Who Are the Yorubas

7/27/2019 Who Are the Yorubas

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Femi Fani-Kayode

The Yoruba people of southwestern Nigeria are a nationality of approximately 50

million people, the vast majority of who are concentrated primarily within Nigeria,

but who are also spread throughout the entire world. They constitute probably the

largest percentage of Africans that live in the diaspora and they have made their

own extraordinary contributions in virtually every field of human endeavor

throughout the ages. Descendants of the Yoruba and indeed various ancient

derivatives and forms of the Yoruba language can be found and are spoken in placeslike Benin Republic, Brazil, Haiti, Cuba, the United States of America and various

other parts of the western world. Today first, second and even third generation

Yoruba have settled down and spread all over the world and are amongst the best

and most sought after lawyers, nuclear scientists, doctors, industrialists,

academics, writers, poets, play writes, clerics, theologians, artists, film producers,

historians and intellectuals throughout the world. Wherever they go they tend to

flourish and excel.

This is nothing new and indeed has always been the case. The first Nigerian to be

called to the Bar was a Yoruba man by the name of Sapara Williams who was calledto the English Bar and started practising as a lawyer in 1879. Yet Sapara Williams

was not a flash in the pan or a one-time wonder. Other Yoruba men followed in

his footsteps in quick succession and were called to the English Bar shortly after

he was. For example after him came Joseph Edgarton Shyngle who was called in

1888, then came Gabriel Hugh Savage who was called in 1891, then came Rotimi
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Alade who was called in 1892, then came Kitoye Ajasa (whose original name was

Edmund Macauly) who was called in 1893, then came Arthur Joseph Eugene Bucknor

who was called in 1894 and then came Eric Olaolu Moore who was called in 1903.

Ironically Sapara Williams was not the first Nigerian lawyer though he was the

first to be called to the English Bar. In those days you did not have to be called tothe Bar to practice law and the first Nigerian lawyer that practised without being

called to the Bar was a Yoruba man by the name of William Henry Savage. He was

described as a self-taught and practising lawyer and hewas a registered notary

public in England as far back as 1821. These were indeed the greats and every

single one of them was a Yoruba man.

My friend and brother the respected Mr. Akin Ajose-Adeogun, who is a historian

by calling and a lawyer by profession, is a man for whom I have tremendous

respect. I have often described him as the living oracle of Nigerian history

simply because he has a photographic memory, a knack for detail, first class

sources and has read more books on Nigerian history than anyone that I have ever

met before in my life. Akin has an extraordinary mind, he is a living genius and I

have often urged him to write a book. You can ask him anything about anyone or any

event in any part of our country, since or before independence, and he will give you

names, dates and the sequence of events immediately and without any recourse to

notes, books or sources. After he has given you the information he will then cite

his sources and tell you which books to go and read in order to confirm what he is

saying. I have learnt so much from him that I must publicly acknowledge the fact

that I owe him an enormous debt of gratitude. He once told me something that Ifound very interesting and that reflected the semi god-like status that our

earliest lawyers, including some of the names that I mentioned earlier, enjoyed

amongst the people. These men were not only revered but they were also admired

by all, including members of the British intelligentsia, legal fraternity and

elites. Akin told me that many years ago in the mid-80s Sir Adetokunboh

Ademola, who himself was one of the legal greats, who was called to the

English Bar in 1934, who was the third Nigerian to be appointed as a magistrate in

1938, who was the third Nigerian to be appointed as a High Court judge in 1948 and

who was the first Nigerian to be appointed Chief Justice of the Federation in1958 said the following words to him. He said, when yousaw the way

that the earliest Nigerian lawyers conducted themselves in court and argued their

cases you would have been filled with pride and you would have wanted to become a

lawyer yourself. Members of the public used to fill the court rooms to the brink

and sometimes even the forecourts and passages just to watch these great


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men perform and enjoy their brilliance and oratory. They spoke the QueensEnglish

and they knew the law inside out. It is not like that today. This is a resounding

testimony from an illustrious Nigerian and it speaks eloquently about where the

Yoruba, as a people, are coming from and the stock and quality of minds that they

are made of.

Yet the dynamism of the Yoruba and their innovations and firsts did not stop

there. It went into numerous other spheres of human endeavor quite apart from

the law. Permit me to cite just two examples. The first lies within the field of

medicine. Dr. Nathaniel King was the first Nigerian to become a medical

practitioner. He graduated from Edinburgh University in 1876 and he was a Creole

of Yoruba origin. Next came Dr. Oguntola Sapara who was the second Nigerian to

become a medical practitioner and who graduated from Edinburgh University in

1884. He was followed by Dr. John Randle who graduated from Durham University

in 1891, then Dr. Orisadipe Obasa who graduated from Edinburgh University in

1892, then Dr. Akinwande Savage who graduated from Edinburgh University in

1900, then Dr. Curtis Adeniyi-Jones who graduated from Durham University in

1901. Others like Dr. Oyejola who graduated in 1905, Dr. Kubolaje Faderin, Dr. Sesi

Akapo and Dr. Magnus Macauly who all graduated in 1912, Dr. Moyses Joao Da

Rocha who graduated from Edinburgh University in 1913 and many others followed

after that.

The second example lies within the ranks of the clergy. The first African

Anglican Bishop and the first man to translate the Holy Bible and Book of CommonPrayer to any African language (outside of Ethiopia) was a Yoruba ex-slave who

gave his life to Christ, won his freedom and rose up to become one of the greatest

and most respected clerics and leaders that the African continent

has ever known by the name of Bishop Samuel Ajayi Crowther. Unknown to many his

original name was Rev. John Raban but he changed it in his early

years. Crowther got his first degree at the famous Fourah Bay College in Sierra

Leonne (which at that time was part of Durham University). He was ordained as an

Anglican Bishop in 1864 and in that same year he was awarded

a Doctorate degree from Oxford University.

This extraordinary man who was blessed by God with an exceptionally brilliant mind

was, as far as I am concerned, one of the greatest Africans that ever lived. He not

only translated the Holy Bible and the Book of Common Prayer to Yoruba

(an extremely difficult, complicated and painstaking venture which he began in

1843 and which he completed in 1888) but he also codified a number of other


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christian books and he translated them into the Igbo and Nupe languages. He

was literally the pillar and foundation of the Anglican church in west Africa.

Throughout his adult life he courageously stood up and fought for the rights and

the dignity of the African and he, more than anyone else, was responsible for the

spread, influence and power of the christian faith in Nigeria in the late 19thcentury. He was also the maternal grandfather of the great nationalist Herbert

Macaulay who, together with Nnamdi Azikiwe, founded the political party known as

the NCNC in 1944. Crowther was also the father-in-law of Rev. Thomas

Babington Macauly who founded the Christian Missionary Society Grammar School

(CMS Grammar School) in 1859 in what was then the Lagos Colony. CMS Grammar

School was the epitome of excellence and a citadel of great learning in those days.

It was also the oldest secondry school in Nigeria and the main source of African

clergymen and administrators in the Lagos Colony. It is not surprising that it was

the son-in-law of the great Bishop Samuel Ajayi Crowther that founded such aschool and that it was his grandson that founded one the greatest political parties

that the African continent has ever known. This is another first for the Yoruba.

Yet who are these people and where did they come from? What is their origin and

what is their source of strength? What were their migratory patterns over the

last 30,000 and more years and how did they end up in Ile-Ife? What is their

connection to the Middle East, to the Arabs of Mecca and Medina, to

the ancient Egyptians and to the Nubians of the Sudan? What makes them so

special and so peculiar all at the same time? What makes their religious set-up so

complicated and so profound and what allows each of the great monotheist faithsof Christianity and Islam together with the traditional religions to flourish and

excel amongst the very same people at the same time? Why the Yoruba are

so accommodating of outsiders and what is responsible for their liberal disposition

when it comes to their dealings with people from other cultures, other faiths and

other nationalities? Why is it that so many Yoruba families have

mixed ancestral bloodlines that go back hundreds (and in some cases thousands) of

years with so many different nationalities from outside Yorubaland and indeed

from outside Nigeria, including the Bahians of Brazil, the Haitians and Cubans of

Port Au Prince and Havana, the Creoles of Freetown (Sierra Leone , the Gas ofAccra (Ghana), the tribes of Dahomey (Benin Republic), the Edo, the Bini, the

Itsekiri and other tribes from the old Mid-Western region of southern Nigeria and

the Nupe, the Hausa, the Fulani, the Shuwa Arab and the Kanuri from the north?

What is the cultural and spiritual affinity of the Yoruba with the people of the

old Northern region and the people of the old Mid-Western region and why are the


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people from those two regions and those from the South-

West collectively referred to as the Sudanese Nigerians?Some of these

questions may never be answered but in the sequel to this essay we will attempt to

at least view and analyse the Yoruba from a historical perspective and this may

explain why they are what they undoubtedly are- primus inter pares, the firstamongs

The Yoruba are ancestors of the black Cushite migrants and settlers that did

not go to Africa

In his 2000 page book titled Ile-Ife-The Source of Yoruba Civilisation, Prince

Adelegan Adegbola wrote the following about the Yoruba people of south-western

Nigeria- the Yoruba are the progeny of great kingship, efficient kingdom-buildersand astute rulers. They have been enjoying for centuries a well-organized pattern

of society, a pattern which persists, in spite of all the changes resulting from

modern contacts with the western world. Their kings have, from very long past,

worn costly beaded crowns and wielded royal scepters. No one remembers the time

when the Yoruba people have not worn clothes. Their character of dignity and

integrity is an ancient one. In reality, the Yoruba claim to be descendants of a

great ancestor.

There is no doubt at all that they have been a great race. They are, and theyappear in some ways to be detrimentally over-conscious of their great ancestry and

long, noble traditions..the Yoruba are one of the most researched races in the

world.

According to Professor S.O. Arifalo, by 1976 the available literature on the

Yoruba, despite many omissions, numbered 3,488 items. These vast amounts of

works are quite substantial and unrivalled in sub-Saharan Africa. Also the artifacts

showed that the Yoruba were intelligent, complex and wealthy people whose art and

technological skills were unsurpassed in pre-historic Africa. Almost everything we

know about the Yoruba people comes from Ile-Ife.

Professor Adegbolas research is as fascinating as it is outstanding. It is a must

read for all those that are interested in finding out who the Yoruba are, where

they come from, what they stand for and what their contribution to religion,

culture, the arts and civilisation really is. His research into the history of the


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Yoruba and the various Yoruba kingdoms is second to none. His findings certainly

put a lie to the controversial assertion made by Sir Hugh Trevor-Roper, one of the

best-known and most respected historians that ever lived, who once said that the

history of Africa is darkness, nothing but darkness.

Nothing could be further from the truth and it is clear to me that this Englishman,

despite his outstanding credentials, knew next to nothing about our rich history,

heritage and culture which, in my view, was far more advanced and goes back for

thousands of years more than even his own. In this essay, I will make my own

contributions to the debate and I will concentrate primarily on the pre-historic era

of the Yoruba before the coming of Oduduwa to Ile-Ife and before the

establishment of the great kingdoms and princely states. I will focus on their

origins as a people and their migratory patterns.

The Yoruba are ancestors of the black Cushite migrants and settlers that did notgo to Africa with the other descendants of Cush but that rather chose to settle in

the areas and environs that were to later become the ancient cities of Mecca and

Medina in what is presently known as Saudi Arabia.

They were not Arabs but they were there as settlers for thousands of years and

they constituted an industrious, prosperous, powerful, large and respected minority

within the larger Middle Eastern community.

However, they were eventually driven out of those Arab towns and communities andforced to leave them for refusing to give up their religious faith, their deep

mysticism and paganism and their idol worship after Islam was introduced to those

places by the Prophet Mohammed in 600 AD.

They migrated to the banks of the great River Nile in Egypt where they

intermingled and inter-married with the Egyptians, the Nubians and the Sudanese

of the Nile. The Egyptian roots and connections of the Yoruba are deep and

irrefutable and the third and final part of this essay is dedicated solely to

exploring and explaining those roots. For thousands of years many of the Yoruba

remained on the banks of the Nile but the bulk of them eventually migrated to

what was to later become known as north-eastern Nigeria and once again they

settled, mingled and inter-bred with the Shuwa Arabs and the Kanuris of Borno.

From there they eventually swept across the whole of the north and migrated down

south to the forests and farm lands of what is now known as south-western Nigeria


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making their primary place and location of settlement and pagan worship Ile-Ife.

Ile-Ife is to the Yoruba traditional worshippers what Mecca is to the Muslims and

what Jerusalem is to the Jews and the Christians. The establishment of Ile-Ife as

the centre and source of all that is Yoruba was confirmed by Oduduwa himself

when he sent his sons out from Ile-Ife to other parts of Yorubaland to establishtheir own independent kingdoms, including Bini Kingdom. It was after that that we

broke up into various kingdoms and communities within what later became known as

the old Western Region of Nigeria.

Some of those kingdoms and empires were sophisticated, powerful, large and great

(like the Oyo Empire) and some were not so great and large. Yet each was fiercely

independent and established its own sophisticated system of government, customs,

legal codes and conventions.

Sadly these Yoruba kingdoms spent one hundred years fighting one another intotally unnecessary civil wars before the arrival of the British, but it is a historical

fact that they were never defeated in any war or conquered by any foreign army.

Yet the only things that they had in common amongst themselves was their

language (which broke into different dialects), their historical heritage, their

affinity and respect for Ile-Ife and their acknowledgement of that town as being

their spiritual home and finally their acceptance of the Oonirissa of Ife as the

living manifestation of Oduduwa, the quintessential icon of royalty and splendour

and Gods chief representative on earth.

This collection of different kingdom states with a common ancient root was

collectively known as the Yoruba. Yet the fact of the matter is that the word

Yoruba has NO meaning in our language or any other language that is known to

man.

No-one has been able to tell us with certainty the meaning of the word Yoruba or

indeed where it really came from. This really is very strange and is indeed a deep

and unsettling mystery. For all we know it could even be a deep and ancient insult.

That is why I have always preferred to be referred to as an Ife rather than aYoruba. Another question that is often asked is why did our forefathers indulge

in all the mass migrations from first Mecca and Medina, then to Egypt, then to

Borno, across the vast plains and desert lands of northern Nigeria and then finally

settled in the forests of the western region?


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Historians have ventured a number of reasons for this, but the truth is that no-

one knows with much certainty. My own personal theory is that the reason that our

forefathers kept having to migrate until we found somewhere of our own was

either because of war or because we refused to give up our pagan beliefs and

practices. I believe that when Islam was eventually introduced into the areas thatwe once settled our forefathers suffered all manner of persecution for their

tenacity to their ancient pagan faith and their refusal to convert and consequently

they had to move on. I may be wrong and many historians have offered one or two

other explanations for these mass migrations yet whatever the reasons for them

may have been, whether they were due to war, famine or religious persecution, it is

clear that the influence of the Arabs, the Egyptians, the Nubians, the Sudanese,

the Kanuris, the Nupes and all the other nations that we once lived with, mingled

with and mixed our blood with through breeding and marriage is very strong

amongst the Yoruba people, their music, their language and their culture till today.We shall return to this theme in part three of this essay.

For thousands of years, the Yoruba were pagans and Ifa was their cornerstone.

Their faith was polytheic in nature and they believed, like the Ancient Egyptians,

not in one Supreme Deity, but in a pantheon of gods each of which had its own

place and served its own purpose. As a matter of fact, most of the ancient gods

that the Egyptians worshipped were introduced to them by Yoruba diviners,

sorcerers and pagan priests. Such was the level of our influence on Egyptian

culture, religion and history. The monotheic faiths of Islam and Christianity were

both espoused by the Yoruba thousands of years later and were both establishedprimarily by the strong trade links that existed between them and the

Hausa/Fulani from the north, the Turkish traders of the Ottoman empire from the

southern Atlantic coast, the Portuguese and European traders who plied that same

southern Atlantic coast and the Christian missionaries who vigorously evangelised

the whole territory.

Both Christianity and Islam eventually took full root in the land and in the hearts

and minds of the Yoruba people whilst paganism, Ifa and the practice of their

more traditional faith was eventually pushed to the back seat. This was quite anachievement because for thousands of years both Christianity and Islam were

fiercely resisted by the Yoruba and even till today many Yoruba people still

tenaciously hold on to their traditional faith. That is why it is very difficult to find

a Yoruba family that does not have Christians, Muslims and adherents of the more

traditional and ancient tribal faiths in their ranks.


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The slow and massive migration of the Yoruba from Arabia, Egypt, Borno, through

northern Nigeria and to their own homelands in the south-west are why they,

together with the other numerous tribes in mid-western (the Bini, the Ishan, the

Urhobo, the Itsekiri, the Isoko and all the other tribes that were once part of the

old Western Region of Nigeria) and northern Nigeria are generally known as theSudanese Nigerians. This is because they all migrated from north Africa and the

Sudan to their present locations.

By way of contrast, the various tribes from the rest of southern Nigeria who

migrated from eastern and southern Africa to their present locations comprise of

the Igbo and the people of the eastern Niger-Delta area (including the Ijaws, the

Ikweres, the Kalabaris, the Efiks, the Ibibios, the Ika Igbos and all other tribes

that were part of the old Eastern Region of Nigeria). These people are known as

the Bantu Nigerians and they are very differentto the Sudanese in terms of

their outlook to life and their culture and history. Permit me to explain this

assertion. The history of the people that are known as the Sudanese Nigerians is

well-documented, well-entrenched and well-acquainted with strong and respected

hierarchical structures and the administration of extremely large and powerful,

culturally-diverse, cosmopolitan and sophisticated empires that once stretched

across thousands of miles of different territories and civilisations. These great

empires, which were headed by powerful kings and emperors, such as the Oyo,

Habe, Nok, Nupe, Tiv, Borgu and Sokoto Empires, conquered many lesser peoples in

centuries past and administered many territories when compared to the Bantus.

The Bantus only experience and knowledge of ancient empire and kingship is limited

to a few relatively small yet notable kingdoms and coastal states in what is

presently known as Nigerias eastern Niger-Delta area. Examples of this are the

Kalabaris who have their Amayanabo, the Efiks who have their Obong and a few

others. The most populous tribe amongst the Bantu are the Igbo. They are

originally of Jewish stock and they have absolutely no history of kingship, empire

and organised hierarchical structures at all. They were essentially republican in

nature and they were a collection of village and forest communities that were

bound together only by their common language and their ancient heritage. That iswhy the Igbo often take pleasure in saying Igbo enwe eze, meaning the Igbo

have no king. Outside of the royal kings of Onitsha and Asaba, to have kings and

chiefs amongst the Igbo was a relatively new phenomenon which certainly does not

pre-date the last 150 years. As a matter of fact, the kings of those two towns and

communities were not even originally of Igbo stock, but were offshoots of the

Royal House of Bini in what is presently known as Edo State.


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The Obi of Onitsha and the Asagba of Asaba and indeed most of their subjects

were descendants of the Oba of Benin and the people of Edo respectively. The

Igbo did not even have chiefs up until 150 years ago. It was when the British

colonialists arrived in the east that they appointed warrant chiefs for them. This

explains why the Igbo particularly find it exceptionally difficult to understand thecomplexities and subtleties of people that do not share their republican heritage

or beliefs.

Yet the truth about the Nigerian situation is that everybody and every tribe and

nationality, no matter how big or small, brings something to the table. That is what

makes us so special and unique as a people and that is what makes our country so

great. There is indeed unity in diversity and whether you are a Yoruba, an Igbo, a

Fulani, a Hausa, a Tiv, an Idoma, a Nupe, an Urhobo, an Ishan, an Itsekiri, an Isoko,

a Kalabari, a Kataf, a Shuwa Arab, a Kanuri, a Berom, an Igbira, a Bini, an Ikwere,

an Efik, an Ibibio, a Jukun, an Ijaw or any other tribe or nationality, it is in the

greater collective and the beautiful racial and cultural melting pot that Nigeria has

become that we can find our true power and greatness. The Yoruba, no matter how

rich our history, are only a part of a much greater family of peoples each with

their own noble heritage and proud history.

The remarkable similarities between the ancient Egyptian culture, religion and

language and that of the Yoruba people.

Up until 1292 BC and the ascension of King Menpehtyre Ramesses, all the Pharaohs

of Egypt were black. These include some of the better known ones such as King

Horemheb (who preceded King Ramesses), King Khafra (who was depicted by the

Great Sphinx of Giza), King Tutankhamun (the young Pharoah whose tomb was

discovered with enormous riches and a terrible curse by a British archaeologist and

explorer called Howard Carter), Queen Cleopatra (whose beauty was enchanting,

who captured the emotions of Julius Caesar and Mark Anthony, who divided the

Roman Empire and whom this writer honoured with a poem titled The NubianQueen), Queen Nefertiti (who was the wisest of the wise and the most

compassionate of all the Egyptian monarchs), King Piye (who was the conqueror of

Egypt, the master of Nubia and the greatest of all the Cushite warrior kings) and

the two Pharaohs that the biblical Moses and the biblical Joseph knew respectively

and that had such a great impact on Jewish history and the fortunes of the Jewish


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people. All these Pharaohs were black African Nubians who were to be later

referred to as the Sudanese.

The fact of the matter is that right up until the establishment of the 19th dynasty

and the coming of King Ramesses in 1292 BC, the rulers of Egypt were all Nubiansand not the brown and olive-skinned Euroasiatics and Arabs that the Ramessesian

era ushered in.

The Nubians not only ruled Egypt for thousands of years but they also constituted

the majority of those that made up the Egyptian middle class and intelligentsia

including the clerics, theologians, artists, writers, poets, medics, artisans, builders,

architects, astrologers, mathematicians and professionals. The Ancient Egyptians

themselves referred to their homeland as Kmt (which is conventionally

pronounced as Kemet).

According to the celebrated historian Cheikh Anta Diop, the Ancient Egyptians

reference to themselves as Black people or kmt and kmt was the etymological

root of other words, such as Kam or Ham, which refer to black people in

Hebrew tradition. Diop, William Leo Hansberry, and Aboubacry Moussa Lam have

argued that kmt was derived from the skin colour of the Nile valley people, who

they claim were black.

And they were absolutely right. These are the facts though some western and

Arab Egyptologists find it hard to accept and often seek to deny it. Yet whetheranyone likes to accept it or not the fact remains that the greatest civilization that

the world has ever known, which is the Egyptian civilization, was led and

established by people of colour and those same people were the custodians of the

deepest mysteries and secrets of our world and of the human race.

The final batch of ancient Cushites that remained in Arabia for thousands of years

after all the others had left and that had refused to leave those lands for Africa

with their Ethiopian brothers and sisters eventually migrated to the Egyptian Nile

Valley from Mecca and Medina.

Thousands of years later, this last wave of Cushite migrants were to be referred

to as the Yoruba. Yet for thousands of years before the word Yoruba was even

conceived and after their arrival in the Nile Valley, these same people constituted

an essential and vital part of the ruling and middle class of the Sudan, Nubia and

Ancient Egypt.


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The Cushite forefathers of the Yoruba were a learned and mystical people that

were well versed in philosophy, the arts, history, the mysteries of the age, science,

anthropology and the secrets of the spirit realm and human existence.

Their contribution to Ancient Egyptian culture and art was second to none. Mostimportantly, the pantheon of gods that they had worshipped, guarded jealously and

served for thousands of years whilst in Mecca and Medina before their migration

to the Nile Valley, were accepted by the Egyptian ruling elite and were fully

integrated and superimposed on the Egyptian religious stratosphere.

As a matter of fact, those gods were not only accepted but they eventually became

the cornerstone and foundation of Ancient Egyptian culture and religion. That is

the level of input that the Yoruba made into the affairs and development of

Ancient Egypt.

In our quest to further explore the ancient Egyptian roots of the Yoruba, permit

me to quote copiously from an excellent contribution titled YORUBA- THE

EGYPTIAN CONNECTION which was written by Olomu and Eyebira. The write-up

is utterly fascinating in terms of its depth and research. In the section titled The

Oduduwan Revolution. The authors wrote the following-

In this chapter, we shall talk of a possible migration from ancient Egypt. Many

traditions point to a fact that an alien group (Egyptians) immigrated to Yoruba land

and mixed with the original population. Many oral traditions are replete with thesestories.

The Awujale of Ijebu land has shown that the Ijebus are descended from ancient

Nubia (a colony of Egypt). He was able to use the evidence of language, body,

scarification, coronation rituals that are similar to Nubians etc, to show that the

Ijebus are descendants of the Nubians.

What the present Awujale claimed for the Ijebus, can be authenticated all over

Yoruba land. The Awujale even mentioned (2004) that the Itsekiri (an eastern

Yoruba dialect) are speaking the original Ijebu language. Since the Nubians

descended from the Egyptians, the Ijebu, and by extension, all Yoruba customs,

derived from the Egyptian as well. Many traditional Yorubas have always claimed

Egypt as their place of original abode, and that their monarchical tradition derives

from the Egyptians.


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Apostle Atigbiofor Atsuliaghan, a high priest of Umale-Okun, and a direct

descendant of Orunmila, claimed that the Yorubas left Egypt as a result of a big

war that engulfed the whole of Egypt. He said the Egyptian remnants settled in

various places, two important places being Ode Itsekiri and Ile-Ife.

Chief O.N Rewane says Oral tradition has it also that when the Yorubas came

from South of Egypt they did not go straight to where they now occupy. They

settled at Illushi, some at Asaba area Ebu, Olukumi Ukwunzu while some settled

at Ode-Itsekiri. (O.N. Rewane Royalty Magazine A PICTORIAL SOUVENIR OF

THE BURIAL AND CORONATION OF OLU OF WARRI, WARRI 1987). Since

these oral traditions are passed on by very illiterate people, we can augment

whatever is recorded with written sources.

Concerning the migration of some of the Yoruba ancestors from the east, Conton

says: The Yoruba of Nigeria are believed by many modern historians to bedescended from a people who were living on the banks of the Nile 2,000 years ago,

and who were at the time in close contact with the Egyptians and the Jews.

Sometime before AD 600, if this belief is correct, these people must have left

their fertile lands, for reasons which we cannot now discover and have joined in the

ceaseless movement of tribes westwards and southwards across our continent. We

can only guess at the many adventures they and their descendants must have had

on their long journey and at the number of generations which passed before they

arrived. All we can be certain about is that they were a Negro people and that oneof the many princely states they founded on their arrival in West Africa..was

Ife- Conton.

Although we agree with Conton that some of the Yoruba ancestors migrated from

Egypt, we tend to toe the scientific line of Cheik Anta Diop, that the ancient

Egyptians were pure Negroes. Aderibigbe, an indigenous scholar, also accepts that

the Yorubas migrated from Egypt. He says: The general trend of these theories,

most of them based on Yoruba traditions, is that of a possible origin from the

east.

Some scholars, impressed by the similarities between Yoruba and ancient Egyptian

culture religious observation, works of art, burial and other customs speak of a

possible migration of the ancestors of the Yoruba from the upper Nile (as early as

2000BC 1000BC) as a result of some upheavals in ancient Egypt. (AB


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ADERIBIGBE 1976). Unlike Conton, Aderibigbe was able to pinpoint a cause for the

Yoruban migration war.

Olumide Lucas did a lot of job to show similarities and identities between the

ancient Egyptians and the Yoruban peoples. The date that Aderibigbe gave(2000BC 1000BC) is much earlier than that given by Conton. Aderibigbes date

corresponds to that of the Hyksos invasion of Egypt 2000-1500BC.

On the possible eastern origin of the Yorubas, Tariqh Sawandi says: The Yoruba

history begins with the migration of an east African population across the trans-

African route leading from Mid-Nile river area to the Mid-Niger.

Archaeologists, according to M. Omoleya, inform us that the Nigerian region was

inhabited more than forty thousand years ago, or as far back as 65,000BC. During

this period, the Nok culture occupied the region. The Nok culture was visited bythe Yoruba people, between 2000BC and 500BC.

This group of people was led, according to Yoruba historical accounts by king

Oduduwa, who settled peacefully in the already established Ile-Ife, the sacred

city of the indigenous Nok people. This time period is known as the Bronze Age, a

time of high civilization of both of these groups. According to Olumide J. Lucas,

the Yoruba, during antiquity, lived in ancient Egypt before migrating to the

Atlantic coast.

He uses as demonstration the similarity or identity of languages, religious beliefs,

customs and names of persons, places and things. In addition, many ancient papyri

discovered by archaeologists point at an Egyptian origin (Tariqh Sawandi: Yorubic

medicine: The Art of divine herbology).

Who Are the Yorubas

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