The Nature of Truth

Truth is a calabash of water in calm hands.

In search of it many ask to drink.

But it is only one gourd.

So they leave with a pour from it,

Tucked away in en-bowl(ed) palms…

Finding the water too small they decide to harmlessly add a little spit.

Then reach the next friend who says, “Oh Truth, may I have a drink”

He too receives some from the little saved in his friend’s palms.

Tucking it in his palms walks along and adds his own spit,

Then finds another friend thirsty for a drink

And so it goes on and on…

Until what remains is all spit and no water.

And all who drink are satisfied that spit is water

By Kwaw S.O. Peppeh Ra

Language is a figure of speech

IX

Never talk of right and wrong to me

Nor of left and right when I'm near.

We stand

On a facet of iceberg

Left is not right

Our heads pierce up

And our feet nail us down

Spectacles can't make us see

Down below is quite tartarin

What shall we name

What we cannot see or know?

X

The hand had five fingers

And they were equally short

But one finger out of spite

Decided to add an inch

To raise him above Dickenharry

The others, out of aggrandisement

Imitated likewise

The competition

No sooner begun

Than ever will end

One finger added more breadth

Than height and another

Shrunk out of size

In order to show them

What can be achieved

With a little trying.

XI

This hunter was my neighbor

One day he went to wash in the river

While he was putting his trousers on

He failed to balance steadily

On the right foot

And the left foot muffled by the trouser leg

Stumbled into the muddy water

Realising that the trousers 

Had not drunk water for a long time

And therefore were naturally thirsty

He told them to drink away

To their heart content

With this resolution made

My hunter friend sat down in the muddy water

Whereupon the trousers were mightily glad

And drank water to saturation

By Taban Lo Liyong
- A Selection of African Poetry (Revised and enlarged edition), Introduced and annotated by K.E. Senanu and T. Vincent, Longman Group Limited, 1976

Hausa Folklore: A story about a giant, and the cause of thunder

There was once a man who claimed he was ‘A-Man-Among-Men’

Whenever he came back from the forest, he threw down the firewood on his shoulders and shouted ‘I am A-Man-Among-Men!’

But every time he said this, his wife said, “if you meet A-Man-Among-Men, you’d run.”

He thought otherwise and dared the one who also thinks he is a man among men to show up.

One day, his wife went to fetch water from a well, but the bucket attached to the well was such that only 10 men could lift it.

As she returned home with her empty calabash, she met an older woman with a baby on her back.

After exchanging greeting, the wife of ‘A-Man-Among-Men’ informed her about the bucket at the well.

The old woman said “Oh, let’s go my son would do it.” So they returned and the baby fetched the water for them to the astonishment of the wife of ‘A-Man-Among-Men.’

She returned home and told her husband what she had seen. He was so eager to see this family that he didn’t sleep.

At dawn they were off to the well and co-incidentally, the old woman was coming there to fetch water. The one who called himself ‘A-Man-Among-Men’ tried to fetch the water from the well but almost fell in with the bucket, only to be saved by the baby.

After dusting himself off, the one who called himself ‘A-Man-Among-Men’ demanded to see the father of the child.

So he followed the old woman and baby home. When they arrived the child’s father had gone to the forest. The old woman hid him in a room with a peephole where he could see the child’s father and cautioned him to escape when he was asleep.

The child’s father came back from the forest and ‘A-Man-Among-Men’ trembled at the voice that shook the building. Indeed he was a giant - a man among men.

The child’s father said “I smell a human being around,’ but his wife convinced him there was no one around. 

At midnight ‘A-Man-Among-Men’ escaped from his hiding and made for the forest in top speed.

The child’s father heard him run and tracked him into the bush.

Running all night with the child’s father not far behind, ‘A-Man-Among-Men’ met a group clearing a farm. They said “why are you running,” and he replied “a man among men is chasing me.” They thought they were strong enough to stop whosoever it is so they told the man who called himself ‘A-Man-Among-Men’ to stand. As they waited, the force of his pursuer’s steps caused a great wind to push all of them to the floor, the one who called himself ‘A-Man-Among-Men’ asked “are you sure you can fight him?” this time they said “no, please go”.

So he continued running until he met a man and his relatives clearing a farm, they stopped him and asked why he ran, after explaining what has happened they said “stand there, we would stop him.”

But as they waited the wind came and pushed them to the floor and they all scattered.

So the one who called himself ‘A-Man-Among-Men’ continued running until he met a giant under a baobab tree who was twice the size of his pursuer. The giant asked why he ran, and after explaining the giant said “sit, let us wait for this man among men.”  As they sat the wind came and he was thrown yards away, but the giant was still as though the wind was scared to come near him.

Finally the child’s father arrived and demanded to know who ran from his house. In the argument that followed the two giants got into a fight.

Legend has it that they fought until they both levitated into the clouds - the sound of their tussle in the cloud is said to be the origin of thunder.

-          Adapted from Hausa Folk-Lore, Customs, Proverbs, Etc, R. Sutherland Rattray, 1913 Claredon Press

A common hate enriched our love for us

A common hate enriched our love for us:

Escape to parasitic ease disgusts;
discreet expensive hushes stifled us
the plangent wines became acidulous

Rich foods knotted to revolting clots
of guilt and anger in our queasy guts
remembering the hungry comfortless.

In draughty angles of the concrete stairs
or seared by salt winds under brittle stars
we found a poignant end to tenderness,

and, sharper than our strain, the passion
against our land's disfigurement and tension;
hate gouged out deeper levels for our passion -

a common hate enriched our love for us

By Dennis Brutus

To the Judge’s Wooden Hammer

Do you know the meaning of what he says?

Can you see reality from his 'down to earth' perspective?

In your seat posted at the zenith of ‘holier than thou’…

How do you look up-on the “ignorant”!?

What is wisdom?

Is he really blind in the mind?

Or we have subjected his thoughts to torture

What is meaning?

What is what?

Is it really possible to know what is what?

What is in the farmer’s boots that makes us believe it mocks alligator shoes?

Our experiences have erected bars;

Between ours mind and his thoughts...

All messages crash against blindness.

You so passionately curse and pound him

And with each strike he pleads “Stop”,

All we really  hear is our fears,

…what if the thing we so enviably battle against in him,

Only exists in the bloodied halls of our consciousness

By Joko

Come Thunder (1967)

Come  Thunder

Now that the triumphant march has entered the last street corners,

Remember, O dancers, the thunder among the clouds…

Now that the laughter, broken in two, hangs tremulous between the teeth,

Remember, O Dancers, the lightning beyond the earth…

The smell of blood already floats in the lavender-mist of the afternoon.

The death sentence lies in ambush along the corridors of power;

And a great fearful thing already tugs at the cables of the open air,

A nebula immense and immeasurable, a night of deep waters —

An iron dream unnamed and unprintable, a path of stone.

The drowsy heads of the pods in barren farmlands witness it,

The homesteads abandoned in this century’s brush fire witness it:

The myriad eyes of deserted corn cobs in burning barns witness it:

Magic birds with the miracle of lightning flash on their feathers…

The arrows of God tremble at the gates of light,

The drums of curfew pander to a dance of death;

And the secret thing in its heaving

Threatens with iron mask

The last lighted torch of the century…

By Christopher Okigbo

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

The True Prison

It is not the leaking roof
Nor the singing mosquitoes
In the damp, wretched cell
It is not the clank of the key
As the warden locks you in
It is not the measly rations
Unfit for beast or man
Nor yet the emptiness of day
Dipping into the blankness of night
It is not
It is not
It is not

It is the lies that have been drummed
Into your ears for a generation
It is the security agent running amok
Executing callous calamitous orders
In exchange for a wretched meal a day
The magistrate writing into her book
A punishment she knows is undeserved
The moral decrepitude
The mental ineptitude
The meat of dictators
Cowardice masking as obedience
Lurking in our denigrated souls
It is fear damping trousers
That we dare not wash
It is this
It is this
It is this
Dear friend, turns our free world
Into a dreary prison

By Ken Saro Wiwo (1993)

Source

Ancestral Faces

They sneaked into the limbo of time,
But could not muffle the gay jingling
Brass bells on the frothy necks
Of the sacrificial sheep that limped afer them;
They could not hide the moss on the bald pate
Of their reverent heads;
And the gnarled barks of wawa tree;
Nor the rust on the ancient state-swords;
Nor the skulls studded with grinning cowries;
They could not silent the drums,
The fibre of their soul and ours -
The drums that whisper to us behind the black sinewy hands.
They gazed
and sweeping like white locusts through the forests
Saw the same men, slightly wizened,
Shuffle their sandalled feet to the same rhythms,
They heard the same words of wisdom uttered
Between puffs of pale blue smoke:
They saw us,
And said: They have not changed!

By Kwesi Brew

- A Selection of African Poetry (Revised and enlarged edition), Introduced and annotated by K.E. Senanu and T. Vincent, Longman Group Limited, 1976

The Yoruba - KMT (Egypt) Connection

Many oral traditions are replete with these stories. The Awujale of Ijebu land has shown that the Ijebus are descended from ancient Nubia (a colony of Egypt). He was able to use the evidence of language, body scarification and coronation rituals that are similar to the Nubians’, to show that the Ijebus are descendants of the Nubians. What the present Awujale claimed for the Ijebus, can be authenticated all over Yoruba land. The Awujale even mentioned (2004) that the Itsekiri (an eastern Yoruba dialect) are speaking the original Ijebu language.

Since the Nubians were descended or colonized by the Egyptians, the Ijebu, and by extension, all Yoruba customs, derived from the Egyptian. Many traditional Yorubas have always claimed Egypt as their place of original abode, and that their monarchical tradition derives from the Egyptians’. Apostle Atigbiofor Atsuliaghan, a high priest of Umale-Okun, and a direct descendant of Orunmila, claimed that the Yorubas left Egypt as a result of a big war that engulfed the whole of Egypt. He said the Egyptian remnants settled in various places, two important places being Ode Itsekiri and Ile-Ife.Chief O.N Rewane says “Oral tradition has it also that when the Yorubas came from South of Egypt they did not go straight to where they now occupy. They settled at Illushi, some at Asaba area – Ebu, Olukumi Ukwunzu while some settled at Ode-Itsekiri,.” (O.N. Rewane Royalty Magazine A PICTORIAL SOUVENIR OF THE BURIAL AND CORONATION OF OLU OF WARRI, WARRI 1987)

Since these oral traditions are passed on by very illiterate people, we can augment whatever is recorded with written sources. Concerning the migration of some of the Yoruban ancestors from the east, Conton says:
The Yoruba of Nigeria are believed by many modern historians to be descended from a people who were living on the banks of the Nile 2,000 years ago, and who were at the time in close contact with the Egyptians and the Jews. Sometime before AD 600, if this belief is correct, this people must have left their fertile lands, for reasons which we can not now discover and have joined in the ceaseless movement of tribes west wards and south-wards across our continent.

We can only guess at the many adventures they and their descendants must have had on their long journey and at the number of generations which passed before they arrived. All we can be certain about is that they were a Negro people (of which ancient Egypt probably had at least one community as we have seen) and that one of the many princely states they founded on their arrival in West Africa…..was Ife.’ Conton WF (1960. 71)

Although we agree with Conton that some of the Yoruban ancestors migrated from Egypt, we tend to toe the scientific line of Cheik Anta Diop, that the ancient Egyptians were pure Negroes.
Aderibigbe, an indigenous scholar, also accepts that the Yorubas migrated from Egypt. He says:
“The general trend of these theories, most of them based on Yoruba traditions, is that of a possible origin from “the east”. Some scholars, impressed by the similarities between Yoruba and ancient Egyptian culture – religious observation, works of art, burial and other customs – speak of a possible migration of the ancestors of the Yoruba from the upper Nile (as early as 2000BC – 1000BC) as a result of some upheavals in ancient Egypt”. (AB ADERIBIGBE 1976)

Unlike Conton, Aderibigbe was able to pinpoint a cause for the Yoruban migration – war. Olumide Lucas did a lot of job to show similarities and identities between the ancient Egyptians and the Yoruban peoples. The date that Aderibigbe gave (2000BC – 1000BC) is much earlier than that given by Conton. Aderibigbe’s date corresponds to that of the Hyksos invasion of Egypt 2000-1500BC. On the possible eastern origin of the Yorubas, Tariqh Sawandi says:
“The Yoruba history begins with the migration of an east African population across the trans-African route leading from Mid-Nile river area to the Mid-Niger. Archaeologists, according to M. Omoleya, inform us that the Nigerian region was inhabited more than forty thousand years ago, or as far back as 65,000BC. During this period, the Nok culture occupied the region. The Nok culture was visited by the “Yoruba people”, between 2000BC and 500BC. This group of people were led, according to Yoruba historical accounts, by king Oduduwa, who settled peacefully in the already established Ile-Ife, the sacred city of the indigenous Nok people.

This time period is known as the Bronze Age, a time of high civilization of both of these groups. According to Olumide J. Lucas, “the Yoruba, during antiquity, lived in ancient Egypt before migrating to the Atlantic coast”. He uses as demonstration the similarity or identity of languages, religious beliefs, customs and names of persons, places and things. In addition, many ancient papyri discovered by archaeologists point at an Egyptian origin. (Tariqh Sawandi: Yorubic medicine: The Art of divine herbology – online article).
Ademoyega commented that the Ekiti section of the Yorubas must have migrated to their present area around 638AD, when the Muslims took over Egypt and forced some of the Yoruba people to migrate to their present area.

So, we see that the Yoruba did not come in one migration, but in many different migrations – in waves. The first possible migration might be connected with the Hyksos invasion. Some words in the Yoruban vocabulary echo the words used in Egypt in predynastic times and in the early dynastic periods. Some Egyptian gods of this period have strong identities with Yoruban deities. For instance, gods such as Adumu (Adumu) Hepi (Ipi) Ausar (Ausa), Horise (Orise), and Sámi (Sámi) Nam (Inama) are present in Yoruba. All these gods existed in the pre-dynastic and early dynastic periods of Egypt. TODAY, AMONG THE ITSEKIRI-YORUBAS ,THESE GODS CAN STILL BE PHYSICALLY SEEN, AT LEAST, ONCE A YEAR! Neighbouring peoples are already initiated into the various gods systems and beliefs in yorubaland.the agban ancestral worship was first organized in Urhoboland during the funeral ceremony of chief Ayomanor of Sapele (1949). The Ipi system was first organized in Urhoboland in March 11, 2005.

We can also see words that existed in the Graeco-Roman period in some of the Yoruban dialects. When the Romans took over Egypt, they infiltrated the Egyptian area with their language. In present Yoruba, we can still find words of Roman descent. For instance, the Yoruba called the palm frond ‘Mariwo’. This word is derived form the Latin Rivus (River). One of the declensions of river is Rivo (by the river). Since the Yoruba language possesses no “V”, the word become riwo. Thus, the word “Omariwo” means the child by the river. Some other words like Sangi (blood in Itsekiri-yoruba dialect) thought to have been derived form the Portuguese were actually brought as a result of the Roman Conquest of Egypt. Sangi is blood and the Latin term is Sanguis. Some eastern Yoruba use the term “Ihagi” which is clearly a corruption of the Roman Sanguis. A Christian army in 540AD invaded Egypt and some persons believed to have reached Yoruba land were driven from Egypt.

With the commencement of the Arab period in Egypt, some indigenous Egyptians who never wanted to accept the Islamic religion escaped to present Yoruba land. It was probably in this period that words such as Keferi (Kafri pagan in Arab) infiltrated into the Yoruboid vocabulary.
All said and done, more than fifty percent of the Yoruboid vocabulary of today can be deduced either directly or indirectly from the ancient Egyptian. These are the original ancient Egyptian language devoid of Arab and Latin words that are very few in the Yoruboid vocabulary
It is not really certain when king Oduduwa came from Egypt. He must have come in one of the many migrations. But since the Yoruba religious discourse has a lot of identities with early Egyptian practices, Oduduwa would have left Egypt at a very early period perhaps after the Hyksos invasion of 2000-1500BC ,but not later than 30BC.

Written by Ifá Bité

Source

A Benin Account of the Origin of Oduduwa

Many centuries ago, at the time when Benin was called Igodomingodo, that geographical area now known as Benin, was the hub of a conglomeration of little towns that developed or spread into most of the areas of modern Bendel State. Throughout that period, lgodomingodo made steady progress especially in the areas of spiritual, philosophical and administrative development. Its efforts were largely concentrated on the arrangement of human order so that by the time Europeans made contact with the people of Benin in the 15th century, they had already established an administrative system which, till this day, baffled the Europeans and earned for the Capital of this "far flung" African country, the appellation "City". The nucleus of this great civilization was the monarchy which the Binis perfected around the 18th century when, after a series of experimentation with the Ogiso, and some of the past-Ogiso Obas, they introduced a monarchical system that is based on the principle of primogeniture, beginning with Ewuakpe, about 1712 A. D.

From the days of Owodo until now, the system of direct ascension has endured making the Benin Royal family one of the oldest families in Africa. It's history spans more than 800 years. Benin City remains today as conservative as it ever was. Shifting slowly, sometimes uneasily, under the pressures or demands of modernity, Benin recognizes that all living organisms (including states and cities) change. That change has reduced to mere historical fact the political influence Benin exercised over places such as Eko (Lagos) which she founded at the time of Oba Orhogbua (about 1550 A.D.) Ghana, Dahomey, both across the borders of modern Nigeria; Onitsha on the Niger and many other places such as Asaba, Agbor, lssele-Uku, Warri, ldah etc. Many of these towns actually owe their corporate existence to Benin. Since inter-action between African kingdoms began around the 14th century, Benin found herself in a unique geographic position by occupying mid -way between what the early Europeans referred to as the "Yoruba country" and the "lbo country". This proximity to the two areas no doubt broadened the outlook of the Binis in later years.

Quite tolerant and receptive of other ideas and norms, it is no wonder that today both the Eastern and 'Western neighbors of Benin have exercised a considerable influence on her socio-political life. The influence of the Yoruba is more felt. This is so because after about 800 years of intercourse both cultures had to rub off on each other. Thus, while the Binis have accepted many Yoruba gods, the Yoruba on the other hand accepted several of the socio-political reforms introduced by the Binis.

Contact with the Yoruba was made quite accidentally by Ekaladerhan, the son of the last Ogiso, who was banished in the 12th century. After wandering in the jungles for several years, he showed up in a town. Hitherto, neither Ekaladerhan, nor the people on whom he stumbled were aware of the existence of other people on earth than those that belonged to their immediate environment. To the people therefore, Ekaladerhan must be a god, a forest god; especially as they discovered him in the jungle.  He was adept in hunting and he understood the habits of animals to an astonishing degree. These facts, no doubt put mystique on his being and his personality. By a twist of Fate, Ekaladerhan who was banished by his own people had been accepted by a people who stumbled on him in the forest. He was brought into town where he married one of them and lived to a ripe old age.  

When his father Owodo was himself banished for ordering the execution of a pregnant woman, Evian was appointed administrator. But he sought to appoint Ogiamien his son as his successor. The move was resisted by the Bini and that gave rise to political strife and anarchy. A search party was then sent to look for the long-banished Prince and the trail inevitably ended at Uhe where Ekaladerhan had established. Alas, He was a very old man. So, even if he wished to grant the delegation's plea to return home, he was not physically capable of undertaking such a hazardous journey. But he allowed his son Oronmiyan, who had volunteered, to go with the delegation. Oronmiyan arrived around 1200 A.D. He fathered Eweka the first. Oba Erediauwa, is the 38th king of the Edo by this direct line of succession from Eweka the first.

Ogiso Owodo - Father of Oduduwa

Ekaladerhan - Oduduwa (Izoduwa)

Source

The Yoruba Perspective

Mind you, the Oduduwa-Oranmiyan-Eweka connection between Ife and Benin from the side of the Yoruba history is also well-agreed, but to the Yoruba, certainly Oduduwa came from the Eastern Sky on a Chain from Heaven.  In short, the Yoruba are uncertain where he came from,  but he certainly did not come with a Bini twang, breathing heavily with would-be-executioners on his tail.  To make such a claim smacked of both cultural hegemony and imperial arrogance on the part of the Bini-Edo - not to talk of a hint of monarchical superiority...  Whether the mythical Oduduwa-from-the-Sky (in Yoruba creationism) got conflated with a human Oduduwa who later performed political and mystical wonders at Ile-Ife - as speculated by E. Bolaji Idowu - remains a mystery, which the Bini cannot, should not, dare not thereby try to solve for the Yoruba.

Source

Haitian Vodoun Creation Story

Damballah, the great sky-serpent and father of all the Loa, created all the waters of the Earth. The movement of his 7,000 coils formed hills and valleys on Earth and brought forth stars and planets in the cosmos. He forged metals from his heat and sent forth lighting bolts to form the sacred rocks and stones of the world. When he shed his skin in the sun, releasing all the waters over the land, the reflection in the waters created a rainbow. Damballah fell in love with the rainbow, and made it his wife, Aida-Wedo (she represents the sky as a whole).

The Loa descended upon the first faithful in the legendary city of Ifé, located in Nigeria, where all life and and spiritual strength come from.

Loa - spirit, intermediary between the creator and humanity

Source

The Vodoun Creation Story

MAWU-LISA, the Great Creator, is a being with two faces. The first is MAWU, a Goddess, whose eyes are the moon. The other is LISA, a God, whose eyes are the sun. MAWU is calm and cool like the moon, and LISA, is hot and ruthless like the sun.

Since MAWU-LISA is both God and Goddess, MAWU became pregnant and had a total of 9 children; including 2 pairs of twins. The first to be born were twins, a God named DA ZODJI, and a Goddess called NYOHWE ANANU. The second birth was SOGBO, who like his parent was God and Goddess in one. The third birth was also twins, a God, AGBE, and a Goddess, NAETE. The fourth to be born was AGE, a God. The fifth GU, also a God: GU is all body. He has no head, instead of a head, a great sword is coming out of His neck. His trunk is of stone. The sixth birth was not a spiritual being, but DJO, air, and is needed to create the breath of life. The seventh to be born was LEGBA; MAWU said LEGBA was to be her spoiled child God, because he was the youngest.

One day the Goddess face of MAWU-LISA assembled all the children in order to divide the kingdom of the Universe. To the first twins, DA ZODJI and NYOHWE ANANU, She gave all the riches and told them to go and inhabit the earth. She said the earth was for them. MAWU said to SOGBO, that he was to remain in Heaven, because he was both God and Goddess. She told AGBE and NAETE to go and inhabit the
sea and command the waters. To AGE, she gave command of the animals and birds and told him to live in the bush (forest) as a hunter.

To GU, MAWU said he was her strength, and that was why he was not given a head like the others. GU is a blacksmith God who makes weapons for war and tools to build. Thanks to him, the earth would not always remain wild bush. GU taught men about warfare and how to build houses and farms. MAWU told DJO to live in space between the earth and sky. He was assigned the life-span of man. Thanks to him also, his brothers and sisters would be invisible. This is why another name for Vodun (Gods and Goddesses) is DJO the Invisible Ones.

When MAWU said this to the children, she gave the DA ZODJI and NYOHWE ANANU the language which was to be used on earth, and took away their memory of the language of Heaven. She gave SOGBO the language he would speak, and removed the memory of his parent language.

The same was done for AGBE and NAETE, AGE, and GU. But DJO was given the language of men.
Next she said to LEGBA, "You are my youngest child, and as you are spoiled, and have never known punishment, I cannot turn you over to your brothers. I will keep you with me always. Your work will be to visit all the Kingdoms, and to give me an account of what happens." So LEGBA knows all the languages known to his brothers and sisters. He also knows the language MAWU speaks and LEGBA is MAWU's spokesman. If one of the siblings wishes to speak, he/she must give the message to LEGBA, for they no longer know how to address MAWU-LISA.

* Research by Tash Wilson @ http://antoinefamilyreunion.blogspot.com/2011/08/vodun-creation-story.html

Akan Narrative on the Seperation of Nana Nyame and Human Beings

Nana Nyame, the supreme 'God', lived in the sky, though not the sky. The sky was very close to the earth, occupied by an old woman (Abrewa) and her children. The only food they ate was fufu. But whenever she prepared the meal the pestle would strike 'God', meaning they could reach 'God' whenever necessary. This went on for a long time until one day 'God' asked her to stop or 'God' would move to a higher sphere. But 'God's' demands fell on deaf ears and rightly so since she and her children had to eat. So one day 'God' ascended higher so that the pestle was unable to reach anymore. Undaunted by 'God's' action the Abrewa instructed her children to pile up all the mortars they could find. Her aim was to restore the lost proximity to 'God' and she almost succeeded. It got to a point where only one mortar was needed to reach 'God', and after a futile search for the last mortar she instructed her children to remove the original mortar at the bottom of the pile to be place[d] at the top. This, of course, proved to be a tragic blunder because as soon as the mortar was removed, the pile collapsed and fatally injured some of her children.





- Anthony Ephirim-Donkor - African Spirituality: On Becoming Ancestors, (African World Press, 1997)

The Fulani Creation Story

At the begining there was a huge drop of milk
Then Doondari came and he created the stone
Then the stone created iron;
And iron created fire;
And fire created water;
And water created air.
Then Doondari descended the second time.
And he took the five elements
And he shaped them into man.
But man was proud.
Then Doondari created blindness, and blindness defeated man.
But when blindness became too proud,
Doondari created sleep, and sleep defeated blindness;
But when sleep became too proud,
Doondari created worry, and worry defeated sleep;
But when worry became too proud,
Doondari created death, and death defeated worry.
But then death became too proud,
Doondari descended for the second time,
And he came as Gueno, the eternal one.
And Gueno defeated death.

Doondari - an ancestral figure and source of creation
Gueno - Supreme and divine 'God' of life and death

- A Selection of African Poetry (Revised and enlarged edition), Introduced and annotated by K.E. Senanu and T. Vincent, Longman Group Limited, 1976

The Two Lands

An idea lay in a grasp…

As hands unfolded the thought

A mind passed

Stop! Stop!! Stop!!!

What do I see?

It has finally happened

I know we should’ve been made more ethereal

This tangible form is destructive

Just look what a hand has done!

Never would a celestial being bring harm on such fragile musing

I shall take this to the crown and appeal to its high standing that you be expelled from the body.

So the mind summons the legs and marches the hands to the crown

At the court, the crown sat on the furry shoulders of a thousand strands

Once I see the mind, I am assured. It said, speak dear friend.

The mind begins…

You see, it took us many steps to get here.

Civilization is a process

And the most important thing about our history is that it is a library of past experiences.

What would we be if order was desecrated at every chance?

We are all workers. It continued,

All of us, in all our little strivings, we are workers.

All working for the body

The mind works with the intangible aspects of creation

While the hand works with the tangible

But today, I found the hands with an idea

Abomination!

My crown, you are of the upper body

I ask that you consider the importance of keeping order

And come to reason with me that the hand be excommunicated from the body.

The crown was still.

Shinning gold, molded and twisted in different corners and shapes

Do you have anything to say, hand. It demanded.

Of course, the hand responded.

It is not that the mind lies. But mental vision is clouded by lessons, experiences and perception.

Therefore, right /wrong, morality and truth are subjective.

The mind was furious; You are not of the thought realm!

How dare you conjure such things?

The hands continued, I was sitting under a tree

When this thought floated by

It said “do you think?”

So I invited thought to explore the limits of life and the in-exclusivity of thought.

See, if we are of the same life essence, are we really individuals?

If all our strivings go in service of the body

Are we really independent?

Maybe we all form a single individual and we are competitively killing ourselves, unaware of this

The mind scoffed, my crown, I ask you not to waste any more time on this

Severe the hand from the body!

The crown responded: what if the hands are true?

And the court went silent…

The hands spoke again

The mind was right when it said history is our backbone

But even the spine is fragile before it develops and solidifies

So the fact that I can think does not mean the order our history taught will be destroyed

It simply means we are entering a new age

It was then that the mind materialized with consciousness

Standing silent it said, this is a plausible argument,

But every ‘new age’ brings some structural change to the order of society,

What would this age bring?

Where would the mind, intellect and crown go if the hands can think on its own?

The hand interrupted, I don’t want your abilities

All I am saying is it would be better if we can all reason and act independently for a common purpose

We should be versed in every living attribute…

The argument seemed too good to argue against.

The crown finally spoke, you’ve spelt your case well,

But it is the sun who is the ambassador of order

Any change must come from its radiance.

And with a command, the wind was invited to lift the roof of the court and bring the sun in

Having walked around every corner in its usual manner,

The sun spoke, I’ve heard your worries and I’ve the solution.

We shall create a world.

And create two kingdoms in it.

A great wall of memory will stand between them

On the upper side, the mind shall rule

And on the lower side, the hand shall rule.

Each world will be master and slave to the other.

And the worlds were created from the materials present;

Hands, mind, legs, head…and the rest

This is how we came to be…

By Kwaw S. O. Peppeh Ra

 

The Golden Chain

   Long ago, well before there were any people, all life existed in the sky. Olorun lived in the sky, and with Olorun were many orishas. There were both male and female orishas, but Olorun transcended male and female and was the all-powerful supreme being. Olorun and the orishas lived around a young baobab tree. Around the baobab tree the orishas found everything they needed for their lives, and in fact they wore beautiful clothes and gold jewelry. Olorun told them that all the vast sky was theirs to explore. All the orishas save one, however, were content to stay near the baobab tree.
      Obatala was the curious orisha who wasn't content to live blissfully by the baobab tree. Like all orishas, he had certain powers, and he wanted to put them to use. As he pondered what to do, he looked far down through the mists below the sky. As he looked and looked, he began to realize that there was a vast empty ocean below the mist. Obatala went to Olorun and asked Olorun to let him make something solid in the waters below. That way there could be beings that Obatala and the orishas could help with their powers.
      Touched by Obatala's desire to do something constructive, Olorun agreed to send Obatala to the watery world below. Obatala then asked Orunmila, the orisha who knows the future, what he should do to prepare for his mission. Orunmila brought out a sacred tray and sprinkled the powder of baobab roots on it. He tossed sixteen palm kernels onto the tray and studied the marks and tracks they made on the powder. He did this eight times, each time carefully observing the patterns. Finally he told Obatala to prepare a chain of gold, and to gather sand, palm nuts, and maize. He also told Obatala to get the sacred egg carrying the personalities of all the orishas.
      Obatala went to his fellow orishas to ask for their gold, and they all gave him all the gold they had. He took this to the goldsmith, who melted all the jewelry to make the links of the golden chain. When Obatala realized that the goldsmith had made all the gold into links, he had the goldsmith melt a few of them back down to make a hook for the end of the chain.
      Meanwhile, as Orunmila had told him, Obatala gathered all the sand in the sky and put it in an empty snail shell, and in with it he added a little baobab powder. He put that in his pack, along with palm nuts, maize, and other seeds that he found around the baobab tree. He wrapped the egg in his shirt, close to his chest so that it would be warm during his journey.
      Obatala hooked the chain into the sky, and he began to climb down the chain. For seven days he went down and down, until finally he reached the end of the chain. He hung at its end, not sure what to do, and he looked and listened for any clue. Finally he heard Orunmila, the seer, calling to him to use the sand. He took the shell from his pack and poured out the sand into the water below. The sand hit the water, and to his surprise it spread and solidified to make a vast land. Still unsure what to do, Obatala hung from the end of the chain until his heart pounded so much that the egg cracked. From it flew Sankofa, the bird bearing the sprits of all the orishas. Like a storm, they blew the sand to make dunes and hills and lowlands, giving it character just as the orishas themselves have character.
      Finally Obatala let go of the chain and dropped to this new land, which he called "Ife", the place that divides the waters. Soon he began to explore this land, and as he did so he scattered the seeds from his pack, and as he walked the seeds began to grow behind him, so that the land turned green in his wake.
      After walking a long time, Obatala grew thirsty and stopped at a small pond. As he bent over the water, he saw his reflection and was pleased. He took some clay from the edge of the pond and began to mold it into the shape he had seen in the reflection. He finished that one and began another, and before long he had made many of these bodies from the dark earth at the pond's side. By then he was even thirstier than before, and he took juice from the newly-grown palm trees and it fermented into palm wine. He drank this, and drank some more, and soon he was intoxicated. He returned to his work of making more forms from the edge of the pond, but now he wasn't careful and made some without eyes or some with misshapen limbs. He thought they all were beautiful, although later he realized that he had erred in drinking the wine and vowed to not do so again.
      Before long, Olorun dispatched Chameleon down the golden chain to check on Obatala's progress. Chameleon reported Obatala's disappointment at making figures that had form but no life. Gathering gasses from the space beyond the sky, Olorun sparked the gasses into an explosion that he shaped into a fireball. He sent that fireball to Ife, where it dried the lands that were still wet and began to bake the clay figures that Obatala had made. The fireball even set the earth to spinning, as it still does today. Olorun then blew his breath across Ife, and Obatala's figures slowly came to life as the first people of Ife.

David A. Anderson/Sankofa, 1991, The Origin of Life on Earth: An African Creation Myth: Mt. Airy, Maryland, Sights Productions, 31 p. (Folio PZ8.1.A543 Or 1991)