The world was first alerted of the existence of the Yoruba in the 1600s by Ahmed Baba, a Songhai Islamic scholar, who wrote that the Yoruba of the coast of West Africa were ‘unbelievers, remaining in their unbelief’. Most accounts of the Yoruba-speaking peoples of ancient times do not reflect the enormous territory covered. Yoruba-speakers occupied the areas between the River Volta, in the West, and the River Niger, in the East, with an Atlantic coastline 1,000km or so long.
The Yoruba had no standing army and no war-making industries. So how did the ancient Yoruba peacefully and tranquilly manage such a vast territory? The answer lies in their use of three political strategies:
1. Ancestry
2. Equality
3. Democracy
On ancestry, the Yoruba believe in a common origin at Ile Ifẹ, a city that happened to be located at the midpoint of the Yoruba territory. The Yoruba believe in a common descent from Oduduwa. All Yoruba therefore were blood-related kins and owing in allegiance to one and all (Ọmọluabi). The Yoruba believe that they belonged to one, Yoruba-speaking, nation (Orilẹ Ede Yoruba), which was provided with divine guidance through Oriṣa and Ifa, and which was home for Yoruba of all hues to come to ‘rest’ (IIe labọ simi oko).
On equality, the Yoruba believe that all children, birthed the same way, were born equal; that all sexes were equal (Pẹlẹ, ‘hello’, is owned by neither male nor female). Accordingly to this philosophy, one Yoruba age group is entitled to contribute as another (‘We built Ile Ifẹ on the wisdoms of young and old’). The Yoruba believe that all Yoruba conurbations (dialects) were equal since each was sanctioned by Oduduwa – Anago, Kétu and Sabẹ (in the west), Akoko, Awori, Ẹgba, Ekiti, Ife, Ijẹbu, Ijẹṣa, Ondo, Ọwọ and Ọyọ (in the centre), and Benin, Itṣẹkiri and Igala (in the east).
On democracy, the Yoruba established a blueprint (the Constitutional Ọba) for the governance of every settlement, large or small, in which every citizen participated directly, as of right. The cardinals of the blueprint were that the ruling group was composed of a council (Ijọba) and a headman (Ọba); the Ọba was the voice of the council and enforcer of council decisions. Membership of the council was by nomination from clans and from ‘unions’ – artisans, market traders, guilds, professionals, religionists etc. In turn, the council selected the Ọba from a pool of ‘ruling families’. The council controlled, and could remove, the Ọba so that there was no chance of the Ọba becoming a dictator; the Ọba reigned, he/she did not rule. The clans and ‘unions’ controlled, and could remove, their councillors (Oloye) so that there was no chance of a councillor going rogue.
Those three aforesaid strategies defined the Yorubaland as a recognisable State. Read a fuller account in ‘The Law as practised by the Ancient Yoruba: A book to remind us of the world that we lost’https://www.amazon.com/dp/B087T2Z1CG/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_ZVJS586BWD291AB2D023
The hand of Oduduwa was the decisive factor in each of the three aforesaid political strategies but who or what Oduduwa actually was remains a mystery. To some, Oduduwa was a deity that descended from the sky by the means of a chain; the chain apparently was still located in the city of Ile Ifẹ but hidden from prying eyes. According to others, prominent amongst who was the ‘authoritative’ Yoruba author Rev Samuel Johnson, Oduduwa was an empire-builder who came south from somewhere in the Middle East, and conquered and made Ile Ifẹ into an empire, which then subsumed pre-existing Yoruba nations. Remarkably, despite Oduduwa’s avowed importance to the Yoruba story, few Oduduwa-related artefacts exist, and the solitary shrine is at Ile Ifẹ, which raised the possibility that Oduduwa might not have been a physical person after all.
Two appellations of Oduduwa, namely, Ọlọfin and Igba, provide clues to the identity of Oduduwa. By Ọlọfin was meant ‘owner of the law’ and Igba was a rounded calabash. Added to this mix was the Yoruba use of word-duplication as a means of emphasis. For example, the Yoruba word Agbagba meaning ‘the very elderly’ was a word duplication of agba + agba, that is, ‘elderly’ + ‘elderly’; the Yoruba word kiakia meaning ‘very quickly’ was a word-duplication of kia + kia, that is, ‘quick’ + ‘quick’. Similarly, the ‘odudu’ of Oduduwa likely was a word duplication of odu + odu or ‘collection’ + ‘collection’ meaning a compendium. By the word ‘wa’ would have been meant ideals. In other words, Oduduwa was, in the same genre as the Odu Ifa, but a compendium of political ideals, not a physical person. The myths making Oduduwa a person or deity were likely mere Europeanised renditions, not Yoruba belief.