YORUBALAND
History & Happenings
There were about 20 Yoruba kingdoms at one time with a different king ruling over each one. The Yoruba country was fertile and populous at that time. It was well supplied with locally produced food, local manufactures, free from the curse of the slave-trade and the people lived happily in perfect peace and security.
Ife was known as the center of cultural and religious life and Oyo was the strongest kingdom with the largest military and political system. The people grew more crops than they needed and they traded their surplus with neighboring groups. However these trading relations were eventually disrupted by the slave-trade and the complex wars associated with it from 1821 to 1893.
The increasing importance of slavery may have helped cause a revolt by a military commander and governor of Ilorin named Afonja in 1821. He won support by appealing to Oyo’s enslaved population. Slaves in the adjacent towns hitherto employed as barbers, rope-makers and cowherds deserted their masters and flocked under Afonja and were protected against their former owners.
Afonja declared Ilorin independent of Oyo and invited the Fulani from the north to join him in the governance of Ilorin. Hausa warriors, who were joined by more escaped Alaafin's Hausa slaves, assisted Afonja to consolidate his power and rebellion. In arms with some other chiefs who also rejected Aole (the Alafin of Oyo), Afonja led raids against nearby Yoruba towns; capturing and feeding his captives to the slave market, which by then was already growing.
From the palace forecourt Aole shot one arrow to the north, on to the south and yet another to the west, placed a curse on his people and smashed an earthenware dish as a sign of how his curse would affect the people. For nearly eighty years the people of Yorubaland watched this curse take a horrible effect. Yoruba people were hostile to each other and the new Alafin ruled over only Oyo. In 1837, Fire destroyed the Afin (palace) and all its treasures, old Oyo was attacked and again the chiefs were at loggerheads with the Alafin. Evidently all was not well with the Yoruba Kingdoms; the capital and the metropolitan province were destroyed. Yorubaland was torn by civil wars and refugees migrated southwards and away from the Niger, seeking new lands to occupy. A new Oyo was founded and the people were able to halt the advance of the Fulani. British intervention in 1893 finally brought an end to the wars along with the beginning of colonial rule throughout Yorubaland.
Located close to the Niger, Okun people who had been at peace during these troubled times, suffered from incessant attacks between 1840 and 1893 and were left to protect themselves as more Yoruba tribes headed southward. They were eventually brought into the war and the played a major role in the eventual acceptance and spread of colonial rule. Our story takes place around this period in this area that was eventually brought under Lugard’s control and later named Kabba Province. It takes place at a period when heroes were celebrated in the old tradition of songs, songs that have been carried for decades by those before us. Amidst attempts towards cultural re-orientation and the Nations re-branding we must also prepare our stories in a suitable form for people of the future. We are the generation that will tell these tales through ‘the tube’ and the thrilling story of Idan is one of such.
IDAN: and how our story links
IDAN is the story of hunter set about the period of the Yoruba civil wars. He is born into one of the Yoruba Kingdoms, close to the Niger River. Said to have been carried in his mother’s womb for thirty moons, Idan, the mysterious one is both revered and feared as a child because he was believed to be a source of blessing until a certain curse is placed on him. The tribal witch doctor teaches him the secrets of charms and incantations in an attempt to guide his path from evil and calamity.
Having been taught the rudiments of hunting as he grew up, Idan becomes a great hunter and leads the tribe’s warriors to defend his community against attack by another tribe. Because of his successes as a hunter and war commander, he becomes proud, turning a deaf ear to the elders of his community and all who cared for him.
Idan displays his arrogance to members of his family, to other members of the community, to everyone in the king’s court and even to the king himself. Moreover, he abandons his first love because he cannot control the little man under his loin cloth. He errs further by defying tradition and the gods of the land; he also wants to claim his best friend’s woman. Following a clash with a creature of frightful description known as a kerit, he suddenly disappears from the community.
Some say he was taken to a foreign land by the gods as punishment, where he toiled and served lesser masters. Some others say he went imbecilic and roamed strange lands. However, he returns after 3½ years only to find that his home and tribe has been ravaged by enemies..
….and the story continues.
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