The story of the relationship between the people known as the EDOS and the YORUBAS have been discussed in different format on many occasions. For many years, the Obas of Benin and the Oonis of Ife have maintained their silence, leaving academicians and politicians to argue it out among themselves.
But for the first time in the history of these two ruling houses, they have started talking about the history of the relationship between the
two traditional rulers. From Prince Edun Akenzuas speech. you can hear the
traditional rulers say it as they know it. Omo n’ Oba n’ Edo, Uku Akpolokpolo, Oba Erediuwa’s recently published book have again restated what most scholars have been trying to say all these years. The publication of the speech and this new book would help most researchers in understanding the fact that, there are two oral traditions about the man called the ODUDUWA OF ILE-IFE. Both traditions exists in theYoruba land and Edo land.
A good examination will show some similarities and dissimilarities. But unfortunately, most Yoruba writers who have been in the fore front of writing about this subject, tended to do it as if no other tradition existed. Whlie many have been looking for the track left behind by Oduduwa’s soldiers, as they marched to conquer the EDOS, some have merely described the EDOS as sub-branch of the Yoruba ethnic group.
But of all yoruba academicians, only one of them came close to unearthing the personality of the man, called the ODUDUWA of Yoruba land.
👉👉PROFESSOR BOLAJI IDOWU 👇
The writer was Rev. Professor Bolaji Idowu, former head of the Department of Religious Studies, University of Ibadan, Nigeria AND fomer head of the Methodist Mission in Nigeria in his book,” OLODUMARE.”
He wrote: “From what we are able to gather from research work on the early history of the Yoruba, we learn that the personage tho has been given the name ODUDUWA was the powerful leader whom the nucleus of a strand of the present Yoruba race migrated into this land from their original home.It is not certain what his original name was; but it could not have been Oduduwa….But during the course of history, his figure has become wrapped in legend to the extent that we can now dimly discern the concrete outlines of the original..
We learn from oral traditions that when Oduduwa arrived in Ile-Ife, there
was already a community of aboriginal people under the headship of ORELUERE”
The Edo people have always argued, that Ekaladerhan changed his name to what is known today as Oduduwa for security reasons. He has just escaped execution at the hands of his own people by God’s providence. In Benin City and all over Edo-speaking world of today, ODUWA-path to progress, is a very active word. if you add the following prefix of IZ, ID, you have the following names-IDODUWA, IZODUWA-all active Edo names. Then you also have OGHODUWA/OGHODUA-an attribute or the name of the almighty God, the creator of the universe or IGHODUWA- I saw the path of progress.
OKODUWA is a very active names among the Esans (Ishan) And depending on which dialect of the Edo group you are translating from, it could mean (a) Idoduwa-I have bought /missed the path of progress. (b) Izoduwa-I have chosen the path of progress. When you add all of the above, including Bolaji Idowu quotation, to the the following statements credited to the Yoruba tradition about Oduduwa:
1) The man Oduduwa trekked form Mecca or somewhere from the Middlle East in 90 days (North-East) (This is an impossible feat, but Igodomigodo-ancient Benin City is East of Uhe-modern Ile-Ife)
2) He stoped only once to rest at OGHO modern Owo town in Ondo state of Nigeria (Ogho/Owo is a half way house for a man running away from some pursuers from Benin City. It is about 70 miles from Benin City and almost the same distance to Ile-Ife. Owo was on the fringe of the ancient Benin Kingdom. A run away Benin prince will certainly keep moving until he gets to a place where his identity can not be revealed. Ogho is the Edo name for the city. Owo was part and parcel of the ancient Benin/Edo Empire. The legendary ASORO of the Benin
Massacre of 1897 was an Owo crown prince )
3) Oduduwa came from the sky in a chain ladder OGISO means king from or of the sky in Benin City. (Ogiso was the title of Ekaladerhan’s father-Ogiso Owodo of Igodomigodo It is
undestandable for Ekaladerhan would tell the people he met at Uhe, that he came from the
sky since that was what OGISO meant .
4) Oduduwa is the ancestor of the Yoruba race. What happened to ORELUERE, the leader of the aboriginal community that was at Uhe/Ile Ife? Did Oduduwa come to Ile-Ife alone? If not, what happened to his followers? What happened to the aboriginal community at Ile-Ife? Which of these names sounds yoruba (ANAGO)-Oreluere or Oduduwa
5) According to the Oni of Ife, Oranyan/Oronmiyan came to Benin in about 1190’s AD.This means that ODUDUWA came from the sky about 1100 AD. Is the Oni Ife saying the yoruba race began in the 1100’s AD?. Yoruba archeological history does not support such. suggestion.
6) It also mean that Ile-Ife did not have a monarchial institution until Oduduwa arrived there. 🔴The question then is, 🔴why would the Edo-speaking world with hundreds of years in monarchial experiment now appeal to an upstart monarchial institution for a king,if there were no prior relationship with the king? We are already aware that Rev. Samuel Johnson’s book, “The History of the Yorubas” was not only Oyo-centric but was heavily
influenced by European writers account of the history of the yorubas as
recounted to them by Sultan Bello of Sokoto and his men.
Therefore if you are an ife man or a Yoruba and you can’t counter these writings from Edos and some Yoruba professors since 1900Ad you may have to come to the conclusion that the Yoruba Oduduwa is
the same as Ekaladerhan Izoduwa of the Edos.
Note🔴👉The five elders in council (Edionisen)that went to lle ife to invite ekaladeran are still in Benin palace,the title still exist and the children of those people still sit on their fathers chair,that is the picture of the chieves below, the story behind the invitation earned the chief oliha -Ogele which is their morning salutation till date (lai-Ogele) the salutation wasn’t there until oduduwa’s exile.
For Bravo Plaques that said OBA Erediauwa was the first to write about the history of Ekaladeran,i told you so many professors from Benin had already written about it from the 50s and if you calculate the gap between the early Benin writers and that of MY OBA in 2003 it’s over 30 years,here are the BIBLIOGRAPHY of authors both from Yoruba and Benin ,you said i have no proof to any book, kindly read all these,you also said you have all history books, kindly counter these first writeup above if there’s a lie, your own Yoruba professors wrote it.
Aimiuwu,O.E.I., ODUDUWA, Nigerian magazine, nos 107-109,Dec/Aug. 1971
Aisien Ekhaguosa, BENIN CITY, The Edo state Capital.( Benin City) 1995.
Akenzua,Edun., BENIN 1897-Bini’s view.Nigeria, June 1960
Biobaku, S.O., THE ORIGINS OF YORUBA. University of Lagos , Yaba, Lagos. Nigeria. 1971.
Boisragon, A., THE BENIN MASSACRE ( LONDON) 1898
Bradbury, R.E., THE BENIN KINGDOM ( London )1957-Benin Studies ( london) 1973
DIVINE KINGSHIP IN BENIN.Nigerian Magazine. No. 62 1959
Egharevba , J.U., A SHORT HISTORY OF BENIN (Ibadan) 1960.
Home, Robert., CITY OF BLOD REVISITED. ( London ) 1982
Idowu, Rev. Bolaji, E., OLODUMARE :God in Yoruba Belief. Longmans. London 1962
-AFRICAN TRADITIONAL RELIGION. Orbis Books. New York 1973.
Igbafe, P.A., OBA OVONRAMWEN AND THE FALL OF BENIN. Tarikh, 1968.
-THE FALL OF BENIN, Journal of African History, 1970
-BENIN UNDER THE BRITISH ADMINISTRATION ( London) 1979
Iyi-Eweka, Ademola, THE DEVELOPMENT OF DRAMATIC FORMS IN IGUE FESTIVAL IN BENIN. M.A Thesis. University of Wisconsin, Madison 1977.
-THE DEVELOPMENT OF DRAMATIC FORMS IN BENIN. Ph.D Disertation .
Universityof Wisconsin, Madison. 1979 ISSERTATION,
Johnson, Rev.,Samuel, THE HISTORY OF THE YORUBAS
Roth, H.Ling, GREAT BENIN, ITS CUSTOMSART,AND HORRORS ( LONDON ) 1903
Ryder, A.F.C., BENIN AND THE EUROPEANS 1485-1897 ( LONDON) 1969
Talbot, P.A., THE PEOPLES OF SOUTHERN NIGERIA ( Oxford) 1926
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