Oduduwa: Myths And Narratives As History (1)

By Okpame Oronsaye

The story of Ododuwa by many essayists and scholars of African art history and history comes in different flavours and styles. One of these narratives claims Ododuwa was the son of Olodumare, a Yoruba(**)deity and the king of the sky or heavens. The assertion is that Olodumare sent Ododuwa from his domain in heaven to create the world. Oduduwa had a cockerel, a handful of sand and a palm nut and sixteen lesser deities (or four hundred according to one other version) were let down from heaven by an iron chain to the exact spot today known as Ile-Ife. On arrival on earth, Ododuwa and his companions found the area was waterlogged. So Ododuwa threw the handful of sand over the water surface, and then the cockerel scattered sand grains, and the place became dry land. Then, he planted the palm nut, which grew into a palm tree with sixteen branches. Each palm tree branch is said to represent each of the sixteen crowned heads of the Yoruba people. The belief is that Ile Ife is the cradle of civilization. One other narrative asserts that Ododuwa was the son of King Lamorodu, said to be a king of Mecca. Ododuwa and his followers were expelled from Mecca for idol worshipping. A third variant of the story claims that Ododuwa was a fugitive prince from an unnamed city-state or kingdom ‘East’ of Ile-Ife.
Several Yoruba historians and scholars investigated the possibility that the fugitive or celestial Ododuwa was the founder of Ile-Ife and the progenitor of all Yoruba kings. These include Professor Bolaji Idowu (_Olodumare Bibliography_), Bose Emmanuel (_Odun Ifa-Ifa Festival_), Dr Isaac Adaegbo Akinjogbin (_Yorubaland before Oduduwa_) and Dr Isola Olomola (_Eastern Yoruba before Oduduwa_). They have essentially enquired whether Ododuwa was a historical or mythological person.
Dr Isaac Adaegbo Akinjogbin argued that probably the alleged descent of Ododuwa from heaven was culled from the mythology of the pre-Ododuwa inhabitants of Ile-Ife. He believed that the fugitive Oduduwa, whether from Mecca or an eastern kingdom, did not establish Ile-Ife but perhaps arrived in the city-state during the last days of the Obalata epoch. Dr Isola Olomola also dismissed the argument that Ododuwa, celestial or fugitive, founded Ile-Ife and was the father of all Yoruba kings. He believed that the arrival of Oduduwa in Ile-Ife was an isolated event that did not affect the entire area now known as Yorubaland. Professor Bolaji Idowu also argued that Ododuwa did not establish Ile-Ife. He maintained that when Oduduwa arrived in Ile-Ife, there was already a community of aboriginal people. Indeed, there are many communities in what is now known as Yoruba land, such as Oba-Ile near Akure, and Ijamo and Idoko people of Ondo state, including the Oba Igbomina and Igbo-Idaisa in the present-day Republic of Benin, whose creation story is at variance with the popular Ododuwa’s descent-from-the-sky version. The Ijebu claim they migrated from Wadai and had nothing to do with Ile-Ife or Oduduwa.
Although these writers did not ascertain Ododuwa’s origin, the descent-from-the-sky postulation became the standard and accepted story. Western scholars of African art history and history such as P.A. Talbot, William and Bernard Fagg, Frank Willett, Ms Blackmun, Paula Amos ,Kathy Curnow, Kate Ezra, Laure Meyer etc also promoted the postulation and claimed that Ododuwa was a god.
Then, on April 29, 2004, the Benin king, Omo N’Oba Erediauwa, publicly launched a book, _I Remain, Sir, Your Obedient Servant_. In chapter 36 of the book, the Benin king claimed that Ododuwa was Ekaladerhan, an Edo fugitive prince from Benin City. He further said that Ododuwa was neither the founder of Ile-Ife nor the progenitor of all Yoruba kings. He wrote,
*..it is historically wrong to describe Odua or Oduduwa as “father and progenitor of the Yoruba kings.*
*That Oduduwa could not have been the father of Yoruba kings or founder of Yoruba race, as modern Yoruba historians now put it, is also borne out of the fact that the Ife account itself has it that there were five rulers in Ife before the advent of Oduduwa*
Many Yoruba writers, historians and kings reacted furiously to the claim and clamoured for the removal of the book from circulation. They argued that Oba Erediauwa was not a ‘trained’ historian thus not competent to write about Ododuwa’s origin. The Ooni of Ile-Ife, Ooni Okunade Sijuwade Olubuse II, accused Omo N’Oba Erediauwa of attempting to re-write Yoruba history saying. The Ooni said,
It is just right to allow the entire world to know that the name Ododuwa, the founder of our dynasty, can never be corrupted or bastardised by any living being in an attempt to create for himself an unnecessary distortion of historical fact…Oduduwa, the legend, the father of the bigger Yoruba dynasty, has no connection whatsoever with the Ogiso dynasty in Benin history as portrayed by the Oba of Benin because Oduduwa descended directly from heaven through a chain to where is now known as Ife today in the company of 400 deities.
It was like the Yoruba scholars, historians and kings, especially Ooni Okunade Sijuwade Olubuse II, were hearing the Edo view of Ododuwa’s origin and the Benin/Ile-Ife relationship for the first time. In 1960, the Enogie of Obazuwa, Enogie Edun Akenzua (then a journalist), published an article, _A Bini View,_ in the Nigeria Journal of June 1960. It was the Edo perspective of Ododuwa’s origin. Then, in 1973, Oba Erediauwa, then Prince Solomon Igbinoghodua Akenzua, reiterated this Edo perspective in a lecture to the Benin Museum Society in Lagos, Nigeria. Again, in 1982, during his nationwide Thank-You- Tour after his coronation in 1979, the Benin king repeated the Edo viewpoint about Ododuwa and the Benin/Ile-Ife link on the occasion of his visit to Ile-Ife. Actually, it was the Ooni of Ile-Ife, Ooni Okunade Sijuwade, Olubuse II, who had raised the subject matter in his welcome address. Once again, in 1984, Oba Erediauwa reiterated the Edo view in a lecture, _The Evolution of Traditional Rulership in Nigeria_, which he gave at the Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan, Nigeria. The Benin king among other things, said,
We in Benin believe, and there are historical landmarks for such belief, that the person whom the Yorubas call Ododua was the fugitive Prince Ekaladerhan, son of the last Ogiso of Benin by name Ogiso Owodo…
Seemingly, the high-profile launching of the book, which brought to light the information mainstream art historians and historians had hitherto called ‘abuse of oral tradition’, frightened the Yoruba scholars, historians and kings. Naturally, there was a lot of mud-slinging as Edo and Yoruba essayists, scholars, and writers presented their “facts” about Ododuwa and the Benin/Ile-Ife relationship. Many Yoruba essayists, scholars and writers stuck to the contention of the Ooni of Ile-Ife that Ododuwa descended directly from heaven, created the world and started civilisation in Ile-Ife in the 10th century. In support of the Ooni, Dr Siyan Oyeweso, a professor of history, of the Lagos State University asserted,
“… The origin of the Yoruba people started in Ife, the cradle of Yoruba, the Orisu, the word that cannot be translated, which is believed to be their own Garden of Eden. The identity of Oduduwa is not so much in doubt. It is agreed by historians of all persuasions that the ancestor of the Yoruba is Oduduwa. According to the Yoruba belief system, Oduduwa was sent from Heaven through a chain and landed in Ife”.
Eventually, credible facts began to emerge from the archives. The Eleko of Eko, Oba of Lagos, Eleko Rilwanu Aremu Akilolu threw his weight behind Omo N’Oba Erediauwa’s view, insisting that Oduduwa was the exiled Prince Ekaladerhan from Benin kingdom. According to a newspaper report,
The Oba of Lagos, Rilwanu Aremu Aklolu I yesterday joined the ongoing controversy between Oba Okunade Sijuwade Olubuse II and his Benin counterpart, Omo N’Oba Erediauwa, weighing in on the side of the Benin monarch that Qduduwa, was an escapee Prince Ekaladerhan from Benin kingdom.
Then on May 9 2004, a columnist of the Sunday Vanguard, one leading Nigeria Newspaper, KoIa Animasaun, wrote,
The keeper of the soul of the Yoruba nation, Ooni, the Oluaye said his ancestors descended from heaven. Not many of us believe that tale. No one descends from heaven but angels and you cannot see them. Is he (the Ooni) in the proper position to authenticate Yoruba history? I do not think so.
Then shortly afterwards, an article, _Yoruba and Benin Kingdoms: The missing gap of history_, appeared in the Thursday, May 20 2004, issue of the _Vanguard_, a sister publication of the _Sunday Vanguard_. The writer, Kunle Sowunmi, argued that the celestial origin of Ododuwa was propaganda created in the 1950s by the Egbe Omo Oduduwa, the Yoruba association, which eventually metamorphosed into the Action Group political party. Sowunmi also contended that the Ooni of Ile-Ife was not a descendant of Ododuwa but a priest. He further claimed that the Ooni was the custodian of the tombs of Ododuwa and Ododuwa’s descendants.
As the myths and tales about Ododuwa and the Benin /Ile-Ife link, created by 20th-century scholars of African art history and history, were slowly debunked, it dawned on many Yoruba historians, kings and writers that their views and arguments (based on the descent-from-the-sky version and migrations from Mecca) were no longer tenable.
Some Yoruba historians called for more studies on the subject matter to resolve the controversy. A historian of the University of Lagos, Professor Hakeem Haruna, called on all historians and writers interested in the origins and migration of the Yoruba people to find out whether there were pieces of evidence in Ile-Ife that were similar to that Oba Erediauwa had raised. He wrote:
The position by the Oba of Benin to me poses a challenge to all professional historians interested in subject of origins and migration of our people to go into the field and do further research on the subject along the subject articulated by the Oba of Benin to see whether there exists similar evidence in Benin and lfe-tie that will corroborate what the Oba has said as well find out if there are evidences that controvert the new position. Or that which may dismiss the subsisting theory of lfe Origin of the Benin dynasty and then assert and propagate the new position on the subject by the Oba of Benin. Until such a research is done, It may be difficult for any historian to take a position on the subject. He argued that such research would either strengthen the existing theory of the Ile-Ife origin of the Benin dynasty or affirm the Benin king’s new position on the subject.
Consequently, the Yoruba Elders Council mandated Emeritus Professor Ade Ajayi to set up a Committee to carry out further studies and research into the origin of Ododuwa and the Yoruba people.

Note
According to Michael Crowder, _Story of Nigeria_ prior to the nineteenth century there was no one common term for the people now known as Yoruba. The word Yoruba he claims is a corruption of Yaboo, the dialect of the Oyo people, by CMS European missionaries . Prior to the 20th century the Ilaje, Ijebu, Egba, Ijesha, Awori, Egun, Oyo, Ondo, Akoko, Akpe, Akure and Ekiti peoples never referred to themselves Yoruba and neither did they in their folktales ever subscribed to an ancient pre-Ododua Yoruba Empire with a presumed capital at Ile-Ife. The Edo people referred to the Oyo people as _Olukumi_, Akure as _Ekue_ and Ekiti as _Ekhiri_. Akure and Ekiti had been colonies of Benin since about the 16th century and there were a large number of Edo merchants and settlers (_Edo N’ Ekue_) that were concentrated in Ado Ekiti and Ado Akure until 1917. The Ondo people were known as Emwan N’Udo(Udo fugitives) while the Ikale(_Eko Alile_) and Akotogbo(_Ago Otobo_ Otobo’s camp) people and other migrant from Benin City that intermarried with the indigenous people were known as Iyanha. Alile and Otobo were Edo war chieftains during the Benin/Udo wars.
In the _Encyclopedia of the Yoruba_ by Professor Toyin Falola and Professor Akintunde Akinyemi, the Term or Word Yoruba is claimed to be a creation of European Missionaries and in the middle of the 19th Century. It was given to the ethnic groups in today South West Nigeria who spoke various dialects of the same language.