310 Muhammad Bello, in ARNETT 1922:

a) [p.13]

West of Katsina and Gobir there are seven separate countries called “Banza Bakwai”.

311 These are Zamfara and Kebbi, Yauri, Nufi [Nupe], Yoruba,

312 Borgu and Gurma.

Each of these has a Sarki [i.e. king] who is equal to the
others ,

b) [p.16] The country of Yoruba is extensive and has streams and forests and rocks and hills. There are many curious and beautiful things in it. The ships of the Christians come there.

313 The people of Yoruba are descended from the Kanaana
[= Canaanites] and the kindred of Nimrud.

314 Now the reason of their having
settled in the west according to what we are told is that Yaarubu son of Kahtan drove them out of Irak to westwards

315 and they travelled between Masar [Misr, i.e. Egypt] and Habash [= Ethiopia] until they reached Yoruba. It happened that they left a portion of their people in every country they passed. It is said that the Sudanese who live up on the hills [i.e. the Nigerian Plateau] are all their kindred; so also the people of Yauri are their kindred.
The people of Yoruba resemble those of Nufi in appearance.

316. In the land of Yoruba are found the birds green in colour which are called ‘Babaga’ in Arabic and which we call ‘Aku’. It is a bird which talks and is beautiful.

317. Now in this country of Yoruba there are many wonderful things. Mallam
Mohamman Masani has related them in his book Nafhat’ul Ambariya. He has also written further about this country in his book Azharu Ruba about Yoruba.

318. The people of Yoruba catch slaves from our land and sell them to the Christians so we are told. I mention this to stop people selling Moslem slaves to them, because of those who buy them. Harm will result from this.

------------------------------------------------
Notes:

310. Muahammed Bello - Scholar and later (1817-31) Caliph of Sokoto, author of many works in Arabic; his Infaq al-Maisur, cited here, was written in 1812. A partial translation of this passage
was included in Denham & Clapperton 1826, 163, 165.

311. i.e. the ‘bastard seven’, as opposed to the seven true Hausa states, the former being supposedly descended from the legitimate and the latter from the legitimate sons of the
legendary ancestor of the Hausa, Bayajidda.

312 Yoruba (or more correctly, Yaraba) is the usual Hausa name for Oyo (as noted e.g. by Clapperton 1829, 4); but cf. also below No.66e for its use in a more general sense.

313 Cf. No.68a and c below, for this mistaken belief that Europeans visited Oyo; in fact, of course, the Oyo dealt with them only through coastal ports such as Porto-Novo.

314 Cf. similar stories of descent from Nimrud (‘Lamurudu’) recorded later in Oyo traditions (Johnson 1921, 3-4; and discussion by Law 1984, 199-205).

315 Yar‘ub ibn Qahtan, legendary ancestor of the southern Arabs; evidently a folk etymology to explain the name Yoruba.

316 i.e. parrots (Hausa aku).

317. Muhammad ibn Masanih of Katsina (d. 1667): see further Bivar & Hiskett 1962, 116. These works relating to Yoruba have apparently not survived.

318. For the sale of Hausa slaves through Oyo, cf. No.55g above. Bello appears to disapprove of this because it involved the sale of Muslim slaves into non-Muslim ownership; cf. further Fisher 1988.

In another research, the author wrote that yoruba are the real Hebrew. We have been reading so many traces about the origin of yoruba but the similarity is about the movement from Egypt to further west. One must go through a lot of research before we can finally know the truth.

This is really confusing.

I thought Igbos were descendants of the original Hebrews while the Yorubas were originally Arabs. Talking about slavery, I think we are all guilty of slavery. Where the whiteman differs is that he introduced racism into slavery ie only black people should be slaves.

IG:

I thought Igbos were descendants of the original Hebrews while the Yorubas were originally Arabs. Talking about slavery, I think we are all guilty of slavery. Where the whiteman differs is that he introduced racism into slavery ie only black people should be slaves.

Boy, are you crazy? Ki lo n da mu e?

Ileke-IdI:

Boy, are you crazy? Ki lo n da mu e?

No I'm not crazy, you just need to do some real reading. Actually Sultan Muhammad Bello also thinks you are from the middle east. I think the thing about Yorubas originating from Ife is incomplete history. Did they just appear in Ife out of thin air? Anyway I am just expressing my views based on what I know. Let's not start an argument.

Yoruba ios not descendant of Arabs or Jews. Yoruba is proto-semitic by race but the language we speak is rooted in old Hebrew.

Canaanites were natural Hebrews, Jews or Children of Israel were assimilated Hebrews.
Many people say this couldn't be true because man originated in Africa and Black people originated in Africa.

I point them to the cracks in the Arabian peninsula and let them understand that all those lands were part of mainland Africa before the Rift fault.

In addition, the fault (which aLso produced the Rift valley and Victoria falls in Uganda) stretched all the way to Iraq.

So the magnitude of the land fault was so great that the topiography changed greatly. There used to be a great river in Yemen on the same scale as Nile or Euphrates. Its dried up!

So the origin of man in Africa, the conclusion that Arabian peninsula was an integral part of Black Africa before the fault snapped it off, all are true and consistent.

This refutes the charge that Yoruba could not have been a cohabiter in Afro Asia. In fact black man was first called Afro Asians by arriving Europeans until they amended the label and started using negro.

. . . . Yoruba can't be a proto semetic language, it's not even Afro Asiatic!

i dont think yorubas are arabic but maybe the few founders/conquerors spreading in the region where.

yoruba - arabic Some Loan Words


Olohun i.e. God or Deity rendered from Allahu (Ar. إسم الجلال - الله)
Alaafia i.e. Good, Fine Or Health(y) from derivative Al-Aafiah (Ar. العافية)
Baale i.e. husband or spouse derived from Ba'al (Ar. بعل)
Sanma i.e. heaven or sky adopted for Samaa` (Ar. السماء)
Alubarika i.e. blessing used as Al-Barakah (Ar. البركة)
Wakati i.e. hour or time formed from Waqt (Ar. وقت)
Alubosa i.e. onion as Al-Basal (Ar. االبصل)
Adua or Adura i.e. prayer or supplication from Ad-du'a (Ar. الدعاء)
Asiri i.e. Secret or Hidden derivative of As-Sirr (Ar. السرّ)
Meanwhile, among commonly Arabic words used in Yoruba Language are names of the days such as Atalata (Ar. Ath-Thulatha الثلاثاء) for Tuesday, Alaruba (Ar. Al-Arbi'a الأربعاء) for Wednesday, Alamisi (Ar. Al-Khamis الخميس) for Thursday, and Jimoh (Ar. Al-Jum'ah الجمعة) for Friday. By far Ojo Jimoh is the most favourably used. It's usually preferred to Yoruba unpleasant word for Friday Eti, which means Failure, Laziness or Abandonment

Sbeezy,

Yeah, arabic is semitic. I said earlier too that Yoruba has roots in old hebrew language. However, by modern classification our language is proto-semitic.

What does it all mean?

Yoruba language, as well customs and traditions, in its roots was a member of the semitic race. Not descended from one, but lateral and at cultural parity.

@Negro_Ntns, I very much doubt that Yoruba has roots in "old" Hebrew language because the Yoruba progenitors were probably existing by the time of Abraham. Abraham's dad, Terah (Asara), has been suggested as Nimrod's (Lamurudu) priest who was sculpting idols for the latter. What I would say is that there are language similarities due to the influence having lived in the same area as the Hebrews. I do have a copy of the research paper that I'm guessing you read. Besides, there is the assertion that the Yoruba were pursued to the area occupied by Yemen. If so, it probably lends credence to the claims by the Ijebu (previously called the Jebu by the colonialists) people about their migration from the region of Sudan called Waddai in Sudan — Sudan is by the horn of Africa and beside the Arabian peninsular. "There are immigration legends which tend to link the Ijebu with the biblical Jebusites and Noah (hence Omoluwabi -- omo ti Noah bi -- the children of Noah) but these are farfetched"

Western researchers and the Ijebu have also asserted that the Yoruba people arrived at their present homeland in two waves of migrations, lending credence to the story of migrating from the east (the Benin people should revise their claims). In a BMC Evolutionary Biology research article, "African signatures of recent positive selection in human FOXI1", it was mentioned that the Yoruba acquired a positive selection with regard to the human FOXI1 gene that enabled more water-electrolyte balance retention in dry conditions as they migrated from East Africa.

@sbeezy8, I doubt the authenticity of those claims as to the arabic loan words as I don't know if there is anything like "Olohun" in Yoruba language, especially as we have the meaning and root of the word OLORUN (OLU-AWO-ORUN):
[QUOTE]
Oral Traditions that have come the way of the writer state categorically that, the Yoruba name for the Supreme Deity is OLORUN , It is OLORUN, not because OLORUN means "The Owner of Heaven" - one cannot intuit Spiritual Potencies by using the Yoruba Dictionary - but because He is the OLU-AWO-ORUN, or OLUWO-ORUN, the Master of the Masters of the Sacred Mysteries of Heaven, a title fore-shortened into OLU-ORUN, and into OLORUN; He is indeed the Owner of Heaven, because of his place in the Heavenly Hierarchy; he is not the Owner of Heaven merely because the Yoruba word OLORUN means etymologically "the owner of heaven." We might go further and say that OLORUN is the Master of the Masters of the Sacred Mysteries of the Inner Courts of Heaven, because He has a sort of Prime Minister, or number two, in the OLU-AWO-ODE-ORUN, Master of the Masters of the Sacred Mysteries of the Outer courts of Heaven, in the Person of the great OFUN, the only one of the 16 ODU of IFA that the Babalawo always acknowledges by saying HEPA, whenever his symbol appears on the divining board. We could, perhaps, fore-shorten OLU-AWO-ODE-ORUN into OLODE-ORUN justifiably, but this is of no moment.

"OLORUN" is not directly involved in human affairs, because the Spiritual Force emanating from Him is of such Potency that it would shatter our human bodies; just as, were the Sun to come down nearer the Earth a few million miles, the result would be, not more light and heat and life, but so much of it that it becomes destructive, and death ensues. Hence OLORUN keeps His distance, for our safety, but it is His life, His everything, that we use. It seems to the writer that we can properly borrow Hindu terminology and say, of OLORUN, "Thou canst not know the knower of knowledge, thou canst not see the seer of seeing, thou canst not hear the hearer of hearing, thou canst not comprehend the comprehender of comprehension." For this reason, OLORUN has no shrines, no worship, but it is utterly erroneous to conclude that he is 'remote' or not known to exist.

http://destee.com/index.php?threads/getting-started-with-ifa.59403/page-2[/QUOTE]

Perhaps then it would not be farfetched to conclude that the Arabs have loaned some words from the Yoruba. Besides I almost see the claim as an attempt to "Arabize" and rewrite Yoruba history, the same way some people want to change Ọjọ Eti to Jimoh.

Nevertheless, permit me to add perhaps add what might be a crucial hint to this debate. If you have come across some information of the being called "ELA" in the Yoruba oral tradition and are interested in etymology, how about a comparison with the Arab word ALLAH and "EL" of the Canaanite cultures?

Perhaps too the Ijebu people are actually the Jebusites of old.

Man, I'm done with it!

Lol, I had composed a long full detail, addressing each aspect of your question and the whole thing is gone!

Ohh!

Anyway, Amorphous, I like your response very thought provoking and sorry I just don't feel like recomposing at moment. Look in Culture section and religion section for posts titled "who is Oduduwa"; "origin of Oduduwa"; Origin of Yorubas"; "Mysteries of the Bible", Most, not all what you asked are in these posts.

If I have the time maybe I will recompose later. Sorry!

amor4ce:

Perhaps too the Ijebu people are actually the Jebusites of old.

You may be right.

Thanks for the pointers Negro_Ntns and I hope you do prepare that response again — I used to face something similar but later adopted a copy-before--clicking-reply approach. But I wonder how you were spot on concerning Amorphous.

Analysis of the etymologies of Nigerian languages and those of the descendants of Shem, Cush, Mizraim and Punt may reveal a lot. This individual whom I consider to be outstanding, Modupe Oduyoye has published some interesting books and been interviewed about these etymologies. I don't have access to them right now but would recommend them to anyone interested in our common history.

Andre Uweh, if it is true then I would ask myself whether or not to be ashamed of the activities of my ancestors in Canaan. By the way, I have recently seen similar styles of hair plaits on the women of South Sudan / South Kordofan /Nuba on tv (due to that region being in the news a lot these days).

Oh my,

I regret the loss of that post because the questions you now ask were also covered in it.

I will remember to use your suggestion for lengthy narratives.

Anyway, I sensed from your writing that you are very philosophically minded. I see you as a great mind not because of your articulation but the spirit from which the thoughts originated. It will be appropriate to address you as such. AMOR4CE is not as honorable as AMORPHOUS. Also, I'm careful with numbers and their use as an identity. In your previous write you touched lightly on the 16 Odus. Ifa itself came from the Canaanites who were the original Hebrews. In Hebrew alphabeth the 16th character is "AYIN", which means "veiled" or "mystery". In Qabbalah and as well Sufi, AYIN is symbolised with the EYE. This could be interpreted as "The Third Eye" or the shrouded eye, which agrees with something veiled, which is what Ifa is. But get this, in Yoruba language what is eye? EYIN oju!
Lookn there is too much in that to talk about.

On the issue of hairdo with Sudanese. In the lost response I wrote the following:

The Yoruba facial feature is same and interchangeable with the facial feature of the Kanemi (Kanuri) and same and interchangeable with the facial feature of the Nubian.

We will talk some more.

I want to believe that archeological investigations at the Sungbo Eredo and Old Oyo sites will reveal a lot about this matter. It seems gobsmacking to me that successive governments have not been able to do anything tangible concerning the Sungbo Eredo.

If the Ijebu people are the Jebusites then an closer look at the Ijebu dialect in comparison with that of the black people of the Sudan and with Hebrew just might help resolve this topic.

As for the translation of "eye" I was not yet aware, thanks. I have not been able to learn to speak Yoruba even though I have lived almost throughout in Lagos. But when I do, I would do a lot more research. However, I am surprised that many Yoruba people who speak their mother tongue fluently do not seem bothered to know the roots of the words they speak, even Christians who praise the Alpha and Omega on Yoruba. Neither do they seem to look at how sentences in constructed. Perhaps this should be a discussion for another topic.

The Yoruba facial feature is same and interchangeable with the facial feature of the Kanemi (Kanuri) and same and interchangeable with the facial feature of the Nubian.

Are you saying that Boko Haram are related to Yorubas?

.

.

u ppl r confused

Islam was the cause of the downfall Oyo. And now you people want to be Arab? Do you know how many Yoruba die defending against islam and their jihadist ?

IG:

No I'm not crazy, you just need to do some real reading. Actually Sultan Muhammad Bello also thinks you are from the middle east. I think the thing about Yorubas originating from Ife is incomplete history. Did they just appear in Ife out of thin air? Anyway I am just expressing my views based on what I know. Let's not start an argument.

Cush was the first son of Ham and Ham was the youngest son of Noah. the word cush in Hebrew means "black". the Greeks called them "Aethiopes" meaning burnt faced ones. in Jer 13:23

Yahweh said "can the Ethiopian(Greek) or cushim(Hebrew) change the color of his skin?".

all blacks in history are subsaharan Africans like cush was. even the Egyptians who were reddish brown knew about cush. in the Quran blacks are called cushites. so the Yoruba's are simply the product of that expanding cushitic family from Axum or Meroe in Ethiopia. That is why Moses wrote the following

Genesis: 10. 6. And the sons of Ham; Cush, and Mizraim, and Phut, and Canaan.

7. And the sons of Cush; Seba, and Havilah, and Sabtah, and Raamah, and Sabtecha: and the sons of Raamah; Sheba, and Dedan. - Bible Offline.

recognized sons in the bible are the great progenitors of modern nations. so all Negroes from east-south-central-west Africa. all blacks from India to Australia etc. they are all Cushites!!!!!. I.e the blacks.

Let this thread resurrect I want more explanations please

mandarin:
Let this thread resurrect I want more explanations please

Seconded. I find it incredible that comments on the thread haven't even reached a second page. And to think this post was made as far back as 2011?

I want to learn about the different migrations of the various Yoruba tribes. There are many of them such as Ibolo, Egba, Ijebu, Ekiti, Ondo, Akoko, Oyo, Ilaje, Ikale, Awori, and also Itsekiri. How these groups fused together over 500 years ago under Oyo Empire. Now, before Oyo Empire there was Ife and the question is, to what empire?
The Ijebu, Ekiti, Ondo-Owo, Akoko, Ilaje, Ikale must have been much older than the Oyo settlements and variants of dialects have been found to be older in rank than each other.
Another thing of interest is Olofin, Adimu, Agboniregun, Ogun, Ela, Orunmila and Oduduwa, these are key characters that we must be clear about to have better understanding of the past.
Can our great scholars help throw more light, yhanks in advance

mandarin:
I want to learn about the different migrations of the various Yoruba tribes. There are many of them such as Ibolo, Egba, Ijebu, Ekiti, Ondo, Akoko, Oyo, Ilaje, Ikale, Awori, and also Itsekiri. How these groups fused together over 500 years ago under Oyo Empire. Now, before Oyo Empire there was Ife and the question is, to what empire?
The Ijebu, Ekiti, Ondo-Owo, Akoko, Ilaje, Ikale must have been much older than the Oyo settlements and variants of dialects have been found to be older in rank than each other.
Another thing of interest is Olofin, Adimu, Agboniregun, Ogun, Ela, Orunmila and Oduduwa, these are key characters that we must be clear about to have better understanding of the past.
Can our great scholars help throw more light, yhanks in advance

it is only a fellow mad person that will take all the posts above seriously. . things like yoruba is proto-semitic, descended from Arabs, migrated from Canaan etc are all false... inconsistencies will only raise from any work trying to portray yoruba as such
from language - Yoruba being a Niger-Congo language only similar to the languages spoken by its neighbors Igala, Edoid sub groups, Igbo, Nupe, Fon...Yoruba is most similar to igala then comes the Edoid dialects
Culture - our music, art, fashion all very typical of a sub Saharan people...we also have many similarities with our neighbors

Yoruba origin is the exact same thing with the origin of the Igbo and Edo

Prior to Oduduwa's time, There were major eras of Yoruba history, the first was Ife Owodaye, which was most likely at the banks of the Niger River, it's flooding caused the migration of the yorubic people southwards and became known as Ooyelagbo which means "Survivors" ...they set up another Ife in its present location

I personally believe "Ooye" is cognate of "Onye" in Igbo


This Ife was a confederacy of 13 small communities, other small settlements would have existed all over Yorubaland, founded partly by people who came from Ife initially and other survivors. I have heard of Idoko people who settled in parts of modern Ijebu stretching to Ondo. In Ekiti and Ijesa there was Oisinkin, the Isolo people are also a pre-oduduwa group... some scholars believe the Okun people are pre-oduduwa groups too

Then the appearance of Ijebu, Ekiti, Oyo, Ilaje etc post oduduwa creations founded mostly by sons of Oduduwa

The variations in dialect and how ancient one dialect seems from another will have to do with the pre-oduduwa influence, the sub - ethnic group's interaction with each other and non yorubic people

macof:


I personally believe "Ooye" is cognate of "Onye" in Igbo

What does "ooye" mean in Yoruba?

My personal theory has always been that the Yoruba word cognate with 'onye' is 'eniyan'.

macof:


it is only a fellow mad person that will take all the posts above seriously. . things like yoruba is proto-semitic, descended from Arabs, migrated from Canaan etc are all false... inconsistencies will only raise from any work trying to portray yoruba as such

Your having to start your comment by being insulting says a lot about you and how seriously you also should be taken. You jump in to come and discard other persons' arguments out of hand, only to start making wild claims in the name of a counter-argument.
Maybe your comments will sound less like a rant if you learn to put forward reasonable and logical premises before trying to force your poorly thought out conclusion on others.

I believe the story of Yorubaland is similar to the founding and evolution of Hausa States and Kanem in their pre-Islamic era.

What I mean by that is Yoruba should be discussed in its pre and post- Oduduwa displacement. Oduduwa being the origin of a new dynastic order responsible for the Imperial Yoruba that is synonymous with the race.

Epimetheus:


Your having to start your comment by being insulting says a lot about you and how seriously you also should be taken. You jump in to come and discard other persons' arguments out of hand, only to start making wild claims in the name of a counter-argument.
Maybe your comments will sound less like a rant if you learn to put forward reasonable and logical premises before trying to force your poorly thought out conclusion on others.

I don't get this I see madness I call it out. .. what you should do is look to yourself and consider why I would say so

actually it's not wild claims. .. anybody with basic anthropology knowledge knows that you decipher the ancient (unrecorded) origins of a people by looking at their language and cultural habits. .. luckily Yoruba has this stacked full in similarity with our southern Nigerian neighbors. .. and just about nothing significant in common with semitic people.

AjaanaOka:


What does "ooye" mean in Yoruba?

My person theory has always been that the Yoruba word cognate with 'onye' is 'eniyan'.

to be honest, your question is not as simple as it seems because nobody uses that word in Yoruba conversations

I was wondering looking at the word "Ooyelagbo" ... "lagbo" meaning "to survive" or broken down to "successful/Safe ageing"

so I considered Ooyelagbo to be "folks that survive" or 'people of survival" ie. survivors

Eniyan is a term that describes Man as a specie. ..like you have Mmadu in Igbo
eniyan would be broken down and translated into "person that is specifically assigned"

macof:



to be honest, your question is not as simple as it seems because nobody uses that word in Yoruba conversations

I was wondering looking at the word "Ooyelagbo" ... "lagbo" meaning "to survive" or broken down to "successful/Safe ageing"

so I considered Ooyelagbo to be "folks that survive" or 'people of survival" ie. survivors.

Eniyan is a term that describes Man as a specie. ..like you have Mmadu in Igbo
eniyan would be broken down and translated into "person that is specifically assigned"

The thing is "onye" means "person" in Igbo. Singular. Its plural form is "ndi" (persons/people). From what you've written, "ooye" is probably a plural form, and thus doesn't seem to fit all that well. And going by what you said, the meaning is either elusive or hard to define.

Based on your own submission, and what i've been able to gather, "Eniyan" seems to mean the same thing as "onye". You say it means 'man', other sources I've looked at say it means 'person'. Man. Person. Basically the same thing.

Looking at the two words ("onye" and "eniyan" ) it doesn't seem improbable that they could spring from the same root.

macof:



to be honest, your question is not as simple as it seems because nobody uses that word in Yoruba conversations

I was wondering looking at the word "Ooyelagbo" ... "lagbo" meaning "to survive" or broken down to "successful/Safe ageing"

so I considered Ooyelagbo to be "folks that survive" or 'people of survival" ie. survivors

Eniyan is a term that describes Man as a specie. ..like you have Mmadu in Igbo
eniyan would be broken down and translated into "person that is specifically assigned"

Now you are getting smarter at intellectual plaigerism, you don't suppose to sound like your most hated enemy

I believe you dont have the wherewithal to break a Yoruba word, its none of your fort. Dont steal my idea sir.

Where mankind is 'eniyan', what Yoruba phiiosophy does your interpretation aludes to if your interpretation is right?

Or its right because of you?