THE ODUDUWAN REVOLUTION In the first chapter, we talked about the aboriginal nature of the Yoruban peoples. 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 these stories. 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 Isekiri (an eastern Yoruba dialect) are speaking the original Ijebu language. Since the Nubians were descended or colonized by the Egyptians, the Ijebu, and by extension, all Yoruba customs, derived from the Egyptian. Many traditional Yorubas have always claimed Egypt as their place of original abode, and that their monarchical tradition derives from the Egyptians’. 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 Isekiri 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-Isekiri.” (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 Yoruban ancestors from the east, Conton says: The Yoruba of Nigeria are believed by many modern historians to be descended 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, this people must have left their fertile lands, for reasons which we can not now discover and have joined in the ceaseless movement of tribes west wards and south-wards 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 (of which ancient Egypt probably had at least one community as we have seen) and that one of the many princely states they founded on their arrival in West Africa…..was Ife.’ Conton WF (1960. 71 ) Although we agree with Conton that some of the Yoruban 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 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. Aderibigbe’s 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. Omolewa, 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 by the “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 – online article). Ademoyega commented that the Ekiti section of the Yorubas must have migrated to their present area around 638AD when the Muslims took over Egypt and forced some of the Yoruba people to migrate to their present area. So, we see that the Yoruba did not come in one migration, but in many different migrations – in waves. The first possible migration might be connected with the Hyksos invasion. Some words in the Yoruban vocabulary echo the words used in Egypt in predynastic times and in the early dynastic periods. Some Egyptian gods of this period have strong identities with Yoruban deities. For instance, gods such as Adumu (Adumu) Hepi (Ipi) Ausar (Ausa), Horise (Orise), and Sámi (Sámi) Nam (Inama) are present in Yoruba. All these gods existed in the pre-dynastic and early dynastic periods of Egypt. TODAY, AMONG THE ITSEKIRI-YORUBAS, THESE GODS CAN STILL BE PHYSICALLY SEEN, AT LEAST, ONCE A YEAR! Neighbouring peoples are already initiated into the various gods systems and beliefs in Yoruba land. The Agban Ancestral worship was first organized in Urhoboland during the funeral ceremony of chief Ayomanor of Sapele (1949). The Ipi system was first organized in Urhoboland in March 11, 2005. We can also see words that existed in the Graeco-Roman period in some of the Yoruban dialects. When the Romans took over Egypt, they infiltrated the Egyptian area with their language. In present Yoruba, we can still find words of Roman descent. For instance, the Yoruba called the palm frond ‘Mariwo’. This word is derived form the Latin Rivus (River). One of the declensions of river is Rivo (by the river).Since the Yoruban possesses no “V”, the word become riwo. Thus, the word “Omariwo” means the child by the river. Some other words like Sangi (blood in Isekiri-yoruba dialect) thought to have been derived form the Portuguese were actually brought as a result of the Roman Conquest of Egypt. Sangi is blood and the Latin term is Sanguis. Some eastern Yoruba use the term “Ihagi” which is clearly a corruption of the Roman Sanguis. A Christian army in 540 AD invaded Egypt and some persons believed to have reached Yoruba land were driven from Egypt. With the commencement of the Arab period in Egypt, some indigenous Egyptians who never wanted to accept the Islamic religion escaped to present Yoruba land. It was probably in this period that words such as Keferi (Kafri pagan in Arab) infiltrated into the Yoruboid vocabulary. All said and done, more than fifty percent of the Yoruboid vocabulary of today can be deduced either directly or indirectly from the ancient Egyptian. These are the original ancient Egyptian language devoid of Arab and Latin words that are very few in the Yoruboid vocabulary. It is not really certain when king Oduduwa came from Egypt. He must have come in one of the many migrations. But since the Yoruba religious discourse has a lot of identities with Egyptian, Oduduwa would have left Egypt at a very early period perhaps after the Hyksos invasion of 2000-1500BC, but not later than 30BC. Could the Yoruba have migrated from a white Egypt? Far-from the truth! ROUTES AND MEANS OF TRANSPORTATION: EGYPT-YORUBIC WORLD IN THE DIM PAST “Probably in very ancient times, peoples from Egypt penetrated by way of the lake regions to the Benue (Letham 1970:9)”.On the means of transportation to the Benue (since there were no camels, Letham suggested the oxen (a method still used by the Kanuris) around Bornu (Letham 1970:20).Thus interactions from the Benue valley to Egypt has been in existence since pre-historic times. Norah Letham (1970) A sketch-map History of West Africa, London. With the destructions of Egypt by 30 BC, many Copts moved down, the journey continued down to about the time of the emergence of Islam (600AD.) hear Bowen. In this work, the writer refers familiarly to African chronicles written story anterior to the presence of the Arabs in the Sudan, and he expressly says that the Copts, who settled Bornu, wrote a history of their transactions, though he does not say that these are the Authorities which he uses.. (Bowen T.J 1968: 267) References: (1) T. J Bowen (1968) “Adventurers and Missing Labours in Several Countries in the interior of Africa from 1849 – 1856, second editor with a new introduction by Ayandele; Frank Lass & Co, Ltd, 1968. THE KISRA LEGEND The Kisra legend, the history of a kingly movement of people from the East into the West of Africa in the early and medieval period, gives in a sketchy manner, the story of the move of Prince Kisra using foot or horses or Camels, from Persia or Egypt (or through Egypt) “to establish the states from which the Kingdoms of the Jukun, (Kwararofa), Nupe, Idah, Busa and Borgu…….. Hausa – and far to the South – West – the yoruba kingdoms were descended.” Among the areas of Nigeria connected with prince Kisra are parts of Igbo country, around the banks of the Niger, Warri (where the early Isekiri had gained a stronghold), Bornu (where some earlier migrants from the east (Honsbira and Olomu, 2008) had been established) etc. other spots in west Africa with the Kisra connection include parts of the land of Old Songai, Benin, Togo and Modern Ghana around Ga. MEANING OF THE NAME “KISRA” Knowledge of the meaning of the name “Kisra” will help us in our exploration of the original home of the legend. There are many places believed to be the homes of Kisra – Persia, Egypt, Axum, to mention only three. In this task, the question before us is “in which of these probable places of Kisra origin does the word/name “Kisra” have its cognate? Though it is widely believed that the word is an oriental word, there are other words of similar sounds and spellings which suggest that Kisra is a Sudanese word. Though some link Kisra to an assumed Persian king “Khursaw and (Chrosus) II, others says Kisra, on setting up his kingdom in Nigeria, was appelled “Kisra”, a native name of the people. According to another source, it could have come from the Hausa word “Sarki” or “Saraki”, a Yoruba variant of the same word, or the Busa word “Ki – shira”. It is a view very likely near the truth that these sources sound like Kisra. Some Yoruba elders, however are of stand-point that the word, “Kisra”, comes from “Ka sura”, a word of caution that went through the ranks of a certain post-Jesu East-West migrant group as it angrily waved into the Yoruba world from Egypt. The whole position is by no means clear; but the fact that the Yoruba elders’ version of the Kisra legend highlights the linguistic connectivity between the Yoruba world and Egypt, following Honsbira and Olomu (2008), Lucas 1948, Tariqh Sawandi, Laoye Sanda(2004) Cheik Anta Diop (1985), Theophile Obenga(1986) that Yoruba was a language of ancient Egypt, keeps the “ ka sura” version in our mind. Though the whole thing is far from being clear, one thing is that the Kisra legend generally refers to a collection of the multiple stories of an eastern Prince that came to Nigeria and founded kingdoms and sub-kingdoms in early or medieval period. CAUSES OF THE KISRA MOVEMENT One of the causes of the Kisra migration, like many others related movements are religion. The people of the orient had many religions to choose from. At times, this choice-making process led to conflicts. Another cause of the Kisra movement was economic adventurism. Owing to the fact that there were always wars here or there, economic activities came to standstill in many places – Assyria, Babylonia, Persia, Greek, Rome, Israel , Judah ,Damascus etc. (Isaiah, 19:1-11, Heaton, 1968, fellow London University). Consequently, many economically centered peoples had to look elsewhere for operation. These could include price Kisra. Closely in alliance with the above are political causes. Since there were wars of inestimable sizes and economic break-down, it seems clearly unlikely that there was political stability. Most writers attribute the Eastward migration of Kisra to political instability. Another of the Kisra and related movement was Christianity-Islam divide. In Egypt, before the Roman Conquest ,the religion was the Ancient Egyptian religion in which God (Horise,Orise/Orisa in Yoruba) was served through many small gods (Barbara, 1967:25) Christianity came in, following the introduction of same in the first century A.D. but with the coming of Islam in ( ), there was a notorious divide which caused hitches in which most of the Egyptian books of law and lore were burnt; and during which many people left. One of them seems to be Kisra. That is not all. The sources of heterogeneity versus homogeneity in the East, especially in Ancient Egypt during the opening centuries of the first millennium, also helped the Kisra movement. Few centuries before the arrival of Islam, Egypt came up on the peak of prosperity in the cave of perturbation. There was less temperamental homogeneity. The military calm of the Romans, and the agricultural adages and innovation of the Fellahin exposed the Egyptian society to selfish manipulations by fanatical politico-religio-economic opportunists of the time. The end was a climax to which the Egyptians-Romans, Greeks, Arabs etc were unable to approximate. Prince Kisra could have moved as assault of this. Another point is this. Though the early centuries of the first millennium in Egyptian social psyche, helped her in the march towards a bitter era, it way also seductively unattractive to a continual population growth in many, unattractive, ways. The slow, but steady rise from her smoking ruins into an economic mixture of Egypt, Persia, Rome, Greece, Arabia etc steadily gave way to a machinery of sharp blade, which with its pinions, too jagged, scattered the people from their home, like a big stone on a swarm of bees. After 30BC, Egypt started to live a singled life, away from the commonality of the wider world; steadily and slowly soaking up the Graeco-Roman fluid into which years of external control had sunk her. This tremendously changed Egyptian sociology and characterology. It is about one of the loci that caused the journey(s) of Kisra. The Romans were conquerors, and they acted as such. In addition to the hold on Egypt (Guest. 1977; Clement; 1979) they also held other parts of the world (They were in charge of most of Europe). To effectively do this, many Egyptian aborigines, many of them of royal descents, as well as immigrants, were castigated for failing to respond to the call for conscription into the Roman Army of Imperialism. It is probable and possible (though not certain) that this subjection of all able-bodied men to the issue of militarism created an anti-government hysteria which included many emigration waves. COURSES OF KISRA MOVEMENT FROM PERSIA THROUGH EGYPT TO WEST AFRICA, OR FROM EGYPT TO WEST AFRICA. If Prince Kisra had started from Persia, he might have taken course of Persia through Babylonia, crossing the Euphrates to Bethadin, to Qarqar, Damascus, Jerusalem, Raphia, Nubia, to the south, Thebe, in Egypt, the Chad of Modern Nigeria( aound Tebu) to Borgu. From Borgu, Prince Kisra might have got to Warri, the Niger delta Land, Yoruba land etc. If originally from Egypt (which perhaps accounts for the yorubic language of all Kisra peoples) he might have been acquainted with the culture of not only Heliopolis(On, Onu Olu),but also Thebes(Tebu, in Isekiri; in Ilaje; tebu in Kanuri). Could this proliferation of tebu in yoruba world of today, as in ancient Egypt be a matter of accident or convergence? EFFECTS OF PRINCE KISRA ARRIVAL IN NIGERIA 1. The Kisra immigration must have increased the populations of some parts of West Africa: Middle belt and North east of Nigeria, yorubic Nigeria, core Yoruba and South-East Yoruba - Ilaje, Ikale, Warri kingdom Ebu, Olukumi, Iyenle etc. 2. It brought in new things like the “straight – backed and humped form of the ox ………. The dog, the goat, the sheep. (T. S. Osai and Nwanbara :1980:20) 3. It brought in new form of weaving, eg, the dyed stuff. 4. It came with it an innovation of divine kingship. 5. It heightened the tendency on the parts of many a Nigerian to trace their sources to Ancient Egypt. 6. It is responsible for the commonality of the Yoruboid language in all the places with the Kisran connectivity/interconnectivity.
Posted on: Fri, 21 Nov 2014 01:34:48 +0000
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