08/05/2025
Fact: It was Yoruba that was stylishly carved from the word Yariba. Yariba means deceitful, ungrateful, wayo, etc. This name resulted when Afonja, the military general in Ilorin, one of the outposts of the Oyo Empire, requested an agreement with the Fulanis in Sokoto Caliphate to help resolve the internal troubles of the Oyo Empire.
The Fulanis, led by Alimin Al Salih, had an agreement with Afonja that they would fight to the end until the troubles were vanquished, but everyone would convert to Islam.
This was how Islam came into Yoruba Land.
The Fulanis then defeated Aole, the one in charge of the Oyo Empire at that time.
Everybody who refused to be Islamized was traded to the Portuguese for sl@very, exactly in 1825 and 1835. The majority of these sl@v3s were Ijebu people who had their historical background from Sudan, unrelated to Yoruba.
The Western Territory became a center of sl@v3ry by the Fulanis to the Portuguese. Massive numbers of Ijebu refused to be Islamized, which was why the Fulanis forcefully traded them to the Portuguese into the sl@v3 camp, Escravos (Warri) and Forcados(Warri) for import/export.
When the British arrived, sl@v3ry was abolished in the West, exactly in 1850. In the South (Benin River), most of those slaves from Ijebu(Sudan), Equatorial Guinea and Sierra Leone were freed in 1894, and they all pulled out of Escravos and Forcados, forging their way into Itsekiri, Urhobo, Benin, and Ijaw land.
Though the Itsekiris, due to a lack of population, adopted them permanently to become Itsekiri people. The Yoruba adopted them permanently to become Yoruba people since most of the freed sl@v3s are from the Western Territories. The Urhobos adopted them temporarily in Urhihapele (Sapele), Ugbenuvwhorun (Ugbolokposo)... The Urhobo's never made them indigenous until today, which was why they chose the Itsekiri as their ethnic group, who made the sl@v3s become indigenous Itsekiris...
In fact, the Bubi sl@v3s that were traded to Escravos from Bioko Island of Equatorial Guinea by the Portuguese are still found today in the Bobi community of Itsekiri. Ijakpa was another settlement of the unknown sl@v3s who claimed to be Itsekiri today, yet they don't have an ancestral home. If any Itsekiri tells you he is from Ijakpa, note that his ancestors were brought there as refugees.
For these turbulent periods, the British ended sl@very and decided to favor the oppressed by the Fulanis in the Western region, starting from 1850... Bishop Samuel Ajayi Crowther(sl@v3), who was a descendant of the Alaafin of Oyo, was sent to Freetown in Sierra Leone. He became the first Anglican Bishop in Africa on his way back...
The British later favored all the unrelated Westerners and grouped them as Yoruba people... The Benin people of Ado Ekiti, Ondo, and Lagos under the Benin Empire were now added into the Yoruba country after the British conquered Oba Obvoranmen(1897) of blessed memory of the Benin Kingdom.
Some Urhobos around the Ethiope River, like Idjerhe, the whole Itsekiri, Edo, Esan, Etsako, Issele Uku, some Ukwainis, the whole of Ika, were members of the Benin Empire before the British destroyed it and separated our union to become different units of South South today... Many Urhobo communities, tribes like Engenni (Eghene), Degema (Udoakka), and Epie Etissa, were added to the Ijaws...
In fact, the Western Ijaw territory of Apoi, Egbema, and Arogbo were formerly parts of this great Benin Empire. Ijaws and the Benin were close friends then until the British separated our friendship and turned the unrelated Westerners into Yoruba people.
I am ยฉ Obruke Orodje, Urhobo, Benin Historian ๐
