Yoruba Affairs - A History of the Yoruba
56 views
Skip to first unread message
Toyin Falola
Apr 24, 2010, 8:35:14 AM4/24/10
to yoruba...@googlegroups.com, anade...@ucdavis.edu, Stephen Akintoye
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
*A Handle on History*
*(Review of Professor Adebanji Akintoye's **A History of the Yoruba
People**, Dakar: Amalion Publishers, 2010; Premier Hotel, Ibadan, Nigeria.
April 22, 2010)*
*By Wale Adebanwi*
*Protocols*
We are standing in the crucible of history.
Our recognition or appreciation of this fact is of secondary
importance. The fundamental point is that by participating in this process
of history-making that disguises itself as history-writing, we are engaged
with that unending enterprise that is the march of history. Therefore, the
author of this book, Professor Adebanji Akintoye, in making history through
the writing of history, provides us all with an opportunity to be part of
that engaging enterprise called History.
We cannot fully predict what coming generations would do with, or say
about, this book. But we can say with certainty that, just like Samuel
Johnson's *The History of the Yorubas*, written more than a century before
it, this and coming generations would have to use this book as a departure
point to understand how those who are self-identified as the Yoruba evolved.
While some have argued that to Johnson's *History of the Yoruba* is due "the
principal glory of Yoruba historiography"*1*, indeed to Akintoye's *A* *History
of the Yoruba People* must go the credit of the comprehensive modern
redefinition of that historiography of a people described by William Bascom*
2*, the late Professor of Anthropology at the University of California,
Berkeley, as "one of the most interesting and important peoples of Africa".
In acknowledging this today, we are honouring a perpetual tradition,
which the Yoruba people eagerly celebrate: *The link between the ancestors
who went before, those who are here now and those who will come after*.
Against that backdrop, let me confess that there is so much to say about
this great book, but little time to say it here today. My task therefore
would be merely to point to a few of the critical issues raised by the book,
appraise its value in the context of the disciplinary historical studies of
the Yoruba and more and then place the book in the larger spectrum of the
ideals and principles that history offers in contemporary times.
*A History of the Yoruba People* represents an important milestone in
the process of capturing the past. In the introduction to the book, the
author describes his overriding purpose as follows: "I offer [this book] in
the humble hope that it will contribute something to the growing knowledge
of Yoruba History in particular and the History of Black Africa and Black
people in general, that it will provoke further interest in Yoruba and
African History, and, above all, that it will increase the Yoruba people's
love of, and romance with, their impressive and fascinating heritage". A
monumental task, we must concede. But let me say ahead that Professor
Akintoye elegantly delivers on his epic promise. Therefore, this book cannot
but fulfil all the expectations he has for it, and more.
There are several questions that this book raises that we cannot
address within the limits of this review. For instance, what is the purpose
of history? How do we unpack the several strands of the "past" to arrive at
a present consensus? What is the purpose of the past for the present and the
future? What intentions, or perhaps, intentionalities, structure and propel
the enterprise of history and the craft of the historian?
For a book that has taken about three decades to write, it is
understandable that the author decides not only to write history, but also
to make history in the process. There are two fundamental ways in which
Prof. Akintoye achieves this.
First, his is the first comprehensive attempt to account for the
entire History of the Yoruba from creation since Revd. Samuel Johnson's late
19th Century effort, entitled, *The History of the Yorubas from the Earliest
*A Handle on History*
*(Review of Professor Adebanji Akintoye's **A History of the Yoruba
People**, Dakar: Amalion Publishers, 2010; Premier Hotel, Ibadan, Nigeria.
April 22, 2010)*
*By Wale Adebanwi*
*Protocols*
We are standing in the crucible of history.
Our recognition or appreciation of this fact is of secondary
importance. The fundamental point is that by participating in this process
of history-making that disguises itself as history-writing, we are engaged
with that unending enterprise that is the march of history. Therefore, the
author of this book, Professor Adebanji Akintoye, in making history through
the writing of history, provides us all with an opportunity to be part of
that engaging enterprise called History.
We cannot fully predict what coming generations would do with, or say
about, this book. But we can say with certainty that, just like Samuel
Johnson's *The History of the Yorubas*, written more than a century before
it, this and coming generations would have to use this book as a departure
point to understand how those who are self-identified as the Yoruba evolved.
While some have argued that to Johnson's *History of the Yoruba* is due "the
principal glory of Yoruba historiography"*1*, indeed to Akintoye's *A* *History
of the Yoruba People* must go the credit of the comprehensive modern
redefinition of that historiography of a people described by William Bascom*
2*, the late Professor of Anthropology at the University of California,
Berkeley, as "one of the most interesting and important peoples of Africa".
In acknowledging this today, we are honouring a perpetual tradition,
which the Yoruba people eagerly celebrate: *The link between the ancestors
who went before, those who are here now and those who will come after*.
Against that backdrop, let me confess that there is so much to say about
this great book, but little time to say it here today. My task therefore
would be merely to point to a few of the critical issues raised by the book,
appraise its value in the context of the disciplinary historical studies of
the Yoruba and more and then place the book in the larger spectrum of the
ideals and principles that history offers in contemporary times.
*A History of the Yoruba People* represents an important milestone in
the process of capturing the past. In the introduction to the book, the
author describes his overriding purpose as follows: "I offer [this book] in
the humble hope that it will contribute something to the growing knowledge
of Yoruba History in particular and the History of Black Africa and Black
people in general, that it will provoke further interest in Yoruba and
African History, and, above all, that it will increase the Yoruba people's
love of, and romance with, their impressive and fascinating heritage". A
monumental task, we must concede. But let me say ahead that Professor
Akintoye elegantly delivers on his epic promise. Therefore, this book cannot
but fulfil all the expectations he has for it, and more.
There are several questions that this book raises that we cannot
address within the limits of this review. For instance, what is the purpose
of history? How do we unpack the several strands of the "past" to arrive at
a present consensus? What is the purpose of the past for the present and the
future? What intentions, or perhaps, intentionalities, structure and propel
the enterprise of history and the craft of the historian?
For a book that has taken about three decades to write, it is
understandable that the author decides not only to write history, but also
to make history in the process. There are two fundamental ways in which
Prof. Akintoye achieves this.
First, his is the first comprehensive attempt to account for the
entire History of the Yoruba from creation since Revd. Samuel Johnson's late
19th Century effort, entitled, *The History of the Yorubas from the Earliest
Times to the
Beginning of the British Protectorate**3**,* which was
reconstructed by his brother, Dr. Obadiah Johnson, and published nearly a
century ago (1921). Several other limited attempts have been made by both
lay and academic historians, Yoruba and non-Yoruba, and many more which are
limited to the history of the sub-groups or specific issues or explicit
historical trajectories in Yorubaland. But none of these matches the
ambition of this book. Before Johnson, Bishop Ajayi Crowther had tried to
face the immense task, before he eventually abandoned it to evangelical
exertions. Even Chief Obafemi Awolowo, it was reported, had that ambition,
but a long and arduous struggle to save Nigeria and eventually death, denied
him of the opportunity. Earlier as Premier, his government had created the
Yoruba Historical Research Scheme charged, among others, with (re)writing
Yoruba history. This effort, led by the respected historian, Professor
Saburi Biobaku, unfortunately collapsed after a few years. Perhaps, these
examples sharply demonstrate the magnitude of Professor Akintoye's
monumental accomplishment.
Two, this book directly contests and shifts the focus of Yoruba
history away from what many have called the Oyo-centric account of Samuel
Johnson. While other academic historians have over the last eighty years or
so, commented on the limitations of Johnson's pioneer effort to write a
comprehensive history of the Yoruba, it is the present author who has taken
up the historic task of actually (re)writing that history comprehensively
and attempting to transcend the limitations of an accomplished and great lay
historian that was Samuel Johnson.
Where Johnson avoids the creation myth that positions Ife as the
sacred locus of Oduduwa's original descent and the *orirun *(creation-source),
Akintoye, justifiably, restores Ile-Ife to its proper place as "*ibi ojumo
ti mon wa'ye"* (where the dawn emerges). Where Johnson justifiably situates
Ibadan, described by some as the "Yoruba Sparta", as the "Salvationist"
core, in military terms, of the Yoruba people in the late 19th and early 20
th centuries and places Ibadan at the very centre and as the symbol of the
"neo-Yoruba", and also as the spatial representation of the possibilities
inherent in the Yoruba future, Akintoye recognizes Ibadan's key role in
Yoruba history but refuses to dramatize it like Johnson or weave the future
of the Yoruba around the emergence and (mis)fortunes of Ibadan. However,
there is no doubt that indeed, as Johnson notes, Ibadan became the centre of
Yorùbá modern history from the 1830s. But Ibadan's emergence as the new
hegemony after the collapse of Oyo Empire with its strong military presented
a contradictory challenge. As Johnson*4* states, Ibadan was as much "a
protector as well as a scourge in the land . . ." in that era.
Akintoye's *A History of the Yoruba People* also reflects the
differences, and perhaps contradictions, between the academic historian
(Akintoye) and the lay historian (Johnson). Where Johnson emphasizes the
discord and dissention among Yoruba sub-groups, particularly in the
19thcentury and the disunity among them, symbolized, for example, by
the split
between the Oyo-Yoruba and the non-Oyo Yoruba, he also prayed for the *return
*to "universal peace with prosperity and advancement" and the welding into
one of "the disjointed units under one head", "as in the happy days of [*
Alaafin*]* *ABIODUN*5*. On his part, Akintoye emphasizes the "immemorial"
unity and the singularity of the common identity of the Yoruba, despite
minor disarticulations through the ages. Where Johnson, in contradictory
ways, tries to reconcile Ibadan's history and role with the Victorian gospel
of Christian modernity, enlightenment and civilization appropriated for and
domesticated in the Yoruba, while externalizing Islam in Yoruba history and
future, on the contrary, Akintoye places the two world religions,
Christianity and Islam, in historical perspectives and situates the tensions
and contradictions evident in the Yoruba encounter with the Christianity and
Islam without ideologically privileging one in the visions of Yoruba future.
reconstructed by his brother, Dr. Obadiah Johnson, and published nearly a
century ago (1921). Several other limited attempts have been made by both
lay and academic historians, Yoruba and non-Yoruba, and many more which are
limited to the history of the sub-groups or specific issues or explicit
historical trajectories in Yorubaland. But none of these matches the
ambition of this book. Before Johnson, Bishop Ajayi Crowther had tried to
face the immense task, before he eventually abandoned it to evangelical
exertions. Even Chief Obafemi Awolowo, it was reported, had that ambition,
but a long and arduous struggle to save Nigeria and eventually death, denied
him of the opportunity. Earlier as Premier, his government had created the
Yoruba Historical Research Scheme charged, among others, with (re)writing
Yoruba history. This effort, led by the respected historian, Professor
Saburi Biobaku, unfortunately collapsed after a few years. Perhaps, these
examples sharply demonstrate the magnitude of Professor Akintoye's
monumental accomplishment.
Two, this book directly contests and shifts the focus of Yoruba
history away from what many have called the Oyo-centric account of Samuel
Johnson. While other academic historians have over the last eighty years or
so, commented on the limitations of Johnson's pioneer effort to write a
comprehensive history of the Yoruba, it is the present author who has taken
up the historic task of actually (re)writing that history comprehensively
and attempting to transcend the limitations of an accomplished and great lay
historian that was Samuel Johnson.
Where Johnson avoids the creation myth that positions Ife as the
sacred locus of Oduduwa's original descent and the *orirun *(creation-source),
Akintoye, justifiably, restores Ile-Ife to its proper place as "*ibi ojumo
ti mon wa'ye"* (where the dawn emerges). Where Johnson justifiably situates
Ibadan, described by some as the "Yoruba Sparta", as the "Salvationist"
core, in military terms, of the Yoruba people in the late 19th and early 20
th centuries and places Ibadan at the very centre and as the symbol of the
"neo-Yoruba", and also as the spatial representation of the possibilities
inherent in the Yoruba future, Akintoye recognizes Ibadan's key role in
Yoruba history but refuses to dramatize it like Johnson or weave the future
of the Yoruba around the emergence and (mis)fortunes of Ibadan. However,
there is no doubt that indeed, as Johnson notes, Ibadan became the centre of
Yorùbá modern history from the 1830s. But Ibadan's emergence as the new
hegemony after the collapse of Oyo Empire with its strong military presented
a contradictory challenge. As Johnson*4* states, Ibadan was as much "a
protector as well as a scourge in the land . . ." in that era.
Akintoye's *A History of the Yoruba People* also reflects the
differences, and perhaps contradictions, between the academic historian
(Akintoye) and the lay historian (Johnson). Where Johnson emphasizes the
discord and dissention among Yoruba sub-groups, particularly in the
19thcentury and the disunity among them, symbolized, for example, by
the split
between the Oyo-Yoruba and the non-Oyo Yoruba, he also prayed for the *return
*to "universal peace with prosperity and advancement" and the welding into
one of "the disjointed units under one head", "as in the happy days of [*
Alaafin*]* *ABIODUN*5*. On his part, Akintoye emphasizes the "immemorial"
unity and the singularity of the common identity of the Yoruba, despite
minor disarticulations through the ages. Where Johnson, in contradictory
ways, tries to reconcile Ibadan's history and role with the Victorian gospel
of Christian modernity, enlightenment and civilization appropriated for and
domesticated in the Yoruba, while externalizing Islam in Yoruba history and
future, on the contrary, Akintoye places the two world religions,
Christianity and Islam, in historical perspectives and situates the tensions
and contradictions evident in the Yoruba encounter with the Christianity and
Islam without ideologically privileging one in the visions of Yoruba future.
In a sense, some
critics may accuse the author of presenting an
Ife-centric approach to Yoruba history, with emphasis on other eastern
Yoruba sub-groups such as the Ekiti, the Ondo and the Ijesa, but indeed,
this can be seen in broader light as an attempt to provide a more nuanced
account of the roles of the different groups in the making of history which
is largely silenced by Johnson's narrative which is constructed around Oyo.
Where Johnson's *The History* understandably ends at the "beginning of the
British Protectorate", Akintoye's *A History* takes it further into late 20
th century which foreshadows the 21st Century.
If this were all that the author achieves with the book, the book and
its author would still have entered the pantheon of history without
question. However, it is because the book achieves far more than this that
recommends it far beyond this age. With grace and scholarly articulacy, with
rare cultural lucidity and politically-conscious fluency that combines the
edifying confidence of the *Arokin* with the artistic panache of the *
Opitan,* with the long-term coherence of the consummate academic historian
and the grounded dexterity of the lay narrator who recognizes the
fundamental linkage connecting the past through the present to the future,
Prof. Akintoye has delivered to us a compelling narrative that we cannot but
engage with.
As I have stated, this book is more than a 21st century attempt to
(re)present a comprehensive history of the Yoruba and contest the
Oyo-centric account of Johnson while shifting the focus to a broader and
more eclectic account. It is a far more nuanced, evidentially-sensitive,
systematic account.
At a broader level, the author contests very old and recent accounts
of the emergence of the Yoruba category and identity which insist, on the
one hand, that the Yoruba identity was invented in the late 19th century and
early 20th century as part of the project of Missionary Christianity, led by
the Church Missionary Society (CMS) and its retuning freed slaves, including
the Saros, who were eager to indigenize or Yorubalize Christianity and
Christianize the Yoruba. This has been articulated brilliantly by Professor
JDY Peel, in his magisterial work, *Religious Encounter and the Making of
the Yoruba**6*. This project included the production of a Bible (*Bibeli *Mimo)
in a uniform native language during the 19th century*7*; the author also
contests, on the other, the argument that the Yoruba identity was
popularized by the emergent Yoruba elite in the urban areas who appropriated
the history and narratives of the foundational ethos constructed around
Oduduwa and the founding city of Ile-Ife* *(p*. *57) or the greatness and
splendour of the ancient Oyo Empire.
What is Prof. Akintoye's specific response to these accounts?
Perhaps, one critical purpose of Prof. Akintoye in writing this book
is to emphasize and "prove" the "immemoriality", or, the "timelessness", of
common Yoruba identity and its constancy through several centuries, despite
mutations and contestations - including internecine wars, constant
migration, and the colonial experience. Yet, and some might see this as a
contradiction, the author insists that that "immemoriality", what the Yoruba
call "*igba iwa se*", is grounded in memory and the "timelessness" can be
understood within the Gregorian calendar. I am certain that more qualified
scholars, particularly historians, anthropologists and archaeologists - and
maybe political scientists, whose discipline equips them with the scholarly
conceit to trust in their own capacity to interpret history better than the
historians - would take up this issue and, even, challenge it. But it
suffices here to say that, the idea, the construction, and the
re-construction and the modern projection, and by that fact, the
consolidation of common Yoruba identity, as other scholars have noted, can
be grounded in the work of missionary Christianity which made use of
returnee slaves, like Bishop Ajayi Crowther and Samuel Johnson, local
converts who became educated, and several others, to spread the idea and
Ife-centric approach to Yoruba history, with emphasis on other eastern
Yoruba sub-groups such as the Ekiti, the Ondo and the Ijesa, but indeed,
this can be seen in broader light as an attempt to provide a more nuanced
account of the roles of the different groups in the making of history which
is largely silenced by Johnson's narrative which is constructed around Oyo.
Where Johnson's *The History* understandably ends at the "beginning of the
British Protectorate", Akintoye's *A History* takes it further into late 20
th century which foreshadows the 21st Century.
If this were all that the author achieves with the book, the book and
its author would still have entered the pantheon of history without
question. However, it is because the book achieves far more than this that
recommends it far beyond this age. With grace and scholarly articulacy, with
rare cultural lucidity and politically-conscious fluency that combines the
edifying confidence of the *Arokin* with the artistic panache of the *
Opitan,* with the long-term coherence of the consummate academic historian
and the grounded dexterity of the lay narrator who recognizes the
fundamental linkage connecting the past through the present to the future,
Prof. Akintoye has delivered to us a compelling narrative that we cannot but
engage with.
As I have stated, this book is more than a 21st century attempt to
(re)present a comprehensive history of the Yoruba and contest the
Oyo-centric account of Johnson while shifting the focus to a broader and
more eclectic account. It is a far more nuanced, evidentially-sensitive,
systematic account.
At a broader level, the author contests very old and recent accounts
of the emergence of the Yoruba category and identity which insist, on the
one hand, that the Yoruba identity was invented in the late 19th century and
early 20th century as part of the project of Missionary Christianity, led by
the Church Missionary Society (CMS) and its retuning freed slaves, including
the Saros, who were eager to indigenize or Yorubalize Christianity and
Christianize the Yoruba. This has been articulated brilliantly by Professor
JDY Peel, in his magisterial work, *Religious Encounter and the Making of
the Yoruba**6*. This project included the production of a Bible (*Bibeli *Mimo)
in a uniform native language during the 19th century*7*; the author also
contests, on the other, the argument that the Yoruba identity was
popularized by the emergent Yoruba elite in the urban areas who appropriated
the history and narratives of the foundational ethos constructed around
Oduduwa and the founding city of Ile-Ife* *(p*. *57) or the greatness and
splendour of the ancient Oyo Empire.
What is Prof. Akintoye's specific response to these accounts?
Perhaps, one critical purpose of Prof. Akintoye in writing this book
is to emphasize and "prove" the "immemoriality", or, the "timelessness", of
common Yoruba identity and its constancy through several centuries, despite
mutations and contestations - including internecine wars, constant
migration, and the colonial experience. Yet, and some might see this as a
contradiction, the author insists that that "immemoriality", what the Yoruba
call "*igba iwa se*", is grounded in memory and the "timelessness" can be
understood within the Gregorian calendar. I am certain that more qualified
scholars, particularly historians, anthropologists and archaeologists - and
maybe political scientists, whose discipline equips them with the scholarly
conceit to trust in their own capacity to interpret history better than the
historians - would take up this issue and, even, challenge it. But it
suffices here to say that, the idea, the construction, and the
re-construction and the modern projection, and by that fact, the
consolidation of common Yoruba identity, as other scholars have noted, can
be grounded in the work of missionary Christianity which made use of
returnee slaves, like Bishop Ajayi Crowther and Samuel Johnson, local
converts who became educated, and several others, to spread the idea and
ideal of commonality
among a people who largely recognized their origin in
Ile-Ife but had failed for centuries to give that a pride of place in their
cross-sub-ethnic group relations. Only about sixty years ago in this city,
the Ijebu and the Ibadan dramatized this sub-group rivalry.
I have argued in my own work, following the illuminating insight of
Professor Peel, that the height of the consolidation and the modernization
of that common identity and its political instrumentalization in the other
half of the 20th century was a project led by that finest of African state
builders, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, and his lieutenants. The creation of *Egbe
Omo Oduduwa* no doubt finally resolved, consecrated and sealed the myth of
Oduduwa progenitor-ship, and promoted Oduduwa against all other rivals
within the founding myth, particularly Obatala. We should be particularly
glad that the city in which that project was executed, the great city of
Ibadan, is where we are meeting today.
However, while conceding that some of these processes and historical
events contributed to the consolidation and expansion of the Yoruba identity
and commonality, and the fact that most Yoruba sub-groups for several
decades identified themselves as Ijesa, Ijebu, Oyo, Ekiti, Igbomina, etc,
the author dismisses the claims that this meant that common Yoruba identity
that we have come to know in modern times is a recent invention. He
emphasizes, perhaps controversially for some scholars, that "very strong
group or national consciousness pervaded all aspects of Yoruba civilization"
throughout history. Concludes the author, "The end result was that the
Yoruba people emerged from the nineteenth century into the 20th as a
strongly united people, poised to take full advantage of the powerful inputs
of a growing world economy."
The author also dismisses different claims about migration from a far
away territory to their present site, from Archdeacon J. Olumide Lucas's
already discredited attempt at placing the origin of the Yoruba in Egypt,
using dubious linguistic evidence, to Prof. Saburi Biobaku's thesis about an
ancient kingdom of Meroe in eastern Sudan from which they emerged, or others
who claim that the Yoruba were one of the ten "lost tribes" of Israel; or
the perspective dominant in Moslem historiography popular around old Oyo
which places the origin of the Yoruba in Mecca through "Lamurudu" or Nimrud.
*8* Affirmed Akintoye, "It is on the soil of Yorubaland that Oduduwa was
born and raised; it is only in that soil that his roots can be found".*9*
Akintoye takes specific historic events, contextualizes them by
providing reasons why they happened, how they happened, and their
significance. It is such an exceedingly well-organized historical mode that
makes it easy to agree with the author or disagree with him. In the best
traditions of the academic historian, he even provides the basis for any
discourse on the rightness or wrongness of his evidence, his interpretation
and the dynamics and significance of historical events.
But this book cannot be read in a one-dimensional way, otherwise the
complexities that are raised by its attempt to offer an evidential narrative
may be lost. For instance, while on the one hand, the author destabilizes
the centrality and primal place that Oduduwa occupies in the narrative of
Yoruba ancestry in the popular ways in which this narrative is constructed,
on the other hand, he rearticulates Oduduwa's centrality in ancient Ile-Ife
and consequently in Yoruba history and emphasizes Oduduwa's organizing role
in the (re-)conceiving and the (re-)enactment of the old and the imagining
of "new possibilities and prospects" (p. 62) in Yorubaland. In some ways,
this becomes an ancient template for the challenges of mid-20th century
Yorubaland in the context of colonial Nigeria. Argues the author in
connection with the historical moment of the emergence of Oduduwa:
"Fortunately, in the midst of all the rubble, there was one man who
understood the great need of the moment and, by understanding the need, came
to an understanding too of the concept - even though (as far as we know) he
Ile-Ife but had failed for centuries to give that a pride of place in their
cross-sub-ethnic group relations. Only about sixty years ago in this city,
the Ijebu and the Ibadan dramatized this sub-group rivalry.
I have argued in my own work, following the illuminating insight of
Professor Peel, that the height of the consolidation and the modernization
of that common identity and its political instrumentalization in the other
half of the 20th century was a project led by that finest of African state
builders, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, and his lieutenants. The creation of *Egbe
Omo Oduduwa* no doubt finally resolved, consecrated and sealed the myth of
Oduduwa progenitor-ship, and promoted Oduduwa against all other rivals
within the founding myth, particularly Obatala. We should be particularly
glad that the city in which that project was executed, the great city of
Ibadan, is where we are meeting today.
However, while conceding that some of these processes and historical
events contributed to the consolidation and expansion of the Yoruba identity
and commonality, and the fact that most Yoruba sub-groups for several
decades identified themselves as Ijesa, Ijebu, Oyo, Ekiti, Igbomina, etc,
the author dismisses the claims that this meant that common Yoruba identity
that we have come to know in modern times is a recent invention. He
emphasizes, perhaps controversially for some scholars, that "very strong
group or national consciousness pervaded all aspects of Yoruba civilization"
throughout history. Concludes the author, "The end result was that the
Yoruba people emerged from the nineteenth century into the 20th as a
strongly united people, poised to take full advantage of the powerful inputs
of a growing world economy."
The author also dismisses different claims about migration from a far
away territory to their present site, from Archdeacon J. Olumide Lucas's
already discredited attempt at placing the origin of the Yoruba in Egypt,
using dubious linguistic evidence, to Prof. Saburi Biobaku's thesis about an
ancient kingdom of Meroe in eastern Sudan from which they emerged, or others
who claim that the Yoruba were one of the ten "lost tribes" of Israel; or
the perspective dominant in Moslem historiography popular around old Oyo
which places the origin of the Yoruba in Mecca through "Lamurudu" or Nimrud.
*8* Affirmed Akintoye, "It is on the soil of Yorubaland that Oduduwa was
born and raised; it is only in that soil that his roots can be found".*9*
Akintoye takes specific historic events, contextualizes them by
providing reasons why they happened, how they happened, and their
significance. It is such an exceedingly well-organized historical mode that
makes it easy to agree with the author or disagree with him. In the best
traditions of the academic historian, he even provides the basis for any
discourse on the rightness or wrongness of his evidence, his interpretation
and the dynamics and significance of historical events.
But this book cannot be read in a one-dimensional way, otherwise the
complexities that are raised by its attempt to offer an evidential narrative
may be lost. For instance, while on the one hand, the author destabilizes
the centrality and primal place that Oduduwa occupies in the narrative of
Yoruba ancestry in the popular ways in which this narrative is constructed,
on the other hand, he rearticulates Oduduwa's centrality in ancient Ile-Ife
and consequently in Yoruba history and emphasizes Oduduwa's organizing role
in the (re-)conceiving and the (re-)enactment of the old and the imagining
of "new possibilities and prospects" (p. 62) in Yorubaland. In some ways,
this becomes an ancient template for the challenges of mid-20th century
Yorubaland in the context of colonial Nigeria. Argues the author in
connection with the historical moment of the emergence of Oduduwa:
"Fortunately, in the midst of all the rubble, there was one man who
understood the great need of the moment and, by understanding the need, came
to an understanding too of the concept - even though (as far as we know) he
does not seem to
have had any precedent to go by. His name was Oduduwa."
So how did a man, Oduduwa, who was a late comer to the centre of power
struggle in Ile-Ife become the king and later, the progenitor of tens of
millions of people? What have the pattern of settlement and the
appropriation of pre-Oduduwa Ife's socio-economic and political ethos got to
do with the evolution of the Yoruba people as one of the most urbanized
people in Africa? How did the location of the main market - as the economic
life-centre of traditional Yoruba territorial organization - near the king's
palace - which was the centre of political power - evolve? In this
well-written book lie the answers to these and many other historico-spatial
and epistemic puzzles*.*
Prof. Akintoye takes this magnificent story from the earliest times
through the concrete and mythical founding narrative of Oduduwa, through the
evolution of the Yoruba identity, through the age of iron-smelting in
Western Sudan which inaugurated a new era of great economic and social
transformations, to the evolution of the *elu* pattern of settlement from
about 1000 AD. He uses all these to explain how the Yoruba constantly
revised and renewed their culture through the reconciliation of cultural
beliefs and practices with new encounters.
There are several other critically important historical issues that
Prof. Akintoye takes on, including the consequences of the 19th century,
which is the greatest historical epoch that largely redefined Yorubaland and
Yoruba history. It was the century of the collapse of the Oyo Empire, the
Yoruba civil wars, the emergence and dominance of Ibadan as the bridge
between the dying epoch and the emerging one, the European incursion and the
subduing of the Yoruba, as well as other ethnic groups in what has been
turned into a territorial contraption called Nigeria, the triumph and spread
of Islam represented in one instance by the Fulani imposition in Ilorin, and
then the drive towards the cultural hegemony of Christianity and the embrace
of education with the associated development of a "standard" Yoruba and the
production of Yoruba orthography, and the emergence of modern Yoruba
nationalism that sought to reconcile the "modern" Yoruba with both the cruel
and the ennobling legacies of the past. It was in the 19th century that
Yorubaland changed forever. Yoruba people surrendered the past in that
century and embraced the future. Akintoye calls it "a great century of
change, transformation and progress" (p. 362). The implications of all these
for the present century are clearly evident.
All the tensions in this momentous age were allowed to come through
in the book. Understandably perhaps, Prof. Akintoye dwells considerably on
Ilorin and its implications for the Oyo Empire and Yoruba future. From the
19th century till date, Ilorin has always represented not only a metaphor
for the final collapse to the great Oyo Empire, but a nagging reminder of
how internal conflicts and personal struggles for power can create the
conditions for the destruction of a people and the seizure of their common
weal by outsiders.
Akintoye's important political message in regard of Yoruba history in
relation to Nigeria is this: "The fundamental roots of the Nigerian problem
are to be found in the composition of the country, and the nature of the
structure that the British had bestowed on it" (p. 404). The author's
account of recent Nigerian history, against this backdrop, would perhaps be
one of the most contentious issues in the book. I will leave that to the
coming debate*.*
There are several questions that Akintoye uses this book to pose
indirectly. And he obviously demands answers. For instance, in a Yoruba
country where questions of the transcendental importance and uses of
education, good health, rural-urban planning, etc. were settled in a
politically-organized and strategically implementable manner by 1959, why
should the Yoruba enter the 21st century as if they were a people who need
to be preached to about why it is crucial that every primary school in
Beyerunka in Ibadan, or in Ajegunle in Lagos be one from which a
So how did a man, Oduduwa, who was a late comer to the centre of power
struggle in Ile-Ife become the king and later, the progenitor of tens of
millions of people? What have the pattern of settlement and the
appropriation of pre-Oduduwa Ife's socio-economic and political ethos got to
do with the evolution of the Yoruba people as one of the most urbanized
people in Africa? How did the location of the main market - as the economic
life-centre of traditional Yoruba territorial organization - near the king's
palace - which was the centre of political power - evolve? In this
well-written book lie the answers to these and many other historico-spatial
and epistemic puzzles*.*
Prof. Akintoye takes this magnificent story from the earliest times
through the concrete and mythical founding narrative of Oduduwa, through the
evolution of the Yoruba identity, through the age of iron-smelting in
Western Sudan which inaugurated a new era of great economic and social
transformations, to the evolution of the *elu* pattern of settlement from
about 1000 AD. He uses all these to explain how the Yoruba constantly
revised and renewed their culture through the reconciliation of cultural
beliefs and practices with new encounters.
There are several other critically important historical issues that
Prof. Akintoye takes on, including the consequences of the 19th century,
which is the greatest historical epoch that largely redefined Yorubaland and
Yoruba history. It was the century of the collapse of the Oyo Empire, the
Yoruba civil wars, the emergence and dominance of Ibadan as the bridge
between the dying epoch and the emerging one, the European incursion and the
subduing of the Yoruba, as well as other ethnic groups in what has been
turned into a territorial contraption called Nigeria, the triumph and spread
of Islam represented in one instance by the Fulani imposition in Ilorin, and
then the drive towards the cultural hegemony of Christianity and the embrace
of education with the associated development of a "standard" Yoruba and the
production of Yoruba orthography, and the emergence of modern Yoruba
nationalism that sought to reconcile the "modern" Yoruba with both the cruel
and the ennobling legacies of the past. It was in the 19th century that
Yorubaland changed forever. Yoruba people surrendered the past in that
century and embraced the future. Akintoye calls it "a great century of
change, transformation and progress" (p. 362). The implications of all these
for the present century are clearly evident.
All the tensions in this momentous age were allowed to come through
in the book. Understandably perhaps, Prof. Akintoye dwells considerably on
Ilorin and its implications for the Oyo Empire and Yoruba future. From the
19th century till date, Ilorin has always represented not only a metaphor
for the final collapse to the great Oyo Empire, but a nagging reminder of
how internal conflicts and personal struggles for power can create the
conditions for the destruction of a people and the seizure of their common
weal by outsiders.
Akintoye's important political message in regard of Yoruba history in
relation to Nigeria is this: "The fundamental roots of the Nigerian problem
are to be found in the composition of the country, and the nature of the
structure that the British had bestowed on it" (p. 404). The author's
account of recent Nigerian history, against this backdrop, would perhaps be
one of the most contentious issues in the book. I will leave that to the
coming debate*.*
There are several questions that Akintoye uses this book to pose
indirectly. And he obviously demands answers. For instance, in a Yoruba
country where questions of the transcendental importance and uses of
education, good health, rural-urban planning, etc. were settled in a
politically-organized and strategically implementable manner by 1959, why
should the Yoruba enter the 21st century as if they were a people who need
to be preached to about why it is crucial that every primary school in
Beyerunka in Ibadan, or in Ajegunle in Lagos be one from which a
neuro-surgeon, a
Nobel laureate in literature, or a chief justice can
emerge?
One of the most significant things that come out of this book is about
Yoruba attitude toward finality and fullness. It is a very ironic attitude,
which is why religious fundamentalism or any form of extremism, is rejected
by the Yoruba. Prof. Akintoye provides some of the historical grounds for
this in the book, but I am not sure whether he would agree with my
interpretation. My argument is this: Yoruba opposition to "finality" and by
extension fundamentalism, is evident, for instance, in "Orunmila" (Baba
Ifa). In his full appellation, he is taken to be "*Orunlomeni ti o la*". In
a way, you can say that even as far back as many centuries ago, the Yoruba
already anticipated postmodern ideas. There is a certain ambivalence in
Yoruba culture and history that challenges finalities. In the end, Orunmila
symbolizes the incapacity of mankind, despite the best efforts through
religion, to account for who will ultimately be judged by God as "qualified
for Heaven" - that is, qualified for Salvation. Whereas, mainstream Yoruba
Islam and Yoruba Christianity exhibit this cultural tentativeness in their
religion, despite the affirmations - that is, the residual nature of final
decision-making about who will be saved, which is the exclusive preserve of
God or Allah - yet, fundamentalist Islam and extremist Pentecostal
Christianity, in some respects, seem to have seized upon this exclusiveness,
reserved for God, and invested it in human agency. I have no time here to
pursue the complicated consequences of this in both local and international
contexts.
However, on the other hand, Olodumare and Odu Ifa, and
*Odu-to-da-iwa*(Oduduwa) with "
*odu*" meaning "fullness" and "totality" also points to another important
heritage in Yoruba culture and history. It is sufficient to say here that
the Yoruba conception of totality and fullness, in contradistinction to the
ambivalence inherent in "*Orun lo me ni ti o la*", signals a permanent and
fundamental essence in the culture that predisposes the people towards a
constant and perhaps unachievable fullness and totality. I will like to
suggest that this is what makes the Yoruba society a permanent
work-in-progress and, when appropriated in present times, makes the people
one of the biggest, if not the biggest, African ethnic-nationality where the
search and struggle for a better life is a fundamental, critical and
unending project - even where the larger postcolonial state, such as
Nigeria, remains sick and sickening. Therefore, when others say that the
Yoruba people, in the context of Nigeria, are "noise-makers" or
"trouble-makers" in the struggle to make Nigeria a better country, they are
missing the element in Yoruba history and culture; that is *odu -* which
conditions the Yoruba to a permanent striving to achieve fullness and
totality, even while foreswearing extremism and fundamentalism. Americans
call this, "to make a more perfect union".
Another significant thing about this book, as hinted in the chapter on
the old Yoruba Diaspora in the Americas, is perhaps to remind the Yoruba of
the duties they owe to the black race. As one of the largest
ethnic-nationalities in Africa, one with the strongest surviving culture in
the Diaspora, and one of the most progressive in the embrace of modernity,
the Yoruba past will be immaterial if it does not constitute a pedestal and
a resource which can be mobilized in the service of the historic task of
confronting the worst collective racial destiny imposed on any race in human
history. If we point to a rich past, it must be toward ensuring a richer
future.
As some of the greatest story-tellers have alerted us, and as *A
History of the Yoruba People* again proves to us, when all the wars have
been fought, when all the artilleries of fire and doom have been deployed,
when all the struggles for good and against evil have been accomplished,
when the powerful have destroyed all that is in sight and the powerless have
suffered the consequences, it is the story, the narrative, consecrated as
emerge?
One of the most significant things that come out of this book is about
Yoruba attitude toward finality and fullness. It is a very ironic attitude,
which is why religious fundamentalism or any form of extremism, is rejected
by the Yoruba. Prof. Akintoye provides some of the historical grounds for
this in the book, but I am not sure whether he would agree with my
interpretation. My argument is this: Yoruba opposition to "finality" and by
extension fundamentalism, is evident, for instance, in "Orunmila" (Baba
Ifa). In his full appellation, he is taken to be "*Orunlomeni ti o la*". In
a way, you can say that even as far back as many centuries ago, the Yoruba
already anticipated postmodern ideas. There is a certain ambivalence in
Yoruba culture and history that challenges finalities. In the end, Orunmila
symbolizes the incapacity of mankind, despite the best efforts through
religion, to account for who will ultimately be judged by God as "qualified
for Heaven" - that is, qualified for Salvation. Whereas, mainstream Yoruba
Islam and Yoruba Christianity exhibit this cultural tentativeness in their
religion, despite the affirmations - that is, the residual nature of final
decision-making about who will be saved, which is the exclusive preserve of
God or Allah - yet, fundamentalist Islam and extremist Pentecostal
Christianity, in some respects, seem to have seized upon this exclusiveness,
reserved for God, and invested it in human agency. I have no time here to
pursue the complicated consequences of this in both local and international
contexts.
However, on the other hand, Olodumare and Odu Ifa, and
*Odu-to-da-iwa*(Oduduwa) with "
*odu*" meaning "fullness" and "totality" also points to another important
heritage in Yoruba culture and history. It is sufficient to say here that
the Yoruba conception of totality and fullness, in contradistinction to the
ambivalence inherent in "*Orun lo me ni ti o la*", signals a permanent and
fundamental essence in the culture that predisposes the people towards a
constant and perhaps unachievable fullness and totality. I will like to
suggest that this is what makes the Yoruba society a permanent
work-in-progress and, when appropriated in present times, makes the people
one of the biggest, if not the biggest, African ethnic-nationality where the
search and struggle for a better life is a fundamental, critical and
unending project - even where the larger postcolonial state, such as
Nigeria, remains sick and sickening. Therefore, when others say that the
Yoruba people, in the context of Nigeria, are "noise-makers" or
"trouble-makers" in the struggle to make Nigeria a better country, they are
missing the element in Yoruba history and culture; that is *odu -* which
conditions the Yoruba to a permanent striving to achieve fullness and
totality, even while foreswearing extremism and fundamentalism. Americans
call this, "to make a more perfect union".
Another significant thing about this book, as hinted in the chapter on
the old Yoruba Diaspora in the Americas, is perhaps to remind the Yoruba of
the duties they owe to the black race. As one of the largest
ethnic-nationalities in Africa, one with the strongest surviving culture in
the Diaspora, and one of the most progressive in the embrace of modernity,
the Yoruba past will be immaterial if it does not constitute a pedestal and
a resource which can be mobilized in the service of the historic task of
confronting the worst collective racial destiny imposed on any race in human
history. If we point to a rich past, it must be toward ensuring a richer
future.
As some of the greatest story-tellers have alerted us, and as *A
History of the Yoruba People* again proves to us, when all the wars have
been fought, when all the artilleries of fire and doom have been deployed,
when all the struggles for good and against evil have been accomplished,
when the powerful have destroyed all that is in sight and the powerless have
suffered the consequences, it is the story, the narrative, consecrated as
history, that
survives us all. As they say in our culture, *ba gbon bi ifa,
ba mon pi opele*, a hundred years hence or more, there will be some
narratives that will sum up everybody's role in this age. The accomplished
thief of the people's vote and those who were robbed of their mandate, no
one will be robbed of his or her place in history, for good or for ill, and
no event will be obliterated, eventually, by history - particularly, in this
age of boundless communication.
Finally, the question that this book gently reminds us of, like
History itself, is this: when generations yet unborn, say in a hundred or
two hundred years from now, read the narratives of this era of disappearing
hope and expanding hopelessness, an age when the Yoruba history of cultural
honour has been so bastardized such that the fastest and most secure way to
be called "honourable" today is to be endlessly dishonourable, what will
history say of your role, what will it say of mine?
I thank you for your attention.
- *Adebanwi is an Assistant Professor, African American and African
Studies, University of California, Davis, CA, USA. Email: **
ba mon pi opele*, a hundred years hence or more, there will be some
narratives that will sum up everybody's role in this age. The accomplished
thief of the people's vote and those who were robbed of their mandate, no
one will be robbed of his or her place in history, for good or for ill, and
no event will be obliterated, eventually, by history - particularly, in this
age of boundless communication.
Finally, the question that this book gently reminds us of, like
History itself, is this: when generations yet unborn, say in a hundred or
two hundred years from now, read the narratives of this era of disappearing
hope and expanding hopelessness, an age when the Yoruba history of cultural
honour has been so bastardized such that the fastest and most secure way to
be called "honourable" today is to be endlessly dishonourable, what will
history say of your role, what will it say of mine?
I thank you for your attention.
- *Adebanwi is an Assistant Professor, African American and African
Studies, University of California, Davis, CA, USA. Email: **
[image: A History of the Yoruba
People]<http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/images/2359260057/sr=8-1/qid=1271395463/ref=dp_image_0?ie=UTF8&n=283155&s=books&qid=1271395463&sr=8-1>
http://www.amazon.com/History-Yoruba-Stephen-Adebanji-Akintoye/dp/2359260057/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1271395463&sr=8-1
___________________________
--
Toyin Falola
Department of History
The University of Texas at Austin
1 University Station
Austin, TX 78712-0220
USA
512 475 7224
512 475 7222 (fax)
http://www.toyinfalola.com/
www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa
http://groups.google.com/group/yorubaaffairs
http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Department of History
The University of Texas at Austin
1 University Station
Austin, TX 78712-0220
USA
512 475 7224
512 475 7222 (fax)
http://www.toyinfalola.com/
www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa
http://groups.google.com/group/yorubaaffairs
http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Yoruba Affairs" group.
To post to this group, send email to yoruba...@googlegroups.com.
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to yorubaaffair...@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/yorubaaffairs?hl=en.
Reply all
Reply to author
Forward
0 new messages