Matters Around Sokoto Jihad

Historical Society of Nigeria

THE SOKOTO JIHAD AND THE 'O-KUN' YORUBA: A REVIEWAuthor(s): Ade. ObayemiSource: Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria, Vol. 9, No. 2 (June 1978), pp. 61-87Published by: Historical Society of NigeriaStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41857062 .Accessed: 25/09/2014 10:36

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

Historical Society of Nigeria is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal ofthe Historical Society of Nigeria.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 197.253.6.248 on Thu, 25 Sep 2014 10:36:02 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

THE SOKOTO JIHAD AND THE 'O-KUN' YORUBA: A REVIEW

Ade. Obayemi Department of History {Archaeology Division)

Ahmadu Bello University , Zaria, Nigeria

In 1970, Mason published an article entitled The Jihad in the South: An Outline of the Nineteenth Century Nupe Hegemony in North-Eastern Yorubaland and Afenmai.1 This was an outgrowth to his major study titled The Nupe Kingdom in the Nineteenth Century: A Political History.2 In this paper, I discuss the same nineteenth century events but with specific reference to the north- eastern Yoruba, namely Oworo, Ijumu, Abinu (Bunu), Ikiri, Igbede, and Iyagba. For ease of reference, I follow Krapf-Askari by calling these groups the 'O-kun' after a mode of salutation common, though not exclusive to them.3 In a sense, this paper is also an outgrowth to a more general study of the culture history of these groups for which my references are the oral and literary sources material culture and archaeology.4

By 1800, it is clear that the Ijumu, Iyagba, Oworo, Abinu, Ikiri, Igbede and Owe had occupied their present geographical positions, south of the Nupe and Igbira Igu, west of the Igala, north of the northern Edo, Akoko and Ekiti and east of the Igbomina (see map).

1. Mason, M. 1970 - The Jihad in the South: An Outline of the Nine- teenth Century Nupe Hegemony in North-Eastern Yorubaland and Afenmai Qour. of the Historical Society of Nigeria, Vol. V, No. 2, pp. 193-209.

2. Mason, M. 1969- The Nupe Kingdoms in the Nineteenth Century r A Political History (Ph.D. thesis, Univ. of Birmingham, Centre for West African Studies, 541 pp., 8 maps.) A revised edition of this work is in press.

3. Krapf-Askari, E. 1965- The Social Organization of the Owe (African Notes, Int. of Afr. Studies, Ibadan, Vol. II, No. 3, pp. 9-12).

4. Obayemi, A. The North-East Yoruba:* A Culture History (forthcoming).

61


62 Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria

Quite contrary to modern map-makers' conquests for ancient imperialists, neither Oyo, Benin, Idah, nor the Nupe had any manifest hold over any of these groups which then otganised


Sokoto Jihad and the 'O-kun9 Yoruba 63

into about one hundred independent 'mini -states'5 . Typical of this culture were the absence of dominant dynasties, of large urban centres. Typical too was the independence of the collective settlements within each mini-state. During the nineteenth century, these groups came to be affected by events whose genesis lay elsewhere. The new leadership in Nupeland in Ilorin and in Ibadan were the initiators of those events - the Sokoto jihad-and its aftermath in the lands of the Nupe and the Yoruba.

The earliest phase of a jihad led by Usman dan Fodio overlapped with an unresolved succession dispute in Nupeland following the reign of the Etsu (King) Mu'azu and the secession of Zugurma, under his son Kolo.6 Neither of the two rivals, Jimada and Majia had enough power to annihilate the other. Each led a faction of a divided Nupe kingdom. Such a crisis was probably not unknown in the history of that kingdom but the presence of mallam Dendo with a following of fellow Fulani saw the establishment of a third force and which reserved the ultimately decisive balance of power. Repre- senting as it did, an outpost for the militant Fulani -led movement further north, and allying itself with local Muslim elements, the Dendo-Musa-Abdurrahman party could, and did receive the support of the main Caliphate army - an aid which they had used as early as 1810. 7 Between this date and the year 1833 when Dendo died, the judicious use of the balance of power on the side of either of the rival Nupe princes had enhanced the power of the Fulani. From their base at Rabba on the north bank of the river they eclipsed the Nupe princes and could throw in their weight to aid their counterparts at Ilorin. The combination of the yields from raids, war booty, tribute and trade had made them the de facto rulers of Nupeland by 1 833 .

After the death of Dendo in 1833, the pattern of alliances and counter- alliances and the corresponding power tussle became more complicated as his sons, notably Usman Zaki and Masaba or Dasaba, and the descendants of the rival Nupe princes together with

5. Obayemi, A. The North-East Yoruba . . . (Chapter entitled "The O-kun and Their Neighbours Before 1800"); Obayemi, A. 1977 - History; Culture and Group Identity: The Case of the North-East or O-kun Yoruba in Vol. I History Research at A.B.U. 1976-77, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Postgraduate Seminars, Dept. of History, mimeo., 27 + pp., 2 figs. For some discussion of the term 'mini-state' see Obayemi, A. 1976 - The Yoruba and Edo-Speaking Peoples and their Neighbours Before 1600 in Ajayi, J.F.A. & M. Crowder, History of West Africa, Vol. I, 2nd ed. (Longman), pp. 196-263.

6. Mason, 1969 The Nupe Kingdoms . . pp. 53-55. 7. ibid., pp. 56-58, 67.



newly established Fulani rulers at Lafiagi and Shonga in south-bank Nupeland vied for the leadership and for a new political order. The series of civil wars, the rise and fall of many capitals and war-camps and a sizeable number of political aspirants were terminated by the military and political settlement of 1856-7 when the successful mediation by Gwandu led to a durable and regularised system of succession by Dendo's descendants. From this time too, Bida was to remain the fixed seat of the new political order which controlled most, but not all, of Nupeland. With this unified structure the new kingdom sought for expansion and exploited the surrounding peoples in its drive for economic prosperity and local military supremacy. The history of the reigns of Usman Zaki (1857-9, Masaba (1859-73), Umaru Majigi (1873-82), Maliki (1882-94) and Abubakar (1894-7) was the history of one powerful kingdom which though not free from occasional internal strife became the prime mover of events concerning the surrounding peoples of whom the O-kun is a part. The British conquest of 1897 and its follow-up marked the end of this state of affairs.

West of the O-kun, the collapse of the system upon Old Oyo was complete by 1837. After decades of constitutional crises, armed revolts, secessions and raids all of which had eroded the power of the Alafin, Old Oyo lay in ruins. A Fulani-led group at llorn had eclipsed and destroyed Afonja the local leader, a rebel against the Alafin and who had earlier made the town his stronghold.8 Alafin 's flight and the establishment of a new Oyo further south, as well as a number of successor centres of military importance of which Ijaye, Ibadan and Abeokuta were most famous, there was a new alignment in the struggle for power in Yorubaland.9 The struggle by llorn to follow-up its successes by extending its territory southwards was effectively halted with their defeat by the Ibadan army at Oshogbo about 18381 0 . However, in the military, economic

8. Johnson, S. 1921 - The History of the Yorubas from Earliest Times to the Beginning of the British Protectorate (C.M.S. Lagos), pp. 188- 205; Law, R.C.C. 1977 -The Oyo Empire (O.U.P.)

9. Ajayi, J.F.A. & R. Smith 1964- Yoruba Warfare in the Nineteenth Century (I.U.P. & C.U.P.); Biobaku, S.O. 1957 - The Egb and Their Neighbours, 1842-1872 (O.U.P.)

10. Many writers on this subject have given an 1840 date for this event; Ajayi & Smith, 1964 Yoruba Warfare . . pp. 33-36, 64. Others following S.A. Crowther (1841) etc. have upheld the 1838 date. See Smith, A. 1977 -A Little New Light on the Collapse of the Alafinate of Yoruba in Vol. I History Research at Ahmadu Bello University, 1976-77 Session. Law, R.C.C. 1970- The Chronology of the Yoruba Wars of the Early Nineteenth Century: A Reconsideration (J.H.S.N.. Vol. I, No. 2) also uphold the 1838 date (p. 218).


Sokoto Jihad and the ' O-kun ' Yoruba 65

and political sense, Ilorin remained the de facto successor to Old Oyo in northern Yorubaland. The effective check on the southern advance of Ilorin at Osogbo meant that easy expansion could only be eastward. The Bariba and Nupe held the northern areas. An eastward advaiice across Igbomina and northern Ekiti territories was to bring the Ilorins as far as the Western districts of O-kun territory.

South of the O-kun, the halt of the Ilorin advance did not put an end to the rivalries between the Yoruba states. The Ibadan continued to extend their power through conquest into the Ekiti, Igbomina, Akoko and Ijesa countries. Ibadan became the leading Yoruba power especially after the destruction and annihilation of Ijaye following the 1860-65 Ijaye war in which both Ijebu and Egba (Abeokuta) had played important roles.1 1 The exploits of the Ibadan were to bring them occasionally into the O-kun region. These usually took indirect form: being the operations of adventurers with their private armies. In the scheme of things, the part of Ekiti kingdoms was an ambivalent one. Though like the O-kun the Ekiti were at a receiving end of Ibadan and Ilorin offensive, some of their kingdoms, notably Ado operating through individual adventurers served as agents harrying the south-western flanks of O-kun territory.

In what ways did these background events affect the O-kun and what was their response? It has been much easier to give impressionistic answers to these questions largely because pf the chronological problems which confronts the prospective student of this subject. In offering answers to the questions I divide the episodes into three phases.

Before ca. 1845 The times before about 1 845 are the most obscure with regards to the involvement of the O-kun in the revolutionary processes of the nineteer#h century. But there is no doubt that they had already found themselves in the dilemma from which they could not free themselves before the close of the century. Internal evidence bearing on this specific period in any precise form is scanty. A general pattern may be inferred from the stereotype accounts of present- day informants. Here and there, written records of European travellers shed some light on the events of this phase, it is beyond doubt, that neither Ibadan nor Ilorin had any part to play in the

11. Ajayi, J..F.A. & R. Smith 1964- Yoruba Warfare . . Akintoye, S.A. 1971 - Revolution and Power Politics in Yorubaland , 1840-1893: Ibadan Expansion and the Rise of the Ekitiparapo (Longman), pp. 33-75.



affairs of the O -kun in these earlier decades - the prime movers being the Fulani, the new rulers of Nupeland.

It is known that the internal upheavals in Nupeland featured the rise and decline of many centres of power. Such centres were not only established for defence but as bases from whence attacks were launched. It is of no small importance that some of these centres and battlefields were located on the south or right bank of the Niger. Thus, apart from Lafiagi, and Shonga in the west, Adamalelu (Adam agi), Ragada (Lagada), Kpada and Lade all at short distances from the O -kun, featured as sites of battle, places of refuge or as temporary capitals.1 2 Within those decadesnof irregular or sporadic 'warfare' characterised by surprise raids and a lack of any genuine attempts at "conquest" and regular administration, the existence of the Nupe-Fulani capitals close to the O-kun could not have been insignificant.

It remains a serious problem to try and identify the actual dates when the offensive against the O-kun was commenced. A most useful source is Koelle's recordings from his informants. Yagba informants, one each from Eri, Lasa (Ilasa) and Irele were all enslaved about 1 8381 3 . The Eri informant was captured and sold by Nupe: the Irele one was 'taken in war by Fulani'. An Oworo informant from Ika enslaved about 1823, told Koelle that he was the victim of a friend's treachery.14 Two Ikiri informants from Ebila Taki were kidnapped about 1827 and 1835 respectively. The 'Dzumu' (Ijumu) now Abinu, informant from Igori stated that 'the Nupes and Agoi, i.e. Phula invaded and conquered Dzumu destroying all its towns'. In spite of these specific accounts it is a fatal blow that no hints were given by Koelle from which we could

12. Perhaps for no other Nigerian polity are so many centres known to have functioned as seats of rulers, etc. as for the Nupe Kingdom. In times earlier than the nineteenth century, Nupeko, Jima, Gbara, Mokwa, Rabba, Etsu, Kutigi, etc. are known to have been seats and, or burial places of the etsuzhi (kings). See kinglists in Dupigny, E.G.M. 1920 - Gazetteer of Nupe Province (Waterlow & Sons, London), pp. 7-8. On the close connection between the Nupe King- dom^?) and the River Niger, see Nadel, S. F. 1935 - The King's Hang- men: A Judicial Organisation in Central Nigeria (Man, I.A. Inst., London, XXXV: 143); Nadel, S. F. 1935- Nupe State and Com- munity (Africa, I.A.I. , VIII:3, pp. 257-303).

13. This date has been arrived at from simple calculations from information given in Koelle, S.G. 1854 - Polyglotta Africana (London), pp. 5-6.

14. Koelle, ibid., p. 6.


Sokoto Jihad and the ' O-kun 9 Yoruba 67

infer the dates of such an 'invasion'.1 6 All other contemporary or near contemporary sources do not give more than impressions of Nupe-O-kun relationships at this time. The general insecurity reported by Clapperton in 1826 in the Oyo area may well have been real for the O-kun as the agents were the ubiquitous Fulani.1 6 An idea that the raids on the O-kun could have begun much earlier than the third, or even the second decade of the nineteenth century is to be formed from traditions recorded by Sciortino that: "Instigated by Mallam Dendo, Jimada commenced raiding the Yagba and Yoruba country inland".1 7

The resume of O-kun oral traditions relating to this period is that on their own, the O-kun did not wage war on each other nor on their neighbours. The disturbers of the peace were the Gon-ni-gon, identified as armed raiders and career kidnappers from Yoruba- land. The greatest enemy and the leading invaders were the Ibon, the local name for the Takpa or Anupe (Nupe). The first phase, in O-kun view, was when the Ibon came and asked the O-kun to serve them by paying tribute. Payment was then in cowries, the common currency of the times. After some time, cowries were said to be no longer there, local refusals and showdowns brought Nupe armies. There are vivid stories of Ibon sieges against walled O-kun settlements but one easy reaction by others was to evacuate their exposed homes for more defensible and inaccessible locations.

It appears unrealistic to imagine that this summary of the local accounts of the revolution was the whole story, but contemporary documentation by European visitors and by those of African descent substantiate the general theme. When the local traditions speak about 'war' it is not the pitched battle involving thousands or even hundreds. Before the coming of the Fulani-Nupe in the nineteenth

15. Oral traditions recorded by the writer since 1969 and those contained in District Note-books and Assessment Reports especially between 1913 and 1920 are not useful here. A suggestion of an 1827 date for the onset of the domination of Okaba-Owe (Kabba) might well be correct but the authority for this date cannot now be determined. Davies, P. T. 1959- Notes on Kabba Division (Divisional Office, Kabba), typewritten- Chronology of Obaro (Kings) of Owe (Kabba).

16. Clapperton, H./1829 Journal of a Second Expedition into the Interior of Africa from the Bight of Benin to Soccatoo (John Murray, London). In Clapperton s writings and references to the requests of the chiefs it is implied that even such presumably formidable and large settlements as Shaki, Kusu, and even Oyo lie itself had accepted the threat of the 'Fulani' and allied raiders as being beyond their control. See pp. 24-28, 39, 44-45.

17. Sciortino, J.C.: History of the Nupe Kings and the Founding of Pateji in Burdon, J. A. 1909 -Northern Nigeria: Historical Notes on Certain Emirates and Tribes (London), p. 18.



century, the local 'wars' of the oral traditions were no more than skirmishes sometimes leading to a few deaths among the combatants. These were occasional assaults to avenge wrong- doings. They had no territorial, economic or political ambitions. That these territorially small agricultural polities were raided by their neighbours who belonged to larger political units is recalled in traditions about the Gon-nigon1 8 and indeed, four out of Koelle s seven O -kun informants who were enslaved in this earlier phase were victims of kidnapping.

It is more difficult to give a picture of a systematic payment of tribute in this early phase as this implies the establishment of a regular administrative network. The frequent changes in the relative fortunes of the Nupe princes during this period and the absence of any one stable government in Nupeland argue against such a development. Here, the contemporary documents have greater credibility. Koelle's informants, like Laird and Oldfield in their journal (1 832-4) emphasize surprise raids whose purpose was to catch slaves and to keep alive a feeling of insecurity for the O -kun through sporadic harassment. As eye witness of such raids, especially in February 1834, Laird noted:

"I learnt at this time, that Felatahs were still about Egga and Kacundah, levying contributions on the terrified natives ... In coming suddenly upon a town, the Felatahs inflict the most cruel tortures upon the more wealthy inhabitants to compel them to discover their property. This horde of barbarians set fire to almost every city, town, or village which they visit in their predatory excursions".19

The response of the O -kun and of their neighbours are noted here and there in these European accounts. For the dwellers of the river-

18. Present-day informants identify the Gon-ni-gon (word whose etymo- logy I cannot determine) as Yoruba including 'Ibadan' and presumably bands of adventurers and kidnappers, made up of persons from the Oyo lie area especially those displaced during the second and third decades of the nineteenth century. Thct Gon-ni-gon phase (Ogun Gon-ni-gon = Gon-ni-gon War) is placed before the 'Bida War* by informants. Nupe sources describe a Ganega war (ca.1884) but thus identification like Agonnigon in the Yoruba novel by Chief Fagunwa cannot be harmonised with the O-kun usage of the term. For a confused contemporary reference to Agoniga which it claims to be a settlement, see C.M.S./CA33038, The Journals kept by me James Thomas, cited by Mason, 1970- The Jihad . . ., p. 197.

19. Laird, M. & R.A. K. Oldfield, 1837 -Narrative of an Exploration into the Interior of Africa by the River Niger , in the Steam- Vessels Quorra and Alburkah, in 1832, 1833 and 1834 (Richard Bentley, London), Vol. II, pp. 280-281.


Sokoto Jihad and the 'O-kun' Yoruba 69

bank, the pattern was simple. As in 1832, so in the 1840's and 1850*8:

"... the whole of the inhabitants on that (western) side of the river gave notice of their approach by flying in dismay to the opposite bank which for many miles was covered with their barracoons, or temporary huts hastily erected of mats . . . putting the river between them and the Felatahs who being destitute of boats could not follow them."20

With the withdrawal of the Nupe-Fulani invaders, the villagers usually returned to rebuild or re-roof their dwelling. An increasing frequency of the attacks led to the permanent abandonment of many riverine settlements and the permanence of left-bank settlements intended initially to be no more than temporary refugee camps.

For the inhabitants of the hinterland about whom we lack specific documentation, th options in the face of mounted raids are fairly clear. Withdrawals were in the direction of inaccessible places-on hill-tops, caves and rock-shelters as well as in the patches of rain and gallery forest where visibility was limited and cavalry movements difficult. It appears too that as early as the 1840*5 or even earlier, the O-kun were adopting the strategy of artificial defences by building walls with ditches around their dwellings. The walls and ditches still visible today do not follow a consistent pattern and since no archaelogical excavations have been conducted along any of them, the dates of construction are not offered here. That many of them date back to this earlier phase of the Nupe offensive is however clear. Such probably were the walls (odi) around the three Owe settlements- Ikatu, Odolu and Okaba (the present-day Kabba), of the Abinu towns of Ole (Olle), Ohura, and Akpaa, of Akutukpa (Ikiri) and others.2 1 A wall had also been built around Addakudu (Odokodo or Adankolo) to protect it on three sides while the Niger secured it on the fourth side.2 2

The sociological implications of the construction of defensive walls around some settlements are discussed later but it is important to note that while refugee settlements were thereby created, it made no substantial changes to the overall political or military organisation of the people. Any forces of cohesion among distinct O-kun polities were too ephemeral to combat the military might and sustained inroads of the Fulani-led forces especially after 1856. This saw a remarkably different pattern from the features of the

20. Laird & Oldfield, 1 837 -Narrative . . ., Vol. I, pp. 246-247. 21. Obayemi, A. (forthcoming) - The North-East Yoruba . . ., Chapter

titled "The O-kun Settlements and a Crisis". 22. Schon, J. F. & S. Crowther, 1842- Journals of the Rev. J.F. Schon

and Mr. Samuel Crowther (Hatchard, London), pp. 295-7.



preceding decades when Majiya, Dendo and finally Masaba wer the sponsors of sporadic raids. By the early 1840 s, the O -kun groups had been severally shaken but the old socio-political order was not yet changed.

A Second Phase ca. 1845-1882 Some events of 1 845 seems to mark the beginning of a new system in the area involving llorn, Ibadan and Dendo s descendants. The date 1 845 is specifically suggested as the time when:

"... the famous Balogun Ali of llorn with Ibadan aid attacked lye. After eleven defeats in the field, the lye people scattered and eventually the main body of the fugitives settled on the present sit of Aiyede with the permission of Itaji, to whom the land belongs".23

The year 1845 also apparently marked the date when the intervention of Gwandu in Nupe politics effected a peace settlement which confirmed Masaba in office as Etsu Nupe. His seat was at Lade.24 From Lade it is stated in some accounts that Masaba sent out military expeditions against the Oworo and as far to the south- east in the territory of the Kukuruku (Afenmai or northern Edo). It is to be noted however that the post-1845 attacks were not the first in these parts. The records of members of the 1832-4 and 1841 expeditions give copious coverage of the sporadic raids which they witnessed or heard of in those years. Masaba Y incessant intrigues and the military adventures which made him the key figure in Nupe politics in these decades were to back-fire on him thus terminating this phase of his paramountcy. His operations among the north- bank Nupe succeeded in uniting all his enemies against him and in a rising against him about 1852, he fled south into Yagba taking

23. Swane, A.C.C. 1935- Intelligence Report on the Aiyede District (Nigerian National Archives, Ibadan, C. S. 0. 26/31014), p. 5. Also Briscoe, V.F., 1919 - Assessment Report (National Archives, Raduna, 141P/1919).

24. Dupigny, 1921 - Gazetteer . . ., pp. 10, 13; Mason, 1^69 - The Nupe Kingdoms . . ., pp. 89-90, 92, 98-99. The Lade phase in O-kun experience is fixed in song. A dance music called ikpaye at fe (but stylistically close to adon at Adde both in Ijumu), is said t& have originated as a war dance. At Ufe- Ijumu where ikpaye is still a regular part of second burial rites for non-Christians one hears:

Arikuku l'eti Oy a; Ero Lede (Lade) e mo tu bere Ohin lowo gha ero Lede."

(Arikuku (literally pigeons) on the bank of the Niger, Lade folk stop demanding tribute from us).


Sokoto Jihad and the ' O-kun ' Yoruba 71

refuge within Egbe town.25 The final phase of the succession struggle in Nupeland was brought to an end by the wars of 1855-7 in which the combined forces of royalists (Umaru Majigi, Usman Zaki, Masaba and some of the supporters of the old dynasty) fought and defeated the rebel commander Umaru Bahaushe. A peace settlement followed. Usman Zaki was installed as king. Masaba was tipped as his successor. Bida became capital. With a unified programme, the kingdom began its career as the stable core of a new system - politically, militarily and economically.2 6

Between 1845 and 1857, it is difficult to delimit the areas of operations of one power vis-a-vis the others whose thrust converged or overlapped in the lands of the O-kun. One complicating factor in the military politics of these times was the role of individual adventurers with their private armies who operated from Nupeland, Ibadan, Ekiti and probably llorn. Of this, Aduloju of Ado, Latosa of Ibadan, Aje or Ayorinde (also an Ibadan) feature in the traditions of the O-kun, although it was with the adjacent Akoko country that these are more positively associated.2 7 The operations of these adventures, notably Aje's did provoke counter-invasions thus becoming a factor in the diplomacy ofxthe three principal parties - Bida, Ilorin and Ibadan.

Individual Ekiti towns also had their own designs but of these, Aiyede had the most important role in O-kun politics. This new polity, under the Balogun (later Ata) Esubiyi was to flourish as a semi independent agency, largely subservient to Ibadan and carrying with it the settlements of Omu Ijelu, Itakpaji (Itapaji), Oke Ako, Irele and Ogbe as well as the parent settlement of lye.28

25. Mason, M., 1969 - The Nupe Kingdoms . . pp. The Jihad . . pp. 196-7. At Egbe, local informants refer to the residence of Masaba in the town- sometimes in legendary terms as Idachaba, a Muslim divine whose prayers worked wonders. Miracle and prophecy apart,- he is associated in some accounts with Isaba, one of the compounds of Egbe. For one rendering of these traditions see Dada, J. A. A History of Egbe (in manuscript), p. 15. I am grateful to Mr. Dada for access to this work.

26. The desire to shift the base of the kings from Bida back to Rabba was strongly cherished for the first few years after the defeat of Umaru. The move never took place and Bida has since remained the base of operations of the Dendo dynasty. Mason, 1969 - The Kingdoms . . pp. 178-181.

27. The contemporary documentation and the context of the adventures are discussed in Mason, 1969 -The Nupe Kingdoms , pp. 190-192; Mason 1970- The Jihad . . pp. 197-8; Akintoye, S.A. 1971- Revo- lution . . pp. 9-10.

28. Swayne, M., 1935 - Intelligence Report . . pp. 6-7; Akintoye, S.A., 1971 - Revolution . . pp. 9-10.



Aiyede as a local 'power became a centre for raids against surrounding peoples. It was also an ally that could be called upon to intervene iii O -kun inter-settlement squabbles and a place of refuge for displaced or threatened O -kun people.

Viewing events of the times in the O-kun districts retrospectively, we can see that apart from these peripheral involvements of Ibadan and llorn and their agents as allies, Bida under its Fulani rulers was the dominant partner in the military politics. It appears clear that the reigns of Masaba (1859-73) and f Umari Majigi (1873-82) saw the integration of the O-kun into some systematic tribute-paying relationship with Bida. If the O-kun could be described as belonging to an 'empire' it was in the period covered by these two reigns. One source notes for this reign of Masaba that "the Yagbas appear to have had quite an affection for him".2 9

In the eastern or Oworo sector, it was during this period that an all-embracing or pan-Oworo kingship institution emerged around the personality first of Okpoto of Ika who is regarded as the first Olu of all the Oworo.3 0 The recognition by the Bida Fulani of one of the host of olus ruling the multi-settlement mini-states of the Oworo area must have been a measure of great administrative conve- nience for the former as it would have eased the task of tribute collection. The inherent weakness of introducing the concept of a paramount chieftaincy among a people who never possessed such before and who at any rate had no tradition of regular dynasties was however immediately apparent after the death of Olu Okpoto. Both Agbosi, Olu of Jakura (5km from Ika) and Aba, Olu of Agbaja assumed the leadership of the Oworo. In the clashes which ensued, Olu Aba of Agbaja came off better.3 1 The issue of a centralised Olu-ship of Oworo had been, ever since, a controversial one.32

29. Nigeria National Archives, Raduna - Anonymous MS, Yagba History , KABDIST.

30. Oworo traditions recorded by the author at Agbaja from the late Olu Mundi and the elders, on 13 Aug. 1970. Two manuscripts in the custody of the late Olu, titled Oworo Historical Summary (4pp.) and The Brief Biography on Chieftaincy in Aworo District (3pp) are both undated. The first of the two compositions, signed by one Salihu and marked FBO/Morito, gives account of Okpoto of Ika in the text but excludes him from his kinglist on p. 4. I was allowed to copy both documents into my own notebook.

31. The Agbaja MSS in footnote 30 contain accounts of the struggles. 32. Agreement by the Oworo on a successor to the Olu Mundi was not

reached until the Government of%Kwara State intervened in 1975. A panel was set up by the Military Governor and the candidate they recommended was installed, ending a dispute that lasted for more than three years.


Sokoto Jihad and the 'O-knn' Yoruba 73

In the central sector (Ikiri and Abinu and the 'Bunu' of the Nupe), the pattern was also one which gave recognition to a local coordinator for tribute intended for Bida. Thus the oral traditions are unanimous that the first of such a coordinator was the Olu Gbelege of Taki on the northern frontier of the O-kun Yoruba with the Nupe-speaking Kupa-Abuji-Eggan populations. After the death of Olu Gbelege, the Eleso Akiimo of Ohura stepped into his shoes. This Eleso was killed in war and he was succeeded in his role as the principal agent for Bida for Olu Maaki (Mayaki) with his base at Akpaa (Oke Ajo). The Obaro Alemeru of Odo Ape (Oke Meta) is represented in the traditions as the successor to Olu Maaki. The former was reigning at the time of the British conquest.3 3

As was the case in Oworo, the appointment of individuals as overall "heads" had no precedents. Indeed, Gbelege of Taki, Akiimo of Ohura and Maaki of Akpaa were upstarts who owed their power solely to their personal standing with the Fulani in Bida. None of them was Olu in any proper constitutional sense. They were usurpers who eclipsed or suppressed the legitimate Olu at Ohura and Akpaa. Indeed a 1914 recording noted that Gbeleke was:

. . an alien whom Masaba appointed over the Bunu District. He stationed himself at Taki".34

and of 'Mai-aiki' that: "He was a Bunu who was born in the Wawa (Iwoa) sub-district and his real name is forgotten or concealed . . . He allied himself to the invaders and ultimately rose to the position of lieutenant to Belege (Gbelege) and tax-collector over the South Bunu, with headquarters at Akpara (Akpaa) whom he deposed".35

'

The southern frontier of the authority of the 'Bunu' tax supervisors is now unknown, though present-day informants say that this extended as far south with Bida influence in Akoko and northern Edo countries. Indeed, the Elese Akiimo was killed at Arigidi (Akoko) where he was fighting for the Fulani of Bida.3 6

In the western or Iyagba sector, things are equally hazy as far as this phase is concerned. One complicating factor is that for the western Iyagba mini-states at least, Iyagbaland had been a partitioned territory with claims and counter-claims typical of an area where claims overlap. Another factor is the personal relation-

33. Odo-Ape (Abinu) traditions recorded by the writer in 1970. 34. James, H.B., 1914 - Bunu District (National Archives, Raduna,

12P/1914). 35. ibid. 36. Ohura traditions (Abini;) recorded by writer from Chief Mofa Bakewo

of Ohura in 1971.



ships of Masaba with individual towns. Egbe 'Pou' and 'Isanlu' (PSanlu Esa Plhonlu) had sheltered Masaba (Dasaba) as a refugee during the years of his political adventures (1852-6). 3 7 He had also raised armed support from these parts and thus one could expect some political favours for these people with the improvement in his fortunes when he became secure as king in Bida from 1859 to 1873. The only contemporary eye witness record, the account by D.J. May who was in these parts in June and July 1858, throws some light on the complex situation:

"The town (Egbe) I found enjoying a most unusual amount of political freedom; it had no Ajele in it, and was entirely subject to no power, for which privileges the price was, tribute to its strong neighbours at Eshon (Aiyede), to llorn, and to the king of Nupe".38

Admittedly, this was only a year after the restoration of political stability in Nupeland with the establishment of Bida but Egbe, and Ikoro (Koro) nearby were enjoying some 'unusual' peace as late as January 1895 when Lugard passed through both places.3 9

That this 'peace' was not available to all Iyagba polities is obvious from May's journal. As he noted for Ejiba, only a few kilometres away to the north-east:

"... the next town on my route I found entirely subject to, and with an Ajele of the latter (Nupe) in it".40

Also, he arrived in time to record a kidnapping raid on Agboro by 'a party of llorn people'.41 The involvement of the Iyagba with the politics of Nupe, llorn, Ibadan, Aiyede and Ekiti in general has repercussions to the present time. Indeed before the end of the nineteenth century, Eri had been ceded to llorn by Bida in exchange for Share.4 2 Also, at some stage, the leadership at Ejuku

37. The identification of 'Pou' is problematic. Isanlu is the name borne by (a) an Igbomina town (Isanlu-Isin) (b) a north-west Yagba state further defined as Sanlu-Esa whose settlements included Okaara, Okunron, Okoloke, Ijodo, (c) another north-central Yagba state called Ihonlu in the local speech but now written also as Isanlu. Of these three Sanlu Esa would appear to be the more probable one as a place of refuge by Masaba. Her towns were located 15 to 50km from Lade and between Lade and Egbe.

38. May, DJ., 1860 -Journey in the Yoruba and Nupe countries in 1858 (Jour, of the Royal Geographical Society, Vol. 30, p. 225).

39. Perham, M. (ed.), 1963 - The Diaries of Lord Lugard , 1895 (Faber & Faber, London), Vol. IV, p. 267. Lugar d's Ikiru in the entry for 3 Jan. 1895 is evidently Ikoro or Koro "the most eastern town of llorn".

40. May, 1860- Journey . . p. 225. 41. ibid., p. 226-7. 42. Lugard 1895 tn rerham (ed.), lhe Viennes . . entry tor 10 Jan.

1895.



had emerged as the collectors of tribute for Bida - no doubt along the lines of the arrangements in 'Bunu' and Oworo further east.4 3

Not fitting easily into the Oworo, 'Bunu' i.e. the Owe, Ighara, Ogidi, Ufe, Ikoyi, Adde, Eega, Ojo and Iya. In the Bida reckoning, parts of these were regarded as Iyagba and parts as 'Bunu'. It appears that some time during this, phase, the Owe settlement of Okaba (Kabba) had emerged as collaborators with the* Nupe. It appears as if certain Owe settlements had been target for invasion by Bida in what is referred to as the Gberi (Berri) war.44 The Owe chiefs (Obaro) seem to have been a faithful follower of the Nupe - a role they played until 1 897 when resident Bida agents were forced to make their final withdrawal.4 5

This new pattern of the attachment of the O-kun to Bida had seen a modification, though a superficial one, of the political and economic system of the O-kun. The presence of Nupe ogba or ajele (= tax overseers) enforced the flow of local produce and skills towards Nupeland. Apart from the loss of peoples in the enforced migration into Nupeland, there were no radical changes in the local products or the means of production. Raids for slaves and kidnappings especially on the non-official basis continued as one town or the other tried to meet its quota of tribute payable to Bida. Surviving oral traditions and contemporary written records agree that besides this regular tribute, the wealth of the rich became liable to confiscation after the deceased of local notables and when such wealth with other fixed property should have gone to brothers and children as heirs of the dead. The case of Olu Aba of Agbaja, reputably the richest man in Oworo of his time is on record. His death, recorded on 17 January 1864 was followed by the observation that all his property went to Masaba in Bida.4 6 Another witness for the events following the death of Ajeto (PAejoto) of Agbaja also notes that very little of his enormous amount of wealth ever reached his heirs "... for the Benu of Bida hastened down to Patiagwaja

43. James, H.B., 1914- Yagba District Assessment Report (N.A.K. 218/1914) states that ". . . the headmen of Juku [Ejuku] collected tribute for the emir of Bida. The contempt and hatred with which that town is regarded seems to uphold this assertion." An Ejuku man, Idaloke, was sent back from Bida to act as collector of taxes in Masaba's time.

44. Traditions about Ogun Gberi is well-known to Owe elders - and according to earlier archival material Gberi headed a revolt of all Owe settlements from which Okaba (Kabba) excluded itself.

45. Vandeleur, Lt. S., 1 898 - Campaigning in the Upper Nile and Niger (Methuen, London), p. 170; Mason, 1969 - The Kingdom . . pp. 373-4, 464-5.

46. Church Missionary Society Papers- marked CA.3/038. Confluence 1864-5.



[Egbaja] to take charge of things".4 7 Thus the Fulani aristocracy in Bida became the inheritors of the property (Ogun) of deceased. It appears also that skilled craftsmen and women were carried to Nupeland and the cloth -weavers from the O -kun area were famous.

The appointment of overall tax-supervisors each based in a principal settlement (Taki, Ohura, Akpaa, Okaba, Ejuku Ika and Agbaja) must have boosted the population of such settlements temporarily with the human "commission" held back by the tax agents. In a sense, the appointment of individuals to exercise res- ponsibility beyond their own immediate mini -state was an innovation in the political history of the O -kun. The underlying political structures however did not suffer direct changes especially because the new system had no other motive but the economic exploitation of the O -kun. Religion, the ostensible reason for the jihad' which was thus waged on the O -kun, was never an issue. Conversions or non -conversion to Islam played no part whatsoever in O -kun Bida relationships.4 8

One direction along which the O-kun-Bida relations was to have a most revolutionary impact was the military. On the one hand the pressures continued to call for increasing resourcefulness in the defence of settlements, the protection of farms and markets. Thus, settlements walls with ditches (as at Egbe), hill-top location of settlements (as at Agboro) and the provision of armed escorts for local travel were all documented for this period.4 9 One may perhaps not make too much of such reactions because people, like those of Ejiba, had not had reason to change the locations of their settlements nor to build town- walls.

The O-kun attachment to Bida had also made it compulsory for them to contribute directly to the war effort of Bida in addition to

47. Mai Maina, 1858- La barin Mat Maina Na Jega, Sar kin Askira (NORLA, Zaria), translated and re-isued as Part II of Kirk- Greene, A. H. M. & P. Newman, 1971 - West African Travels and Adventures: Two Autobiographical Narratives from Northern Nigeria (Yale Univ. Press). Kirk-Greene translates Mai Maina's Patiagwaja as Patiagoja (135). Pati Agbaja refers to Agbaja: hill- pati being the Nupe word for hill or highland. Ajeto is shown as the last of the pre- 1897 Olus of Agbaja in the Agbaja MSS cited in footnote 30 above.

48. The entry of Islam into the O-kun districts date effectively from the first and second decades of the twentieth century. It came into most of the O-kun settlements side-by-side with Christianity; an effectively twentieth century feature.

49. May, 1860- Journey . . ., p. ; and Lugard in Perham (ed.), 1963, p. 268 give clear descriptions of Egbe town walls and ditches. Flegel, R., 1 882 - Die Flegelsche Expedition (Mitteilungen der Afr. Gesselschaft in Deutschland, 3, 1882, pp. 137-145). I am grateful to Wilhelm & Gisela Seidensticker for a translation of this document.


Sokoto Jihad and the 4 O-kun ' Yoruba 77

the usual tribute payments. According to O-kun informants they had to raise levies of men. They had to provide food and other provisions for themselves and for their masters services for which they got very little if anything. Oral traditions, some in song which refer to events of the 1845-73 events highlight local feelings about the O-kun participation in offensives by Bida of which that at Arigidi (a.1863-18) is outstanding.50 Thus were the O-kun introduced to regular warfare with sieges and assaults and for a people without regular armies or regular military institutions, this was revolutionary. Successful warriors emerged to undertake raids for slaves for which they built up their own followings. The exposure of O-kun to regular warfare must have prepared them for the revolts that were a feature of the next phase.

A Third Phase: about 1882-1897 Violence, mass movements of peoples and attendant suffering are emphasized in the sources as being more characteristic of this final phase than for the preceding. This was the time of war' proper. A great number of settlements were to disappear from the map due to military confrontation during this phase. As was shown by events of the preceding phases, the local happenings were the response to the 'international' relations of the times of which those in Nupeland and Yorubaland (Ibadan and llorn) were significant.

By the seventies, and even before Masabas death in 1873, the stability of the political order in Bida had meant the accumulation of an increasingly large group of 'royalists' and their dependants. To

50. At Ufe-Ijumu the etu {Jeku) dance still performed at wake-keeping parties in the funeral for titled ones has a song based on the Ogun Arigidi or Arigidi War. The song leader's words could be abridged thus: Egbe, . . . omode . . . ijoye, obinrin etc. hun m'a a r'ogun Arigidi Ogun Arigidi mo n'ewu, Ogun Arigidi Ijo mo yun ogun Arigidi . . . 1'ijo mo yun-ogun Arigidi Oko i dun bun-bun-bun Ogun Arigidi! O le mi, le mi, mo bo gha'le o mo mo kp ewuyo Kun me un mu kpe'wu yo? O no ron e e gbe l'ogun o, mi ma kp'ewu yo.

The youth, the juveniles, the titled ones, the women etc. all nomi- nated me for the Arigidi war.

Yet the Arigidi war is most perilous. The day I went to the war at Arigidi Bullets they whizzed and whizzed at the Arigidi war. I was hotly pursued but got back home safely. But how could I not have escaped the danger? A levy (conscript does not perish in war . . . thus I survived.



run and maintain such a huge establishment, it was necessary to keep a steady flow of tribute and to extend the area over which tribute could be levied.51 Revolts were therefore speedily suppressed. Expediences had come to include the establishment of slave farms around Bida and elsewhere in Nupeland.5 2 To meet the increasing need of free (slave) labour and in order to pay for the wars levied by Bida, the military and other operations which procured slaves were prosecuted in areas where none of the emergent states had claimed as its own. Thus, following the Arigidi war, effort had been made by Bida to cross into the Igala area. There, the Bussa Nge halted the Bida forces before Shintaku in 1868.53 After Masabas death, Umaru Majigi his successor waged war on the Igbira Tao.54 There were engagements at Ogidi and Aduge and finally in the hills of the present-day Okene area. A sort of Pyrrhic victory was won by Bida. This was in the 1874-75 season.55 In 1878-9 Umaru Majigi also besieged Oka in the Akoko area but he had to withdraw to deal with other matters in Nupeland and without subduing Oka.56 The failure at Oka may well have shown the O -kun that the forces of Bida were, after all, not invincible.

Events in Yorubaland were also taking a new shape in the 1878-9 period. The Ekiti, Ijesa, Igbomina and some Akoko had resolved to free themselves from Ibadan rule. With a rallying point at Otun they had resorted to an alliance - the Ekiti Parapo, with the aims of defeating and destroying for ever the power of Ibadan.57 The Ibadan-Ekitiparapo war broke out in 1879 and although the sporadic fighting at the Kiriji camps was to cease in 1886, the war did not end till 1893. florin featured more as an ally of the Ekiti-

51. Mason, 1969- The Nupe Kingdom . . pp. 300-303. 52. Mason, M., 1973 - Capttve and Citent Labour and the Economy oj

the Bida Emirate , 1857-1901 (Jour. Afr. Hist., Vol. XIV, No. 3, pp. 453-471.

53. Sources relating to this event are examined m Abaniwo, J. A., 1973 - A History of Bassa-Nge up to 1920 (B.A. Dissertation, Dept. of History, Ahmadu Bello University).

54. Mason, 1970 -The, Jihad . . pp. 198-199. *or a more detailed stuay of the Igbira sources relating to this = the Ajinomo War = see Ibrahim, Y.A., 1968- The Search for Leadership in a Nigerian Community: The Igbirra-Tao , c. 1865-1954 (unpubl. M.A. thesis, Ahmadu Bello University).

55. Though victorious, the Igbira did not wish for another attack: they decided to pay tribute to Bida. Mason, 1969- The Kingdom . . pp. 265-270.

56. Mason, 197 0- The Jihad . . pp. 199-200; 1959- The Kingdom pp. 277-83.

57. Akintoye, 1971 - Revolution . . pp. 76 et seqq.



parapo during these engagements- especially because its own interests overlapped with those of the Ekitiparapo.5 8

If Umaru Majigi had managed the increasing demands and responsibilities of the system centred upon Bida, his successor Maliki resorted to more desperate measures to keep the system going. During Maliki's reign the O-kun area was divided among royalist fief-holders. The increasingly burdensome demands for tribute - human tribute from an already-taxed people, with its consequences of declining populations, declining economic productivity and increasing social insecurity against raids for slave drove the 0:kun into open revolt. Regular or co-ordinated administration had become more difficult as the O-kun had to attempt to throw off the Nupe yoke in the O-kun region. These revolts followed no consistent pattern.

An alliance, forged by the central Iyagba towns of Ife, Ilae, Ogbe, Eri, Ejiba Takete, Isao, Ejuku, Ikpon-on, Oke Agi, Ogbom and probably others was defeated in a single engagement near Ijagbe in which the poor generalship (if any) of these towns was the most decisive factor.59 Then followed the attack and piecemeal destruction of the settlements of the Iyagba areas and the annual harassments of those that remained.60 Individual towns, sometimes made formidable resistance. Thus, at Ewuta (life territory) Audu Yama, brother of Muhammadu (subsequently emir) was killed by the Iyagba in an engagement.6 1

One outstanding feature in the history of the O-kun in this period was the movements of people following the imminent or completed attacks of existing settlements. Thus, whole towns, notably in Aginmi, Ohun, life, Isao, Imela, Iya, etc. were completely 58. Akintoye, op. cit., pp. ,107-8,111-4. 59. Information about this Ijagbe encounter recorded within thirty years

after it happened leaves the impression that this was "the largest gathering of Yagbas formed to fight their common enemy. Detachments came from Ife, Ejuku, Takile [Takete], Isawo, Ikinrin [PEkinrin], and Ogboru [Ogbom] and Ogbe, Eri and Ejiba . . . with several chiefs among them, but they had no leader . . . They concen- trated near Takite . . . The Fulani-Nupe under Abubakar moved from Isanlu and formed a camp at Jagbe [Ijagbe] . . . When the Yagba forces were out on the east bank [of the Oyi river] , the enemy sprang out . . . completely surrounding them. It is said that not a man escaped death or slavery. " National Archives, Raduna, KABDIST Yagba History (no number).

60. This is the impression given by present -day informants and the evacuation of many of the settlements for less accessible places was more widespread in the decade after 1885-6.

61. H.B. James, op. cit. Chief Eleta of Ife-Olukotun, the leader of the Ewuta compound of the town recalls these names during an inter- view in April 1974.



evacuated. Refugees trickled into inaccessible places like Ufe, Ikoyi, Ogidi, etc. and others fled into Igbira, Aiyede, Omuo, etc.62 A notable departure was the establishment at Igunka (Igbagun) of refugees from almost all the Iyagba states in the forest at the southern fringe of Yagbaland.6 3 This settlement survives.

Drawing its inspiration from he results of the Ekitiparapo war and no doubt helped by connections with ex-slaves domiciled in Lagos, the southern Ijumu and Akoko formed an alliance and one which challenged Bida in the 1894-5 period.64 The theatre of the war was around the Ayere-Qgidi hills. The Bida army had to withdraw because it could not break the allied forces.6 5 Returning the following year, they pitched their camp at Udo, near Egunbe but still on Ogidi territory.6 6 The hostilities were terminated by the

62. This explanation of the total evacuation of settlements must be under- stood against the background of the nineteenth century. Within each of the above 'states* there were many settlements of various names and sizes. The evacuation of settlements is not co-terminous with the evacuation of the 'states' or that name. By moving on to single sites, the old multi-settlement polities have become composite nucleated towns and villages along the motor road usually under the old names. Each of the older settlements are quarters or compounds- preserving its individuality in name. See Obayemi, A., 1978 - Settlement Evolution: The Case of the North-East Yoruba. Paper read at the Seminars of the Archaeology Division, Dept. of History, Ahmadu Bello University, June 1978 (mimeo, 14pp); Dada, D.O. 1969 - Settlement Re-organisation in West Yagba After the Nineteenth Century (impubi. B.A. dissertation, Dept. of Geography, Ahmadu Bello University).

63. For some reference to the historical experience which produced Igbagun, see Medugbon, A., 1969 -The Implication of Cash Cropping in A lu- Igbagun (unpubl. B.A. dissertation, Dept. of Geography, Ahmadu Bello University).

64. Aspects of the organization and tactics of this alliance are still obscure. Leadership was exercised by Agan-un or Aganhun of Esuku- an Akoko village. The signal for war was apparently given at Ikeram with the execution of one Kolo, said to be a prince of Bida and the display of his head in the market place. Akomolafe who recorded this information places the events in 1888, thus suggesting the Ogidi war as occurring from 1888-1897. Akomolafe, C.O., 1970 -Akoko and the Nupe Wars in the Nineteenth Century (unpubl. B.A. dissertation, Univ. of Ife, Dept. of History).

65. Oba Ogunleye, Alaere of Ogidi and elders: Ogidi -Ijumu traditions recorded in August 1970.

66. Though placed by writers as the Nupe camp near Kabba, the site of of the camp and battles is farmed by Ogidi-Ijumu people. The site is accurately placed on Vandeleur s map.


Sokoto Jihad and the '0-kunf Yoruba 81

interverttion of the Royal Niger Company whose forces marched from Lokoja via Emu, Jakura Ohura and Okaba to attack the invading army which fled on the approach of the former.67 The confused political scene when the British came to expel the agents of Bida was thus largely due to the upheavals which the O -kun systems had suffered in the preceding decades.

Overall Impact of the Upheavals For a chain of events which affected every area of the lives of a people like the 'wars' of the nineteenth century on the O -kun; we may expect to see the overall impact in every department of life. We here select the more conspicuous for discussion.

In political terms, the Bida and Ilorin exploits in the O -kun districts represent attempts to incorporate these people into a more extensive political system with at least some formal adhesion to a religious ideology. The chief characteristic of the system however was the economic exploitation of the O -kun districts by the metropolis with no reciprocal services being apparent. The process of the exploitation of the economic and human resources which degenerated into naked hunts for slaves had left visible impact in the numerous settlements which lie totally or partially in ruins, the survivals of defensive settlement walls and existing refugee settlements.

The retirement of people into inaccessible places - usually to hill-tops - explains a notable feature of the earliest maps of the area.68 The re-settlement of people since the second decade of British rule at the foot of, or close to these hills, are direct products of the nineteenth century folk movements. Thus, the settlements at life, Ejuku, Ihonlu (Isanlu), Imopa (Mopa), Okaba (Kabba), Egbe, Eri among the bigger villages and of Ogidi, Ufe, Ikoyi, Ilae, Akutukpa, Iluke, Osokosoko, Akpaa, etc. were either located substantially on hill-tops by 1900 or are today located at the foot of hills. Of the refugee settlements, Igunka or Igbagun and Ekinrin have continued to be inhabited. People who fled to Aiyede, Egbira (Okene), Omuwo or who returned from Nupeland where they had lived as slaves, returned to their respective settlements. But not all were to return. Those who had long been resident jn other centres, who had been born there or whose contacts with their original

67. Vandeleur, Lt. S., 1898 - Campaigning in the Upper Nile and Niger (Methuen, London), pp. 176-254.

68. Mopa, Akpaa, Egga, Akutukpa, Ufe, Ikoyi, Ogidi, Ejuku, Ilae, Agboro, Iluke, Ohura etc. are examples of settlements substantially sited on hills in the first two decades of British rule. Movement on to the plains - (but first to the foot of the hills) was in many settlements made compulsory by the British administrators in 1918.



homes had weakened faced little pressures to return. Thus, substantial numbers of people of Ijumu, Iyagba, Abinu, Oworo and Igbede descent are known at Aiyede, Bida, Ado -Ekiti, Ijelu, Lagos and also Lokoja, although in the case of Lokoja the twentieth century additions to the original peoples are considerable.

The processes of political partition of the O -kun had its roots in the nineteenth century power-politics. llorn, Bida, Ibadan (and Ekiti) had assumed overlordships over parts of the O-kun region. This largely accounts for the fact that today, O-kun territory is

v carved up into separately administered divisions or Local Govern- ment areas of Oyi (formerly Kabba), Kogi, Akoko, Edu (formerly Pategi), Irepodun (formerly llorn and Igbomina-Ekiti), Ikole and Omuo.6 9

Closely linked with the question of the disappearance of settlements, raids for slaves, increased cases of kidnappings and insecurity of life and property is the question of actual decline in population. The debate has thrown up a number of points and although these cannot be adequately discussed here we can comment from the O-kun experience.70 Mason perhaps was basically correct in the assumption that 'slave raiding and depopulation might not be as mechanically related as is represented in some quarters.71 Indeed, the point had been made that O-kun captives did not find escape too difficult with constant crossings and re-crossings of the Niger. To assume as he does however that the British administrator s picture of depopulation etc. is propaganda is to over-rationalize the issue: to prefer latter-day suspicion to contemporary facts and realities. We certainly do not know the actual numbers of peoples in the various settlements in the early decades of the nineteenth century- but three lines of the internal evidence demonstrate the reality of depopulation of the O-kun districts.

69. The political agitations of the early thirties forced the British administration to detach West Yagba from Pategi Division (leaving Agboro), and merge it with East Yagba. Koro and Eruku, towns of Yagba speech but asserting Ekiti identities for themselves remained in the "llorn" sector. Itapaji, Irele, Oke-Ako, Ikpao (Ipao) and others remain in Ondo State.

70. Mason, M., 1969b- Population Density ana lave Hatdtng : I he Lose of the Middle Belt of Nigeria (Jour. Afr. Hist., Vol. X, No. 4, pp. 551-564); Gleave, M.B. &M. Prodiero, 1971- Population Density and 'Slave Raiding9- A Comment (Jour. Afr. Hist., Vol. XII, No. 2, pp. 319-327); Agboola, G.A., 1968- Some Factors of Population Distribution in the Middle Belt of Nigeria: The Examples of Northern Ilorin and Kabba in Caldwell, J.C. & C. Okonjo (eds.), The population of Tropical Africa (Longman).

71. Mason, 1969b, Population Density . . ., pp. 555, 560-563.



First, the narratives relating to the middle and later decades of the nineteenth century emphasize that tribute in human beings, paid to Bida could not be met by the number of slaves locally owned nor by natural increase - even if the grounds on which people could be enslaved (offences, violations, social deviation, theft, etc.) were multiplied. Indeed the reasons given for rebellion, armed revolt or flight into refugee settlements is that 'there would be no-one left- over' (from the demands by Bida). A second line of evidence that there had been depopulations is in the fact of an uneven distribution of population in the area today. Such centres as Egbe, Ihonlu, Imopa, Ejuku and Okaba are larger than others. The reasons for this is that these settlements acted as agents or willing collaborators with the Nupe and were thus spared the extremes to which less cooperative or clearly hostile settlements - like Aginmi, Imela, Ohun, Euta (Ohi) - life, Ogbom, etc. were subjected. One could infer that these bigger settlements are closer to what could have been the 'normal' demographic pattern in the area - although each of them also suffered to some extent. The third category of internal evidence is made up of the list of ebi (lineages) and sub- lineages which are now extinct even if the names are still remem- bered. These could be as many as six out of the original nine at Aginmi which did not survive the 'war'7 2 or as many as 31 out of 33 'towns' of Ohi-Iife73 and a greater proportion at Ohun. The present-day Bassa Nge district include O-kun folk.74

It is true that oral traditions relating to former densities of population - as many stories, allusions and songs indicate are not free from exaggerations for effect such as the stereotype story of Etie in Ohi-Iife.75 Given the number of lineages and sub-lineages that

72. Aginmi (Iyagba) informants interviewed on 30 March 1974 gave me the list of extinct lineages/settlements as Odaagbo, Oke Takete, Ayingbagu, Ayingbede, Ok'Ego. Four others - Ilopa, Odogbo, Okedigba, and Oke Ga have survivors.

73. My informant (Chief Eleta) admits that he cannot now recollect the names of the 35 towns - and gives a list of fifteen. The density of population in Ohi-Iife of earlier days have become proverbial - the subject of many stories.

74. Some Bassa -Nge names are indisputably Abinu-Ijumu Oral traditions recorded at Akpata (1975) speak of Abinu folk crossing the river and becoming "Baha" ( = Bassa-Nge).

75. Etie was said to have been so populous that their foot -soldiers passing over a cow-hide in single file wore a hole through it before everyone could pass. For similar claims for Oyo armies, see Norris, R., 1789- Memoirs of the Reign of Bossa Ahadee, King of Dahomy (London), 1966 repr., pp. 11-12. For the recurrence of certain myths to explain greater populations of earlier times in a study of another Nigerian people, see Erim, E.O., 1974 - Stereotype Themes in Yala Oral Traditions (Oduma, Vol. II, No. 1, August, pp. 11-15).



are today known not to have survived the Bida 'wars' and the paralell list of settlements - some of them 'towns' in some senses of the word, we cannot reject Lugard's observation in the Annual Report of 1906 that in the O-kun area, 'hundreds of ruins attest to a population and prosperity now gone'.7 6

Depopulation of the O-kun districts is only one' of the keys to the twentieth century history. There were the effects of a psychology of helplessness and one which had been documented since the earliest entries of the O-kun into literary records. But such professed helplessness and one which had been documented since the earliest entries of the O-kun into literary records. But such professed helplessness was not confined to the O-kun.77 The O-kun openly solicited for the intervention of the white man and indeed there are records relating to deputations from these districts to Lagos and elsewhere and there are local confirmation that some O-kun leaders actually asked for the British to come and shield them from the Nupe.7 8

For a generation that is so used to -hearing about 'resistance' to colonial rule the O-kun case might sound as an antithesis. Theirs was a response dictated by the local historical situation. Unlike the Idoma, Tiv, gbo, northern Edo and Jos Plateau peoples, groups who like the O-kun are not Islamised, and which operated the mini- state form of political organisation the O-kun were easily coerced and incorporated into the foreign colonial system.79 It was an exchange of masters - and people were convinced at the time that they were exercising the right of choice. By detaching the O-kun as 'southern Nupe' from Bida, after a single operation the British were spared the trouble of subjugating the O-kun mini-states one by one.80

All things considered, the O-kun area by 1897 was not a regularly administered part of an empire. The Ogidi war in

76. Lugard, F.J.D., Annual Reports for Northern . Nigeria (Kabba Province): Colonial Office, 1901-1911.

77. Laird & Oldfield, 1837, Vols. I & II. 78. Bishop Tugwell to Capt. R.L. Bower, 24 Dec. 1894, in FO. 83/1376,

refers to deputations of chiefs from this area both to the Royal Niger Company agents and to Bower.

79. For a summary of these, see Ikime, O., 1977 - The Fall of Nigeria: The British Conquest (Heinemann, London), pp. 48-53, 161-177.

80. Vandeleur used the term 'Southern Nupe' when he referred to the districts of the North-East Yoruba. The British invasion and conquest of Nigeria, groups which acknowledge no paramount rulers had to be conquered on a village -by- village basis. For an example, see Gonyok, C., 1978 - Colonial Violence - The Case of the Plateau Minesfield, 1902-1912 (Postgraduate Seminar Paper, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, mimeo, 18pp).



south, the emptied settlements elsewhere were symptoms of the disaffection with a power which though feared was hated. These were pointers too to the dismal failure of an indigenous political order the mini-state type in the face of external threat. The British, through the agency of the Royal Niger Company were responsible for bringing the system to an end: they .had also helped to foster it by the monopoly they gave the emirs of Bida over fire- arms. In spite of the Bida domination however, all the evidence points to its inability to make any lasting fundamental changes to the political, economic, technological and belief systems of the O-kun. We can now stress the elements of cultural continuity displayed by the O-kun during and after the Nupe presence.

The ebi (lineage) remained the basic landowning and land- disposing unit. The ebi in the O-kun had been essentially an economic, social and religious unit the distinct sub-unit of the different states living the individual citizen his social identity and determining his political standing, his religious expression and economic opportunity. Thus, even during the crisis, while demographic displacements, permanent or temporary, had given rise to withdrawals by certain lineages from their own lands and the consequent abandonment of their resources, host populations accommodated refugees on the basis of hosts and resident guests. The dual citizenship within such communities and the conflicts over economic resources, religious observances, are today narrated as between 'hosts' and unassimilated guests. The emergency which produced this latter state of affairs did not last long enough (less than one decade in certain parts of Ijumu) to make for permanence of the co-existence of such 'parasite* relationships for the hitherto distinct ebi "to fuse together.81 Thus, the identification of the individual with his ebi, the acknowledgement of his economic and social standing within the old system, survived intact.

The fact that in spite of the afflictions of the people, their basic worldview had not been altered is reflected in their inability to change their relationships with their patron deities and the ancestors who in some other context could be said to have failed them by not preventing their sufferings. These are the concrete symptoms that the old order had not been overthrown. So powerful was the attachment to the old order that even at the end of the turmoil and indeed while it lasted, the returned 'slaves' were not only wholly rehabilitated within their respective ebi where known, but old shrines were re- activated. In places where lineages had died

81. One example in the area is vividly recalled by elders of Ekafe lineage in Ufe-Ijumu with whom some sections of Ighara (Araromi) took refuge and did not return home until the pax brittanica was weil established.



out or had almost become extinct, known descendants (even on the female line) were persuaded to return and resettle such in order that the old system and its relativities of the component ebi might be restored and maintained. This process has continued till our tim.

The persistence of the old order is shown by the maintenance of boundaries of ebi lineage and ilu or ulu Ostate') lands, the observance of lineage eriwo (taboos) and the persistence of its oriki (greetings), the observance of old festivals and the patronage of lineage cults and professions. These, with the retention of the old calendars and of the market cycles, the attachment to or rather the continuity of the old system of production (agricultural, industrial, etc.), the observances of mortuary and funeral rites in the old context, the retention of the initiation rites of the ancient title system and thus of all the basic institutions of the ancient polities give us the cultural reference basic to a discussion of the social changes that go with the processes of twentieth century modernisation. The social pressures that was brought to bear upon early Christian and Muslim converts, the persistent dilemma of the society over the issue of people of slave descent, the British and independent Nigerian administrators till the present day are some of the reactions of the old order to forces of modernisation. Those communities such as life, Ejuku and Iya (Iyamoye) which today contain substantial Muslim populations made the options only after the arrival of the British as administrators. Political considerations were apparently uppermost in cases of lineages, settlements and individuals adopting Islam or the various Christian denominations now co-existing in the area.

These illustrations show the essentially, indeed overwhelmingly negative impact of the so-called jihad on O-kun society. Its 'revolutionary' effect lies in the fact of the demographic dislocations and relocations more than in anything else. Where, as in the Oworo area we do have the adoption of some Nupe institutions and attitudes, these are the results of direct copying (as of titles, and personal names) during the twentieth century. The underlying culture remains substantially indigenous. The oral literature- especially the songs and non-musical allusions to the 'Ibon' (Nupe) represent extremist views on the pattern of nineteenth century relations. The political ties to the Nupe, though not to Bida, in on form or the other persisted till about 1936 when what is now West Yagba District was severed from Pategi Division after violent agitations, locally known as Mokobon ( = I rejct Nupe) crisis. Agboro remains a sole Iyagba 'state' still within Pategi Area Council to date.

It is in the face of these realities that one questions the use of the word JIHAD in any sense as far as these groups are concerned.


Sokoto Jihad and the 'O-kun 9 Yoruba 87

Indeed, the use of Islamic concepts- jihad, amana, etc.- however applicable to the core area of the Sokoto Caliphate cannot be universally applied to all parts which were affected in one form or the other by the chain of events which were set in motion by the forces which it unleashed. Neither the contents of our historical sources, nor the orientation of the Bida regime had much to do with ideological issues. When the O-kun took the field against the forces of Bida, they were not resisting a religion, they were fighting for life and property, for the survival of a heritage, against political, military and economic domination. If the O-kun were fighting against the Islamic creed, it would not have been possible for individuals, whole families and settlements to adopt the faith when their presumed agents were gone. As far as the O-kun are concerned, there was warfare in the nineteenth century: they were partially incorporated into a new political order; it could not have been jihad, not even as an after-thought.


Article Contentsp. 61p. 62p. 63p. 64p. 65p. 66p. 67p. 68p. 69p. 70p. 71p. 72p. 73p. 74p. 75p. 76p. 77p. 78p. 79p. 80p. 81p. 82p. 83p. 84p. 85p. 86p. 87

Issue Table of ContentsJournal of the Historical Society of Nigeria, Vol. 9, No. 2 (June 1978), pp. 1-172Front MatterNIGERIAN FEDERALISM: ACCIDENTAL FOUNDATIONS BY LUGARD [pp. 1-20]THE IMPACT OF NINETEENTH CENTURY WARFARE ON YORUBA TRADITIONAL CHIEFTAINCY [pp. 21-34]THE CAREER OF ADELE AT LAGOS AND BADAGRY, c. 1807 - c. 1837 [pp. 35-59]THE SOKOTO JIHAD AND THE 'O-KUN' YORUBA: A REVIEW [pp. 61-87]THE DEVELOPMENT OF ENGLISH IN NIGERIA UP TO 1914: A SOCIO-HISTORICAL APPRAISAL [pp. 89-103]PERSONALITIES AND POLICIES IN THE ESTABLISHMENT OF ENGLISH IN NORTHERN NIGERIA DURING THE BRITISH COLONIAL ADMINISTRATION, 1900-1943 [pp. 105-126]THE NIGERIAN MOTOR TRANSPORT UNION STRIKE OF 1937 [pp. 127-144]REVIEW ARTICLENIGERIAN HISTORIANS AND THE DISSEMINATION OF HISTORICAL INFORMATION [pp. 145-154]

BOOK REVIEWReview: untitled [pp. 155-156]Review: untitled [pp. 157-163]Review: untitled [pp. 165-167]Review: untitled [pp. 169-172]

Back Matter

Matters Around Sokoto Jihad

Documents

Transcript of Matters Around Sokoto Jihad