The Beginnings of the Yoruba

The origins of the Yoruba date back 2500 years to the mystifying Nok Empire. To a civilization so mysterious that as yet we don't know what they called themselves (Nok is in fact the name of the village where the first archaeological artefacts of the civilization were found).

The Nok were also renowned for their artistry and produced an array of beautiful terracotta artefacts. These sculptures are some of the oldest relics on the African continent next to those of Ancient Egypt. Even though the region was few hundred miles or so north-east of the traditional birth place of the Yorubas (in Ile-Ife), according to some accounts, based on artistic similarities, there are said to be some strong connections between the Nok culture and that of Ile-Ife.

The true beginnings of the Yoruba is clouded in as much mystery as the Nok. The lack of any written records makes the task of understanding the origins of the Yoruba almost impossible to know with any precision. Only through a very critical look at the many oral traditional stories of the beginnings can anything be gleamed about how the peoples occupied the region.

But the stories are riddled with contradictions. On the one hand there is the body of tradition that claims that the Yoruba have been inhabiting their homeland since the time of creation. A time when Oduduwa was sent down by Olodumare (the ultimate Yoruba diety) to create the Earth and the human race. He landed with his group of helpers at Ile-Ife where he went on to accomplish his task. This story thus makes Ile-Ife not only the cradle of the Yoruba but also of Mankind.

However, there is another body of tradition that is equally as popular. This one claims that the Yoruba migrated to their present homeland from Mecca under the leadership of Oduduwa as a result of a political crisis in Arabia after the rise of Islam. Some scholars have examined the details of this tradition and concluded that, while it was possible that the Yoruba had contact with Mecca and other parts of Arabia before they migrated, their real place of origin was either Egypt or Nubia. In any case, such is the overwhelming prevalence of Oduduwa in all the stories, that they too did not deny that he was the leader of the immigrants.

 

 

 

Oduduwa and the Origins of the Yoruba

 

It's obvious that the main character of both stories could not be the same individual, for the time period between the time of creation and of the rise of Islam was far too great for even the mighty Oduduwa. He could only be a possible leader in one of the stories above, not both.

For a number of reasons it seems that Oduduwa could only be real character in the latter episode. Careful scrutiny of the tales reveals that when Oduduwa reached Ile-Ife the place was already inhabited. Some traditions even mention one character called Agbonmiregun which Oduduwa met there. Also it seemed that Oduduwa had to struggle with another powerful existing group not only for the possession of land but for leadership. Pointing to the obvious fact that human beings were already in existence before the advent of Oduduwa. Making the Oduduwa of the creation myth a very doubtful historical character indeed.

So at this junction it would seem necessary to ask if the people that Oduduwa met in Ile-Ife were Yoruba speaking or not. In this connection, linguistic evidence is crucial to out reconstruction of the history of the Yoruba.

Yoruba belongs to the Kwa group of the Niger-Congo family of languages. Linguists have asserted that the Kwa group has been a predominant language in the region of West Africa for thousands of years. Crucially they have discovered that Yoruba, Edo and Igbo began to evolve as separate languages from a common stock about four thousand years ago and that Yoruba has been a distinct language for about two to three thousand years. The relationship among these languages as been compared to those of the Latin stock comprised of Portuguese, French Spanish etc…

So it follows that the people that Oduduwa met were already Yoruba speaking peoples that had been inhabiting West Africa well before his advent. Meaning that Oduduwa and his followers were not the bringers of the Yoruba language. And so assuming that he was indeed a migrant, his place of migration was in probability somewhere in the neighbourhood of Ile-Ife where Yoruba or a related language was spoken. This suggestion is based on the the fact that his name sounds more like a Yoruba (or West African) name than an Arabic or Egyptian name. Indeed, there is a strong suggestion in Benin tradition that Oduduwa was originally an Edo Prince who was forced by circumstances to migrate to Ile-Ife. Also that is real name was Ekaladerhan and that the name Oduduwa was an alternative name corrupted from the Edo word idoduwa which means ‘I stumble into fortune'.

 

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