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The Alafin in Exile: A Study of the Igboho Period in Oyo History

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

Robert Smith
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During the reign of Alafin Onigbogi, probably in the early sixteenth century, the Oyo capital, Oyo-ile, was abandoned to the Nupe from across the Niger. It was reoccupied only after an exile lasting some three-quarters of a century. During their exile the Alafin settled at several places in the marches of Borgu and Yorubaland, and finally founded a new capital at Oyo-Igboho.

This essay, after referring to the oral traditions of the Yoruba on which it is mainly based, describes the withdrawal of the Oyo into Borgu and attempts to identify the various halting places of the Alafin. The traditions about the founding and settling of the new capital at Igboho under Egunoju, and the existing remains of the new capital, are examined, and then the reigns of the four Alafin of Oyo-Igboho. Under Orompoto (who may have been a woman) and Ajiboyede, military successes were scored against the Borgu and Nupe, and under Abipa the Alafin's internal authority was decisively asserted. The period seems to have been one of both military and constitutional reform, and the morale of the Oyo was further improved by the introduction of new forms of religion. Under Abipa the Oyo were able to return to their former capital, and in the succeeding reigns the kingdom began to expand until it became probably the most important of the Guinea States.

Tentative suggestions are made in the essay about the chronology of the period. In particular it is postulated that Oyo-ile was abandoned about 1535, Igboho founded about 1555 Oyo-ile reoccupied about 1610.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 6 , Issue 1 , March 1965 , pp. 57 - 77
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1965

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References

1 The legend of the foundation of Oyo is that when Oranyan was returning from a military expedition to the Nupe country he was advised by the King of Bussa (in Borgu) to follow a charmed serpent. This serpent disappeared at the foot of a hill called Ajaka, and here Oranyan built the town which he called ‘Oyo’, a ‘slippery place’. Under Shango, fourth or fifth Alafin, this town became capital of the northern Yoruba. Oyo-ile is sometimes called Oyo-Ajaka after a local hill, or Oyo-Egboro after a chief who was dispossessed here by Shango, as well as by the names given above. See Johnson, S., The History of the Yorubas, London, 1921, 11, 1960.Google Scholar

2 For a summary of the Yoruba myths of origin and their interpretation, as well as a description of the position and role of the Oba, see Lloyd, P. C., ‘Sacred Kingship and Government among the Yoruba’, Africa, XXX, 3, 07 1960.Google Scholar

3 The site, which is twenty miles from any motor road and ten miles from the nearest village, is deserted and overgrown. Some excavation was carried out by a small expedition in 1956–1957, for which see Willett, Frank, ‘Investigations at Old Oyo, 1956–57: an Interim Report’, Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria, vol. 2, no. 1 (1960), 59–77.Google Scholar

4 Bosman, W., A New and Accurate Description of the Coast of Guinea, 1705, describes in Letter XX what is almost certainly an invasion of Allada by the Oyo in 1698.Google Scholar For references to Oyo (‘Eyeo’) by Norris and Abson, see Hodgkin, T., Nigerian Perspectives, London, 1960, 167–72. Hodgkin dismisses (94, n. 1) Talbot's identification with the Alafin of ‘Licosaguou’ in the early-sixteenth-century Esmeraldo de Situ Orbis.Google Scholar

5 Johnson, , op. cit., 158–67, and Ojo, O. O. S., Bada of Shaki, Iwe Itan Oyo, Oyo, n.d., 46–51, describe the period of exile.Google Scholar

6 Lander, R. and Lander, J., Journal of an Expedition to Explore the Course and Termination of the Niger, 1838, 109–15;Google ScholarClarke, W. H., Travels and Explorations, 1854–1858, Library of the Southern Baptist Philological Seminary, U.S.A. (microfilmed typescript, University of Ife Library), 81–9.Google Scholar

7 The burial of the Alafin at Igboho within the walls of their palace is unusual, since at Oyo-ile and New Oyo they lie in a separate mausoleum, the Bara. At Oyo-ile the Bara is thought to be as much as eight miles from the Afin (Willett, op. cit., 60), while at New Oyo it is nearly a mile south-east of the Afin. The first Are at Igboho was one of the ilari (palace officials) who was sent back by the Alafin to Igboho after the return to Oyo-ile. The graves are propitiated by annual visits from the wives of the Igboho chiefs.

8 The site of the Aremoaa's palace is now the new market, and the Bashorun's compound was on the lgbope road where the police barracks stand.

9 For illustrations of the use of oral sources in Yoruba history, see Akinjogbin, I. A., ‘Enactment Ceremonies as a Source of Unwritten History’, Nigerian Institute of Social and Economic Research, Conference Proceedings, 1958. Akinjogbin considers enactment ceremonies to be the most reliable form of oral evidence.Google Scholar

10 The writer expresses gratitude to his informants and other helpers in Nigeria, especially His Highness the Alafin of Oyo (without whose recommendation his research would have been impossible) and the following: at Oyo, the Aremo (Chief S. Gbadegesin), the lyanaso and other wives of the late Alafin Ladigbolu I, the Ekerin (Chief S. A. Ogunmola), the Osisss'efa, the Alaro (Mr Eman, an aroken), Mr M. O. Oladimeji, Mr L. Ode, Mr E. O. Ayinde, Mr A. I. Fajogun; at lgboho, the Alepata, the Onigboho, the Onibode, the Bale lgbope, the Are, the Bale lyeye, the Akassa, the Banni, the Bale Molete, Mr S. A. Agoro; at Kishi, the Oba, the Ajana, the Dariagbon, the Agunba, members of the Atipa's family and of the Onigbogi family, the Shango priest at Koso and his household; at Shaki, the Bada; at Ogboro, the Onisebo and his chiefs; at Irawo, the Ajoriwin; at Aha, the Oloje; at Kniama, the Emir and Mallams Bakuru and Ali; at Okuta, the Kperogi; at Gwasero, the Sunabaki; from Gberegburu, Mr Solomon Adisa (the Bale), Mr Salami (the Balogun), Mr Tijani Esike; at Gbassero, Mr Kongo Woru (brother of the Oba); at Gberia, the Gberiaki and his family. His thanks are due also to his colleagues and students at the University of Ife, especially Mr David Adeniji, Research Assistant at the Institute of African Studies. His debt to the writings of the late Rev. Samuel Johnson and to the Bada of Shaki, Rev. O. O. S. Ojo, will be apparent throughout the essay.

11 Ifa is essentially a divination system in which the god Orunmila is approached through the Ifa priest (babalawo). The future is foretold and advice given either by casting an opele (consisting of eight palm nuts linked with beads), finger-printing on a whitened board as directed by the passing of palm nuts from the left to the right hand, or by arranging cowrie shells in a bowl. The results refer the priest to a vast body of odu, or oracular poetry. Ifa is supposed to derive from Ile-Ife. It is also practised in other parts of West Africa, for example, among the Jukun.

12 The Bada also alleges that the Nupe had until this time been subject to the Alafin, having been conquered by Oranyan (op. cit., z4, 46). But see n. 50 below.

13 For example, by Crowder, Michael, The Story of Nigeria, London, 1962, 52.Google Scholar

14 The Borgu kingdoms lie partly in the north of Dahomey and partly in the south-west of Nigeria's Northern Region. Despite their traditions of a common political origin, they are divided by language, one group (Boko or Bussawa) speaking a language of Mande origin, and the majority a Gur (or Voltaic) language. These kingdoms have been little studied, but for Nikki and the other western (Dahomey) Borgu States, see Lombard, J., ‘Un système politique traditionnel de type féodal, Les Bariba du Nord Dahomey’, in the Bulletin de l'Institut Français d'Afrique Noire, XIX, 1957Google Scholar and Cornevin, R., Histoire du Dahomey, Paris, 1962, Chap. V.Google Scholar For Bussa and Kaiama, see Hermon-Hodge, H. B., Gazeteer of Ilorin Province, London, 1929, 115–51,Google Scholar and Hogben, S. J., The Muhammadan Emirates of Nigeria, Oxford, 1930, 164–6. In the present essay the more familiar term ‘Borgu’ is used for both the people and the country instead of the Yoruba ‘Bariba’ or ‘Ibariba’.Google Scholar

15 An aroken at New Oyo claims that the sojourn at Gbere gave the name to the tall grass called bere and to the annual harvest festival at Oyo when bundles of this grass are brought to the Alafmn. See Johnson, , op. cit., 49–51, 54.Google Scholar

16 Gberegburu (alternatively ‘Gbereguru’) is situated on a path which at present is far from being motorable. The writer, who failed to reach it on foot from Gwasero in December 1964, was told that it consisted of some twenty huts and was entirely inhabited by Borgu with the exception of one haif-Yoruba family.

17 The Oyo armies consisted essentially of a seasonal militia, but the slaves of the military chiefs constituted a trained force approximating to a standing army. See Ajayi, J. F. Ade and Smith, Robert, Yoruba Warfare in the Nineteenth Century, Cambridge, 1964.Google Scholar

18 Notes in the files of the Yoruba Historical Research Scheme, now at the Institute of African Studies, University of Ife (Oyo/I). No confirmation of the Bada's account could be obtained from the present Oloje, who lives with his people at Aha, some ten and a half miles south-east of Shaki. The oriki of the Oloje does, however, refer to the reputation of the Oloje as a carver of wood for the Alafin.

19 For the magical origin of the Elenre stream, see Johnson, , op. cit., 152–4.Google Scholar The name of the Alafin buried at the Kishi Elenre was given as ‘Apanpa’, which cannot be identified with any Alafin known at New Oyo.

20 The Ajana, who, as advance guard to the Alafin, cleared the road; the Atipa, the killer of a chimpanzee which attempted to rape one of the Alafin's wives as she was drawing water; the Laha, who operated on the Alafin's side to cure a sickness; the Ajagun, a general of the Alafin; the Dariagbon, who cut off the heads of the Alafin's enemies, putting them in a basket. The present Ajana claims that his ancestors were previously independent rulers at Eha, near Oyo-ile, and then at a village some five miles from Kishi; the other chiefs at Kishi agree that their predecessors accompanied an Alafin there.

21 An informant at Igboho also spoke of the Alafin's having stayed en route at Kishi. Egunoju had met at Kishi a princess named Shiye Adaa, who had founded a settlement there, perhaps of refugees from Nupe raids. The name of the town is more properly Kirisi and, according to the same informant, derives from Egunoju's question to Shiye: Ibiti e kiri si niyi? (‘Is this where you shelter?’). There is still a quarter at Kishi named after Shiye. It is tempting to identify Shiye with Adasobo, but they are regarded in Kishi as distinct.

22 This information mainly derives from the Agunba, the priest of the sacred hill. The oriki of Adasobo begins picturequely: ‘When Ada left Oyo, the Ape tree was shedding its light…’ The coronation of the Oba of Kishi (who claims to be of Borgu descent) takes place at the shrine of Adasobo, which faces the market-place; it is performed by the Agunba. Lander, op. cit., 203, writes of Kishi: ‘In the centre of the town there is a high, stony hill, almost covered with trees of stunted growth, to which in case of invasion by an enemy, the inhabitants fly for refuge’, the hill being then borne supernaturally into the skies.

23 For example, the hereditary priest at the shrine of Shango in Koso at Kishi says that his family came there during ‘the Fulani war’. But there is a tendency to refer to all local wars as ‘the Fulani war’. Koso shrines are also found at New Oyo, where it is the place of the Alafins coronation, and at Igboho.

24 Clapperton, H., Journal of a Second Expedition into the Interior of Africa, London, 1829, 26–7;Google ScholarLander, , op. cit., 535–9. See also for these journeys, Allison, P., ‘The Last Days of Old Oyo’, Odu, no. 4, n.d.Google Scholar, and Bascom, W., ‘Lander's Routes through Yoruba Country’, The Nigerian Field, XXV/I, 01 1960.Google Scholar The last two fail to identify either Kusu or ‘Acboro’, two hours' ride farther east. The latter must be the present village of Ogboro, whose ruler, the Onisebo, gave the above account of Kusu. The Onisebo added that his ancestor, Adeniyi, had accompanied the Alafin from Borgu to Kusu, and had remained in Ogboro, when the Alafin moved to Igboho. His title was a corruption of Omisebo, referring to a miraculous torrent which Adeniyi caused to flow from the earth in a waterless place. The Onisebo gave the names of seventeen predecessors going back to Adeniyi.

25 For Aruigba's meeting with the Alado at the foot of the Ado hill, see Johnson, , op. Cit., 159.Google Scholar The Oke Ado, a prominent rocky peak south of Iseyin in the Oke Ogun region, rising to some thousand feet above the plain, became a well-known holy place of Ifa.

26 The Egungun is one of the most important of the Yoruba secret societies. It is largely concerned with ancestor worship. Since ancestor worship was apparently practised by nearly all African societies from early times, it seems likely that the introduction of Egungun among the Oyo amounted to an introduction of new rituals and forms rather than of new ideas and beliefs.

27 The private apartments of the Alafin in the Afin at New Oyo are also known as Aiyekale.

28 A custom observed at the funeral of an Alafin is believed to commemorate this episode. While the body is being carried to its burial place in the Bara, or royal mausoleum, the first-born son of the dead Alafin must leave the procession at a place called Okitigbangban and return to his house.

29 See n. 7.

30 The Bada of Shaki writes (op. cit., 49) that the Alafin and his people stayed in Igboho rather than return to Oyo-ile, because of their fear of the Nupe and Borgu and their consequent desire to be near the strong town of Shaki. This may have been a motive for the initial settlement, but Shaki (some twenty-eight miles distant) could hardly have afforded much protection to Igboho.

31 For the Esho titles, of which the Kakanfo was the highest, see Johnson, , op. cit., 73.Google Scholar

32 In the Igboho period two branches of the royal house of Oyo seem to have become recognized as equally capable of supplying candidates for the throne. These descended from the Ona-Ishokun, the third set of male twins born to Alafin Oluasho, of whom Onigbogi was presumably one. The present royal lines descend from Atiba, the Alafin who founded New Oyo. See Johnson, , op. cit., 41–2, 158.Google Scholar

33 Ibid., 174.

34 The three chief eunuchs of the palace at Oyo are known as the Iwefa or Iba-Afin, contracted to Baafin (in Johnson's agreeable translation, ‘lordlings of the palace’). The Osi'efa (‘deputy on the left hand’) is nominally the third in importance, but in fact it is to him that highest honour is paid. See Johnson, , op. cit., 59–60,Google Scholar and also Morton-Williams, P., ‘An Outline of the Cosmology and Cult Organization of the Oyo Yoruba’, Africa, XXXIV, 3, 07 1964.Google Scholar

35 It is conceivable that Islam had penetrated among the Nupe by the late sixteenth century, but the first Muslim Etsu (ruler) of the Nupe came to his throne only in the mid eighteenth century.

36 The name ‘Abipa’ is contracted from a bi si ipa—‘one born on the wayside’.

37 Abipa is also known as Ogbolu, nicknamed Akohun (‘the refuser’). The latter refers to his rebuke to the head slave, a Borgu named Bisa. The Alafin discovered that Bisa had aided the nobles in their plot to prevent the return to Oyo-ile. He summoned Bisa and told him that he had been chosen by his countrymen to succeed a recently dead king of Borgu on the throne. Bisa begged to be allowed to obey the summons, but Abipa refused his entreaties.

38 These and other ceremonies were allowed to lapse during the reign of the last Alafin, the late Adeyemi Adeniran (1944–56). They are now being revived, apparently in an attenuated form, by the present Oba. The enia orisha previously lived in a special building within the Afin; this has now fallen into ruin. The story of the ghosts has recently provided a plot for one of Duro Ladipo's folk operas.

39 Unlike Igboho and Kusu, Kogbaye seems not to have survived the Alafin's removal, and is not mentioned in the itineraries of Clapperton and the Landers. Traces of excavation for building material and of possible buildings can still, however, be seen in the bush here.

40 The first Alepata was a hunter named Ikuduu. As the Alafin approached the site of Igboho, one of his train called out: ‘Your majesty, look at that hunter chasing a speckled beast!’ (Kabiesi, e o ri ode kan ti o nle eranko to fin patapata lo!). Ikuduu then guided the royal party to the place where the Afin was later built, and by contraction from the courtier's words (patapata means ‘speckled’) he was later given the title ‘Alepata’. The Alepataa's nomination must still be approved by the Alafin, who sends a ceremonial cap which is placed on the Alepata's head by the Are. Another leading chief at Igboho is the Onibode, who was made responsible for the collection of the customs dues paid at the town gates; these were rendered to the Alafln, who returned a share to the Alepata. The first Onibode was leader of the Ikoyi, who had settled in Igboho. Johnson, (op. cit., 166)Google Scholar errs in saying that it was the Onibode who ‘became really the new Governor of the town’ on the Alafin's departure. In fact, the nine leading chiefs of Igboho rule their respective sections of the town in virtual independence, though recognizing the Alepata as primus inter pares.

41 The Borgu freed themselves from Oyo rule in 1783, the Nupe in 1790/91, and the Dahomey early in the nineteenth century (Akinjogbin, I. A., Dahomey and its Neighbours, 1708–1818, Ph.D. Thesis, London, 1963, Chaps. V and VI).Google Scholar This decline in the power of Oyo seems associated with a decline in the quality and numbers of their cavalry, which in turn may have derived from a dwindling in the caravan trade between Barbary and the West or Central Sudan, Bornu having been a great importer of horses from North Africa and the probable major source of the Oyo horses.

42 After Alafln Atiba's foundation of a new capital at Ago d'Oyo, the third Oyo, messengers were sent from Igboho to try to persuade Atiba to return to Oyo-ile. This was prompted by strange occurrences at Igboho which were regarded as of evil omen: according to an informant there, ‘pigs had intercourse with goats, ducks with hens, sheep with dogs’. Atiba refused to accede to the entreaties. He detained the messengers at New Oyo, where their descendants are still living.

43 Clarke, , op. cit., 83–9.Google Scholar Most informants at Igboho today stoutly deny that their town was ever taken or destroyed. Yet Clarke's evidence, gathered within twenty years of the events described, is more convincing.

44 Bada of Shaki, op. cit., 26,42–3. This took place during the reign of the Okere Aselebe in Shaki, for which the Bada gives the dates 1863 to 1867.

45 These dates were given in a paper read to the Historical Society of Nigeria in or about 1958. The writer has been unable to see a copy of this paper, but the references here derive from a personal communication by Mr Morton-Williams in December 1963 and from Crowder, M., op. cit., 48, 52.Google Scholar

46 Op. cit. (1963), Chaps. IV, V, and VI, and Appendix III.

47 Johnson, op. cit., Appendix B.

48 Nadel, , A Black Byzantium, Chap. VI and Appendix III; Kurt Krieger, Geschichte von Zamfara, 1950;Google ScholarVansina, J., ‘Recording the oral history of the Bakuba: II. Results’, Journal of African History, 1, 2 (1960), 258–9;Google ScholarParrinder, E. G., The Story of Ketu, 1956, Appendix.Google Scholar

49 The chiefs at Igboho, numbered from the first holder of their offices, are: (I) the Alepata (14th); (2) the Onigboho (18th); (3) the Onibode (14th); (4) the Bale Igbope (15th); (5) the Are (9th); (6) the Bale Iyeye (15th); (7) the Akassa (14th); (8) the Banni (14th); (9) the Bale Molete (16th). There is much less emphasis among these chiefs on the recollection and recitation of the names of predecessors than in the case of the Alafin or other more important rulers.

50 Op. cit., Chap. VI and Appendix III. Denis Williams considers that the bronzes at Jebba and Tada, which are said to have been brought by Tsoede from Idah, are unlikely to have been cast before 1600. But the association of the bronzes with Tsoede rests upon Nupe tradition alone. Nadel's dating is borne out at least approximately by a list of Nupe rulers and their lengths of reign in an anonymous Arabic MS., the Mas'alat Thudi (‘Account of Tsoede’), in the Kaduna Archives. But this dates only from the time of the Fulani jihad among the Nupe and it has been recently suggested (by Professor H. F. C. Smith at the Congress of the Historical Society of Nigeria in December 1964) that Tsoede's reign covered only the closing years of the sixteenth century. In this case the identification of Lajomo with Tsoede would still be feasible but Tsoede is unlikely to have led the invasion which caused the evacuation of Oyo-ile under Onigbogi.

51 Although there must have been considerable contact in early times between the Nupe and the Oyo, the Nupe seem to have no traditions about this. This may be due to a deliberate suppression of a relationship which at times involved subjection, and partly to the changes which occurred in Nupe when the line of Tsoede was superseded by Fulani rulers in the early nineteenth century.

52 For the foundation of Oyo-ile, Morton-Williams suggested, on the same basis of calculation as for his other dates, a date between 1388 and 1438. Taking an average reign as being 11.8 years, the foundation of Oyo-ile would seem to be about 1400 (forty-seven reigns) or 1460 (forty-two reignsJohnson's list, excluding regencies except for the doubtful case of Orompoto). But the exercise has a strong air of artificiality, and in any case it is maintained at New Oyo that names of many early Alafin have been forgotten, some because they were deposed and exiled, some because they died shamefully (like Oluodo, said to be the successor of Obalokun, and to have drowned in the Niger when pursued by the Nupe), and others because they descended from a female line and were later replaced by descendants in the male line; only those who die as Alafin may be buried in the Bars, and traditionally only their reigns are enumerated. In all, it is claimed at Oyo, the Alafin, numbering by convention from Oduduwa (though it would be more logical to do so from Oranyan), number seventy. This would give a foundation date by these calculations of C. 1100. The present writer's list of Alafin comprises forty-eight names, as against forty-three in Johnson's list brought up to date.

53 It can be argued that the trials of exile are as likely to make men tenacious in preserving their institutions and traditions as forgetful of them. The former will more probably be so when the institutions and traditions are both well-found and adaptable to changed circumstances, and it is suggested that this was the case with the Oyo.

54 Doubtless much more oral tradition about this period remains to be recorded both in Yorubaland and in neighbouring areas, but time runs short as economic and social conditions change. Archaeological investigation is a virtually unexplored source of evidence for northern Yoruba history.

55 An abbreviated version of this essay was read to the Congress of the Historical Society of Nigeria in December 1964.