Some have suggested that the British Christian missionaries deserved credit for accelerating recovery from the ravages of the transatlantic slavery. I would argue that the missionaries did more harm than good. In my view, they merely continued with the destruction wrought by the transatlantic slavery that their people had inflicted on the Yoruba people. Without the missionaries, there would have been no colonisation and no 1914 Amalgamation which imprisoned the Yorubaland in Nigeria.  Their worst crime of all was how they set out to destroy the Yoruba culture, tradition and way of life,

In order to obtain funding and to use Britain’s military power to subjugate the Yoruba people, British Christian missionaries deliberately distorted Yoruba culture and tradition. The missionaries knew that if they faithfully reported that they found a sophisticated civilisation in the Yorubaland, they would have been denied funds and government patronage. British missionaries therefore dishonestly claimed that the Yoruba practised slavery, even though the Yoruba never did. 

British missionaries were dishonest when they translated the Yoruba word Eru to mean slave. The word Ẹruwas comprised of the prefix ‘ẹ’ and the verb ‘ru’, where ‘ẹ’ meant ‘you’ and ‘ru’ had one of three possibilities: to raise (as in ruyọ, ‘smog making’); to violate (as in rufin, ‘law breaking’); or, to ferment (as in iru, ‘seed processing’). In other words, by Ẹru the ancient Yoruba would have meant a state of disorder or eruption or violence. To translate Ẹru into slave was deliberate mistranslation by the missionaries. If the word Ẹru were to mean ‘slave’, then it would have conveyed within it the slave experience of ‘capture’ (Mu), ‘purchase’ (Ra) and ‘sale’ (Ta); the word Ẹru contained no such connotations.

 British missionaries were dishonest when they translated the Yoruba word Iwọfa to mean slavery. The word Iwọfa was comprised of iwọ (the act of entering) and fa (servitude) as a contractual obligation. Apprenticeship was a form of Iwọfa; a person worked for a master craftsman for a length of time in order to be taught the trade. Servitude was exchanged for training in the apprenticeship system. The practice was common in old England where it was known as ‘indentured servitude’. Trade-by-barter was a form of Iwọfa; if a man wanted to build a house and he lacked the means, he would offer as payment, work on the farm of a builder who would construct his house for him in exchange. Servitude was exchanged for goods in the trade-by-barter system, which was common and legal in old England. To translate ‘Iwọfa into slavery was deliberate mistranslation.

British missionaries dishonestly claimed that the Yoruba worshipped gods, which they called Oriṣa, even though the Yoruba never did. Ọrunmila was an example of this dishonesty. The missionaries translated Ọrunmila to be a god sent down from the sky to complete the work of his brother, Ọbatala, who apparently had been inebriated with drink. Our learned Yoruba-ologists have chosen to swallow this nonsense when the falsity was so glaring and easy to unravel. Ọrunmila is a compound word made up of Ọrun (sky) + mi (to swallow) + la (to cleave). Ọrunmila was the split in the sky through which Ọbatala came down onto the water-world.  Ọrunmila was never a god. Ọrunmila was the Yoruba narrative of how the world began. 

Ọbatala, by contrast, was clearly a real name of a figure or person. Ọbatala was a compound word made up of Ọba (alighted) and tala (bleached calico cloth) meaning ‘the one that alighted wearing a white cloth’. The Ọbatala name thus authenticated the Yoruba version of creation with Ọbatala descending from the sky with soil, which he then spread on to a water-world to make land. Self-evidently, the Yoruba account of the creation of the earth was scientific observation made at the time. Since validated by twenty-first century scientific data, It could not be a myth.

British missionaries mistranslated Olodumare to be the Yoruba principal god but this too was never so.  Olodumare is a compound word made up of Olodu (owner of a compendium) + ma (will) + re (to alter or change) meaning ‘the one who had the compendium will alter (destiny, fate, misfortune or whatever). Olodumare was reference to the practice of Ifa. Olodumare was a literary corpus, not the god of the Yoruba.

British missionaries misidentified Oduduwa as the Yoruba progenitor who came south some 6,000km from Arabia to found the Yoruba dynasty but this too was made up myth. Oduduwa was a compound word made up of Odu (collection), du (collection) and wa (ideal). The ancient Yoruba used the device of word-duplication for emphasis so that Odu + du meant a very large collection or a compendium. By Oduduwa, the ancient Yoruba meant a compendium of ideals, not an empire-builder.