Kindling the Bubbling Ibadan
Prof. Oladapo A. Afolabi, OON, CFR
Introduction
ÌbàdànKure
Ibadan beereki o too wo o
Ibadan MesiogonileOluyole
Nibi ole gbe e jareolohun
Ibadan kiigbonilebiiajeji
A kiiwayeka ma larunkanlara
Ijaigborolarun Ibadan
Translations
Ibadan, greetings
Ibadan, ask before you enter it
Ibadan Mesiogo is the home of Oluyole
Where the thieves get the better of the property-owners
Ibadan never blesses the natives as much as strangers
No one comes to earth without some disease
Civil disorder is the disease of Ibadan
(Oriki Ibadan culled from Ruth Watson’s Civil Disorder is the Disease of Ibadan: Chieftaincy and Civic Culture in a Yoruba City, 2005)
This piece attempts a historical examination of the growth and development of Ibadan from the earliest times to the present. This is with a view to showing that Ibadan has a unique rise to prominence among Nigerian cities but these unique features of its rise are beginning to be jettisoned in contemporary time. Ibadan is a Yoruba town in the present Oyo State of Southwestern Nigeria. It is West Africa's largest city, Africa’s third largest city and Nigeria’s third most populous city after Lagos and Kano. Ibadan is not only a major commercial centre in Yorubaland in particular and Nigeria as a whole, but it is also a major political and cultural centre. In the history of Ibadan's political development, the town grew from a mere military camp in the 19th century Yorubaland to become a major centre of political, commercial and cultural activities. For instance, it was, at different times, political headquarters of Oyo Provinces, Ibadan District, Western Provinces, Western Region, Western State and Oyo State during the colonial and post-colonial periods.
Ibadan is a well-researched Yoruba city as several scholars have written on different aspects of Ibadan history at various times. Some of the notable scholars of Ibadan history are S.A. Akintoye, Bolanle Awe, J.F.A. Ajayi, Saburi Biobaku, Ade Aderibigbe, Atanda, J.A., G.O. Ogunremi, G.O. Oguntomisin, ToyinFalola, Akin Alao, and a host of others. This is apart from several non-academic historical writings on Ibadan like those of Samuel Johnson, Oba I.B. Akinyele, Kemi Morgan, OlaniwunAjayi, AdegokeAdelabu, etc. In contemporary time, some aspects of Ibadan history and development have been studied by several other scholars and writers. Notable among these is a collection by Late Professor G.O. Ogunremi under the auspices of Oluyole Club, Lagos in 2000 and a compendium by Professor ToyinFalola in 2012.
This piece examines the uniqueness of the rise of Ibadan to prominence in Nigeria and makes case for rejuvenation of the ideals and principles which aided and sustained its leadership role in modern Nigeria. This becomes necessary in the face of the seeming stagnation or loss of pace-setting achievements of the once virile, active, vibrant and ever-dynamic Ibadan city. This unfortunate situation is not unconnected with the erosion of the ideals, principles and philosophies which prompted, aided and sustained Ibadan’s rise to prominence in the past. Therefore, there is a need for re-assessment of the ideals, principles and philosophies which guided Ibadan’s historic and phenomenal rise through brief examination of its pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial historical development.
This paper is divided into six major parts with part one introducing the content of the paper and situating it within the context of the existing historical works on Ibadan. The second part examines the traditions of origin of Ibadan while the third part is focused on the fall of old Oyo and the consequent rise of Ibadan as a political force in 19th century Yorubaland. Part four deals with the nature of Ibadan imperialism and its impact on power politics in Yorubaland in the 19th century. The fifth part looks at Ibadan under colonial rule while the sixth part briefly assesses the political development of Ibadan since 1960. The last part concludes the paper.
Traditions of Origin and Early History of Ibadan
Like other Yoruba states and kingdoms, the accounts of early Ibadan history are preserved in oral traditions of the people. Ibadan traditions speak of three Ibadan contrary to widespread belief that Ibadan was only founded in the 19th century. In other words, there had been two Ibadan before the establishment of the third Ibadan after the Owu war in 1829. According to Falola, Lagelu, an Ife migrant hunter, founded the first Ibadan inhabited mostly by EgbaGbagura and other migrants from other parts of Yorubaland. The first Ibadan was situated at an area in Eleyele hill where he depended on Oro fruit and Eko which he took with the use of snail shell. This is the origin of the popular Ibadan praise song: “Ibadan omoajorosun, omoafikarahunfo’rimu” meaning “Ibadan are the children of one who depended on oro fruits for their supper and of one who used the snail’s shell to take their eko food”.
After the fall of the first Ibadan founded by Lagelu, the survivors deserted the site and migrated to found the second Ibadan at a place not too far from the site of the first Ibadan near Eleyele hill. The second Ibadan is also said to suffer the same fate of destruction and desertion suffered by the first Ibadan. In specific terms, Ibadan traditions relate that the second Ibadan was deserted as a result of the abominable act of uncovering a masquerade. However, existing written records show that the second Ibadan was destroyed by the allied forces of Ijebu, Oyo and Ife after the Owu-Ife war.
Historically, the Ibadan city known today developed from the third Ibadan which was founded around 1829 and inhabited by groups of warriors after the Owu war. The third Ibadan developed at an area around BasorunOluyole’s residence in Oja Oba. The political crises and the wars in Northern Yorubaland which led to the final collapse of old Oyo Empire were a prelude to the establishment of the third Ibadan. As a consequence of these upheavals, some of the displaced people migrated and settled in unaffected towns like Ede, Iwo, Osogbo and so on. Significantly, the strong warriors who had participated in the wars did not return to their original homes but rather resorted to founding new states.
Ibadan was one of such states founded by groups of warriors. It originally began as a temporary settlement and war camp (budoogun) about 1829 for the allied armies of Ife, Ijebu and Oyo which had destroyed Owu during Owu-Ife war, the first major war in southern Yorubaland in the 19th century. These warriors dispersed the earlier Egba settlers in Ibadan and made it their base where they launched further military assaults on neighbouringEgba villages. After this period, the town began to attract warriors from the other Yoruba towns and it eventually emerged as a strong military settlement.
At the new Ibadan military settlement, there was no generally-acknowledged political leadership but the different military groups were organised under a warrior who led them into the settlement. As time went on, the Ife military groups led by MayeOkunade, the Commander of the Ife Army during the OwuWar, began to exercise some level of military and political influence in the settlement. In fact, Falola, attested to the fact that MayeOkunade assumed the position of an overseer or coordinator of all the various sections in the Ibadan community. However, it must be emphasised that MayeOkunade did not emerge as a powerful political authority or a generally-acknowledged ruler of Ibadan during this period. His position could not be likened to that of an Oba or Baale as he had no palace, no council of chiefs, no crown, no tax collectors or officials and other paraphernalia of office. As a result of the absence of a recognised political leader, life in Ibadan during this period was characterised by lawlessness, street fighting, stealing, indiscipline and oppression of the populace by the soldiers.
Significantly, the late 1830s saw the transformation of Ibadan from agglomeration of different settlers into a permanent town dominated by Oyo groups. The Egba groups left Ibadan in 1830 to found Abeokuta as a result of a major fight between them and the Ife groups in Ibadan. The departure of the Egba to their new home in Abeokuta left the Oyo and Ife groups as the two leading groups in Ibadan. Similarly, the war between the Oyo and Ife groups in Ibadan and the consequent victory of the Oyo groups following the defeat of MayeOkunade resulted in the exclusive domination and control of Ibadan by the Oyo groups in the 1830s. During the war, the Oyo groups enjoyed the support of Kurumi of Ijaye as well as military troops from Iwo and Ede.
With the exit of the Ife from Ibadan, the Oyo groups decided to make Ibadan a permanent settlement as opposed to a temporary camp it used to be before this period. The final collapse of old Oyo, the emergence of New Oyo founded by Prince Atiba(Later AlaafinAtiba) and the general insecurity which engulfed Yorubaland during this period were to give the new Ibadan a new pivotal role in the power-politics in Yorubaland afterwards.
The Rise of Ibadan as a Military Power in the 19thCentury Yorubaland
Prior to the 19th Century when it finally collapsed, the old Oyo Empire was the largest and the most powerful of all the polities established by the Yoruba. At the height of Oyo’s power its territory covered a substantial part of Yorubaland and extended to Dahomey and parts of Togo and the present day Ghana. The rise and expansion of old Oyo was based on its monarchical political system built on a well-defined unwritten constitution whose built-in checks and balances prevented the monarch from becoming despotic and autocratic. This political system guided the kingdom to its greatness until the second half of the 18th century when BasorunGaha, the Head of the Oyo Mesi, exploited the constitutional lapses to usurp the political power in the empire.
The constitutional crises that followed from 1754 when Gaha became the Basorun and 1774 when he was killed during the reign of AlaafinAbiodun were to create political problems for the kingdom after 1789 when Abiodun died. The political crises resulted in breakdown of central authority and loss of grip control on the vassal states. Afonja, the Oyo’s governor of Ilorin was the first to exploit the weakness of the central monarchy to revolt against Oyo under AlaafinAole and with the help of the Fulani Jihadists achieved the independence of Ilorin in 1817. Other vassal states of Oyo also followed suit and Oyo lost a great number of its dependants. It was not long before the Fulani, under Abdul Salami, the son of Alimi, took over Ilorin and made it a frontier Emirate of the Sokoto Caliphate after defeating Afonja and his forces.
After the capture of Ilorin, the Fulani began to attack other Yoruba towns. They succeeded in destroying what remained of old Oyo in 1836 and its population dispersed to neighbouring Yoruba states. Prince Atiba led what remained of the displaced Oyo people to found new Oyo at Atiba around 1837. Quite expectedly, the collapse of Oyo created a power-vacuum in Yorubaland which the various successor-states vied to fill. The three major successor-states of Oyo were Ibadan, Abeokuta and Ijaye. Of all the successor-states, Ibadan, had by the 1860s become a major power in Yorubaland controlling vast areas of Yorubaland. The emergence of Ibadan as an imperial power in Yorubaland took certain historical course.
In the first instance, the rise of Ibadan as a political force in Yorubaland could not be divorced from its unique political system which recognised personal ability and capability of individual soldiers as against recognition for royalty and divine kingship. In other words, Ibadan system held that leadership was a function of what the individual possessed in excess of those who competed with him. In pre-colonial Ibadan, leadership was earned and not ascribed. Describing Ibadan political system, Elizabeth Isichei notes that: “Ibadan was a military republic and a classic instance of a political system open to talents.” It maintained an open door policy to strangers, attracting and welcoming them irrespective of their places of origin. In addition, many people were lured to Ibadan due to its huge commercial potentialities, its liberal attitude towards strangers and the opportunity which it gave the adventurous people to prove their worth and use their talents to become notable in the society.
It is significant to stress that Ibadan rejected entirely the traditional system of succession to power and influence through hereditary but only recognised man’s proven ability as a soldier as the determining factor of his success and political ascendancy. There were two parallel hierarchies of military and civilian chiefs, up which individuals could move by promotion. The apex civilian ruler of the town was called Baalewhile the military ruler was referred to as Balogun. The Balogun title holder had lieutenants and subordinates with titles such as OtunBalogun, OsiBalogunand so on. This arrangement was no doubt simple political system lacking specialised offices and structural differentiation like old Oyo and other ancient Yoruba kingdoms. Therefore, Ibadan grew rapidly as a major town geared towards wars and further expansion.
The second factor which brought Ibadan to the centre stage of Yoruba power politics in the 19th century apart from its unique political system was the special responsibility put on its shoulders by the AlaafinAtiba of new Oyo. AlaafinAtiba was an astute diplomat with a perceptive mind to understand early enough the need to play on the traditional attitude of venerating Oyo in the new dispensation in Yorubaland during this period. He quickly recognised the valour and determination of both Kurumi of Ijaye and Oluyole of Ibadan to build up political edifices that would overwhelm and subsume new Oyo. Therefore, in a deft diplomatic move, AlaafinAtiba conferred the titles of Are-Ona-Kakanfoand Bashorun(both Oyo titles) on Kurumi and Oluyole respectively with clear military mandates. Are Kurumi of Ijaye was to take charge of safe-keeping Western Yorubaland while BashorunOluyole was defend the territories east of the upper Ogun river. In other words, Ibadan was expected to defend Yorubaland from the onslaught of the Fulani Jihadists from Ilorin.
Ibadan as Saviour/Defender of Yorubalandfrom the Fulani Jihadists, 1840-1893
With this nationalistic mandate, Ibadan forces set its machinery in force to defend Yorubaland from the onslaught and incursion of the Fulani Jihadists from Ilorin area. At the Osogbo battle of 1838-1840, the Ibadan forces recorded a resounding victory over the Fulani and pushed the Ilorin armies back northwards till beyond Ikirun, just south of Ofa. The significance of this battle was that it put a stop to external aggression of the Fulani forces in Yorubaland. More significantly, the Ibadan’s defeat of the Fulani forces in Osogbo in 1840 opened a new chapter in the history of power relations in Yorubaland – the era of Ibadan imperialism.As indicated earlier, the Ibadan forces forced the Fulani forces back to Offa area in 1840 when they (Fulani Jihadists from Ilorin) were defeated at Osogbo.
Indeed, it was at this battle that Ibadan confirmed its military and political ascendancy in Yorubaland. Ibadan’s success at Osogbo gave it a peep into the eastern territories and encouraged empire building. Ibadan garrisons not only stayed permanently in these areas to checkmate Fulani onslaught but responded to “invitations” from different Ekiti states for military assistance against Fulani invaders. In fact, town after town where the Fulani-Ilorin forces were expelled, Ibadan established firm control. As a consequence, the aftermath of the battle of Osogbo was the emergence of Ibadan as a saviour of the Yoruba and as an imperial power in Yorubaland.
According to AbiodunAdediran (2000), after the 1840 defeat of the Fulani at Osogbo, an administrative reorganisation put the Ibadan state in a perpetual state of military preparedness. By the late 1860s, Ibadan, in its imperial mood, had gained the control of “most of Ekiti, most of Ijesa, almost all of Akoko and much of Igbomina in addition to the vast Osun territories and the Ife kingdom”. Importantly, the defeat of Ijaye by the Ibadan forces in the Ibadan-Ijaye war of 1860-1865 made the Ibarapa area come under Ibadan while the upper Ogun region, though under the tutelage of the Alaafin of Oyo, was under Ibadan effective control. By the last quarter of the 19th century, Ibadan had succeeded in establishing an imperial authority and framework covering an area of Yorubaland, more expansive than the old Oyo Empire.
In describing the nature of Ibadan imperialism in Yorubaland, it must not be thought that the subject states in different parts of Yorubaland submitted themselves to Ibadan authority willfully. Rather, right from the inception of Ibadan imperialism, there had always been resentment of it by the subject states as well as its neighbours particularly Egba and Ijebu. At the peak of Ibadan’s imperial authority in the mid-1870s, its empire comprised Ibarapa, Ife, Osun, Ijesa, Ekiti, Akoko and most of Igbomina territories.