Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Contesting Yoruba History

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OLAYINKA AGBETUYI

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Feb 19, 2020, 10:00:28 AM2/19/20
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As I may have mentioned on this forum before the mix up between Igbo/ Ùgbò  and Ibo is the direct consequence of the drama staged by Dúró Ládipò in the 1960s (which I translated into English as Moremi the Courage of Motherhood) Interestingly the Olúgbò has in the past contested the popular and politicised Móremí story and as I asserted in the past dialectology is key to resolving the politics of the story.  

That the current Oòni belongs to my generation explains why he  may have been taken in by politicised presentation of that drama which was recorded and whose lyric was perennially played in the AG controlled WNBS radio station.

The politics of the production meant that Ugbo the actual kingdom  against whom Ilé Ife fought in Yorùbá mythic times was deliberately changed to Igbo (which is the real name of  the Ibo) hence Ile- Ife's historic victory over the Ugbo (Ugbo is the northern Yoruba original pronunciation of what Oyo central dialect MIGHT pronounce as Igbo but Ile - Ife tongue is not Oyo Central promoted by the coloinialists as formal Yoruba orthography)

As it were Duro Ladipo produced that version in the service of the ruling Action Group in the West to help buttress their claim against rival N.C.NC. whose leader was Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe of Igbo extraction.  The slant in the story was to reinforce in the Yoruba mind that the Yoruba had a contest against the Igbo of eastern Nigeria in the mythic past which they won with the aid of the heroine  Moremi as a result of which in the resolution there was forgiveness of Igbo transgression and incursions into Ife territory and the Igbo were then given a permanent quarter in Ile-Ife.

This version was the figment of the imagination of the dramatist Dúró Ládipò for political purposes.  No such encounter ever happened between the Igbo of eastern Nigeria and Ile- Ife. For the Igbo to come to Ile- Ife in those mythic times as the Civil War demonstrated later they would have had to come through Benin and Ekiti country and they would have been stopped well  before reaching Ile- Ife.  

The antagonists of Ife Kingdom were the Yoruba Ugbo kingdom  and not eastern Nigeria  Igbo.  Duro Ladipo only deliberately employed dialectical word play to convey a political message in the service of the ruling AG political party in the Western Region to reinforce how the AG would wrest total control of the West from the rival  NCNC which had a measure of control in the region, a goal which was ultimately achieved in the carpet crossing episode  where NCNC House members crossed to the AG side.

That part of the Court of the current Ooni still holds on to that fictitious version demonstrates the power of the theatre as a tool for political change.  Duro Ladipo complemented Hubert Ogunde in this use of theatre as political tool.

OAA



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-------- Original message --------
From: Toyin Falola <toyin...@austin.utexas.edu>
Date: 19/02/2020 11:56 (GMT+00:00)
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Contesting Yoruba History

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Salimonu Kadiri

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Feb 22, 2020, 11:26:44 AM2/22/20
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​We all know that the Yoruba language consists of various dialects but irrespective of the dialect spoken anywhere in the world, Yoruba people of all dialects still understand one another. Of all the dialects in Yoruba land, Oyo dialect is the acceptable Yoruba standard language and this is confirmed by D.O. Fágúnwã in his Yoruba books even though he was an Ondo person where a different dialect of Yoruba language is spoken. A study of Yoruba language will show that certain words which are spelled in the same way can mean different things depending on the accents and the vowel points placed above or below the consonants. The Õni of Ifè must have been overzealous in his effort to build a friendly bridge between the Yoruba people of the Southwest and our Igbo brethren of the Southeast when he equated Ùgbò to Igbo people.

The word *IGBO* as the ethnic identity of the people of the Southeast of Nigeria evolved after the civil war that ended 15 January 1970. Before then the ethnicity of the people in that part of Nigeria was known as *IBO* which some historians said evolved from *EBOE.* The Kingdom of *ÙGBÒ* is thousand of years older than the ethnic name *IGBO* which linguistically does not have the same meaning. In Ondo and Ekiti States, including Ilesha and Ifè, the alphabet 'i' at the beginning of a word is always replaced with the alphabet 'u'. Thus, and for instance, in the aforementioned areas of Yorubaland the word *IYÌ* in Oyo Yoruba dialect, which means honour, is written and pronounced *UYI.* It must, therefore, be misleading and erroneous to equate the ethnic identity of the word *IGBO* to the spelling of the same word in Yoruba which actually connotes various meanings. Consider the followings : IGBÓ is a Yoruba word for 'forest' and a marijuana or weed smoker is called in Yoruba language AMUGBÓ, a misleading and comfortable substitution for a weed (grass) smoker, AMU-KÓRIKÓ; a person derogatively  referred to as a bushman in Yoruba language is called ARÁ-INÚ-IGBÓ; ÌGBÒ is a Yoruba word for head-fight as it may occur within two rams; and ÌGBÓ is a type of vegetable used in making soup in Yoruba land. Identical words in two different languages for most parts do not always convey the same meaning. However, because of our long association together in the same geographical environment there are words which we share in common with our Igbo brethren that connote the same or almost the same meanings. I have personal experience of this.

​At the height of Nnamdi Kanu IPOB's activities, I encountered an Igbo brother who agitatedly told me that the origin of the Igbo was the ancient Israel with lineage to *ERI* the fifth son of *GAD* who was the seventh son of *JACOB* the youngest son of *ISAAC* who was the son of *ABRAHAM*. In that case, I told him that there must be many Hebrew words in Igbo language and I urged him to give me some examples. He failed to get a single word in Igbo that is related or similar to Hebrew. However, we came to understand that Yoruba and Igbo are closely related when similarities of certain words in the two languages are examined. The word nose in English is called IMI in Igbo which is IMU in Yoruba; the arm in Igbo is called AKA, which is APA in Yoruba; the ear in Igbo is called NTI, while the Yoruba call it ETI; the mouth in Igbo is called ONU, while the Yoruba name it ENU; the jaw in Igbo is called AGBA, while the Yoruba name it ÀGBÒN; an elephant in Igbo is called ENYI, while the Yoruba name it ERIN; a goat in Igbo is called EWU, while the Yoruba name it EWURE; a cock in Igbo is called OKUKO while the Yoruba name it AKÙKÓ; and the traditional masquerade in Igbo is called EGWUGWU, while the Yoruba name it EGÚNGÚN. The linguistic affinity binding the Yoruba and Igbo people together can be made stronger if we care more about similarities than dissimilarities. In doing that we don't need to engage in embellishment and distortion of history as the Õni of Ifè has done by equating ÙGBÒ to IGBO.
S. Kadiri       

​ 


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Ibrahim Abdullah

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Feb 22, 2020, 11:33:11 AM2/22/20
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Yoruba is a tonal language!!! 

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On 22 Feb 2020, at 4:26 PM, Salimonu Kadiri <ogunl...@hotmail.com> wrote:


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