Johnson Akínrìnadé Okùnadé

Category: African History

  • THE LEGEND, HISTORIES AND MYSTERIES OF DALA HILL(THE PRIDE OF KANO)

    The history of the Dala community and Kano cannot be told without including the significance and importance of the magnificent Dala hill also known as ‘Dutsen Dala’ in Hausa language. The mystery-filled Dala hill majestically stands 534 meters high and covers a land mass of 289,892 metres in the Dala Local Government Area of Kano city, Kano State. The hill has a beautiful outlook that gives tourists an irresistible urge to climb to the top. At the base of the hill, there are potsherds and remains of dyeing pits and graves which are evidences that some early settlers have inhabited the place long ago. These early settlers were craftsmen who took to mining and iron works of different kinds due to excessive iron ore found on the hill.

    A legend has it that Dala hill was named after a hunter whose name was Dala and the whole area around the hill was a jungle where he hunted wild animals. After sometime, Dala the hunter decided to settle around the hill and thus founded the Dala community which today has so many inhabitants.

    Dala hill is believed to be the first settlement of Kano people and the source of the name ‘Kano’. Even at the end of the 15th century, Kano was originally known as Dala. There was a time it was very difficult climbing the Dala hill (also Dalla hill) but as modernity sets in, a stairway was constructed to the top of the hill and if counted, they are nine hundred and ninety nine (999) steps in total. A very deep and mysterious well called “Rijiyar kare kukan ka” (the well where you will cry out your tears without help) is believed to be quietly and calmly siting at the top of the hill. The people believe that this well is so deep that if a stone is thrown inside, it will take the stone about twenty five minutes to touch the waters. The people never fetch from the well for the fear of falling and drowning.
    Dala hill in Kano
    Another legend put it in place that there once existed a priest and goddess named Barbushe and Tsumburbura. The latter was said to have protected the people around the hill from their enemies and it was Barbushe that served as an intermediary between the people and the goddess. The natives of Dala hold the belief that only them can climb the hill at anytime of the day unlike visitors who can’t climb after 8pm. According to the natives, no visitor can climb the hill after 8pm without repercussions. Recent archaeological findings claimed that there were possibilities that a hilltop shrine which (might) belong to the mythical priest and goddess once existed on the hill. A huge pot which was excavated at the top of the hill furthermore justified this claim while it is believed that many more are still buried beneath.
    Dala hill stairway
    The Dala hill is indeed the pride of the Dala people and the whole of Kano. Its historical, social and economical importance cannot be overlooked. The hill along with the groundnut pyramids and dyeing pits is a major tourist attraction in Kano city. It is preserved and protected under the Kano History and Culture Bureau.
    Source: old naija

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  • Rwandan Genocide That Shocked The Whole World In 1994

    It is fair to say that many young people first became aware of the Rwandan genocide from the movie ‘Hotel Rwanda.’ The film was a heroic depiction of one man going against the wishes of his tribe to save a handful of people.
    By the end of the Rwandan genocide that started from the first week of April 1994, almost a million people had lost their lives. Most of them belonging to the Tutsi minority tribe of Rwanda.
    It was three months of a bloody orgy of death. It left the few keen watchers of the events in Rwanda at the time reeling in shock.
    They never expected it to happen so fast, so brutally and so efficiently. And the world hardly took any notice of it until after the events.
    For the rest of the world, those bloody three months were not as important as the election in South Africa. The election would end years of Apartheid rule in the country. Nelson Mandela was poised to become president
    For football fans, nothing was as important as the summer World Cup in 1994. While countries were busy cheering their footballers between June and July of that year, one of the biggest crimes in modern history was in full swing.
    And in Nigeria, citizens were more bothered about the transition to civil rule. It was the year Moshood Abiola declared himself president. He was arrested and locked. He died in detention four years later.
    How could the world have stood by and allowed brothers, neighbors, friends, colleagues, and kinsmen to butcher each other? Those three months in Rwanda is still a blight on the conscience of the world.

    How it all started.

    It was all down to politics. Just like most of the biggest crisis the world had faced were all down to politics.
    Some would trace the Rwandan genocide to the colonial masters Belgium. Though Belgium had already granted independence to Rwanda since 1962, they left a legacy that led to series of events leading to civil war in 1990.
    There are two major ethnic groups in Rwanda. The Hutu majority and the Tutsi minority. The Belgians pursued a policy of favoring the minority Tutsi over the Hutus.
    After independence, the Hutus, after prolong ethnic violence succeeded in imposing a Hutu, General Juvenal Habyarimana, as Military president in 1973.
    The cost of that action was in the many Tutsis who lost their high government jobs. Many still had to flee the country into exile.
    Many of the Tutsi exiles banded together to form the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), a rebel group. The RPF launched a war against the government from their base in Uganda in 1990.
    After two years of bloody conflict, a ceasefire was signed between the government and the RPF led by Paul Kagame, the current President of Rwanda. The agreement though did not go down well with Hutu extremists who saw it as giving too much power to the Tutsis.

    The start of the campaign

    The extremist Hutus and their supporters in government started a campaign of hate against the Tutsis. The propaganda included the dire things that would happen to the Hutus if the Tutsis were allowed influence in the country again.
    The propaganda and hate speech against the Tutsis were very very intense.
    Even state run television and radio stations got into the act. Hutus were told to prepare for the day they would have to kill Tutsis if they wanted to survive as a race.
    When a plane carrying President Juvenal was shot down over Kigali (capital of Rwanda) airport, the Hutus were already primed to start what eventually became the Rwandan genocide.

    The Genocide

    Led by the government-sponsored militias, Interahamwe and Impuzamugambi, Hutus all over the country started killing Tutsis, moderate Hutus and other minorities in the country.
    Every non-Hutu was a target.
    Anybody who was seen as tainted with Tutsi blood either through marriage or genealogy was killed. A Hutu man married to a Tutsi woman risked losing his life. All children from that marriage were also killed.
    And many of such families existed since there was a lot of intermarriage between the two tribes.
    One of the biggest victims of the Rwandan genocide was the moderate Hutu Prime Minister, Agathe Unwilingiyimana. Her 10 Belgian bodyguards were also killed.
    The killings lasted non-stop for 3 months as the militias combed every part of the country for people to kill.

    The Aftermath

    After the killings started, RPF led by Paul Kagame resumed its armed conflict. So while RPF was waging a war, civilians were busy killing themselves.
    The Rwandan genocide came to an end only after the RPF had gained control of most of the country including the capital Kigali. Paul Kagame implemented most of the terms of the ceasefire signed months earlier by establishing a coalition government.
    However, because of the fear of reprisals from Tutsis, another set of refugees was created as a result of the victory of the RPF.
    Over two million Hutus fled the country to neighboring countries causing a serious humanitarian crisis. Simply put, many died due to lack of food, clean water and attacks from armed militias.
    By the time the world decided to respond to the crisis through the United Nations, the Rwandan genocide was already over. It was too little too late.
    Twenty-three years later, Rwanda has not fully recovered from the events of that summer. Reconciliation is slow. This is understandable as the quest for vengeance is very high.
    Perhaps, sometimes in the future, a generation would see the Rwandan genocide as a bold lesson that charismatic ethnic champions should never be allowed to thrive.
    Source: Growth

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  • Ibini Ukpabi- The Long Juju of Arochukwu And A Passage of No Return

    During the olden days in Igbo land, Ibini Ukpabi, a deity popularly called the ‘Long Juju‘, was used to settle disputes in the community and punish perpetrators of crimes. The Long Juju shrine served as a supreme court for the people of Arochukwu kingdom in modern day Abia State. The decision of the oracle was final and no one either through status or wealth could reverse its judgement.

    Anyone accused of a crime crime walked into a tunnel (the tunnel of disappearance) at the shrine to receive his/her judgement, and if the accused person is found guilty, he/she would never be seen again. Offenders were killed beside a flowing river called the ‘Red river‘. When the river turns red, the families of the offenders believed they have been killed by the Long Juju deity.

    Ibini UkpabiPic. credit- Abia State Tourism and Culture

    However, during the 15th century when European rule and slave trade started in Africa, West African slave traders used the long juju shrine of Arochukwu to get slaves for themselves which they later sold off to Europe. The offenders, after walking into the tunnel, were stripped naked at a place known as the ‘Hill of Rags‘ and clandestinely sold into slavery instead of being killed.
    It was said that Ibini Ukpabi got the name ‘Long Juju’ when a British explorer walked the long tunnel and got tired then exclaimed, “This juju is long; it is a long juju“. During the British military expedition to Arochukwu in 1901 and 1902, the Long Juju shrine was invaded and destroyed. But the shrine still has a faded picture of what it used to be like in the past. It was after this punitive expedition that historical and brave figures like Mary Slessor came to Arochukwu to spread Christianity and stop the killing of twins.

    Mary SlessorMary Slessor

    Today, the Long Juju shrine of Arochukwu served as a religious and tourism site. It has become an important tourist attraction in Abia State, Nigeria because of the role it played in the history of Nigeria and West Africa.

    Source: Old Naija 


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  • MYTHICAL CREATION OF THE YORUBA TRIBE

    MYTHICAL CREATION OF THE YORUBA TRIBE

    The Yoruba tribe were
    believed to have emerged from Oduduwa (one of the servants of Olodumare- the
    Supreme Being) who was sent down to the world to create the earth. It was
    believed that he descended with a long chain from heaven and carried a calabash
    full of sand and also brought a five- toed fowl along with him. The whole earth
    was covered with water, not a single dry place could be found, then he (Oduduwa) poured the sand on the water and
    placed the fowl on it, and the fowl started to sprinkle the sand with its
    legs. Everywhere the sand touched turned into a solid ground and the chameleon
    was sent to judge if it was dry and solid enough. The other places that were
    not touched by the sand remained as water till today. Then, Olodumare sent
    Obatala (god of divination) to create and mould human beings the way it pleases
    him and he (Olodumare) would put life into them and would also design their
    various destinies.

    According to some accounts, it was Obatala that Olodumare sent to create the
    earth, but on his way, he joined a group of gods feasting and he drank wine
    till he was drunk then fell asleep. Oduduwa then carried the calabash and the
    fowl beside him and carry out the mission that was meant for Obatala. When Obatala
    woke up, he discovered Oduduwa had created the earth and he became furious, but
    Olodumare calmed him with another mission of creating human beings.
    It was also believed that Oduduwa had a son named Okanbi also called
    Idekoseroake, and Okanbi also begat seven children who can now be referred to
    as the fathers of the seven main Yoruba tribes, as follows ( Owu, Alaketu,
    Benin, Orangun, Onisabe, Olupopo and Oranyan).

    The Yoruba people, who
    can be found in the Southwestern part of Nigeria, believe so much in the
    traditional accounts of their creation.

  • The History Of Ibadan- The City Of Heroes

    The History Of Ibadan- The City Of Heroes

    Ibadan, the present capital of Oyo State, is the third most populous state in Nigeria after Lagos and Kano with 3.5 million dwellers.
    In the 1960s, Ibadan was known to be the largest city in Africa after Cairo (Egypt) and Johannesburg in South Africa.
    The Yoruba people are the main inhabitant of this popular city, Ibadan, which was formally called Eba Odan (the city at the edge of a Savannah) at the point of its creation.
    Ibadan, located in the south-western part of Nigeria served as the home for trade, commerce and fashion in the 60s and 70s making Lagos a perfect rival.
    Ibadan was also the centre for administration of the Western region during the colonial era.
    The origin of this great city, Ibadan, was traced to the reign of the great old Oyo empire (Oyo-Ile).
    It was said that the Alaafin (king) of the Oyo empire ordered Lagelu who was then the commander of armed forces (Are-Ona-Kakanfo) in Oyo, and some of his best men in Oyo, Ilesa and Ogbomosho to build a war camp for warriors coming from the Ijebu, Ife and Egba kingdoms.
    Jagun Lagelu and his men settled in Àwótán, in Apete (presently located in the Ido local government area) and established a peaceful city named Eba Odan.
    Later, the city was destroyed by the Oyo armies for violating the customs of Yorubaland.
    The people of Eba Odan (Ibadanland) were said to have humiliated an Egungun at the market place. The Egungun was accidentally disrobed which resulted into an abominable mockery from Eba Odan women and children.
    When the news of the incident reached the Alafin of Oyo, he ordered his men to turn Eba Odan into complete rubble for committing such disrespectful and abominable offence.
    Origin of Ibadan
    Those who survived the attack, including Lagelu who had become old and weak, ran to a near-by hill for safety.
    On the hill, there was no food except for the Oro fruit and roasted snails the people fed on.
    After a long period, normality returned and the people founded another settlement. This was about 1829.
    Shortly afterwards, Lagelu died leaving behind swarms of strong and political people.
    History has it in profile that Ibadan was later attacked three different times, but survived them all (1840 Osogbo war, Ibadan-Ijaye war; 1861-62, Kiriji war; 1877-93).
    After the destruction of Oyo-Ile by the Fulani raiders in 1835/1836, refugees from several yoruba towns and villages fled down to Ibadan, Ijaye and the new Oyo-Atiba, but Ibadan received the highest number of refugees who later settled in the city.
    After sometime, the new Ibadan had grown extensively into a popular hub of trade and commerce.
    Ibadan also dominated the political and military scene in Yorubaland filling the vacuum created by the fallen Oyo empire.
    People displaced by war now saw Ibadan as a sanctuary because of its location, economy and military power.
    In 1840, the marauding fulanis tried to expand their caliphate deeper into the southern part of Yorubaland, but was defeated by the strong armies of the Yoruba kingdom led by Ibadan. This war was later known as the 1840 Oshogbo war.
    By the end of 1850, the population of Ibadan had grown over 265,000, making Ibadan the largest town in Yorubaland.
    Later in the year 1893 (immediately after the Kiriji war), Ibadan became a British protectorate after the Baale of Ibadan, Fijabi, signed a treaty with George C. Denton, the British acting Governor of Lagos, on the 15th of August that same year.
    Further Reading:
    * The Political Economy of a Pre-colonial African State: Ibadan, 1830-1900. byToyin Falola
    * Sir Isaac Babalola Akinyele: Iwe Itan Ibadan (1911)
    * The City of Ibadan- P. C. Lloyd, A. L. Mabogunje, B. Awe
    SOURCE: OLD NAIJA

  • Idanre Hill- Heights of Natural Wonders

    Idanre hill, also known as Oke-Idanre, is one of the leading natural tourist destinations in Nigeria. The Idanre hill is located in Idanre town which is about 24 kilometers southwest of Akure, the capital city of Ondo State, Nigeria. The beautiful and wonderful Idanre hill has been a home to the people of Idanre for over 150 years. History of Idanre has it that the early settlers of the Idanre people lived high up in the hill in a place now known as Old Oke-Idanre.
    The Idanre hill is a collection of inslebergs (hills with steep sides and round top) that tower to the clouds and enclose the idyllic and rustic town of Idanre which covers a land area of about 900km2. Idanre town is laden with breath-taking attractions which include the colourful Orosun festival which draws the natives of Idanre to the Idanre hill to have fun and pray to their ancestors.
    The idanre hill is listed among UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Its physical features include shrines, palace, old court, Agboogun footprint etc. The Agboogun footprint was mystically engraved on the hill and it is said that the footprint will size any foot except that of witches and wizards. Tourists willing to reach the top of the Idanre hill will have to ascend 660 steps with five resting posts. The entry fee to the Idanre hill is N1000.
    The 660 steps of Idanre hill
    Another mystery of the Idanre hill is the unreadable writings scribbled in an unknown language on a steep rock in Old Oke-Idanre. This writing is called “The unreadable letters of the flood”, and ingeniously known as “Adiye kowe, Oyinbo kaati” which is translated as “a white man cannot read the writings of a hen”.
    The Idanre hill is a wonderful and spell-bounding site nature lovers and tourists of all ramifications should visit in a lifetime.
    Idanre Hills
    Source: Old Naija

  • The History And Mystery of Bilikisu Sungbo Shrine In Ijebu Ode, Ogun State

    The burial place of the legendary and biblical Queen of Sheba, locally known among Yoruba people as Bilikisu Sungbo, has turned a place of worship and tourism in Nigeria.
    Millions of people visit annually from different parts of the world to share the mystery surrounding Bilikisu Sungbo grave-turned-shrine located in Oke-Eri, Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State, Nigeria.
    The historical queen, Bilikisu Sungbo, was said to have traveled all the way from Ethiopia down to Ijebu-Ode where she died and was buried. The natives of Ijebu-Ode hold strong and popular claims about the identity of the controversial Bilikisu Sungbo. They claimed that she was the Queen of Sheba mentioned in the bible to have visited the wise king Solomon at height of his powers.
    They also claimed that Bilikisu Sungbo was the Quranic Queen Baliqs of Ethopia (from which the name Bilikisu was derived) who visited king Sulaiman. Another source has it that Bilikisu Sungbo was a wealthy woman and the leader of a group of women potters who traveled to far away places.
    Also, she was believed to possess supernatural powers with which she dug ditches around villages in Ijebu-Ode.

    Queen Bilikisu Sungbo                      Queen Bilikisu Sungbo

    Howbeit, the tradition of the Ijebu people forbid women and dogs to visit the spot where Bilikisu Sungbo was buried. At the shrine, there is a small open ground with no grass growing on it. This place is said to be the place where the ancient queen was washed before being buried, and because of her supernatural powers, no plant or grass can ever grow on the spot.
    In 1995, Bilikisu Sungbo’s shrine was added to the cultural category of UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Bilikisu Sungbo ‘grave-shrine’ will forever remain a pride of Ijebu-Ode people.

  • THE CREATION OF THE WORLD: A YORUBA MYTH

    This is the story of how the world
    was created according to the Yorubas of West Africa.

    The entire world was filled with water when God decided to create the world.
    God sent his messenger Obatala to perform the task of creating the world.
    Obatala brought along his helper, a man named Oduduwa as well as a calabash
    full of earth and a chicken. Then they began their descent to earth from a
    rope.

    Along the way, they stopped over at a feast where Obatala got drunk from
    drinking too much palm wine. Oduduwa, finding his master drunk, picked up the
    calabash and the chicken and continued on the journey.

    When Oduduwa reached the earth, he sprinkled earth from the calabash over the
    water and he dropped the chicken on the earth. The chicken then ran around
    spreading the earth in every direction he moved until there was land. Oduduwa
    had now created earth from what used to be water.

    Later when Obatala got out of his drunken haze, he discovered that Oduduwa had
    already performed his task and he was very upset. God however gave him another
    task to perform ? to create the people that would populate the earth.

    And that was how the world was created in a place now called Ile-Ife.

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