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Oral Historical Traditions and Political Integration in Ijebu

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 May 2014

Tunde Oduwobi
Tunde Oduwobi*
Affiliation:
University of Lagos
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Extract

The Ijebu are a subgroup of the Yoruba of southwestern Nigeria. In precolonial times they established a single kingdom under the Awujale (the titular head) whose seat of government was the town of Ijebu-Ode. Structurally, the kingdom was composed of geographical divisions, each of which was identified by a name. Some of them were characterized by close socioeconomic and political ties effected through the joint control of a political association, the Pampa society, which coordinated commercial, communal, and military activities in the area. Three such divisions form the focus of this paper: Ijebu-Igbo, Imusin, and Ago-Iwoye.

The British colonial administration engendered a process of political integration in these three areas as they were each brought under a single ruler; the purpose of this paper is to highlight how Ijebu oral historical traditions were employed to give support to this integrative process., but first, an identification of the areas concerned.

The Ijebu-Igbo area is composed principally of five distinct settlements or towns: Okesopin, Ojowo, Atikori, Oke-Agbo, and Japara. Okesopin is accorded primacy as the oldest of the settlements. The term Ijebu-Igbo (forest) is an allusion to the forested nature of this area of Ijebu.

The Imusin area, made up of about fifty very small settlements, is subdivided into two geographical groups: the northern group, called Ikatun, and the southern group or Ikasi. The term Imusin means the area of the akee apple (Imu: place or area; Isin: akee apple).

Type
Research Article
Information
History in Africa , Volume 27 , January 2000 , pp. 249 - 259
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 2000

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References

1 For the Pampa society mid the political structure of the Ijebu kingdom in general see Oduwobi, O.T., “A Historical Study of Administrative and Political Developments in Ijebu, 1892-1960,” (Ph.D., University of Lagos, 1995), 29–41.Google Scholar

2 It was also usually abbreviated as Ago (camp), the term mostly used in colonial records. This office was filled from among the town's senior titleholders.

3 The oba is traditionally superior in rank to the baale.

4 Odutayo, D.A., An Introspection into the History of Ijebu-Imusin (Ijebu-Imusin, 1978), 16.Google Scholar

5 Asiwaju, A.I., “Political Motivation and Oral Historical Traditions in Africa: The Case of Yoruba Crowns, 1900-1960,” Africa 46(1976), 114.Google Scholar

6 National Archives, Ibadan (NAI) IjeProf. 9/2, Letter Book, 1904-1908, Hern, W. Stanley, “A Report on the District of Ijebu-Ode for the New Civil Service List,” 1 October 1906.Google Scholar

7 Ibid.

8 Epega, D.O., Iwe Itan Ijebu ati awon Ilu miran (A History of Ijebu and Some Other Towns) (2d ed.: Lagos, 1934), 11.Google Scholar I have not been able to lay hands on the 1919 edition.

9 J.A.B. Osinyemi, S.A. Banjo, and I.O. Osopale, Iwe Itan Ijebu Molusi tabi Ijebu-Igbo (A History of Ijebu Molusi Otherwise Known as Ijebu-Igbo) (n.p., n.d.). For the date of publication see S.A. Banjo's evidence in Macauley, M.A., “Report of a Commission of Inquiry into Certain Matters Relating to the Orimolusi Chieftaincy of Ijebu-Igbo,'” 1956Google Scholar, para. 123 [Orimolusi's palace papers]. The book was reprinted twice in 1960, with some additional information under the title Iwe Itan Ijebu-Igbo (A History of Ijebu-Igbo).

10 Osinyemi, et al., Iwe Itan Ijebu Molusi, 2.Google Scholar

11 Ibid., 3.

12 Martindale, H.M., “Commission of Inquiry Appointed to Inquire into the Political and Administrative Relations between the Awujale of Ijebu-Ode and the Akarigbo of Ijebu-Remo,” December 1937, Exhibit G.73.Google Scholar

13 It is entitled “A Brief History of Ijebuland with Special Reference to the Origin of the Akarigbo Chieftaincy.” (From the private papers of the late Chief T.A. Fowokan, the Olisa of Ijebu-Ode.) The document was specifically a response to a government decision late in 1936 to establish the western sections of Ijebu (called Remo) as a separate local government area.

14 Ogunkoya, T.O., “The Early History of Ijebu,” Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria 1/1 (December 1956), 48–53.Google Scholar

15 Ibid., 49.

16 “Brief History of Ijebuland,” 1.

17 d'Avézac-Macaya, M., Notice sur le pays et le peuple des Yebous en Afriqne (Paris, 1845), 157.Google Scholar

18 The Ondo capital is now simply referred to as Ondo, while the Itsekiri now have their capital in Warri. It is instructive to note that the Itsekiri language and the Yoruha dialects of Ijehu and Ondo arc genetically close. See, Akinkugbe, O.O., “A Comparative Phonology of Yoruba Dialects, Itsekiri and Igala” (Ph.D., University of Ibadan, 1978), 54et passim.Google Scholar

19 Another dialectal variant of ode is possibly ile which appears in Ile-Ife and Ilesa, the capitals of the Ife and Ijesa kingdoms. Again, it is instructive that the Ife and Ijesa dialects are classified as sub-branches of a dialectal bloc. Ibid.

20 d'Avezac-Macaya, , Notice, 36Google Scholar; Lloyd, P.C., “Osifekiunde of Ijebu” in Curtin, P.D, ed., Africa Remembered: Narratives by West Africans from the Era of the Slave Trade (Madison, 1967), 247.Google Scholar For the probable coining of the term “Ijebu-Ode” see Oduwobi, , “Historical Study,” 40–41.Google Scholar

21 In Yoruba kingdoms, the king was the ruler of both the capital and the state.

22 Adebanjo, B.O, Itan Ida Ijebu (A History of Ijebu) (Lagos, 1990), 6.Google Scholar

23 d'Avézac-Macaya, , Notice, 95Google Scholar; Lloyd, , “Osifekunde.” 281.Google Scholar

24 In an account of the history of Ijebu-Igbo recorded in 1939, it is claimed that Ofiran's original name, which was not stated in the 1927 version, was Osimatle. NAI, IjeProf. 2, File No. C.54, vol.1, Ijebu-Igbo Chiefs and People to Chief Commissioner, 10 April 1939. But the name Osimade looks suspiciously like a later attempt to make the Ijebu-Igbo story accord with the traditional claim that Osi was the name of the reigning king in Ijebu on the arrival of Obanta. For one thing, the name Osimade, which could translate as “Osi seizes crown,” suggests the act of usurpation from which Ofiran is claimed to have been derived; for another, the name Ofiran is retained in Iwe Itan Ijebu-Igbo, which, as earlier mentioned, is the title of the 1960 edition of Itan Ijebu Molusi tabi Ijebu-Igbo published in 1927.

25 The descriptive phrase used for the coronation ceremony is imunigbu'wa osi, literally, “the act of making a person take on royal authority.” See NAI, IjeProf. 2, File No. C. 17/4, Resident to Secretary, Southern Provinces, 19 May 1933).

26 There remains also the identification or historicity of Olu-Iwa, but which is of little importance to us here. The issue is, however, examined in Oduwobi, , “Historical Study,” 18–20.Google Scholar

27 Epega, , Iwe Itan Ijebu, 16.Google Scholar

28 Ajibola, F.O., A Brief History ofAgo-Iwoye (Ago-Iwoye, 1966), 19–20.Google Scholar

29 Leigh, J.A., The History of Ondo (n.p., 1917), 2–3Google Scholar; Johnson, Samuel, The History of the Yorubas (Lagos, 1921), 25Google Scholar; Ogunsakin, P., Ondo: the People Their Origin, Custom, and Tradition (Lagos, 1976), 9–10.Google Scholar

30 Lloyd, P.C., Yoruba Land Law (London, 1962), 99.Google Scholar

31 Johnson, , History, 25.Google Scholar

32 Lloyd, , Yoruba Land Law, 99Google Scholar; Ogunsakin, , Ondo, 15–16.Google Scholar

33 Kenyo, E.A., Yoruba Natural Rulers and their Origin (Ibadan, 1964), 94Google Scholar: “In the history of Ondo Obaship, as narrated to me by the Ondo historical authorities themselves both in their capital town of Ode Ondo and in the districts, during the years of my research tour of that ancient Yoruba territory called Ondoland, the elders did not make any reference however short, to this traditional relationship between their oba and the Ehumawe of Ago Iwoye.”

34 Lloyd, , “Osifekunde,” 243.Google Scholar

35 Ajibola, , Ago-Iwoye, 19.Google Scholar

36 There is a growing clamor in Ijebu-Igbo for Officially recognizing the heads of the area's five constituent divsiions as crowned rulers. In Imusin two such rulers are currently involved in litigation against the paramountcy of the Oloko.

37 I have examined the issue of the historical significance of the Orimolusi and Oloko titles elsewhere. But suffice it to say here that the Orimolusi seems to have been a religious or priestly title that lost its functional significance; while the Oloko, derived as a political title, seems to have lost its political significance from the circumstances by which it became defunct. Oduwobi, O. T., “A Historical Study,” 165–167 and 21-22.Google Scholar

38 These form the basis of various petitions in current litigation regarding chieftaincy matters.