Omolewa In addition, Lange said that there were traders from the Arab world and some Islamic preachers that came to West Africa in the 9th century to propagate their goals of preaching and doing business at the same time.
He noted that the Arabs, some of whom were geographers and traders, documented the history of West Africans in the 9th century. Falola and Heaton said that Arab traders have continued to patronise West Africa from the 11th century through the 18th century. The association of Oduduwa and the Yoruba origin with the 'East' Johnson in the Yoruba oral tradition could have some connection with the Arab people described as the people of the East.
This is just a suggestion that is yet to be proven. Belo and the Arab traders and preachers might not have mentioned Oduduwa in their narration of the origin of the West African people and the Yoruba people in particular but associated it with Iraq, Mecca and Egypt. These regions are significant regions in the history of the Yoruba people.
Johnson explained that Mohammed Belo was responsible for associating the Yoruba origin with Iraq, an Islamic country. He said that it was the only written record that pertained to Yoruba history during his time Johnson :. However, Belo did not mention the statutory role of Oduduwa in the writing of the Yoruba history. Johnson agreed with Belo's view that the Yoruba origin has some connection with Egypt and Arabia or Mecca. He taught that the Yoruba oral tradition regarding Oduduwa's origin is in connection with the 'East', which the Yoruba people thought that the East meant Mecca '[ w ]ith them the East is Mecca, and Mecca is the East' Johnson Johnson further argued that the history of Yoruba origin that connected them with the 'East' can be linked to the history of Mohammed, the founder of Islam:.
He believed that the Yoruba culture and the Egyptian culture are similar in many ways and that the ancestors of the Yoruba could have been the Egyptians. He said Johnson :. It is not known whether or not Johnson read about the Arabs and the North Africans that proposed that certain ethnic groups in West Africa such as the Hausas and the people of Ghana originated from the Ancient Near East or Arabia cf.
Lange He said that there is no Arabian record that proposed that the Yoruba people originated from Mecca cf. Johnson Based on the information that pertained to the origins of West African people from Arabia, there seems to be no specific mention of the Yoruba people as one of the ethnic groups that originated from Arabia by the Arab traders and preachers, except for Belo, who clearly associated the Yoruba origin with Arabia or Mecca or the Ancient Near East Johnson :.
The cause of their establishment in the West of Africa was, as it is stated, in consequence of their being driven by Yar-rooba, son of Kahtan, out of Arabia to the Western Coast between Egypt and Abyssinia.
From that spot they advanced into the interior of Africa, till they reached Yarba where they fixed their residence. On their way they left in every place they stopped at, a tribe of their own people. Thus it is supposed that all the tribes of the Soudan who inhabit the mountains are originated from them as also are the inhabitants of Ya-ory.
Upon the whole, the people of Yarba are nearly of the same description as those of Noofee Nupe. Although the Arabs did not mention the Yoruba among the languages that originated from the Near East to West Africa, in principle they might have anticipated the Yoruba people as well. A weakness about the Arabian view of the origin of the West African people is that it is doubtable that almost all the ethnic groups in West Africa originated from one source in the Ancient Near East.
Johnson, however, believed that many ethnic groups in West Africa, such as the Ashanti and the Gas of Ghana, the Fanti people of Ivory Coast and Ghana, the Dahomians of the Benin Republic and the Popos distributed in many part of West Africa , might have originated from Ile-Ife because they still pay tribute to the paramount Yoruba chief Johnson Johnson preferred to associate the Yoruba origin with the Egyptians and Christianity in particular.
If so, it might offer a solution of the problem of how it came about that traditional stories of the creation, the deluge, of Elijah, and other scriptural characters are current amongst them, and indirect stories of our Lord, termed 'son of Moremi'.
There is a myth about the Yoruba god Moremi according to which she sacrificed her only son Olurogbo to the Igbo spirit that tormented Yoruba people of Ile-Ife. The sacrifice was done to liberate the Ife people from constant attacks of the Igbo spirit that tormented the Yoruba people Johnson Johnson thought that the Moremi myth had some connection with the biblical story of Jesus, who was sacrificed for the entire humankind Johnson ; Jn In addition, Johnson thought that the sacred relic called Idi , which Sahibu brought to Yorubaland, was a copy of the Bible and not the Koran, as has been alleged by the Arab tradition of the Yoruba origin Johnson ; cf.
Oyebade With regard to Johnson's view on Oduduwa, he narrated the Yoruba myth regarding Oduduwa as he was told by many Yoruba elders, according to which Oduduwa came from the East, Arabia or Mecca or that Oduduwa was a superhuman or a god. However, he disputed any narration that associated Oduduwa with Islam.
He thought that Oduduwa or some unknown ancestors of the Yoruba were Egyptians that had some knowledge of Christianity. There are likely three possibilities that surrounded Johnson's view of Oduduwa: firstly, Oduduwa might be a literal human being that migrated from Egypt to Ile-Ife; secondly, Oduduwa might be a superhuman who had the abilities to create; and thirdly, Oduduwa might be a name of someone the Yorubas did not know, who liberated the Yoruba people.
Johnson might have downplayed the view of Oduduwa as a god that was created because of his faith in Christianity, which ascribes creation to the biblical God only.
The perception of Oduduwa as a mythical personage by Johnson suggests that Oduduwa might be a real human being or that Oduduwa might just be a name the Yorubas associated themselves with.
These suggest that Johnson's connection of the Yoruba origin with Christianity or Christians is paramount to just a single individual by the name Oduduwa. The Yoruba perception of Oduduwa. The meaning of the name Oduduwa. According to Samuel Johnson, the word Oduduwa might have originated from the phrase Odu ti o da iwa. The Yoruba phrase ti o da iwa signified anything that is large in size or big with regard to strength.
Johnson specifically used the term Odu to describe either a large-sized container or perhaps a large pot. Johnson's connection of the word Odu with Oduduwa emphasised the strength and the greatness of Oduduwa as the author of existence. Johnson regarded Oduduwa according to the Yoruba oral tradition as the source of creation or a great container.
He said the term Odu ' … implies the great container [ sic! Olumide Lucas, a former Pastor of St. Building on what Johnson had already proposed, Lucas said that the word Oduduwa or Odudua or dua is literally a singular noun that referred to a chief or a very exalted person.
He went further to propose that the word Oduduwa could literally be associated with a specific colour. Lucas said that the derivation of the name dudu meant black and Iwa meant existence; thus, the contraction of Odu ti o da wa , that is, a self-existent personage whose personality cannot be dissociated from the colour black Lucas Lucas believed that the word dua originated from the ancient Egyptian word dua-t , which means 'the other world'.
Dierk Lange questioned Lucas' etymological connection with those of the ancient Egyptians. He said that the phonetic and semantic similarities Lucas proposed between the Egyptian and the Yoruba words are not convincing and should not be used in developing a historical reconstruction regarding the origin of the Yoruba people Lange A renowned ethnographer who had great interest in the writing of West African history, Alfred Burdon Ellis , associated the word Odu with colour.
Ellis taught that the word du or dudu generally meant 'black' and that the association of Oduduwa with the colour black could be because of an ideology among the Yoruba people, according to which black symbolised beauty. It is important to note that the Yoruba people value black skin. Some Yoruba people are proud to associate Oduduwa with black skin Ellis Following Johnson's proposal on the etymology of the term Oduduwa, 21st century writers of Yoruba history like Afolayan continued to associate the word Oduduwa with the creator of existence.
Afolayan , like Johnson and Lucas, for example, said that the name Oduduwa indeed is a resonance that originated from the contraction of the name Odu ti o da iwa and meant that it was Odu [deity or mystery] who created da iwa [existence, life and character] p. Johnson might have been the first person in the 19th century to document the word Oduduwa in connection with the Yoruba origin, and other authors like Lucas Olumide, Ellis and others continued to build upon Johnson's perception of Oduduwa as developed in The History of the Yorubas.
Johnson recorded the Oduduwa oral tradition mainly from the elders who informed him about the Yoruba history, many of whom came from Oyo cf. However, there are various interpretations that explained the Oduduwa oral tradition among different Yoruba groups. In all of the Yoruba oral traditions pertaining to the creation of the earth and humans, plants and animals, the image of Oduduwa and that of Obatala an anthropomorphic sky-god are portrayed as central.
The Yoruba people believed that there would not have been creation without Oduduwa and Obatala Oyebade The Yoruba creation myth is a tradition according to which God Olorun laid down a long chain from heaven until the chain reached the surfaces of the earth. When Olorun laid down the chain, it landed specifically in Ile-Ife, a town in Yorubaland. Those who upheld Oduduwa as a creator believed that Ile-Ife is the centre of the universe, and they regarded the entire city as a sacred place because they believed that it was from Ile-Ife that all humans were created and spread to other parts of the world Ayandele ; Lange The Oduduwa creation myth is a view according to which, before the creation of humans, the surface of the earth was filled with mainly bodies of water.
When Olorun made Oduduwa to decent from heaven, he gave Oduduwa some items to bring along to earth. The items included a cock, sand or soil and a palm kernel.
Oduduwa spread the soil on the earth's surface that contained mainly water, and the cock helped Oduduwa to spread the soil across the earth, forming a landmass.
According to the Yoruba tradition, this single event marked the first landmass on earth. The palm kernel was also thrown to be grown until it was rooted, and it germinated and formed 16 lateral branches. The 16 branches are believed to represent the 16 traditional kingdoms of the Yoruba people Johnson ; cf.
Ojo Another view regarding Oduduwa as a creator portrayed that the entire earth was a water-mashed body without any land. Olorun decided to send some of his messengers to earth with the aim of creating farmlands. Obatala was tasked with the responsibility of leading all the other Oye. Olorun gave the Oye some items to bring to earth. The items included five pieces of iron given to each Oye, a cockerel and a white piece of cloth.
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Username Please enter your Username. Password Please enter your Password. So who or maybe even what was Oduduwa? Well, he was the progenitor of kings in Yorubaland and the first Ooni of Ile-Ife.
He is considered to be the founder of Yoruba race. He represents omnipotence, as well as the power of the womb. According to some Yoruba traditionalists, Oduduwa was more than just the founder of Ile-Ife. They believe that he was responsible for its creation, as he was one of the deities responsible for the creation of earth. Is Buhari really Jibril of Sudan? Femi Adesina finally clears air, blasts president's critics. The latter was sent to earth to create land but got drunk from the palm wine he made himself from the newly grown palms.
Thus, Oduduwa took over the mission and completed the task. It was supposedly the persecution of the Muslim elite of the city that caused him and his fellow animists to leave Arabia. However, there is another school of thought among some Yoruba historians claiming that Oduduwa came from the East. These Yoruba historians are more specific and claim that Oduduwa first settled on a hill East of the valley over-looking the native Yoruba settlements.
Either way, it is now considered a historical fact that Oduduwa and his fellow settlers were outsiders from elsewhere that were absorbed by the aborigines of Ife. Through war lasting many years, Oduduwa was able to defeat the forces of the 13 indigenous communities of Ife led by Obatala the powerful and sweetest god and formed these communities into a single Ife state. Following his posthumous deification, he was admitted to the Yoruba pantheon as an aspect of a primordial divinity of the same name, historical accounts state.
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