The History of Odudua

As is usual with the founders of ancient civilisations, there is much controversy about the history of Odudua (also Oòdua, Oduduwa, Obarisa or Olofin Adimula). This post only presents the history as reported by trustworthy sources – we make no claim to present any final opinion on this matter.

As discussed in our earlier post (The Yoruba – KMT Connection), there are many similarities between the Yoruba culture and that of the Nile Valley states. One often ignored area of similarity is in the personalities of Ausar and Odudua.
The Kemetic creation myth states that Ausar is the son of Geb and Nut, (these deities represent the earth and the sky respectively). Ausar later became ruler of Kemet and introduced agriculture, law (by inference a system of rulership) to the people of Kemet. According to The Golden Bough by Sir James Frazier, “Osiris [Ausar] reclaimed the Egyptians from savagery, gave them laws, and taught them the worship of the gods”.

Similarly, Odudua is attributed divine origins and is said to have descended from the sky on a golden chain. He subsequently founded the Yoruba Kingdom and introduced a system of rulership. Another version of Odudua’s history has it that, coming from the east (most likely the Nile Valle states), “They [Odudua and his people] came to Ile-Ife and fought and conquered the pre-existing Igbo (unrelated to the present Igbo) inhabitants led by Oreluere (Obatala).”

According to information made available on RaceandHistory.com by Olomu and Eyebira, in Kemet the word ‘Dudu’ was used to describe the black image of Ausar (who also went by the title ‘Lord of the Perfect Black’).  In the Yoruba language, Dudu means black or a black person. A.B Ellis in his book ‘The Yoruba –Speaking Peoples of the Slave Coast of West Africa’ wrote that Odudua literally meant “Black One” (Although he erroneously described Odudua as a female deity).  An article by the Olokun Festival Foundation provides a different meaning of Odudua, the post stated thus “Oduduwa means Odu to da iwa i.e how to behave”. The emblematic nature of this name points to the divine origins of Odudua and gives us a hint of the prime position Odudua occupies in Yoruba culture.

This connection between the names and accomplishments of Ausar and Odudua supports the tale of the Nile Valley origin of Odudua. The story states that Odudua led a migration of Yoruba people westwards from the Nile Valley (presumably from Kemet, Nubia or Cush). According to the post on RaceandHistory.com cited earlier, this migrating population settled at illushi and around Asaba. It is generally agreed that the migrating Yoruba people met a pre-existing civilisation at Ile-Ife - this group would later be conquered and integrated into the Yoruba kingdom.

It is possible to estimate the period of the migration of the Yoruba people to their present location. Olomu and Eyebira on RaceandHistory.com wrote the following, “If the Yorubas left the Egyptian or the Nubian axis, they must have left during turbulent periods of war, economic stagnation or religious persecution….
The first crop of migrants or southward push of the Egyptians took place about 2000BC – 500BC. The Hyskos invasion (2000 – 1500BC) caused some of these southern migrations. Many of the black Egyptians seemed to have moved to Yoruba land during this period.

The second wave of migrations will correspond to what Laoye Sanda, of the department of Public Administration [at] The Polytechnic [of] Ibadan refers to as the black Nubian emigrants. The Nubians were [are] black, they occupied present day Sudan, which was an integral part of the Egyptian Empire. The vocabulary, body scarification, and religious discourse resemble those of the Ijebus and more so, the Itsekiri [this proves that they are of a similar origin as the Nubians]. These migrations [the second wave] occurred about 500BC.

A third wave of migration took place between 90BC and 30BC. The present writers feel the personality called Oduduwa, came in that migration trend.

A fourth migration will correspond to the Christian conquest of Egypt, about 100AD.

The last wave of migration will correspond to the Arab enforced emigration, between 700AD – 1100AD, when the Arabs had consolidated their control over Egypt; they chased the last batch of traditional worshipping Egyptians from Egypt. This occurrence would have led to many Yoruba claiming that their ancestors were chased from somewhere in the Middle East for not accepting Islam.”

According to another post on NigeriaVillageSquare.com, “Oduduwa must have been here before Christ, going by parallel archaeology of the Yoruba, Egypt, Greece and Rome with the history in the Bible or the Koran. Unless those before him were many centuries old before he was born! He travelled through the Nile valley, spread Yoruba civilisation and religion. Yoruba, named in Arabic writing, were noted for their religion, before their present country brothers became aware of them. See Beginning of Ethnic Formation. During Oduduwa's exploration, he had children Yoruba [sic] usually name[d] AdeTokunbo, Omowale, Magbagbeile and others overseas. He was revered because his descendants were kingdom builders and they also unified the Yorubas. Oduduwa proved his Ife royal blood to Agboniregun or Setilu in care of Ifa oracle by displaying his crown, a book in verses and an obelisk. Zo Giwa mentioned these three items in his article in case any dynasty had missed them.”

The other tale of the origin of Odudua is more cosmological. The Olokun Festival Foundation tells it like this, “The creation of Ife began with Olodumare, who sent Obatala and oduduwa to the world for important purposes, while they were going Obatala came across a group of people drinking palm-wine, he decided to join them and abandoned the task assigned to him and oduduwa by Olodumare. On seeing this, Olodumare instructed Oduduwa to collect the cockerel on Obatala`s shoulder and to proceed to Ife to accomplish the assignment. It was however, Oduduwa who completed the job which was [due to] the fact that he carried a handful of earth, a cockerel and palm nut. He then scattered the earth over the water and the cockerel scratched it to become the land, Ife. The word Ife was derived from the Yoruba adjective `Fe` meaning, to be wide.

The duo later went back to heaven and olodumare queried Obatala for getting drunk and sleeping off. Meanwhile, Olodumare praised oduduwa for a job well done and promised to make him the king of Ife. Prior to this time, Orunmila had informed the people of Ife that a king was coming and would be recognised by the Aare (the crown) he would be wearing. Also before this time, Obatala had come to Ife with other deities and boasted that he would become the king of Ife but had [sic] turned out to be a mirage. Eventually, when Oduduwa was descending with a chain from Heaven with the Aare, the people of Ife recognised him immediately.

On getting to the world this time around, Orunmila was the first to sight them and he immediately recognised Oduduwa as the king of Ife, a place which had been lacking a well structured political leadership. It is significant to note that what the Aare wore is that which is been [sic] worn by Yoruba Obas today.”

The claim by Samuel Johnson that Odudua was the son of Lamurudu has been stringently questioned by some historians, as there is no evidence to support this theory. The other theory that he migrated from Mecca has also been questioned for lack of evidence. Some scholars deduce that Odudua could have been to Mecca given the proximity of the Nile Valley states and the Middle East – this however, hinges on an acceptance of the theory of the Nile Valley origin of Odudua.

What can be said certainly is that after being installed as the Ooni of Ife, Odudua is said to have conquered the surrounding settlements and created a powerful kingdom with a centralized structure.  According to some sources, Odudua introduced many ancient practices and institutions such as the Ifa spiritual system to the Yoruba people. He subsequently established the renowned Ogboni cult to protect these teachings.

Like other deities, Odudua is said to have transcended death. The Olokun Festival Foundation says, “Oduduwa, the great progenitor of the Yoruba race, never died. He was said to have angrily entered the earth (ground) with the chain he had used to descend from heaven initially. To this end, Oduduwa still live[s] like any other deity or spirit but can not be seen by ordinary humans except by individuals who have supernatural powers to see and communicate with him in the spiritual realm.”

Different sources have presented varying accounts of how many children Odudua had – some say they were 7, others say they were about 16. What is certain is that upon his departure from earth his children dispersed and expanded the Yoruba kingdom.

According to information provided by the National Association of Yoruba Descendants in North America, “Upon the death of Oduduwa, there was a dispersal of his children from Ife to found other kingdoms. These original founders of the Yoruba nation included Olowu of Owu (son of Oduduwa’s daughter), Alaketu of Ketu (son of a princess), Oba of Benin, Oragun of Ila, Onisabe of Sabe, Olupopo of Popo, and Oranyan of Oyo. Each of them made a mark in the subsequent urbanization and consolidation of Yoruba confederacy of kingdoms, with each kingdom tracing its origin to Ile-Ife.

After the dispersal, the aborigines, the Igbo, became difficult, and constituted a serious threat to the survival of Ife. Thought to be survivors of the old occupants of the land before the arrival of Oduduwa, these people now turned themselves into marauders. They would come to town in costumes made of raffia with terrible and fearsome appearances, and the Ife people would flee. Then the Igbo would burn down houses and loot the markets. Then came Moremi on the scene - like Deborah of the Old Testament. When no man could dare the Igbos, Moremi asked the Esinminrin river for help and promised to give offerings if she could save her people. The Orisa told her to allow herself to be captured and to understudy the Igbo people. She did, and discovered that these were not spirits; only people with raffia for dress. She escaped, and taught her people the trick. The next time the Igbo people came to sack the town, the townspeople set fire on their raffia costumes, and they were roundly defeated. Moremi then had to go back to Esinminrin to thank the gods.  Every offering she offered was refused. On divination, she was told that she had to give Oluorogbo, her only son. She did. The lesson of Moremi is the lesson of patriotism and selflessness. The reward may not be reaped in one’s life time.  Moremi passed on and became a member of the Yoruba pantheon. The Edi festival celebrates the defeat of the Igbo and the sacrifice of Oluorogbo till today."

A post on NigerainVillageSquare.com adds a very crucial piece of information to the quote above (although the writer fails to mention his source), “Oranmiyan, one of the grandsons of Okanbi became the founder of Oyo and Benin Empires. He was the one who wanted to go back to the Nile Valley on his return from Benin to avenge those who kicked Oduduwa out.

[To conclude with the words of the same writer] “Civilization has a very simple meaning but today it has exotic attachment for self gratification. It is the ability of people to live amicably among one another. It is not modernization, invention of weapon[s] of mass destruction or the ability to destroy the world in a second. The Yoruba were farmers who had enough to eat and drink because they lived on fertile soil in the rain forest and might have changed locations to take advantage of fertile environment. See Professor Ade Obayemi about eight locations of Ife. This gave the Yoruba the time to think, reflect, engage in Arts, build, organize a civilize[d] community and practice their religion that was known through out Africa in ancient time. Those looking for solutions, predictions, cures, wisdom, artists and rulers went [came] to Ife.”

By Kwaw S.O. Peppeh Ra