Hellraiser77:
[s][/s] I have zero interest in your Blabbings, We are discussing IFE and it's inferiority as a historical symbol.

Stay on the topic

Hellraiser77:
Only you Tao the fraud holds this view.

Egun has realised the folly of accepting IFE: a very young kingdom as their origins.

Now they will do anything to dissociate themselves from IFE

UdechiHD:
Lol! The Legendhero has the aura of a child. I can smell an adolescent from here. He’s trying to change the topic after obviously been beaten in this cultural class.

Hellraiser77:
I find him very funny, No substance at all, Zero knowledge in history, And to make matters worse he is bad in English composition

UdechiHD:
Ife is to Yorubaland what Nri/Aro are to Igboland. Ife a youngster claiming parent to Ijebu a tribe far older than it. It’s the same thing the Nri and Aro guys are doing in Igboland.

I won’t be surprised if Benin is even older than Ife. Yoruba historians have a long way to go if they think this Oduduwa fairytale would outlast the 21st century. Because a lot of new twist to quash the fake falling from the sky historians has been debunked. No wonder the Benin dudes like Ghostwon, Edeyoung are now speaking up and telling the world a new story.

UdechiHD:
Lol! He has been fed with Ife fairytales for long. At least the Benin’s talk about the Ogiso dynasty. But the Yoruba’s keep downplaying Obatala all to elevate Oduduwa from the sky. I have never seen a so-called fraudulent history with no archeological findings. All we know of Ife are mask that thrived same time as the Benin carvings.

Each passing day the Ife scam is becoming a joke. And the Benin’s are quickly pulling out from the fishnet. Ife is looking more like a tourist center built on fairytales and lies all to elevate the economic potential of a sleeping town. I think Nri needs to read the Ife blueprint and maybe Ndigbo can push Agukwu Nri village to a UNESCO tourist site.

UdechiHD:
Nigga did you just utter this trash. I was just watching you and the Yoruba’s dance naked in public. But never you say this trash, tupu egbe eli gwe gba gbuo gi ebe ahu.
OfoIgbo aka Nripriest, Idenna. Nri is among the youngest clans in Igboland. Face your Yoruba fighters, before you foolishly pour sand into this food you’ve been cooking. You’ve got Legenhero and TAO the two Ife champions out to grab Bini influence and you an Nri son doing the same. Pick your fight wisely anuofia.

Which Nri sphere of influence? Is it the Nri that had to borrow culture from the Umudiana after the Igala push you guys away from the middlebelt or another. Are you sure you want this trouble?

Hellraiser77:
The thing about the history of southern Nigeria groups is that we are only relying on very recent Kingdoms in trying to understand History

Yoruba has wrongly heaped all its historical references on this very young IFE kingdom, IFE was really not regarded as having any special significance to Yoruba people in general until the IFE excavations which revealed it served ceremonial purposes up until the 15th century.

Today most contemporary Yoruba accept Ile ife as a sacred site But alot of Yoruba still do not view modern Ile ife as the original IFE (Lawal: 1977)

Lawal also noted references to Seven different IFEs in the Odu IFA: the sacred yoruba divinition verses, with modern Ife being the Last and youngest.

Lawal also noted the importance of middle Niger-Benue area in Early Yoruba history (1977 : 210)

Ile Ife as the cradle of anything is Hogwash .....Ile Ife is simply a kid with lofty ambitions

Hellraiser77:
The thing about the history of southern Nigeria groups is that we are only relying on very recent Kingdoms in trying to understand History

Yoruba has wrongly heaped all its historical references on this very young IFE kingdom, IFE was really not regarded as having any special significance to Yoruba people in general until the IFE excavations which revealed it served ceremonial purposes up until the 15th century.

Today most contemporary Yoruba accept Ile ife as a sacred site But alot of Yoruba still do not view modern Ile ife as the original IFE (Lawal: 1977)

Lawal also noted references to Seven different IFEs in the Odu IFA: the sacred yoruba divinition verses, with modern Ife being the Last and youngest.

Lawal also noted the importance of middle Niger-Benue area in Early Yoruba history (1977 : 210)

Ile Ife as the cradle of anything is Hogwash .....Ile Ife is simply a kid with lofty ambitions

UdechiHD:
Yoruba history is bigger than Ife. There is no way Ife can claim Yoruba parentage when it is among a host of younger tribes. The Ijebu migrations from Sudan story is just a way to prove to people that they were in existence before the birth of Ife. This no means trying to deny themselves from the larger Yoruba group. The same for the Awori’s and a host of tribes with a distinct migration story. The only thing that Ife did was unite the warring Yoruba tribes as one people. Awolowo and Yoruba historians did a whole lot of magic with this Ife thing and till date Yoruba’s are still grappling with understanding life or culture outside Ife.

OfoIgbo:


Because of the calm nature of Nri, Igboland now crawls with history twisters, who are themselves jealous of Nri. UdechiHD seems to be one of such people.
The clan UdechiHD is fronting for, never added anything to Igbo civilization. He probably comes from the sort of clans that the Benin empire or the Ife kingdom would have made a minced meat out of, for total lack of contribution to Igbo culture, but so painfully jealous of Nri contribution.

UdechiHD, where are you from? Don't be shy. Tell everyone where you are from, let us investigate their contribution. While you are busy summoning up courage to challenge Nri......Below is some interesting information I found in IGALA NETWORK on facebook a while back. It was written by an officer of the Igala Kingdom, who goes by the name Alhaji Enemaduku Agono. Read and weep. See the reverence he assigned to Nri in his writing of a brief history of the relationship between the Igala and the Igbo.

This also goes to all these historical Lilliputians that litter nairaland


History line...
THE BOND BETWEEN THE IGALA AND IGBO ETHNIC
NATIONALITIES OF NIGERIA - SOME HISTORICAL FACTS.
Igala are an ethnic group of Nigeria situated east of the river Niger and Benue confluence and astride the
Niger in Lokoja. Their religious practice is broadly Christianity and Islam, with, of course, some sketches of
African religion, all of which do not in any way affect their interpersonal relationship as it is common to
see in a family in Igalaland where either the Father is a Muslim and Mother a Christian or Parents are
Muslims and Children are Christians or vice-versa, yet all relate amicably well in all ramifications.
The Igala population is estimated at about 4million and overflow to outside their home base to regions like
Anambra, Delta, Edo and Enugu States, with strong traditional base, and now in ABIA State of Nigeria as
partners for progress. The Igala language is part of the Eastern Kwa sub group or the West Benue-Congo
subgroup of the Niger-Congo language family where the Igbo also belong, depending on the school of
thought of the observer. The traditional Igala society is largely agrarian, although fishing is also a
mainstay of the people especially the Igalas of the riverine Idah area. The Igala are identified by the old
oral tradition of Western Igbo as descendants of Igbo migrants who migrated westward during the
expansion of the proto-Igbo peoples at the beginning of the 1st millennium.
The central geographical location of the Igala people has exposed them to a wide variety of linguistic as
well as cultural influences from other ethnic groups in the country. Notable among these are the Bini, the
Igbo, the Hausa, their closest sisters-Idoma and the Yoruba ethnic groups. They are ruled by a father
figure called the Attah. The word Attah means 'Father' and the full title of the ruler is 'Attah Igala',
meaning, the Father of Igala. Among the most revered Attahs of the Igala kingdom are Attah Ayegba Oma
Idoko and Atta Ameh Oboni.
According to oral tradition, Attah Ayegba Oma Idoko offered his most beloved daughter, Inikpi to ensure
that the Igalas win a war of liberation from the Jukuns' dominance while Attah Ameh Oboni was known to
be very brave and resolute and revered for his stiff resistance of the British and his struggles to uphold
some ancient traditions of the Igalas. When he got wind of a plan to depose and exile him by the British,
he committed suicide by hanging himself to forestall the plan; for this and other numerous exploits
recorded in his time, he is regarded by most Igalas as the last real traditional Attah Igala. The present
Atta is His Royal Highness, Atta Aliyu Ocheja Obaje, a well read, intelligent and well respected Father. The
Igala word for King is Onu, one of which has gathered us here today to honour some deserving people, the
Onu Igala Abia state, his highness, Alhaji Usman Mohammed.
To divorce the Igala influence from the modern Igbo cultural evolution would be a travesty of history. The
evidence of the cross cultural mix appears to be genuine. According to several sources, Igbo people
evolved over a long period of 4000 BC to 500 AD in Igbo land through waves of migrations. Oral accounts
stated that her northern neighbours migrated into her heartland in search of fertile land and rich marine
life. The majority of which were the Igalas. The Igalas settled amongst the locals east of the Niger,
altering the historiography of many towns in today's Anambra state and parts of the present Oshimmili
Local Government in Delta state.
For instance in Anambra state, there are traces of Igala history in some communities of the Local
Government councils of the state such as - Ayamelum, Ihiala, Oyi, Awka North/South, Aniocha, Dunukofia,
Onitsha North/South, Ogbaru, Anambra East/West and Njikoka. The migration did not only affect the area
known today as Anambra state, a sizeable portion of Enugu state's communities have Igala ancestry as
well. Thus, it would be right to call it a reverse migration, occurring about eight hundred years after which
Eri was reported to have founded the modern Igbo nation with its set of unique religious doctrine. It was
also a period one of his sons, Onoja, was said to have departed northwards and founded the Igala land.
Eri's children were listed as Nri-Ifikuanim Menri, Agulu, ONOJA, Ogbodudu, Onogu and his only daughter,
Iguedo. Together and respectively, his off-springs were instrumental to founding the towns of Aguleri,
Igbariam, Ogbunike, Nando, Nri, Enugu-Ukwu, Nteje, Enugu-Agidi, and so many other settlements in the
East and West of the Niger. From the foregoing and other numerous historical facts, it is indeed difficult to
draw a line between the Igbo and Igala history.
However, according to P.E. OKWOLI, a native Igalaman, and renowned historian, in the ancient times, new
rulers from the Igbo communities of Igala ancestry must go to Igala to be taught kingship rituals and
ceremonials. Although he mentioned that Igala and Umueri towns are related, Umueri needed not to go to
Igala for any sort of tutelage. An exemption that might explain Nri-Ifikuanim and Agulu's seniority to their
younger brother Onoja, the founder of Igala.
P.E. Okwoli stated inter-alia some binding revelations that "In Nsukka and the rest of Igbo land, there is a
popular masquerade called Agabaidu, and this is a significant cultural point. In Nsukka, the word Agabidu
is used to refer to an eminent man, while it is used to refer to a King in Igala. Also Asadu is the word for
kingmaker among the Igbo, while it is called Achadu among the Igala. There are some other words which
are signs of close cultural ties shared by both Igala and the Igbo. These include Atama, which means
Chief Priest in both languages. Ajogwu means warrior among the Igala and the Igbo" Both the Igbo and
Igala have four market days which are – EKE, ORIE, AFOR & NKWO in Igbo and EKE, EDE, AFOR & UKWO in
Igala seriatim. What more can be more binding! Is it that we both eat OSIKAPA as rice, ABACHA as
cassava, EGWA/AGWA as beans, store our clothing in AKPATI called box or that the names - Okolo, Oji,
Okwoli, Akoh, Odiba, etc in Igala are called Okoro, Orji, Okoli, Akor and Odida in Igbo? What is more
important is that we are today celebrating togetherness.
Long live Ndigbo, long live Igalas and long live Nigeria.
Thank you all for the attention and God bless us all!!!
AGONO, Enemaduku, OIK.
(OFFICER of the IGALA KINGDOM)
28th November, 2010.

https://www.facebook.com/IgalaNetwork/posts/231471077021733

UdechiHD:
You’re still grasping at stalls Mr Man. Nri has nothing on Igbo culture, they are only attaché by force people who pranced on the thriving Divination/Chief Priest business of yester years to form one nonsense hegemony. I can even elevate Aro a little because their impact was felt even as far as Cameroon. And if not for the coming of the British, they would have finally conquered the whole old eastern Nigeria, up to the middle belt. Igbo land would have become what Oyo was to Yorubaland. A large expanse of land from north down to the sea. However, they were distracted and chased slave trade rather than build an empire.

So please this Nri hogwash is stale and only IPOB clown find solace in it because it connects them to their Jewish links from Gad.

One thing about the Igbo culture is that it is ancient. And any group trying to form Parent or Father ends up getting embarassed and disgraced. Stop hyping this small Nri. The four market days of Ndigbo is as ancient as the Igbo people. Umueri/Eri groups didn’t found anything. What they actually did was promote the culture end of. A culture that has thrived when they once’s habituated the middle-belt before their ouster by the Igala’s.

UdechiHD:
Lol! The Legendhero has the aura of a child. I can smell an adolescent from here. He’s trying to change the topic after obviously been beaten in this cultural class.

Hellraiser77:
I find him very funny, No substance at all, Zero knowledge in history, And to make matters worse he is bad in English composition

LegendHero:


Lol, both of you are comedians.

I’m happy you guys finally found your voices coz the battering of yesterday will go down in history as a day of rage for Mr Hellraiser77.

Legend has it that he lost his sanity as a man and started uploading Shakespearean quotes to save his eroding sense of honor.

If I am actually a child, then the whole Igbo intellectual cliques should be ashamed that a Yoruba child took them to the cleaners.



Yes I’m very funny. I always use the stick and carrot approach when trying to deal with someone below my reasoning faculty. I am also merciful and that explained why I tried to be my brother’s keeper yesterday by telling you a short story to heal you from the pain that TAO11 inflicted on you.

So I’m also bad in English composition? I think I have to enroll in Nri composition school in Alaigbo to sharpen my composition. I heard they [b]spleak good Engrish in NRI kingdom.

[b]The clown of the thread has arrived to entertain as Usual , No contribution to the topic on ground just empty Ramblings and Tantrum throwing

If the thread is too Advanced for your mental capacity why don't you just shut up

Hellraiser77:
The clown of the thread has arrived to entertain as Usual , No contribution to the topic on ground just empty Ramblings and Tantrum throwing

If the thread is too Advanced for your mental capacity why don't you just shut up

LegendHero:


LOL!

Remember I was actually the first person to give you the bolded advice yesterday?

Good to see you taking to correction and trying to make use of what you learned.

You’re too serious, sometimes it’s good to spice up the thread with some comedy and cool down boiling spirits.

By the way, UdechiHD seems not to be a fan of Nri just as Babaramota77 predicted yesterday that you guys shouldn’t let the true Igbos hear all your previous claim of Nri superiority over other Igbos.

You are the official clown here , Bringing comedy and entertainment

But you quack Nairaland yoruba Historians have failed to see yoruba people beyond ife , A very young kingdom that was nothing to yoruba culture until the 20th century when archeological findings revealed it may have had ceremonial importance to yoruba up until around the 15th century, after this discovery all yoruba groups started spinning fairy tales to connect themselves to Ile ife

BabaRamota1980:


The portuguese and dutch that visited Benin were not historians and they were not anthropologists nor archeologists, they were merchants and came for trade. They chronicled their observations.

The information triggered interest in the academic circle. Explorers began to piece together various accounts published by merchants and sailors across kingdoms and empires of Africa and set to out to investigate.

Ofoigbo, my first question to you here is, why didn't any scholar leave Benin to come to Nri for follow up? Why didn't Egharevba mention Nri?

Ofoigbo, second question, why didn't colonial administrator connect Benin to Nri even when Asaba and its environs are Ibo speaking people? Why didn't Oba of Benin correct them and insist to be grouped with his ancestral place in Nri?

Ofoigbo, here is my third question, the title of Benin monarch is Omo n'Oba. Does this mean anything in Nri?

Hellraiser77:
The thing about the history of southern Nigeria groups is that we are only relying on very recent Kingdoms in trying to understand History

Yoruba has wrongly heaped all its historical references on this very young IFE kingdom, IFE was really not regarded as having any special significance to Yoruba people in general until the IFE excavations which revealed it served ceremonial purposes up until the 15th century.

Today most contemporary Yoruba accept Ile ife as a sacred site But alot of Yoruba still do not view modern Ile ife as the original IFE (Lawal: 1977)

Lawal also noted references to Seven different IFEs in the Odu IFA: the sacred yoruba divinition verses, with modern Ife being the Last and youngest.

Lawal also noted the importance of middle Niger-Benue area in Early Yoruba history (1977 : 210)

Ile Ife as the cradle of anything is Hogwash .....Ile Ife is simply a kid with lofty ambitions

Etinosa1234:


The last sentence Sha.. even supported by a Yoruba person

Yorubas contend that Oduduwa came from the sky , some say he came from Middle East

The Benin believe that he was the son of the last Ogiso Owodo and he went to Ife where it was prophecied that their king will come from the bush

Ur article says that it was believed Oduduwa came from the far east...and Benin happens to be East

Taking this article into consideration it can be that the Oduduwa might be Benin after all..

And Middle East doesn't have any record of any prince leaving their city to faraway africa

This is just my biased opinion tho... until someone proves otherwise

Gregyboy wtf77 Areafada2

Oduduwa was the first ever Sky diver in History

TAO11:
The most recent comments being exchanged here are nothing but a celebration of ignorance. I wish I now have the same luxury of time which I used to have while educating the Binis to have helped with killing their ignorance and blatant falsehoods.

In any case, I would touch on some of these insecurity/ignorance-induced claims in the hope to guide some naive readers who otherwise may have ingested all of these sh** hook, line, and sinker without hesitation and scrutiny.


(1) The erroneous conclusion that the Ijebu-Ode settlement or kingdom is older than present-day Ife — due to the fact that present-day Ife is the final site of prior older and obviously more ancient Ife sites — is obvious enough in itself as a grossly unfounded and illogical conclusion.

For those who process information quite slowly (and as such struggle to comprehend why this conclusion is obviously unfounded and illogical), consider the analogy that my current car is my 7th one, is there any reason then to insist/conclude from this fact that your current car predates my current one??

The problem inherent in the above conclusion must have become too obvious now at this point.

(2) The idea that present-day Ife of the Yorubas is the last in a series of prior more ancient Ifes of the Yorubas is well established in extant Yoruba traditional accounts. This is well-known by the Yorubas themselves.

For example, the Yoruba traditional accounts in its unique attempt at describing the earliest beginnings (of the Yorubas from whom others are said to have sprang) always make clear and emphatic reference to the first homeland of the Yorubas (called: Ife-Ooyelagbo) as being distinctively characterized by a very large body of water.

This traditional account is well-established in the Ifa corpus as Professor Wander Abimbola (a distinguished Babalawo and former VC of the University of Ile-Ife) has rightly noted in his ”The Literature of the Ifa Cult” cited in B. Lawal (1977), p.210.

Moreover, this tradition is also alluded to in A.F.C. Ryder (1965:37) to have long been captured in writing by a certain early Yoruba historian, J.O. George who is noted to have documented in circa 1895 that “the old Ile-Ife was much farther in the interior”.

In furtherance of this point, A.F.C. Ryder (ibid) also alluded to the writing of the missionary, T.J. Bowen who is said to have been informed in circa 1857 about an Ife standing upon “‘the sea’“. Ryder added a footnote here to clarify that this reference to the sea describes ”the great rivers of the interior”.

(3) Interestingly, this well-known Yoruba traditional account, which speaks of the earliest Ife of the Yoruba people (and hence of other peoples too) as lying further in the interior around a large body of water, has been found to be quite fairly corroborated by ethnographic, historical, linguistic, and archaeological evidence.

For example, linguistic and archaeology has come to show that the dispersal point of (at least) the people south of today’s Nigeria, as different ethno-linguistic groups, is from some region around the Niger-Benue confluence.

To quote the words of an emeritus Professor of African and Yoruba History, S.A. Akintoye. who after having combed thoroughly through the intricate technicalities of the linguistic and archaeological finds summarizes as follows:

“The clear implication of all this is that the origin of the Yoruba people as a linguistic and ethnic group belongs in the process of slow differentiation of proto-groups which occurred in the Middle Niger and around the Niger-Benue confluence, beginning about 4000 BC and continuing for thousands of years. It is, therefore, in this area that we must find the first home of the Yorubas as one people — the area close to the Niger-Benue confluence and further up the Niger, where the southern Nupe and the far northeastern Yoruba groups — the Yagba, Jumu, Ikiri, Owodo, Owe, and Bunu (now collectively called the Okun Yoruba by some scholars) — and the northernmost Igbomina, live today. From that original center, the Yoruba group spread out, over many centuries, towards the south and west.” — S.A. Akintoye, “A History of the Yoruba People”, Amalion Publishing, 2010, p.7.

It is noteworthy that the conclusion summarized above is an established consensus in the field of African and Yoruba History, and it based on linguistic and archaeological finds among others.

This same conclusion can be seen below in the words of Professor Robin Horton in his “Ancient Ife: A Reassessment”:

”From a nucleus somewhere in the area of the Niger-Benue Confluence, proto-Yoruba speakers fanned our into the lands to the west and south-west. Among the migrants were the ancestors of the people of Ife. — Robin Horton, “Ancient Ife: A Reassessment”, Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria, Vol. 9, No. 4 (June 1979), p. 140.

Moreover, Professor Robin Horton illustrates this point on page 96 of the same work using the imagery shown below:

www.nairaland.com/attachments/12143952_screenshot20200816at10_46_25am_jpeg5112e8152924c301c81f57bec18f67dc

Further evidence besides archaeological and linguistic ones (whose conclusion is summarized above) comes from the fact that a number of present-day settlements around the Niger-Benue confluence still bears the name “Ife”, e.g. Ife-Ijumu — a Yoruba town in Kogi State.

In fact, an interesting piece of ethnographic evidence is found in the fact that there is another town in the same state (Kogi State) which simply goes by the name “Ife”.

What is particularly interesting about this Ife town (which is specifically located in Idah) is the fact that its ”head chief bears the title Onu which recalls the Oni [sic] of modern Ife”[/i].

More to this interesting piece of information is the fact that ”one of the most important deities in [b]Idah is Olojo, which recalls another deity bearing [exactly] the same name in modern Ife”. — see: Babatunde Lawal, (1977), p.212.

In sum, all of these evidence come to serve as a very strong corroboration for the well-known Yoruba traditional accounts which hold that the first Ife of the Yoruba people (and other peoples as well) is not the present-day Ife (in Osun State), but rather a town in a quite central location, and characterized distinctively by a very large body of water.

(4) Having established this point as a historical fact, how come then that the extant traditional accounts of all the Yoruba people (as well as some non-Yoruba people such as many Edo peoples, and many Fon peoples outside of Nigeria, among others) inherently hold strongly to the belief in some revered primacy for present-day Ife??

Shall we just simply assume that this was merely some relatively modern development (necessitated by some relatively modern politics) simply forced down the throats of these supposedly gulluble and voiceless people against their will — including those non-Yoruba-non-Nigerian Fons among others??

To go the route of this weird assumption is obviously to be sacrificing too much of common sense and reason so as to allow to prejudice thrive.

Keep reading to find out how present-day Ife became what it became in ancient times among the other Yoruba subgroups (and some non-Yoruba) with whom they all left the initial region for their respective present locations at about the same time.

cc: LegendHero, MinorityOpinion, BabaRamota1980, macof

Hellraiser77:
All indicators point to Oduduwa being from an easterly direction towards Bini, But in a bid to conceal this and Exalt Ife to the high heavens They ended up telling a very ridiculous fairy tale about Oduduwas origin Oduduwa was the first ever Sky diver in History He also invented the parachute cos howelse would he survive the fall

TAO11:
The most recent comments being exchanged here are nothing but a celebration of ignorance. I wish I now have the same luxury of time which I used to have while educating the Binis to have helped with killing their ignorance and blatant falsehoods.

In any case, I would touch on some of these insecurity/ignorance-induced claims in the hope to guide some naive readers who otherwise may have ingested all of these sh** hook, line, and sinker without hesitation and scrutiny.


(1) The erroneous conclusion that the Ijebu-Ode settlement or kingdom is older than present-day Ife — due to the fact that present-day Ife is the final site of prior older and obviously more ancient Ife sites — is obvious enough in itself as a grossly unfounded and illogical conclusion.

For those who process information quite slowly (and as such struggle to comprehend why this conclusion is obviously unfounded and illogical), consider the analogy that my current car is my 7th one, is there any reason then to insist/conclude from this fact that your current car predates my current one??

The problem inherent in the above conclusion must have become too obvious now at this point.

(2) The idea that present-day Ife of the Yorubas is the last in a series of prior more ancient Ifes of the Yorubas is well established in extant Yoruba traditional accounts. This is well-known by the Yorubas themselves.

For example, the Yoruba traditional accounts in its unique attempt at describing the earliest beginnings (of the Yorubas from whom others are said to have sprang) always make clear and emphatic reference to the first homeland of the Yorubas (called: Ife-Ooyelagbo) as being distinctively characterized by a very large body of water.

This traditional account is well-established in the Ifa corpus as Professor Wander Abimbola (a distinguished Babalawo and former VC of the University of Ile-Ife) has rightly noted in his ”The Literature of the Ifa Cult” cited in B. Lawal (1977), p.210.

Moreover, this tradition is also alluded to in A.F.C. Ryder (1965:37) to have long been captured in writing by a certain early Yoruba historian, J.O. George who is noted to have documented in circa 1895 that “the old Ile-Ife was much farther in the interior”.

In furtherance of this point, A.F.C. Ryder (ibid) also alluded to the writing of the missionary, T.J. Bowen who is said to have been informed in circa 1857 about an Ife standing upon “‘the sea’“. Ryder added a footnote here to clarify that this reference to the sea describes ”the great rivers of the interior”.

(3) Interestingly, this well-known Yoruba traditional account, which speaks of the earliest Ife of the Yoruba people (and hence of other peoples too) as lying further in the interior around a large body of water, has been found to be quite fairly corroborated by ethnographic, historical, linguistic, and archaeological evidence.

For example, linguistic and archaeology has come to show that the dispersal point of (at least) the people south of today’s Nigeria, as different ethno-linguistic groups, is from some region around the Niger-Benue confluence.

To quote the words of an emeritus Professor of African and Yoruba History, S.A. Akintoye. who after having combed thoroughly through the intricate technicalities of the linguistic and archaeological finds summarizes as follows:

“The clear implication of all this is that the origin of the Yoruba people as a linguistic and ethnic group belongs in the process of slow differentiation of proto-groups which occurred in the Middle Niger and around the Niger-Benue confluence, beginning about 4000 BC and continuing for thousands of years. It is, therefore, in this area that we must find the first home of the Yorubas as one people — the area close to the Niger-Benue confluence and further up the Niger, where the southern Nupe and the far northeastern Yoruba groups — the Yagba, Jumu, Ikiri, Owodo, Owe, and Bunu (now collectively called the Okun Yoruba by some scholars) — and the northernmost Igbomina, live today. From that original center, the Yoruba group spread out, over many centuries, towards the south and west.” — S.A. Akintoye, “A History of the Yoruba People”, Amalion Publishing, 2010, p.7.

It is noteworthy that the conclusion summarized above is an established consensus in the field of African and Yoruba History, and it based on linguistic and archaeological finds among others.

This same conclusion can be seen below in the words of Professor Robin Horton in his “Ancient Ife: A Reassessment”:

”From a nucleus somewhere in the area of the Niger-Benue Confluence, proto-Yoruba speakers fanned our into the lands to the west and south-west. Among the migrants were the ancestors of the people of Ife. — Robin Horton, “Ancient Ife: A Reassessment”, Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria, Vol. 9, No. 4 (June 1979), p. 140.

Moreover, Professor Robin Horton illustrates this point on page 96 of the same work using the imagery shown below:

www.nairaland.com/attachments/12143952_screenshot20200816at10_46_25am_jpeg5112e8152924c301c81f57bec18f67dc

Further evidence besides archaeological and linguistic ones (whose conclusion is summarized above) comes from the fact that a number of present-day settlements around the Niger-Benue confluence still bears the name “Ife”, e.g. Ife-Ijumu — a Yoruba town in Kogi State.

In fact, an interesting piece of ethnographic evidence is found in the fact that there is another town in the same state (Kogi State) which simply goes by the name “Ife”.

What is particularly interesting about this Ife town (which is specifically located in Idah) is the fact that its ”head chief bears the title Onu which recalls the Oni [sic] of modern Ife”[/i].

More to this interesting piece of information is the fact that ”one of the most important deities in [b]Idah is Olojo, which recalls another deity bearing [exactly] the same name in modern Ife”. — see: Babatunde Lawal, (1977), p.212.

In sum, all of these evidence come to serve as a very strong corroboration for the well-known Yoruba traditional accounts which hold that the first Ife of the Yoruba people (and other peoples as well) is not the present-day Ife (in Osun State), but rather a town in a quite central location, and characterized distinctively by a very large body of water.

(4) Having established this point as a historical fact, how come then that the extant traditional accounts of all the Yoruba people (as well as some non-Yoruba people such as many Edo peoples, and many Fon peoples outside of Nigeria, among others) inherently hold strongly to the belief in some revered primacy for present-day Ife??

Shall we just simply assume that this was merely some relatively modern development (necessitated by some relatively modern politics) simply forced down the throats of these supposedly gulluble and voiceless people against their will — including those non-Yoruba-non-Nigerian Fons among others??

To go the route of this weird assumption is obviously to be sacrificing too much of common sense and reason so as to allow to prejudice thrive.

Keep reading to find out how present-day Ife became what it became in ancient times among the other Yoruba subgroups (and some non-Yoruba) with whom they all left the initial region for their respective present locations at about the same time.

cc: LegendHero, MinorityOpinion, BabaRamota1980, macof

Etinosa1234:


Lol.... African history is not something u believe wholeheartedly sha

Kastina19:
[s][/s]

BabaRamota1980:


Nna, where do you think kolanuts come from, nsugbe?

Ibo culture lacks the virtue, lacks the history, to stand alone and explain itself without using the examples of others or attaching to them. Just kolanut, you have to go find yourself in Benin.

This is how you have accumulated of bullshyyt and call it history.

Hey guys, look, Benin eats kolanut, we eat it too.

Hey, check this out, Yoruba had bronze heads, we do too.

You build your empty history with association with those whose past is filled with conquest.

I dare you to stand your history on its own feet and see if it will not collapse.