Category: History – General
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Abraham Adesemowo was the Orimolusi of Ijebu Igbo under whose reign as the Oloja of Okeshopin, the town had its five quarters unified. Abraham’s status had been promoted right after his assumption of office in 1929 from his being a primus inter pares among other Baale of the town. Adesomowo often availed himself of higher…
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Ademuyiwa Haastrup was a flamboyant Lagos auctioneer and Local Methodist church preacher in Remo. Haastrup was an Ijesha prince with some maternal connections with Akarigbo Oyebajo. He was born to an Ifa priest in 1863 but was adopted as a child by Christians, hence his name, Joseph Pythagoras Haastrup. He later took a native name,…
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Abiodun was the Alaafin of Oyo who finally ended the tyranny of Basorun Gaha. Abiodun, also known as Adegolu was a tall, handsome, slim man of very dark complexion. The wise king showed no visible resentment of the infamous Basorun Gaa’s ways and he paid him homage without wearying. The cup of the Basorun’s iniquities…
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Lisabi is the traditional hero of the Egba people, who are the native occupiers of Abeokuta, a Yoruba town some 77 kilometers from Lagos. Lisabi was a giant man who lived in Igbehin but he was from another Egba village called Itoku. He conspired to achieve independence for the Egbas from the Alaafin of Oyo…
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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…