list of past Ajero and the number of years they reigned
1. Ogbe 1377-1388 (11yrs)
2. Eyekunrin-Afin 1388-1397 (9yrs)
3. Atakumosa 1397-1410 (13yrs)
4. Alaworo 1410-1425 (15yrs)
5. Apa 1425-1442 (17yrs)
6. Awon 1442-1462 (20yrs)
7. Agbagba 1462-1486 (24yrs)
8. Ikere 1486-1498 (12yrs)
9. Otipiri 1498-1525 (27yrs)
10. Ogbolu 1525-1544 (19yrs)
11. Alakeji 1544-1575 (31yrs)
12. Ajiboye 1575-1594 (19yrs)
13. Agunsoye I 1594-1612 (18yrs)
14. Owariberu 1612-1633 (21yrs)
15. Obatutu 1633-1651 (18yrs)
16. Okinbaloye 1651-1667 (16yrs)
17. Erukudede 1667-1690 (23yrs)
18. Otutubiosun 1690-1718 (28yrs)
19. Afesoye 1718-1738 (20yrs)
20. Onaowuro 1738-1749 (11yrs)
21. Oduju 1749-1766 (17yrs)
22. Afinbiokin 1766-1796 (30yrs)
23. Obaleyakin 1796-1816 (20yrs)
24. Agunsoye II 1816-1822 (6yrs)
25. Agbeleja 1822-1867 (45yrs)
26. Oyiyosoye 1867-1902 (35yrs)
27. Okeruku 1902-1916 (14yrs)
28. Arojojoye I 1916-1930 (15yrs)
29. Atobatele 1930-1938 (8yrs)
30. Eyeowa II 1938-1991 (53yrs)
31. Arojojoye II (1991 til
The origin of Odigbo is Ile-Ife, the cradle of the Yoruba Race. Uja is the progenitor of Odigbo people. Uja was the only son of his parents.
His father was Akintirin, while his mother was Usero, the eldest daughter of Oranmiyan, who was then the Ooni of Ile-Ife. Her only son was Uja Akintirin. Usero had a uterine sister whose names were Atiba and Olu.
Atiba got married to a Benin indigene. She conceived and gave birth to twins. At that time, giving birth to twins was regarded as transgression that carried a death penalty for the mother and her twins.
Oranmiyan did not want his beautiful daughter and her children to suffer through cruel death. Oranmiyan’s solution to this dreadful problem was to arrange how to sneak Atiba and her twins out of Ile-Ife. Oranmiyan had to consult Ifa Oracle to decide who qualifies to lead the flight of Atiba and her twin children (Orere, male) and Pupupu (female) out of Ile-Ife.
Ifa oracle predicted, among other things, that Uja was the hunter divinely appointed to lead the lives-saving-fight out of Ile-Ife. The oracle had predicted that Uja would kill an elephant in whose belly he would find treasures of tremendous value.
Oranmiyan settled all domestic issues with all involved. He pleaded with Usero to patiently tolerate the departure of Uja, his son, and Atiba, her sister. Uja cut some palm fronds and hewn them together into a hamper big enough to contain the twins: Orere, the male and first child, and Pupupu, the female and junior child. Uja’s mission was successful.
All those who took part in the voyage also survived. However, before they set out on their journey, Oranmiyan handed over to Uja a beaded Crown to be held in trust for the twins. Orere disclosed to Uja his plan to seek for greener pastures elsewhere. Uja advised him to take Atiba, his mother along with him wherever he went. He also gave Orere the beaded crown which Oranmiyan gave Uja to hold in trust for the twins.
Orere departed for the unknown. His mother, Atiba, then more popularly known as Olu, accompanied Orere. She slept and never woke up and up till this day, is the place where Olu slept and died in her sleep, known as ILE-OLUJI. It was not long after Orere’s departure that Pupupu got married to a man of Benin origin. She accompanied her husband to Benin.
Thereafter, she gave birth to her first male child named Aigho. Before long, Pupupu’s marriage hit the rock when the relatives of her husband accused her of some wrong doings. The allegations were neither investigated nor proven. Pupupu could not put up with what she called false accusations. She therefore packed her bags and baggage with Aigho, her only son, and she headed for “Idi-Edo” now known as Ondo.
In her luggage was the beaded crown she cunningly got from Orere. She had promised Orere she would return the crown as soon as she was done using it but she never did.
Pupupu’s departure from Benin coincided with the desperate search in Ondo for someone who had a beaded crown in his or her possession. When Pupupu arrived at the searching point in Ondo, her luggage was scrupulously searched and a beaded crown was found therein. Pupupu was made a “king” but her administrative style was ineffective. Within a very short time, Pupupu was dethroned. The Ondo Community thus made a declaration that no woman in Ondo would ever be enthroned to reign as a King.
Uja found his way to Odigbo with his team. They got to “Igi-Meta” and found Aija stream. Uja got to Odigbo, and in the course of his hunting for games, he came face to face with an elephant and succeeded in killing the animal and found two beaded crowns in its belly. The occurrence prompted Uja to desire to go back to Ife to show the then Ooni his “mementos” that earned him the privilege of being ordained as a Prince in Ile-Ife after the honour bestowed on him, he was told that age-old Ile-Ife tradition forbids him to stay in Ile-Ife. At a little beyond middle age, Uja and Usero, his mother left Ile-Ife for Odigbo.
Uja and his co-founders of Odigbo agreed on the rotation of the Ruling Houses among five families at Odigbo. The pact remained unchanged up till today. Uja regarded himself as a King. Oranmiyan himself ordained him at Ile-Ife.
Uja took a long time to settle down. He got married to a lady. The lady begat a male child who was named Orunja, the heir of Uja. Usero, the mother of Uja, named him Orunsero, meaning Usero’s heir. The two names: Orunja and Orunsero, belong to one and the same child. Uja, the father of Orunja, laid solid foundation for his only son, Orunja or Orunsero. All the territories founded by Uja were firmly ruled by Orunja, his son.
Odigbo (Odi-Igbo) meaning an impregnable forest in the wilderness.
In those days, enemies plundered communities to take away resources and sometimes women and children. The plunderers’ attempts were always restricted or thwarted.
They would kidnap women and children, and in their attempt to run away, they would encounter some stone walls. They would suddenly experience eclipse of the sun in broad daylight. When they were caught, they always narrated their stories of woe. This earned the town, the name
Agbabu remains the only River Port in Odigbo land. Uja, on one of his numerous exploits, got to the river bank one day and saw what appeared to him as a moving house on the river. Many hours of waiting brought the “moving house” to the shore.
After exchanging compliments with one another, the captain of the ship fired three gun shots into the air. Uja shouted, Agbabu! Literally interpreted, it means the blast of a gun.
That name Agbabu subsists to date. Uja and his co-hunters provided an everlasting link among Odigbo, Ondo, and Ile-Oluji.
Reference:
“History of Odigbo” by High Chief EZEKIEL IBITAYO AKINFOLARIN, The Odunwo of Odigbo Kingdom.
To check the Alaafin from becoming too dictatorial, the Prime Minister according to the constitution could pass a vote of no confidence that would turn the Oyo Mesi (Legislators) against the Alaafin and an empty calabash would be handed to the emperor signaling that he was required commit suicide and pave way for a new Alaafin since the Oyo Mesi had lost confidence in his rule.
The Basorun was a high priest controlling all the cults except Sango and Ifa, so this could make him declare that the ancestors and Heavens had lost confidence in an Alaafin. Prior to the appointment of Ga, the unwritten constitution of the empire had been amended from the more ancient style that the Aremo (heir apparent) ruled after an Alaafin passed on.
The new constitution demanded that the heir apparent died with the Alaafin so as to pass on succession without disputes and in a way make the monarchical system a sort of republic. This made Basorun Ga more powerful. Ga became despotic and power drunk and from the slightest accusation that an Alaafin or his Prince disrespected the Oyo Mesi to the accusation that an Alaafin was assuming airs of superiority, Basorun Ga raised five Alaafins to the throne and successively destroyed four of them.
He and his family ruled despotically for twenty years, almost as if they were the Alaafins. By the reign of the fifth emperor, Alaafin Abiodun, the people were fed up of Ga’s dictatorship. On an appointed day, with the support of Are-Ona Kakanfo (Military Commander of Oyo army) Oyabi, the Alaafin and the people broke the jinx of Ga’s powerful magic and rounded up all his family (except Ojo, Ga’s first son) and were seized and killed, Ga himself was burnt to death in his house.
Abiodun’s reign then went on peacefully and lasted from 1774 to 1789, his was a golden reign. However, the center was no longer holding the seams of the Empire together after 20 years of internal imbalance triggered by Ga. Taking advantage of the lawless years, Egba province under the warrior, Lishabi, had proclaimed their independence and migrated towards their present location in Abeokuta. The Egbas had been aggrieved by the oppression of the resident Ilaris (governors) in their three provinces within the empire and the absence of any authority to hold them in check.
When authority was installed by Abiodun, he sent a punitive expedition against the Egbas, but the rocky hills of Abeokuta made the Oyo cavalry failed woefully in subjecting the Egbas. This triggered a domino effect of provinces declaring their independence from Oyo. Even Dahomey had the effrontery to assault Ketu, a westernmost Yoruba district, without fear of the Oyo imperial army. As far as Ewe (in today’s Togo), Oyo began to wane.
But within the city, Abiodun restated law and order but his reign came to an end with his death in 1789 and a new Alaafin was crowned, Alaafin Awole who reigned between 1789 to 1796). Alaafin Awole did not help matters he could have consolidated Abiodun’s effort to keep the empire together, but he did not. Under Awole, Afonja was the Are Ona Kakanfo (Military Commander), though the two of them had vied for the throne.
It was a taboo in Oyo constitution for the Alaafin and Are to live in the same city, so while the emperor resided in the capital, the Are must reside elsewhere, especially a town where enemy threat is imminent. Afonja was also from a royal family but he was slave-born and it was probable this that played against his becoming emperor, though some chiefs of the Oyo Mesi sympathized with him. Afonja’s great-grandfather had been the founder of Ilorin.
Alaafin Awole began to lose the Oyo Mesi’s confidence when he firstly requested Afonja to attack Apomu as part of a yearly military exercise the Alaafin must order the Oyo army to revive its strength, but Awole’s omission was that Apomu was an Ile Ife town and it is contrary to the “Coronation Oath” of the Alaafins who all received their royal swords from Ife and sworn never to raise sword against Ife. Secondly, Awole again ordered Afonja to attack Iwere town, which was a fortified fortress impregnable to Oyo army’s weapons of swords and arrows.
It was a calculated attempt by Awole to get rid of Are Afonja since the Are must kill himself if he ever failed to win any battle (this had also been the secret of the Oyo army’s strength in its heydays, since the Are must fight to be killed or fight to win resulting, making his army fight to the finish without option of retreat).
Afonja sensed this and rather than launch a battle he would not win he refused on the pretext that the town, Iwere, was the maternal home of Alaafin Ajagbo. Ajagbo was Alaafin in 1587 to 1624 and had created the Are Ona Kakanfo, Basorun, Agbakin and Asipa titles, which were military titled except Basorun and Asipa which were administrative. The third reason that Oyo Mesi lost confidence in Awole was trying to introduce Islam into Yorubaland.
Yorubas generally distrusted Islam in the polity and it is unacceptable according to the constitution for the Alaafin to accept the religion because of its male dominance and autocratic nature of the emirs. Note that women make up part of the Oyo Mesi (Legislators) and there were powerful women like Efunsetan Aniwura who had their say in the polity for Oyo was not totally a male dominated society. Besides, the Alaafin was not allowed to wield total power like the emirs did in the north.
Soon the Oyo Mesi sent the empty calabash to Awole and he had to commit suicide. Awole was not missed for his reign further declined the empire and left the bullying ilaris unchecked in their districts. The center no longer held and even the next Alaafin’s reign were so short as people became disillusioned and in want of effective leadership. Adebo ruled for 130 days, Maku was next and was there for only two months thereafter an inter-regnum lasted in the capital from 1797 to 1803.
Afonja’s influence thus began to grow. Afonja tried to become emperor, but some chiefs opposed this. Thus in 1817, he declared Ilorin also independent just as other provinces were also doing. Afonja had a Fulani adviser, Mallam Alimi, and he encouraged dan Fodio jihadists warriors to support Afonja.
Meanwhile, Fulani/Hausas were popularly used in Yorubaland as cheap labors and servants, they were so popular that looking down the nose upon the northerners continued well into post-colonial years in Nigeria. So with the call to arms, Hausa/Fulani laborers in the Oyo underground economy swelled the ranks by fleeing to Ilorin. Ojo, the only surviving son of Ga, along with the Onikoyi of Ikoyi, which was then the largest provincial town of Oyo hence marched against Ilorin.
The Ikoyi’s were the royal battalion of the imperial army and were also known as Ikoyi-Eso (Guards Battalion). When the war began and Hausa/Fulani ex-laborers roamed the country pillaging and selling their former Yoruba aristocratic masters as slaves to white slave buyers (as happened to Ajayi Crowther and his mother who were sold to Portuguese when their village was sacked by the Muslims later in 1821: read earlier post of Eshu and Christian Devil on this blog), Afonja became displeased with this.
And since he was still suspected of being loyal to Yoruba than Islam, Alimi had Afonja killed and his son, Abdul Salami took Ilorin throne as emir giving allegiance to the Sokoto caliphate. Thus Ilorin became a part of the Sokoto caliphate. There was no central authority anymore in Oyo and a lot of the provinces kept breaking away and the disunity did not give a common cause to the Yorubas to fight and retake Ilorin.
Some Yorubas by this time living in Ilorin had also accepted Islam and thus while Ilorin swelled with a platform for its warriors to fight on in one cause, there was no single cause the Yorubas stood for a united fight. The center no longer held and things badly fallen apart. There was no more cavalry for the Oyo army since horses were before bought from northern trade routes which were now closed because of the war against Fulani/Hausa.
The Muslims finally wiped the Oyo capital city after several futile battles on the side of the decimated Yorubas. Oyo’s new capital was now transferred further south to Ago-Oja and a new Alafin, Atiba, was crowned. But by this time, the Alaafin was struggling to maintain a dignity that was lost. Yorubaland became like the Greek city states of Athens, Sparta, Macedonia e.t.c. as Yoruba city states like Owu, Egba, Ijebu, Ondo and Ijesha begun to emerge, with even facial marks emphasizing their differences.
Civil wars became rampant, famine spread like wildfire and slave hunting, slavery before this time was totally alien to the Yorubas since Oyo did not allow any Yorubas to be traded as slave. The slave coasts were now overcrowded with Yoruba slaves as Hausa/Fulani armies slave-hunted in the confusion of collapsed Oyo.
A new war brewed when Ijebu (whose reputation as businessmen is known even till today) and Ife also began to sell refugees from old Oyo as slaves. Owu and these refugees therefore attacked Ife, the sacred city. This turned Ijebu and Ife against Owu.
The Ijebus were the first to employ the use of guns in any battle and thus completely destroyed Owu town. Owu people fled to Egba for refuge where they remain till today in Abeokuta. Ijebu attacked Egba for harboring Owu and a long bitter war ensued between Ijebu and Egba. However, the larger part of these Owu refugees were civilians.
The Owu warriors and other warriors from other destroyed or sacked provinces rather migrated further south and found a settlement in Eleiyele, thus beginning what today is known as Ibadan. Soon it began to attract other warriors who wanted to restore the old glory and because of its position in the rainforest area, Ibadan began to control palm oil belt which was just beginning to replace the trade in human beings.
But still determined to totally expand the Sokoto caliphate downwards by totally conquering the dying embers of the Yoruba influence, the Hausa/Fulani cavalry relaunched another phase of war as they saw New Oyo and Ibadan rising.
Ibadan knew it could no longer control cavalry which used to be a reckonable force in the Oyo army (Yoruba kings and chiefs still ride horses in celebration today as remnant of the horse tradition proir to these wars) but with the Sokoto caliphate in the north, Ibadan could no longer get horse supplies.Although, Ijebu first used the guns, but Ibadan, through insistent drills, perfected the use of guns in such remarkable ways.
Ibadan infantry soon marched out to meet the jihadists who were pillaging villages and towns with impunity. Finally, a decisive battle was fought in Oshogbo in 1839, led by the dreaded new Are Ona Kakanfo, Balogun Latoisha.
The Ibadan infantry were good marksmen and they plucked the jihadist riders off their horses in such a way that many lives were lost on the side of the Hausa/Fulani invaders and the casualty toll was so high that they fled back up north, ending the prolonged Fulani/Yoruba wars and the incursion of the jihadists in a very decisive victory.
Thus Ibadan emerged as the superpower of the Yoruba states. It was no surprised then that after independence in Nigeria, Chief Obafemi Awolow, an Ijebu statesman, made Ibadan the capital seat of the Western region which is largely Yoruba region of Nigeria.
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