Shango is an Orisha, a deity in Yoruba religion. Genealogically speaking, Shango is a royal ancestor of the Yoruba as he was the fourth Alaafin of the Oyo Kingdom prior to his posthumous deification. Shango has numerous manifestations, including Airá, Agodo, Afonja, Lubé, and Obomin. He is known for his powerful double axe (Oṣè). He is considered to be one of the most powerful rulers that Yorubaland has ever produced.
The Sokoto Caliphate, also known as the Sultanate of Sokoto, was a Sunni Muslim caliphate in West Africa. It was founded by Usman dan Fodio in 1804 during the Fulani jihads after defeating the Hausa Kingdoms in the Fulani War. The boundaries of the caliphate are part of present-day Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Niger, and Nigeria. By 1837, the Sokoto state had a population of around 10-20 plus million people, becoming the most populous empire in West Africa. It was dissolved when the British and Germans conquered the area in 1903 and annexed it into the newly established Northern Nigeria Protectorate and Kamerun respectively.
Yorubaland is the homeland and cultural region of the Yoruba people in West Africa. It spans the modern-day countries of Nigeria, Togo and Benin, and covers a total land area of 142,114 km2 or about 60% of the land area of Ghana. Of this land area, 106,016 km2 (74.6%) lies within Nigeria, 18.9% in Benin, and the remaining 6.5% is in Togo. Prior to European colonization, a portion of this area was known as Yoruba country. The geo-cultural space contains an estimated 55 million people, the majority of this population being ethnic Yorubas.
The Oyo Empire was a powerful Yoruba empire of West Africa made up of parts of present-day eastern Benin and western Nigeria. It grew to become the largest Yoruba-speaking state and rose through the outstanding organizational and administrative skills of the Yoruba people, wealth gained from trade, and its powerful Cavalry. The Oyo Empire was one of the most politically important states in the entirety of Western Africa from the mid-17th to the late 18th century, and held sway not only over most of the other kingdoms in Yorubaland, but also over nearby African states, notably the Fon Kingdom of Dahomey in the modern Republic of Benin on its west.
Alaafin, or The Owner of the Palace in the Yoruba language, is the title of the king of the medieval Oyo empire and present-day Oyo town of West Africa. It is the particular title of the Oba (king) of the Oyo. It is sometimes translated as "emperor" in the context of ruler of empire. He ruled the old Oyo Empire which extended from the present day Benin republic to Nigeria originating from states in the South East and West to the North. The people under him are called Yoruba people and spoke the Yoruba Language.
Aganju is an Orisha. He is syncretized with Saint Christopher in the Cuban religion known as Santería. In Yoruba language, aginjù means a wilderness, inhospitable habitat or impenetrable locale.
The Legends of Africa reflect a wide-ranging series of kings, queens, chiefs and other leaders from across the African continent including Mali, Benin, Ghana, Nigeria, Congo, Ethiopia, Eritrea and South Africa.
For the Local Government Area of Oyo State, see Oluyole, Nigeria.
In the Yoruba tradition, Erinlẹ was a great hunter who became an orisha. He is said to have conducted the first Olobu of Ilobu to the site of the town of Ilobu, and to have protected the people of the town from Fulani invasions. He is usually described as a hunter but sometimes as a herbalist or a farmer. It is said that one day he sank into the earth near Ilobu and became a river. He is known all over Yorùbáland. The cult of Erinlẹ is found in towns throughout the former Oyo Empire. His shrines contain smooth, round stones from the Erinlẹ River. The name may be derived from erin (elephant) and ilẹ (earth), or from erin and ile (house). He is known as Inle by the Lukumi in Cuba and as Ode Inle, and sometimes as Oxossi Ibualamo in Brazilian Candomblé. The Erinlẹ River, a tributary of the Osun River, takes his name.
The documented history begins when Oranyan came to rule the Oyo Empire, which became dominant in the early 17th century. The older traditions of the formerly dominant Ile-Ife kingdom are largely oral.
Omupo or Omu-ipo is an ancient Igbomina-Yoruba town situated in the southeastern part of Kwara State. It is one of the prominent towns in Ifelodun Local Government Area of the State. It is the headquarters of 34 communities of Omupo District, the headquarters of Omupo/Idofian Area Council of Ifelodun Local Government. Omupo Constituency was also created in 1979 for a representative to the Kwara State House of Assembly.
The Ilorin Emirate is a traditional state based in the city of Ilorin in Kwara State, Nigeria. It is largely populated by the Yoruba-speaking people, though the kingdom is a hybrid state due to the influence of the many other tribes that make up the city. It is one of the Banza Bakwai - or copy-cats of the legitimate Hausa Kingdoms - as a result of it being part of the Sokoto Caliphate.
Joseph Adebowale Atanda was a Nigerian native of Eruwa, in Oyo State, Nigeria. He obtained his B.A. (Hons) in History in 1964 from the University of London and a PhD. in history in 1967 from the University of Ibadan.
Afonja of Ilorin was the "Are-Ona-Kakanfo", or chief military leader, of the Oyo Empire. Laderin, the great-grandfather of Afonja, was the founder of Ilorin city. He was succeeded by his son, Pasin, a powerful warrior who became a threat and target to, Basorun Gaha, because of his rising profile. He was driven into exile and killed. Alagbin, his son was made King. After the death of Alagbin, his son, Afonja, took over. These were the only four Yoruba kings in Ilorin.
Ọba Timi Abibu Sàngólámì (Ọ)Lágúnjú was a Yoruba monarch of the town of Ede, and leader in the 19th century. He was the first Muslim Timi that Ede produced, he also belonged to the first generation of Yoruba Muslims who held high political office in the pre-colonial era and who used their positions to enhance the growth of his town, Ede and his religion, Islam. Indeed, Abibu Lagunju was the second Muslim Oba in Yorubaland given the fact that he was already on the throne for a few years when, in November 1857, the American Baptist Missionary, Reverend W.H. Clarke, visited Ede.
Thomas Jefferson Bowen (1814–1875) was an American expatriate Baptist missionary who spent considerable time of his missionary activities in Ijaye, Ogbomosho and a few other towns within the present Oyo State. His work established the foundation of the Baptist mission in Nigeria. Bowen's intention to proselytize to Africans in the interior in particular the Fulanis was stopped by the Emir of Ilorin, Bowen then concentrated his effort in Yorubaland until his return to America. While in the U.S., he began to promote the creation of an America colony of free blacks in Africa.
The Yoruba Revolutionary Wars, otherwise known as the Yoruba Civil Wars, were a series of conflicts that engulfed the Yoruba-speaking areas of West Africa in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Robin Law summarizes the causes of the wars as the disintegration of the old Oyo Empire after the death of Alaafin Abiodun in 1789 and a resurgence of long-standing quarrels between the provincial chiefs over various issues. The root of the first disagreements can be traced to the feud between two noble houses; Laderin, based in Ilorin, and Yamba, based in the capital at Oyo-Ile. The conflict was also exacerbated by a Muslim slave rebellion led by a Fulani Muslim cleric, Shehu Alimi, and sponsored by the Aare Ona Kakanfo, Afonja, a descendant of Laderin, the founder of Ilorin, in 1817.
Chief Sunday Adeniyi Adeyemo, popularly known as Sunday Igboho is a Nigerian Yoruba self-determination activist and philanthropist. Nicknamed after his hometown, he rose to fame following his role in the Modakeke-Ife communal crisis in 1997, where he played an active part.
Alaafin Atiba Atobatele was a prince of the Oyo empire. He was the son of Alaafin Abiodun of Oyo and Eni-olufan from Akeitan.
Orile Ijaye is a small town located in Akinyele local government, Oyo state, Nigeria. It is about 18 miles from Ibadan, Oyo state capital. This town was re-inhabited in 1895, thirty-two years after it was destroyed due to an intra-ethnic and supremacy war with Ibadan; another military power at that time. It was in 1895 they named it, Orile Ijaye from the original name, Ijaye.
