IS THE SPIRIT OF 1840 OSOGBO WAR BACK TO THE YORUBA LAND? BY GBADE ADEMOLA

There had been series of wars between the Yoruba and the Fulani but the battle of 1840 in Osogbo served the long awaited halt to the expansionist and conquest tendencies of the Fulani’s incursion into the Southern part of Nigeria.

It was at this battle, for the first time that the allied army of the Yoruba, mostly equipped with rifles bought from the coastal parts spearheaded by the invited infantry men from Ibadan decisively defeated the Fulani cavalry men. The camp of the Fulani was greatly decimated, many of their warriors killed while some were captured. The battle did not go down without casualties among the notable Yoruba warriors too.

The fierce and historic battle was significant to the Yoruba nation in many ramifications.

Before we dwell on the significance and lessons from the war, our understanding of the subject would be more enriched by going down the memory lane on how Ilorin and its environs, a hitherto Yoruba landscape fell under the control of Fulani and several futile attempts by the Yoruba to reclaim its hegemony in the town.

So many pre-colonial historians had widely described the Yoruba as the largest ethnic groups that reside in the African continent. Some of the colonialists’ records further reported Yoruba as the most urbanised Africans of pre-colonial times.

Quoting from a leter written by one of the earliest European explorers to the Sub-Sahara Africa, Rev Samuel Johnson in his book,”The History of the Yoruba “, written in 1897 but first published in 1921, described the Yoruba landscape as ” the entire south of the River Niger with a network of lagoons connecting the deltas of the great River Niger with that of Volta, and into this lagoon which is belted with a more or less dense mangrove swamp . …. having Dahomey on the west, extending to the bright of Biafra and the island of Fernando Po ..”

It should be noted that the Yoruba country described above, was a geopolitical space covering the entire present South West region, entire Kwara State, substantial part of the present Kogi, Niger, Edo and Delta States in Nigeria; and substantially the present Benin Republic up to upper part of the present the West African countries of Togo and Ghana.

This relatively large Yoruba country courtesy of Oyo empire, spanned from 16th to early 18th centuries, was described as a  well-knitted flourishing economy and centralized administration, which expectedly became the envy of so many adjoining ethnic groups. The widely accepted separation of the administration from spiritual, with administrative headquarters at Oyo-Ile under the majesty of Alaafin and the spiritual capital as Ile-Ife, commonly known as the roots, was to serve as a sort of the bond of unity among the Yoruba of then, except for few nationalities and territories that were coerced into Oyo empire vide military adventures and conquest.

However, the major collapse of this central authority and army of Oyo empire began with the successful revolt of Afonja, the then Aare Ona Kakanfo in 1817. The aftermath establishment of an independent State of Ilorin arguably marked the beginning of civil wars in Yoruba in the 19th century.

Afonja as powerful as he was, with his army couldn’t have succeeded in his secessionist mission but for the support of the Fulani mercenaries(tagged Jamaa) headed by a Muslim cleric called Shehu Alimi.

Another version of the history recorded that it was the conflict between Laderin ruling house based in Ilorin and the Yamba ruling house in the capital of Oyo-Ile  that eventually led to the war  and was exacerbated by a slave rebellion led by Alimi.

Whichever side of the story one looks at, the secession of Ilorin from the Oyo empire  affected the sociopolitical landscape of the Yoruba country and also expanded the scope of slave trade in the 19th century. Thereafter, there were series of conflicts that engulfed the Yoruba speaking areas of West Africa.

Afonja was to become a sole political power in Ilorin country for a while, as the Jamaas  later became increasingly powerful both in numbers and rapacity, to the utter distress and ruin of the country.

Afonja realized his error  when it was too late as he proclaimed the ubiquitous and powerful Jamaas disbanded but he miscalculated his own strength.

History also has it that Afonja sensing danger of revolt against his authority from the Fulani, secretly sent an emissary to Onikoyi and other powerful chiefs in the country to come and be of helping hand at suppressing the imminent uprising from the Jamaas and probably have them  annihilated. Unfortunately, the secret was divulged to the Jamaas by some Yorubas who wanted to settle scores with Afonja. The Fulani moved swiftly against Afonja in his quarters, he fought with his characteristic bravery and desperately too. Seeing himself already surrounded by the corpses of some of his faithful attendants, he mysteriously beheaded many of the Fulanis but the torrents of arrows and shafts of spears entering his body overwhelmed him. Records say, Afonja fell indeed like an hero and that his body was covered with numerous darts that his body stood erect even with so much spears and arrows showered upon him. His body was taken and burnt to ashes. That was how the treacherous Alimi, Afonja supposedly friend ended the Yoruba’s kingship in Ilorin. Afonja’s house was also burnt but the remnants of his people were permitted to occupy it, but the government of the town passed over to the conqueror. Ilorin now passed into the hands of foreigners, the Fulani who had been invited there as friends and allies.

After the demise of  Afonja, Toyeje from Ogbomoso was promoted to the  position of Aare Ona Kakanfo. After a while he gathered some Yoruba warriors and proceeded with a mission of reclaiming Ilorin back to the Yoruba country. They encamped at a place called Ogele but they met their waterloo at the hands of Fulani calvary army aided by a Yoruba  muslim man called Chief Solagberu of Oke-Suna, coincidentally a man who had also declined to support Afonja against the Fulani. They routed the Yoruba which resulted in the desertion and destruction of a great many towns in the Ibolo province, few among important towns left were Offa, Igbona, Erin etc.

Rev Samuel Johnson in his book, also recorded that the second attempt to expel the Fulani and recover Ilorin ended large casualties and total defeat on the part of the Yoruba.

According to Johnson, ” after a short respite the Yorubas again rallied and resolved to rid the country of these hordes of marauders like Jamaas, made alliance with Monjia, the King of Rabbah,that he may help them to extirpate the pests. …. The Yorubas were again unsuccessful in this expedition. The Fulanis followed their victory and swept all the towns in the direction of Offa, Erin, Igbona. The Olofa with Asegbe and wise Ilari had to escape to Ikoyi “

The Fulanis were not to stop with taken over of the rulership of the town, several Yoruba towns and villages around Ilorin such as Kanla, Oke-Suna, Iresa, etc were eventually attacked by these ruthless warriors and they were captured and some of the people resettled around Ilorin.

The power of Fulani was so now very great that they aimed at nothing short of the subversion of the whole Yoruba country, using the words of Johnson, he said the then short-sighted Yoruba war chiefs were playing the game of mutual jealousy of one another rather than facing the common foe.

The Emir of Ilorin ( now Abdusalam the son of Alimi) with his army, now emboldened by the successive defeats of the Yoruba, step further by laying siege on Ikoyi. On the eleventh day they joined battled and completely routed the Aare Ona Kakanfo of Yoruba led army and many Yoruba men of note fell in this war such as Timi of Ede, the King of Erin etc.

Please endeavour to read the second part of this write-up in order to know what eventually befell Solagberu and other Yoruba traitors in the wars against Fulani, what eventually led to the 1840 Osogbo war between the Fulani and the Yoruba, how the Yoruba united against the marauders and the total massacre of the Fulani warriors in this historic war. What is the spirit of 1840 Osogbo war? These and many more constitute the expository piece expected in the Part 2 of this write-up.