Honour

Give thanks for the response. To do justice to your questions, I would have to write a book. Since I am not able to that, I will ask you to excuse the briefness of this answer. Also, I will only be dealing with the first part of the questions you asked for now. I will answer you in full as soon as I am able.

Badagry is a beach town to the west of Lagos and during the atlantic slave trade, just like Goree, Elmina and Luanda, millions passed through there. The original inhabitants of Badagry are called Gun. The Gun are also found in the Republic of Benin (formerly Dahomey).

Ibadan was originally settled as a military encampment during the Yoruba civil wars. In time, the Balogun (Generals) were able to extend thier influence over a wide area and Ibadan became a kingdom in it's own right and the leading Balogun took the title of Olubadan (Lord of Ibadan). Today, it is the second largest Yoruba city (after Lagos), but, when I was growing up, it was the largest and most important Yoruba city.

Before Ibadan became prominent, Oyo was the most powerful Yoruba kingdom. In fact, the people that founded Ibadan were originally members of the Oyo military. It was from the Oyo that the name Yoruba came. The word which is written as Yoruba is actually pronounced 'Yooba' by the people and it came from 'Oyo Oba' (meaning Oyo of the King) and it was when those two words were spoken as one that the name Yooba came about.

Ife is the spiritual capital of the Yoruba. This is because Oodua, the most honoured of all Yoruba ancestors was said to have first stepped onto earth at Ife.

Ife also features in the Istory of the Ijaw (the fourth largest ethnic group in nigeria). Today, the Ijaw can be found in the delta region (and in Rivers State along with the Kalabari and other 'minorities'). The ancestors of the Ijaw are said to have come from Ife. It is also said that when the ancestors of the Yoruba arrived at Ife, they met a people called the Igbo there. If these Igbo have the same origin as the Igbo that now live mainly to the east of the niger river is something that people cannot agree on. What has become apparent though is the role of Ife as a dispersion point for various peoples. There were always humans at Ife but, I do not think these called themselves Yoruba, Ijaw or Igbo. My overstanding of what I have seen is that Ife was a place people went for knowledge and, it was a place from which teachers were sent out to spread the same. It might be that the original people of Ife were the same as the ones whose works were found at Nok (to the north of Ife). Though these antiquities were found many miles away, there are similarities in the methods of representation.

And, when ALL the above is taken into consideration, if we can truly sight our COMMON SOURCE and work on celebrating/enhancing it's REAL features, I think we will stand a better chance of building something which will be to our mutual benefit. This, I think will be better than flogging on the half-dead beasts of burden that the colonialists left us.

Wisdom and Strength.