Category: History – General
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Sodeke was the founder of Abeokuta; the third Seriki of the Egba people who led them away from their several villages to the new place of relative safety. Sodeke was a king in every respect but in name. His happy reception of the British missionary, Henry Townsend, in 1843, is considered to be foresighted. He…
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Adeniji Adele became Oba of Lagos in 1949 but was not ceremonially installed till another three years. Musendiku Adeniji Adele was a well-travelled monarch. Before he ascended the throne, he was a surveyor and he worked for the Royal Engineers Service at Cameroon in 1915. Adeniji served at the treasury department and the National secretariat.…
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Vlekete market, named after a local deity, is located in the heart of Badagry town at the western coast of Nigeria. Vlekete is the major and the most popular slave market in the region. The trade in humans was held in Vlekete every five days, with slaves been brought mostly from Oyo, Egba land, Egbado,…
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Ajagbo was Alaafin of Oyo who ruled the longest. The length of his reign contrasted sharply with most of his close successors. Ajagbo’s love for martial planning led him to create a special office, the Aare Ona Kakanfo, to be occupied by the most accomplished soldier in the empire. He made his friend from Iwoye, Kokoro…
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History of the Yorubas is a book of history by Samuel Johnson, covering the earliest times of Oduduwa to the beginning of the British protectorate. Although the writing of Yoruba history dates back to the late 19th Century and many Yoruba sub-groups also have their own oral histories and chronicles, Johnson’s account was naturally attended…
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Oduduwa is the eponymous founder and ancestor of the Yoruba race. Both titles attributed to him, however, appear not to be literal. The most plausible representation of him is of a Prince installed by, or aligned with the Byzantine imperial powers, who fled to West Africa due to a major religious strife between Chalcedonian Catholics…