OYO EMPIRE NON-EXISTENT OYO EMPIRE...A YORUBA KINGDOM CREATED ON PAGES OF YORUBA HISTORIANS TEXTBOOKS. AMIDST, Contradictions and false claims (1) The Ooni of Ife,the Alake of Abeokuta ( Egba), the Olubadan of Ibadan,the Oba of Oshogbo, the Deji of Akure,the Oba of Lagos,the Ugbo of Ugboland,the Owu of Owo etc have no historical records that they were ever ruled by an empire with such name. Rather,the Oba of Lagos,the Deji of Akure and all the traditional rulers in present day ondo and Ekiti states have indubitable record that they were once part of the old Benin empire. (2) The capital of the fathom Oyo empire is alleged to be Oyo-Ile. This is a community that is not as big as Uromi township. It is smaller than many headquarters of south western city states currently existing. It is not as big as Eyaen in Benin city. How come the capital of such great empire ( sic!) is so small and a far cry from any that is known in history? The false historians failed woefully to cover this jigsaw puzzle. (3) The Kingdom of Nupe was an acephalous community but in the 17th century,it sacked the great Oyo Empire. Evicted it from Borgu and made it to relocate its capital to OYO Igoho, another hamlet community that can never qualify as capital of a dukedom let alone an empire. Now, most of the towns of Nupe were tribute payers to the Benin empire and never Benin conquerors. (4) It is on incontrovertible record that,the colonialist never met an empire called Oyo when they came to Nigeria but they did meet the Benin Empire in all her glory having Suzerainty over many Yoruba speaking city states like Lagos,Akure,Ado,Idoani,Ondo,Igbokoda,Owo,Ifon,Ekiti,Owu etc. infact, it is the admission of the fact by many of these coastal states that their overlord is the Oba of Benin that led to the European interest to visit the Oba and settle supremacy once and for all. Oba Overanmwen Nogbaisi was the one they eventually clashed with. Recall that as early as the 15th century, the Oba of Benin has had positive and co-equals interactions with the Portuguese Empire. (5) Look closely at the map in pix one hereto. That is the colonial Map of Benin. It is less than half of what it was before the whiteman came. Still at that, it shows the whole of the current Midwest,nearly the whole western states including the whole Lagos, some eastern states and north central communities as part of the empire of Benin they met. Now, tell me, where is the geo-political delineation of the mythical oyo empire created by Ola Biola,Olatun Bonsun et al? (6) How come Oyo-Ile the capital of the contrived OYO Empire is today not the most important city in Yorubaland as Benin city is in Edo. Many old cities that survive still remain the seats of governments. Sokoto,Benin city etc. but the alleged Capital of old oyo hardly ranks as a local government headquarters. This is not consistent with the Yoruba nature which accords much respect to traditional authority and culture. The explanation is simple. There never was such an empire with such a small community as capital city. The proud Yoruba man can never accept such scandal. The capital of their city states like Ibadan,Abeokuta etc is enough to take care of their territorial pride,not the scandalous hamlet of OYO-Ile. (7) Do you know that there is hardly a Yoruba community except the much mentioned Oyo-Ile,that has no exclusive language of its own that is not Yoruba. These various Yoruba languages are mutually unintelligible to each other. The current general Yoruba evolved from markets that was then mainly that of slave trade. (8) Now, unlike the Benins and most indigenous Nigerian kingdoms,the Yorubas have the most exported slaves in diaspora. They are very many in the Caribbeans and in Brazil. Do you know why? This is because,it is easy to sell people who are not from the same stork with you.except for criminals,Benin and other kingdoms do not sell their citizens. This again clearly show that a monolithic oyo empire was a lie. The Yorubas had warring and hostile city states and were never united under one pre-colonial power. Chief Awolowo was once rejected by them at the polls as Ijebu( fake) Yoruba. Ironically, it was the same man that came out with the concept and in fact united them as one common political people. That is why they worship him second only to Oduduwa. (9) Do you know that even their historians admitted the truth in their text books that Oramiyan after leaving Benin founded OYO empire. It is very obvious that Benin is older by far than the fathom Oyo Empire. What is however curious is that, if Ajaka,Shango,Ogun all later children of Oramiyan were deified to be worshipped by the Yorubas, how come Oramiyans eldest son ( Eweka) who established the most powerful dynasty on earth was not included in their list of deities. This further lend weight to the argument that the history of the Yoruba empire was all about tribal glorification. Anyway, Oduduwa their alleged founder was actually Prince Izoduwa ( Ekhalederan) the only son of the last Ogiso of the first Benin dynasty-Owodo who was banished so that his father could have other children. This is a story for another day. (10) It still beat me why other Africa historical states only have Benin on their record not OYO empire. Dahomey the alleged neighbour of old OYO recognized Benin as not only its cradle but its main powerful neighbour. Find this extract from Wikipedia interesting... According to the Wikipedia article on the People’s Republic of Benin, the new name was chosen to reflect the Benin Empire “that had once flourished in neighboring Nigeria.” Most sources, however, maintain that the new name referenced not the Empire but the Bight of Benin, the adjacent stretch of the Atlantic Ocean. The country’s new leaders rejected the name “Dahomey” because they considered it too ethnically exclusive, since the old kingdom of that name had been closely identified with the Fon people of the coastal zone. The new name, based on physical geography, seemed less divisive—even though the term “Benin” ultimate derives from the former Benin Kingdom of the Edo people in what is now Nigeria. The capital of that state, Ubinu, gave rise to the term “Benin City,” which was generalized to cover the entire kingdom, and was subsequently applied to the adjacent sea. Source: geocurrents.info/historical-geography/ethnic-politics-and-the-relocation-of-ghana-benin-and-mauritania#ixzz3Fd3tIV5s I have never doubted our relationship with the Yorubas. Everything natural points to the fact that they are our cousin. What I however disapprove is their attempt to use their privileged premier schooling by the whiteman to re-write history by distorting the true one and concocting a fake one that undermines the superiority of the old Benin empire over their city states. THERE WERE NEVER AN OYO EMPIRE..END OF STORY! ~Ojealaro Friday~
Posted on: Thu, 09 Oct 2014 11:43:20 +0000