Lecture notes: Baasegun (Dr) Olusola Oni, Leader of the Yoruba Party in the UK

They claim that the Yoruba got the name ‘Yoruba’ from the Fulani word ‘Yarriba’. It is not true. They claim that Katunga was Oyo Ile, capital of the Oyo empire. It is not true. They claim that Hugh Clapperton, the Scotsman who travelled from Badagry to Sokoto between 1825 and 1826, wrote this. That is not true either.

Nevertheless, Clapperton’s eyewitness account has been pivotal to this chapter of Yoruba history.

What  Clapperton knew before he left England 

Clapperton had learnt of the Fulani city of Sokoto during his travels in North Africa. He had understood Sokoto to be located on the West African coast. That was why he travelled to the West African coast. It was at Badagry that Clapperton learnt that Sokoto was in fact somewhere in the hinterland. Clapperton had not known of the Yoruba at all when he left England in 1825. 

Clapperton learnt of the Yoruba at Badagry

Clapperton spent a few days on the coast before embarking on his journey during which time he must have learnt of the existence of the Yoruba. Firstly, European merchants on the coast knew that they were trading with people called Yoruba. Clapperton bought supplies from these merchants. They helped him hire interpreters and carriers for his journey. It is simply improbable that these merchants did not tell Clapperton that the Yoruba were the people they were recommending to him to hire. 

Secondly, before hiring help for his journey, Clapperton as a seasoned traveller would have interviewed people and determined their usefulness as guide and interpreters. It is doubly improbable that they too did not tell Clapperton that they were Yoruba. 

Thirdly, for months from November 1825, Clapperton travelled north from the coast spending days in each Yoruba town that he encountered, and they were many. Clapperton even used the word ‘Caboceer’ (Kabiyesi} to identify town headmen, who accommodated him and with who he conferred in the ‘palava’ room. It is highly improbable that not one of these Kabiyesi identified himself as Yoruba.

The Yarriba falsity

The word ‘Yarriba’ from which the word ‘Yoruba’ was supposedly derived is neither Fulani nor Hausa language, nor does it appear in Clapperton’s book. ‘Yarriba’ is a made up word; a mischievous, politically-motivated word. The closest ‘northern’ sounding words to ‘Yoruba’ are the words ‘Yauri’ and ‘Yauwa’. The Hausa word ‘Yauri’ is an interjection expressing pleasure. used mainly in response to the greeting ‘Yauwa’. ‘Yauri’ was also the name of a major Hausa settlement. To Clapperton’s untutored Scottish ears, either of these two words could have sounded like ‘Yoruba’, except that there is no evidence from his book that he had such confusion. 

The Katunga falsity

It is not exactly clear how ‘Katunga’ became connected with ‘Oyo’. The word ‘Oyo’ is Yoruba, likely culled from the name of the bird Oyosogo (Black-collared Barbet, Lybius torquatus). The word ‘Katunga’ is Hausa, not Yoruba. Katunga is mispronunciation of the word ‘Katanga’, meaning ‘a defensive wall’; a term that the Hausa would have used for the physical enclosure of a bazaar or market place (‘Kasuwa’j. There is also the Hausa word ‘Katangala’ meaning ‘a wanderer’, a term that the Hausa might have used to describe traders from elsewhere, including the Yoruba, who frequented Katunga to trade.

There is no rational explanation as to why the Yoruba would call Katunga Oyo Ile. Oyo Ile means ‘Oyo, the house’. Katunga was a walled city; it would have been logical and understandable if the Yoruba had called it ‘Oyo Olodi’, where ‘Olodi’ meant ‘the one with walls’. Katunga was a market city; it would have been logical and understandable if the Yoruba had called it ‘Oyo Oloja’, where Oloja meant ‘the one with the market’.  Whatever the Yoruba might have called Katunga, it could not have been Oyo Ile.

The inhabitants of Katunga

Clapperton wrote that he found 4 different nationalities residing in Katunga, each with its own separate district. There were the Fellatah (Fulani), who were herdsmen; the Nyfee (Nupe), whose women he described as well dressed and had immense large bangles on their arms; the Housa (Hausa), who were mostly servants employed by the merchants as carriers; and, the Youribani (Yoruba), traders one of whose leaders wore a crown. 

The following are the facts from Clapperton’s eyewitness account: 

1.     The word ‘Yoruba’ (which he mispronounced as Youribani) was known to him well before he reached Katunga in 1826. 

2.     The Yoruba inhabitants of Katunga were itinerant traders.

3.     Katunga was not an exclusively Yoruba town unlike say Saki that Clapperton had visited earlier.

4.     Katunga was neither dominated by nor was it governed by the Yoruba.

The Katunga conflicts

Clapperton wrote that he arrived in Katunga at a time of raging sectarian conflicts, which were in fact 4 distinct and separate conflicts. There was a rebellion by the Housa against their masters. There were attacks conducted by highway robbers. There was a civil war amongst the Nyfee over who their next leader should be. Finally, there was a jihad being waged by the Fellatah. 

Clapperton wrote that the Youribani were not involved rather, they stood only to defend their market traders, which they did successfully. Clapperton wrote that in their response to the jihad, the Youribani ‘put all the Mohammetans to death, whether natives, or in caravan trafficking; quite denying the plea that God had given to the faithful their lands and houses, and their wives and children to be slaves’. 

Clapperton had known that Katunga was in turmoil long before he arrived there. Toko, the ‘Kabiyesi’ of Saki had told him, indeed imploring Clapperton to intervene when he got to Katunga. Saki is about 120km southwest of Katunga and about the same distance northeast of present day Oyo. Clapperton visited Saki in 1826 on his way to Sokoto. Clapperton does not report of any refugee camps in Saki nor was he told of refugees fleeing south to form a new settlement. The word ‘Oyo’ does not appear to have come up in several conversations between Clapperton and Toko. Clapperton visited many Yoruba towns in the vicinity of Katunga; not one was under the control of Oyo. It is misrepresentation to refer to Katunga as capital of an Oyo empire or Oyo kingdom.

To summarise

1.     Katunga was a sprawling cosmopolis; an internationally important market town used by distinct and separate nationals; Clapperton recorded only a Hausa name.

2.     ‘Yoruba’ (which he mispronounced Youribani) was a word already known to Clapperton before he set foot in Sokoto in 1826.

3.     In 1826, the word Yarriba, if it existed at all, was not associated with the Yoruba name.

4.     In 1826, there was no empire or kingdom called ‘Oyo’ based in Katunga.

5.     The armed conflict in Katunga was multifaceted and not directed specifically at the Yoruba.

6.     The Yoruba did not exodus south a distance of 240km, bypassing several potential sites, to establish a refugee city at present-day Oyo.

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