Monday, March 15, 2010

ODUDUWA AND YORUBA REVOLUTION IN WORLD HISTORY

The Yorubic world is a large one. Its existence dates back to beyond 15000 B.C. Some of the Earliest yorubas went to the Nile valley after the destruction of Atlantis. This was sometime before 10000BC. About this time, they , in conjunction with some few other people, founded the Ancient Egyptian Civilisation. At the total destruction of the united Egypt by the Romans, at the Battle of Actium,30BC, the Yorubas trekked back to join the aboriginal Yorubas at Ife, to become the Isekiri of Warri, the Igalas of Kogi, the Ebus and Olukumis of Delta state, the Kanuris of Bornu state, the Igbos at the Niger shore area around Onitsha etc. The leader of the treckers was the ancestral Oduduwa(Dudua-t) of Ancient Egypt.
This book also views the existence of Yoruba in the New World - Brazil, Ithaparica, paulo Seco, Costa Rica , Haiti, Tobago etc. More slaves were carried from other places , especialy the Igbo , to the New World, each with its own domestic culture and attribute. Today, today, the Yorubic




Yorubic Revolution in World History From: Yoruba Ancient History Society
ODUDUWAN CONTROVERSIES PUT TO REST
The Yorubic Revolution in World History
by
Eyebira Agharawu
and
Oritseweyinmi Oghanrandukun Olomu OF
YORUBA ANCIENT HISTORY AND LITERARY SOCIETY


PREFACE TO THE SUMMARIZED EDITION

“If empirical knowledge were not preceded by ontology, it will be entirely inconceivable, for we can extract objectified meanings out of a given reality to the extent that we can ask intelligent and revealing questions”.
(Karl Mannheim 1936:79) These questions are:
1) Who was Oduduwa?
2) Where did he live?
3) When did he live?
4) How is Oduduwa related to Benin?
5) Why is the Oduduwan influence prevalent among other peoples of today, especially in the New World?
By the end of this work, the readers, having been able to answer all these questions, and more, should be able to say: “We have found a new land”. It is joy that these five questions are interconnected; and since this is an instrumental view into the interconnectedness, it will save the tensed intellectual rope. So, it is joy! Though however, it is not a thing of joy to have been led to a point of campaign as a reaction to the cacophony of confusion erected by the ethnopersonalistic tendencies of some Interest-laden scholars across the inroad of truth. Oh world, we are using scientific methodology as arsenals in our belief that a good and uninclined response to these questions cannot but be influenced by the prevailing wind of ontology and empiricism. What is more? If the old system of presenting history as a solution to the crisis of intersectional eccentricity, a dive into aggrandizement, as used by ethno-centrists continues,
“History would have lost its flavor if it is consisted of narratives alone. Neither is the good historian interested in isolated facts or the chaos of unsorted knowledge as against taking a global look of world events”(Adekunle Ojelabi: 1970:155)
Aside from the above, which posits that history should not be made to depend only on myths and legends as determinants, the warning of Wole Soyinka (2004) that history should be backed up with reality and not besmeared with false notions from false consciousness, is in league with the opinion of Herodotus when he taught that it is no history, a history not traceable to history. So, to make history reliable and a sure source of identifying our societal problems, and at the same time, an antidote for same, this book is presented.And to make the world a safer place to live, a place devoid of the wrath of atomic bombs, a new history is presented.
We don’t say that the word “Oduduwa” is from the ancient Egyptian word, “Duduat”, or that the Isekiri progenitor was born to Oduduwa by a mother, whose father was a high priest of “Shekiri” in ancient Egypt—without properly directing the reader to the sources wherefrom these information were obtained. By no means! That is not the way out of the mesh, out of the emerging and troublesome Oduduwan nativity crisis, or the Ife-Benin seniority dispute, if you choose. The way out is the “gradual extension and deepening of newly won insights and true advances in the direction of control” as suggested by a great thinker. For if myths and legends not wedged with scientificity will do, that is, if beautifully concocted stories will determine the justice of ownership cases, then the Soyinkas of today as well as the Achebes, Habilas, Kans etc, who as we all know, are experts in the field of fine fictions, are those needed in this case—not the historian, not the political scientists, either.
Today, the world is threatened with “false consciousness” and its attendant ills. And it is the desire to normalize the anomaly of false consciousness, positive and negative, that has, allied with other factors, to motivate this book. This same desire, a reason for its scienceness, or its scientific methodology, is in line with, though not an influence of, the stand of the political thinkers when they feel that “ … The danger of false consciousness today is not that it cannot grasp absolute reality, but rather that it obstructs comprehension of reality. (Karl Mannheim 1936:84) The specifics of this book are “the real”, dressed in scientific findings and plethora of references drawn from sources that foes and friends will adjudge as adequately impartial. When historians use “the self” and “self urge” along with non-measurable and non-observable elements, history will lose its flavour really, feigning a profession that is vain and deceptive to the end.
We are introducing into the kingdom of knowledge a new history recommended for use when history breeds arguments, controversies and frictions—such as the question in question. This new history is the narrative analogue of the science of ideas, which Desstutt De Tracy considered as being in three segments: ideology, general grammar and logic. We shall use that which has already been said of the subject (immanent interpretations); we shall use that which, already said or unsaid, is the real nature of the subject (Transcendental Interpretations) and the idea based upon the unseen nature of the subject, whose knowledge comes up only by aha or experimentations (Oracular interpretation) We have found a new land - Metahistory.
NOTE TO THE SUMMARIZED EDITION For the sake of this study, some adjectivals have been coined.
They include the following:
1) Yoruban: This refers to the human Yoruba.
2) Yorubic: This refers to Yoruba as a culture.
3) Yoruboid: This refers to Yoruba as a language.
4) Oduduwan: This refers to Oduduwa as a person, a culture and as a language.


This is Oduduwa as a course of study.
5) Isekirian is adjectival for Isekiri

CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
In the division of the world into ancient and modern enclaves, yoruba represents one polar extreme for there is a straight cord linking the yoruba to Ancient Egypt whose origin dates far beyond 5000 BC, and from which the Oduduwan monarchical system emigrated, c3OBC - in ancient days. The historical link of yoruba to the ancient polarity, as a thing of pride and power, can put in the mouth of every member of the yoruba race elastic vocal box to singing himself a nightingale, and around his waist, a tough metal spring to dance to no end.
The dream of Warri free from political weakness, social and cultural regression from suppression, external pressure and aggression, historical submergence and other things of like nature, all showing a monstrous head, through a trend of many names, this dream can only be realized through a self-operating programme of analytical historicity whose arms engage, in a fierce front, its chiefest rival - irrational historicism.
This trend in the Isekiri existence has proved rather unhandsome to Warri - to the Warri kingdom. Two things beset the true nature and stature of the history of the kingdom of Warri. One, inadequate research into the real place of the history of Isekiri, a result of the natural inclination of Isekiri historians to shrink from the lane, on the presumption that since the people is small, its history will be too unimportant to warrant a thick research, too. There is the abysmal baptism in the illusion of the unholy 1480 starting point. In efforts to solve these problems, some Isekiri writers have dived in that direction. They have pointed out the distinct chronological reality of Isekiri as it lays adjacent to other peoples, larger peoples. They have not brought out why, however; only that Isekiri is a mixture of people (Stride and Ifeka: 1975) and that this mixture consists of Umales. (Sagay: 1981; Olotu-ljala of Warri: 2006).
It is not tearable, the fact that Isekiri History writers are not many, only the likes of J.O.S. Ayomike, J.O.E. Sagay, Dr J.E. Ireyefoju, William Moore and R.A.I. Ogbobine, as pace setters; St. Ifa and Honsbira, taken as one, as founder of the Warri Ancient History Society , and as diver into the point beyond 0! Be it as it may, we owe all these enough thanks! Though there are others whose sensitivity to this subject are being besmeared by the "No Fund" enigma, there is a group of practical historians who, have by their colossal academic sizes, influenced for good, the works of those that do. Dr J.E. Ireyefoju, who, in addition to Laoye Sanda, head of Public Administration, The Polytechnic, lbadan, as first nodders to this work, have made it clear that the veracity of this idea, the great object of our mission, is veracity to time indefinite. Ireyefoju (Delsu: 2003) says: "This work is too good to be called a book, but a reference material to researchers”. In addition, Laoye (2005), for instance, said, concerning the Oduduwan Nativity Crisis: "I wrote on this subject whose copy I happily send to you: I also enclose a copy of Naiwu Osahon's work on same subject. Yours is superior to both, owing to its scientific city”. Manfredi, an American Linguist/Historian, University of Boston, analyzing this work says:
Dear Eyebira Agharowu and Dr Oritseweyinmi Oghanrandukun Olomu, This is to acknowledge receipt of your manuscript. It is extremely brave of you to undertake so many intractable matters in one essay. .... I do however welcome the fact that you recommend greater study of Yoruba dialects (in the broad sense, including Is.e.kiri), both with each other, and with neighboring languages such as Igala, and the languages of the E.do family etc........... (Manfredi: 2005).
Praying hard that this encouragement (from bigger giants) does not goad us into intellectual lunacy, we owe them incalculable debts!
The 'Warri Ancients', as we are called, are here to disclose, in a bid to lay bare, that Isekiri point of origin dates back beyond 0, beyond the birth of Jesus Christ! The import of this work is that Isekiri migrated into this zone as early as c28BC and that they came in with the present Isekiri language, culture, religion, Sociology and Politics; and that they left the Nile valley, which in the opinion of Dr. J. Adetoro (1974), is the cradle of world civilization.
Another side of this is that there is an apparent contradiction in these positing. Egypt, as we are seeing it, is made up of people of the 'white' Arabic complexion, not blacks of Sudanese Africa. Thus, on hearing this idea, these questions grow on the mind of the reader:
1. Then, why are Isekiri that black?
2. Then, why are Isekiri not speaking Arabic?
3. How did Isekiri even get here from there?
3. Who led the early Isekiri down here?
4. Then, why do the Yoruba speak a similar Language?
5. Where are the traces of these Egyptian immigrants today?
6. What, if the present-day Egyptians argue to the contrary?
There is no way to lay the AD1480 versus BC 28 crisis to a perfect rest, there is no way the apostles of this theory of migration can come to terms with their readers and listeners without answering these questions, and much more. The prevailing inability to find such answers or, rather, the belief in their solutional elusiveness is why ethnic opponents brutalize Isekiri to no end; and why Isekiri suffer in their capacity as the historically constituted proprietor of the Warri Kingdom. To normalize the anomaly of misplacement of History and the evil that greets the people as a result, representing the world of scientific historicity, we shall, in this discourse, deal with History as a body, as well as those specifics that are the constituents of History - and in this manner, give specific characterization to the unique historicity of the people.
An intellectual battle must be fought in a bid to take a more practical step in search of a permanent cure. If ownership uncertainty and tenancy crises are not to throw Warri into a sepulchre of woe, something must be done before it is too late; and it is very late already!
Aims and Objectives of this discourse
1 To bring to the world view the Warri glamorous past as active partakers in the ancient civilization of Ancient Egypt.
2. To point the searchlight far beyond 1480 to which many History aristocrats and potentates still cling.
3. To foster a greater sense of unity between the Otonlu and the Omajaja by drawing their consciousness to a common umbilical cord.
4. To serve as a counterbalance against the growing radicalism and the new methodological alacrity of all those who, today, look on the Olu Order and Oluship as "interethnic misbehaviour".
5. To bring to clear relief the problem of neutral observers who see the ownership stature of the Olu of Warri over Warri as oppression, through the application of Egyptology and Pyramidology to the historical existence of the peoples of the Niger Delta.
6. To attract scholars, researchers and archaeologists to such ancient places of Warri as the ancient pillars of Ebrohimi, ancient port of Tebu, the ancient pyramid sites of Ode-Isekiri, the ancient sites of Deghele, Ugbege, Ugborodo, Efurokpe, Burutu, Forcados and Ogulagha as ancient Isekiri Towns.
7. To pinpoint these differentiae specificae as a dominant reason why Isekiri and the Oluship is immortable, bobbing up and down in politics like the floating cork on a turbulent sea!










CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
The days are gone when history was a study of “once upon a time.” History of the 21st century should be very analytic and scientific for it to be able to solve the problems of the century. The usual method of resort to oral traditions will be considered, if, and only if, it can stand the test of science. By science is meant the following:
1. The evidence of archaeology with the attendant carbon 14 dating.
2. The resort to linguistic and cultural, or better still, ethno-linguistic mappings
3. The study of glottochronology (knowing how old a language is by the study of the etymology, syntax, grammar and morphemes of a language.
4. We shall also look into cross-cultural and trans-cultural studies, as we believe that languages and cultures borrow from one another over time.
This has been very true in Africa, and oral traditions, which can be tested scientifically, attest that populations and ideas have been drifting all over Africa.
With the evolution of Iron (Perhaps it was first discovered in West Africa) the technology spread over the whole of the African continent. On this issue ,Basil Davidson says
“Archaeology and the study of languages support the opinion that it was from this region that the pioneering groups of early iron age people carried the knowledge of iron- working into distant lands of the Congo basin…..”(1978:119)
Many other aspects of civilization or cross-cultural contacts took place at a continental level. The theory of Divine kingship, which began in Egypt, spread fast all over the African continent, taking roots where people value, and are matured enough, to accept such doctrines. So, it is obvious that the African continent in many ways is more a union than a disjointed entity.
In this study, we shall also recourse to written sources – most of these from non-Africans (Islamic writers, white anthropologists, some classical writers: Herodotus, Plato, Strabo etc), and some indigenous. We can, therefore, summarize as follows:
“For the early history of the Yoruba and Edo speaking peoples, we have to rely entirely on non written sources of various kinds. Of these oral tradition is probably the most important. It can be supplemented with findings of archaeological and linguistic research and with inferences drawn from the result of ethnographic mappings of present day cultures. (Ade Obayemi 1972.)
Although we accept Obayemi, we differ a little in that oral traditions do not take a position of primary importance, except those that are scientifically tested. So, linguistic researches, archaeological findings, logicity and inferences of cultural diffusion will be used to work out a scientific basis of the Yoruban history, especially as they relate to unraveling the Oduduwan influence on Yoruba history.

ORIGIN OF THE YORUBAN PEOPLES
To determine the origin of the Yoruba peoples, we need to look into various areas:
(1) An analysis of the oral traditions
(2) The findings of archaeology
(3) The present ethno-linguistic mappings of the Yoruban peoples
(4) A resort to common sense and logic.
THE ORAL TRADITIONS
The traditions can be divided into two:
(1) The theory of aboriginality
(2) The theory of a possible migration from the “East”.(Adekunle Ojelabi :1970:61)
The aboriginal stories are very many. The main points can be itemized as follows:
a. In the beginning, the universe was covered by a huge body of water.
b. An ancestral archetype descended from heaven (the sky?) and created land.
c. The first land happens to be the land where the oral traditions were derived: in most cases, the land is Ile-Ife.
d. People spread from that initial land over the whole world.
In the Ifa corpus (the Yorubic sacred texts probably brought by Oduduwa from Egypt in the Edidi script) there are numerous creation stories, all these try to indicate the land of the Yoruban peoples as the place where creation took place. They do not only show that, they also indicate that the Yoruban peoples are aboriginal or autochthonous to their present area of abode.
Are the Yorubas really autochthonous to their present abode?
What are the natures of these traditions?
Are they true or mere fabrications?
All these questions will be answered when we come to the section of archaeology, cultural studies and linguistics. It is obvious, however, that the longer a people live in an area, the more they tend to claim aboriginality, as is evident with the whites of South Africa. Replete in the Yoruban traditions are tales of a possible migration from the “east”. Can the stories of both aboriginality and migration be correct? It is believed that both are correct.
While the Yoruban people have spoken Yoruboid languages, and practiced Yorubic cultures from time immemorial, it is obvious and even logical, that some aspects of Yoruban culture are borrowed. These borrowings point to ancient Egypt, whence the traditions of the Yoruban peoples diffused. It is also believed that while the Yoruban peoples have been in their geopolity from time immemorial, some aspects of their culture: divine kingship and aspects of religion: seem to be wholesale importation from Ancient Egypt.
The Testament Of Archaeology
So far, archaeology as a study in West Africa has not been very intensive. Archeology has been carried on for a short period, and at limited geographical scales. In East Africa, Asia, Middle East etc., archaeological studies have had greater and better significance and impact on the histories of these various regions, and their peoples. Concerning this dearth of archaeological research, Thurstan Shaw says:
“Regrettably, at the moment, the picture is very imperfect, and has many gaps in it because it must be remembered that archaeological research in West Africa has only been going on for a comparatively short time on a limited scale and it has been very unevenly distributed”. (Shaw 1965: 27.)
In addition to the fact that the application of archaeology has been very recent in West Africa, the West African soil and climate are not very conducive to the preservation of relics. Many relics - except few durable ones - are either completely destroyed, or made inaccessible for the sake of archaeological studies.
It should be remembered that termites and other creatures feast voraciously on wood, and other products, which our ancestors in Africa used on day- to- day basis. Thurstan defines the problem thus,
“One of the difficulties of archaeology in West Africa south of the Sahara is that the situations for the preservation of bone do not seem to occur so frequently as in other parts of Africa”. (Thurstan Shaw: 1965)

In spite of these difficulties, there have been a lot of archaeological researches. Most of these artifacts predate 1200AD, which most modern historians ascribe to the founding of the Yoruban kingdoms. Among the most ancient of these finds is the Iwo-Ileru relic, which carbon dating has given a spectacular age of between 9000BC- 12000BC. Iwo-Ileru is very close to Akure in the east of Yoruba land. This find poses a question. Did the Yoruban peoples first settle in the East of Yorubaland? It will be too hasty for now to give any conclusive answer to this question, until further works of archaeology is carried out. Around Oke-Eri (Ijebuland) a wall and some relics have been discovered.
Many analytical historians feel the relics belonged to the Queen of Sheba, a wife or concubine of King Solomon. It is not conclusively proven that the relics at Oke- Eri belonged to the Queen of Sheba. The important thing so far is the finds depict an advanced human culture and civilization. Oke-Eri also corresponds to the east of Yoruba land. Both Iwo-Ileru and Oke-Eri lie in the eastern flank of Yorubaland and tend to authenticate an east to west migration within Yorubaland.
In western part of Yoruba land, some ancient finds have also been discovered around the Mejiro cave at old Oyo. Hear Shaw: - “At Old Oyo, a Neolithic industry was recovered which has no associated pottery or ground stone axis, but the sample was small and it is undated” (Shaw 1977: 53 ) - - - The relics at the Mejiro are dated some 4000BC. This proves that even in central Yoruba land, people have been living for thousand of years. Hence the Ifes claim 90 “kings” before the advent of Oduduwa! All over Yorubaland, Oyo, Owo (Ogho), Ondo, Itsekiri, Ilaje etc, few relics have been found which show that the present Yoruban peoples are lineal descendants of the ancients that once occupied and used the relics – probably the Atlanteans! So far, the greatest archaeological finds are those from Ile-Ife. The relics of Ile-Ife show a period of advanced Yorubic culture and civilization. Many relics associated with monarchy and religious innovations – particularly the sacred Ifa Texts – are developed and perfected at Ile-Ife. The findings at Ebo Olokun and Orun Oba Ado (the heaven of the kings of Benin) are very significant in that they depict an era in the perfection of the Yorubic culture. It is significant that the site of Orun Oba Ado at Ile-Ife has produced radio-carbon dates indicating occupations in the sixth, ninth and tenth centuries (Michael 1977: 68, 69.) We see, therefore, that by the evidence of archaeology – little as it seems – the Yoruban peoples have been occupying their present area for many thousand years. The verdict of archaeology – authenticating the traditions – is that the Yorubic culture came to perfection at Ile-Ife – “The beloved ancestral home of the Oduduwan Yoruba”. And it was from Ile- Ife that this perfected Yorubic culture and civilization spread to every nook and cranny of Yoruba land. Thus, it is very obvious that the Yoruban peoples are autochthonous to their present abode.
GLOTTO-CHRONOLOGY AND THE PRESENT LINGUISTIC MAPPINGS
Geographically, the Yoruba people can be found around the Niger-Benue confluence at the Northeast limit. Dialects such as Kabba, Yagba and Oworo are present there. They occupy most of Kwara state and the whole of the South-West geopolitical zone in Nigeria. Yoruban peoples are also present in Benin republic and southern Togo.. The Aja, the Ewe and Ga peoples can be considered as Yoruba, or at least, some of their founding fathers spoke Yoruboid language or practiced Yorubic culture. The Itsekiri ethnic group of Delta, and Edo states, the Kanuri of the Chad basin, Igala of Kogi and the Ebbu and Olukumi of the Delta state of Nigeria are also Yoruban peoples. So, today, the Yoruban peoples, the Yorubic culture and the Yoruboid languages stretch from the Ramos and Dodo rivers in the north western fringe of Bayelsa State to the Ga of Accra area of modern Ghana. They are also found in Sierra Leone and other parts of the subcontinent.
Concerning the eastern boundaries of the Yoruba, this is the stand of the colonial masters:
‘I hereby certify that according to the terms of a treaty concluded by me , acting on behalf of her majesty, THE QUEEN OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND &C and the Head and other chiefs of JEKRI COUNTRY ,the gracious favour and protection of her BRITANNIC MAJESTY have been extended to the people and country at both banks of the FORCADOS River ,the chiefs of which have in the presence of myself and others acknowledged themselves and their country to be under JEKRI Jurisdiction and Authority . Given on board the British steamship “DODO” anchored in the FORCADOS this 6th day of august 1884 (SGD) EDWARD HYDE HEWETT, HER BRITANNIC MAJESTY’S CONSUL FOR THE BIGHTS OF BENIN AND BIAFRA AND & C’
Concerning the locus of the Itsekiri boundary with the Ijaws in the east, Professor Obaro Ikime says,
“At one of the towns of the Escravos river, the Ijaw who inhabit it claimed according to Hewett, that they acknowledged Tsanomi as their ruler. They were then informed about the treaty of 16th July which Tsanomi, Nana and others were signatories and warned, under the pain of severe punishment by governor Nana, not to enter into a treaty with any other European power. At Burutu and “Goolah” and other towns along the Forcados, Ramos and Dodo, Hewett reported that the people though Ijo, acknowledge the fact that they were subjected to Nana and were consequently made to understand that the Itsekiri protection treaty was binding on them.” (Ikime 1969).
The few archaeological findings correspond with the findings of glottochronology, that eastern Yoruba culture and dialects are more ancient than those of the West. There seem to be an ancient movement of population from east to West within the modern Yoruba geopolity. The evidence of the linguists tends to authenticate those of archaeology that the present population in Yoruba land has occupied their areas for thousand of years. Concerning this Obayemi says: “The implication of modern linguistic research both fit in with and supplement those of archaeological research. They suggest that Yoruba, Edo, Igala, Idoma Igbo, Nupe Ebira, and Gbari form a cluster of languages within the large Kwa group, centred roughly on the area of the Niger-Benue confluence. Glottochronological considerations further suggest that separation between the units of this cluster very between 2,000 years (Yoruba/Igala) and 6,000 years (Yoruba/Idoma).”
It is important to note here that the various Yoruboid dialects: Ijebu, Egba, Ekiti, Ilaje and Awori etc., started separating from one another some 2,000 years ago. This corresponds to the period of Igala separation from Yoruba. Thus, it seems that the ancestors of the Igalas were Yoruban until their language became infiltrated with Nupe, Igbo and Idoma. Their ancestors spoke Yoruboid languages. The Yorubas, are no doubt, aboriginal to, and develop in their, locale steadily over many millennia. Concerning this observation Obayemi says:
“These finding seem to indicate a process of slow, steady population expansion and cultural differentiation beginning some thousands of years ago in the area of the confluence and continuing with little external interruption right down to the nineteenth century. They also suggest that if current dates given for the foundation of the great dynasties of Yoruba, Benin and Igala are anything like correct, population expansion and cultural differentiation were largely completed by the time these dynasties arrived on the scene” (Ade Obayemi 1977:207).
Although, the present writers agree with Obayemi, they hold that the differentiation and spread of population are not only in the North- East area, but also in the Southeast area. Linguistically, the Yoruboid languages form a distinct group. Some anthropologists grouped the whole of Negro African languages together. This group Obenga calls the Negro Egyptian family; Clyde Winters calls this group the paleo-African. Most of the languages of West Africa belong to the Kwa group of the Niger-Congo group of language family; and groups such as Yoruba, Edo, Igala, and Idoma Nupe etc. form a cluster of languages – the Kwa group. The broad Paleo-African group of languages, according to Joseph Greenberg, can be divided into the following groups:
(a) Hamito-Semitic family East Africa: Ancient Egyptian, West Africa: Hausa of Nigeria, Niger and Cameroons.
(b) Congo-Kordofanian family: East Africa: Kordofanian languages of Sudan, West Africa: Wolof and Yoruba of Senegal and Nigeria respectively.
(c) Nilo-Saharan: East Africa: Dinka and Luo in Kenya and Sudan, Masai in Tanzania, West Africa: Kanuri in Nigeria, Chad, and Niger (Ayele Bekeri – African Knowledge system 1991)
If anything, African languages are related in many details, as most African cultures are related in various details. Observing that most Nigerian languages – Hausa, Yoruba, Ibo etc. - which Greensberg had placed into different language groups: e.g. Hausa and Yoruba have many areas in common. Wale Ademoyega says:
Most of the peoples of Nigeria – the Hausa, the Ibos, the Yoruba, the Fulani, the Nupe, the Jukun, the Kanuri, the Gwari, the Igbirra, the Ijaw, the Chamba, the Borgu – speak languages of the same Sudanic pattern. That is very different from saying that they speak various dialects of the same language. They differ greatly, but assume the same pattern of accent differentiation and distinct syllabic pronunciation. Every noun ends in a vowel. The same word when differently accentuated or emphasized presents varied qualifying words of prefixes and suffixes. Some of these languages have no genders. This language characterization points, if to anything at all, to a common linguistic and ethnological ancestry and a prolonged period of mutual association. (WALE ADEMOYEGA. 1962 : 28.29.)

If we are to observe Ademoyega, we find the following:
1. Most nouns end in vowels e.g. Kifi (fish Hausa), Owu, (a god, Ijaw), Omi, water (Yoruba), they all end in vowels.
2. Bini, Yoruba, Ijaw, Gwari etc. have no genders. Only the Hausa language has a clear distinction between the genders.
3. A word variously accentuated can have different meanings e.g. “Ogun” can mean, war, the god of Iron, he, she or it climbs etc., in Yoruba, depending on how the word is accented. Ademoyega did not bring out some salient points.
In some of these languages, especially in Yoruba, most nouns also begin with vowels For instance, Omi, Eja, Awo are water, fish, and herbalist in Yoruba language respectively. All these words (nouns) begin and end in vowels. From the above, it is more logical to work with the paleo-African family postulated by Obenga and Clyde Winters. Thus, the Yoruboid languages belong to this broad group of African languages. This classification of Greenberg and other white anthropologists are a legacy of a deadly anthropology.
Glottochronology, a living Anthropology, has verified that the Yorubas in the Eastern Flank, Kabba, Yagba, Ilaje, Ijebu, Itsekiri etc spoke the most ancient languages. The table displays it further.
Itsekiri (Eastern Yoruba) Oyo (central Yoruba EnglishOgho Owo Money Ogho(r) Owo(r) Respect Aghan Awon Them Ghan Won ExpensiveThe retention of this “gh” sound for “w” is found in the northeast and south East Yorubaland and among the Igalas. This phenomenon might represent a paleo-Yoruboid stage of the Yoruban language. The rudiments of the Yorubic civilization also, seem to have begun in eastern Yorubaland. These rudiments of civilization include both crude political organization and the belief in a supreme being.
Concerning this evolution of the Yoruban religion, Bolaji Idowu writes:
“I am very inclined to the view that the name, orisa, is a corruption of an original Orise (Ori-se) head source,” pg. 60. He went further in page 61 of the book: In Yoruba, the name Oritse (the original form), then, refers to Olodumare. This is borne out by the fact that the name Orisa is applied to Him in some parts of Yoruba land, even though he is indisputably not one among the divinities. The original Orise is the common name in Owo and district, among the Itsekiri and western Ijaw (Idowu 1962 OLODUMARE : GOD IN YORUBA BELIEFS )
It is obvious that the Ijaws and the Edos copied from the Itsekiri because the morphemes of the word, Ori (head) and se (create) are non-existent among them. Like in the monarchical system, the Yorubic religion became perfected in Ile-Ife, whence the Ifa Oracle texts spread all over Yoruba land. The rudiment of political organisation also seemed to have begun in the eastern Yoruba block.
On this salient observation Obayemi says:
In the Ondo area, as well as in nearby parts of southern Owo and Ifon and including the intervening Yoruba-speaking area, the village-size state is ruled by an Oloja (Olu-Oja). The proper meaning of this title is more accurately conveyed when we consider it in the pre-Urban Yoruba setting. “Oloja” has been thought to mean the owner of a market (Oja); Beeley however, has tackled this problem in its broader geographical perspective showing that: “The meaning of the latter (Oloja) is apparently “The owner of the town and not as it would seem the owner of the market. The word “Oja” is possibly a derivative of the Jekri (Itsekiri) work (word) “Aja”, meaning a collection of houses or village”. (Obayemi 1977:220).
The Olaja syndrome is found more among the Yorubas of the North-East and South-East area. The Igala equivalent of the word is Onoja (Onuaja), the ruler of the town. The south east Yoruba use Onu Aja (Olu-aja) thus Olaja (Onaja.) The other Igala word for Onoja is Onuewo, (Ewo) meaning a town. The word “Ewo” has the eastern Yoruba dialect (Itsekiri) equivalent of “Eghoro”, a section of a town. Thus, the Igala word “Onewo”, has the eastern Yoruba equivalent of Oneghoro or Oleghero. The Oneghoro in eastern Yoruba dialect represent an epoch in history farther than that of the Olaja or the Onewo: an era when the powers of the mini-sized state had not been concretized into one authority, an era when the sections of a town (eghoro) were still ruled by independent “powers”.
From glottochronological consideration (eghoro) with the “gh” guttural sound appears to predate the Igala (Ewo) “W” liquid sound, and from the fact that eghoro or Oneghoro (Oleghoro) predates the Onewo, the pre-urban power structure must have started in the Southeast Yoruba area, rather than in the North East of Yorubaland or the Igala area around the confluence. The East-West movements exist in many accounts.
Some sections of Ijebu, for instance, agree that some of their founding ancestors came from the Ikales to their east. The linguistic consideration indicates that there was a drift from the East to the West. The oldest archaeological find at Iwo-Ileru (near Akure) is in the east of Yorubaland. The glottochronological consideration also gives the Yoruba of the east an older date than the western Yoruba clans. So far two major things can be deduced from both the oral traditions and the finds of the linguists_
1) The traditions and the archaeological finds complement one another.
2) Both the traditions and the archaeological finds show that the Yoruba have been living in their abode from time immemorial.
Although the Yoruban people seem to occupy the Eastern lands (within the Yoruban geopolity) first, all indications point to the fact that the monarchical revolution, religious innovations and artistic mastery became accomplished in Ile-Ife; and it was from Ife that the Yorubic civilization, monarchical revolution, exotic arts, religious innovations etc, spread to other Yoruba lands and even beyond. .
CHAPTER 2
THE ODUDUWAN REVOLUTION
In the first chapter, we talked about the aboriginal nature of the Yoruban peoples.
In this chapter, we shall talk of a possible migration from ancient Egypt.
Many traditions point to a fact that an alien group (Egyptians) immigrated to Yoruba land and mixed with the original population. Many oral traditions are replete with these stories. The Awujale of Ijebu land has shown that the Ijebus are descended from ancient Nubia (a colony of Egypt). He was able to use the evidence of language, body, scarification, coronation rituals that are similar to Nubians’ etc, to show that the Ijebus are descendants of the Nubians. What the present Awujale claimed for the Ijebus, can be authenticated all over Yoruba land. The Awujale even mentioned (2004) that the Isekiri (an eastern Yoruba dialect) are speaking the original Ijebu language.
Since the Nubians were descended or colonized by the Egyptians, the Ijebu, and by extension, all Yoruba customs, derived from the Egyptian. Many traditional Yorubas have always claimed Egypt as their place of original abode, and that their monarchical tradition derives from the Egyptians’.
Apostle Atigbiofor Atsuliaghan, a high priest of Umale-Okun, and a direct descendant of Orunmila, claimed that the Yorubas left Egypt as a result of a big war that engulfed the whole of Egypt. He said the Egyptian remnants settled in various places, two important places being Ode Isekiri and Ile-Ife.
Chief O.N Rewane says “Oral tradition has it also that when the Yorubas came from South of Egypt they did not go straight to where they now occupy. They settled at Illushi, some at Asaba area – Ebu, Olukumi Ukwunzu while some settled at Ode-Isekiri.” (O.N. Rewane Royalty Magazine A PICTORIAL SOUVENIR OF THE BURIAL AND CORONATION OF OLU OF WARRI, WARRI 1987) Since these oral traditions are passed on by very illiterate people, we can augment whatever is recorded with written sources.
Concerning the migration of some of the Yoruban ancestors from the east, Conton says:
The Yoruba of Nigeria are believed by many modern historians to be descended from a people who were living on the banks of the Nile 2,000 years ago, and who were at the time in close contact with the Egyptians and the Jews. Sometime before AD 600, if this belief is correct, this people must have left their fertile lands, for reasons which we can not now discover and have joined in the ceaseless movement of tribes west wards and south-wards across our continent. We can only guess at the many adventures they and their descendants must have had on their long journey and at the number of generations which passed before they arrived. All we can be certain about is that they were a Negro people (of which ancient Egypt probably had at least one community as we have seen) and that one of the many princely states they founded on their arrival in West Africa…..was Ife.’ Conton WF (1960. 71 )
Although we agree with Conton that some of the Yoruban ancestors migrated from Egypt, we tend to toe the scientific line of Cheik Anta Diop, that the ancient Egyptians were pure Negroes. Aderibigbe, an indigenous scholar, also accepts that the Yorubas migrated from Egypt. He says:
“The general trend of these theories, most of them based on Yoruba traditions, is that of a possible origin from “the east”. Some scholars, impressed by the similarities between Yoruba and ancient Egyptian culture – religious observation, works of art, burial and other customs – speak of a possible migration of the ancestors of the Yoruba from the upper Nile (as early as 2000BC – 1000BC) as a result of some upheavals in ancient Egypt”. (AB ADERIBIGBE 1976)
Unlike Conton, Aderibigbe was able to pinpoint a cause for the Yoruban migration – war.
Olumide Lucas did a lot of job to show similarities and identities between the ancient Egyptians and the Yoruban peoples. The date that Aderibigbe gave (2000BC – 1000BC) is much earlier than that given by Conton. Aderibigbe’s date corresponds to that of the Hyksos invasion of Egypt 2000-1500BC. On the possible eastern origin of the Yorubas, Tariqh Sawandi says: “The Yoruba history begins with the migration of an east African population across the trans-African route leading from Mid-Nile river area to the Mid-Niger. Archaeologists, according to M. Omolewa, inform us that the Nigerian region was inhabited more than forty thousand years ago, or as far back as 65,000BC. During this period, the Nok culture occupied the region. The Nok culture was visited by the “Yoruba people”, between 2000BC and 500BC. This group of people was led, according to Yoruba historical accounts by king Oduduwa, who settled peacefully in the already established Ile-Ife, the sacred city of the indigenous Nok people. This time period is known as the Bronze Age, a time of high civilization of both of these groups.
According to Olumide J. Lucas, “the Yoruba, during antiquity, lived in ancient Egypt before migrating to the Atlantic coast”. He uses as demonstration the similarity or identity of languages, religious beliefs, customs and names of persons, places and things. In addition, many ancient papyri discovered by archaeologists point at an Egyptian origin. (Tariqh Sawandi: Yorubic medicine: The Art of divine herbology – online article). Ademoyega commented that the Ekiti section of the Yorubas must have migrated to their present area around 638AD when the Muslims took over Egypt and forced some of the Yoruba people to migrate to their present area.
So, we see that the Yoruba did not come in one migration, but in many different migrations – in waves. The first possible migration might be connected with the Hyksos invasion. Some words in the Yoruban vocabulary echo the words used in Egypt in predynastic times and in the early dynastic periods. Some Egyptian gods of this period have strong identities with Yoruban deities. For instance, gods such as Adumu (Adumu) Hepi (Ipi) Ausar (Ausa), Horise (Orise), and Sámi (Sámi) Nam (Inama) are present in Yoruba. All these gods existed in the pre-dynastic and early dynastic periods of Egypt.
TODAY, AMONG THE ITSEKIRI-YORUBAS, THESE GODS CAN STILL BE PHYSICALLY SEEN, AT LEAST, ONCE A YEAR! Neighbouring peoples are already initiated into the various gods systems and beliefs in Yoruba land. The Agban Ancestral worship was first organized in Urhoboland during the funeral ceremony of chief Ayomanor of Sapele (1949). The Ipi system was first organized in Urhoboland in March 11, 2005.
We can also see words that existed in the Graeco-Roman period in some of the Yoruban dialects. When the Romans took over Egypt, they infiltrated the Egyptian area with their language. In present Yoruba, we can still find words of Roman descent. For instance, the Yoruba called the palm frond ‘Mariwo’. This word is derived form the Latin Rivus (River). One of the declensions of river is Rivo (by the river).Since the Yoruban possesses no “V”, the word become riwo. Thus, the word “Omariwo” means the child by the river.
Some other words like Sangi (blood in Isekiri-yoruba dialect) thought to have been derived form the Portuguese were actually brought as a result of the Roman Conquest of Egypt. Sangi is blood and the Latin term is Sanguis. Some eastern Yoruba use the term “Ihagi” which is clearly a corruption of the Roman Sanguis. A Christian army in 540 AD invaded Egypt and some persons believed to have reached Yoruba land were driven from Egypt. With the commencement of the Arab period in Egypt, some indigenous Egyptians who never wanted to accept the Islamic religion escaped to present Yoruba land. It was probably in this period that words such as Keferi (Kafri pagan in Arab) infiltrated into the Yoruboid vocabulary.
All said and done, more than fifty percent of the Yoruboid vocabulary of today can be deduced either directly or indirectly from the ancient Egyptian. These are the original ancient Egyptian language devoid of Arab and Latin words that are very few in the Yoruboid vocabulary. It is not really certain when king Oduduwa came from Egypt. He must have come in one of the many migrations. But since the Yoruba religious discourse has a lot of identities with Egyptian, Oduduwa would have left Egypt at a very early period perhaps after the Hyksos invasion of 2000-1500BC, but not later than 30BC. Could the Yoruba have migrated from a white Egypt? Far-from the truth!




ROUTES AND MEANS OF TRANSPORTATION: EGYPT-YORUBIC WORLD IN THE DIM PAST

“Probably in very ancient times, peoples from Egypt penetrated by way of the lake regions to the Benue (Letham 1970:9)”.On the means of transportation to the Benue (since there were no camels, Letham suggested the oxen (a method still used by the Kanuris) around Bornu (Letham 1970:20).Thus interactions from the Benue valley to Egypt has been in existence since pre-historic times. Norah Letham (1970) A sketch-map History of West Africa, London. With the destructions of Egypt by 30 BC, many Copts moved down, the journey continued down to about the time of the emergence of Islam (600AD.) hear Bowen. In this work, the writer refers familiarly to African chronicles written story anterior to the presence of the Arabs in the Sudan, and he expressly says that the Copts, who settled Bornu, wrote a history of their transactions, though he does not say that these are the Authorities which he uses.. (Bowen T.J 1968: 267)

References:
(1) T. J Bowen (1968) “Adventurers and Missing Labours in Several Countries in the interior of Africa from 1849 – 1856, second editor with a new introduction by Ayandele; Frank Lass & Co, Ltd, 1968.



THE KISRA LEGEND

The Kisra legend, the history of a kingly movement of people from the East into the West of Africa in the early and medieval period, gives in a sketchy manner, the story of the move of Prince Kisra using foot or horses or Camels, from Persia or Egypt (or through Egypt) “to establish the states from which the Kingdoms of the Jukun, (Kwararofa), Nupe, Idah, Busa and Borgu…….. Hausa – and far to the South – West – the yoruba kingdoms were descended.” Among the areas of Nigeria connected with prince Kisra are parts of Igbo country, around the banks of the Niger, Warri (where the early Isekiri had gained a stronghold), Bornu (where some earlier migrants from the east (Honsbira and Olomu, 2008) had been established) etc. other spots in west Africa with the Kisra connection include parts of the land of Old Songai, Benin, Togo and Modern Ghana around Ga.

MEANING OF THE NAME “KISRA”

Knowledge of the meaning of the name “Kisra” will help us in our exploration of the original home of the legend. There are many places believed to be the homes of Kisra – Persia, Egypt, Axum, to mention only three. In this task, the question before us is “in which of these probable places of Kisra origin does the word/name “Kisra” have its cognate? Though it is widely believed that the word is an oriental word, there are other words of similar sounds and spellings which suggest that Kisra is a Sudanese word. Though some link Kisra to an assumed Persian king “Khursaw and (Chrosus) II, others says Kisra, on setting up his kingdom in Nigeria, was appelled “Kisra”, a native name of the people. According to another source, it could have come from the Hausa word “Sarki” or “Saraki”, a Yoruba variant of the same word, or the Busa word “Ki – shira”. It is a view very likely near the truth that these sources sound like Kisra. Some Yoruba elders, however are of stand-point that the word, “Kisra”, comes from “Ka sura”, a word of caution that went through the ranks of a certain post-Jesu East-West migrant group as it angrily waved into the Yoruba world from Egypt. The whole position is by no means clear; but the fact that the Yoruba elders’ version of the Kisra legend highlights the linguistic connectivity between the Yoruba world and Egypt, following Honsbira and Olomu (2008), Lucas 1948, Tariqh Sawandi, Laoye Sanda(2004) Cheik Anta Diop (1985), Theophile Obenga(1986) that Yoruba was a language of ancient Egypt, keeps the “ ka sura” version in our mind. Though the whole thing is far from being clear, one thing is that the Kisra legend generally refers to a collection of the multiple stories of an eastern Prince that came to Nigeria and founded kingdoms and sub-kingdoms in early or medieval period.


CAUSES OF THE KISRA MOVEMENT

One of the causes of the Kisra migration, like many others related movements are religion. The people of the orient had many religions to choose from. At times, this choice-making process led to conflicts.
Another cause of the Kisra movement was economic adventurism. Owing to the fact that there were always wars here or there, economic activities came to standstill in many places – Assyria, Babylonia, Persia, Greek, Rome, Israel , Judah ,Damascus etc. (Isaiah, 19:1-11, Heaton, 1968, fellow London University). Consequently, many economically centered peoples had to look elsewhere for operation. These could include price Kisra.
Closely in alliance with the above are political causes. Since there were wars of inestimable sizes and economic break-down, it seems clearly unlikely that there was political stability. Most writers attribute the Eastward migration of Kisra to political instability.
Another of the Kisra and related movement was Christianity-Islam divide. In Egypt, before the Roman Conquest ,the religion was the Ancient Egyptian religion in which God (Horise,Orise/Orisa in Yoruba) was served through many small gods (Barbara, 1967:25) Christianity came in, following the introduction of same in the first century A.D. but with the coming of Islam in ( ), there was a notorious divide which caused hitches in which most of the Egyptian books of law and lore were burnt; and during which many people left. One of them seems to be Kisra.
That is not all. The sources of heterogeneity versus homogeneity in the East, especially in Ancient Egypt during the opening centuries of the first millennium, also helped the Kisra movement. Few centuries before the arrival of Islam, Egypt came up on the peak of prosperity in the cave of perturbation. There was less temperamental homogeneity. The military calm of the Romans, and the agricultural adages and innovation of the Fellahin exposed the Egyptian society to selfish manipulations by fanatical politico-religio-economic opportunists of the time. The end was a climax to which the Egyptians-Romans, Greeks, Arabs etc were unable to approximate. Prince Kisra could have moved as assault of this.
Another point is this. Though the early centuries of the first millennium in Egyptian social psyche, helped her in the march towards a bitter era, it way also seductively unattractive to a continual population growth in many, unattractive, ways. The slow, but steady rise from her smoking ruins into an economic mixture of Egypt, Persia, Rome, Greece, Arabia etc steadily gave way to a machinery of sharp blade, which with its pinions, too jagged, scattered the people from their home, like a big stone on a swarm of bees.
After 30BC, Egypt started to live a singled life, away from the commonality of the wider world; steadily and slowly soaking up the Graeco-Roman fluid into which years of external control had sunk her. This tremendously changed Egyptian sociology and characterology. It is about one of the loci that caused the journey(s) of Kisra.
The Romans were conquerors, and they acted as such. In addition to the hold on Egypt (Guest. 1977; Clement; 1979) they also held other parts of the world (They were in charge of most of Europe). To effectively do this, many Egyptian aborigines, many of them of royal descents, as well as immigrants, were castigated for failing to respond to the call for conscription into the Roman Army of Imperialism. It is probable and possible (though not certain) that this subjection of all able-bodied men to the issue of militarism created an anti-government hysteria which included many emigration waves.

COURSES OF KISRA MOVEMENT FROM PERSIA THROUGH EGYPT TO WEST AFRICA, OR FROM EGYPT TO WEST AFRICA.

If Prince Kisra had started from Persia, he might have taken course of Persia through Babylonia, crossing the Euphrates to Bethadin, to Qarqar, Damascus, Jerusalem, Raphia, Nubia, to the south, Thebe, in Egypt, the Chad of Modern Nigeria( aound Tebu) to Borgu. From Borgu, Prince Kisra might have got to Warri, the Niger delta Land, Yoruba land etc. If originally from Egypt (which perhaps accounts for the yorubic language of all Kisra peoples) he might have been acquainted with the culture of not only Heliopolis(On, Onu Olu),but also Thebes(Tebu, in Isekiri; in Ilaje; tebu in Kanuri). Could this proliferation of tebu in yoruba world of today, as in ancient Egypt be a matter of accident or convergence?

EFFECTS OF PRINCE KISRA ARRIVAL IN NIGERIA

1. The Kisra immigration must have increased the populations of some parts of West Africa: Middle belt and North east of Nigeria, yorubic Nigeria, core Yoruba and South-East Yoruba - Ilaje, Ikale, Warri kingdom Ebu, Olukumi, Iyenle etc.

2. It brought in new things like the “straight – backed and humped form of the ox ………. The dog, the goat, the sheep. (T. S. Osai and Nwanbara :1980:20)

3. It brought in new form of weaving, eg, the dyed stuff.

4. It came with it an innovation of divine kingship.

5. It heightened the tendency on the parts of many a Nigerian to trace their sources to Ancient Egypt.

6. It is responsible for the commonality of the Yoruboid language in all the places with the Kisran connectivity/interconnectivity.

References

1.Fage (1969)

2. The kisra legend as Oral History. International Journal of African Historical Studies, 13, 51 – = 0.



Chapter 2
PROOFS OF EGYPTIAN NEGRONESS
1. Egypt was a part of Africa and therefore should be black
2. The Egyptians believe that Egypt was a colony of Ethiopia, and that the religion was brought to Egypt by King Horus from the south (inner Africa). Thus when the Egyptians died, they buried their corpses with their faces facing the South West (the direction of West Africa, home of the Yoruba)
3. Some West African peoples claim that their ancestors migrated to ancient Egypt. The Yorubas claimed that a mystic-prophet Orunmila (Oritse Udeji among the Itsekiri) migrated to Egypt and established a religion. Archaeology and cross-cultural studies have shown that Negroes migrated from West Africa to ancient Egypt.
4. Anthropologists have discovered, to their dismay, that Egyptian cultural traits: divine kingship, forms of burial, Osirian cult, etc., permeate some parts of Negro Africa.
5. Some deities exist in Egypt and in Negro Africa, such as Adumu, Hepi, Inama, Sami Horise etc.
6. The Greeks referred to the Egyptian as “Hoi Aiguptos”, (black people); the Egyptians referred to themselves as Kam (black in their language.)
7. Melanin test proved that the Egyptians were black.
8. Osteological measurements which are less misleading than craniometry in distinguishing a black man from a white man has proved that the ancient Egyptians belonged to the black race. Lepsius, a German Savant at the end of the nineteenth century, made the studies and his conclusion remains valid. Future studies have not contradicted the “Lepsius canon”, which in broad figures gave the bodily proportion of the ideal Egyptian: short armed and of Negroid or Negrito physical type.
9. Most West African claim Egyptian ancestry. If they are black, their ancient Egyptian ancestors must be black.
10. Ancient paintings on caves and temples in Egypt depict blacks. At first there were only black paintings, in later times, the blacks were shown ruling over whites and yellows (Asians).
11. Ancient statues and carvings found in Upper and Lower Egypt showed black skins, and features.
12. Ancient monuments such as the pyramid have been replicated in other parts of Africa. A typical example is the Warri pyramid recorded in Roth (1671).
13. Language similarities exist between the Egyptians and some groups in west Africa such as the Wolof and particularly more so, the Yorubas (more then 500 similar words have been discovered bearing identical meanings. See Yoruba is Atlantis by the same authors: to be published).
14. Recent findings of Genetics and Molecular Biology and Linear Analysis have proved the Egyptians were Negroid.
15. The testimony of classical writers such as Plato, Homer, Aristotle, Pythagoras etc., portrays the Egyptians as blacks.
16. The physical photograph of Yuyi of ancient Egypt is Negroid (Barbara Mertz : Red Land ,Black land: 1967)
In order to prove the Egyptians origin of the Greek oracle of Dodona, Herodotus says: “And when they add that the dove was black, they gave us to understand that the woman was Egyptian”. The doves mentioned in a text “Epirus” stands for two Egyptian women, reputed to have brought the oracle from Tebu (Thebes)[today there are two Tebus in Yoruba land] in Egypt to establish the oracle of Dodona in Greek and Libya.
Another antiquarian, Lycinus, describing a young Egyptian, mentioned Negroid features. “This boy is not merely black; he has thick lips and his legs are too thin … His hair worn in a plait behind shows that he is not a free man.” The mention of “black”, “thick lips” and hair worn in plaits behind are totally of African origin. In those days Itsekiri owned slaves (mostly Sobo) were either clean-shaven, or they wore their hair in plaits until they regained freedom. Thus, unknowingly, Lycinus had drawn an identical cultural affinity between the Kamites and the Yorubas. Marcelinus, a Latin historian writes: “The men of Egypt are mostly brown or black with a skinny and desiccated look.”
Appolodorus, who lived in the first century before our era, commented on Egypt as Negroes: “Aiguptos captured the country of the black footed ones and called it Egypt after himself.” Aristotle – an ancient Greek philosopher, a disciple of Plato – in a naive way showed that the Egyptians were black, hear him:
“Those who are too black are cowards, like for instance the Egyptians and the Ethiopians, but those who are excessively white are also cowards as we can see from the example of women, the complexion of courage is between the two”.
Herodotus, 485-425BC, the father of history, further said concerning the ancient Egyptians: “It is in fact manifested that the Colchidians are Egyptian by race. Several Egyptians told me that in their opinion that the Colchidians were descendants of the soldiers of Sesostris. I had conjectured as much myself from two pointers, firstly because they have black skins and kinky hair (to tell the truth this proves nothing for other peoples have them too) and secondly more reliably for the reason that alone among mankind, the Egyptians and the Ethiopians have practiced circumcision since time immemorial. The Phoenicians and the Syrians of Palestine themselves admit that they learnt the practice from the Egyptians, while the Syrians in the river Thermodon and the Pathenoise region and their neighbours the Macrons say they learnt it recently from the Colchidians. These are the only races which practice circumcision, and it is observable that they do it in the same way with the Egyptians. As between the Egyptians themselves and the Ethiopians, I can not say which of them taught the other the practice, for among them; it is quite clearly a custom of great contiguity. As to the further strong proof to my belief is that all those Phoenicians trading to Greek cease to treat the pudenda after the Egyptian manner and do not subject their offspring to concussion”.
Herodotus mentioned black skins and kinky hair as features of the Colchidians of being descendants of the Egyptians; he also mentioned the survival of circumcision. It should be noted that Abraham – the Arab patriarch of the Jews – learnt circumcision from Hagar, his Egyptian slave wife, whence the custom spread to the Jews. Herodotus also commented that other peoples (those in inner Africa and the black Sumerians and Canaanites) also had kinky hair. The towns of ancient Egypt: On (Annu) or Heliopolis, Hermonthis, Dendera, Tebu etc., were developed by Annu, the pre-dynastic blacks of Egypt. Skeletons of the Negro Annu were ubiquitous in ancient Egypt... Mene, the first pharaoh of the first dynasty, sometimes identified with the God-man Osiris (A black forerunner of Christ) was a Blackman. Zoser, Sesostris, Amenhopis, Khufu, Menthuhotep, Queen Amuses, Nefertari etc., were also all Negroes.
There are also archaeological dimensions to prove that the Egyptians were negroes. Hear Ifemesia :
“tiny fragments of charcoal , accompanied by old stone Age tools , recovered tin workings near Jos on the Nigerian Plateau, suggests , when submitted to scientific methods of dating, an age of grater than 39000 years”…. Rock paintings and engravings recently discovered by Henri Lhote, a French archaeologist , indicate that Negroes , presumably from West Africa and its neighbourhood , had been living as faqr north as the Tassilli plateau in the Sahara before 3000 B.C. farther north, a close study of some 800 human skulls existing before the same date suggests that the ancestors of west Africans of today played an important in the building of the civilization of ancient Egypt”(Ifemesia 1976:40)
The Egyptian religion and other cultural practices show strong African and more so Yorubic characteristics. These can be seen in the following areas:
1. The lost wax method of brass or bronze making, which was common to both the Yoruba peoples (particular Ife) and the ancient Egyptians. 2. The ritual of initiation 3. Striving to achieve the ultimate in “Good” and truth (summun bonum) 4. The doctrine of transmigration of soul and reincarnation is widely believed in, by both peoples.
5. The concept of the ‘god king’.
6. Aspiration to achieve the great ‘good’ of the gods – ‘wealth health and long life’.
7. The Yorubic regalia, in most cases, are strikingly similar to pharoanic ones.
8. Veneration of the Ram in both places. Among the eastern Yorubas (Itsekiri especially, most of the water deities are depicted as ram following the predynastic and Phaoroanic patterns).
9. Both peoples answer the theophorous names.


Chapter 3


LINGUISTIC SIMILARITIES



Since Ferdinand de Saussure, the surest way to prove a cultural contact between peoples is to adduce linguistic evidence (Ferdinand de Saussure (1972) General HISTORY OF Africa). One of the largest inhabitants of Egypt were Yoruboid , and it will be expected that a good percentage of their language will be yoruboid ,too.
See the table below.
EGYPT YORUBA
1. Wu (rise) Wu (rise)
2. Ausa (Osiris, father of the gods) Ausa (father)
3. Ere (python/ Serpent) Ere (Python / Serpent)
4. Horise (a great god) Orise (a great god)
5. Sen (group of worshippers) Sen ( to worship)
6. Ged (to chant) Igede (a chant)
7. Ta (sell / offer) Ta (sell/offer)
8. Sueg (a fool) Suegbe (a fool)
9. On ( living person) One ( living person)
10. Kum (a club) Kumo( a club)
11. Enru (fear / terrible) Eru (fear / terrible
12. Kun / qun (brave man) Ekun (title of a brave man)
13. Win (to be) Wino (to be)
14. Odonit (festival) Odon (festival)
15. Ma or mi (to breath) Mi. (to breathe)
16. Tebu (a town) Tebu (a town)
17. Adumu (a water god) Adumu (a water god)
18. Khu (to kill) Ku (die)
19. Rekha (knowledge} Larikha (knowledge)
20 Hika (evil) Ika (evil)
21 Mhebi (humble) Mebi, humble to ones family
22 Sata (perfect) Santan (perfect)
23 Unas (lake of fire) Una (fire)
24 Tan (complete) Tan (complete)
25 Beru (force of emotion) Beru (fear)
26 Em (smell) Emi (smell)
27 Pa (open) Pa (break open)
28 Bi (to become) Bi (to give birth, to become)
29 Hepi (a water god) Ipi (a water god)
30 Sami (water god) Sami (a water god)
31 Osiri (a water god) Oshiri (a water god)
32 Heqet – Re (frog deity) Ekere (the frog)
33 Feh (to go away) Feh (to blow away)
34 Kot (build) Ko (build)
35 Kot (boat) Oko (boat)
36 Omi (water) Omi (water)
37 Ra (time) Ira (time)
38 Oni (title of Osiris) Oni (title of the king of Ife)
39 Budo (dwelling place) Budo (dwelling place)
40 Dudu (black image of Osiris) Dudu (black person)
41 Un (living person) Una (living person)
42 Ra (possess) Ra (possess/buy)
43 Beka (pray/confess) Be or ka (to pray or confess)
44 Po (many) Po (many/cheap)
45 Horuw (head) middle Egyptian Oruwo (head) (Ijebu)
46 Min (a god) Emin (spirit)
47 Ash (invocation) Ashe (invocation)
48 Aru (mouth) Arun (mouth ) Ilaje
49 Do (river) Odo (river)
50 Do (settlement) Udo (settlement)
51 Shekiri (water god) Shekiri (a water god)
52 Bu (a place) Bu ,a place
53 Khepara (beetle Akpakara (beetle)
54 No (a water god Eno (a water god)
55 Ra -Shu (light after darkness Uran-shu (the light of the moon
56 Run-ka (spirit name) Oruko (name)
57 Deb/dib to pierce Dibi (to pierce)
58 Maat (goddess of justice Mate (goddess of justice)
59 Aru (rise) Ru (rise up)
60 Fa (carry) Fa (pull)
61 Kaf (pluck) Ka (pluck)
62 Bu bi (evil place) Bubi (evil place)
63 In- n (negation In-n (negation)
64 Iset (a water god) Ise (a water god)
65 Shabu (watcher) Ashonbo (watcher)
66 Semati (door keeper) Sema (lock/shut the door)
67 Khenti amenti (big words of Osiris Yenti – yenti (big, very big)
68 Ma (to know) Ma (to know)
69 Bebi, a son of osiris) Ube, a god
70 Tchatcha chief (they examined the death to see if they tricked tsatsa (a game of tricks, gambling )
71 Ren( animal foot) Ren (to walk)
72 Ka (rest) Ka (rest/tired)
73 Mu (water) Mu (drink water)
74 Abi (against) Ubi (against / impediment)
75 Reti (to beseech) Retin (to listen)
76 Hir (praise) Yiri (praise)
77 Ta(spread out) Ta (spread out)
78 Kurud (round) Kurudu (round)
79 Ak – male Ako (male)
80 Se – to create Se (to create)
81 Hoo (rejoice) Yo (rejoice)
82 Kamwr (black) Kuru (extremely black
83 Omitjener (deep water) Omijen (deep water)
84 Nen, the primeval water mother) Nene (mother
85 Ta (land) Ita (land junction)
86 Horiwo (head) Oriwo (head)
87 Ro (talk) Ro (to think)
88 Kurubu (round) Kurubu (deep and round)
89 Penka (divide) Kpen (divide)
90 Ma-su (to mould) Ma or su (to mould)
91 Osa (time) Osa (time)
92 Osa (tide) Osa ( tide)
93 Fare (wrap) Fari (wrap)
94 Kom (complete) Kon (complete)
95 Edjo (cobra) Edjo (cobra)
96 Didi (red fruit) Diden (red)
97 Ba (soul) Oba (king) soul of a people
98 Ke (hill) Oke( hill
99 Anubis (evil deity) Onubi (evil person)
100 Kan (one: Middle Egyptian) Okan (one)
101 Nam (water god) Inama (water god)
The words above are used to show that most Yoruban words are identical to the ancient Egyptian.

chapter 4
TESTAMENT OF LANGUAGE
Language similarity
In any geopolity, propinquity accounts for similarities in languages. The Egyptian language was also influenced by languages of the. Semitic. According to Diop, Egyptian remained a stable language for at least a period of 4500 years. Egypt was at a point in the African continent where external influences could easily penetrate. Thus, the Egyptian would have borrowed from these neighbouring Semitic languages. The Egyptian language could not be isolated from its African context and its origin could not be fully explained in terms of Semitic. It is therefore, quite normal to expect related languages in Africa. A very prominent one is the Isekiri. In a research carried out in this work, Isekiri dialect - most ancient Yoruba dialect by glottochronology (Prof. Ade Obayemi) - has been identified as a dialect that has more identities with Ancient Egyptian than any other language. When such similarities are seen between two languages
that may be hundreds, or even, thousands of kilometers apart, one of the following things might have happened.
(a) Both peoples originated from a common source e.g. llaje and lkale.
(b) One of the peoples descended from the other e.g. Okpe from lsoko.
(c) One of the peoples, through military subjugation, imposed its language on the others; a typical example being the Romans and the Gauls, which then transmuted into the French language.
(d) By terms of trade, or commercial intercourse, the language of one people could be learnt by the other e.g. Warri and the Portuguese.
e) Mass migration: as Yorubas in Brazil.
It is important to state here that the similarities that can be deduced from the Egyptian and yoruba languages are obvious. You do not need the help of an etymologist, philologist or linguist to determine the nearness of the Egyptian and yoruba languages. Most of the words, when placed side by side, have striking similarities in spellings, pronunciations and meanings.
Any two languages in the world can have words with similar sounds, but different meanings. "Soro" in Hausa is to fear; while "soro" in Isekiri is to stand. Thus, the two words cannot be correlated. "Hajime" in Japanese is to begin; 'ajimen' in Isekiri is a town of spectacle. Thus, they cannot be correlated. "Go" in English is to move away from a place; "Go" in Isekiri means high or tall; these, also, cannot be correlated. "Pada" in Sanskrit means a "foot".
The word "Pada" in Oyo-Yoruba means to return; thus, the two cannot be correlated. However, in the case of yoruba and Ancient Egyptian language, words with similar, or at times, identical sounds, have corresponding similar or identical meanings. These attributes of similar sounds and similar meanings, if not for anything, point to a common source of origin.
Some time ago, traveling form Sapele to Jos, a quick-witted Arab man, Gani-Zaki, was interviewed. Gani-Zaki unveiled his personality as an Egyptian Egyptologist. He declared that:
...the ancient Egyptians were not Arabs. The present ubiquitous Arab population in Egypt is due to Islam enforced immigration that took place in the past. I have been traveling and sojourning all nooks and crannies of the African continent looking for linguistic tools to reconstruct African history, especially as it relates to the theory of a common "origin with 'Egyptian. I have collected a lot of evidences from the Yoruba ethno-lingual groups,like, I kale, Ekiti, Owo, llaje, Isekiri and Ijebu dialects, particularly the Isekiri corresponds more with the Egyptian than the west Yoruba dialects". (Gani Zaki: 1992).
According to him, due to the fact that the eastern Yoruba dialects, particularly those of the South East, are more related to the Egyptian than other dialects, the hypothesis that the Yoruba migrated from the east might soon blossom into a theory. He went forward to say that the Coast of the Bight of Benin between the Isekiri (from the River Ramos area) to the Fon (Aja) of Benin Republic; and as far as the Ga region of Ghana, might constitute a very strategic part of Atlantis. This position he held because he had noticed that most of the words of the yoruba who occupied the coast have the same meanings with the Egyptians of the Predynastic time before 3400BC.
Zaki submitted that Sekeri was an Egyptian deity comparable to Ausar. Since the Isekiri occupy the most southeastern part of Yoruba land, its dialect is more closely related to the Egyptian language. He also said that they, Egyptians, believed that the Egyptians descended from Atlantis. He continued that Atlantis stretched from the coast of West Africa to South America. Since the coast occupied by the Yorubas, the Bight of Benin, has been able to reveal a lot of culturo-lingual similarities to the Egyptian, that piece of land - the Bight of Benin - is sure to have been a very strategic portion of the Atlantean civilization, which stretched far into the sea and touched South America in those days.
It is not necessary to have knowledge of Hieroglyphics, Philology or Etymology or those linguistic jargons to understand the similarities between the Ancient Egyptian and the yoruba languages. Any normal human coming across the words in these two languages may well comprehend their similarities. In fact, according to Ferdinand de Saussure, the surest way to prove a cultural contact between two or more peoples is to adduce linguistic evidence (Ferdinand de Saussure: 1972).One of the largest inhabitants of Egypt was the Yorubas/ and it will be expected that a good percentage of their languages will be Yoruboid.




CHAPTER 5
SCIENTIFIC VIEW OF THIS RELATIONSHIP

Syntactic Uniformity of Egypt and Warri: The Rule Theophile Obenga1986). A scientific dive (Olomu: 2005)
The syntactic identify between Isekiri and Ancient Egypt is startling. If we consider the maxim of Ptahhotep "bw nfr zu m bw Bin" "good place has become evil place" and the Isekiri, ‘B’ ene fe d'u b’ubi, good place has become evil place or 'good has become evil’, then we can see the following;
1 (Bw+bin) vs (Bu+bi), all being noun derivatives, rather than collective ideas. They always indicate a place where things happen.
2. The above show instances across distances
and millennia where abstract nouns are formed from place names.
3 The forms bw/bin and bu/bi constitute a phrase; they are phrasal verbs in most cases. The forms above, (bw/bin) and (bu/bi) in, the two languages -Egypt and Isekiri respectively - are set out in a certain order, which in itself, creates this abstract quality. The thought can be shown vividly in this order, Bw+bin Bu+bi; which are noun + adjective formation, in both languages.
4 This Egyptian expression (millennia ago) and the
Isekiri expression (today) has similar sound and meaning. This is not an accident; but a pointer to an actual contact in History.
The identical interpretation of both languages, separated by time and space, is a perfect morphological, lexicological, and syntactic proof of Isekirian and Egyptian genetic linguistic relationship!

The Yoruboid Language:
a Scientific Dive (Honsbira 2005)

The verbal outfit of the Yoruboid languages as they equate with the Ancient Egyptian, as a matter of their spellings, inspires the linguists. Though this is too clear to necessitate much exploration … The Yoruboid languages – Yoruba, Isekiri, Ebu, Olukumi, Igala and so on, each relating to each other and to all others, bear a horrifying testimony to this contestation. There is a straight cord linking each of them (and all of them, taken as one) to the Ancient Egyptian language. It is unscientific to treat the relationship between languages A and B without relating language A or B to C, D, E and F as members of the linguistic group to which A or B belongs. It is scientific to treat the languages in their mutual relatedness, rather than viewing each with each as members of a given phylum - isolation on isolation!
To really see the Yoruboid languages as a group and as originating from Ancient Egyptian, we shall pick a notable sentence in Egypt and translate this into each of the members of the Yoruboid with a critical tenacity set between the prospects of clarification and retrospect of confusion . Consider the ancient saying of the ancient Egyptian wise man, Ptahotep Bu nfr zu m bw bin meaning “where we loved became an evil place” or in the opinion of Obenga “good has become evil”. This is:

Yoruba: Ibi awa fe d’ ibibi.
Isekiri: Ub’ ene fe d’ ubu bi.
Olukumi: Ib awa fe d’ ibubi.
Ebu: Ube Kama fe l’ube bibi.
Igala: Ugb’ ene fe d’ ugb'ubi.


We promise to critically analyze the relationship among the Yoruboid languages as they relate to the Ancient Egyptian and diving there from, discover the ancientness of Isekiri. But now, no. In face of the above juxtaposition this is just too clear!

The Rules
Rule 1 : If one language A combines with several other languages, B, C, D, and E to form a linguistic group K , then as each of B , C , D and E is related to A ,also B , C , D and E are related to each other.

Rule 2 : If language A is genetically related to several other languages , B , C, D and E to form a linguistic group , the genetic relationship of each of B , C, D and E to A is the genetic relationship of each of B, C , D and E to each other,(other things remaining equal.)












Why yoruba and Ancient Egyptian Are Not Totally Alike
"Time changes, and with it the ways of men". Following this epigram, most of the words used in every language are prone to changes, making it impossible for a man who speaks a particular language today to understand the same language as spoken millennia ago. The following are words as they where used in 1611 side-by-side with their literary meanings. In the list below, the first words were used to mean the second.
1 “Let meant “Hinder”.
2 “Prevent” meant “Proceed”.
3 “Allow” meant “Approve”.
4 “Communicate” meant, “Talk”.
5 “Conversation” meant “Conduct”.
6 “Comprehend” meant “Overcome”.
7 “Ghost” meant “Spirit”.
8 “Allege” meant “Prove”.
9 “Demand,” meant ask”. (RSV Bible: 1971)

Further examples of cases of radical changes in language can be drawn from words of the same period laid side-by-side their meanings.

1. "Abandon" Once meant, "proclaim openly".
2. "Admire" Once meant, "to wonder at".
3. "Cunny" Once meant "able or skilled".
4. "Insolent" Once meant "unusual".
5. "Knave" Once meant "boy".
6. "Niece" Once meant "grand-child".
7. "Punctual" Once meant "attending to".
8. "Starve" Once meant, "die".
9. "Villain" Once meant "farm servant".

And the word "suffer" once meant "allow". Today, it still exists as "universal adult suffrage" and still means permission. The English Language also changes; it is almost a hundred percent different from the way it was spoken eight hundred years ago.
The Lord's Prayer has undergone a lot of metamorphosis over the years, also. The paternoster, recited today, like the above, has undergone a drastic change, which is a periodic culmination of the nature of languages. Hear the paternoster, as recited in the 12th, 13th, 14th and 15th centuries AD. And note the century-to-century changes.
The Lord's Prayer (1130 in the reign of Stephen)
Fadir ure, be
Art en heofone,
Sy gebletsod
name cum pin rike
Si pin wil swa
Swa on heofone And on eorpan.
Bread ure daeg-Wamlich geof us To daeg.
And forgeof us Ageltes ura swa
Swa we forgeofen. Agiltendum ur -urn And ne led us
on costunge
Acalys us from Yfele swa beo
Hit.
The Lords prayer by 1250 during the reign of Henry the III
Fadir ur that
Es in hevene,
Halud thi nam
To nevene;
thou do as thi rich rike;
thi will on erd
be wrought, ak
as it is wrought
in hevenay. Ure ilk day brede give us today
Forgive thou
all us dettes urs
alk will forgive till
lidetteurs so.
And ledde us in na fandung. But sou Id us fra ivel thing. Amen.
The Lord’s Prayer in 1380 (Wycliffe's version)
Our 'fadir that
Art in hevenys
Halewid be thi name;
thi kingdom come to;
be thi will done
in erthe, as in hevene.
Give to us this
day oure breed
ovir othir substance,
and forgive to us our dettis as
we forgiven to oure dettouris.
And lede us
Not into temptacioun;
But delyvere
Us from yvel

Amen.

The Lords prayer in 1526, (Tyndales version)
Our father,
which art in heaven;
hallowed be
thy name;
let thy kingdom come.
thy wil be fulfilled as well in
earth as it in heven.
Give us this
day ur dayly bred;
and forgeve us oure dettes as
we forgeve our dettes.
And leade us
Not into temptation,
But delyvere us
from yvel. For thyne is the
Kyngdom, and the power,
And the glorye; forever
Amen.
(J.M.D.M: 1891:330)
That is not all; Isekiri language is no exception to the general linguistic peculiarity of changes. The following are some words whose meanings are still the same, but which have had their verbal renditions altered overtime.

1 “Onono” is now pronounced as “Ololo”.
2 “Ineme” is now pronounced as “lleme”.
3 “Kanuwere” is now becoming pronounced as “katsuwere”.
4 “Ene” is now pronounced as “ene”.
5 “Sanguegwe” is now seen as “Sangue”.
All in all, the interpretation of the above analysis is that the Isekiri language has evolved from a language in Egypt - call it Sekiri, Shaker, Weret - call it Ancient (Kamitic), if you like .And if we remember that this language has ceased to be, millennia now, and that the man, Sekiri, left Egypt millennia now, it is surprising that the language still retains as much form of its original rendition today (2008), In fact, Isekiri is as related to the Egyptian of 30BC as English of today is to the English of the 12th century. A. D. It is an undying linguistic legacy!


Further proofs of yoruban Linguistic antiquity:
Universal testimony
By syntactic symbols we mean items which a community possesses before it meets outsiders. These items include air, land, water, man, woman, sun; etc. The Isekiri do not have the names of these symbols, similar or identical to Bini. Most of these syntactic symbols are identical or similar in Isekiri and Kamitic. This clearly proves the ultimate origin of the Isekiri is not from Benin.
. Some argue about court language, this is not true because other places ,Onitsha, Aboh, Lagos etc where the Binis also had political satellites never speak the Court language of Benin. The Onitsha is more related to Isekiri than Benin.

The linguistic relationship between Isekiri, Onitsha Igbo and Ancient Egyptian
There are legends among the Ebus, Olukumis and the Igalas that the Onitshas are their descendants. The legend says further that as the people left the Niger- Benue confluence, they passed through Ebu-Olukumi. Some deflected to Onitsha while some passed what is now Kwale region to Warri (Ojuma Frank 2006). Isekiri legends also claim that when the Binis conquered Onitsha in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the Isekiri Navy's assistance was sought and secured. The legendary founder of Onitsha was Chima. The word "Chima" is cognate with the word “Oritsema” and both seem to be derived from two Egyptian words “Horise” (a god) And “ma”( know); in Kamitic, in Isekiri and Onitsha languages.



The Linguistic Relationship between Isekiri, Onitsha Igbo, ancient Egyptian

English
Kamitic
Isekiri
Onitsha Ibo
To become/give birth
Bi/ba
Bi
Bu
Blow away/go away
Fe
Fe
Fe
Smell
Em
Emi
Imi(nose)
Land
Ala/ale
Ale
Ala
Primeval water mother
Nen
Nene
Nem
Create
Se
Se
Ke
To know
Ma
Ma
Ma
Rise
Ru/aru
Ru
Anu
Read/talk
Ro
Ro
Kwo
The Linguistic Family Proof
The Isekiri and the Bini are in totally different linguistic groups, while the Isekiri belongs to the Yoruboid group, the Bini belongs to the Edoid group. The Yoruboid group includes Isekiri, Yorubas, Ebu, Olukumi and Igala; and members of this group are more related to the Fon, Aja, Ewe and Ga from Benin republic to Accra in Ghana, than they are to the Binis(Adu Boahen). Sagay (1982) comments that the masquerades along this coast stretching from Warri to Accra are cognates. This means most of the Peoples: Fon, Aja, Ga, Ewe, Yoruba and Isekiri are linguistically and religiously related.

On this linguistic family group hear Alagoa: "From a linguistic view, too, the Ijo of the Delta States differs from neighbouring languages. Ijo belongs to the wide Niger Congo family of African languages along with all the neighbouring languages, and more particularly to the Kwa sub-family along with the Yoruba (Yoruba, Isekiri), Ibo, and Edo (Bini, Urhobo-lsoko, Egene, Epie Atisa, Udekama) within which it forms a distinct group, the Ijo group" (Alagoa 1977: 335).


On the linguistic family proof, Obayemi says further:
In South-East Yoruba land, extending from the coastal lagoons to the Rain forest, are to be found the Yoruba speaking peoples grouped together as Ijebu, Ondo, Isekiri and Ikale. In the northeast is the kingdom of Owo, sharing many cultural peculiarities with the central or western Yoruba but in many respects distinct (Ade Obayemi: 1977:220)

Word-to-word Juxtaposition of English and the Yoruboids
As shown under migration, the ancient Kanuris, the Igalas, the Olukumis and the Isekiri of the Warri kingdom are all one by origin, a reason why they all speak the Yoruboid language. The extent of cognation of these languages to standard Yoruba is by all convention over 60%. This is evident from the scientific juxtapositions of these languages: Igala, Ebu, Lukumi, Isekiri and indeed, Oyo Yoruba. See the tables below.
The fact that all these languages are very ancient can be borne from the further fact that the oloja, olaja and onoja syndrome is common among the northeast Yoruba, the southeast Yoruba and the Igala. This institution belonged to the Predynastic era of the Yoruba history. This was the era before the evolution of kingdoms and mega states. Professor Obayemi witnesses:
The institution of Oloja or Onoja, found among both the Igala in the northeast and the Yoruba in the southeast is clearly of great antiquity and perhaps a survival of the proto-historic phase of the Yoruba-lgala peoples. (Obayemi1977:221)

SCIENTIFIC JUXTAPOSITION OF THE YORUBOID LANGUAGES.

ENGLISH
ISEKIRI
IGALA
YORUBA
EBU
OLUKUMI
God
Oritse/Oluwa
Ojo
Olorun/Oluwa
Ojo
Oluwa,Osalobua,
Enonewe
Devil
Esu/Etsu
Ebili
Esu
Ibego
Esu
Heaven
Oron
Ojale
Orun
Odiade
Orun
Down
Ane
Ane
Ile
Ane
Ale
Father
Osa
Ata
Iba
Ata
Oke
Mother
Iye
Iye
Iye
Oyomi
Iya
Land
Ane/ale
Ane
Ile
Ane
Ale
Water
Omi
Omi
Omi
Omi
Omi
Air
Orifi/ Afere
Ofun
Afefe
Afe Ujeun
Afe
Food
Oje
Oje
Onje
Ujeun
Iyan
Child
Oma
Oma
Omo
Oma
Oma
Husband
Oko
Oko
Oko
Umu
Oko
Wife
Aya
Oya
Aya
Ela
Ayu
House
Uli
Unyi
Ile
Ukpo
Ule
Light
Utukpa
Ughane
Imole
Eja
Ukpa
Animal
Eran
Ela
Eran
Bi
Eran
Cloth
Atso/Aso
Ukpo
Aso
Umi
Atsor
Fish
Eja
Eja
Eja
Uku
Eza
Born
Bi
Bi
Bi
Ugbolo
Bi
Life
Emi
Imi
Emi
Ugbolo
Imi
Death
Uku
Uku
Iku
Enikiku
Uku
Wood
Egi
Eji
Igi
Ewo
Eji
Dead
Onetoku
Enetiku
Eniku
Enikiko
Oku
Goat
Ekeregbe
Ewo
Ewure
Ewo
Eran Ule
Sheep
Agutan
Alu
Agutan
Ala/gbaniko
Agutan/gbaniko
King
Olaja(olu)
Onu/Onoja
Olaja/Oba/olu
Onu
Oloza/Onu
Leaf
Iwe
Emi
Ewe
Iwe
Ewe
Sand
Ibun/arikpe
Ekete
Irayin
Ekete
Erukpe
Stone
Ukpukporon(ukuta)
Ukuta
Okuta
Okuta
Okuta
Bird
Egbele
Ewe
Eye
Ewe
Eye
Bed
Ukpo
Ate
Orukpo
Akwa
Akwa
Juju
Umale
Egwu
Egugun/umale
Egwu
Egwu
Gate
Ona
Ona
Ona
Eku
Eku/Ona
Pepper
Ogolo
Akpoko
Ata
Akpoko
Ita
Song
Erin
Eli
Orin
Eli
Irin
Dance
Ujo
Ido
Ijo
Ijo
Uzo
Blood
Sangi(ejen)
Ebi
Eje
Ebie
Eze
Leg
Esen
Ere
Ese
Ere
Ohe
Hand
Ewo
Owo
Owo
Owor
Owor
Life
Emi
Imi
Emi
Ugbolo
Imi
Death
Uku
Uku
Iku
Enikiku
Uku
Wood
Egi
Eji
Igi
Ewo
Eji
Dead
Onetoku
Enetiku
Eniku
Enikiko
Oku
Goat
Ekeregbe
Ewo
Ewure
Ewo
Eran Ule
Sheep
Agutan
Alu
Agutan
Ala/gbaniko
Agutan/gbaniko
King
Olaja(olu)
Onu/Onoja
Olaja/Oba/olu
Onu
Oloza/Onu
Leaf
Iwe
Emi
Ewe
Iwe
Ewe
Sand
Ibun/arikpe
Ekete
Irayin
Ekete
Erukpe
Stone
Ukpukporon(ukuta)
Ukuta
Okuta
Okuta
Okuta
Bird
Egbele
Ewe
Eye
Ewe
Eye
Bed
Ukpo
Ate
Orukpo
Akwa
Akwa
Juju
Umale
Egwu
Egugun/umale
Egwu
Egwu
Gate
Ona
Ona
Ona
Eku
Eku/Ona
Pepper
Ogolo
Akpoko
Ata
Akpoko
Ita
Song
Erin
Eli
Orin
Eli
Irin
Dance
Ujo
Ido
Ijo
Ijo
Uzo
Blood
Sangi(ejen)
Ebi
Eje
Ebie
Eze
Leg
Esen
Ere
Ese
Ere
Ohe
Hand
Ewo
Owo
Owo
Owor
Owor
Belly
Ino/ifun
Efun
Inu
Efun
Inor/Ife
Neck
Ofun/ugurun
Olo/ofan
Orun
Olo
Oron
Lip
Ukparun
Uko
Enu
Ukpalu
Ukperun
Teeth
Eji
Eyin
Eyin
Eyin
Ayin
Tribal mark
Ila/Ina
Ina
Ila
Ina
Ila
Snake
Ojo
Ejo
Ejo
Echicha
Ezo
Vomit
Sen
Re
Bi
Re
Bi
Incantation
Igede
Fanfan
Igede
Ijele
Ase
One
Okan
Okan
Okan
Onkan
Okan/Ene
Fear
Eru
Ailu
Reun
Ailu
Eru
Door
Ekun(Ona)
Ona
Lekun
Ona
Ekun
Year
Odon
Odon
Odun
Oro/Odoe
Odoe
Breath
Mi
Mi
Mi
Mi
Mi
Has died
Oku ren
Ukwu
O til ku
Oku
Oku
Evil
Ika/Ubi
Bitere
Ika/bi
Owun bibi
Ubi
Finish
Tan
Itakpa
Tan
Ta
Tan
Canoe
Okor
Okor
Okor
Okor
Okor
Time
Ira/Ugba
Oko
Asiko/Igba
Oge/Ofru
Izoto
Black
Dudun/Kuru
Iko
Didun/Koro
Dudu
Dudu
White
Fifen
Ejufun
Fufun
Fufun
Fufan
Red
Diden/ikpikp
Ekpikpa
Pipa
Kpikpa
Kpikpa
Beg
Be/ube
Ebi
Be/ebe
Akoshiele
Ebe
Sprit
Ukpen
Afun
Emi
Ibegun
Egugu
Pluck
Ka
Ka
Ka
Ka
Ka
Know
Ma
Ma
Mo
Ma
Ma
I know
Mo ma
Che ma
Momo
Miema
Moma
Praise
Uyiri
Jeyun
Uyi
Migwa
Hiho
Deep
Jan
Unefun
Jin
Inefunki
Zen ita
Junction
Ita
Iweta
Ita
Ada
Ita
Head
Ori
Oji
Ori
Odi
Ori
Think
Ro
Akpibe
Ro
Aye
Ro
Round
Kurudu/kuru bu
Kokiro
Kurubu
Okiloki
Okiri
Divine
Kpen
Kpen
Pin
Kpen
Kpen
Wrap
We(fari)
Ewe
We
Diu
Din
Come
Wa
Lia.ewa
Wa
Lowa
Wa
Complete
Tan
Ijokpa
Tan/pari
Yiojo
Oko
Hill
Okiti
Uwo
Okiti
Odieke
Edoke
Wicked person
Olika /olubi
Ene ogbitere
Olika
Onebibi
Olika
Box
Ekpetin
Akpati
Apeti
Ekpetin
Ekpeti
Respect
Eghor
Ojima
Owor
Owen
Oghor
Broom
Oghor
Owo
Owor
Oghwon
Osisa
Money
Ogho
Odudu/oko
Owo
Oku
Egho
Chair
Aga
Chair
Aga
Oche
Aga
Table
Imeje
Table
Tabili
Odide
Table
Corn
Oka / Imiyo
Eyo
Oka/ Agbado
Ogbro
Oka
Pot
Ewo/utsha
Oshoro
Awo
Ucha
Awo
Cup
Uko
Ago
Cup
Ago
Awo
Slim
Taghara/gbe
Ogbe
Teghere/toro
Gbe/wele
Tere
Fat
Nemi
Oyo
Nimi
Oyor
Ologba
Tall
Go
Ogba
Gun
Ugba
Egba
Short
Kutu/kpuke
Odi
Kurupu
Kpuke
Kere
Wall
Arall
Odo
Egbele
Olodo
Ara ule
Hair
Iron
Iloji/ilo
Irun
Ilo/ilodi
Iron
Thief
Ole
Oji
Ole
Oji
Ole
Quick
Ya/kiakia
Ikachia
Ya/kiakia
Ajaji
Ozugbo
Poket/bag
Ekpo
Ikpa
Apo
Akpa
Akpo
Run
Sa/ Ogure
Ulie
Sare
Rule
Oha
Do
Se
Se
Se
Se
Se



Yoruboid Languages: Juxtaposed

English
Isekiri
Igala
Yoruba
Olukumi
Ebu
Open the box
Ru/tsin ekpeti we/yi
Chi akpa ti yi
Shi apeti yi
Ru ekpeti yi
Tse kpeti yi
Kill my fish
Kpeka mi
Kpeka mi
Kp’eja mi
Kpa ezami
Kpe ja mi
Eat this food
J’oje we
Juje we
Jeonke yi
Ze eyan yi
Jujewun wi
Clime the hill
Gun okiti
Teguwo
Gun s’oke/okiti
Gun edo oke
Gwodie ke
Water is in the cup
Omi w’ uko
Omi defuago
Omi wa ninu copu
Omigha ino esisa
Omi ra go
Bring two brooms
Kwogho meji wa
Kwogho meji wa
Mu owo meji wa
Mu esisa mezi wa
Don ghon meji wa
Guide/watch it for me
Bejutogbemi /bemigho
Dejutomi
Bojutogbe mi/funmi
Gho zu mi
Dejuto mi
John vomited
Joni sen
Joni re
Jonu bi
Jonu bi
John nere
Black and white evening snake
Ojo dudu biri fifen t’ale
Edukpa efufu ejo ane
Ejo dudu ati kpipka t’ale
Dudu efufun edzo ane
Dudu e fufu Echich ane
I beg you
Mo be – e
Na bi – ebi
Mo be or
Mo bee
Me ko tsi ale
Praise snake
Yiri ojo
Yeyun ojo
Yin ejo
Kpo me edzo
Guao ke chichale
Where is my child
Omaremi/ot omni se?
Abo ma miden?
Omo mi da?
Kari Oma mi
Oma mi fe
Divide the junction
Kpen ita we
Ekpen iweta iweta
Pen’ta yi
Kpen ita
Kpe ora kada
I know you – you chief
Mo m’uwo uwo ole!
Uche me, use oji
Emi mo or iwo ole
Mo ma eni uwo ole
Me ma uwo – uwo oji
Come, my friend
Wa, olukumi
Lia, olukwumi
Wa, ore mi
Wa, osemi
Wa, onya mi
I sing with my mouth
Ma k erin b’arun mi
Nu kelikpai alumi
Ma fe ‘nu mi k’orin
Mo ko orin ne erun mi
Ma ru alu mi kele
I will dance with my legs
Ma jo b’esen mi
Na tido kpai eremi
Ma fe’se mi jo
Ohe mi ni mo fazo
Mia do ere mi jijo
I will praise Jesus
Ma yiri Jisosi
Na jeyuyun Jesus
Ma yin Jesu
Ma hen Jesus
Mia guo Jesus
This fish is cheap











Eja we kpo
Ejai che kpo
Eja yi po
Eza yi kpo
Eja ye ku
ENGLISH
ISEKIRI
IGALA
YOURBUA
OLUKUMI
EBU
One
Mene/okan
Oka
Mine /okan
Ine/okan
Okan/iyen
Two
Meji/eji
Eji
Meji/eji
Mezi/ezi
Eji
Three
Meta/eta
Eta
Meta/eta
Meta./eta
Eta
Four
Meren/eren
Ele
Merin/erin
Meren/eren
Ele
Five
Maru/okaru
Elu
Meru/eru
Meru/eru
Elu
Six
Mefa/efe
Efa
Mefa/efa
Mefa/efa
Efa
Seven
Meje/eje
Ebie
Meje/eje
Meze/eze
Ebie
Eight
Mejo/ejo
Ejo
Mejo/ejo
Mezzo/ezo
Ejo
Nine
Mesan/ese
Ela
Mesan/esan
Mehan
Ela
Ten
Megua/egua
Egwa
Mewa/ewa
Mewa/esan
Egwu
Twenty
Ogun
Ogun
Ogun
Ogbo
Ogwa
Thirty
Ogban
Ogwuegwa
Ogban
Ogban
Ogwuegwa
Forty
Oji
Ogunmeji/
Ogbomeji
Ogoji
Ozi
Ogwumeji
Hundred
Oru
Ogunmeji/
Ogbomeji
Ogoru

Ogbomelu
Ogbomelu


Counting: Yoruboids Juxtaposed






The Kamitic (Ancient Egyptian Language) and the Yoruboids Compared.

English
Kamitic
Egyptian
Standard
Yoruba
Isekiri
Igala
Oluku mi/Onu kwumi
Ebu
Die
Khu
Ku
Ku
Ku
Ku
Ku
Water
Omi
Omi
Omi
Omi
Omi
Omi
Black
Dudu:black image of Ausar
Dudu
Dudu
Dudu
Dudu
Dudu
Mouth
Aru
Enu/erun
Arun
Ailu
Arun
Ailu
Moon
Khonsu
Oshu
Oshu
Ochu
Oshu
Ochu
To know
Ma
Ma
Ma
Ma
Ma
Ma
Pluck
Ka(f)
Ka
Ka
Ka
Ka
Ka
Worship
Sen
Sen
Sin
Sen
Hen
Hen
Person
On/un
Eni
One/una
Ene
Ene
Ene
Land/boundary
Ala
Ile
Ale
Ane
Ane
Ane
Walk/an imam foot
Ren
Esen/ren
Ere esen
Ere
Ohe
Ohe
Title of king Ausar
On
Ooni
Onu/olu
Onu
Onu/olu
Onu
Hill
Ke
Oke
Oke
Oke
Oke
Oke
One
Kan
Okan
Okan
Okan
Okan
Okan
Rejoice
Hoo/yoo
Yor
Yor
Yor
Yor
Yor
Divide
Penka
Pin
Kpen
Kpen
kpen
kpen
Spirit/breathe
Min
Mi/emi
Mi/mi
Umi
Emi
Umi
Not known
Amon/am an
Aomor
Anma
Aama
Aama
Aama
Burst forth
Wha/wa
Wa
Wa
Wa
Wa
Wa
Sell
Ta
Ta
Ta
Ta
Ta
Ta
Buy/po ssess
Ra
Ra
Ra
Ra
Ra
Ra
Fear
Eru
Erun
Eru
Ailu
Eru
Ailu
Finish
Tan
Tan
Tan
Itakpa
Tan
Ta
Complete
Kom
Kun
Kon

Kon

Break open
Pa
Pa
Kpa

Kpa

Perfect
Sata
Santan
Santan

Santan

Lake of fire
Unas
Ina (fire)
Una
Una
Una
Una
Deepwater
Omitjener
Omijen
omijrn

Omizen

Boat
Ko(t)
Oko
Oko
Oko
Oko
Oko
Evil
Hika/ubi
Ika/ubi
Ika/ubi

Ika/ubi

Serpent
Edjo/odjo
Ejo
Ojo
Ojo
Ozo
Ecicha





LINGUISTIC EVIDENCE: THE GENETIC LEVEL

It is imperatic to show that there is genetic linguistic relationship between Egyptian (Kamitic and Coptic) with the Yoruboids linguistic correspondences at the phonetic syntactic and morphological levels will be our preoccupation in a study like this.

Olumide Lucas (1948) Calvers Ferdinand de Saussure 1969; 1970), Chick Anta Diop, Tarigh Sawandi, Theophlus Obenga etc are our pace setter in the study of Egypto-African linguistic relationship.

Most African languages have a very short written record, despite this anomal, they have a long oral history base, interpreted of their short written record.

Some African languages (Yoruboids in this case have an oral base that hundreds thousands of years. Obayami (1977) posits that the base origin of some African languages, in addition to their culture, nut have survived thousands of years. This is not stagnancy, but an uniformity within a continuity. (B.E.B. fagg “The Nok Society of Nigeria (FHSN), I, 4 1959, PP 288-293 D.D Harthe, “Preliminary Report of the University of Ibadan Kanji reserve Archeology Project”, (1968), West African Archeological Newsletter, 12, (1970) pp 7-19; all confirmed the positions of Obayemi.

Arsmstrong (1962) “Glottochronology and African linguistics” J.A.H iii, 2, 1962, pp 283-290 demonstrates that the stability of a language and a dialectical form to be 130years .At this level etymological, synyactic and morphological correspondences and even identities between the Yoruboids and ancient Egyptian, will confirm their migration from that base. A scientific analysis of the maxim of Ptahotep in another chapter has demonstrated the genetic linguistic relationship between Egyptian (Kamitic and Coptic) and the Yoruboids. In this chapter particular references have to be made in the uniformities, correspondences, similarities and even identities of the eternal syntactic symbols of Egyptian and the Yoruboids.
Swadesh compiled the eternal syntactic symbols – a list of 207 words – which he claimed are present in any linguistic group before contact with “foreigners” (www.wiktionary.org.wiki.swadesh_list).Many linguistics have criticized Swadesh, his lists, his methods, and his methodologies. Yet, despite criticism, his list-modified here and there, by later scholars – remains the most authentic apparatus to test the genetic relationship, rather than the typological relationship of languages. There are some of the objections raised against Swadesh:

1. Some words in his list have no universal applicability.
2. The history of a language might be more important than its appearance and structure in tracing the origin of words.
3. There might be phonetic decays and consonant drops; and even consonant additives.
4. Cognates need not look alike.
5. Uniformity in a particular order of words might confirm a common origin.
We shall treat these sub topics, one after the other.

(a) THE HISTORY OF A LANGUAGE

The history of a language is far more important than the mere resorting to the eternal syntactic symbols of a language to determine its origin.If we take the historical experiences of two languages – French and English – we can see that from mere comparison with the swadesh list or its modifications by later scholars, and referencing only to the eternal syntaxing, they belong to two different families. French is Romance language (that is, a language derived from Latin), like Spanish, Italian, Portuguese etc.
English on the otter hand belongs to the Germanic group of languages. Using only eternal syntactic symbols, English appears to be cognate with German and Dutch. Yet, when spoken, English is more like French, Spanish and Italian, Portuguese etc, than German and Dutch. In fact, there are more Latin words in English then English words in the English Language!
But using the syntactic level as the only point of reference, English might be considered a cognate language with German and Dutch, as the English themselves are descended from low Germanic tribes.
Today, there might be as many words with Greek origin in English as there are words of English origin (Anglo Saxon, Celtic and Welsh etc) words in English. Words of Latin origin make up about 55% of English Language, Greek, 13%, while loan words from other linguistic experience make up the rest.
The French were not originally of Roman stock, neither did they speak Latin at inception. At the beginning, the French were Gauls, but due to their conquest by the Romans, almost the whole of their original language was sunk for a pidgin form of Latin – the French tongue. At this juncture, some scholars argue that the history of a language might be handier than the mere tinkering with syntactic symbols to determine its origin. As the Swadesh list demonstrates, English has more cognation with German and Dutch, yet, English is more akin to the romance languages – French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese etc – when spoken than German or Dutch.

2. PHONETIC DECAYS AND LINGUISTIC EVOLUTION

Some cognates need not look alike at the genetic level. Some consonants may be dropped for ease of pronunciation. French and Latin display this tendency most vividly.

The table explains.

ENGLISH
LATIN
FRENCH
ITALIAN
SPANISH
Who
Quis
Qui
Chi
Quien
What
Quid
Quo
Che
Que
Whole
Ubi
Ou
Dove
Donde
Fruit
Fructus
Fruit
Frutta
Fruta
Blood
Sanguis
Sang
Sangue
Sagre
Hand
Manus
Main
Mano
Mano
Neck
Collum, Cervis
Cou
Collo
Cuollo
Laugh
Ridere
Rire
Ridere
Reir
Stone
Petra
Pierre
Piertra
Piedra
Earth
Terra
Terre
Terra
Tierra

As the table demonstrates, in most cases, the French drop the last consonant of the Latin to ease pronunciation. In some case the consonants are there without even being voiced by the French.In exceptional cases however, additional consonants are usually added for the sake of emphasis.Coptic is the Ancient Egyptian written in Greek letters, or its modifications. If we compare the Kamitic with the Coptic, we see areas of phonetic decay in the later. For instance, Peti (heaven) in Kamitic becomes (Pe), heaven in Coptic. Heqar (hunger) in Kamitic becomes (Eko) hunger in Coptic. “Sura” to drink in Kamitic becomes (Su) to drink in Coptic. It is important to notice the elision of some consonant sound in the words listed. We should expect these in the syntactising of some Kamtic and Yoruboids.
In French and Latin there are also correspondences that look like the above. For instance, the word “Vox” (Voice) is like “voix” ‘voice’ in French , but the “X”, the last consonant in the French equivalent, has experienced a phonetic decay, because it is now silent.The English (Voice) sounds more like (Vox) than the French (voix). Pronounced ‘vua’) yet; every linguist knows the French “voix” and the latin “vox” are cognates.In some other instances, we will expect to see a doubling of consonants as to create effect. A good example – the English word “cab” has been doubled to “kabu kabu” in Nigerian coastal pidgin. It is expected that in the swadesh list some consonant doublings will be seen between the Yoruboids and the Egyptian.Is “oti”, double in Kamitic, not cognate with “otiti” great or glorious in the Yoruboid.

3. COGNATE NEED NOT LOOK ALIKE

Words that are cognate are not necessarily disenable to the non-linguist. The English personal pronoun “I” the German “Ich” and the Dutch “Ik”, have the same etymological and morphological origins, yet they don’t look alike the “ik” sound in Dutch is softened to the “ich” in German, and the consonant is totally dropped by phonetic decay in English.The Italian “io”, the Spanish “yo” and the French “je” are all derived from the Latin “Ego” and they mean “I” in all these languages, but an uninitiated might not see these words as being derived from the Latin, or being cognates. Forget the vowels! The French softened the guttural “g” in “ego” to a “j” in “je”; the Spanish exchanged it with “y”; and the Italian with a consonant variant of “I”.
The English word “church” is a direct derivative from Old English ‘kirk”. Even within the linguistic experience of one language, “k” has been softened to “ch’ . We see also that the English “father”, the German “Vater”, and the Dutch “vader” are perfect cognates, all from the same etymological root. Each people pronounces and uses consonant that tally with linguistic experience.The Wiktionary makes a most absurd reference that the Sanskirit word “chakra and the English word “wheel” are cognates

4. SOME WORDS IN THE LIST ARE NOT UNIVERSALS

Some words in the list such as “snow” don’t have universal applicability.

5. GRAMMATICAL SHIFT OF WORDS AND WORD REVERSALS

A verb in one language might become an adverb in another language. A noun in one language might become an adjective in another language. For instance “aqua” has been added to the morphemes and phonemes of English to form various adjectives in English such as “aqueos”, “aquatic”, “aquarium” etc. But “aqua’ in Latin is a noun, “water”. by phonetic decay the word has become “eau” in French . The Spanish is “agua” and the Italian is “acqua”. Also, the meaning of a word may be reversed in another language, or in a group of languages within the same phylum. For example “ola” in Oyo yoruba means “tomorrow”, the same word is “yesterday” in Itsekiri Yoruba. Also, “horu” ‘day’ in Kamitic becomes “orun” ‘night’ in the Yoruboids. Words in one language can be used to represent an aspect of the same languge eg horu the day or sun is reflected in oorun (Sun) in Oyo Yoruba .

6) a common system of nomenclature: identity of religio-water names

The water names of the yoruboids and the ancient egyptian’s have identities.tis common nomenclature points to the same origin. “omi” is the name for wzster iin kamitic and all yoruboids. it represents the vast expanse of water that existed before creation in the mythologies of both peoples.
“odo” is river in all yoruboids and Egyptian.
“eri “ is river in kaimtic and in eastern yorubaland. eri is all so dwe in all yoruboids. “osa” is lake in kamitic. it is also time or tide. in yoruboids it is time or tide. the Aworis of lagos have a masquerade, ‘Olosa’ , the owner of the lake or lagoon.
ogun/ khu
in ancient Egypt hri was also refereed to as “Khu”.he was first a god of the sky before his decent to earth. in Yoruban mythology, ogun was first in the heavemly world before his de3scent at Ire-Ekiti. there was Hori the elder and Hori the junior. the Hori of the sky was hori the elder,while that of the land was Hori thje minor. in eastern yorubaland of Ilaje and Isekiri Ogun was in two forms (Ogun-Omi, Wateer Ogun,the elder) and Ogun-Oke(land Ogun, the minor)

In benin republic the name Ogun is renderd (Gu) www.answers.com/topic/gu-makes-theworld habitable.
sango/ Jakuta
sango is the yorubic god of thunder aqnd stormhe carries the sacred thunder stone and like ptah of the Egyptians he is represented by the sacred animal , the ram. other ram headed deities in yorubaland include sami, and nam etc. these names are also cognate with ancient egyptiann ram – headed gods.
Adumu /Adamu
The deity of Adumu (Warri) and adamu(awori)are cognate with the ancient Egyptian Adumu. In yoruba it is represented as a dwarfish old man. in Egypt Adumu(Tum) was the son of Ptah, represented by a dwarfish old man.
this similarity points to a common origin.


Expect more surprises from the table


S/N
ENGLISH
EGYPTIAN
YORUBOIDS
NOTES
1
I
mi
emi
yoruboid
2
You/thou



3
The



4
We
Ene
Ene
Igala, Isekiri, Ilaje
5
You(Pl)



6
They
Sen/san
Aghan, Awon
S.E.Y, CY,SY
7
This
Pen
Ren(that)/yen
Igala, S.E.Y
8
That
Pen (ren)
Ren
S.E.Y. (Isekiri)
9
Here (place)
Bu
Ubo (bu)
Yoruboids
10
There (place)
Bu
Ubo (bu)
Yoruboids
11
Who
Ne (b) , un/on
Ne; una/one
Central Yoruba , S E Y
12
What



13
Where/place
bu
Ubo/ibi
yoruboid
14
When
Ma
Ma
SEY/Isekiri
15
How



16
Not
Inn
Inin
Ilaje/Isekiri
17
All
Pau
Po
Central Yoruba
18
Many
Po
Po
Central Yoruba
19
Some



20
Few



21
Other



22
One
Kan
Kan
Mid Egyptian/Central Yourba
23
Two
Ui
Eji
Consonant Additive
24
Three
Hemeta
Meta
All Yoruboids
25
Four



26
Five



27
Big
Ju
Ju
Surpass/Central Yoruba
28
Long



29
Wide
La
La
Large in Kamitic/Yoruboids
30
Think
Ro
Ro
yoruboid







31
Heavy/rise
Wu/ru
Wu/ru
Kamitic/Yoruboids
32
Small
Nini
Anini
The word means snail by in both languages
33
Short
Khut
Kutu
Ondo/Isekiri
34
Narrow



35
Iteri



36
Woman
Nen
Nene
Mother in both language
37
Man/Male
Ako
Ako
Oko is penis (Yoruboid)
38
Child
Oto/mat
Oton/Oma
S.E.Y.
39
Wife
Nen
Nene
Genitrix
40
Husband
Ako
oko
Yoruba
41
Father
Atef/ausa
Attah/Osa
Igala and S.E.Y/isekiri
42
Mother
Nen
Nene
Genitrix
43
Animal



45
Fish
Kak
Ikaka
A kind of fish (Isekiri)
46
Human being
On/un/ret
One, una, ireye/araye
S.E.Y
47
Bird
Hu
Khwo(hen)
Yoruboid
48
Dog



49
House



50
Snake
Edjo
Edjo/odjo
Yoruboid
51
Worm



52
Rice



53
Stick



54
Fruit
Eso
Eso
Yoruboids
55
Leaf



56
Root



57
Bark of tree



58
Flower
Eso
Eso

59
Grass



60
Rope



61
Skin



62
Meat



63
Blood
Sen
Ejen/eje
Oyo-Yoruba
64
Bone
Qesu
Esu
S.E.Y
65
Fat
Wu
Wu
Rise/Swell
66
Egg



67
Horn



68
Tail



69
Feather











70
Hair



71
Head
Hori
Ori
Oyo-Yoruba
72
Ear



73
Eye



74
Nose



75
Mouth
Aru
Arun/erun
S E Y
76
Tooth



77
Tongue
hu
A(hu)n
Yoruba
78
Fingernail
Ka
Ei(ka)n
Yoruba

79
Foot
Ren
Ere
Foot( Igala)
80
Leg
Ren
Ere
Igala
81
Knee
Re
Ere
Igala
82
Wing
Ka
Ika
Ekiti
83
Belly



84
Guts
Qun
Ekun
Ijebu(alias for one with guts)
85
Neck



86
Back
Ahi
Ehin
Ondo
87
Breast



88
Heart
Ab
)

89
Liver



90
Drink /drunk
Sura/su
sura
Yoruba

91
Eat



92
Bite



93
Suck



94
Spit
Tu
Tu
Yoruboids
95
Vomit/food
Sen (food)
Sen / re vomit
Igala/Isekiri
96
Blow
Qan
kan
Ilaje(knock)
97
Breath
Mi
mi
Yoruboids
98
Laugh



99
See
(do) ri
Ri
The hieroglyphic to ‘do’ is an eye
101
Hear
Reti
Reti
Beseech/Listen
102
Know
Ma
Ma
Yoruboids
103
Smell
Em
Emi
Yoruboids
104
Fear
Enru
Eru(n)
Central Yoruba
105
Sleep
Su
Su (n)
Yoruba
106
Live



107
Die
Khu
Khu
Yoruboids
108
Kill
Ku
Ku
Yoruboids
109
Fight
Tata
Ta
To strike
110
Hunt
De-(b)
de
Pierce/Hunt








111
Hit
Qan
kan
Yoruboids
112
Cut
Bu
bu
S E Y
113
Split
Penka
kpen /pin/pen
Yoruboids
114
Sab
De-(b)

Yoruboids
115
Dig/Deep
Djener

Yoruboids
116
Swim
Ue-(b)
we
Central Yoruba
117
Scratch



118
Fly
Fo

fo
Yoruboids
119
Walk /animal foot
Ren
ere
NE.SEY/Igala
120
Come/burst forth
Wha

yoruboid
121
Lie



122
Sit



123
Stand



124
Turn



125
Give
Ta
ta
Give, sell, offer yoruboid
126
Fall



127
Hold
Ka
Ka
yoruboid
128
Squeeze
Ank/ka
ka
yoruboid
129
Rub



130
Wash
Ue-b
We
Oyo-yoruba
131
Wipe
Ue-b
Ue
Oyo-Yoruba
132
Pull
Fa
Fa
Yoruboids
133
Push
h-ti
Ti
Yoruboids
134
Throw



135
Tie
Di
Di
Oyo-yoruba
136
Sew
Ser
Ser
Sew/Carve/Sculpture(yoruboid)
137
Count
Ka
Ka
Oyo-yoruba
138
Sing
Ged
Igede
Chant
139
Play
Sheri
Shere
Play/Rejoice(yoruboid)
140
Float
Tebu/Tabu
Tabu(sink,soak)
S E Y
141
Flow



142
Freeze



143
Swell
Wu/Ru
Wu/ru
Oyo-Yoruba
144
Sun
Horu
Oorun
Oyo-Yoruba
145
Star
Sebu/Khura
Agura (Isekiri)
Star/Light of day
146
Water
Omi
Omi
Yoruboids
147
River
Eri/Odo
Eri/Odo
Yoruboids
148
Lake
Sa
Osa
Tide/Lake
149
Rain



150
Sea




S/N
ENGLISH
EGYPTIAN
YORUBOIDS
NOTES
151
Moon
Khonsu/oshu
Oshu/ochu
Yoruba/ Igala
152
Salt



153
Stone
Es/Aner
Eso/aner
SEY
154
Dust



155
Earth
Ta
Ita Land/Junction
Yoruba
156
Sand



157
Cloud



158
Fog



159
Sky
Re
Ere
Isekiri
160
Wind
Af-re (word of the
Afere
SEY
161
Snow
Not applicable
-
-
162
Ice
Not applicable
-
-
163
Smoke



164
Fire
Una/Khet
Unes/Lake of fire/Khet/
Flame/Afere/Fire
Una (Fire)
Ke (Flame)
Afere (wind)
SEY/Isekiri
165
Say
Ka (ro)
Ka (aro) Talk/Story
Yorubiod
166
Ashes



167
Burn
Khet (Fire)
Ke(kindle flame) Attribute of burning
Isekiri
168
Road
Ta
Ita (Land/Junction)
Yoruba

169
Mountain
Ke
Oke
Yoruboids
170
Red
Didi(red fruit)
Diden
S E Y
171
Green



172
Yellow



173
White



174
Black
Kuru/Dudu
Kuru/dudu
Black/Black image of Osiri
175
Night
Horu
orun
Oyo-Yoruba
176
Day
Horu
oorun
Oyo yoruba
178
Warm



179
Cold



180
Full
Kom
Kon/kun
yoruboid
181
New



182
Old



183
Good
Sata
Santan
Oyo-Yoruba
184
Bad
Hika/ubi/Rek
Ika/ubi/ere
Yoruboids
185
Rotten
Kufu (Destructive destructive pharoah)
Kufu/ ofu
yoruboids


S/N
ENGLISH
EGYPTIAN
YORUBOIDS
NOTES
186
Dirty



187
Straight



188
Round
Kurud/
Kurubu
Kurudu/kurubu
yoruboid
189
Sharp
Kesir/Spear
akasi
SE Y
190
Dull



191
Smooth



192
Wet



193
Dry



194
Correct
Maate
mate
Yoruboid

195
Near
Sumai
Suma
Oyo
196
Far



197
Right



198
Left



199
At
Wi (be at a place
Wi/wa
(Yoruboids)
200
In
Win (to be in
Wino (in)
S E Y
201
With
Ma
Ma
Ilaje
202
And
Ma
Ma
Ikale
203
If
Ma
Ma

204
Because



205
Name
Run
Oruko
Consonant additive
206
Grass/lilly/lotus
sissun
Issun
S E Y




CONCLUSION

Despite the fact that our research was not able to reach all the Kamitic words, we are still able to get 123 words out of 205 eternal syntactic symbols to be cognate between the Egyptian and Yoruboids. 61%







YORUBA ANCIENT HISTORY/LITERARY SOCIETY WORD LIST


Our effort in this chapter is to prove that the Yoruba as spoken to day as a member of the yoruboid, is a descendant of the ancient Egyptian and to do so, to compare the two languages, not in their gluttochronology, but in their lexicostatistics, since apart from the recorded history of Yoruba (together with the ancient Egyptian History), no history of the yorubic got into records till the tail of the last century. Lexicostatistics, “Quantitative languages relatedness”, goes into swadesh word list to identify the percentage of cognition of the present yoruboids with the Ancient Egyptian – via the words that are eternally transparent in all parts of the world. Thus, the list we shall use, though swadesh in approach, is not swadesh, for it discards some swadesh elements not found among all peoples . Stone, for instance, is not found in all parts of the world, forest is not found in all places; not all peoples have names for yellow. And what of “tree”? For these reasons and for many more, though swadesh list is very useful in the effort to prove the brotherhood of two or more languages on the one hand, between a geographical region, eg Africa and a language group, eg Ancient Egyptian, on the other, and between a group and a group, eg Edoid and Yoruboid, on the third, those who are after 100% accuracy of comparism are “usually very sceptical about claims of relatedness based on Swadesh lists exclusively.”
All the reasons given why the use of Swadesh is not extremely accurate, a greater reason is that cognition is not only a matter of visual recognition. In determining cognition, there must be something in the head, in assonance with the mind, both in a partnership with the eye to put in gear an efficient intellectual administration. Because “ cognates do not necessarily look similar”. Yes, it is not easy to determine that udjat and Orun (Isekiri) are cognates. And no! It is not true that Ira (time in ancient Egyptian) and Ira (relations in S.E/Yoruba) are cognates. Not all times are cognates congruents!
All the short-comings of the application of the swadesh list known, we shall make use of a fresh list, based on the Orthodox list. The major reason for making the new list, the YAHLS List, is the problem of conclusion of non-universal words in Swadesh, aggravated by that of non-inclusion of universals to build up a list that seems to be careless. There is no carelessness – in fact – in expecting that the following list, the YAHLS list, shall NEVER escape the jaws of linguist historians as a matter of freedom from carelessness. However, it is our sincere belief that it will be less so.

ENGLISH
Egyptian
Yoruboids
comment

1.father
Osa (attaf)
Osa/atta

S.E Yoruba/Igala

2. . mother
nen
Nene
S.E Yoruba

3.Child
Oto/ma(t)
Oton/oma
Isekiri/Ilaje

4. Man
ako
ako
Yoruboid

5.Woman
Nene
Nene
Isekiri

6.Human
Un/on
Una/one/eni
yoruboid

7.moon
Oshu/khonsu
Oshu,ochu
Yoruboid

8.star
Sebu/khura
Agura
Star/ light of day (Isekiri)

9. Sky
Re
Ere
S . E Yoruba

10.ground
Ta
Ita
Yoruboid


11. land
ala
Ale/ile
Yoruboid

12. water
omi
Omi
yoruboid


13.black
Kamwr/kuru/dudu
Kuru/ dudu
yoruboid

14. white
-
-
Being researched

15. tree
-
-
Being researched


16. red
didi
Diden
Red fruit/red (isekiri

17.blood
sen
Eje(n)
yoruboid

18. breeze
Af-re
Afefe/afere
yoruboid

19.God
Horise/nefer
Orise
yoruboid

20. good
sata
Santan
yoruboid

21 . evil
Ika/ubi/rek
Ika/ubi/ere
yoruboid

22.. leg
ren
Ere
Igala

23. fire
Khet/unas
Ke/una
isekiri

24. nail
ka
Ei(ka)n
Oyo

25. Back
Ahi
Ehin
Oyo(Standard yoruba

26. Day
Horu
Ourun

Yoruboid day/sun

27. night
-
-
Being researched

28. mouth
aru
Arun/enu
yoruboid

29. one
Kan/menes
Okan/mene/mine
yoruboid

30.two
Wi/ui
Eji
yoruboid

31. Three
Hemeta
Meta
yoruboid

32. Love
Mer/ fe
Mereghe/fe
Isekri/ Ebu /olukumi/Iyenle

33. Me
Mi
Emi
yoruboid

34. curse
Buia/ubi
Bu/ubi/ibi
yoruboid

35. Round
Kurub/kurud
Kurubu/kurudu
yoruboid

36. Up
Hori
Ori
yoruboids

37.Short
Khutu
Kutu/kuru
yoruboid

38. Fat/rise
Wu/ru
Wu/ru
yoruboid

39. thought
Rekha
Larikha
yoruoid

40. World
Ta
Ita
Yoruboid (land/word)

41.Dead
Mur(e)
Mure (place for abnormal dead)
Isekiri

42. Death/ to die
Khu
Ku
yoruboid

43. Life
Ankh/ka
Okan(soul/mind)
yoruboid

44.Play/rejoice
sheri
Shere
yoruboid

45. Fight
Tata
Ta
Shoot/ fight

46.walk
Ren(animal foot)
Ren/rin
yoruboid

47.Heaven/sky
hour
Orun
yoruboid

48. Order
Maate
Mate(ori mi ma jim’ te
yoruboid

49. Incantation
Ged/ash
Igede/ashe
yoruboid

50.Come/burst forth
Wha
Wa
yoruboid

51. Sit/rest
Ka
-
-

51. Sleep
Su
Sun
Yoruboid

52. Corner
Kor
Ikoro/ikoko
Yoruboid

53.Joy
Shere/ho
Shere/yo
yoruboid

54.Spend
Ta
Ta
Yoruboid

55.Year
Ren/odon
Odon/odun
Yoruboid

56.Vomit/food
Sen
Sen/ren
Isekiri/ Igala

57.Give
Ta
Ta
Ebu/iyenle

58.Take/pluck
Ka-(f)
Ka
Yoruboid

59.Mind
ka
Emi/okan
Yoruboid

60. Make
Se/ri
Se/re
Yoruboid

61.Kill
Khu
Ku
Yoruboid

62.Deep
Djener
(D)jen/(d)jin
Yoruboid

63.Teach
Ka
Ko
Yoruboid

64.Wisdom
Rekha
Larikha
Oyo

65.Born/become
Bi
Bi
Yoruboid

66. Drink/drunk
Sura/(su,Coptic)
Sura/su
Drink/serve drinks(yoruboid

67. Pierce
Deb/dib
Dibi
Iseiri/ ilaje

68. Die
Khu
Ku
Yoruboid

See
So
So
Yoruboid

69. Look
So
Son
Isekiri

70. Song/chant
Ged
Igede
Yoruboid

71. Wife
Nen
Nene
S E Yoruba/iseiri

72.Husband
Ako
Oko
Standard Yoruba

73.carry
Fa
Fa
Yoruba

74. King/ruler
On
Oni/Onu/olu
Yoruboid

75. Full
Kom
Kon/kun
Yoruboid

76. Pull
Fa
Fa
Yoruboid

77. Push
h-ti
Ti
Oyo Yoruba

78. Hunt
De-b
De
Yoruboid

79 Build
Ko-t
Ko
Yooruboid

80. Hair
-
-
Under research

81. Friend
-
Ore/ukun
Under research

82. Soap
-
Ose
Under research

83. Wake
-
Ji/koro
Under reseach

84. Clap
-
Pa
Under research

85. Last
-
Igbeyin
Under research

86. Fear
Eru
Eru
yoruboid

87. Vehicle
Ko-t
Oko
Yoruboid

88 eye
-
-
Under research

89. finger
Ka
Ika(hand)
Ekiti

90. shoulder
Ka(hand)finger
(Eji)ka
Ekiti

91. chest/heart
Ab
-
-

92. wisdom
Rekha
Larikha
Oyo

93. much
Genu
Genu
Isekiri/Ilaje

94. big/large
Khenti amenti
Yentiyenti
S.E Yoruba

95. many
Po
Po
Oyo

96. house
Per/bar/bwt(bet)
Ibara (veranda)abete(room)
Isekiri

97. to be
wi(n)
Wi/wa
Yoruboid

98 door
-
Ilekun
Under research

99. pot
-
Awo/ewo
Under research

100. place
Bu
Ubo/ibi
yoruboid


The percentage of cognation is 87










Glottochronology of Isekiri in the Yoruba Group.
The older a language, the more difficult it is to pronounce. On this hear Obayemi: "Others link the North-East Yoruba fringe with the South-East. The Agbo of Ijebu is broadly identical with those recorded under the same name by the present writer at Ogidi, Taki and lya. In the area of the North-East and South-East Yoruba are basic and exclusive traits in the dialects of which the retention of 'gh' for Yoruba W may be noted" (Obayemi 1977:221).
Isekiri and Standard Yoruba : Gluttochronological Comparism


Isekiri
Yoruba
English
Ogho
Owo
Money
Oghor
Owor
Respect
Aghan
Awon
Them
Ghan
Won
Expensive
Gho
Wo
Look
Ghor
Wor
Forbid
Eghen
Ehin
Egg
Ugho
Iwo
Hole

The table shows the Isekiri language as related to Yoruba For example, some very basic words in Yoruba are traceable to the Isekiri area. on this Bolaji Idowu says: “I am very inclined to the view that the name , Orisa, is a corruption of an original Orise (Oritse) head source" (Bolaji Idowu 1962:60). .He commented that
. Orise is the name of God in Isekiri and Owo. He goes further:
In Yoruba The name Oritse (the original form), then, refers to Olodumare. The name Orisa is applied to him in some parts of Yoruba land , even though he is indisputably not one among the deities. (Bolaji Idowu 1962:61)
The Yoruba mini seems to have begun around theIsekiri. Commenting on this, Obayemi says:
In the Ondo area as in nearby parts of Southern Owo and Ifon and including the intervening Yoruba speaking area, the village-size state is ruled by an Oloja (Olu Oja). The proper meaning of this title is more accurately conveyed when we consider it on the context of its pre-kingdom or pre-Urban Yoruba land setting. 'Oloja has been thought to mean the owner of a market (Oja), Beeley, however, has tacked this problem in its broader geographical perspective, showing that: The meaning of the title (Oloja) is apparently 'the owner of the town1 and not, as it would seem, 'the owner of the market'. The word 'Oja' is possibly a derivative of the Jekri (Isekiri) word 'Aja meaning a collection of houses or a village (Obayemi 1970:220).
All the above show that Isekiri, Ebu, Olukumi, Igala, and Yoruba started their existence from the same source. It is evident that lsekiri and Olukumi at one time inhabited the same geographic area. . Professor Manfredi wrote:
Dear Eyebira and Olomu ,
As to factor(i), a Yorooba variety "Licomin" (Lookoomi) had by the early 17th century been explicitly compared to medieval Latin as the administrative vehicle of the western "Niger" delta." (2005: 6).
".. .Lingua eorum est facilis, vocatur lingua Licomin et est universalis in istis partibus, sicut Latinum in partibus Europa" (Brasio 1960, 465, cf. Thornton 1988, 362 fn. 34). (http://www.bl.uk/collections/sound-archive)..... Confirming a horizontal transmission model, Lucumi would be expected to show more similarities to the language presently called l.s.ekiri ("Itshekiri"). As a possible case in point, I'm anecdotally informed that the expression Olukwumi (colloquially, 'my tight friend') is current as an Isekiri greeting". (2005:30).
The materials quoted by Manfredi in the above referencing are legion enough! In the opinion of Obayemi, the institution of Olaja in both Yoruba of the Northeast and Igala, and the Yoruba of the Southeast region, is quite ancient and a relic of the proto-historic phase of the Yoruba-Igala people. Linguistic evidence has shown that the Isekiri existed in this proto-historical stage. Also, the Isekiri language is closest to the Brazilian Yoruba which many authorities agree is the most ritual form of the Yoruba spoken anywhere in the world. On this, Imbue says:
Investigation by several scholars shows the persistence of African linguistic expression and traditions in many parts of Brazil. Nago, the ritual language of Candomble society, and, to a lesser extent the language of general communication in the Bahia region of the Salvador province of Brazil, has been described by some scholars, including Prof. Wande Abimbola, as the 'purest form of ritual Yoruba spoken anywhere in the world. (Imbua: 2005:359-360).
Authorities are of the opinion that the present Isekiri language is closest to the Brazilian Yoruba language. Manfredi supports this view (Ibid).




archaeological places of interest


There exist in Yoruba land, today many places of archaeological value. Though some of these places have revealed that they have some archaeological past from the dim past they have not been explored. No archaeological jobs have been carried out here, but they must be very important for archaeologists. Little archaeological works have been carried out in Ojumole (Ilaje,) Illode in Ile- Ife and Ebrohimi, but they are unprofessional and undated.
The following are some Yoruba areas suspected to house things of archaeological value
1) Illode Ile-Ife: obi Oladotun Okanlawon dada discovered a bronze head at his backyard farming ….. Tested, it proved to be about 8000years old.
2) Ebrohimi; Agharawu Eyebira discovered0some combs, smoking pipes, bowls etc, some human skulls which some people believe belonged to the British invaders, but which some like Monday Egbe and Ja Laghara believed belonged to more ancient aborigines.
Ja Laghara says “about sixty years ago we saw some skulls which belonged to the British –Nanna war but these skulls are looking different”
Ojumole: Apostle Alfred dug into the Atlantic coast adjacent to Lagos – Ogheye shoreline. He discovered some materials such as pestles, beads, and cowries, they were not tested... (1930)
Warri and Ife
Bronze work was carried out in some parts of Warri and Ife. these include Orugbo , Ijalla, Oroke etc. some places migrated from these areas to establish town in central Ijaw (Alagoa 1972, 1977 ; Ediyekio , 2006). In ijaw they were experts in bronze crafts. These shows were they left in warri must be renowned bronze workers.(Alagoa 1977:355) the Nembe brasses resembles those of Tsoede (Nupe) , Orugbo Igala etc. they are also similar to the ancient Egyptian’s (Barbara 1967) . There are still the bronze drums of Irigbo (warri) Rita Lori 2008.

North –east Yoruba land;
Obayemi Ade mentioned some many fascinating things that are worthy of archaeological research. These are mostly to be found around the Oworo, Kabba and Yagba areas around the confluence. It will be proper to make archaeological inquiries into these areas.

Iwo –Ileru

Some ancient relics have been located at Iwo Ileru, dating to between 12000 BC and 15000BC. (Yoruba Voice, 2005:2-3). More archaeological works should be carried on there.

Old Oyo
Some ancient relics have been discovered in old Oyo, around the Mejiro cave. Hear a famous archaeologist “at old Oyo, a Neolithic industry was discovered which has no associated pottery or ground stone axes, but the sample was small and it is undated”(Shaw 1977:530 this plus Shaw was also reported in the Yoruba Voice , 2005.

Ebo –Olokun/ Orun Oba Ado
These are left-overs and relics of immense archeological IMPORTANCE. It is significant that the site of orun Oba Ado of Ile-Ife has produced testing that yield dates of occupation dating to multicenturies from our time. (Michael: 1977; 68 and 69: Yoruba Voice 2005:3).

The ancient port of Tebu
There were many towns along the bank of the Benin River in ancient times. One of these was Tebu. The name is cognate with Thebes in Egypt and Tebu in ancient Kanuri. The migration trend link all these to one umbilical cord. A professional historian writes;
Only one large settlement, Tebu, existed at the mouth of the Benin River of this time. Others were small villages. Today, Tebu, then the limit of navigation for large ships, is an Isekiri village. Contemporary Portuguese information makes it clear that settlements existed along the Benin River before the 16th century, but whether they were under the olu, we do not know (Sagay, 1980:9).

warri
today , warri kingdom houses many relics. a relic of utmost importance iis the pyramid. apart from Egypt, latin America , and a few other places, warri and Opi nnear lejja in the vicinity of Nsukka, are the few towns with pyrwamidal culture . thaey all have egytptian connections.of the warri’s a European writer says:
“warri contained about 300 inhabittants. the streets are wide and straight . the kilngs residence is more than half a mile in circumference and is surrounded by a wall in three sides while the façade opens into a large square. at one corner of the building there is a pyramid”(Talbot ; 1926) this is also reported in Roth (1903), Punch, Honsbira/Olomu(2008) etc

iThe personality of Oduduwa
There has been a raging intellectual battle on the personality of Oduduwa. The Binis claim he was a Bini prince, the Ifes claim otherwise. This approach will be purely scientific and will be as objective as possible. The following areas:
(1) The personality of “Oduduwa” {Ikaladeran?};
(2) archaeological researches;
(3) the linguistic linkages;
(4) scientific analysis of the myths; and
(5) Benin’s historical debt to Oduduwa will be analyzed. (a) The monarchies; (b) the water religion, (c) bead manufacturing (d) salt industry; and(e) the Lagos conquest, will be scientifically analysed.
1. THE PERSONALITY OF “ODUDUWA”
The personality of Ikaladeran; whether he was the man who later became Oduduwa will be scientifically analyzed. In this discourse, Oduduwa is seen as the founder of the Yoruba monarchical system, or at least, a founder of a prominent dynasty in Yoruba history. There must have been many dynasties in Ife, as Ife legends put pre-Oduduwa monarchs at more than ninety. The personality of Oduduwa has suffered many attacks in recent times.
The Binis claim he was a Benin prince (Ekaladerhan), who later became Imadoduwa or Izoduwa, and then Oduduwa. The Igbos claim he was an Igbo man from Nri. Some Igalas claim he hailed from Igala land. The Igalas have many Ifes, and they claim Oduduwa was from one of such Ifes. The Igala language is close enough to the Yoruba, to assert a common origin for both peoples. The present writers are holding the following positions:
1. The Yorubas are aborigines or autochthonous to their present environment;2. The monarchical structure seems to be alien.
The present writers tend to place the origin of the Yoruba monarchy in ancient Egypt and Nubia. This is because a lot of Egyptian related relics, words and practices can still be discerned among the Yorubas, particularly among the following:
Ife (where the Ifa oracle and Yoruba monarchical system blossomed); Ijebu (with some ancient settlements; Ijebu Ode, the seat of the Awujale, Ode, the seat of Lenuwa, in present day Ogun Water side Local Government,Oke-Eri, purported to be the home of the biblical queen of Sheba, called Bilikisu in Ijebu legends), Ugbo, the ancient city of the Ilajes, Idanre (the home of Ogun, the god of iron).
All show some similarities and identities in their monarchical and religious authorities.Basil Davidson, Olumide Lucas, Tariqh Sawandi, and even the present Awujale of Ijebu land, have pointed to ancient Egypt or Nubia as the origin of Yoruba monarchical system. All the above have used the similarities or the identities of cultural practices to substantiate their claims.
If the Yorubas left the Egyptian or the Nubian axis, they must have left during turbulent periods of war, economic stagnation or religious persecution. Thus, we shall examine the periods of upheavals in black Egypt and black Nubia; and examine when the Yoruban aristocracy descended from the Nile valley. They may not be one migration, but several migrations and the personality called Oduduwa, must have led one of the various migrations.
The first crop of migrants or southward push of the Egyptians took place about 2000BC – 500BC. The Hyksos invasion (2000-1500BC) caused some of these southward migrations. Many of the black Egyptians seemed to have moved to Yoruba land during this period. .
The second wave of migrations will correspond to what Laoye Sanda, of the department of Public Administration, The Polytechnic, Ibadan refers to as the Black Nubian emigrants. The Nubians were black, they occupied present day Sudan, which was an integral part of the Egyptian Empire. The vocabulary, body scarification, and religious discourse resemble those of the Ijebus and more so, the Itsekiri. The 1984 Awujale’s Coronation manual will make this manifest. These migrations occurred about 500BC.
A third wave of migration took place between 90BC and 30BC. The present writers feel the personality called Oduduwa, came in that migration trend.
A fourth migration will correspond to the Christian conquest of Egypt, about 100AD.
The last wave of migration will correspond to the Arab enforced emigration, between 700AD – 1100AD, when the Arabs had consolidated their control over Egypt; they chased the last batch of traditional worshipping Egyptians from Egypt. This occurrence would have led to many Yoruba claiming that their ancestors were chased from somewhere in the Middle East for not accepting Islam.
The proof of archaeology
There has been a dearth of archaeological researches in Nigeria. Whatever research has been done is not final, for new finds can be found in future. The most ancient archaeological finds in Nigeria are the following:
(1) the relic at Iwo Eleru (with a radio carbon date of about 12,000BC). Iwo Eleru is close to Akure, Ondo State.
(2) The findings at Igbo-Ukwu of about 6000BC.
(3) The findings at the Mejiro cave near Oyo (about 4000BC). The Nok culture that is more than 1000BC.
(4) The Oke-Eri walls and graves purported to be more than a thousand years. The walls are reputed to be the biggest in the world, but for the walls of China.
(5) The bronze heads at Ife about 1000AD.
(6) The bronze heads at Benin about 1400AD.
This might authenticate the Ife claim that the Binis got the civilization of bronze casting from the Ifes. Both the Binis and the Ifes claim that Igueghae was the one who taught the Binis how to cast bronze, during the reign of the Oba Oguola, fourth king from Eweka, the son of Oramiyan, a distant descendant of Oduduwa from Ife.
THE LINGUISTIC LINKAGES
According to the studies of philology and etymology, most of the languages in Nigeria in the Kwa group of languages have a meeting point. The Yorubas and Idoma separated some six thousand years ago; while the Yoruba and Igalas separated about 2 thousand years ago; two thousand years ago corresponds to the time that the Yoruba dialects: Ekiti, Ijebu, Oyo, Itsekiri, Ilaje, Ikale etc started having distinct dialectical identities. Linguistic studies have indicated that Yorubas in the Eastern Flanks of the Yoruba nation; Ekiti, Yagba, Kabba, Owo, Ijebu, Itsekiri and to some extent the Ifes, speak the most ancient Yoruba dialects. Glottochronological studies have shown that the dialects in the south east are more ancient than those of central Yoruba land and western Yoruba land.
The table displays it further still. A table showing east to west ancientness of the Yoruboid languages.
ENGLISH ITSEKIRI YORUBA OYO – YORUBA RESPECT OGHO OWO MONEY OGHO OWO LOOK GHO WO SAY GIN WI FORBID GHO( r ) WO( r ) THEM AGHAN AWON
The table shows that the Itsekiri dialect retains the more ancient “gh” or “g” guttural sound to the more liquid “w” of the Oyos. If it is taken that the Yoruban ruling class came from Egypt, the southern Yoruba block, particularly the Itsekiri, would have served as an initial stopping point and a secondary course of dispersal.
The table displays it further still.... EGYPTIAN ITSEKIRI-YORUBA OYO-YORUBA ADUMU (Water god) ADUMU (Water god) ADAMU (A god) Kuku (Darkness) Okuku (Darkness) Ouku (Darkness) Dudu (Black Image of Osiris) Dudu (black ) Dudu ( black ) Omi (Water) Omi (Water) Omi (Water) Heket-Re (Frog god) Ekere (Frog) Akere (Frog) Horise (Sky god) Orise (Sky god) Orisa (A god) Hika (Evil) Ika (Evil) Ika (Evil) Shu (Evil god) Eshu (Evil god) Eshu (Evil god) ....... Co-opted from 500 word-word correlation between, Yoruba and Egyptian languages .
From the above, it means that the eastern Yoruba blocs such as the Itsekiri, Ilaje, Ijebu and the Owo are more cognate with the Egyptian than those of Oyo or Ife. . The Awujale has testified that the Itsekiri are speaking the original Ijebu dialect. . This is why Bolaji Idowu derived the origin of Oritse to the Itsekiri-Owo axis within the eastern Yoruba kingdoms... It is proper here to state that the word “Orise” is almost cognate with the Egyptian, Horise.
Both deities represent very high gods.. Both deities were first water divinities before they became sky or heavenly divinities. Both words are derived from identical etymological origins. Hori(Ori) means head in both places. “Se”, means a source in both places. Thus both words mean a source of creation in both places. This type of linguistic similarity or identity cannot have arisen by mere accident - there was a concrete historical intercourse. The Binis call God Oyisa, a corruption of the eastern Yoruba form. This is certain because the Binis cannot derive the meaning of Oyisa by breaking the word into morphemes as the Yoruba can display, or draw up any identity with ancient Egypt.
A SCIENTIFIC ANALYSIS OF THE THEORIES
1.Oduduwa – The myth of Oduduwa seems to be valid. Minus the fact that many Yoruba claim descent from Oduduwa, some Urhobos and even Ijaws also claim descent from Oduduwa.
2. Ekaladerhan – This name exists in very little, if at all it exists, in the oral tradition of any of the Bini neighbors. There has been no relevant oral tradition among any of the circumjacent peoples that can recognize Ekaladerhan or identify him as Oduduwa. So, the Ife claim concerning Oduduwa seems to be more tenable.


UNRAVELLING IKALADERHAN (EKALADERHA) THE PARAMETERS OF PROF. SAM EJITE OYOVBAIRE DEC 2008

In December 2008, Prof. Sam Egite Oyovbaire raised some salient questions to prove the historicity of his Okpe clan (a delta Edoid group) a modification of that probe can be used to probe the authenticity of Ekaladerhan being Oduduwa.

1. WHO WAS IKALADERHAN (EKALADERHAN)?

According to all the Bini sources – Naiwu, Osahon, Isekhure, his royal Majesty, the Oba – Ikaladerhan was the son of the last Ogiso, Ogiso Owodo. According to all these sources and a legion of others, he was someone who escaped from an “executioner”, or someone who was pardoned by an executioner; and left to migrate in the forest, until he appeared at Ile-Ife.
All the sources agree that Ogiso Owodo, the father of Ikaladerhan, was a weak “king” who had just been pardoned by executioners became an Oba in another “Country”

2. HOW DEVELOPED WAS THE BENIN POLITY DURING IKADERHAN’S ERA?

Aigbokhai, Alagoa 1977, Ade Obayemi, 1977, Ekeh, Ajayi, etc never mentioned the Ogiso era as a kingdom. Ekeh showed vividly that during the period of the Ogisos, the Binis had a segmentary system of government. Obayemi (1977) mentions many mini states and their respective head chiefs among these being Ogiegor, Ogiefa and Ogiso. The Ogiso could have been a primus inter pares, but he was still not a king, but the mere head of a mini state as the Ivie in Urhobo today, Ekeh (2006); or the Esans of today, Obayemi 1997.
If Igodomingo was a mere city state, how could some one from there establish a kingdom in a more advanced polity? The civilization in Igodomigodo (Benin of the Ogisos) was quite low compared to that of Ife. The Benin of 1170 (the era of Ogiso Owodo and his son Ikaladerhan) had not developed wood carving to any extent. There is no single knowledge among the neighbours: Isekiri, Owo, Esan, Urhobo, Isoko, Anioma- Igbos etc about powerful Owodo, Ekaladerhan or any other Ogiso headman. The Bronze (Brass) civilization in Benin came during the reign of the fourth king of the Oranmiyan dynasty.
Ife attained the bronze age before 1170, (Thurstan Shaw 1977). Benin attained it during the reign of Oguola about 1400.
However, could someone coming from a far less civilized society establish a magnificent kingdom in a much more civilized polity. Archaeological evidence about the Ogiso period had not shown any magnificent civilization. (Shaw 1980, in Obaro(ed) 1980).
It is strange that from 1472 when the Portuguese explorers first reached the coast of the Benin River or the Bight of Benin, until 1960 when Nigerians became independent from colonial rule, no single foreign historian, or anthropologist, sociologist, traveler, missionary etc ever mentioned Oduduwa as being Ekaladerhan. It is pertinent to show now that apart from the Isekiri who were visited by the Portuguese between 1472 – 1486, the Binis were the first to be visited by the Europeans in Present Nigerian.
The first European visited Benin by 1486 (Ryder, Obayemi 1977). Thus, colonial activities were first witnessed in Benin, long, long before Ife. How come almost all the colonial officers favour the story that the Bini Dynasty originated from Ife or in few instances from Oyo? Could the European writers be more biased towards the Ifes they knew very little, than Benin they were frequenting much more often. From the evidence of all the reporters it is clear that the Ikaladerhan Oduduwa story is fiction. Perhaps there are some written records between 1472 – 1960 purporting that Ikaladerhan was Oduduwa, the world will be glad to see such records. None of the writers have even inferred in their write-ups that Oduduwa or even the founder of any of the Ife or Oyo dynasties had a Bini father.


THE EKALADERHAN-ODUDUWA SOURCE MATERIALS.

Prof. Ejite Sam Oyovbaire in Dec 2008, advocated for a thorough look into the source materials of the authors. Today, the greatest advocates of Ikaladerhan-Oduduwa theory are his royal majesty, the Oba of Benin, Isekhure (the power house of the pristine Benin Empire) and Naiwu Osahon, one of the greatest pan-Africans of all times.
The Oba and Isekhure are very great personages. In fact, the Benin throne is one of the most revered anywhere in the world, like Ife and Oyo thrones. But the Oba and his Isekhure are not historians neither are they writers. Naiwu Osahon can be considered a historian although he has no historical degree. His books are well referenced, “God is Black” “Cradle” etc., he is very careful and meticulous in using copious references to prove his points. Anyone who picks his work gets a very satisfactory reading. He resorts to religious, archaeological, written sources, etc to prove his points. In the case of Ikaladerhan-Oduduwa link, Naiwu diverted from his exalted tradition. Like the Oba and the Isekhure, Naiwu (The correct history of Edo)(online) resorted to bare narratives. One who is known for his most powerful referencings, started criticizing all the source materials of the Oduduwa legend, without bringing other references to authenticate his claims.
It is clear that the intention of the very modern source materials (about 100 years, Isekhure 2004) is to promote nationalistic spirit. There is some amount of danger if the Benin aristocracy continues to link its origin to a foreign throne. The aboriginal inhabitants (the Ogies) might come up one day to challenge the authority of the present aristocracy. Or where there such dissenting voices already cropping up to warrant a quick resort to a revisionist history? Or was the Oranmiyan advent on Bini soil actually a conquest? The coronation ritual of the Ogianvwen waging a mock war with the Oba; and the Oba being marked with native chalk in Yoruba fashion, might be poiners to a conquest in the dim past. The nationalist spirit of this age and times might lead to the fabrication of other stories to cover up this conquest. It is somehow derogatory for a great Empire like Benin to be constantly reminded of its early beginning of being from Ife. Such a link might be considered glorious by less civilized kingdoms, not a great Empire as Benin. It is clear that the more glorious the civilization of a people, the more they tend to claim that the civilization they have is indigenous rather than foreign. Naiwu Osahon displayed vividly in cradle, that the civilization of the “Greeks”, the “Christians”, Muslims, Indians were not indigenous – they were copied from Egypt. He quoted copious references to prove his points. The same Naiwu upheld the Ikaladeran-Oduduwa story and dished it to the world as spare narratives.

WHAT IS THE ROUTE TAKEN BY IKALADERHEN?

The Binis were able to give some route which Oduduwa (Ikaladerhan) took from Igodomigodo to Ife. The two prominent towns in their narratives are Ife (Ile-Efe) and Ilesa (Ile-Ese).
Apart from these two towns, silence was the order of the day from the passage from Igodomigodo to Ife. David Ejoor, who tried to throw his weight behind the Ikaladerhan story, went as far as saying there was no town between Benin and Ife during Ikaladerhan’s time. Stories from the dim past are hardly reliable. But archaeological findings can stand the test of time. Archaeological evidences have shown that there had been considerable populations among the Yoruba before 1170 (Ikaladerhan period) along the routes he would have taken from Benin to Ife. (Shaw 1965, 1977; Obayemi 1977).
Iwo-Ileru, very close to Akure, has demonstrated the existences of human activity to about 12, 000 – 15, 000 years. Since considerable population existed in Yoruba land, at that time, why was there no Ogiso trace from Ondo, right through to Ife. None of the traditional rulers could remember anyone from the Ogiso dynasty passing through this territory. All that could be remembered at Owo, Ondo, Ekiti, etc are stories and events that took place after Oba Ewuare. Could all these people have conspired to conceal the Ikaladerhan story? Why did the Ondos, Ekos (Lagos), the Owos, Isekiris, the Onitshas, Ogbahs (Rivers) etc display many cultural borrowings they had during the Ewuare period and beyond? Among the Itsekiri (the southern neighbours of Benin) there are many stories indicating relationship with the Ogisos. There are even ancient folk songs to that effect. None of these stories portrays the Ogisos as powerful potentates great enough to establish a kingdom in a far distant land. What were the land marks left by Ikaladerhan encounter in Ife?

THE ENTOURAGE OF IKALADERHAN

Some Bini “authorities” maintain that Ikaladerhan reached Ife alone; others postulate that he reached Ife in company of a large entourage. If he was really escaping from “Executioners” he was most likely to have reached Ife alone. If other Oral versions say he came in company of a large entourage, then he could not possibly be escaping from the executioners. Let’s take as a benefit of doubt that he came in company of a large entourage, what were the titles held by the nobilities in his entourage! Did these nobilities assume Bini type titles in Ife? If they did not, why didn’t they? Why are Bini titles so common among the Ondos, Isekiris, Owos, Ekos(Lagos), Onitshas, Abohs etc? All these areas came under the Bini influence after 1440 when Ewuare, the great, ascended the throne. This means the golden age of Bini civilization was after 1440. The Binis, therefore, could not have established a kingdom in Ife by 1170 or thereabouts, because Benin itself at that time, was a conglomeration of mini states; the mast popular – ogiefa, Ogiegor and Ogiso (Obayemi 1977).This claim could be haply compared to the Okpe claiming to build the ancient pyramid of Ode-isekiri, without building one at home.

WHO WERE THE OFFSPRINGS OF IKALADERHAN?

Who were the offsprings or siblings of Ikaladerhan? Did they establish any kingdom in the vicinity of Benin? If they did not establish a kingdom near home, how could Ikaladerhan have wandered all the way to Ife to establish a kingdom? The alternative Bini version that Ikaladerhan died at Ughoton and was buried there makes more sense.

THE YORUBIC PSEUDOPODIA

The Okpe people, one of the foremost peoples in the Delta area of Nigeria, represents a true controversy in Yorubic spread, on the one hand, the Oduduwan revolution, on the other. The history of the spread of the Yoruba seeds by socio-explosive mechanism cannot be complete without a delve into it for the place of the Okpe who writers deem as Yoruba. Many minds, following the views of the quarters, aforesaid, consider the Okpe group as a tangible part of the Yoruba world - by the belief that Okpe came from Ife, on the one hand, that Okpe came from Benin, whom by virtue of the Oranmiyan role in Benin, is a Yoruba, on the other, through in realism, that Okpe originated from Ife in particular or from any other part of Yoruba, in general, is an improbability as improbable as “2x2 = 6”
Conjecturing the origin of the Okpe Prof Oyovbaire points to Ile-Ife as its original home, naming such place as Edo, Okpilla, Isoko, Escravos as some of its stop spots(Oyovbaire 2008). Is it really true; does it carry with it the verisimilitude of truth that Okpe came from, or are related to Ife? Subject the origin of Okpe to the Prof Sam Oyovbaire parameters, you will know.

PROF. SAM OYOVBAIRE’S PARAMETER

1. The parenthood of the person
2. His children
3. His point of start or migration
4. Causes of departure
5. Stop points
6. Peers of the person
7. Inter personal / inter group relation
8. Conquest.

These attributes of historical non-congruence of the life and time of a figure or its congruence with realism will now be looked into in the case of the Okpe existential realism. The Okpe existential realism does not match the above attributes and this, bringing aside the view of those who erroneously posit that Igboze ever lived, also attacked vigorously the possibility of he being an Ife. He is not an Ife, a reason why his language is almost 100% removed from the Yoruboid. Few of the words the Okpe share with the Yoruboid like Urukpe (Yoruba, Otukpa – light/lantern) ugbune (Yoruba, Ugbuna (Isekiri) catcher of fire, taker of fire) have yoruboid morphemes! The name of the Okpe founding father, Igboze, is in truth, not cognate to any sub-Yoruba language! That is not all. Because Igboze’s history does not carry with it the roles which one can be tangible about of him peers, his children (some persons says he has a son, others say he had none(Oyovbaire (2008), his location in Yoruba land, military exploits with other peoples, the path traced by him during migrations, parenthood, causes of departure, military exploits e.t.c, it is not an academic reasoning to agree with those who erroneously posit that Igboze, the founding father of the Okpe world, came from Ife. Therefore, it is written against the historicity of Igboze as a matter of fact of his relatedness to Ile Ife:

The tradition of Okpe origin is grossly silent about the parenthood of Igboze. Since he did not drop from the sky like …Oduduwa, who, then, was Igboze’s, father? Who was Igboze’s mother? Did Igboze not have siblings? (Oyovbaire, 2008).

This same doubt in the mind of Oyovbaire, troubling many historians and philosophers alike, casts shades on the validity of this contestation. In line with this, an Okpe history icon once wrote, quoting an earlier one that there is any aspect of the history of the various peoples of Nigeria about which no one can speak with any exactitude, it is that which deals with the origins of our people. There is tremendous confusion…

Igboze – A Chronological Dash Through

Sam Okotie, like many other Okpe historians, holds that Igboze, the “ancestor” of Okpe, moved out of Ife, shortly after Oranmiyan did. His story (2/8/09) holds that on getting to Benin, Oranmiyan, who knew too well Igboze and his group, away in Ife, spent no long time in driving him out of Benin where he sojourned through such places as Isoko, Okpilla, Escravos, Olomu etc before his grandsons, got to Orerokpe. There had been an Orere Isekiri before the arrival of the four brothers in Orerokpe, hence the name. Hear Prof. Oyorbaire:

In the case of the Okpe, there are enormous confusion about how they settled at Orerokpe after tortuous migrations from Ife through Benin, Izon, Escravos, Olomu, Okpe-Isoko …

The attempt at proving Igboze-Ife origin on the part of the apostles of the theory of Igboze West-East migration of c1170 is further compounded by the truth of his chronological ties with 1170, when he is said to have left Ife, and 1645, when he arrived and founded olomu(Hubbard); Okpe, the “son” of Igboze, begot Orhue, Orhorho, Evreke and Esezi. It is Esezi (or and his three brothers that was (were) responsible for the founding of Orerokpe. This is the position held by such renowned writers as Asagba, Ekeh, Okumagba, Osume etc. unfortunately, however, we cannot bring ourselves to terms with this position which goes with it that the life span of Igboze, his only son, Okpe, and his four grand children covered from a period before 1170 to 1645 or do we have something like the life span of the tortoise here. Thus, in face of all available reasonings, the Okpe, by the matrix of “Igboze” movement from Ife (c 1170), cannot by any parameter be branded a yorubic pseudopodium. “Since
obviously, no human being or legend could have been so involved in frequent migrations for period spanning 100, 200 or many more years”. The axiom that the world of the Yorubas is nothing less than the world, from land to land, from realm to realm, from sea to sea is a feature that all Yoruba may like to promote; but if mightier demotes or connotes the idea of a small drop of water forming a mighty ocean. That the idea of the Bini monarchy began from the Yoruba is no lie; nevertheless, that the Bini race is generally Yorubic is not. As a matter of fact of simple reasoning, of philosophy, or of mathematical logic, the probability of picking up a Yoruba from the garden of the Binis is less that 1/100.
Even though there are very many Binis who, by virtue of the coming of Oranmiyan into the social studies of Benin, with Yorubic blood, yet the possibility of a Bini-yoruba: Bini ration for the sociology of today Benin is abysmally, an impossibility. In view of the remarkable dissimilarity of cultures – language, religion, occupation etc – between the Yoruba world and the Binis, ancient or modern, on the one hand, and between the Yorubas and the Igboze (Okpe ) people, on the order, it is clear, the argument against “Bini as Yoruba”, Okpe as Yoruba” or any other Urhoboid or Edoid group as Yoruba.







3. Oduduwa’s descent from heaven
– The Ife’s have been totally embarrassed by the invectives thrown on them by the Binis in their claim that Oduduwa fell from the sky. Yes! It is true. People can fall from the sky as modern interaction between earthmen and those from other planets have authenticated, and this can be displayed both in mythology and in real hardcore science in many parts of the world. The stories of Ezekiel in the bible, the story of the Dogon mystic tribe of Mali are cases in point. Then, some Yoruba ancestors would have been some of the Umales (aborigines) using their Umale-Olunas (spaceships) to travel across the universe, as this can still be sighted in Yoruba land today.
4. The huge bodies of water which the Bini and Yoruba mythologies claim their ancestors landed, would have been one of two waters (1) the Atlantic ocean, the home of Umale-Okun at the coastal flanks of Yoruba land , or the Mediterranean which was the biggest body of water known to the ancient Negro Egyptians.
BINI AND EASTERN YORUBA HISTORICAL LINKAGES - The Monarchies
There are areas where the eastern Yorubas and the Binis have a lot of historical linkages. It is an indisputable fact that the founder of the present Itsekiri dynasty was Ginuwa, the first son of Oba Olua of Benin. The Binis ruled over most parts of Ondo state: Akure and Ode-Ondo, to be more specific. They even established dynasties in some of these places, including Owo. There are a lot of titles that the Eastern Yorubas derived from the Binis. Those titles include: Ologbotsere, Iyatsere, Otsodin, Olisan (Oliha) etc. There are also many areas where the Binis are indebted to the Eastern Yorubas. Many of these have not been given prominence by historians. But the more we delve into History, the more we are convinced of Binis indebtedness to the Yorubas, particularly the Itsekiri-yorubas. Some of this indebtedness are the Bini religious discourse, the conquest of Lagos, the manufacture of salt etc.

THE CONQUEST OF LAGOS
On face value, the Lagos conquest seemed to have been done by the Binis. Many authorities however, agree that it is the Itsekiri of Warri that served in the Navy that attacked Lagos. The assertion is likely to be true because of the following ...
(1) The Binis are not watermen and could not easily travel on the lagoons to Lagos.
(2) The name ‘Olu’ is common among Lagos Obas eg. The Olu of Ikeja, the Olu Eko of Eko (Eleko) etc. The name ‘Olu’ is Itsekiri or Oyo-yoruba and not Edo or Bini
(3) The Eyo masquerade attire and dance style is similar to that of Awankere of Warri. It is true that the Eyo masquerade originated in Ijebu, but the attire is purely of Warri origin. This will authenticate a not-too-popular Okere(Warri) legend, that it was the descendants of Ekpen that accompanied Orhogbua (Osogbua) to conquer Lagos. . . Also, the drums used by the Awori people bear striking resemblance to the Itsekiri drums, but bear no resemblance to the Bini drums.
In summary, the material culture of the Aworis is far more akin to the Itsekiri than to the Binis. Now hear the authorities: Captain Leonard says; “Of the Jekri (Itsekiri) also there is much more definite, although to a certain extent contradictory evidence. According to one account, they are said to be closely connected with the Yoruba, the Warri kingdom having extended to and embraced Lagos as well as some of the surrounding territories to this day (1906), in fact, Jekri inhabit the strip of country, along the coast from the Benin river westward to Lagos”
This might be due to the fact that Itsekiri held most of the trading posts along the coast when Leonard was writing. Captain Leonard in another section of his work says: “And from all accounts, it is more than possible, if not evident that the army of warriors who founded Lagos proceeded in reality from Warri, but doubtless by the command of the king of Benin”. Corroborating Leonard and Nirven that the Itsekiri aristocracy has at least some politico-economic interests in Lagos, H. Ling Roth says “Such corals as the Binis had, were obtained through Jekri traders either from the Benin River or Lagos”.
There are areas where the Isekiri and the Binis have a lot of historical linkages. It is an undisputable fact that the founder of the present Warri monarchy was Ginuwa, the first son of Oba Olua of Benin. There are a lot of titles that the Isekiri derived from the Binis. These titles include Ologbotsere, lyatsere, Otsodi, Olisan (Oliha), Esama etc. There are also many areas where the Binis are indebted to the Isekiri. Many of these have not been given prominence by historians. However, the more we delve into History, the more we are convinced of Binis' indebtedness to the Isekiri. Some of these indebtednesses are the Bini religious discourse, the manufacture of salt, the use of beads etc.
Origin of Bini Beads
The Isekiri have always maintained that beads started with them and that the Binis got their beads from them. Ojikoto, (1960), said that settlements such as Omadino, Inorin, Ureju, Koko (Korobe) and Agba in the Warri kingdom are the ancient Isekiri settlements with the bead industry.
The people of Ureju and Koko are reported to have given Egboruware (Ewuare) C1440A.D, probably a contender to the Bini throne, beads for the first time. There is a legend among the Kokos that Egboruware (Ewuare) had his swelling disease because of an affliction placed on him by Korobe's curse which Ekpenruma, a legendary spiritual woman, effected. The mysterious lady to the south of Benin, called Ekobe, which the Bini legends say was raided by Ewuare, is easily identified as the Korobe of Isekiri legends, (Adeyemi: 1977). H. Ling Roth (1903) says:
According to Bold, coral beads are the intrinsic treasures of the rich..." Mr. Punch informs me "as a matter of fact, the king of Benin had few, if any of the large coral beads such as Nanna, Dore, Dudu and Jekri chiefs obtained from the merchants in the Benin River. Such corals as the Binis had were obtained through Jekiri traders, either from the Benin river or Lagos. The Binis said it was dug up at the back of Benin but everything in the days I am speaking 14 -15years ago (from 1898) which was at all mysterious came from the back of Benin. "(H. Ling Roth: 1903.)
In support of this position, Eve De Negri says:
This coral was first discovered (so it is told) during the fifteenth century in the reign of Oba Ewuare. This type of coral was obtained from a tree, growing on the sandy bank of the Benin River. (Eve De Negri: 19 76)
If Benin River is situated in the Warri kingdom, it means the Binis got their beads from the Warri kingdom. P.C. Lloyd (1957) also commented that Isekiri legends claim that their ancestors, the Umales, got the blue corals from particular trees that were growing in the Jekri country. This seems to support the view that the Binis got their beads from the Isekiri, and the Isekiri traditions that they gave beads to Oba Egboruware (Ewuare), is tenable. The Binis started getting beads from Isekiri in pre-Ginuwa days.
Binis Knew About Salt from the Isekiri
The Binis are land-bound people and they know very little about salt. Isekiri legends testify that they gave salt to the Binis for the first time in the reign of Oba Orhogbua (1550A.D. Roth 1903; Coronation of Prince S.I.A. Akenzua: 1979).The Isekiri are known as the manufacturers of salt. Alagoa, H Ling Roth, and Obaro Ikime, agree to this position. H. Ling reports, “According to Roupel's officials, king Osogbua (Orhogbua) is credited with discovering salt in the Jekiri country”. (H. Ling Roth 1903:142). It seems that Orhogbua discovered salt when he came to the Jekiri (Isekiri) country to seek the assistance of the Isekiri Navy to attack Lagos (Captain Leonard, 1906). So the Isekiri tradition says. The Isekiri were the major salt producers in the Niger Delta area. On this, hear Alagoa:
The Isekiri supplied clay pots to such Ijo communities as the Gbaramatu and Bassan, and sold salt to traders from Eastern Delta who took it up the Niger... Other Ijo exchanged dried fish and salt, which
was manufactured by the Isekiri, with the Urhobo, Isoko and Igbo groups along the periphery of the Niger Delta and along the Lower Niger (Alagoa 1989:729).


How did the Isekiri come about the technology of salt making? It was perhaps during their sojourn in Bilma, the chief salt-making centre in the central Sahara on their way from Egypt.
Water Religion of the Binis
The cult of Olokun (the water religion of the Binis) seems to be purely alien. This is due to the following reasons: (1) the Binis are a land-based people. Their main occupations are farming, hunting and sculpture. Therefore, it will be unthinkable that Binis should forge out a water religion independently as a major cult. (2) If a water religion exists among the Binis, as it has become prominent, the Binis might have copied from one of their riverine neighbours (3). These neighbours are the Ijaws, the Isekiri, the llajes and the more distant neighbours, the Asabas, the Onitshas, the Afenmai or Igala people around the River Niger. The Afenmais and the Igalas seem too distant from Benin to have a good influence on the Binis. The Asabas and the Onitshas, also, seem to be too far away from Benin. Minus that, they do not seem to have any serious water cult to influence the Binis to have a viable water religion. Thus, the Binis (a land-locked people) must have had their water religion from the Ijaws, the Isekiri or the llajes. The Bini religious discourse has nothing to do with the Ijaws. Besides that, the Ijaws that are the immediate neighbours of the Binis did not have any significant civilization in the period in view. This is true in view of the fact that none of the circumjacent Ijaws ever developed a kingdom. (Ikime, 1980; Alagoa, 1989; Leonard, 1906; Talbot, 1926; Roth; 1903 etc).These Ijaws are the Egbemas, the Arogbos, the Apois, now Yoruba-speaking, the Ogbe-ljohs, the Isabas, the Gbaramatus, the Ogulaghas, the Oburutus and the Meins. No significant civilization or kingdom has emerged from these Ijaw clans. Alagoa asserted that most of these Ijaws did not settle in their area by 1500, which is quite recent according to historical chronology. The cases decided in the Supreme Court between the Ijaws and the Isekiri place the date of Ijaws coming to these areas at the early 19th century. Thus, it is unthinkable that the Binis copied their water religion from the Ijaws.
The Isekiri and the llajes receive the likelihood of having given water religion to the Binis for the following reasons: (1) The Binis situate the home of Olokun, the god of the sea, in the Atlantic Ocean. Both the Isekiris and the llajes are in the Atlantic coast. (2) The Bini religious discourse shows a strong Yoruba affinity. The name, Olokun (Olu Okun) is an eastern Yoruba name that can apply to the Isekiri as well as llajes, as eastern Yoruba dialects. The Binis call God Osa, which is the same word that the Isekiri call father. The other Bini word for God, Oyise, is clearly a corruption of the much older Isekiri name; Oritse (Bolaji Idowu, 1989).It is thus evident that it is through Isekiri that the Binis got their Umale-Okun religious worship in Pre-Ginuwa days.
Before 1440, the beginning of the Ewuare (Egboruware) revolution in Benin, there was no Olokun religion in the Benin Empire. Ewuare (the twelfth Oba of Benin) in course of his sojourning from the angry Binis, (The cause of this anger is outside the scope of this work.), came to a point where he was reported to have discovered a length of cloth which extended from behind into a community and from there into the river. He also saw beads and other body adornment materials. His efforts to gather these for the purpose of his ascendancy to the Benin throne brought him head-deep into the mercy of the Urejus, an aboriginal Isekiri community. The Urejus, no doubt, were observing the Umalokun (Olokun) religious worship. Isekiri of Ureju, in their characteristic welcoming manner, (J.O.E. Sagay: 1982) held him a friend for about three native years, after which he was released with not only abundant beads, other body regalia and adequate length of royal cloth, but also a flag (Ukute) to plant the worship of Olokun in the Benin Kingdom. Hence, Olua, Ewuare's son, chose to send Ginuwa, his own son, to that country where the Olokun religion that had helped his father so much, came from. (Brikinn: 2007; YAHS: Why the Binis sent to Ife, and not to Warri: 2005 August). It was in his sojourn in Ureju that Ewuare became Ogidigan, a title of a god in Isekiri. It was also this encounter of Ewuare with the Urejus that decided Olua to ask his son to call at Ureju, in course of his Voyage to worship. However, when he got there, before he could speak, the Olare-aja of Ureju reminded him of the need on his part to offer a sacrifice to Olokun. In response, he said '.....abome, "I have been told previously". Hence, "Abome" is the pseudonym of Ureju to this day. This is why any crowned king of Warri is expected to serve Umalokun through the Urejus. Ughoton was Ureju's. To buttress that the headquarters of Olokun worship in Benin, Ughoton, was a satellite of Ureju, the leader of Ughoton was called Olughoton. That is, "leader of Ughoton" in Isekiri language. Also, Ughoton is one of the names of the priests of the collective gods of nine gates in Isekiri. This view is strengthened by the fact that the Ginuwa entourage was said to be coming down to the riverine areas to serve Umale-Okun. On this, we consult an observer, H. Ling Roth, quoting Burton:
Similar to other West Africans, the Bini when drinking, the Bin is always pour a few drops upon the ground, muttering the while (Mobia, Malaku Mobia (Mobie, Umalokun, Mobie) I beg, O Malaku (Umale-Okun, fetish guardian of lands and waters 1 beg of thee to defend me against all evil, to defeat and destroy all my foes. This said, a broken bittock of Kola (stercula acuminate) is thrown upon the ground, and is watered with a few drops of palm wine. Mobia (Mobie) is however the Jekiri for "1 beg you (1903:59).
It is evident that the Bini religious discourse was, related to Isekiri. This is most evident in the water religion of the Binis. From the above, we see that some of the most important aspects of the Bini civilization, their bead industry, the cult of Olokun (Olu Okun King of the sea), their salt industry etc. are from the Isekiri.
(. Again when there was leadership dispute between Obaseki and Aigwobasinwin, it was an Itsekiri chief, Dore Numa, who restored the Benin monarchy. He also gave them a lot of beads which the Bini aristocracy has not returned till today. It is therefore unthinkable that Ife, where the Yoruba kingship blossomed, would have copied from Benin. This is most evident when we consider the following facts:
(I) The name, Oba (the Edo word for king), is copied from the Yorubas, particularly those from Ife
(2) the heads of the Obas of Benin were taken to Ife, until very recently. The place where the heads of the Obas of Benin were buried is still called “Orun Oba Ado”, “the heaven of the kings of Benin”.
(3) The Binis normally take permission from the Ooni, to crown new kings. There is no recorded history that the Oonis took permission from the Binis before getting crowned
(4) The official language in the court of the Oba of Benin until 1934 was Yoruba. There was no time that Bini language was spoken in Ife. The Portuguese and other Europeans who were in the Bini area for more than 500 years (from 1486 when they got to Benin till 1960.) had no knowledge of Oduduwa being a Bini man.
So, scientifically speaking, the Ife position seems more tenable than that of the Benin. Oral traditions can be fabricated. So, rigorous history of the 21st century must be purely scientific – even if we recourse to oral tradition, they must face scientific testing and not based on moribund oral tradition. Aspects such as linguistic analysis, archaeological discoveries, cultural practices etc, must come into the forefront when reconstructing the history of preliterate peoples like the Binis and the Ifes.
Ogiso origin is traceable to Ile-Ife

In one of their accounts, the Edos claim discent from God himself, who they say is the grand father of Iso (Sky) who in turn is the grand father of Idu, ancestor of the Binis. One of the brothers of Idu called Olukumi (the Yorubas were first called Olukumi, today a tribe called olukumi, speaking a language very similar to Itsekiri-Yoruba, and the legends claim they all descended from Egypt, are to be found in parts of Edo and Delta States) lived with him in Uhe (Ife) before they left to found Benin. Michael Crowder: “The story of Nigeria”, Page 63.
This was the foundation of the Ogiso period. On the origin of the rudimentary kingdom of the Ogisos hear Alagoa:
“According to this source, the ancestral Edo came froom the same eastern home as the yoruba, and even stayed for some time at Ife before occupying their present hpomeland. They set up a rudimentary kingdom under the rule of the Ogiso dynasty”. (Alagoa 1977:368)
The fact thay the kingship of the binis was of Ife descent hear Ling Roth quoting earlier writers:
“The tradition that the Bini kings came from the contrary to a general rule that the people drift westwaqrd. In this respect however, the officials agree with the tradition of the people at warri, the Jekries, who claim to have come froom the west “(roth 1903:8&9; Granville and roth Jour. Anthrop Inst., volxxviii: 105)
On the route the Ogisos took to establish their rudimentary kingdom at benin, Sagay says:
“there is this oral version which links the origin of the Itsekiris to the story of an Ile-Ife king who decided to send out two of hischildren (Ogiso and Olutoro ) on an expedition under the military commander by name Itsekiri(Ajishegiri in Ifde account)they were reported to have reached a place called Ughoton where Ogiso and Itsekiri engaged some inhabitants in a fight ,Olutoro having remained behind at Ugbo. Ogiso was reported to have fled to benin and Itsekiri(Ajishegiri)was said to have reached a place, Iwere , by canoe. Some of the followers of of Itsekiri (Ajishegiri) who came with Ogiso to benin were settled at a quarter names Isekhere by the Binis(sagay J.O.E 1982:14)”
the Obatala of Ife and the Obalase in Feb 2009, corroborated this story and gave the nname of the leader of the migration group now identified as Ogiso as Ogamiwon. They maintained that Ogiso (Ogamiwon) was freom a quarter in Ife called Ido-Idofin while Ajishegiri, a hunter and a military man was from Illode. According to the two Obas, this migration predates the Oranmiyan one by centuries. This will tally with the date of 900A.D.the t dynasties of the Binis originate from Ife
. At a time, the powerful Bini kingdom was paying tax to the Olu of Warri when the yoke of imperialism crumbled the once great kingdom of the Guinea. Concerning this issue Michael Crowder says:
“With the decline of Ughoton the Benin had to use the ports of the Benin river and thus, pay dues to the Olu of Warri in whose territory the ports was located”.pg 17
In conclusion the Itsekiris introduced the following to Benin: salt, beads, and the worship of Umale Okun. The Itsekiri under Dore also helped the Binis to revive their monarchy. It will
CHAPTER 4
WHY BENIN SENT TO IFE; AND NOT TO WARRI
One of the major weaknesses which work of scholars on the Ife-Benin relations exhibit is their failure to bring out why the Benin sent to Ife for a ruler; and why it was Ife, and not elsewhere, they sent to. The howness of the matter is not as controversial as its whyness. The political and economic situation in Benin in the period said explains how the request was made. There was confusion in the town, no doubt. The traditional accounts of Oranmiyan’s coming are emphatic. That the people of Benin revolted against Evian’s attempt to introduce his son as a ruler of Benin. One well-known tradition records that Benin sent ambassadors to Ile-Ife…..” (Stride and Ifeka: 1971:90:91)
When the monarchical system changed to a republican one, some Binis were not happy. When it became controversial, those who were pro status-quo quickly reacted along their own line. One Yoruba tradition, which is incidentally corroborated by Benin tradition, has it that Oduduwa….. sent out a son to rule over Benin. According to Benin tradition, the Benin had sent to Ife for a prince of royal blood to become king of Benin …(TAO and SNN: 1980:94)
Another historian captured the situation that decided Benin to look for a king in the same, but clearer way. Owodo, the last of the Ogiso rulers was banished for his high-handedness and poor administration. The people decided to ask him to quit the Kingdom after he had ordered the execution of a pregnant woman. Consequently, there existed an interregnum during which the people changed their system of government from monarchy to a republican form. (Ojelabi Adekunle 1970: 55)
The condition established a vacuum which needed to be filled immediately. And when the man that filled the vacuum misbehaved to a greater extent than Owodo, the need for a better ruler, became a matter of course. Evian was the first republican leader. He was the most important man during the reign of Owodo…. After a long rule he nominated his son, Ogiamwen (like Oliver Cromwell of the 17th century England) as his successor. The people rejected his nominee as a contradiction of a republican practice where succession is not strictly hereditary, but determined by election. Consequently, the people requested Oduduwa of Ife to send them a wise prince as their ruler. Prince Oranmiyan was eventually sent…. (Ojelabi Ibid.)
Many (if not all) historians cling to the view above explained as the hollow or holocaust in Benin political life that made the people need a new ruler, from a new place. It is the real historical perspective of this history. When a professional historian, Dr. J.E Ireyefoju remarked in 1983 that the political holocaust in Benin needed to be remedied with a positive innovation that surpassed what the Benin could invent, he was nodding to the above views.
Another school of thought on this matter is the political scientists’ axis. The Benin had to ally with a more stable government. A politically weak people must ally with other weak or strong powers in order not to be stifled by strong powers or a combination of weak ones. Benin was weak in a place where people were strong. Among these strong peoples were Ife, Bornu, Jukun, and Warri (then under the Olurigbo of Irigbo).
Benin was a centralized kingdom and her central tendency reinforced these spirit of political alliance to send to a stronger people for a prince to rule is an invitation for a leverage of power. The weak cannot do much about the critical aspect of their weakness without combining their strength …. Being so weak in a world of power, it desperately need some leverage of power which now it can only get by combining with other in similar circumstances. (Clande Ake: 1992:96).
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE INTERNAL POLITICAL CRISIS ON THE LIFE OF THE BENIN PEOPLE.
The problem of tyranny of Owodo was a threat to the life and survival of Benin. That of Evian, which was simply the problem from the urge of ambition, was a greater threat. Each threat was accompanied by security arrangement. These arrangements were hindered by the relationship between their latent inhibitions and manifest inhibitions. These threats, many and from the same quarter, stood as a trial to develop or in the words of a spiritualist, a period of cleansing; they occurred to articulate strength in Benin to march other forces of the forest, force for force, and to nip the vulnerability that will result from lack of alliance. The call of Benin for a king from afar suggests her weakness - in a place where others were not weak.
PROBABLE AND REAL PROBLEMS OF BENIN IN THE PRE- 1170 DAYS
1) The enclave nature of Benin and her natives.
2) Attempts to change hands in traditional division of labour were abysmal failures.
3) Vastly different views on government.
4) The indication that some chiefdoms were trying to break away e.g. Onogie of Ego
5) Collective government security was not collective as the people were not of the same political ideology. When Evian nominated Ogiamwen, independently of collective opinion, the masses, who felt bereft of stake, withdrew their pseudopodia.
6) Pursuance of political stability and economic buoyancy was done with confused interests and foci.
7) Divergence of political ideology had the role of alienating further and further away the rulers from the ruled. When Oranmiyan was called in by the masses, the tough time he faced from the aristocracy was a result of this alienation of the ruled from the ruler as well as their cherished inters- contradiction and counter-contradiction.
8) Failures of Benin leaders to see the problem of Benin as economic problem. Over concentration on the political aspect of the crisis in Benin made the early reformers to lose a good 50% of the game.
9) The problem of water shortage in Benin which is older than her origin.
10) Substitution of government ideological system also played its role as the abandonment of monarchy for rude Republicanism and of rude Republicanism to Monarchy created a make-and-break contact effect of two hot classes of political activities whose creed confronted one another with incensed vigour.
11) The crave to get to the sea for salt, bead, fish etc. under the control of Warri
WHY THE BINIS LOOKED OUTWARD FOR A RULER
1) The early lgodomigodos were wicked, not only Owodo.
2) Attempt at reformation from within failed i.e. the experiment on republicanism.
3) Republicanism did not only fail the Binis, but reverted them to Monarchy.
4) The new king appointed by Evian was not only weak, but also, uncorrective.
5) Some people supported the new king while others did not.
In midst of the composite complexity that followed, wars were fought and blood, shed. As the weak who were left exposed to the mercy of the strong with no authority intervention, these weak, who were in majority, looked outwards for a ruler in a “save our soul manner”.
WHY THE EDOS CALLED IN THE AID OF IFE.
It remains to relate the problems of Benin to Benin having to search outside, as where the ideal king would come from. That Oduduwa of Ife was a Benin prince who was spared by the executioner (Ikaladehan factor) is not sound enough in the age of scientific historicity. The view among some Yorubas that the era of Oranmiyan in Benin signalled a kind of Yoruba conquest is not objective enough; if so, the argument and experience of Oranmiyan in an Ife-conquered territory were not strong enough to have inspired his line of action. The following reasons have been suggested:-
1. The Kalori (Kanuri) state of Bornu was too distant.
2. The Hausa city states that started with the history of Bayajidda about 1000 to 1200 AD was too far, too.
3. A state of close proximity to Benin was the Warri kingdom (then Iwere Kingdom). But this was far too waterian for the Edo who are inland people.
4. Kano was strong, but too strong to the liking of the Binis, who feared the Kano tradition which says that “the Abagayawa were conquered about 999 A.D by Bagoda, grandson of Bayajidda … At that time, Kano was a little more than a village, but under Habe ruler it began to increase in size and power. Defensive walls were finally completed in the reign of Yusa… who also armed his warriors with shields of tough hides. This improvement in the art of war and Kano’s ability to protect people of the surrounding countryside enabled Sarki Naguji to impose upon them an annual land tax of one-eight of each man’s produce….” (Stride/Ifeka: 1971:90).
5. Ife was an established example of Monarchy – in fact, Ife’s monarchical system was the highest and most enviable in the forest belt of Nigeria. It was better organized; it was rich; it was stable and it was non-aggressive. The wisdom of the Edos in preferring a ruler from Ife to those from other places, like Kano or Bornu, was demonstrated when, Oranmiyan peacefully and quietly abdicated rather than forcing the Edos to “dance well” The above, among others, are why it was Ife (and Ife alone) the Binis chose for the supply of a ruler.
RECENT EVENTS IN NIGERIA THAT ALLY WITH THE BINI DECISION
1. The INC war on the Warri Kingdom of 1997 to 2004 is an excellent demonstration of this fact. When the defenseless Itsekiri realized that the INC war was a joint venture of the Ijaws and successive Delta State governments and in face of Federal Government indifference, they longed for the “Good, Old days” of the colonial masters. The Itsekiri knew that to be colonized is a bitter experience, but felt that to have some 10 houses and 10 men burnt a day by men in government military uniform, and armed with government military arms, and being arrested by men in the same type of uniforms for defending with sticks and bottles (for eight years), is worse than to be colonized. Why the Itsekiri failed to send for the Urhobo, the Ijaws, or the Ukwanis for a relief is simply why the Binis left the Binis, the Ishans, the Afemais, the Ora etc and sent to Ile-Ife (for a ruler).
2. The Ijaw-Ilaje encounter of 1998 also helps to clear the mystery behind the Binis decision for the choice of a king from afar. The Ilajes and the Ijaws ate and drank together as friends on the eve of September 19, 1998 before the mysterious attack of the INC on the 19th of September. A save-our-soul message to the then Ondo State Government was not headed; that to the Federal Government was unavailing as these only produced the effects of sending further and farther away, government protection. When no intervention came from Government, the Ijaws, who became too free and over-daring, achieved a feat in the history of war against the Ilajes, called “Callida Junctura” – skillful connection. They were dressed in Government military uniforms and armed with Army and Navy guns. War boats were even used in the efforts to encircle and kill more. Blockaded towards the north, many Ilajes were killed; to the west was not safe as the commandos boasted at the battle of Obenla that Araromi was to be the next target; in the east, the commandos were already at work and many lives were lost as Atkin’s effort of defense was no match to the machine guns and grenades displayed by the INC forces. Attempt at getting to Orere through the Atlantic, and from there to Sapele was foiled by General Nature as the refuge-seeking Ilajes had their boat capsized by the Atlantic waves, which at this time of the year, was deadly. When on the 20th of October, 1998, some 80 refugees arrived Sapele, they got cups of water and, wiping away tears from their faces said: “This is no government, I beg. The pre-independence Nigerian government is better than self rule!” Thus, it is seen that a people can send to anywhere for a relief, and not minding the consequences, if the aim is to avoid a graver consequence. And the contested Benin plea for the rule of Ife is an instance of this psychological fact.
BENIN AND ALLIANCE: SURVIVAL AND EMPIRE BUILDING
In view of available traditions and records, Benin as a state that was bounded by enemies had to engage in a network of alliances in a bid to keep heads above waters. Most of the alliances which the rulers of Benin entered into at different times of its existence show that the Benin-Ife alliance did not occur like a lightening flash from a clear sky. Alliances and “Osmotic flow of Power” were the usual resorts of the rulers of Benin whenever the going got grounded.
The first known alliance of the kingdom of Benin with a foreign power was that with Ife; the result of which was the absence of military encounters between the two powers for more than a century.
The second diplomatic and ambassadorial relation of Benin with outside power was that between Benin and the Warri Kingdom. Though the Olurigbo, Feromi, then, did not invite a ruler from Benin, yet the Benin decided to send one. This is because the Benin diplomatic articulation suggested that in order to enjoy the salt, Beads and the pyramid-building technology of the Iwere Kingdom, there was a need to “colonize” her by making her to be crowned in this waterian kingdom, a prince of Benin descent. Ginuwa was sent by Oba Olua (1480). The net result of this action was that from this time to one hundred years, Warri was to a large extent, controlled by Benin.
The third known alliance of Benin was with Portugal. When John Afonso of Portugal implored Oba Esigie to forsake heresies, gross idolatry and fetishism and to embrace Christianity, he refused and when Duarte Pacheco advised the Oba to leave the manner of life of these full of abuses, fetishism and idolatry, he said “no”. But in 1514 Benin saw the need for a union with Portugal through these missionaries. Then the Idah war was being proposed and the need to secure the Portuguese had dramatically changed Esigie’s mind – this time almost begging. But in 1514 the same Oba of Benin who had earlier given no favourable response to John’s call, then called for missionaries. The need for this is understandable, for the Oba hoped that by this means, he could acquire fire arms from the Portuguese; for the same envoys were also instructed to ask for fire arms. (Abiola: 1912: 49)
The fourth alliance of Benin, by chronology, was with the Olu of Warri. Resulting from this alliance, Warri army and navy men were injected into the military command with a Benin generalissimo which unleashed terror on the Aworis “who were the main inhabitants of the island”. Oba Orogbua (1550 – 1578) allied with and called in the aid of the Iweres as the Binis of Benin were inland people who, on their own, couldn’t have been able to successfully travel along the coast to Lagos.
Another one is this. In 1818 Kaye was donated by the “Olu Erejuwa II” following an alliance between him and the Oba of Benin (Semede) to lead the Benin invasion of Akure. A clause of the compact was that on the successful completion of the assignment, the land in and around Ologbo would be given to Kaye. The mission was successfully undertaken and Ologbo was given to Kaye as promised. Kaye, who had stationed his men in the “promised land,” and stayed away in Warri, was further begged to pack and personally dwell in the land as a bulwark against the tendency in Akure to wage a war of revenge. And to make this operational, the Ologbo boundary with Benin was pushed further north – to the present day Obayanto! This defeat of Akure by Kaye and the subsequent employment of same to ward off the Akures and the use of the Ologbo land by the Oba as compensation is the only reason why Ologbo – Kolokolo, Ajamogha, Ajoki ete – are in Edo state today.
CHAPTER FIVE
THE YORUBAN PARA EMPIRE
The greatest achievement of the Yorubas is the survival of their culture – language, religion, dress modes, manners etc – outside the present Yoruba homelands. There is a new type of empire, where the Yoruba have colonized the Diaspora with Yorubic culture. No other ethnic group in the history of Africa has had the amount of success that the Yorubas have had in colonizing the New World. Many people think that all the present Yoruba culture in the new world was taken there as a result of the slave trade. This might not be true; however, as Yoruba traditions relate the conquest of the new world. There are various gods, tradition, and dress modes etc, which link the present Yoruba people with the cultures of Egypt.
In classical times, 610BC, Pharaoh Necho, the Phoenician Pharaoh commissioned his men, the Phoenicians, to circumnavigate Africa. About 100 kilometers from the sea, from the Bight of Benin, where the eastern Yoruba kingdoms lay, they saw a civilization that was lofty: that had cloth weaving and iron mining technology, among others. The position of this lofty civilization tallied well with that of present Yoruba land. The Yoruba talk of a civilization of the umales (Omales) or aborigines who use mysterious crafts to travel to the other end of the Atlantic. These legends might be true because the civilizations of the Americas accept, in their tradition that their people migrated from the Guinea coast.
According to Mokwugo Okoye, :
“On the other hand, there is evidence that 4000 years before the Christian era – that is, more than a thousand years earlier than China’s recorded down of civilization – Egypt under her king Menes, had reached a height in the arts of architecture, pottery, engineering, sculpture, music, literature, science and painting, that is baffling to the most fastidious eyes; and many archaeologists believe, judging from the idols, sculpture, pyramidal buildings and other relics, that the highly cultured Aztecs of Mexico, as well as other aboriginal American tribes, came form Egypt.
Columbus had told him that they had come from the Guinea coast, and the Mexican Riva Palacio wrote in 1887 that “it is indisputable that in very ancient time ….. The Negro race occupied our territory when the two continents were joined. This race brought its own religious cults and ideals”.
Since the Yorubas are the people in Africa, whose religion has influenced the new world most, it is not difficult or far-fetched to suppose that the Yorubic religion in predynastic times must have influenced the continent of America.
Even within the present Nigerian shores, the Yorubic culture and sculpture have spread more than that of any other ethnic group. The Binis learnt brass smithing from the Yoruba. The fourth Oba in the Oranmiyan dynasty sent for a brass-mith, and Iguegha, was sent to Benin. This Ife technology through the Binis spread to many places: the Urhobos, parts of the Ijaws, the Obah people, some Igbos etc have brass which were given to them by the Bini monarch whose technology ultimately came from Ife.
Till today, Ogun, Olokun, Esu and Ifa, which came from Yoruba, are the major deities in Benin and among most Niger Delta peoples. Roth mentioned that in 1776 the people of Warri claimed that they had 67 kings already. According to his calculations, that will take the Warri monarchy to BC 30. This will place warri as one of the most ancient Yoruba kingdoms.
It is this religious civilization as sublime sculpture that Frebonius saw, and felt that Yoruba must be the lost Atlantis, that was the link between Egypt and the indigenous American civilizations. The story of Atlantis was first popularized by Plato, who heard it from Socrates; Socrates heard it from Solon, who heard it, for the first time, from the priests of Sais, from the temples of Upper Egypt. Frebonius, paraphrasing Solon, and believing that Solon’s Atlantis referred to Yoruba says: “Solon’s story in Greek, then says that Atlantis is the island in the tropics where all the tropical plants flourish and elephants gambol, where brass is smelted and the houses are strange; an island which in the beginning, by the cast of die, fell as his share of the earth to Poseidon, who colonized it with the seed of his loins, (Frebonius 1903: 347).
Among the South East Yoruba – the Itsekiri, Ilajes and water side Ijebus – many of the people claim to be descended from the Atlanteans, Olero, who was said to be an Atlantean living originally at the river Ramos, is now a deity among the Isekiris and the Ilajes. Inorin people in Warri claim descent from Ogude, the son of Umale Okun, the African Poseidon.
The people of Ugborodo claim descent from Ise , a descendant of the priestess of Iset.. Thus, the conjectures of Frebonius are correct as most South-East Yoruba claim descent from Umale-Okun, the African Poseidon. It is likely, therefore, that these predynastic Yorubas migrated to form the American civilizations.
Hear the authorities. “ Negroid skulls and skeletons have also been found throughout the New World". Polish professor Andrzej Wiercinski has revealed the discovery of African skulls at Olmec sites in Tlatilco, Cerro de las Mesas and Monte Alban. Furthermore, very ancient African skeletons have been unearth in California, Mexico, Central and South America.” There are are other authorities who witnessed the presence of blacks in America before Columbus. “The best evidence of the Black presence in America before Columbus comes from the pen of the "great discoverer" himself. In his Journal of the Second Voyage, Columbus reported that when he reached Haiti the Native Americans told him that black-skinned people had come from the south and southeast in boats, trading in gold-tipped medal spears. At least a dozen other European explorers, including Vasco Nunez de Balboa, also reported seeing or hearing of "Negroes" when they reached the New World.” (Before Columbus: Black Explorers of the New World By Legrand H. Clegg II 10-20-3)
From Solon’s description, therefore, Atlantis would have been a wide area stretching from the Rivers Ramos and Dodo, to the vicinity of Accra (Ga-Adangme) in modern Ghana. In this region, we find people who are islanders: Itsekiri, Ilaje, Ijebu, Awori, Egun, Fon, Aja etc, and are Yorubas. Brass -casting is also common among these people; and it became perfected in the brass casting traditions of Ife. Among the Ekitis, Owos, Akokos etc, there was brass casting tradition and even iron mining tradition that seemed to have predated Ife’s.
The archaeological find at Oke-Eri in Ijebu (South-East Yorubaland) is purported to have been that of the queen of Sheba. This means the lofty civilization must have been as old as the days of King Solomon, and has lent more credence to the fact that Yoruba might likely be Atlantis. Thus, Yoruba might be the link between Egyptian civilization and the civilization of the aborigines of America. This religious civilization took place in the dim past. In the slave trade era, the Yoruba civilization has become the most significant in the new world. In Brazil, in Haiti, in Trinidad and Tobago, in Cuba, in Jamaica, in all the islands of the Caribbean, and even in the United States and Canada, the Yorubic culture has been the most important and most significant African culture. In places like Cuba, Brazil and Haiti, the Yorubic spirituality has proved to be superior to,and more enduring than, even the Roman Catholic religion.
THE GREAT EXODUS
Before the nineteenth century, the transatlantic slave trade was the period with the highest human movement in world history. Concalves and Nuno Tristan took the first slaves from Senegal in 1441. The place they collected their slave along the coast of Senegal was called Rio De Oro. In the sixteen century, most of the people taken as slaves came from Senegalese coast. By 1472, the Portuguese had reached Elmina in present day Ghana. For reasons we cannot yet understand, the Portuguese slavers did not make any significant stop between Ghana and the Lagos area. A likely reason may be that the kingdoms of Ewe, Allada, Dahomey and Lagos had not been established then.
By 1472, the Portuguese under Fernao Gomez reached the Benin, Escravos and Forcados rivers. By December 1479, two Portuguese caravels commanded by Fernando Po sailed for the Escravos River, obtained slaves and proceeded to Elmina territory (J.O.E Sagay 1982: 8; also mentioned in Blake.)
Conton reported that these slaves reached Elmina by 1480. Talbot tells us that five leagues up the Forcados (Huela) Ijala, was a place of Barter. They traded in slaves, cotton, beads, elephant tusks etc. This town was identified as Ijala by William Moore and Professor E.J. Alagoa (Talbot Pg. 319).
By 1522, the centre of trade has shifted from Ijala in Warri township to Ode-Itsekiri, about 3 kilometres away. The capital of the emerging Itsekiri kingdom that was merging the city states: Ureju, Tebu, Ugborodo, Omadino, Inorin etc had started becoming areas of barter. Cowries were fast becoming the commodity of trade.910 cowries =1 goat, 40 cowries was equivalent to 1 hen (AFC Ryder)
By 1530, Debry records that ‘before at the mouth of the Forcado, there lieth an island and the river is so indifferent great that a man may well know it. This river is much used to be entered into by the Portuguese and it is well known not because of any great commoddittee that is there in to be had, but because of the great number of slaves which are brought in there, to carry to other places as to Saint Thomas (Sao Thome) and Brasilia (Brazil) to labour there and to refine sugar.” There is no doubt that the Portuguese were dealing with the Itsekiri section of the Yoruba at river Forcados.
By 1668 Urbanus Cerri, brought the link between the words “Forcados” and “Warri.” Hear him “About 24 miles (Dutch) to the east of the Benin River, there flows into the sea, a river which is called Rio Forcado by the Portuguese. Anwerre (Warri) or as to is otherwise called Forcado.” The first crop of slaves between the years 1500-1600 from the Nigerian coast seem to have been taken from The Benin, Escravos and the Forcados Rivers.
Concerning this trade Conton says: “If the coast of modern Ghana was famous in the sixteenth century for the gold it produced, that of modern Nigeria had the much less happy reputation of being the most profitable source of slaves of any section of the West African coast. The Rio dos Esclavos to which I have already mentioned (page 90) was the centre of this trade, but there must have been very many places in this region where an unscrupulous European trader could fill his holds with slaves, in exchange for the familiar cheap European commodities which somewhere else along the coast he was more likely to trade for ivory or gold.
We know that, between 1530 and 1660, 900,000 slaves were shipped across the Atlantic by the Portuguese alone. When you take into account the slave trade by other nations and in other years, the total transported towards the new world from West Africa (between 1500 and 1864) is reckoned to have been about 20,000,000. Indeed, as early as 1600, there were almost certainly more negroes in the West Indies than natives, and even today, the magnitude of the population of the state of Bahia in the republic of Brazil are of negro descent and retain strong traces of Yoruba culture (Conton ibid 103)
The major question to the asked now is ‘Who were the slaves that were transported from the Benin, Escravos and the Forcados rivers between 1500 and 1600, when about 900,000 people were carted away from the area?’ The Itsekiri were actually in charge at these rivers, and the only recognizable kingdom from the Benin to the Ramos and Dodo rivers was the kingdom of Warri. The Warri people (Itsekiri) made brisk business selling some commodities - slaves, cloth, beads etc - to the Portuguese. Many of their slaves were from the neighboring Urhobo
Firstly, the Urhobo were the weakest ethnic group in the western delta. On this hear Ikime “The Urhobos could not organize raids against any of their neighbors ------- The urhobos were forced to look among themselves for slaves “(Obaro Ikime in Warri crises in diagrams 1998 same authors). These neighbours were the Binis to the north, who were more organized and their Oba, a god-man terrorized the neighborhood. The Itsekiri to their west were more organized and they had their king a god man also, coupled with the fact that they had contact with the white men and were in possession of fire arms. The people of Aboh were in contact with the eastern Delta and so they also possessed fire arms which the Urhobos at that time could not afford. The Ijaws were moving all over the coast, but their main home was east of the river Ramos. They were dreaded water men whom people were afraid to raid.
Thus, the Urhobos were the major people to be sold as slaves in the Benin, Escravos and Forcados Rivers, and minus the possible exception of the Igbos, the Urhobos were also, the major ethnic group to be sold to the Portuguese in the eastern delta, since many slaves captured by the Abohs were of Urhobo extraction. And they were promptly sold to the people of the eastern delta, via the ports of Nembe, kalabari and Bonny (1682AD).
Secondly, they were not very smart. On their low life style, Captain Leonard says :
“ To the north of the Jekris are the Urhobos and to the eastward are the Igabo … shy and timid no doubt, but also treacherous and rude” (Leonard: Lower Niger and Its tribes)
Hear Ling Roth for more:
“Among the Jekris domestic slavery is in existence, most of the slaves being bought from the neighboring Sobo tribe. The value of a full grown man is about 10 pounds … The Sobo do not keep slaves, but they are kept as such by the Benin and Itsekiri people.” (Warri crisis in Diagrams: 1997, quoting H. Ling Roth).
Elizabeth says “Warri, accessible by the Forcados river , was an itsekiri state, which drew most of its slaves largely from Urhoboland ,and to a lesser extent from the Kwale Igbo.”(1978:116)
The Urhobo slaves might be among those that took some aspects of the Yoruban culture to the new world. Since they are quite acquainted with the Itsekiri Yoruba, they must have carried the Itsekiri language to the new world which at then was known as Olukumi (Lukumi). This is to show the immortal nature of the Yoruba culture as many Urhobos still practise a lot of Yoruba culture they learnt from the Itsekiri.
Now hear Manfredi on the connection between Lukumi and itsekiri.
“…lingua eorum est facilis, vocatur lingua Licomin et est universalis in istis partibus, sicut latinum in partibus Europa”(Brásio 1960, 465, cf. Thornton 1988, 362 fn. 34). The locations included the ⁄jíbu (“Jabou”), WÅró (“Ouairai”) and ◊d£ (“Benin”) kingdoms. digitized in the British Library (http://www.bl.uk/collections/sound-archive .It will help to check Thomas’ sample for any similarities between the southern Nigerian variety and Cuban Lucumí which exclude Yorooba dialects sensu stricto—confirming a horizontal transmission model. Lucumí would be expected to show more similarities to the language presently called Is…êkiri (“Itshekiri”). As a possible case in point, I’m anecdotally informed that the expression oluku mi (colloquially, ‘my tight friend’) is current an Is…êkiri greeting.
PHILOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES ON THE SOUTHEASTERN NIGERIAN DIASPORA
Victor Manfredi African Studies Center, Boston University
Thus it is possible that proving from aphilological point of view vast numbers of Urhobos nust have helped to spread the itsekiri language in the Diaspora Despite the high population of the Urhobos sold during the slave trade, there is no evidence of their culture and their tradition Overseas. It wasn’t only the Urhobos that were sold away in large numbers. Many other ethnic groups were also carted away in volume and sold at the Bights of Benin and Biafra. The Ibos and the Ibibios were taken in very high numbers, and sold at the ports of the Niger Delta: Nembe, Kalabari, Bonny – and at Old Calabar. Only trickles of their traditions can be seen in the New World unlike the Yorubas that have established their culture Overseas. The Igbos, for instance, were taken in much higher quantity than the Yorubas. On the annual rate at which the Ibos were sold hear Conton: “The annual rate at which Ibo were being sold into slavery by 1600 has been estimated at 18,000. For reason we do not fully understand their culture did not survive transatlantic transportation as well as that of the Yoruba. (Conton ibid). Why does the Yorubic culture survive in the New World, while those of others do not? By the sixteenth century, the Senegambian axis supplied most of the slaves to Brazil. In the 18th century, most of the slaves were from the Gold Coast.
The tables below show the distribution of the percentage of slaves carried by regions in Africa.
Region 1711.20 1721.30 1731.40 1741.50 1751.60 1761.70 Senegambia % - 16.5% 22,500 10.0% 26,200 8.2% 25,000 7.4 22.500 7.6 21.400 5.5 Sierra Leone % 5,900 3.2 15,000 6.7 14,900 4.7 18,400 5.4 9,900 3.4 5,300 1.4 Wind ward coast % 30,600 16.4 47,600 21.2 55,200 17.3 65,300 19.3 29,800 10.1 67,600 17.4 Bight of Benin % 72,500 38.8 48,400 21.6 59,400 18.6 30,900 9.1 35,600 12.1 48,400 12.5 Gold Coast % 44,000 23.5 54,200 24.2 65,200 20.5 67,000 19.8 41,800 14.2 52,400 13.5 Bight of Biafra % - - 4,500 2.0 45,100 14.2 71,300 21.1 100,700 34.1 139,300 35.9 Central and South East Africa % 3,200 1.7 32,000 14.3 52,500 16.5 60,200 17.8 34,600 18.5 53,200 13.7 Total % 187,000 100.0 214.200 100.0 318,500 100.0 388.100 100.0 295.000 100.0 387,700 100.0 Souce: 329 History of west Africa ed. By Ade Ajayi and Michael Crowder :1972
Region 1771.80 1821.90 1791.1800 1801.10 Total Senegambia % 17,700 6.0 20,300 3.1 4,400 1.1 800 0.3 191,700 5.8 Sierra Leone % 3,700 1.3 17,7 3.0 12,200 3.2 9,600 3.6 112,600 3.4 Wind ward coast % 49,700 16.9 24,400 4.1 14,700 3.8 11,200 4.2 396,100 12.1 Gold Coast % 38,700 13.2 59,900 10.1 29,400 7.7 22,100 8.3 474,700 Bight of Benin % 41,400 14.1 120,400 20.3 15,100 3.9 5,300 2.0 477,400 14.5 Bight of Biafra % 100,000 34.0 114,800 19.4 137,600 35.9 110,400 41.5 823,700 25.1 Control and South East Africa % 42,900 14.6 234,400 39.6 170,400 44.4 106,700 40.1 810,100 27.7 Total % 294,000 100.0 591,500 100.0 383,800 100.0 266,000 100.0 3,286,100 100.0 Source: 329 history of west Africa ed. By Ade Ajayi and Michael Crowder: 1972
From tables 1 and 2, we see that far more slaves were taken from the Bight of Biafra, than from the Bight of Benin. The Bight of Biafra corresponds to Niger Delta Great ports – Nembe, Kalabari, Bonny, Calabar and ports of the Southern Cameroon. The single largest ethnic group taken as slaves here was the Ibos, totaling about 80% of all the slaves from this region. The Bight of Benin refers to the Volta region to the present area of Benin River in Delta State. In this region, the popular ports were the ports of the Gas, the Ewes, the Dahomians and those of Lagos and Badagri; others were the Gwato ports of Benin, Escravos and that of Warri. There is no doubt that the largest number of slaves taken from this region was the Yoruba, but they did not constitute as high as 80% of all the slaves taken from this region. Figure of about 60% will be more like it. This is because most of those taken from the Volta region were non-Yoruba, and those from the Warri kingdom – Escravos, Forcados and Benin Rivers - were Urhobos. The slaves taken from the Gold coast, Wind Ward coast and Central and South east Africa were, by far, more than those taken from the Bight of Benin, where the Yorubas lay. If the slaves from the windward coast were different peoples, the peoples in South-east Africa and central Africa are predominantly Zulus and Bantus. And those from the Gold Coast were Ashanti, Fanti, Twi, all Akan-speaking peoples. Why were the cultures such as the Akan, Igbo, Zulu and Bantu not able to “colonize” the New World the way the Yoruba’s has? We will attempt some answers.
SURVIVING THE ODDS
There are many reasons why the Yorubic culture endures Overseas. The most important reason is that the Yoruba cosmology is about the most developed on the African continent. This cosmology is the core of the Yoruban kingdoms and city-states .Some of these states are thousand of years old before the slave trade. Some of these ancient kingdoms or city-states were Esun, headed by Elesun, Olu of Esun, who was overthrown by the dynasty of Ewi that rules till this present day. Alarun ruled the Ogotun area. Oluagbon ruled Igbon. Olusodu ruled Isodu before the rise of Olugotun dynasty.
It was even agreed that Ogun overthrew an even earlier dynasty in Ire. The people of Akure claimed an earlier dynasty that predated the present Dejis. About 20 kilometres off Akure are to be found some ancient city-states – Oba, Ibule, Ipoju, Ilara, Ikota, Ijare, Iju, Ita-Ogbolu, Igboba, Ero, Isarun Igbara-Oke, Isola, and Isikan etc. And this authenticates the findings that Itsekiri states like Omadino, Ugborodo, Gbolokposo, Inorin, Irigbo, and Efurokpe developed long before the present Ginuwa dynasty. In fact, the coronation ritual at Warri gives pre-eminence to the Irigbos who performed special functions – such as naming the king and swearing him in.
In the Ondo and Itsekiri area, predominant female chiefs and descents that were patrilineal and even more so, matrilineal, characterized these city-states. Thus, the early kings of Itsekiri, Ginuwa, Ijijen and Irame had to marry the aboriginal women to legitimize their rule and have a matrilineal claim to the throne. It was this long period of state-building, woven round a religious cosmology that had made the Yorubic religion matured as to survive in an alien land. Secondly, the Yoruba adopted religious syncretism. They were able to ascribe the qualities of African deities to the Caucasian ones – especially the Roman Catholics’.
When the Yorubas got to the New World, they were told not to practice their religion. They had masqued the worship of yoruban deities and archetypes (orishas) behind the Roman Catholic Saints. Ogun, the patron god of drivers, was associated with St. Christopher. He was also identified as Michael, the warrior. St. Babara was a veil for the Obatala worship, as both are patrons of artists, Elegua (Elegue of Itsekiri) was synthesized with St. Anthony and St. Jude, the warrior saints. And more importantly, they were able to reconcile the personality of Olodumare (the Yoruban Supreme Being) with the God of the Roman Catholics. This is one thing, which the other African peoples could not do in the face of the slave trade and its attendant persecutions. Thirdly, the Yorubic culture did not go to America by slave trade alone. Some aspects of Yoruban culture traveled overseas by trade, a result of the vibrant Yoruba economy and exposure!
In places like Portugal, the Itsekiri word Cambo (Okra) spread. And it was this, the French corrupted as ‘gombo’ in their language. Okra is native to Africa and it is a fact that the name was copied from the Itsekiri during the slave trade. On the way the native soap of the Yoruba influenced the Portuguese, the late chief Barrister Rewane says “the native soap was said to be popular in Portugal at a time, so that government had to legislate because of the keen competition Portuguese industries faced from their locally made soap” (Rewane royalty Magazine 1987)
Again, the Yorubas have open minds. In today’s Nigeria, they are one of the few ethnic groups that can marry Christianity, Islam and their pristine traditional religion without clash... With all the clashes taking place as a result of religion in Nigeria, the Yoruban liberality outstands. With this liberalism, the Yoruban slaves were able to blend Catholicism with African and Indian religions to form a new brand of voodoo in Cuba and Haiti. Also, the Yorubic religion and culture endured because they were revolting against the religion of their slave masters. The religion offered psychological relief and succour to a depressed people.
Many aspects of Yorubic culture spread Overseas. The Yoruba food items in Yoruba are “akara” called “acaraje”, in ‘Brazil’ ‘makeke’, called ‘mocoto’ and ‘mequeca’, and these food items are prepared in similar ways across the Atlantic. (Conton 121). Conton also noticed that there was a priestess of Shango in Salvador in the capacity of Shayin Itongbe of Tebu(Warri), Nigeria (2004). He mentioned the survival of the Egungun cult in Ithaparica across the bay from Bahia. Conton got most of his research materials from professor E.L. Lasibikan, a Yoruba, a staff of the University of Bahia’s centre de Estudos-Afro-Orientalis.
This Yoruban religion is called Candomble Nago in Brazil; it is called Lucumi in Cuba. In the USA, Oyotunji village in Beaufort, South Carolina. DOYA CD ascendant of Yoruba in America foundation in Cleaveland, Ile Ori Ifa – Temple in Atlanta C.A. and African Paradise in Griffin where places where Yoruba religions are still practiced. In Haiti, Trinidad, Tobago, and in many islands of the Caribbean, the Yoruba religion is well practiced. In fact, the religion of the Yoruba ‘empire’ in the New World is proving to become a world religion.

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CHAPTER SEVEN
THE YORUBA CULTURAL SURVIVAL AND IMMORTALITY
The “Yoruba” is defined as not only the Yorubas of Nigeria and those who, once lived in Nigeria, but now find themselves in other countries; but it includes the Yorubas of Sierra Leone, Ghana, Togo, Nigeria as well as those of Brazil, Tobago, Haiti, Jamaica Ithaparica, Coasta Rica as well as Paulo Seco in Trinidad. This view that Yorubas are not only in Nigeria, but also in Diaspora is a finger pointing to Yorubic universality.
This fact let it be repeated, that Yorubas are scattered all over the globe, highlights the global orientation of the Gani Adams Olokun and Olosa festivals which Yoruba from all walks of life attend. All these are one thing about the Yoruban people and their Oduduwa whose mask they wear in the same way as the ancient Egyptians wore their Ipi and Sami masks. Olufemi once has said: “Oni has been projecting the solid cultural values of the Yorubas and uniting them across the world over the years. The Yorubas in Cuba, West Indies, Brazil, Haiti and southern part of Ghana recognize the Ooni spiritual and Supreme Headship of the Yoruba. A race of more than 184 million people across the world needs a focused and trusted leader whose concern goes beyond local political arrangement in this 21st century (Olufemi Tosin Aduwa: the Vanguard Nov. 7 2004 p. 43).
The Yorubic culture as a state
We can speak of the Yoruba state, as a culture or the Yorubic culture as the Yoruba state, if we have fully come to terms with the Yoruba medicine and herbology. This is not new since its existence dates back to the first decades of Orunmila’s arrival in Egypt before the birth of Christ. Its discovery is new, however. The late discovery of this formation, the Yorubic culture, the Yorubic medicine and herbology, capped by the low appreciation of the whole thing, because the view runs against the widely held view published by many in view of the truth that over the years, Yoruba has not been able to trace itself to its umbilical cord in other to reach out to the word that the last important migration group to Nigeria took place in c28BC is why people can’t understand the Benin-Yoruba seniority controversy- all over the world. This will be proved in detail. But first, culture.
Culture represents anything which a people does differentiating it from other peoples. Culture is the language which a people speaks, how it speaks it, music, literature, inventiveness, conservatism, emotional quality, food eaten etc. Culture of a people is a unique and specific thing and cultural acts as they relate to everyone within a cultural unit is again, unique and specific. . There is a direct proportionality relationship between a good grip of culture generally, how it relates to the Yorubas and why the Yoruba and the Yorubic culture exist and behave in the way they do. A people whose political and economic system is carved out of its culture can hardly be unculturally inclined while functioning as an independent entity . No Yoruba in a Yoruba community can frown at the culture as it affects the state, only when he breaks the law.
The Yoruba man looks at himself as culturally tied up to the stake- Oduduwa- and this is perhaps why Alenda Kumbo remarked, amidst smiles, that the average Yoruba man takes his culture wherever he goes. If the Yorubic culture is praised , the yoruban state is praised and the Yoruba man is lauded. Conversely, if a prominent Yoruba personality is insulted, both his state and culture is insulted. An innuendo cast on any ‘big’ Yoruba personage like Oduduwa, Oranmiyan, Ooni, Alafin, Awolowo etc., is a kick on the face of Yoruba - on the yoruban state and the yorubic culture. In the same way , just as the attack on the sacred manger and the holy places in Jerusalem would mean the attack on Catholicism in general, any thing said to slight or spite the yorubic personality would spell danger, not only in history , but also today.
The reaction of the Yoruba leader, Gani Adams , to the statement of the Ijaw leader, Asari Dokubo, that Awolowo founded the Niger delta problems, prevalent today, was a simple , but far-reaching witticism , which political historians would call deterance . Asari’s remark concerning Awolowo was regarded as part of a calculated attempt to undo the Yoruba : “not long ago the Oba of Benin made some statement about our progenitor . now it is the turn of an Ijaw man. Giving Dokubo an ultimatum is not necessary. I can tell you that he is finished, unless he apologises and begs us. (Gani Adams :1 : mach 27 )
In November 1994, Barrister L Musa noted that there was a time in the slavery days when tens of the Yoruba slaves of the Yoruba slaves in America angrily climbed the top of the cliff and energetically descended into the sea to be drifted into the Atlantic Ocean. Their action, he said, was a reaction to what they saw as an unbearable insult from their slave master who had said : ‘work , sons of a beast, work! In Africa you worked with willed physique, but in my farms you are only good singing , “Oduduwa baba wa Oduduwa baba wa”. That big monkey, that big beast!” Though this story seemed to be a joke from a fellow corp member who felt I was too keen calling on Odududwa when bored, it seems to be a truth of History as a congruent story recorded by Naiwu Osahon in “Cradle” points to the same incidence.
Osahon, in a section on the evils of the slave trade, noted that some African slaves once became extremely angered and lept from a coastal cliff and plunged into the ocean to die. The slaves , before the suicide, had told the sea which brought them to America , to take them back to Africa. Although Osahon, unlike Larry Musa, did not mention Yoruba , we can suggest that the slaves in the two stories were the same persons, since he ( Osahon) faile to mention other group of slaves to the contrary. Then what are the effect of the action of these slaves - as a factor of survival of the yorubic culture in the new world ? After the victory at the cliff, every Yoruba slave in the new world became free to use the name Oduduwa as a source of relief from pain, fear, and from nostalgia.
From this freedom the yorubic religion and culture (the behavioural manifestation of Odududwa) came to stay in America. . This is because, in reality, the Yoruba man is the Yoruba State and the Yoruba culture. In Yoruba where, no matter ones religious or mystical beliefs, the culture must be supreme, the significance of the state power cannot be reduced to pave way for the culture nor that of culture undermined to glorify the state. In those days, the state, the culture and the Yoruba man were one thing. This is why later in its history Yoruba became ruled by a constitutuion woven to please all, based on the principle of ‘checks and balances’.
YORUBIC CULTURE:A DISTINCT CULTURAL REGION OF THE WORLD
The culture of the Yoruba is a distinct reality placed side-by- side other cultures of the world. This is noticeable when we understand the Yorubic culture not only in its Nigerian sense, but also in the new world’s, and why Yoruba is gradually opening up a “cultural empire” abroad. We must trace the culture to its original base – Egypt - as a cradle. And one of two things are known in connection with Yoruba and the Egyptian civilization: one is that civilization was brought to Egypt under the leadership of Horus (the Yoruba’s Orisa or Orunmila, the high- priest who led the Yoruba migration into Egypt).
The other is that in the early days of the Egyptian civilization, the Yorubas, led by Horus, or Orunmila, found their way into the Nile valley and co-mingled the tenets of the Atlantean civilization with the Egyptians’ in its pre-dynastic stage in a mytho-physical equation to form the Egyptian political mysticism which, ipso facto, is the origin of the Yorubic Medicine and Herbology. Driven emotionally by nostalgia, and guided physically by Oduduwa, who was himself guided by the outcome of the millennia-old interaction with Egypt and her politico-mystic thought, the Yoruba medicinal and herbal wisdom, Oduduwa and his followers stepped into Ile-Ife, a home where everyone loved everyone (C28 BC).
This ancientness of the Yorubic culture, its constituents, its promotion and its value-laden load are important to a search for the diffusion of the distinct nature of the Yorubic culture. In fact, these are the reasons why the Yorubic culture is distinct and why its distinctness is opening up a cultural empire abroad. The agreement between Yoruba and Egypt and the birth of the Yorubic medicine and herbology is attested to by many writers on the Yoruba-Egypt relations before Christ. “Further north a close study of some 800 human skulls existing before the same date (3000BC) suggests that the ancestors of the West Africans of today played an important role in building the civilization of ancient Egypt.” (C.C Ifemesia 1965: 40). The 10 indelible colours of the Yorubic Culture.
To understand the Yorubic culture as a catalyst, we must identify some of its features which have made it a dominant force in the social order of the world generally; and of the Americas particularly. It is these features about it that animate it to bob up and down and to dominate all others cultures of African descent to a peaceful death, away in the New-World.
1. A richly packed ‘characterology’ - the nature of the culture - those things latent in it that imbue it with the ability of turned into a field of study.
2. A good number of related cultures undergoing browniary tendency within a major culture.
3. All sub-cultures looking on main culture as indispensable as they do the browniary thing
4. Main culture seeing all sub-cultures as indispensable
5. Supremacy of culture to religion
6. Existence of intermediary between culture and religion, religious cosmology.
7 Cultural seniority of the Yoruba among other African cultures in the New world. (since Yoruba is really Atlantis )
8. Centralized home government fostering centralized nature on Yoruba, away.
9. Sectionalism (if not tribalism), a corollary to the central nature of the culture.
10. The Yorubic medicine, herbology and cosmology n+k+h+c+y+e= Yorubic culture and herbology (mytho-political guide)
Where......
n = Ancient Egyptian social wisdom
k = ancient yorubic social wisdom
h = Egyptian herbal wisdom
c = yorubic herbal knowledge
y= yorubic religious wisdom
e= Egyptian religious wisdom
As a proof of the suitability of this equation, a lot of Egyptologists and other general historians have written. Hear one of them. “Early in its history and its development, the Nile valley civilization created a basic way of life that attracted teachers and priests from other parts of Africa always enriching the original composite composition of the Nile valley. By the time the Yoruba made their way into the Nile valley, led by the mystic prophet, Orunmila, Egyptian priest had accumulated centuries of herbal and medicinal knowledge. The Yoruba drew from this treasure chest of wisdom and incorporated it into their own religion and cultural customs. The key point in respect to the Yoruba medicine is that the Egyptian knowledge, coupled with the earlier Nok people produced the outcome of Yoruba herbal practices. (Tariqh Sawandi: Yorubic medicine – The art of Divine Herbology – the online article :5.)
And concerning this fact, a reson detre of this work, Basil Davidson comments: “what historical truths lie behind these beliefs? They point to the early arrival of new comers who settled in Yoruba land and merged with the numerous peoples who were already living in Yoruba land had certainly being living there since distant stone age times . Archaeological evidence suggests that they were pionerring metal workers and fine artist in baked clay and that they were possibly related to the people of the Nok culture. (Basil Davidson 1978:119)
Factors for the cultural survival of the Yoruba in the New world.
i. Excepting the Yorubic which grew up to become the “Yorubic cultural empire”, the other African cultures taken to the New World failed to adhere to one another or cohere with the indigenous cultures. These cultures failed for lack of adaptability and historical struggle which failed to look forward to certain developmental experience that could be logically accounted for by the nature of their own existence.
ii. The Yorubic culture, one of the cultures in the new world before even Amerigo and Columbus, was not able to dominate or colour the indigenous culture until the larger waves of the post 1441to 1479 slave period from the Black World. These people from Africa included the Igbo, the Zulu, the Bantu, the Basuto, the Yoruba of Nigeria, Dahomey (Benin), Togo, Ghana, Sierra Leone etc. But while most of these other groups were industrially creative and ideologically innovative, they equally promoted social intrigues or conflicts in such a way that the desired development and unity could only come by proxy – half construction, half destruction... And the day the Yoruba intervened with its Egyptian tendency towards peace and unity of diverse things to correct all wrongs in a bid to erect a penetrative loyalty that transcended the boundary of tribes or races, the survival and dominance of the Yorubic culture manifested as a logical process.
iii The 10 indelible colours of the Yorubic culture played its part as the most concrete cultural character in the new world.
iv Oduduwa , a faher worshipped as God . the Yoruba slaves in the New World knew Oduduwa as a father, but worshipped him as god . The natives of America knew not Oduduwa as a father, but worsipped him as a force. The slave masters did not know Oduduwa, but embraced him as a power. After the triumph of the slaves at the cliff, there was the contention of Catholicism with yorubic medicine, herbology and cosmology, to prduce a new form of voodoo. After all efforts to use Christianity to prevernt slave insurrections , in the New World, when coercion was producing bad effects, the slave masters resorted to the use of voodoo as an excellent ulternative to continue their mastership. But since Oduduwa ( and the Oduduwan religion, the point of the belief of the Yoruba slaves) constituted the lion percentage of voodoo, the yorubic something would continue to survive as long as voodoo survives.
v. Cultural Immortality of the Yoruba:The Yoruba is culturally an undying people. But for a culture to always survive, somebody must determine that a particular part of it should remain for a particular to tarry. And since that somebody is simply everybody, in the Yoruba world, the culture must survive. That is not all. Something is ther inherent in the yorubic culture that imbues it with life time after time. This can be explained with the law of cultural immortality.
v The Laws of Cultural ImmortalityThe 1st law of cultural Immortability: “The older a culture, the more the number of sub-culture paying tribute to the culture.”The 2nd law of Cultural Immortability: “The more the number of tribute- paying cultures to a main culture, the longer is the tendency of the main culture to survive”.
The 3rd law of cultural immortability. The greater the tendency of a culture to survive, the greater is its tendency to ink other cultures The general law of cultural immortality If there are two or more cultures struggling for supremacy,the culture with the greatest number of constituent cultures, which in most cases, is the oldest of these cultures, will ink each of the other cultures in the short run; absorb them or part of them in the long run; and armed with these, dive into the realm of cultural immortalityt in the very long run. These, among others, are the reasons why the Yorubic culture and religion are significant in the New World; and why the Yorubic culture is gradually opening up a ‘cultural empire’ away from home.
CHAPTER EIGHT
YORUBAS ABROAD
By abroad, is meant the Yoruba peoples, and more important, their culture and trade contacts with other West African peoples. The Yorubic culture can be felt in the present modern republics: Benin, Togo, and Ghana, in far away Sierra-Leone, Liberia etc.
BENIN REPUBLIC AND TOGO
Along the coast from Nigeria through Benin Republic and Togo, one meets a substratum of people who speak Yoruboid languages, who are Yoruban peoples or who adhere to Yorubic culture. These people are the Aja, Egun (Gun) the Fon, the Arada and the Ewe, that are spread, even into the modern republic of Ghana. Among these people, one can easily notice the survival of Yorubic culture, (especially their religion) and the survival of the Yoruban language. If we go back into history, we see that they had the same economic system with the Yoruba. A question will then strike the average observer. Are these genetically one or is it merely a coincidence of being next-door neighbours?
Like the history of most preliterate peoples, the origin of the Aja groups has been conflicting; many historians have mentioned many different places as their home. Concerning this F.K. BUAH says “The oral traditions of the people maintain that the Fon, Aja and Ewe originally lived somewhere east of the river Niger. (The Ga of modern Ghana make a similar claim in their oral tradition) for reasons which are not remembered in the traditions, these people emigrated westwards, halting at different places until they made a permanent settlement in Ketu in Yoruba land (now in Dahomey in due course Notsile, north of the present day republic of Dahomey, and Togo became points from where sections of the Ewe people dispersed in different directions to form separate kingdoms. They formed settlements in Allada in present-day central Dahomey; later, they built Abomey as their capital.
The Aja moved to the coast, south of Abomey. And some of the Ewe moved westward until they established kingdoms in both present day republics of Togo and Ghana . Originally one people, the Fon, Aja and the Ewe have maintained similar political, social and cultural institutions. Their languages are all closely related.” (F.K BUAH 1974:158) He has been able to weave a common historical thread around these peoples: the fon, the Aja, the Ewe, and mentioned that they were originally one people. He mentioned that these people came from the east of the River Niger. We cannot really say what he meant here by east. Could it be that these groups of people accompanied the Yorubas from their great trek from Egypt? The relationship of these people with the Yorubas of Nigeria goes very far into oral history. According to Ade Obayemi, “Further west of the Oyo or Yoruba proper, in what is today the Region of Nigeria, Dahomey and Togo, several states emerged perhaps as early as if not earlier than, Oyo. The tradition of these, all emphasizing migrations from Ile Ife state that the kings of Ketu and Sabe or Ishabe traveled with, or are related to, the Alafin at Oyo and the Alake of the Egba. The traditions of Ketu go further to identify So-ipasan as the ancestor of Ketu and husband of Oduduwa”. (Ade Obayemi 1972:238). Adeyemi placed the migration of the people spread along the coast from Nigeria through Benin and Togo; and with a spill over to Ghana through the Ewe as being contemporaneous with Oyo, a Yoruban kingdom of primary migration. This will give these people: Fon, Aja, Arada, Gun Ewe etc., the same historical significance and importance as the first Yoruban kingdoms to emerge from Ile-Ife.
These kingdoms are many and since many Yoruba dialects want to claim that their kingdoms are among those that migrated directly from Ife in order to gain prestige and historical significance, it is not easy to tell which kingdoms are the primary kingdoms. But if the hardcore of the oral traditions are anything to go by, the primary kingdoms will be the following: Owu, formed by Asukungbade, Oyo and Benin, established by Oronmiyan; Ila, Saba, Popo, Ekiti, and Oko (later called Ijebu).
The Ijebus of today have claimed an earlier Nubian ancestry the claims they are trying scientifically to defend. The other Yoruba kingdoms are mostly migrations from these primary kingdoms. If we look further into the traditions of these peoples, we notice that the Oduduwa in their mythology is represented as a woman. This can be seen clearly in Ketu, where their first king (So- Ipasan) is represented as the husband of Oduduwa. This type of rendition of Oduduwa as female is rare in other parts of Yoruba land.
Deviating from Obayemi, Akinjogbin maintained that the Fon, Aja and Ewe belonged to the secondary migration from Yorubaland. Hear him: “What is fairly certain is that the Aja kingdom belonged to the secondary migrations. According to oral traditions current in Allada, Whydah and Abomey, and Ewe in modern Togo, the founders of the Aja migrated from areas of Ketu (a settlement of primary migration) and went first to a place called Nuatja or Watchi in the modern republic of Togo. 1977: 377. When we look at this work, we see that F.K. Buah, a Ghanaian, and Akinjogbin, a Nigerian, mentioned Ketu. No matter where the Ajas came from, whether they migrated with the Yorubas from Egypt, left from Ife, or came from any other place, Ketu seemed to have been their final place of abode before they spread along the West African coast from the coast of Nigeria, through Benin, Togo and the Western edge of the republic of Ghana. The more one takes a cursory look at the cultures of the people, the more one is convinced of the arbitrariness of the present colonial boundaries.
All the major Yoruba deities can be found among the Fon, Aja, and Ewe etc. Lisa is the Aja equivalent of Orisa or Orise. The cults of Sango (Xevioso) and Legbara (Elegbara or Esu) are quite evident in present day Benin republic and Togo The economic system of the Aja and the Yorubas follow the same pattern. They have five-day-, nine-day-, and seventeen-day- markets. Each town also had morning and evening markets. From the seventeenth century, and even till date, the Yoruba language (Lukumi) is the Lingua Franca of the Aja groups (Ogilby J.(1670) AFRICA: BEING AN ACCURATE DESCRIPTION OF (EGYPT BABARY, LIBYA etc, LONDON). “Jacques Bertho has suggested that all the migration stories of both Yoruba and Aja should be regarded as a continuous movement of a related group of people looking for suitable abodes” (Akinjogbin 1972 pg. 377) Although, these people were in most cases identical, they had cause to fight once in a while for economic aggrandizement and political supremacy.
In 1698, Bosman talked of an Oyo invasion of Dahomey (Bosman W (1705)
A New and Accurate Description of the coast of Guinea, London. By their history, language, traditional religion etc., the Aja: Fon, Ewe, Allada, Popo etc, stretching from the coast of Nigeria to the Western part of the republic of Ghana, practice the Yorubic culture, speak Yoruban language and are Yoruboid peoples.
THE GA-ADANGME OF MODERN GHANA
Like the history of many preliterate peoples, the history of the Ga-Adangme peoples are lost in myths and conjectures Stride and Ifeka had placed the land of origin of these people in Northern Nigeria. FK Buah and Boahen had conjectured that these very similar peoples came from southern Nigeria and Benin republic. Others have even conjectured that the Gas might have migrated from Benin kingdom in Nigeria. Buah has conjectured that the Ga-Adangme came from the same source with the Aja: Fon, Alada Ewe etc. (ibid pg. 158 WEST AFRICA HISTORY NOTES).
If this is anything to go by, the postulation of Boahen might be correct, hear him “These Akan reached the coastal regions of modern Ghana probably during the latter part of the thirteenth century or the beginning of the fourteenth century. At about the same period, the Ga-Adangbe and Ewe moved into Ghana from further East, the area of present day Dahomey or southern Nigeria”. Adu Boahen 166 – 167. This said, it is evident, that the Ga- Adangme is related to the Ajas, who in turn, are much related to the Yoruba peoples. The trade of the Yorubas particularly that of the Itsekiri kingdom of Warri could be felt among the Ashanti and the Gas. On this, Boahen says: “Prior to the culture assimilation
, the Akan peoples first established trading contacts with the Guan and the Ga-Adangbe peoples mainly for fish and salt. These contacts eventually extended as far as Benin, as far West as the Ivory or Quagbla Coast (mainly for cloth and beads) and on the Mali and Hausa land” (Adu Boahen). It is known that the area near Benin where beads are got and sold is at the Itsekiri kingdom of Warri, a Yoruba state. The Obas of Benin, especially Ewuare, the great, a usurper to the throne, learnt about beads for the first time from the Itsekiri. Concerning the beads sent by Itsekiri traders to the Ghanaian coast in 1505 Talbot says: “Five leagues up the Forcados river there is a trade in slaves, cotton cloths, palm oil, leopard skins and blue beads with red ink which the Negroes called coris, which we (Portuguese) buy for bracelets (manilas) of brass and copper. These articles are sold for gold at Elmira (Ghana). The natives of this river are called Huela (Ijala)”. (Talbot 319) Huela is Ijalla and it was the place of barter with the Portuguese. Huela (Ijala) was the Itsekiri-Yoruba town where the Portuguese exchanged beads, cloths and other goods with the Itsekiri .
These goods from the Itsekiri Yoruba angle which the Portuguese sold at Ghana must have spurred the jewel making of the Gas and the Ashanti. On the Jewelry of the Ga which was spurred by beads from the eastern Yoruba kingdom of Itsekiri stride and Ifeka says “The Ga of southern Ghana had goldsmiths who modelled beautiful jewelry with which men and women adorned themselves” (G.T. STRIDE AND C L IFEKA 1971 :8)
In addition to the trade influences, there is actual political or monarchical influence on the Ga-Adangme. Concerning this, Aderibigbe says, “And from Samuel Johnson, the historian of the Yoruba, we get this idea of an extensive empire which stretched from Niger westwards to include not only the Popo and the peoples of Dahomey, but also the Ga ( Ajayi and Espie 1965 :. 194)) from the foregoing, we see that the Ga, like the Aja, for a long time ,enjoyed Oyo patrimony. Oyo army was stationed in the Ga area just like in the other Aja states. It was this army that the Akyem bought as mercenaries to tame the Ashanti power in the seventeenth century.
Concerning this devastating defeat with the help of the Oyo army Buahen says: “The total defeat of the Ashante army by the Akyem and Krobo, with the assistance of an Oyo contingent, in 1764, provided the opportunity and kuasi Obodum was promptly deposed”. (Adu Boahen:188). “The EWE people have not always lived in their present home. Their traditions recall a migration from the east – more precisely KETU a YORUBA town in modern BENIN. KETU is also called AMEDZOFE or MAWUFE in the accounts. KETU was founded by the YORUBA people by the fourteenth century at the latest. In it lived besides the forebears of the EWE, the YORUBA and the ancestors of the AJA, FON, and GA-DANGME. It was the expansion of the YORUBA people that pushed the EWE and related peoples westward. ” HIGHLIGHTS OF EARLY EWE HISTORY BY PROF. D.E.K. AMENUMEY Department of History-University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast-Ghana-West Africa .
It is evident, therefore, that a certified Yoruban empire ran from the Nigerian coast to the Ghanaian coast up to Accra and slightly to the West of it. Sango, the Yoruba deity, is also evident among the Gas. This is evidence of their cultural contact in precolonial times. The Ga –Adangme people , the Ashanti and even the Agni of Ivory Coast got some aspects of their religion from the Oyo Yoruba. This is more evident in the worship of Sango, the thunder god. On the survival of the Yorubic religion among the Gas and other peoples around Ghana and even Ivory coast Afolabi Ojo says: “The Ifa system of divination which had flourishing centres centres at usi , Ado and finaly Ife was practiced throughout Yoruba land where it spread to Dahomey.” (Afolabi Ojo :1966: 184) In another part of the book he also says: “The expansion of the Oyo empire and influence also embraced the spread of Sango worship to every corner of yoruba land. It also spread abroad, being taken up by the Ga and the Ashanti of Ghana, the Ewe of both Togo and Ghana , and the Agni of the Ivory Coast. (Afolabi Ojo 1966: 178) Sierra Leone
GA(S) (THEIR ROUTE)

The route taken by the Ga is not quite known, but it must have been in waves. The Ga and a section of the Fante say “They came out of the sea” (F.K Buah 1969: 99). That means they would have traveled by sea to their present land. Their ultimate home of civilization – like most Yoruboid peoples is Ife. Hear Boah :The Ga-Adanme, who occupy greater Accra and the Ada areas, trace their origin from the east. It is believed that they emigrated from the country of Ile-Ife in modern Nigeria towards the close of the fifteen century. It is also believed that most of the Ga arrived by sea.”(Boah F.K 1969: 103)

The picture becomes clearer when we hear Parrinder.
“It is true that ward says, The Ewe speaking peoples claim to have migrated from a place called Ketu………….. some of the Ga migrants were associated with the westward movement from Kketu”. But Reindurf says that the Ga “arc said to have immigrated from the sea, probably from Benin. And Field says that the Ga immigrants were families of refugees fleeing in separate parties from Tetetutu and other Benin parts”, probably traveling along the Beach”. (Parrinder E. la 1967: 9)

It is clear that the Gas mostly reached their present habitat by sea. It would mean that the Ife migrants who went to greater Accra moved towards the Benin territory (around the coastal flanks of Isekiri and Ilaje and then moved towards the sea to the Ga country. Conton(1969), attests that ten slaves from the Escravos area reached Elmina (around Ga) by 1480. Fage (1969) contends that the natives who must have been trading between the Benin areas to Accra directed the Portuguese to where to sell the slaves to the Ga country.
Nirven (1898) and Leonard (1906) all agree that Warri – the seaward part of Benin colonized the Lagos area, although with the consent of the Oba of Benin. Since the Bini are not sea farers, it would be wise to suggest that Warri people, who used the creeks and Lagoons to Lagos, also used the same route to the Ga country in Ghana, as the Oral traditions suggest that they came through the sea.

Among the many migrations that would have left Ife enroute the sea to the Ga country would have included some Ilajes, some Egun, some Isekiri, some Ijebu Water side people and even some Awori, who for several centuries and millennia have been plying that route to the Ga country.These are the people who “came out of the sea” at different periods to emerge in the Ga country.


References:

1.


Today, of all the ethnic groups that constitute the geopolity of Nigeria, the Yoruba is most evident in Sierra Leone. Apart from the fact that the Yorubas are a community in Sierra Leone, having their distinctive language and culture, the Yoruban traits in the Krio or Sierra Leonian pidgin is tremendous. Words like Akara, Oja, Ako, Akowe etc are very evident. No other ethnic group in Nigeria or along the West coast of Africa has affected the Sierra Leone Krio the way the Yoruba has done. The Krios today have adopted a lot of Yoruba deities such as Ogun, Sango, Obatala, Ifa etc.
CHAPTER NINE
Meaning and scope of Oduduwa
It is extremely probable, as a matter of everyday historical experience that the ancestors of Oduduwa migrated from the west coast of Africa into the Nile Valley in the pre-dynastic period. Pages of ancient history books are abuzzed with facts leading to this fact. The emigrants did so as a part of the Atlantean Remnant that was a consequence of the last Atlantean Catastrophe of old (Yoruba is Atlantis: Yoruba in Classical Antiquity: same authors:38: to be published).
There are many vast areas of possibilities of places the group could have gone to before its arrival at the Nile Valley. But the unassailable fact is that, moving eastwards, the ancestors of Oduduwa reached a series of abodes in northeast Africa and finally got to the Nile region, which, then, was still ‘uncivilized’. It is out of place to think that the ancestors of Oduduwa, who moved into the Nile Valley, were the first people ever to get there. It is okay, however, to think that they alone, or in conjunction with others, might have started the foundation of the ancient Egyptian civilization, which, today, the world still brags of.
Led by the mystic prophet, Orunmila, the immigrants met in the ancient Nile world a group of people who were not only receptive to new ideas, but also, anxious to disseminate same. And here, the need to tap the resources of the Nile in order to enjoy them, mixed with the general desire to build up a better life, compared to what the various immigrants were wont to see in the pre-amalgamation days, provided them an excellent forum for disseminating these ideas. In truth, whatever the value and volume of people prevalent at the Nile valley, in the period under discussion, the valley was far from the rudiments of what has prompted historians to describe it ‘a cradle of civilization’.
This is the view of Dr Adetoro, a notable writer on this subject. Adetoro, who outlined transport, safety, food supply and so on as essential vectors of civilization, was in order, though failed to add that these vectors taken as one, needs an adequate population from which labour, entrepreneurial participants and unity would be extracted. From various parts of the land mass, when peoples of various natures met and mingled at the Nile valley, a civilization that was subsequently to be known as the highest in human history was established sprang. As their number increased the demand for It is recorded that tribes wandering from various points of the compass settled in the Nile valley before 10000BC and from the gradual blending of this tribes the Egyptian people food supply naturally rose (George Guest 1977:15)
We shall not depart from the base of analytic history into the non- Evaluative to say that as many people co verged at the Nile valley, many people started the Egyptian civilization . We can surmise that the techno cultural actions of the ancient Egyptians as they did their thing of civilization such as gold and iron smelting, cloth- weaving, “invention of wheel , plough, writing, calendar, ….”and other arts and crafts of civilization were not brought in to the basin by each of these peoples . It was not so, only by those immigrants into the Nile valley, who in their own individual life history, had elsewhere before, seen civilization.
Prominent among these peoples were the ancestors of Oduduwa, who were Atlantean remnants, a group of people who called their supreme deity ‘Orise (Orisa)’.Ori-se of the Yoruba world of Africa is Horise of the Nile – when the Nilers did their thing of civilization. Thus, when the Edfu text asserted that ‘civilization was brought to Egypt under the leadership of Horise’, it was referring to the literature of Orise and Horise as a rhyme, a literatural demonstration of a historical fact. It is difficult, it is bitter to suppose that at its destruction, Atlantis did not send representatives to other parts of the world save Egypt. We can be sure of the presence of some traces of the Atlantean peoples in America, especially in Latin America, where the Aztec, the Incas and the Mayas were prominent.
Oh yes, we can say that the ancient pre-Columbus aborigines of America, who had found their ways into same, as survivors of the Atlantean calamity, had helped in no micro measure in the growth of the American social, scientific, technological, and political culture of the world. In a more evaluative sense, it has been judged that the ancient Egyptian life after 3400BC was a product of the above factors as well as the alertness of those people around and far from Egypt whose devotion to the tradition of healthy emulation fired into the Nile people the zeal for further inventions and discoveries. So, it is interesting to note that the new mode of thing in Egypt as well as the socials and sociology, the blended racial temperament, became a thing of interest to people , far and near. Herein lies the justification of the observation that many aspects of the social life of the Egyptian ancients, especially those of the post-dynastic days, looked like those of some other peoples somewhere in Africa.
The social processes of Egypt and those of some other parts of Africa in the post-dynastic periods highlight the truth of these contestations
i) The tekenu of ancient Egypt and the agban spiritism of Yoruba
ii) The ‘ceremony for removal of sand from the mouth of the dead’ in Egypt and the ‘ceremony for removal of sand from the mouth of the dead’ in Yoruba called ibunine kuri arun
iii) The finger-snapping dance at the grave side in Egypt called the pa pa pa umeren in Yoruba
If we are to emancipate our minds from the relativism of uncertainty, we must bring up our minds to recognize the facts that the study of a people that is made up of peoples must be done in such a way that it reveals the nature and structure of the social milieu of each of the constituent mini-nations as well as the totality of the roles and significance of each of these on the people. This is the qualitative, quantitative and transevaluative analysis of the peoples in the people. The transevaluation that resulted from the various ‘thoughts and religions’ among the peoples of the Nile was the largest single human factor for the civilization that followed.
There seem to be a straight line from here to a theory, the theory of human amalgamation ‘If two or more peoples of different nature come together and mix up cross-culturally, cross-economically and cross-politically, growth and development follow - though in the short run, things may not be well (see the analogue of this theory: the theory of homo human serises :Warri crises before the three judges 1997: 17 same authors and one other)
THE PARENTAGE OF ODUDUWA
It is significant, if the attempt is to identify which sector of the population contributed the most or least to the question raised. Or why and how the development came. But we shall not drive too far into the lane of philosophy and theories and so, shall dive straight into the genetic relationship of Oduduwa and Du Duat : how and where he was born; why he was called ‘Oduduwa’; why and how he left Egypt and his arrival in Ile-Ife.
As already hinted, Oduduwa derived his name form ‘Du Duat’ a thing of high esteem in ancient Egypt. His parents probably named their son ‘Duduat’ because his father was a high priest of a high deity whose spirit was being invoked to colonize their son. Duduat means a place for the high one or the domain of the heavenly world. And this can easily be correlated to the Oduduwa of the Yorubic mentality – ‘Big Action’, ‘Big Character’ or ‘Big Attribute’. The Egyptian coinage, ‘Duduat’, corresponds to the Yorubic ‘Oduduwa’.
Though ‘ there were many gods in Egypt and a new comer not finding a suitable god to worship must have been very difficult to please’, one, if not many of these gods, must have come with Orunmila, making a verbal coinage from one of the shrines in Egypt similar to many things in the Yorubic world. Shehu Musa Alamis is of the view that the father of Oduduwa was a priest of one of the high ones at the time he was born – just as we have noted. He also argues that that high one must have been imported from the site of the old Atlantis.
Many more thinkers observed that the gods of Egypt ‘who are satisfied with their offerings’ are of outside nativities and that Duduat , if a priest, must have been Orunmila’s Oduduwa, a yorubic priest of a high god. What is more?
Sami, a ram-headed god in Egypt is a ram- headed god in Yoruba.
Hepi, a god with a pendulous female breast in Egypt, is Ipi, a god with a glamorous female head tie in Yoruba.( Babara Mertz 1967:154}
Many of the local gods took animal forms and many may have been totems of the primitive communities .as time went on, two things happened. One was an amalgamation - under duress, usually – of the little villages into lager units. The other was a series of invasions of people from outside the valley. As the villages joined together so did the gods joined to form a pantheon, and as they were accompanied by foreign gods imported by the trader, or invaders or traders, or whatever they were. Among the invading gods, according to one scholar, was the well known mortuary god, Osiris (Barbara Mertz:1967:259)
This analysis, this Oduduwan nativity investigation, shall be likened to a mode of investigation proceeding demonstration and proof represented by 3x3=9. Some writers have gone round the whole mesh of inferences and references and concluded that the ancient Egyptians were black
We conclude therefore that the Egyptians were Negroid. And not only that, but that by tradition, they believe themselves descended not from the white or yellow, but from the black people (Du Bois:1905:6)
Taking the clue from this approach, no assertion shall be a conjecture. If conjectures are used, these conjectures are high-class conjectures whose logicity ranks with reality. For, based on a distinct attitude towards the science of ontology, we cling yet to our 3 x 3=9 model, and leaping from here, reveal that it is only those places with physical ties, with Egypt, archaeological or linguistic, and with a black thread of demonstration woven around all, that can display any claim to pseudo-historical affinity It is not possible to trace the genealogy of Oduduwa in a Yoruba –to-Egypt- o r Egypt-to-Yoruba style.
Nor can we as yet unfold the name of those Atlantean remnants by history. But we know that Oduduwa and the Oduduwan type of language were similar to the ancient Egyptian and the ancient Egyptian type of language. Taking the leap from Lord Bacon that man be fore warned against ‘the idols and false notions, which have already pre-occupied the human mind making it difficult of access,’ we shall reason as follows:
i) Some Atlantean remnants left the ancient Atlantean site for the Nile valley in the pre-dynastic period.
ii) They moved into the Nile valley early enough in the post-Atlantean days or late enough in the pre-Dynastic period to have been able to serve as a copiers board for late entrants into Egypt
iii) The Atlantean trekkers were many.
iv) The Atlantean language became the lingua franca for the Nile people.
THE BIRTH OF ODUDUWA
Oduduwa was born about 70BC. His parents probably died in one of the pre 30BC military encounters with foreign invaders; and Oduduwa was left alone to face the exigencies of the world which he viewed in a perspective different from the perspective of others. He learnt the stories of the invasions of old, especially the one in which his parents died. He remembered how his parents were snatched off his sight in a wicked swoop. Thus, Oduduwa developed a distinct nature to meet the circumstance, a stout mind in a stout body.
This circumstance represented the particular perceptivism, which the concept of being left alone thrusted on young Oduduwa; and which made him see in a different shape what others saw. It set up a gap between the mind of Oduduwa and Egypt, his fatherland. The organic tie between Oduduwa as a descendant of Atlantean remnants in Egypt on the one hand, and as a victim of a series of invasions on the other, as well as his subsequent decision to move out from a place where death was so rife, was determined by the unprovoked Roman invasion of 30BC. With this invasion came new things and Egypt (including Oduduwa) was made to feel the pains.
HIS DEPATURE FROM EGYPT
Consequent upon the defeat of Egypt by the Roman forces, its control by the Roman Army of occupation and the introduction of the Roman religion which religion was kicking the Egyptian on the face, Oduduwa left Egypt. His emigration tendency was re-enforced by the agonizing thought and mood of having lost his parents in a most painful way. The exodus had started and had started one of the greatest human movements in history. His followers were many: brothers, sisters, sons, daughters, cousins, friends, believers and peasant farmers.
ODUDUWA ARRIVES ILE-IFE
In the bid to get to the west, Oduduwa moved through the Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, and so on. The experience of the group as it passed through one human settlement and the other was that of retreat and advance, that is, as people ran away from the group, new ones, for the leader’s generousity and dove-heartedness, joined-up. At the lake Chad region of the present day Nigeria, some of them said ‘ We shall trek no more.’ Why did the people decide to stay at the Lake Chad Basin and refuse to follow the leader? Analytic history can attempt some answers
1) They were tired of military encounters along the way.
2) They were angered when Oduduwa denounced looting.
3) They were attracted and mis-advised by the itinerant traders of Egyptian origin who used the Chad Basin as a place of rest and as a stepping-stone into west and North Africa. 4) They were bored by the long trek.
5) They were attracted by the Lake Chad resources eg fishes.
When all move to make the renegades re-unite with their master failed, as the group was leaving the lake Chad Basin, Oduduwa, who declined the use of co-ercion against them, commissioned one of his chiefs to count them head- by- head. ‘E ka won lori’ he said – to know the size of the group squatting back. Ekawonlori changed to kawonlori and kalori and lastly to Kanuri. Further south into Nigeria, a group drifted off as the Igalas of Kogi; others as the Lukumi and Ebu people among the western Igbos. A group, led by the priest of Iset, moved ocean-ward as the Ugborodos, whose main deity today is the Ise. Iset was an ancient Egyptian deity with an ancient shrine. Her presence was felt in the pre-dynastic, dynastic and Ptolemaic Egypt. Shekri , a son to Oduduwa, who was born by the daughter of an inside templer of the shekri temple of ancient Egypt , stayed at Warri as the first Oluirigo of Irigbo.
Tradition has it that when Shekri tarried, his father commissioned the priest of Weret to remain with him – and to help him grow. This was done, and the subsequent development of Shekri into the Oluirigbo of Irigbo, and that of his domain into the Iwere kingdom, with its first headquarters at the site of the present day Warri, was a result of the political and spiritual guidance given by Weret. When she died she became deified as the eghare-ale-Iwere of Warri, the great ancestress that operates from within the earth. This matriarch led to the matriarchal hold of the dynasties of Warri- yorubas. This position Ginuwa met in 1480. The present name of the Itsekiri kingdom, Warri, is a Portuguese corruption of Weret or Iwere. A priest of Geb (referred to as Jegbo in Yoruba) who is said to have joined the group from Nubia, and who are closely related to the Ijebus are said to have deflected to Efurokpe(in Old Warri kingdom) .
While in Nubia, they were one people with the Ijebus Oduduwa finally got to Ile-Ife and became the king of the aborigines who were products of earlier emigrations from Egypt and her colonies. He adopted an Osirian title, Oni, as his title and began the Oniship. He became also, the soul of the people (Ba, in Egypt, later corrupted to Oba). It was this obaship that was imported into Benin by Oranmiyan about 1100years later. Hence it is said in Benin: ‘Ogie we know, Oba, we don’t know’ (Naiwu Osahon The correct history of the Edos: online article)
A section of the members of the Weret religious group followed, still, the leader to Ile-Ife, where they founded a sub-community, Iwere. This is why some historians are of the view that some of the early founders of Warri kingdom are from Ife!
More details on their route CHAPTER SIX
ISEKIRI DEPARTS EGYPT (C3OBC) ARRIVES WARRI (C28 BC).

Events Leading To The Departure
TIME CHART.
UPPER AND LOWER EGYPT UNITED UNDER
Their first Pharaoh cBC 3400
1 Egypt at the peak of power cBC 3000.
2 Hyskos invasion C2000-1580BC
3 The Biblical Exodus C1513BC
4 Beginning of very little independence c1000 BC
5 Assyrian conquest c760BC
6 Egypt suffering from more attacks c700.SC
7 Babylonian conquest c625 BC
8 Persian invasion cBC 525
9 Greek conquest cBC 332.
10 Greek conquest cBC 325.
11 Bulk of Egyptians unhappy with Wars, feared God's Pronouncement (Ezekiel, 29: 1-16); Earlier Isekiri looked westwards cBC 200.
12 Roman invasion cBC 71.
13 Roman invasion c55 BC
14 Roman invasion cBC 31
15 Roman Invasion cBC 30 C.
16 Exodus Cbc30
17 Leaders denounced lootings,
followers took offence,
Deflecting to:
I. Sudan. cBC29ii. Eritrea. cBC29iii Ethiopia. cBC29iv. Borno Area. cBC29.
17 Journey continued into Nigeria,
i. Kanuri stopped at Lake Chad. cBC 29.ii. Igala stopped at Igala. cBC 29.iii. Olukumi stopped at Lukumi. cBC 29.iv. Ebu stops at Ebu. c29 BC.v. Ugborodo detaching, moved
ocean-wards and became the first set
of Ugborodos, led by the
priest of Iset. cBC28.
18 Sekiri arrived Warri, in company of
priest of Were(t) (l)were c28 BC.
19 The birth of Jesus - 0.
Metamorphosis of the Events Leading to the Departure
Egypt became a province of Rome in c3OBC (George Guest. 1977:14). In support of this, Clement has this to say:
After the death of Rameses II the story of Egypt is mostly one of decline and conquest by foreign powers. As other countries (...) rose to power, they often conquered Egypt, which, after the year 1000BC had very little independence of its own the last of hundreds of pharaohs and of 30 dynasties was really a Persian (H.A. Clement: 1979:67)
Thus, Egypt fell and many people who would not be subjected to the Roman authority emigrated and among these numbered Duduat, Isekiri and their followers! The emigratory urge in the out-trekkers was reinforced by the strange zeal and alacrity with which the conquerors maintained their hold on Egypt. Their military interest was strongly empowered by political, economic and religious considerations. Thus, it is no wonder that many an Egyptian departed Egypt in the late pre-Jesus days.
The Exodus
The period after 1000BC was a period of disquiet. Egypt was conquered by the Assyrians, 632 BC; by the Persians, 525 BC; the Greek, 332BC; Alexander the great, also, a Greek, 325 BC. In 55BC, the Romans conquered Egypt. At the initial stage of the Roman occupation, opposition to alien rule was silent as a result of the willingness of the Egyptians to be free from the rigours of war. However, the undoing of the Egyptians in the hand of the Roman army of occupation whose motto was maliciously expressed provoked
further hostility. Introducing their own religion, the Romans looked with scorn on the Egyptians - as inferiors. Though the Egyptians worshipped thousands of gods, the attitude of the invaders' mode of worship, clothed in a damask of imperialism, made it hard to effect a union of the two peoples and their religions. The Romans were conquerors and they behaved as such. Following this - a mistake all nationalistically conquering nations make - they regarded themselves as unique in the overall social structure of Egypt. To the ordinary Egyptians (especially the Sekiri faction), it was most annoying to be invaded and the invader finding it impossible to explain the extent of provocations from the invaded. Thus, the reality of the two different actualities - even three, if the Greek is considered - created a hitch in which many Roman soldiers died! A scar was thus established, and this scar was to lead to the complete conquest and occupation of Egypt by the Romans, 30BC. Egypt became a Roman province in 30BC. "Egypt was deserted by Cleopatra, lover of Mark Anthony, and Octavius, grandnephew of Julius Caesar, proceeded to the conquest of Egypt at the battle of Antium" (Insights: 1988:699), Many ancient materials and landmarks were removed as the Roman soldiers dashed from street to street. One god fell after the other and by the end of 30BC, the devouring claws of Rome were so immanent that to the ordinary Egyptian government came to mean nothing but untold hardship and payment of heavy taxes. This was the condition of Egypt out of which Sekeri marched, c3OBC.


Why Rome attacked Egypt
1 To win military glory.
2 To be acquainted with the process and methods of the ancient Egyptian civilization.
3 To amass wealth.
4 To study the mystery in, and the power of, the Nile as the mother of Egypt and all she had achieved.
5 To control the gateway to the eastern world.
6 A follow-up of the Egypto-Roman relations exhibited in the life and time of Mark Anthony, Caesar and Cleopatra.
Why Isekiri (and kindred peoples) Departed Egypt
1. Destruction of the economy of Egypt; commerce and industry could no longer be freely and profitably carried out.
2. Agricultural output dwindled, as the Roman forces of occupation combed the farmlands in search of food to eat and dissidents to kill.
3. Animals used for irrigation were either killed for food or carried to Europe.
4. The Nile was no longer a good place; walking and working along its banks for water for irrigation or alluvial deposit for fertilizer, became a suicide exercise.
5. As industries and farms failed to produce, scarcity and hunger followed. All the economies of large-scale production collapsed like a pack of cards in the wake of Roman imperialism.
6. Production of military gadgets fell and the Egyptian navy begun by Queen Hatsesput, millennia earlier, ended.
The exodus consisted of many leaders. Four of these leaders were Duduat (an adherent of Duduat, prince/god of the heavenly world), Sekiri (priest of Sekari), Weret (priest of Weret) and Iset (the priest of Iset). Legends are of the view that all these were related to Duduat (Oduduwa in Yoruba) of Ancient Egypt. There were many routes through which Sekiri and his associates could pass out of Egypt and each of these led to safety. Whether they left Egypt, passing from Helioplis through Murzuk or from the point now occupied by Cairo, to Bilma or from anywhere else, all was possible. Although the Cairo - Lake Chad way was shorter, they did not pass through it; for the Roman generals set up inter-town brigades to trap down all emigrants along that route! To identify the route chosen by Sekiri in the course of the exodus, psychological, linguistic as well as geographical phenomena must be consulted. In the first place, analytical history has identified the Cairo-Murzuk-Bilma-Kanem-Bornu route as the route followed by Sekiri, a co-forefather of the present-day Isekiri. This consideration stems in part from the oral tradition among the Kanuris of Bornu that their earliest fore-fathers, while trekking from Egypt, founded some places in the desert like Aiujila and Darfur.



Darfur
Danladi Olane, an Igala traditional historian, is of the view that "Auijala" means "Ojujalila", "the day of the great battle", while "Darfur" comes from "Dafor" meaning "we can speak." There were temporary dottings of traders' resting places along the Cairo-lake Chad roads and the attempt of the migrants to use these provoked the hostility of the owners. In the-big fight that ensued, Sekiri and his group won. This victory, which was celebrated every seven days as Ojijalila, has remained to this day in Isekiri culture as Ajijala. To prove the truism of this, “ojo" means "day" in both Isekiri and Igala, This is perhaps a light on Ayomike's view that the Isekiri left the main Yoruba stream of migration and passed through the Igala to their present home (Ayomike: 1988).
Isekiri do not take the property of war victims, only the war victims. Therefore, when, during these wars, the leaders denounced lootings, many of the followers took offence, and at last, had to flee from Sekiri and his angry co-leaders. While some deflected southerly, to found Darfur (Dafor), others moved to Eritrea, Sudan, Ethiopia and North Africa to be lost in cultural captivity.
The Dafurians, the Isekiri, the Yorubas, the Igalas, the Olukumis and the Ebus, till this day, are some of these peoples. Abiola mentioned that others in Eritrea and Somalia, share identical tribal marks and mannerisms with these peoples. The oral traditions of all these link them to the same womb. The Kanuris are, however, particularly removed from the other people in the central Sudan, as they do not speak a Chadic language (Smith: 1977).
The Kanembu (Kanubo)
The proposed security arrangement was that all should prepare for war and abstain from booty-takings in the course of these wars. This arrangement, which all this while, had worked out fine, started failing; failing out of the clash between its latent function and manifest outcome. The ranks of the trekkers, now made shorter by this clash, the remaining people left Auijala, trekking Murzuk-wards. From Murzuk they got to Bilma, a salt-mining town. They tarried here for a period and descended towards Njimi, Ngazargamu and Kukawa, in the present day Bornu state of Nigeria. The Kanem-Bornu area, as the terminus of the western trans-Saharan trade route, was the gayest point in the route from the Chad world to Egypt. In addition, as a centre of fanfare and hope, it was so attractive that some of the followers refused to follow their leaders, having been exhausted out of the burden of loads, ranging from household materials to food and weapons. "We shall stay here (Ene wa ka n'u bo we)", they said. This sentence later became contracted to "Kanembu". This is why the early Kanuri Empire is said to have been founded by the Kanembu, Kanuri, So and the Bulala peoples.




Origin of the Kanuris
1. They were fed up with the trek, which seemed interminable.
2. They were attracted by the fish resources of the Lake Chad.
3. They were afraid of further military encounters along the way.
4. They were attracted to, and misdirected by, those trans-Saharan trade merchants of Egyptian nativity who used the Chad area as a place of rest and as the first step in the ladder to Tripoli in the Mediterranean world.
5. The eastern trans-Saharan Trade route provided employment, enjoyment and hope to a degree unsurpassed by any centre of trade from Senegal to Egypt in the period under review. “Along these routes passed the bulk of the trans-Saharan trade...... “(T.S. Osai and S.N. Nwambara; 1980).
The Kanuris
The counsel to Sekiri and his co-leaders that the rebels be spoken to in a military way was set aside in view of the stances of the traders as 'knights in shining amour' by their side. "A ka 'ghan nori", the leaders said, "Count them head to head, for we shall come hereafter to retrieve our people," a boast they were destined not to fulfil. "Kaghan n'ori" changed to "kanori". "Kanori", became arabicised into "Kanuri", whose traces are still prevalent in the Bornu area to this day. These people, who now brayed a bray of triumph, mixed up with the So and the Bulala peoples of the Chad Basin. The Kanem-Bornu language retained its Shekiri affinity till it was neutralized by the escapade of the Fulani jihadists (1808) and EI-Kanemi and the Shuwa Arabs since 1810. Till this day they still have their Isekiri tribal marks.
The experience of the group up to this time was that of advance and retreat; for in addition to the breaking away of the Kanuri, aforesaid, some people stopped at Igala as the Igalas; at Ebu as the Ebus; and at Olukumi as the Lukumis. That is not all. Iset and his people descended ocean-wards as a section of the Ugborodos whose chief deity (today) is the Ise, c28BC. Is this fact of Iset being an Egyptian water god why the Ugborodos claim they came from the water? On the other hand, do they even have a much deeper past?
The migration stream, discovered the land of, and stepped into, Warri, c 28 BC. Now settled Shekiri carved out a shrine for Shekiri; Were (t) set up a shrine for Were (t) and other minor members of the group - Hepi, Sami, Khnum - did not lie behind in the race for places of worship. The shrine of the Almighty God (Horise) was erected by the priest of Horise. All these were some of the priests and gods that came to Ancient Warri; and all these in turn, were some of the thousands of gods in Ancient Egypt.

The world and peoples have been in existence for millions of years by History. By 3500 B .C, Ancient Egypt (land of Isekiri, Yoruba, Igala, Ebu, Olukumi and Kindred Peoples) was already God’s own land, and like America of today, housed more than half of the world’s wealth. Egypt was a good geography, and the River Nile, the longest river in the world, with its banks, perhaps, the agriculturally richest, housed the Ancient Egyptians.
Ancient Egypt was high in religious practices and most (if not all) of the major religions of the world sprang from the Egyptian polytheism - Christianity, Islam, Hinduism etc. Egypt’s place in Art and Science was also high, that early enough, she was already in the pyramidal age of pyramid construction, sky-scrapers, monuments, palace-looking tombs, bronze and iron works , burnt brick architecture , dam construction, efficient army and naval system , instruments that looked like ,and served similar purposes as, modern television and radio sets were already in place.
The ancient Egyptian economy matched the political system whose head could be described as the numero uno of the then world. He was a citizen of the world whose name religious laws prevented one from mentioning (ub’ arun mi eto in Warri), with a favorable geography to boot. A pace-setting civilization apparati was set up. The polytheist religion that featured the Ipi, On (Onne), Oshu, Ra, time god (Ira in Warri) with the Almighty god, Horise, was a catalyst of growth.
There was the study of Astronomy, Medicine, Mathematics, Accountancy, as well as Space travel (Malinowski, 1954: Gunn, 1917, Budge 1899, Clement, 1979; Olomu and Honsbira 2005).
Owing to this locus and to all else, it has become clear why it is thought that the Ancient Egypt was the first chosen people of the world: like ancient Israel, God’s people and like today’s America, God’s own land. Arising from this, it is wrong to agree with those who erroneously agree that ancient Egypt was a cursed land. Egypt was good, you see. Its mild and humane religious practices blessed the land in the pre-Jesu and Pre-Muhammad days! When they lapsed into misdoings, which misdoings were caused by the ascendancy of foreign pharaohs, like the Israelites, God caused them to be captured - the Israelite to Babylon, the Darfurs to Darfur, the Eritreans to Eritrea , to Yorubas to Ife, and the Isekiri to Warri.(see Farouk martins 2005; Sanda ,2004).



CHAPTER 10
CHRONOLOGY (dim past to the present day)
1. Atlantean civilization From the dim hazy past to (c3.5 million B.C)
2. Apocalyptic destruction of the Atlantean civilization (c3.5M BC)
3. Further minor catastrophes; survivors emigrated (c12000BC)
4. Frustration and eastward trek (c12000BC-10000BC)
5. Convergence at the Nile Valley with other people from many parts of the world (c10000BC)
6. Proper blending of all Yoruba with lower Egypt (c5000BC)
7.Upper and Lower Egypt united under the first pharaohship of Menes (probably an Yoruba Egyptian since “Mene” is the Yoruba word for “One” or “First (c3400BC)
8. Yoruba-Egypt, emerged (pyramidal age) (c3000BC)
9) Hyksos Invasion(c2000-1500BC)
10 A plague of invasions by Assyria on Yoruba - Egypt – Minor emigrations to the west (700BC)
11 A plague of invasion: Egypt – conquered by Persia (525BC)
12 Alexander the great conquered Egypt (332BC)
13. Bulk of Yoruba unhappy with endless wars and began to look west wards for a place they knew their home lay (200BC)
14) Roman Invasion (55BC)
15) Minor invasions from far and near 55-31BC
16) Roman Invasion 30BC
17). Yoruba removed from Yoruba-Egyptian - equation to produce Egyptians in Egypt and westward tending Yoruba c30BC
18. The racial trek the “Egyptian Exodus” under the leadership of prince Oduduwa (The dove heart) (c29BC)
19. The trekkers defeated most of their opponents with the use of iron implements, then yet unknown to places between Egypt and Ife. Wives and property of opponents carried along (c29 BC)
20. Oduduwa denounced lootings and many of his sub -leaders took offence, deflecting to i. Sudan ii. Eritrea c29BC iii. Ethiopia iv. Borno area
21)Journey continued in to Nigeria and: Kanuris stopped at the lake Chad area i. Igalla stopped at Igalla c29BC ii Olukumi stopped at Olukumi c29BC iii. Ebu stopped at Ebu c28BC iv. Ugborodo, detaching, trekked ocean-ward c28BC and became the first set of the Ugborodos, led by a fetish priest of Iset
22. Led, still by prince Oduduwa, Yoruba arrived Warri where prince Shekiri, one of his sons stayed to become the first Oluirigbo of Irigbo. c28Bc Main stream reached Ile-Ife c28BC
23 The birth of Jesus.
24). Awolowo Obafemi died (1987)
25 Chief Olusegun Obasanjo as the president of Nigeria (1999 till date
26. The pan Yoruba Olokun / Olosa festival of Gani Adams 1999 – present day
27 Oduduwan nativity crises: Bini-Yoruba intellectual battle 2004 - 2005
chapter 11
conclusion
We have come to the end of this discourse and by doing so to say that:
1) The Atlantean remnants who were the forebears of Oduduwa migrated to Egypt in the early post atlantean days, where they helped in establishment of the Phaoroanic Egypt.
2) Oduduwa was from ancient Egypt, therefore. He was named after the word “Duduat”, an exalted one of the heavenly world in Egypt.
3) He led a wave of migration to the south west- after suffering major invasions in Egypt – the Roman invasion of 30BC being especial.
4) He left with a horde of followers made up of sons, daughters, friends and religious brothers and sisters, who during the trek, called him ‘father’.
5) Wars were encountered on the way, and when Oduduwa denounced looting, many of his followers grew annoyed and deflected.
6) Not only this looters. Others also deflected to other places—as the Kanuris of Bornu, the Igalas of Kogi, and the Nupes of the Niger, the Lukumis of Delta, and the Ugborodo of Ugborodo.
7) Trekking continued and Shekiri, the son of Oduduwa, by a woman from the temple of the god, Shekiri, in ancient Egypt stopped at Warri where, ultimately, he became the first Oluirigbo of Irigbo. It was a much later Oluirigbo that greeted Prince Ginuwa at the shores of Warri as “Ogbowuru”, a king surrounded by a multitude. (c1480).He abdicated in his favour.
8) Duduat continued the trek west-ward until he got to a place whose aborigines identified the group as brothers. Because of the warm welcome received, Duduat called the place ‘Ile-Ife’, the h
9) He subsequently posed and was regarded as the Oni of Ife.
10) Now, (December 2004) it is not possible to determine the number of children of Oduduwa, as became his name on getting to Ile-Ife. The date of his death is not certain; either still searching for same the YAHS has only discovered that Oduduwa died after 0 Oranmiyan was not a direct son of Oduduwa. He was not a great-grandson. That he founded a dynasty in Benin in 1170 can not post-date his existence. True, a king was sent from Ife to Benin; the sender was not Oduduwa himself, but one of his descendants who bore both his name and title.
Hear Farouk martins “Oduduwa must have been here before Christ, going by parallel archeology of the Yoruba, Egypt, Greece and Rome with the history in the Bible or the Koran…… Okanbi, one of Oduduwa’s descendants, may be some generations from him. It was Okanbi children or grandchildren that built empires and further united the Yoruba with their neighbors. Oduduwa descendants met civilization in Ife and propagated it but might have started empire and kingdom formation during their sojourns on the Nile River…. Oranmiyan, one of the grandsons of Okanbi became the founder of Oyo and Benin Empires.
12. Oranmiyan was an Ife prince who founded neither Benin nor Oyo. He founded dynasties in Benin and Oyo.
13. Oduduwa brought one thing into this area, which seems to be surpassing the herbal power and philosophy of all other people with whom he associated: the Egyptian ancient mystic equation.
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48. Lamin Sanneh. West African Christianity. The religious impact, Knoll Orbis book, 1983 pg. 53 – 89.
49 J.F.A Ajayi Christian Mission in Nig Evanston III North Western University Press 1965 pg. 25, 206 – 233.
50 F.K BUAH (1974) HISTORY NOTES: WEST AFRICA SINCE AD 1000: Book One. The PEOPLES, Macmillan London pg. 58
51 Adeyemi Opcit (1977:238) 52 Akinjogbin Opcit (1977:377)
53 Ogilby J. (1670): AFRICA: BEING AN ACCURATE ... Ryder, AFC, BENIN AND THE EUROPEANS 1485-1897 (LONDON)1969 ...
54 JFA Ajayi Christian Mission in Nig Evanston III North Western University Press 1965 pg. 25, 206 – 233.
55 FK BUAH (1974) HISTORY NOTES: WEST AFRICA SINCE AD 1000: Book One. The PEOPLES, Macmillan London pg.
56 Adeyemi Opcit (1977:238)
57 Akinjogbin Opcit (1977:377) 58 Ogilby J. (1670):
58 AFRICA: BEING AN ACCURATE DESCRIPTION OF EGYPT, BABARY LIBYA etc., London
59 Akinjogbin opcit pg. 377
60 FK BUAH (1974) HISTORY NOTES: WEST AFRICA SINCE AD 1000: Book One. The PEOPLES, Macmillan London pg. 58
61. Adeyemi Opcit (1977:238)
62 Akinjogbin Opcit (1977:377)
63 Ogilby J. (1670): AFRICA: BEING AN ACCURATE DESCRIPTION OF EGYPT, BABARY LIBYA etc., London
64 Akinjogbin opcit pg. 377
65 Bosman W.(1705) A NEW AND ACCURATE DESCRIPTION OF THE COAST OF GUINEA, LONDON
66 BOAHEN ADU opcit
67 Rene Noorbergen (1977) Secrets of the lost races,Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc NY Andrew Tomas(1961) We are Not The First, London ,Souvenir Press. 67 Baldwin , John D(1869) Prehistoric Nations New York :Harper and Brothers
68 Bergier ,Jacques (1974) Extraterrestial Intervention: The Evidence ii (1972) Mysteries From Forgotten worlds, New York
69 Chicago: Henry Regnery Company
70 I Charles Berlitz (1974) The Bermuda Triangle ,Garden City, New york, Double Day and company
71 Mannheim , Karl (1936) Ideology And Utopia,
72 GJ Afolabi Ojo (1966) Yoruba Culture: A geographical Analysis, London, Ife.
73 Alagoa EJ EloingoLZ and M Metegue N’nah ( 1989)‘The Niger delta and the Cameroon region’ published in GENERAL HISTORY OF AFRICA VI Africa in he nineteenth century until the 1880s(Ed by JFA Ajayi)Heinemann California , Unesco.
74) Elizabeth Isichei (1978) History of west Africa since 1800 Macmillan, London.
75) Stride and Ifeka “people and empires of West Africa: West Africa History 1000 – 1800 (Thomas Nelson, Lagos Ng. Pg. 8). Warri crises before the three judges 1997: 17 same authors and one other)
• Otite, Onigu, ed. 1978. The Urhobo People. Shaneson C.I. Limited (Nigeria), Second Edition, 2003. NEGRI EVE DE (1976) NIGERIA MAGAZINE , LAGOS KINGSLEY MARY H (1899) WEST AFRICAN STUDIES, MACMILLAN LONDON Farouk Martins Aresa (Yoruba world Explorations And The Loss of Dynasties: December 2003 pg 1 online article)
FROM OGISO times TO EWEKA times By Victor Manfredi, Ph.D. African Studies Center, Boston University


REFERENCE
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ic culture predominates in the New World at the expense of the other cultures. Why? Read this book and you will see.

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