Category: Culture
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Oyo in pre-annexation times, have had its people organized into a complex, highly structured society, having rules and unwritten constitutions. Had the British met them in this state, they would have marveled on how this people, considered to have lived in the Dark Continent could have evolved a system so pragmatic. The truth lives one…
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Ooni is the title of the occupier of the Oba of Ile-Ife town; mother town of the Yoruba people. The Ooni is taken as the direct descendant of Oduduwa, who was the first suzerain of the people. In Samuel Johnson’s varied account, the title was originated from Adimu, who was a servant of Oduduwa. In any…
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Oba is the Yoruba traditional title meaning “King”. The head of a town might be an Oba (crowned head) if descended from an Ooni of Ife, regarded in ancient times as the spiritual head of the Yorubas. Otherwise they are called Baale (headman). Usually, the first Oba for each town was a migrant who left…
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Alaafin is the title for the traditional ruler, or Oba of Oyo town, whose authority from the fifteenth to the seventeenth century extended to great parts of the western Yoruba territory of old. For over a hundred years, starting from the early 18th Century, the Alaafins employed their great names and aura in upholding order…
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Aare Ona Kakanfo is an exclusive Yoruba traditional title, historically the field marshal of the Oyo Empire. Holders of this title were war viceroys valued as the most powerful and revered among the warriors. The title in the times of the Oyo empire was usually conferred by the Alaafin on the greatest soldier and tactician of the…
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Folake Folarin-Coker is a Nigerian fashion designer with creations characterized by sensual shapes, rich fabric and exquisite detail. Born in Lagos, Folake schooled in Switzerland, England and Scotland; then relocated to Nigeria in 1998 to become a lawyer. She has also, a masters degree in petroleum law. In 1998, she plunged into a hardly existing…