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

It is sad but true, some amongst the Yoruba defy the saying that ‘Ile latin ko aso rode’ meaning ‘it is from the house that we put on clothes to go out’.

The starting point is the Oba calling himself ‘king’ or ‘ruler’. The Yoruba have never had a ‘king’, defined as a person holding unrestricted governmental power. The Yoruba have never had a ‘ruler’, defined as a person exercising dominion over others. According to the ancient Yoruba tradition, the Oba had two roles: one, he chaired a governing council (Ijoba, Igbimo, Oyomesi) executing only the council’s bidding, and two, he spoke for the council (Alakoso). That was it. The ancient Yoruba tradition had the Oba’s dwelling place as ‘Aafin’, not ‘palace’, his headgear as ‘Ade’, not ‘crown’; the Oba was ‘Kabiyesi’, not ‘imperial majesty’. The English appellations are totally alien to Yoruba tradition; they reflect delusions and insecurity.

Some Oba refer to their town and environs as ‘kingdom’.  The Yoruba have never had a ‘kingdom’, defined as ‘the king’s domain’, that is, land owned exclusively by a king. Under the Yoruba law, all land belonged to the people, the Oba merely held it in trust. This constitution was affirmed by the courts in the Apapa Land case decided in 1921. Also under the Land Use Act 1978, the Oba could not legally sell or give away community land. It therefore is deceiving and misleading to refer to Ibadan, Ife, Oyo or any other as ‘kingdom’.  It is pure bombast to use the English language to make the institution of Oba and paraphernalia sound more impressive or prestigious than the actual role. The Oba distances and disconnects himself from his people when he wraps himself in English appellations. This trend threatens the very existence of the Oba institution. 

Some Yoruba youths, perhaps more so in the Diaspora, anglicise their name by altering the spelling and pronunciation to sound ‘English’. For example, the Yoruba name ‘Wale’ was anglicised to ‘Waleh’ or ‘Waley’ by adding the suffix ‘h’ or ‘y’, presumably thinking that Yoruba names were merely means of identification. Not so. In Yoruba culture, a name was never a means of identification; a name was meant to tell a story. This is embodied in the saying: ‘to the home we look before we name a child’. The Yoruba named a child to reflect genealogy, the parents’ socio-economic circumstances or religious beliefs, and so on. 

Unlike the anglicised version, ‘Wale’, minus the additional ‘h’ or ‘y’, told a story. ‘Wale’ means ‘came home’; it would have been a shortened form of, for example, Omowale where ‘omo’ meant ‘child’ so that by Omowale was meant ‘the child came home’. Omowale was likely a child born after a period of childlessness or after a series of female births. That story was lost on anglicisation of the name. The Yoruba name was stripped of its cultural significance and reduced to jargon. The non-Yoruba who might have been interested in the meaning of the name is denied the curiosity. 

Some others translate the Yoruba name to English. For example, ‘Akara’ has been called ‘bean cake.’ Calling Akara ‘bean cake’ totally misleads. ‘Akara’ and the English cake are made differently with different ingredients; the former is oil-fried black eyed bean paste whilst the latter is oven-baked fermented wheat flour paste. The irony is that the English would actually prefer the original name not the anglicised version. They prefer sushi to be called sushi or tikka masala to be called tikka masala. The Yoruba man in Yorubaland preferred a hamburger to be called hamburger, not a Yorubanised name.

The Oba adulterates his title because he feels powerless. The Yoruba youth abuses his name because he too feels powerless. But making the title or name sound English is counterproductive. Rather than portraying strength, it made the Oba and the Yoruba youth look weak and subservient. Powerlessness has led both down the path of loss of ethnic pride, Yoruba abuse, and ultimately, loss of personal pride. 

Amidst the chaos and uncertainties of colonisation, the Oba of those times confronted powerlessness by sticking to tradition. Tradition provided:

1.     anchor that gave the Yoruba a sense of stability,

2.     connection between the Yoruba and their roots,

3.     strength from shared sense of belonging, and

4.     hope and a general sense of purpose.

Today’s Oba could do some positive things to confront the powerlessness that Nigeria has imposed on him, and at the same time uplift his people’s spirits in these trying times. One, the Oba should designate Yoruba as his official language of communication, including communication with government or with any other external bodies. Two, the Oba should designate the Egungun Festival as the beginning of the Yoruba year (ie August/September, end of rainy season, when new yam was harvested), just as the ancient Yoruba did. Three, the Oba must declare that if you had a drop of Yoruba blood in you, regardless of where you were currently domiciled, you had the divine right to settle in Yorubaland if you so wished. Fourth, the Oba must stop the practice of awarding traditional titles as a means of reward, prestige or enticement. In the Yoruba tradition, only members of the governance council (Igbimo) are entitled.

Yoruba youths, led by Obafemi Awolowo, overcame the powerlessness of the colonial era by organising and offering themselves as credible alternatives to the colonial masters. Nothing prevents today’s Yoruba youths from doing the same. There is, for example, a platform available for them to express themselves called the Yoruba Party in the UK (YPUK), registered in February 2024 with the UK Electoral Commission. UK Yoruba youths could stand as YPUK candidates in the forthcoming UK May 2026 local elections. YPUK has a Judicial Review case pending in the Administrative Court in London seeking to enforce the 1888 Britain-Yorubaland Treaty that had recognised Yorubaland as an independent sovereign State. Yoruba youths should support this endeavour by donating and joining the party in numbers. Success in this case would return Yorubaland to its previous independent sovereign state.

This lecture series was brought to you by the Yoruba Party in the UK. To support our work please donate and/or join at www.yorubapartyuk.org