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From Hospitality to Hostility: Ibadan and Strangers, 1830–1904

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

Toyin Falola
Toyin Falola
Affiliation:
University of Ibadan
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Extract

The view that Ibadan society in the nineteenth century did not discriminate against strangers, irrespective of their origins in Yorubaland, is now firmly entrenched in the literature. To be sure, Ibadan, a new nineteenth-century Yoruba city-state, founded as a consequence of the political crises of the early decades of the century, did maintain an ‘open door’ policy to strangers, many of whom went there as adventurers, craftsmen and traders, hoping to acquire wealth and fame. This article, however, controverts the view that Ibadan society gave the strangers and the indigenes equal opportunities to wealth and power. It argues that all the key political offices went only to the Oyo-Ibadan group which dominated the city-state. Strangers were also not allowed to participate fully in the leading heights of the economy, with the result that most of the wealthy citizens were also of Oyo-Yoruba origin.

In the 1890s discrimination against strangers was such that a number of moves were made to expel them. However, the British, who imposed colonial rule on Ibadan in 1893, were against the expulsion of strangers.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 26 , Issue 1 , January 1985 , pp. 51 - 68
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1985

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References

1 Both oral and written sources are used in this study. The merits and limitations of oral sources are now well known. The written sources are varied. Some have previously been used (missionary papers, intelligence reports and other European accounts), and there is no need to comment on them as other scholars have already done so. There are, however, two new sources which are being used extensively for the first time. First, there are the Council Papers kept in the headquarters of the Ibadan Municipal Government, Mapo. These contain, among other things, minutes of meetings, correspondence between the council and other councils, Lagos, and individuals, from the 1890s onwards. All these can be used to research into virtually any topic on Ibadan society. They are also reliable, except for deliberate distortions in petitions and other correspondence between individuals and the council.

The second are the private papers of two former rulers (Olubadan) of Ibadan – Akinyẹle and Akinbiyi. AkinyẸle's writings are part of the council papers kept in Mapo and a substantial part has been published in his Outline of Ibadan History (Lagos, 1946). They are based on personal observation, which enabled him to record contemporary events of the first half of the twentieth century, oral evidence, which was used for retrospective accounts, and written sources of the 1890s, especially those in the files of the Ẹgbẹ Agba Ọtan, a society of Ibadan elite formed in c. 1913. I have found Akinyẹle's writings very reliable. He was able to interview some of the first and second generations of Ibadan's political elite, most of whom knew the history of their predecessors who wielded power from the 1830s.

The Akinbiyi papers have never been used before. They contain minutes of meetings of the Ibadan Progressive Union from the mid-1950s, and the history of several lineages and prominent individuals. These documents record contemporary views as well as retrospective accounts written later from oral sources. Akinbiyi's sources are like those of Akinyẹle's except that his informants belonged mostly to the second and third generations of the Ibadan elite.

Finally it should be remarked that because Ibadan was founded in the nineteenth century, it has not been too difficult to obtain reliable oral and written sources: most lineages can still trace the history of their prominent citizens back to the 1830s, while its rise coincided with the period of European contacts with Yorubaland.

2 The jihād began in Hausaland in 1804 and spread to the Ọyọ empire in the second decade of the century. For a detailed analysis of the jihād in Ọyọ, see Law, R. C. C., The Ọyọ Empire c. 1600–1836: A West African Imperialism in the Era of the Atlantic Slave Trade (Oxford, 1977)Google Scholar, Part III.

3 For details on this early period see Falẹla, Toyin, ‘Politics, economy and society in early Ibadan, 1830–1850’, Journal of the Historical Society of NigeriaGoogle Scholar, forthcoming.

4 Falẹla, Toyin, ‘The political system of Ibadan in the nineteenth century’ in Ajayi, J. F. Ade and Ikara, B., The Evolution of Nigerian Political Culture (Ibadan, forthcoming).Google Scholar

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12 Falọla, Toyin, ‘The Political Economy of Ibadan, 1830–1900” (Ph.D. thesis, University of Ifẹ, 1981), chapter 2.Google Scholar

13 ‘Orisun Ibadan’ in Akinbiyi Papers, file 6, p. 10; oral interviews with several local historians including chiefs J. A. Ayọrinde, E. O. Adeyọmọ, A. A. Ọlẹ;kọ, H. A. Ọjẹrinọla, S. A. Babalọla, S. O. Ladipọ, and E. J. A. ọpẹọla. The distinction between ‘Yoruba’, that is, the ọyọ subgroup and ‘non-Yoruba’, which refers to the other Yoruba subgroups, was made in the nineteenth century. The two terms were widely used in the written accounts of the second half of the century. Oral sources relating to the 1830s simply talk of the ọyọ, Ijẹṣa, Ekiti, etc.; Yoruba was sometimes used, but to refer only to the ọyọ. The term ‘Yoruba’ itself was probably a nineteenth-century creation by the missionaries. It was derived from ‘Yar'ba’, a term used by the Hausa to refer to the ọyọ. It was popularized in the nineteenth century by the Church Missionary Society and Bishop Samuel Ajayi Crowther, who reduced Yoruba to writing. Hitherto, different groups of the Yoruba had referred to themselves by their distinct group names of Ekiti, Ifẹ, Ondo, etc.

14 ‘Orisun Ibadan’, p. 11.

15 Ibid.

16 Ibid., 12.

17 Ibid., 13.

18 Akinyele Historical Papers, Mapo, Ibadan, file 114/247/AKP3, 103. Most of these documents were written between 1921 and 1936.

19 Ibid., 104.

20 Ibid., oral interviews; Ibadan chiefs-in-council, November 1982.

21 For a similar episode of blackmail involving an influential chief, Salami Agbaje who had some Ẹgba connexion, see Sklar, R. L., Nigerian Political Parties: Power in an Emergent African Nation (New York, 1983 repr.), 291–292Google Scholar, and Butcher, H. L. M., Report of the Commission of Inquiry into the Allegation of Misconduct made against Chief Salami Agbaje, the Otun Balogun of Ibadan, and Allegations of Inefficiency and Maladministration on the Part of the Ibadan and District Authority (Lagos: Government Printer, 1951).Google Scholar

22 Falọla, Toyin, ‘The Political Economy’, chapter 5.Google Scholar

23 The Balogun were the most senior military chiefs while the Ṣeriki were war-chiefs subordinate to the former. The heads of these two chieftancy lines were called the Balogun and Ṣeriki respectively. The Balogun was the overall head of the Ibadan army. Both the Balogun and Ṣeriki had several subordinate officers who received such titles as the Otun Balogun, Osi Balogun, Otun Ṣeriki, Osi Ṣoriki, etc.

24 Falọla, Toyin, ‘The Political Economy’, chapter 5.Google Scholar

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27 Mapo/Ibadan Historical papers, Mapo, file MHP 272/143, 119.

28 Ogedengbe was from Ileṣa and Fabunmi from Okemẹsi. Both were important in nineteenth-century Yoruba history because of their opposition to Ibadan rule in eastern Yorubaland, and particularly their role in the Sixteen Years’ War, 1877–1893. For details see Falọla, Toyin and Oguntomisin, Dare, Yoruba War Heroes (Ile Ife, University of Ife Press, forthcoming).Google Scholar

29 For the careers of some of these men see Falọla, and Oguntomisin, , Yoruba War Heroes.Google Scholar

30 This consisted of civilian chiefs who lived permanently at Ibadan to perform administrative functions. Most of the Baalẹ chiefs were war veterans. The leader of this Baalẹ line was also called the Baalẹ and he was the overall head of Ibadan.

31 For details see Alao, A. A., ‘Owu in the nineteenth century’ (final year original essay, History Department, University of Ifẹ, Ile-Ifẹ, 1982), chapter 3Google Scholar, and Mabogunje, A. L. and Omer-Cooper, J. D., Owu in Yoruba History (Ibadan, 1971), chapter 5.Google Scholar

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34 Awẹ, , ‘The Rise of Ibadan’, 105.Google Scholar

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37 Akinyẹle, , Iwe Itan Ibadan, 264.Google Scholar

38 Council Papers, Mapo, October 1953, CP/24/SF27, p. 31. The title of Ibadan's ruler was changed from the Baalẹ to the Olubadan in the twentieth century.

39 Oral interviews: informants cited in n. 13 above.

40 Ibid.

41 A notable example was Balogun Ajọbọ (1870–1871), whose compound was always full of strangers; Akinyẹle, Iwe Itan Ibadan, 80–86.

42 For details see Awẹ, B. A., ‘The Ajele system: A study of Ibadan imperialism in the nineteenth century’, Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria, III, i (1964), 47–60.Google Scholar

43 Oral interviews: several Ijẹbu and Ẹgba families in Yeọsa, Agbeni and Isalẹ-Ijẹbu, Ibadan, January–March 1983.

44 Ibid, and Akinyẹle Historical Papers, file 111/230/AKP2, p. 11.

45 Ibid.

46 Ibid.

47 Oba Akinbiya Papers, file 2, p. 44; oral interviews.

48 Ibid.

49 I could not, however, obtain nineteenth-century examples of non-Ọyọ-Yoruba ara ile who held titles.

50 Akinyẹle Historical Papers, file III, p. 36.

51 Oral interview: Ibadan chiefs-in-council, Nov. 1982.

52 ‘Orisun Ibadan’, 16.

53 Akinbiyi Papers, file 4 (untitled), p. 31.

54 Johnson, , The History of the Yorubas, 386–387, 390.Google Scholar

55 Akinbiyi Papers, file 4 (untitled), p. 15.

56 Oral interviews; Akinbiyi Papers, file 6 (untitled), pp. 14–16, and Mapo Historical Papers, file TPH/O42/112, pp. 23–29.

57 Falọla, Toyin, ‘Trade relations in nineteenth-century Yorubaland in an era of military warfare: the Ijebu-Ibadan example’, Journal of the Historical Society of NigeriaGoogle Scholar, forthcoming.

58 Oral interviews; Akinbiyi Papers, file 6, pp. 14–16, and Mapo Historical Papers, file TPH/042/112, pp. 23–29.

59 Akinbiyi Papers, file 6, p. 17.

60 For details on the relations between Ibadan and the British during the nineteenth century see Falọla, Toyin, ‘The dynamics of Anglo-Ibadan Relations in the nineteenth century”, Odu, XXII–XXIV (1981).Google Scholar

61 Falọla, Toyin, ‘Post-war political changes in Ibadan, 1893–1913’, Odu, XXV (1983)Google Scholar, and Falọla, Toyin, ‘Post-war economic change in Ibadan, 1893–1913’, unpublished manuscript.Google Scholar

62 Akinyẹle Historical Papers, file 111/230/AKP2, p. 2.

63 Ibid.

64 Johnson, , The History of the Yorubas, 643.Google Scholar

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66 Akinbiyi Papers, file 6, p. 26.

67 Ibid.

68 For details see Ọmọsini, O., ‘The rubber export trade in Ibadan, 1893–1904: colonial innovation or robber economy?’, Proceedings of Seminar Papers, 1978–1979 Session, History Department, University of Ifẹ, Ilẹ-Ifẹ, 185–245.Google Scholar

69 Lagos Weekly Record, 25 August 1894.

70 Ibid.

71 Oral interview: Ibadan-chiefs-in-council.

72 Lagos Weekly Record, 8 June 1894.

73 Oral interview: Messrs Ladele, Olubukun, Oyewọle and Ṣiyanbọla, all Ibadan local historians, January 1983.

74 Lagos Weekly Record, 23 February 1895.

75 Ibid., 8 June 1895.

76 Council Papers, Feb. 1915, CP/2/JF56, p. 6.

77 Ibid.

78 Akinyẹle Historical Papers, file 110/1740/AKP8, p. 33.

79 Ibid; Lagos Weekly Record, 19 October 1895.

80 Akinyẹle Historical Papers, file 110, p. 36.

81 Akinyẹle, Iwe Itan Ibadan, 137–138.

82 Akinyẹle Historical Papers, file 110, p. 42.

83 Ibid.

84 Ibid., p. 44; oral interviews, informants cited above.

85 National Archives Ibadan (N.A.I.) IP 3/6, Resident Travelling Journal, entry for 24 July 1897.Google Scholar

86 Ibid., entry for 27 July 1897.

87 Ibid., entry for 21 January 1899.

88 Akinyẹle Historical Papers, file 110, p. 45.

89 Ibid.

90 Ibid., p. 46.

91 N.A.I., Lagos Annual Report (1899), 88.Google Scholar

92 Ibid.

93 Cited in Morgan, K., Akinyẹle Outline History of Ibadan, part III (Ibadan; n.d.), 175–176.Google Scholar

94 Lloyd, P. C., Mabogunje, A. L. and Awampẹ, B., The City of Ibadan (Cambridge, 1967), chapter 6.Google Scholar

95 Council Papers, April 1913, CP/I/JF22, p. 8.

96 Ibid., p. 11.

97 Ibid., p. 12.

98 Akinbiyi Papers, file 2 (untitled), p. 16.

99 Ibid.

100 Ibid., p. 17.

101 Ibid.

102 N.A.I., Dickinson, E. C. N., Intelligence Reports on Ibadan Town, November 1937, p. 79.Google Scholar