Date Published: 05/22/11

Rejoinder to Mr Fani Kayode Who are the Yorubas? by Abubakar Bala Garba

Who is a Yoruba in Nigeria in this 21 st centaury? Is it someone who can prove his descent, genetically, from Oduduwa, with a genealogical tree and, or, the results, of a DNA test? Or is a Yoruba somebody who can prove his belonging, by birth to a lineage, or, a clan, which belongs to one of the polities, which have come to be called Yoruba? What does this “belonging” here mean? Or, is a Yoruba someone who is recognized by one of the Obas wearing a beaded crown as a Yoruba? Or, is a Yoruba someone who speaks the Yoruba language as his first language and takes part in cultural and social practices, which are now called Yoruba? Or is a Yoruba someone who others who claim to be Yoruba accept that he is Yoruba? Or, is a Yoruba someone who, the leaders of the Yoruba, recognizes as Yoruba?

In the context of the racist politics which Afenifere and OPC is practicing and advocating for the rest of Nigeria, many of the prominent advocates of a confederation, or the dismemberment of Nigeria, so that the Yoruba, for example, can control their own resources, like Bolaji Akinyemi, Fani kayode and et, tal will find that their Yorubaness will be challenged, before Adesanya, the Late Chief Adekunle Ajasin, was challenged by Chief Ojomo in Owo, there was, in response to that challenge, a resounding silence!

Now let me look in to the theme of your article “Quote this group of different kingdom states with a common ancient root were collectively known as the ''Yoruba'' and the fact of the matter is that the word ''Yoruba'' has NO meaning in our language or any other language that is known to man. No-one has been able to tell us the meaning of the word ''Yoruba'' or indeed where it came from. This really is very strange and is indeed a deep and unsettling mystery unquote”

Contrary to what you said in the above quotation, Mr. fani Kayaode that the words Yoruba has no meaning or origin is completely false, either you are ignorant of it existence or you are economical with truth.

For your information and perusal, and to all those who want to know here is the meaning of the word Yoruba and where it came from, the Fact is that, the earliest record we have of the use of the very name “Yoruba” was in the Hausa language and it seems to have applied to the people of the Alfinate of Oyo. This came from the writings of the seventeenth centaury Katsina scholar, Dan Masani (1595-1667), who wrote a book on Muslim scholars of the “Yarriba”. But it was from a book of the Sarkin Muslimi Bello, written in the early nineteenth centaury, that the name became more widely used. The Bishop Ajayi Crowther, the Reverend Samuel Johnson, and his brother Obadiah Johnson, among others, came, in the nineteenth centaury, to widely spread this Hausa name to the people who now bear it, in their writings.

Other names, like “Lukunmi” “Aku”, “Nago” and “Anago” has come to prevail, and even those who complain that Abuja, the Federal Capital has been given a Hausa name, have not yet complained about this Hausa name.

These people, who the dissemination of the written form of standard of Yoruba, derived from the Oyo dialect, has given a level of common identity, actually speaks about twenty dialects. Some of these dialects were barely mutually intelligible. The twenty dialects are, according to some linguists: Banu, Ife, Ijesha, Ondo, Owo, Igbena, Gbedde, Akono, Ilaje, Awori, Ila, Ijebu, Oyo, Yagba, Egba, Ekiti, Aworo, Ijumu. Kalae, and Owe.

The Yoruba ethnic identity, like almost all the others in Nigeria, is a product of the formation of Nigeria in the late 10 th and 20 th centaury. This process was not simply one of the integration of communities speaking related dialects. It involves the incorporation of people speaking different languages.

The Yorubu inhabitants of Lagos today, for example, are made up of people of Awori, Benin, Egun, Ilaje, Egbema-Ijo, Oladiama-Ijo, Nupe, Hausa, Fanti, Egbado, Ketu and Urhobo origins. This heterogeneity is not just in Ikeja and Ajegunle, but, in Isale-Eko and in the oldest parts of Lagos. As Babatunde Agori and Sandra Barnes point out, in their chapter on Lagos before 1603, in the book History of the people of Lagos State, edited by Jide Osuntokun, and others, and published in 1987:

…..the migrant fisher folk who frequented the lagoon and camped on the shores of Lagos and Iddo Isalnds no doubt stemmed from many sources, spreading their way of life in the course of their movements. After them the Awori and the Benin peoples added new layers to the population. These influences were neither a beginning, nor and end. The hallmark of Lagos was and still is its ability to absorb many peoples, many languages and many cultural influences. It has done so from time immemorial and it is a process to which there is no predictable end”. (p.30)

Agiri and Barnes, here capture the actual realities of the histories of most of the urban centres and many of the rural areas of Nigeria. This process of intermixing and intermeshing has even intensified in the twenty four years since they wrote the chapter. But all this is misrepresented and Nigeria is made to appear as made up separate ethnic blocks which can be moved away from each other because they have always remained essentially separate and distinct.

Mr. Fani Kayode said in the article that the Hausas and the Yorubas came from the same family of languages, according to some linguists expert the Yorubas and the Hausas did even have the same origin the Yoruba belong to the west Atlantic branch of the Niger-Congo family of languages, the Hausa in the other hand belong to completely different family of languages which is Chadic family of languages.

Thank you.

Abubakar Bala Garba Wrote from HQ United Nations mission in Liberia, NIBATT 24 Bomi hills Tubmanburg Monrovia Liberia and can be reach via this E-mail bubasajo3@yahoo.com