Category: History – General
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Owu is an ethnic Yoruba subgroup popularly known as one of the four arms of the Egba by virtue of its historical association with the latter especially since 1834 when they arrived in Abeokuta after a devastating war. Tension had grown between Owu and neighbors, firstly, Ife, whose Apomu market town they confiscated in c.1810, and Ijebu,…
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Ajiboyede was the last Alaafin to be buried at Oyo Igoho, the city Eguguoju intended as capital of the Oyo Empire. He initiated preparations for the return to the old capital. Ajiboyede was successful as king but he became increasingly unpopular towards the end of his long reign. It was during his rule that the…
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Samuel Johnson was an historian and Anglican minister known for his authorship of the standard reference for the History of the Yorubas. Born in 1846 to Yoruba Sierra Leonean returnees in the lineage of the one of the Alaafin of the Oyo Empire, Abiodun. The Johnsons moved to Ibadan when Samuel was eleven years old. Three…
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Ibikunle-Akitoye was the first Christian Oba of Lagos (not to be mistaken for Akitoye who had a dispute with Kosoko). He was installed in 1925 upon the deposition of Eleko of Eko, Esugbayi, whose anti-British stance was commonly known. As was the norm in Yoruba communities, the Oba council quickly elected Ibikunle-Akitoye in place of…
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Sango; the Yoruba god of thunder and lightning, and the fiendish Alaafin of Old Oyo, the era of whom the popular Yoruba chant, Kabiyesi, meaning “He who is answerable to no one,” is probably originated. The practicability of the Kabiyesi chant was ironically put to test a few times in Shango’s reign, but not without…
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Slavery, the forcible commodification and holding of humans for the provision of labor lasted for about 350 years. While it did, about 12.4 million Africans were transported to the Americas to the benefit of the plantation societies there. During the reign of Obalokun Agana Erin, Alaafin of the Oyo Empire, it was recorded that the Alaafin…
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Owiwi Battle was an historical military engagement of the Egba and Ijebu resulting in the defeat of the latter. The battle of Owiwi emanated from the rancor between the newly settled Egba people of Abeokuta and the people of Ijebu Remo. Ijebu villages gathered immediately after the withdrawal of Egba victorious army to avenge their…
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Okukenu was the first Alake in Abeokuta. Okukenu as an Egba noble (of the Eso military class) had earlier led other chiefs in addressing a petition to Queen Victoria of England requesting assistance in ending slave trade. This petition was replied in March 1849 with the Queen’s recommendation of the Christian religion as a means…
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Akitoye was the British protégé Oba of Lagos who signed an anti-slavery treaty with the Lagos Consulate in 1852. He was one of the sons of Ologun-Kutere, who was the favored son of Oba Akinsemoyin’s sister, Erelu Kuti. Akitoye’s first ascension to the throne was in 1841 but he was sacked by his nephew, Kosoko…
