until it was located recently by an archeological survey! Soper, R. and Babayemi, S. O., “Report on a Field Trip to Old Oyo, 19th-26th January 1977” (Institute of Archaeology and Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan, 1977).Google Scholar

114. Smith, , “The Alafin in Exile,” 60.Google Scholar

115. Note Johnson's references to proverbs commemorating the Alafin Oluaso, (History, 158)Google Scholar, Odarawu (169), Karan (170), Jayin (171), and also Basorun Gaha (185).

116. Since the 1830s succession to the Oyo throne has been restricted to the descendants of Alafin Atiba, but descent from earlier Alafin is still a source of prestige, even if not the basis for eligibility to the throne. Note that among the persons appointed to important titles by Alafin Atiba in the late 1830s were descendants of the Alafin Ajagbo, Ojigi, and Onisile. Johnson, , History, 280.Google Scholar

117. The great desideratum for Johnson (and indeed Oyo) studies is of course the collection and critical study of the oriki of the past Alafin, which could form the basis for an independent check upon Johnson's reconstruction of Oyo history. Many of these oriki have been collected by Dr. S. O. Babayemi of the Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan, but they have not so far been published.