¹ Vansina, J., Oral Tradition, A Study in Historical Methodology (trans. Wright, H. M., London, 1965), 84.Google Scholar

² Fortes, M., The Dynamics of Clanship among the Tallensi (London, 1945), 23.Google Scholar

³ See Finley, M. I., The Ancestral Constitution (Cambridge, 1971), for examples from fifth-century B.C. Athens, seventeenth-century England, and twentieth-century America.Google Scholar

⁴ Goody, J. and Watt, I., ‘The Consequences of Literacy’, in Goody, J. (ed.), Literacy in Traditional Societies (Cambridge, 1968), 48.Google Scholar

⁵ Ephoros, quoted in Strabo, Geography, VIII: 3, 33.Google Scholar

⁶ The earliest instance of the use of the name ‘Yoruba’ in its modern, general sense appears to be Raban, J., A Vocabulary of the Eyo, or Aku, A Dialect of Western Africa, III (London, 1832), 10.Google Scholar

⁷ Johnson, S., The History of the Yorubas (London, 1921), 3–14. Though published only in 1921, this book was written originally in 1897.Google Scholar

⁸ Johnson's informants were the Arokin, the official historians of the Oyo court: see Johnson, History, 3.Google Scholar

⁹ A tradition reported by Crowther, S., A Grammar of the Yoruba Language (London, 1852), pp. i–ii, Omits Oduduwa and traces the descent of the royal dynasties from Okanbi, who appears in other versionsGoogle Scholar (e.g. Johnson, History, 7) as a son of Oduduwa.Google ScholarA curious tradition reported by Lijadu, E. M., ‘Fragments of Egba National History’, Egba Government Gazette, no. 1 (02. 1904), names the dynastic ancestor as Momo (the Yoruba version of the name Muhammad). Some traditions, especially those current in western Yorubaland, make Oduduwa female, the wife of the dynastic ancestor:Google Scholar e.g. Ellis, A. B., The Yoruba-Speaking Peoples of the Slave Coast of West Africa (London, 1894), 41;Google ScholarParrinder, G., The Story of Ketu (2nd ed., Ibadan, 1967), 13–14.Google Scholar

¹⁰ For traditions of the creation of the world at Ile Ife, see, e.g. Lander, R. and Lander, J., Journal of an Expedition to Explore the Course and Termination of the Niger (London, 1832), 1, 180;Google ScholarBowen, T. J., Central Africa, Adventures and Missionary Labours (Charleston, 1857), 265;Google ScholarJohnson, History, 143.Google Scholar

¹¹ Johnson, History, 3–4.Google ScholarAnother version, recorded by Adeyemi, M. C., Iwe Itan Oyo (Ibadan, n.d., ?1916), 5, brings the Yoruba from Medina.Google Scholar

¹² Lijadu, ‘Fragments of Egba National History’. For a version bringing the Yoruba from HausalandGoogle Scholar, see George, J. O., Historical Notes on the Yoruba Country and its Tribes (Lagos, n.d., ?1897), 29.Google Scholar

¹³ Crowther, Grammeear, pp. i–ii;Google ScholarGeorge, Historical Notes, 18.Google Scholar

¹⁴ The ‘migration’ version possibly originated in the Oyo kingdom, which appears to have received at some point an immigrant royal dynasty, from Borgu to the north-west: see Frobenius, L., The Voice of Africa (trans. Blind, R., London, 1913), 1, 177, 210–12; II, 629. But this suggestion is extremely speculative.Google Scholar

¹⁵ Bowen, Central Africa, 267;Google ScholarGeorge, Historical Notes, 16–18;Google ScholarLijadu, ‘Fragments of Egba National History’;Google ScholarSopein, F., ‘A Chapter in the History of the Yoruba Country’, Nigerian Chronicle, 17 Sept. 1909.Google Scholar

¹⁶ Bowen, E.g., Central Africa, 266;Google ScholarGeorge, Historical Notes, 16;Google ScholarLijadu, ‘Fragments of Egba National History’; Sopein, ‘A Chapter in the History of the Yoruba Country’.Google Scholar

¹⁷ Johnson, History, 7–8.Google Scholar

¹⁸ E.g. Kenyo, E. A., Founder of the Yoruba Nation (Lagos, 1959), 26.Google Scholar

¹⁹ Johnson, History, 45.Google Scholar

²⁰ Egharevba, J. U., A Short History of Benin (3rd ed., Ibadan, 1960), 9.Google Scholar

²¹ Johnson, History, 8.Google Scholar

²² Editor, ‘Native Crowns’, Journal of the African Society,II, no. 7 (1903), 312–15.Google Scholar

²³ See, however, the contrary view of Smith, R. S., Kingdoms of the Yoruba (London, 1969), 99–100.Google Scholar

²⁴ The date of the Ife sculptures is still uncertain, but a recent radiocarbon date associated with fragments of terracotta sculptures is A.D. 1060 ± 130:Google ScholarWillett, F., ‘A Survey of Recent Results in the Radiocarbon Chronology of Western and Northern Africa’. J. Afr. Hist. XII (1971), 366.Google Scholar

²⁵ This may be the case, e.g. at Oyo, where the original royal dynasty was apparently displaced by usurpers from Borgu: see above, n. 14.Google Scholar

²⁶ Aderemi, , Oni of Ife, to District Officer, Ife, 9 Oct. 1931 (National Archives, Ibadan, OYOPROF.I/203).Google Scholar

²⁷ Ademakinwa, J. A., Ife, Cradle of the Yorubas (2 vols, Lagos, 1958).Google Scholar

²⁸ Akinjogbin, I A., Dahomey and its Neighbours 1708–1818 (Cambridge, 1967), 14–27. Ebi is a Yoruba word for ‘family’.Google Scholar

²⁹ Oguntuyi, A., A Short History of Ado Ekiti (Akure, 1957), 118,Google Scholar cited in Smith, Kingdoms, 108.Google Scholar

³⁰ Sopein, ‘A Chapter in the History of the Yoruba Country’.Google Scholar

³¹ Johnson, History, 10–12.Google Scholar

³² Johnson, History, 24–5;Google ScholarAbiola, J. D. E., Babafemi, J. A. and Ataiyero, S. O. S., Iwe Itan Ijesa-Obokun (Ilesa, 1932), 23–25.Google Scholar

³³ Oral evidence: Chief O. Odutola, the Olotu'fore of Ijebu Ode, interviewed 17/18 Feb. 1968.Google Scholar

³⁴ Crowther, Grammar, p. ii;Google ScholarJohnson, History, 10–12, 24–5;Google ScholarAbiola, Babafemi and Ataiyero, Iwe Itan Ijesa, 23–5.Google Scholar

³⁵ George, Historical Notes, 27–8, 35.Google Scholar

³⁶ George, Historical Notes, 28, 35;Google ScholarJohnson, History, II, 24–5. The slave who became Oni is usually named as Adimu,Google Scholar but George, Historical Notes, 35, makes Adimu the first king of Ile Ife and the slave his successor.Google Scholar

³⁷ Crowther was told at Ketu in 1853 that the Alaketu was the ‘rightful proprietor of Ife’ and the Oni merely ‘keeper of the house of Ife’: S. Crowther, ‘Account of a Journey to Kern’, entry for 16 Jan. 1853 (Church Missionary Society Archives, London, CA2/ 031b).Google Scholar

³⁸ Abiola, Babafemi and Ataiyero, Iwe Itan Ijesa, 23–5, claim that the first Owa of Ilesa had succeeded Oduduwa as king at Ile Ife, but chose instead to reside at Ilesa, and entrusted lie Ife to a slave.Google Scholar

³⁹ At one time, indeed, Oyo is said to have been tributary to another of the Yoruba kingdoms, Owu: Johnson, History, 149. During the sixteenth century Oyo suffered a disastrous defeat by the Nupe, its north-eastern neighbours, and for a time ceased to exist as an effective political entity:Google ScholarIbid. 159–60.

⁴⁰ For the history of the Oyo empire, see Johnson, History, 168–268;Google ScholarSmith, Kingdoms, chapters III and X.Google Scholar

⁴¹ Where the founder of Oyo is named, he is normally identified with Oranyan. Ife tradition, however, maintains that Oranyan was the fourth king of ILe Ife and never ruled at Oyo, although he stayed at Oyo for some time assisting its founder (his elder brother) and one of his sons became the second Alafin of Oyo: Oni of Ife to District Officer, Ife, 9 Oct. 1931 (Nat. Archives, Ibadan, OYOPROF.1/203);Google ScholarAdemakinwa, Ife, I, 45–6 and II, 22–3. Oyo tradition admits that Oranyan was buried at Ile Ife:Google Scholar e.g. Johnson, , History, 12, 144. It seems clear that Oranyan's primary association was with Ile Ife, and it is possible that the Oyo tradition claiming him as the ancestor of the Alafin dates only from the period of Oyo imperial power.Google Scholar

⁴² Crowther, Grammar, p. iii;Google ScholarCrowther, S., ‘Account of a Journey to Ketu’, entry for 16 Jan. 1853 (C.M.S. Archives, CA2/031b);Google ScholarGeorge, Historical Notes, 18;Google ScholarBowen, Central Africa, 266;Google ScholarJohnson, History, 8, 23;Google ScholarSopein, ‘A Chapter in the History of the Yoruba Country’;Google ScholarDennett, R., Nigerian Studies (London, 1910), 31.Google Scholar

⁴³ Smith, Kingdoms, 104, suggests that the tradition indicates rather that the Oyo kingdom was established later in time than the others.Google Scholar

⁴⁴ Johnson, , History, 8, 23–4;Google ScholarDennett, Nigerian Studies, 91.Google Scholar

⁴⁵ Johnson, History, 8;Google Scholar cf. Dennett, Nigerian Studies, 91.Google Scholar

⁴⁶ George, Historical Notes, 18;Google ScholarJohnson, History, 9.Google Scholar

⁴⁷ Johnson, History, 9;Google Scholarcf. George, Historical Notes, 18.Google Scholar

⁴⁸ Johnson, History, 8–9.Google Scholar

⁴⁹ Johnson, , History, 9, 11–12; cf. the similar claim made for the Owa of Ilesa (above, n. 38). A parallel can be found in the traditions of the kingdom of Dahomey. Dahomey was founded by a prince of the royal family of Allada, but in 1724 the king of Dahomey conquered Allada. According to the usual story, the founder of Dahomey, Dogbagrighenu, had been an unsuccessful candidate for the throne of Allada, but one Dahomian tradition claims that Dogbagrighenu was in fact chosen king at Aliada, but subsequently left to found the new kingdom, entrusting Allada to one of his kinsmen. The subordination of Allada to Dahomey was thus projected back to the foundation of the kingdom:Google Scholar see Le Herissé, A., L'Ancien Royaume de Dahomey (Paris, 1911), 276–7.Google Scholar

⁵⁰ Johnson, History, 41.Google Scholar

⁵¹ Johnson, History, 9.Google Scholar

⁵² Johnson, History, 9, n. 1. It is commonly held in Yorubaland that princes born to reigning kings have a prior claim on the succession.Google Scholar

⁵³ Johnson, History, 8.Google Scholar

⁵⁴ That is, he does not stand for any historical ruler, far less one who acknowledged a dynastic link with Ile Ife:Google Scholar see, however, Bertho, J., ‘La parenté des Yoruba aux peuplades de Dahomey et Togo’, Africa, XIX (1949), 121–32, who identifies Johnson's ‘Olupopo’ with the king of Tado.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁵⁵ The earliest version recorded is in Bowen, Central Africa, 266.Google Scholar

⁵⁶ Johnson, History, 574.Google Scholar

⁵⁷ Moloney, A. to Sir Rowe, S., 12 May 1881, in Correspondence Respecting the War between the Native Tribes in the Interior and the Negotiations for Peace Conducted by the Government of Lagos (Parliamentary Papers, C. 4957, 1887), 6.Google Scholar

⁵⁸ Dennett, Nigerian Studies 90–2: the first Oni of Ife is here named as Oranyan, who in this tradition is distinguished from the first Alafin.Google Scholar

⁵⁹ For the destruction of Owu, see Johnson, History, 206–10, 226.Google Scholar

⁶⁰ Johnson, History, 174.Google Scholar

⁶¹ Johnson History, 9.Google Scholar

⁶² Johnson, History, 40.Google Scholar

⁶³ Crowther, S. to Hutchinson, T. J., 10 Sept. 1856 (C.M.S. Archives, CA2/031a).Google Scholar

⁶⁴ Johnson, History, 579.Google Scholar

⁶⁵ Newbury, C. W., The Western Slave Coast and its Rulers (Oxford, 1965), 201–3.Google Scholar

⁶⁶ Dennett, Nigerian Studies,91; cf. Parsons to Moseley, 23 July 1904,Google Scholar quoted in Newbury, The Western Slave Coast, 202, calls the Oni ‘a sort of Pagan archbishop’;Google ScholarFrobenius, , The Voice of Africa, 1, 171–2, calls the Oni ‘The Head of the Yoruban Church’;Google ScholarElgee, C. H., ‘Ensigns of Royalty in West Africa’, Journal of the African Society, IV, no. 26 (1905), 392, compares the Oni with the Pope.Google Scholar

⁶⁷ Crowther, Grammar, p. iii;Google Scholar review of Parrinder, G., The Story of Ketu,Google Scholar by Williams, P. Morton, in Odu, A Journal of Yoruba, Edo and Related Studies, VII (1959), 42–3.Google Scholar

⁶⁸ Parrinder, Story of Ketu, II.Google Scholar

⁶⁹ For the Benin domination of eastern Yorubaland, see Akintoye, S. A., ‘The NorthEsatern Districts of the Yoruba Country and the Benin Kingdom’, J. Hist. Soc. Nigeria, IV, no. 4 (1969), 539–53.Google Scholar

⁷⁰ Egharevba, Short History of Benin, 32.Google Scholar

⁷¹ Leigh, J A., History of Ondo (Ondo, 1917), 7–8.Google Scholar

⁷² Oyo tradition claims that the first Osemowe of Ondo was a child of an early Alafin: Johnson, History, 25. But local Ondo tradition makes the first Osemowe a child of Oduduwa: Smith, Kingdoms, 64–5.Google Scholar

⁷³ Temple, O., Notes on the Tribes, Emirates, and Provinces of the Northern Provinces of Nigeria (2nd ed., London, 1922), 453.Google Scholar

⁷⁴ Johnson, History, 25: the phrase ‘elder brother’ presumably has to be taken metaphorically, or as symbolic of the relative status of the two rulers, since it is not denied that the first Alafin was the youngest of Oduduwa's sons.Google Scholar

⁷⁵ Johnson, History, 168.Google Scholar

⁷⁶ Johnson, History, 9–10.Google Scholar

⁷⁷ Johnson, History, 23–5.Google Scholar

⁷⁸ Johnson, History, 497.Google Scholar

⁷⁹ Oral evidence: Chief O. Odutola, the Olotu'fore of Ijebu.Google Scholar

⁸⁰ George, Historical Notes,71;Google ScholarAjisafe, A. K., History of Abeokuta (2nd ed., Abeokuta, 1924), 13–14.Google Scholar

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⁸² George, Historical Notes, 16;Google ScholarLijadu, ‘Fragments of Egba National History’;Google ScholarSopein, ‘A Chapter in the History of the Yoruba Country’.Google Scholar

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⁸⁴ E.g. Kopytoff, J. H., A Preface to Modern Nigeria (Madison, 1965), 8;Google ScholarFlint, J. E., Nigeria and Ghana (New Jersey, 1966), 60;Google ScholarColeman, J. S., Nigeria: Background to Nationalism (Berkeley, 1963), 25;Google ScholarHatch, J., Nigeria: A History (London, 1971), 52. Much analysis of recent Nigerian politics has been vitiated by the assumption that the Yoruba had formed a single people, more or less effectively united under Oyo, in precolonial times.Google Scholar

⁸⁵ Bowen, Central Africa, 266. In the nineteenth century, the term ‘tribe’ was regularly applied (evidently on the analogy of the Twelve Tribes of Israel) not to the Yoruba as a whole, but to the various sub-groups (Oyo, Egba, etc.) which together made up the Yoruba ‘nation’ or ‘people’.Google Scholar

⁸⁶ Johnson, History, 40.Google Scholar

⁸⁷ Ojo, S., Iwe Itan Oyo (Saki, n.d., ?1961,), 23.Google Scholar

⁸⁸ Some attempt is made to trace in detail the ‘disintegration’ of the Oyo empire by Ojo, S., who records, for example, unsuccessful punitive expeditions sent by the Oyo against Idanre (a small kingdom east of Ondo) and Ilesa when these kingdoms ceased to send tribute (asingba) to the Alafin: Iwe Itan Oyo, 45, 52. But earlier accounts of the Oyo wars against IdanreGoogle Scholar (Akinjogbin, I. A., ‘Report on Idanre History’, n.d., in files of the Yoruba Historical Research Scheme, now kept in the University of Lagos) and IlesaGoogle Scholar (Johnson, History, 168), which are probably Ojo's sources, make no reference to the payment of tribute, so that it seems likely that in presenting these wars as successful revolts against Oyo, Ojo is simply rationalizing the traditions.Google Scholar

⁸⁹ George, Historical Notes, 18. George attributes the disruption of the united ‘Yoruba Kingdom’ to ‘internecine wars … together with foreign invasion’, possibly alluding to the invasion of Oyo by the Nupe during the sixteenth century (for which, cf. above, n. 39).Google Scholar

⁹¹ MrsFaulckner, J., ‘A True Story of the Yoruba Country’, 11/12 07 1874 (C.M.S. Archives, CA2/037).Google Scholar

⁹² Johnson, History, 187, cf. 642. This conception of a Yorubaland united until the nineteenth-century wars clearly appealed to Johnson, who was concerned to discourage intra-Yoruba rivalries and jealousies.Google Scholar

⁹³ For the Arokin, see Johnson, History, 58, 125–6.Google Scholar

⁹⁴ This article is based on a paper read at a seminar of the Centre of West African Studies, Birmingham, in May 1972.Google Scholar