Oduduwa Father of a Nation
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The research for this article is based on the gold standard of Yoruba history entitled the History of the Yoruba's by Samuel Johnson.According to Samuel Johnson the origins as obtained by oral tradition are as follows.He then gives his own critics of the story.For those who would like to do futher research, I refer you to pages 1 through 5 of his book.
Lamurudu one of the kings of Mecca had 3 principal offspring. Oduduwa the ancestor of the Yoruba's. and the Kings of Gogobiri and Kukawa who later had offsprings that became Hausa's. The time of Lamurudu's reign is not dated but is obviously some time after Prophet Mohammed(S.A.W) .The story is that Crown Prince Oduduwa was an idol worshipper and he converted the great mosque in Mecca to a temple.However he also had a priest whose son was Braima. Braima was Moslem but also sold idols because his father was a priest in the temple. There was a stage at which there was to be a 3 day hunting festival and during the festival Braimah then destroyed the idols. When this was found out he was supposed to be sentenced to die but being the child of a chief priest there was a civil war.Lamurudu got killed and Oduduwa then had to flee with his folowers. Of interest to the reader is Braima's defense during his trial which according to Samuel Johnson and to anybody who has a bible similar to the reply Joash gave to the Abrezites when Gideon was accused of a similar act. This is in Judges 6 verses 23 to 28. Ask the idol who did it? The reply was Can he Speak? then Why do you worship things that cannot Speak?
Anyway according to the history, Oduduwa fled east with his followers while the Kings of Gogobiri and their followers went East.However in the Yoruba's of Southwestern Nigeria by William Bacsomb who is American but observed the Ogboni in the 30's the direction may have been the other way. Anyway after 90 days travel they arrived at Ile Ife and there they met Agboniregun other wise known as Setilu the founder of Ifa oracle. The Gogobiri's and Kukawa's are identified as mordern day Nupe's hence the similarities in tribal marks between these groups. Samule Johnson never made any mention of a chain from heaven or whereever. He however said since the Yoruba's are not of Arabic source the migration must have been somewhere in the East but not Mecca.
Written records to corroborate the migration theory are according to Samuel Johnson's research in the book by Captain Hugh Clapperton who in his book '' Travels in Northern and Central Africa from 1822 to 1844" quoted the Eminent and respected Sultan Bello of the Sokoto Caliphate that the Yoruba's known to the Sultan as Yarriba's came from the East. The word Yarba is from the name of the first settlement during the migration. Also Samuel Johnson in his epic book also state that some people were also saying that Lamurudu or Namurudu was a dialectical modification of Nimrod. Is this Nimrod the son of Hasool or Nimrod the hunter in the Bible. What is obvious to me is that ther was obviously some form of migration like most people migrated then and also Ile Ife had some inhabitants because Agboniregun or Setilu the founder of Ifa oracle divination came from somewhere.
This is just a historical perspective which i shall continue as time permits. The story of Nupe and Yoruba has always intrigued me because places like Oshodi in Lagos are a corruption of the work Asho Odi Tapa which is an area given to a Nupe man for his service to an Ijebu king.That is another story however. Also if you know Kwara state well there are towns such as Share which the Nupe call Tsaragi where Yoruba's and Nupe live side by side or even Lafiagi which has a sizeable indigenous Yoruba and Nupe population living side by side.
To be continued....
Dr Olumide Ogunremi is an attending physician in internal medicine in St Louis, MO and the host of The Village Doctor Forum
