History Of Ode Irele In Ikale Land
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Copyright © HRM, Oba Olanrewaju Lebi, /Potter’s
House Limited, 2010. Published in Nigeria
By Potter’s House Limited RC 465885
37/21, Nnobi Street,
Off Kilo B/Stop, Ikate,
Surulere, Lagos.
I S B N: 978-978-907-626-li
DEDICATIONThis book is specially dedicated to the memory of my beloved mother who did all she could, to put me in the light of academic scenario.ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSince I received the inspiration to put together this book, I have found an extra strength to go through the process of documenting the ideas. Thus I give God Almighty the glory for providing me with that extra strength and inspiration to go through it. For without Him getting to this stage would have been an effort in futility.To my Chiefs and all the people of Irele, I say thank you for all the experiences I have had to share with you all the time. Ode-Irele, our ancestral home is our land and we must do all we can to put it in its rightful place of history.
My special thanks also goes to those individuals whom I spoke to about this idea and their responses became more encouraging to me. In this category of individuals are my brother, Mr Adeokuoroye Romimora, my Computer Operator and other aides. May you find assistance too when you need it.
Also a large chunk of thanks go to my Publishing House-Potter’s House Limited, Lagos and the MD/CEO, Mr. Oladipo Ibironke Duyile. I have been greatly encouraged by your reaction to the whole project from the moment you came in. It is my prayer that God will continue to assist you as you move up.
Oba Olanrewaju Lebi, Oyenusi III, Olofun of Ode-Irele, May 2010.
FOREWORD
In several African settings, quite often, getting people with the zeal to document their ancestral home is a difficult task. However, for the very few individuals with the courage to embark on such assignments, it is a feat that deserves commendation. Aside from this, it has often been a challenge for most of the traditional settlements in our land to get their history documented. Rather, it has often been a case of relying on oral transfer of stories from one generation to another
Like several other kingdoms, the history of Ode-Irele like must have been given different interpretations by many other people. This I am sure must have propel the author (Kabiyesi’s) interest in trying to put the records straight in giving the people of Ode-Irele an authentic version of the story of their homestead.
From experience, getting oneself involve in an exercise of this nature could normally attracts some level of second thought because of the fear of reaction to what such an author might have put together. But having gone through this script and hearing the oral history of other people I am but compelled to commend His Royal Majesty, Oba Olarewaju Lebi’s efforts at documenting his place of Origin and encouraging his people with the story of their land.
With this feat achieved by Kabiyesi, the traditional setting across Yoruba land has been challenged to take up the task of doing all they can to ensure that historical documentation of their domain is given a top priority. By all standard, Kabiyesi has done what will set the pace for. most other settlements in our land. One is once again encouraged that as tight as Kabiyesi’s schedule remain, he has been able to share his time between writing and attending to other matters his throne demands.
From all the book has to offer, the first chapter, History of Irele talks of the origin of Ode-Irele, its people and their geographical make up. The second Chapter titled Some Important Festivals in Ode-Irele explains to an average reader and students of history, the different festivals in Ode-Irele. This is followed by the third to sixth Chapters, all which has extensively been put together by the author to give an adequate information that will satisfy the inquisitive mind of the reader about Ode-Irele, his place of birth.
By going.this far, Kabiyesi as an author has successfully brought to bear the influence of education and exposure as very important factors in the choice kingship people for any settlement. It is very touching that most traditional settings in our society have remained undocumented even with their very long and rich historical settlement.
To all readers of this book, I commend this effort of Kabiyesi and expects that people with the quest for history will find it interesting to have copies of this book in their libraries and at the same time find a visit to Ode-Irele, a lifetime experience. I am once again challenged to commend Kabiyesi as an author and traditional ruler and I do hope that this will further encourage him to go into putting into documentation other ideas: that will take our people further away from the tradition of mainly relying on oral history.
Otunba BolaAdeyeye, Maiyegun ofEde land, Lagos Nigeria, May, 2010.
CHAPTER I
ODE IRELE.
Irele is one of the principal Ikale towns in former Okitipupa Division of Ondo state. It is the headquarters of Irele Local Government, the other communities that make Irele Local Government are Omi, lyansan, Aj agba, Akotogbo and Iju-Osun. These are Ikale communities with different history and origin. All these other communities speak both Ikale dialect and, Edo language because of the source of their migration to the present site. As a matter of fact, a couple of years past, some of the communities were grouped together under one Local Government known as “Benin Confederation”
Irele kingdom has boundary with lyansan, Ese-Odo Local Government at Sabomi, Ese-Odo Local Government at Igbobini, Aye in Okitipupa Local Government at Ominla, with Ondo/Odigbo Local Government at Ore, Edo State at Ofoso. Ode-Irele is the major town of Irele territory. There are some other smaller settlements in Irele territory, such as Gbeleju Loda, Lofo, Onipaanu,Atoranse-Ayadi, Aj ana, Otu Loya, Ayadi/Jrelejare, Litoto, Kajola, Oju Inn, Kidimo, Araromi, Likanran, Idogun, Lekun, Gbogi, Ludasa, Omonira/Lebi Akinbomi etc. The metropolis of Ode-Irele with very rapid urbanisation is about 5 square kilometers, it is the largest single human settlement in the whole of former Okitipupa Division, is still growing by leaps and bounds. Irele town is built on a hill in that, to enter Irele through all the roads that lead to the town, you have to climb a small hill. Irele has the largest population amongst all the towns in the former Okitipupa Division.
Irele people bear the generic name Ikale with other Ikale people in former Okitipupa Division. How they came by this name should form the subject of a different exercise. Irele Ikale has a unique and distinct feature, which stands him out amongst other Ikales. They are tall and good-looking. In dressing, their men are elegant, in character they are more rigid and very inflexible. At home they are honest because of the fear of “Umale” a vengeful spirit that kills thieves, knaves, witches and wizards and those who possess dangerous charms for harming other people or damage their material goods. For fear of this spirit, hardly can you find an Irele man adopting charms to acquire wealth, unlike other people in Nigeria. For that reason, Irele people are not as affluent as many other Ikales.
Irele people are very hardworking people. They are good farmers growing mostly food crops, until about some decades back when they turned to cocoa growing. As at now, Irele produces the largest quantity of cocoa in Ikale land. Irele people also produce the largest quantity of rubber. They also produce a large quantity of palm produce.
Irele people seem to have more land than many Ikale communities. Their main occupation is farming, practising mostly shifting cultivation system of farming. As a result of Irele extensive land, a Forest Reserve was created in Irele in 1918 measuring 18 miles by 7 miles known as OA II from where woods of all descriptions were produced for export and to be used for furniture making and building of houses.
Irele Forest Reserve appears the only one in the whole Ikale land. Out of the mineral resources in Irele land, bitumen has been geologically identified to be in very large and investible quantity. There is no doubt that with more geological work in Irele area, more mineral resources would be discovered. Irele has identical climate with all the coastal areas of Western Nigeria. During the rainy season, the rains are torrential, flooding many areas. The vegetation is evergreen, the soil is clayish, hence many land areas are water logged during the rainy season.
RESOURCES
Irele Kingdom is endowed with many resources. Palm produce is abundant in Irele, the climate is quite suitable for Palm fruits. Almost every family has small or large palm Estate. The former Western Nigeria Government acquired some parts of Irele for the planting of palm trees as Palm Estates.
Apart from palm produce, timber and other economic trees abound in Irele territory. Cocoa grows very well in Irele territory. As a matter of fact, Irele is perhaps the only area in former Okitipupa Division or Ikale, producing Cocoa in very large quantity. The unfortunate thing is that the large quantity of Cocoa produced in Irele is not graded in Irele Local Government Area. Owing to the fact that there is no Feeder Road to evacuate the Cocoa beans to Irele.
Irele territory appears to be the epicentre of the bitumen deposit in Ondo State indeed in Nigeria. Geological work has proved a very large deposit of bitumen in Irele territory; the mineral had been discovered during the colonial era. The indigenes of Irele have known about the bitumen deposit long ago hence a camp is up till now called Loda but did not know the economic value until recently, when a Canadian Company called JEREX International was granted licence to do some preliminary work on the bitumen deposit in Irele territory. The company worked for more than one year sinking about ten holes through which they confirmed the existence of gas deposit at Akinboni in Irele territory. It appears there are still some other unidentified mineral substances in Irele territory.
CHAPTER II
SOME IMPORTANT FESTIVALS IN IRELE
A part from the Christian festivals, there are many traditional festivals being celebrated annually at Irele. The important festivals starts with “ORE”
festival: This is a festival celebrated after growing crops on the farm. This festival was brought from Ife, from a place called (More) in Ile-Ife. After planting, a day is set aside for the people to rest, it has to be pointed out that at that time in ancient history, Irele people and indeed all the people bearing the name Ikale were mainly food crops farmers, growing crops such as yams, maize, melon, vegetables of various types, pepper etc. After the annual propitiation of the land and the planting of the crops, the myth is that the agreed date for Ore festival is the date the yams in the farm would hold their annual meeting in the farm and announce in their meeting, the size of tubers they would give their owners. Some would announce that their owners had pleased the land, the land had asked them to give their owners big tubers, some because their owners had not sufficiently pleased the land, the land had decided to give their owners small tubers etc. It is therefore forbidden for anybody to go to the farm on Ore festival day. It is interesting to note that Ore festival is still being celebrated at UTESE and USEN in Edo state, by the descendants of Olumisokun, left in Edo State on his way to
Irele.
Another important aspect of Ore festival is that before that date, no body is allowed to openly bring fresh yams to Ode Irele, on that day, rituals would be performed at the foot of Ore tree in front of Malokun shrine to inform Malokun that the people have completed planting the dry yams and that from then, fresh yams are allowed to be brought to Ode Irele town and Irele markets.
The next traditional festival is “OJOYEJUSU”, this is a special day sometimes in September or October, of every year depending on the appearance of the new moon in the sky, when the High Chiefs and chiefs would taste fresh or new yams. The mythical belief is that, this is the day the spirits of our ancestors come to visit their children at night to bless them. A lot of ceremonies and rituals are performed throughout the night This is followed with when Kabiyesi and Gbogunron would taste the new yam five days after. Eje Festival follows this.
Eje Festival: This is the day set aside by every family in Irele to offer new yams to their ancestors starting with Gbogunron. It is usually 5 days apart. Before it goes round the whole family in Irele, it would be late November or early December, this is the festival for ancestor worship. The beauty of the Eje festival is that during the festival, in each family, all their married daughters wherever they may be in Nigeria, are expected to come home, sometime with their husbands and stay with their families for five days. During the festival, each family is expected to bring out their masquerades to entertain people. It is a period when the farmers have completed their work on the farms and their crops are waiting for harvesting. It is a leisure period for them to rest for a few weeks before returning to embark on harvesting of their crops and preparing the ground for another planting.
Igbowo Festival: This is a festival performed every other year. After series of rituals and ceremonies, the Kabiyesi is supposed to dance in full traditional regalia with Ada (Sword) and Okute 3 times each with the two sacred instruments. It is a festival that attracts quite a large crowd of people both at home and outside even sometime dignitaries from other parts of the state and country.
CHAPTER III
THE PEOPLE OF IRELE
The people of Irele can be said to be from mainly two sources which in actual fact could be regarded as one source. Olumisokun the founder of Irele was from Ife. Olumisokun descendants form about 95% of the population of contemporary Irele. These are the descendants of Jagboju and Oyenusi the two male children of Olumisokun. Orunbemekun and Gbogunron were from Ugbo and in view of the fact that Ugbo people left Ife for the coastal area of the former Okitipupa Division of Ondo State. All Irele people could be validly said to originated from Ife.
There are four principal quarters in Irele, they are (1) Jagboju (2) Oyenusi (3) Orunbemekun and (4) Gbogunron/Aribo. Each of the people occupies different and distinct areas of Ode-Irele. Jagboju family occupies almost the centre of the town on the way from Ohunmo where he came from.
This is the area on the entry from Omi, on the way to Ohunmo. It is the area where currently the sacred Malokun shrine of Irele is situated. He settled his late brother Oyenusi’s children not far from him but they kept spreading because of their numerical strength. As at now Jagboju descendants occupy areas leading to Omi,Sabomi. Oyenusi descendants occupy areas from Malokun sacred shrine down to Ogbodogbo, to Ebute-Irele to Apere stream on Olowo-Irele road and beyond. Gbogunron who came along with Orunbemekun from Ugbo to Ohunmo to Irele, occupies contiguous area with Orunbemekun descendants, sharing farm land with them and Aribo.
Descendants of Gbogunron became larger than Orunbemekun in number and therefore had more farmland than Orunbemekun. Also in Ode-Irele, Gbogunron descendants have more houses and occupy larger land area than Orunbemekun descendants. In the midst of the two Ugbo families is Aribo who came from Mahin. Awogoke, a Mahin man married Lara, the daughter of Gbogunron. She returned to her father after the death of her husband. Each family keeps spreading in the area of Irele it occupies, thus some Jagboju descendants came across the Ijaw-Apoi at places such as Sabomi,Iyara,Iditala, Ebute-Ode and crossed over to places like Litoto, Akingboye etc., And Oyenusi descendants went as far as Onisere,Ore, Oluwa river, Otuloya, Egbe Gboroye,Taibo until they met Jyansan people at Ebijo and Edo, and Idanre people. at river Owena. The people keep spreading because of increase in population and, their shifting cultivation farming system, which necessitated moving to new land every year.
This system of farming has the advantage of enabling them to acquire more and more farmland on which they settled. Their population density was then very low. Any land on which they farmed became their own. They had the habit of inviting or accommodating non-indigenes into their midst. They did this by marrying their daughters to stranger elements, but the stranger elements must stay and farm with them. They would give the stranger free access to land for farming and building houses. The stranger is given equal treatment with the indigenes. After sometime, he becomes completely assimilated and can aspire to any political position especially if he is a powerful man who has a lot of food items in his barn, which is an indication that he could feed his wife and children if given a wife. As a result of this system, many people in Irele are maternal indigenes; Irele people adopted this system purposely to boosting their sparse population, compared with the land at their disposal. It helped them in fighting a war especially at a time when inter-tribal wars were very common in all communities, from which they supplied slaves for sale to the European and Arab slave traders.
Contemporary Irele people are mostly Christians, there are many churches in Ode-Irele, most of the churches are the Pentecostal Churches. The orthodox ones include Catholic, Anglican, Methodist, Baptist Salvation Army. Islamic religion is gradually finding its foot in Irele through the influence of the non-indigenes who are mainly from Osun, Kwara and from the northern parts of Nigeria. Some Irele people are animists, worshipping gods of trees, streams and stones, owing to their limited knowledge of the earth and their existence in the World and their surrounding. They cannot think in the abstract, the believe that God is so high above and can not be known, seen or reached to approach him therefore, they have to go through intermediaries like stones and trees which they can see. Irele people bear the generic name “IKALE” with the other Ikale people but are distinctly different from many Ikale in many ways. Oral story tellers stated that irele like many other communities in this area came under the awesome Benin Empire.:
The Oba of Benin sent his vassals to supervise some parts of his domain. The vassal sent to supervise this area was called “KALE”. Anybody from the area was referred to as Omokale which was later shortened Ikale. In like manner, the one sent to Lagos was known as “EKO” Lagosians thus became “OMO EKO”.
CHAPTER IV
JAGBOJU
Jagboju is the first son of Bagberume Olumisokun the founder of Irele who migrated from Ife via Idanre and Benin. Jagboju was prosperous, he had many slaves and many children, male and female. Some of his children are Erufa, the first son who was killed during the Osokoro war. His descendants are the present Yasere, Lurogho, Odunwo. Fabohun, whose descendants are now Obolo or Omo in Irele. Mamuwahan, whose descendants are now Obamoyegun and Akingboye and Ruwahe, Logbosere, whose descendants still retain the name of Logbosere, Lurogho, whose descendants still retain the name of Lurogho. Lemadoro maternal brother of Lurogho whose descendants retain the name Lemadoro. It was Jagboju that sort of merged the administration of those who migrated from Ugbo and those who migrated from Ife when he was Olofun and moved his headquarters to Irele his father’s settlement.
Jagboju is a ruling house in the Olofun of lrele Chieftaincy. As a matter of fact, it was on Jagboju that the crown of Olofun of Irele was extended to the female line. Under normal circumstance, a female child does not reign as an Oba. In exceptional cases, the crown is passed to the female line after performing some rituals to appease the spirits of the ancestors and obtain their consent for extending the crown to the female line. It was under that exceptional circumstances the crown of Olofun of Irele was extended to Lobimitan, wife of Olumisokun and mother of Jagboju and Oyenusi. Lobimitan was the daughter of Orunbemekun who was the son of Ajana who left Ugbo in annoyance with one of his father’s crowns.
The brother of Orunbemekun was Ogeyinbo. After the death of Ajana at Orofun, there was succession dispute between Orunbemekun and Ogeyinbo which Orunbemekun won, after obtaining the approval of the Oba of Benin. At that time, the great Benin Empire was so powerful that it was holding sovereignty over many areas of present Ondo state, due perhaps to the awesomeness of the empire or due to the proximity to Benin by this area or both almost all disputes in this area were referred to the Oba of Benin for adjudication.
As a result of the dispute, Ogeyinbo left Orofun with Ugba Ufara for Erinje where he became the Orungberuwa. He was with the support of some Ijaw people harassing Orunbemekun and his people who were under constant attacks from Ogeyinbo people at Orofun, by attack. Orunbemekun group had to move out of Orofun. Orunbemekun presumably heard about a nearby community under Bagberume Olumisokun near where they could go and live with Olumisokun so that they could be neighbours offering each other protection from the invading hordes. They and Gbogunron move to Irele. Olumisokun seeing that Orunbemekun was an Oba concluded that two Obas could not live in the same community. To be able to offer reciprocal,protection and assistance in time of need, he gave them a piece of land close to Irele where he could easily monitor the goings on in the Eastern side of Irele called Ohunmo very close to present day Omi. It was under that principle that Bagberume Olumisokun, gave land to Abodi of Ikoya and Lumure of Ayeka at Irele when they arrived at Irele on their way from Benin at Ohunmo, after Orunbemekun, Osomona, Orukotan, Kubeji and Jagbemi, all from the male line reigned as Olofun. At the demise of Jagbemi, the male line was bereft of suitable candidate to ascend the throne. Orofin the only surviving son was deformed and his son Oyinbo was a minor who could not be crowned a king. It was in the midst of that dilemma that Gbogunron who had all along been a great loyalist of Ajana and his descendants and who had been crowning all the Olofuns from Ajana at Orofun to Jagbemi, proposed that the crown be extended to the female line purposely to retain the crown. Ogeyinbo’s descendants conscious of the vacuum created were threatening to come and. acquire the crown to revenge past defeat and humiliation. Ohunmo people agreed with the proposal of Gbogunron and offered Lobimitan the daughter of Orunbemekun and mother ofJagboju and Oyenusi. By that arrangement the crown was given to Jagboju at Ohunmo where they requested Jagboju to produce a ram for sacrifice to the spirit of the ancestors for their approval to extend the crown to the female line. Jagboju presented the ram and was crowned the Olofun at Ohunmo. His Junior brother was to reign after him should the problem of shortage of suitable man power in the male line persist. The suitable manpower problem in the male line did persist resulting in the coronation of Six(6) Olofuns such as Lobiken, Opetusin, Fadulu, Aiyebosehin, Akingboye and Ojagbaletemi from the Jagboju and Oyenusi families before another suitable candidate in person of Olowomuwagun son of Oyinbo from the male line got to the throne.
It was during the reign ofJagboju at Ohunmo that there was an inter-tribal war known as “Ogun Osokoro” in which Oyenusi and two of his agile,strong and powerful able bodied sons, Akinyomi and Awohanma were killed. When the invaders were approaching, Oyenusi ordered his first son to carry Olofun Jagboju who was then very old and decrepitude to a safe area in the forest so that he might not be killed and decapitated and his head carried away by the enemies. Oyenusi was conscious of the far reaching consequences, should that happened which in Yoruba tradition, means that the community over which such Oba reigned has lost the crown for ever and they become slaves of the conquering community. Oyenusi and his sons faced the invaders gallantly, but the leader of the defending force, Oyenusi and his two sons as well as the son of his senior brother Olofun Jagboju called Ladeji were killed during the skirmish.
When the invaders were repelled, and Olofun Jagboju was brought out of the forest, he discovered that his brother and two of his young agile sons Akinyomi and Awohanma, as well as his own first son were killed. He lamented and mourned him for seven days. He concluded that Ohunmo his mother’s home was no longer suitable for him to stay. He decided to move his administration to Irele his father’s home “Ma rele baba mi” meaning “I will go to my father’s home” where Irele got her name.
Another school of thought stated that Olumisokun’s other name from Ife was Irele and that many people knew Irele as Ilu Irele. Jagboju’s pronouncement when he left Ohunmo seems to be more valid ground from where to draw a conclusion on how the name Irele originated. Jagboju was the first Olofun to reign at Irele, and the first Olofun to be bruried in Irele. At that time, his father Bagberume had left Irele for Igbodigo across river Oluwa in present Okitipupa Local Government. Ironically, Opetusin the first son of Oyenusi did not participate in the war in which his father and his two younger brothers were killed. As soon as he was able to take Olofun Jagboju to a safe distance, he too hid himself in the forest. It was the same Opetusin being the eldest son ofOyenusi and perhaps the only one left that was ripe to be crowned as an Oba, that Olofun Jagboju decreed should reign after him.
After Jagboju, four of his children reigned as Olofun at Irele and two of Oyenusi children viz: Opetusin and Ojagbaletemi reigned as Olofun at Irele, all from the female line and two from the male line Viz:
Olowomuwagun and Adetubokanwa reigned at Irele. It was through the strong support and backing of descendants of Oyenusi that. the two from the male line were able: to ascend the throne. When it was time for Olowomuwagun to reign, there was stiff opposition to the male line producing a candidate. At that time, it was the most senior Ijama that approves who should be crowned an: Oba. Lemadoro Oronghayi who was the most senior Ijama rejected the candidature of Olowomuwagun from the male line on the ground that he belonged to the family that spoilt Orofun “Omo Igun to ba Orofun je’. He sent for Lamiho in Gbeleju and Monitehin of Lumeko all descendants of Oyenusi to come and take the crown, they both refused. Olowomuwagun lobbied a lot. Lemadoro Oronghayi, decided to put a curse on anybody who would allow Olowomuwagun or anybody from the male line to ascend the throne of Olofun oflrele.
Lemadoro Oronghayi was old and could not see well. At the time he assembled Irele people to put a curse on whoever would allow anybody from the male line to ascend the throne, Fasolu who should be stamping the “Okute” on the ground realised that his sister called Saala was the wife of Olowomuwagun, and that should there be a permanent injuction restraining the male line from the throne, his sister’s descendants would not have the opportunity to ascend the throne in future. Instead of stamping the Okute on the ground Fasolu was stamping his foot on the ground simply because Lemadoro Oronghayi due to old age could not see but could only hear sound. It was as a result of that ruse that Olowomuwagun from the male line was able to ascend the throne. After Olowomuwagun from the male line, two descendants of Jagboju viz: Meseyino and Adepehin reigned before Adetubokanwa from the male line ascended the throne.
It was a battle royale before Adetubokanwa could ascend the throne through the support and backing of the descendants of Oyenusi prominent amongst who were Gboroye Abere Ademujimi who was then the most senior Ijama and Fasholu from the Lanusi family. Akinmodiro Lowofoyekun a descendant of Jagboju gave Adetubokanwa a stiff competition and opposttion that Adetubokanwa stiff opposition who for reasons of antecedent history, could have lost the battle, but for the backing and support of descendants of Oyenusi.
That singular action by descendants of Oyenusi must have been one of the reasons that informed the decision of Olofun Adetubokanwa when in 1952, he drafted a chieftaincy declaration for the Olofun chieftaincy title proposing three Ruling Houses for Irele which were (1) Orunbemekun (2) Jagboju (3) Oyenusi Ruling Houses. That document got to the Western Region Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Ibadan. Almost all the descendants of the five direct sons of Jagboju except the eldest one Erufa have at one time or the other ascended the throne of Olofun of Irele. It was when Jagboju moved to Irele that the title was known as Olofun of Irele. Previously it was known as Olofun of Orofun or Onorofun and at Ohunmo it was known as Olofun of Ohunmo or Olohunmo.
CHAPTER V
OYENUSI
Oyenusi is the second son of Lumisokun Bagberumen, and Lobimitan, the daughter of Orunbemekun. There are twenty-one quarters in Oyenusi, representing the twenty-one male children of Oyenusi. These are:
(1) Opetusin (2) Erijimokun, (3) Agbogun, (4) Akinyomi (5) Lanusi (6) Idogun (7) Woye (8) Gboroye (9) Gbeleju (10) Maran (11) Luhare, (12)
Orunto, (13) Ayadi, (14) Oge, (15) Lemikan, (16)Arogbo, (17) Owanaye, (18) Sokoti, (19) Aduwo, (20) Petu, (21) Arowa.
Opetusin was the first son of Oyenusi, his mother was Okunsanbi from Oka in Ondo. She came to Irele area in search of a child after many years of childless marriage. Jagboju induced her to marry his brother who was then a
bachelor because he was not particularly attractive. Okunsanbi had five children for Oyenusi such as (1) Opetusin, (2) Erijimokun, (3) Agbogun, (4) Akinyomi, (5) Olanusi,the father of Woye, Orunto, Ayadi, Oge, Arogbo, Lemikan, Owanaye, Akinyomi,the father of Lumeko and Idogun and Latima. Agbogun’s children could not be easily identified now, they are found mostly in Idogun and Olanusi families. The reason being that Agbogun was very wealthy and prosperous. He had more than 200 (two hundred) slaves serving him on the farm, he had many wives and children but died young leaving many children behind. Olanusi being the younger one inherited all Agbogun’s wealth, his wives and his children were scattered into Olanusi and Idogun families where they became assimilated and can hardly identify themselves. However they are now trying to organise themselves and recognise their separate identity.
The descendants of Oyenusi occupy the largest area of Irele land, from Owena river to areas such as Onisere, Pakunla, Lugbomudu, Italaje, Onipaanu, Otu Loya, Ufan, Egbe Gboroye, Atoranse-Ayadi, Akinboni, Igbo Lumeko, Onigbogbo, Lofo, Petu, Gbogi, Ludasa, Loda. The descandants of Oyenusi form about 75% of the population of Irele. They are educated and very progressive. Most of the developments in Irele have come through some of them. Out of ten Irele people eight of them are Oyeriusi descendants. The first wife of Oyenusi was Okunsanbi, an Ondo woman. She was the mother of Opetusin, Erij imokun, Akinyomi, Agbogun Lanusi. The descendants of these children have become for Opetusin – Opetusin, Luwoye, Shogbon etc for Erijimokun-Aragbuwa. Agbogun children are right now not easily identifiable in Irele they are, scattered and mixed up with the other Oyenusi children. Akinyomi has produced Lumeko and Idogun. Lanusi, the last son of Okunsanbi has produced, Woye, Orunto, Ayadi, Arogbo, Oge, Lemikan, Sokoti etc. The second wife of Oyenusi was Gboko whose descendants are now knowna Aduwo in Irele.
The third wife was ‘Kujo, daughter of Odogbo of 0mm. Odogbo of 0mi brought his crown from Benin. The descendants of Kujo are Amohun who later took the title of Petu and Ogunbato who later took the title of Gboroye. The family belongs to one of the most progressive in Irele because of their early acceptance of Christianity and contact with Western education. They unlike other Irele people have no jungle deity, which they worship. The fourth wife of Oyenusi was BIUWA, whose descendants are Maran.
The fifth, wife of Oyenusi was Ojayitemi, whose descendants are known as Gbeleju in Irele. They belong to one of the progressive families in Irele becuase of their early contact with Western education. They, like the Kujo children, have no jungle deity they worship. The settlement of the two families was contiguous. Ojayitemi and Gboko are said to be sisters married to the same man, Oyenusi. Oyenusi descendants became very many and later formed very large families. Each of the families has a prime chieftaincy title which belongs to all of them bearing the name of the first son of the family such as Gboroye, Maran apart from other minor chieftaincy titles. Whoever takes the prime chieftaincy title is supposed to be the leader or head of the family.
In traditional matters, despite his age, he is supposed to preside. Such prime chieftaincy titles include Opetusin Agbogun, Akinyomi, Olanusi, Aduwo, Petu Amohun, Gboroye, Jegun, Maran etc. Under the Sub-division of Chieftaincy titles, and after the prime titles comes title such as Shogbon, Akarigbo etc. In the minor titles such as Araghuwa, and Naiyeju you have such as Idogun, and Lumeko from Akinyomi. In the Jegun title, there are titles such as Lotin, Aiyeobasan and Orunbato. In Maran, you have titles such as Lisa, Loyinmi and Ojan, but all true and genuine descendants of the first son have right to the prime titles of the family.
Apart from the family titles, all Oyenusi descendants have one common and important chieftaincy title in Irele. The chieftaincy title is Ojomo. The title originally came from Ondo. It was brought by the first wife of Oyenusi Okunsanbi, an Ondo woman from Oka in Ondo. She was the mother of Opetusin, Erijimokun Agbogun, Akinyomi and Olanusi. She first gave the chieftaincy title to her husband, Oyenusi. After the death of Oyenusi, the title was given to Amohun who later became Petu, from Kujo. The title became the property of all Oyenusi children and rotates amongst them. Though for some time and until some years past, the children of Olanusi sort of monopolised the title and regarded it as theirs exclusively. There is a move to reverse the situation and normalise the rotational system of the Ojomo title amongst all Oyenusi children. Irele people have a tradition of not allowing anybody who is not a true descendant to take the title of the head of the family. For example, anybody whose father is not a true son of Ogunbato, Gboroye Ladokun, would not be allowed to take the Gboroye title. In view of our patrilineal system, we do not reckon with where the mother comes from. If the father is not a direct descendant, the son however wealthy or highly placed, would not be allowed to take the title. This is the practice in Irele tradition, and the whole of Yoruba speaking areas of Nigeria. The Ojomo title serves as a uniting factor for all members of the Oyenusi Ruling House in Irele. It is to give every member of Oyenusi Ruling House the true sense of belonging, which the title has to rotate amongst all the true descendants of Oyenusi.
The uniqueness of the title lies in the fact that no other Ruling House in Irele has right to the title. The only other title common to all members of Oyenusi Ruling House is the title of Oyenusi itself All the 21 families in Oyenusi Ruling House are as of right entitled to the Olofun of Irele stool. Out of the 21 families Opetusin has ascended the throne twice (1) Opetusin and (2) Ojagbaletemi. Kujo family-Gboroye is at present on the throne – Olanrewaju. The following families have not ascended the throne at all. They are:
(a) Erijimokun
(b) Agbogun
(c) Akinyomi
(d) Aduwo (e) Lanusi (f) Maran (g) Gbeleju
It is necessary for a declaration of each of the families be prepared to avoid future conflict and acrimony in ascending the throne of Olofun of Irele. Indeed, such declaration is necessary in each of the three ruling houses in Irele. The descendants of Oyenusi have multiplied many folds and have thus hitherto formed about Seventy Five Percent (7 5%) of the population of contemporary Irele.
CHAPTER VI
ORUNBEMEKUN.
This is one of the Ruling Houses in Irele Kingdom. Members of the Orunbemekun family are direct descendants of the Olugbo of Ugbo. Ajana, their great ancestor was the first son of Olugbo Ameto. He was the one that brought the crown being won at Irele from his father palace at Ugbo. When their was a succession dispute at Ugbo between Ajana, the elder and Gbagba his junior brother. The dispute factionalised Ugbo people, a faction supporting Ajana, the rightful prince to ascend the throne and the other faction supporting Gbagba the junior brother. Those who supported the junior brother against Ajana the senior and rightful prince regarded Aj ana as very harsh, high-handed and warlike. Since they were in the majority, they crowned Gbagba Olugbo of Ugbo Ajana grew annoyed and felt cheated. He found it humiliating for him to pay obeisance to his younger brother as the tradition demands that everybody should pay obeisance to an Oba in a community. He took one of his father’s: crowns and decided to relocate with his followers and decided to found his own domain instead of remaining in Ugbo to pay obeisance to his junior brother on the throne;
He therefore collected one of the crowns his ancestors brought from Ife, collected his followers and with the assistance of Igbon who later became Gbogunron, packed from the Malokun Shrine, the long bass drum,(Agba Malokun) the Malokun calabash, Ufara calabash and the necessary artefacts for the worship of Malokun. They enter the canoe and sailed to Orofun the present Igbekebo in Ese-Odo Local Government.
It was at Orofun that Ajana was crowned as Olofun. He replicated the administrative system at Ugbo in Orofun. It was there he gave the title Gbogunron to Igbon to replicate one of the important chieftaincy titles at Ugbo. At Ugbo, the Gbogunron was the right hand Chief of Olugbo. Ajana made Igbon the Gbogunron and termed him “Ikaton Olofun the right-hand man of Olofun. When Ajana died and his first son, Orunbemekun was to ascend the throne, the succession dispute that took Ajana to Orofun reared its ugly head again. :
Ogeyinbo was the junior brother of Orunbemekun. He too wanted to succeed their father instead of his rightful senior brother Orunbemekun. When the people of Orofun could not resolve the disagreement, both of them went to Benin. It is pertinent to note that this was during the famous Benin Empire. The Oba of Benin was controlling most of the present Undo State up to Lagos. He sent his vassals to supervise some of his vast empire. The vassal he sent to this area was called “KALE” where the Ikales got the generic name of Ikale, the one he sent to Lagos was also known as EKO. Benin then was like the present Supreme Court, which gives final judgment on matters referred there.
Ogeyinbo went straight to the palace of the Oba of Benin, while Orunbemekun accompanied by his pretty teenage daughter Lobimitan, went to stay with the King’s mother at Uselu through his daughters influence. After some time, Lobimitan presented his father’s case to the king’s mother as the king’s mother had developed special interest in her because of her beauty, the way she was carrying and conducting herself in the palace. That was before Ogeyinbo could get an appointment with the Uba. Lobimitan gave Oba’s mother the details of the dispute that took her father and his junior brother to Benin and solicited for the assistance of the Oba’s mother for her father to take the throne that properly belonged to him. The Oba’s mother sympathized with Lobimitan and her father Orunbemekun. She then sent a message forward to tell her son that the Obaship dispute brought to his palace from Orofun for which one of the contestants called Ogeyinbo was now in his palace should be resolved in favour of Orunbemekun who was with her in her palace at Uselu. This was before Ogeyinbo could get audience with the Oba. Immediately the Oba got his mother’s message, he sent for Ogeyinbo and told him to go back home, that he, the Oba had consented that Orunbemekun should ascend the throne of Olofun. Ogeyinbo returned home disappointed and decided to migrate to another place to found his own domain. He left Orofun hurriedly, went to the Malokun Shrine before he got to the shrine, Gbogunron had packed Ugba Malokun and all the other materials for the worship of Malokun. Ogeyinbo grabbed the calabash of Ufara, the water goddess supposed to be the wife of Malokun sea god. Ogeyinbo left Orofun in annoyance and after sailing for some time got to “Aluma” in Erinje.
In view of the threatening attack of Orofun by Ogeyinbo and his horde of followers, Orunbemekun and his people had to move to Ohunmo in present Irele Local Government. They settled at Ohunmo where three of his descendants Osomona, Orukotan, Kubeji, Jagbemi ascended the throne and reigned as Olofun, before Jagboju from the female line ascended the throne. From Ohunmo, they all moved en mass to contemporary Ode-irele after the Osokoro war when they got to Irele, they built their house in contiguous areas, as such, you find Orunbemekun, Gbogunron and Aribo in the same area while the descendants of Jagboju occupied another area and the descendants of Oyenusi in another area.
ARIBO: Aribo is another distinct family in Irele. Lara was the daughter of Gbogunron, married to Awogoke from Mahin. When her husband died, Lara returned to her father with her children. Since Gbogunron was very close to Orunbemekun, Lara stayed with her, father at Ohunmo. Gbogunron and Orunbemekun lived in very close proximity; a casual observer would conclude that they were related. Lara was relatively young when she lost her husband.. In view of their living together, Oyinbo one of Orunbemekun’s son befriended her and she had a son for Oyinbo called Olowomuwagun who later reigned as Olofun. Thus the descendants of Olowomuwagun are related to the Aribos, the descendants of Awogoke are the Aribos ‘in Irele. Aribo was the title of their father, Awogoke at Mahin.
CHAPTER VII
GBOGUNRON
T his is one of the distinct families in Irele kingdom but unlike the other three families, it is not one of the ruling houses in Irele kingdom. Igbon, the great ancestor of the Gbogunron family was originally from Mahin in Ilaje Local Government Area and one of the loyalists of Ajana that followed him to Orofun. He was the head of the Ifa priests of Amapetu at Mahin. He had an affair with the wife of Amapetu of Mahin and was about to be executed for having illicit sexual intercourse with the wife of an Oba, which is a sacrilege in Yoruba tradition. He ran t6 Ugbo to take refuge with Ajana, a very powerful warrior prince of Ugbo. One of the reasons Ugbo people denied Ajana the crown was his high-handedness and war like approach to everything. Samuel Ademola gboroye, Richmond Texas
When at Ugbo, Igbon became one of the Malokun priests because of his previous knowledge of traditional things as Ifa priest. He later graduated to be the head of the Malokun priests. Igbon was with Ajana during the succession dispute between Ajana and his junior brother Gbagba. When finally, Ugbo people decided to crown Gbagba, the junior brother of Ajana as the Ulogbo of Ugbo to succeed Olugbo Ameto of Ugbo, Ajana grew annoyed, and decided to migrate from Ugbo to found his own domain where he too would be crowned an Oba. With the help of Igbon, he took all the necessary things for his coronation and replicated all the artefacts for the worship of Malokun, a deity brought from Ife. He took the long brass drum and some of the movable things such as crown made of cowries, from the palace, and from the Malokun shrine Agbaide, Ugba Malokun, Ugba Ufara,Opa Aja, Okute, loaded into a hand paddled canoe and sailed to Orofun. Aj ana gave the title of Gbogunron to Igbon when he and his followers got to ‘ the present Igbekebo in Ese-Odo Local Government. After wandering about on the creeks for days before getting to places asAgerige, Ita Maporunre, Ita Ayelala, etc. it was at Orofun that the long brass drum dropped to the river and lost for ever.
It was at Orofun that Gbogunron crowned Ajana. Like Ulogbo of Ugbo, he, Olofun of Orofun thus at the same time installed Igbon as Gbogunron and made him the chief sovereignty of the Benin monarch. He sent his vassals to supervise distant territories and: collect tributes from the subjects. Thus “Kale” was sent to supervise this area and “EKO” to Lagos. The court of the Benin monarch was like the present Supreme Court, as the pronouncement from the palace of the Benin monarch including tm! by ordeal became the law and final authority on any matter especially matters referred to Benin. Any Oba who was not from Benin would not be allowed to wear a crown or accorded full recognition however powerful he may be. The only exception was Undo and Tie-Oluji who were the children of Alafin of Oyo, another powerful empire in Nigeria. The other exception was Olugbo of Ugbo who brought his own crown from Ife. A crown that predates the Benin crown.
Ogeyinbo went personally to appeal to the Benin monarch to pronounce him the Olofun of Orofun He stayed for sometime in the Oba’s Palace, before he could get appointment with the Oba Orunbemekun through the prompting and proding of his pretty teenage daughter Lobirnitan, also. went to Benin presumably through the advice of his daughter Lobimitan, who accompanied her father to Benin went to stay in the palace of the king’s mother at Uselu. After a few days in the Oba’s mother palace, Lobimitan presented her father’s case to the king’s mother and solicited for her assistance to convince the Oba to pronounce Orunbemekun her father, the Olofun of Orofun. Impressed by Lobimitan, the king’s mother’s sent a message to her son requesting him to prounce Orunbemekiun as the Olofun of Orofun and to send Ogeyinbo who was then in the palace away. This was before Ogeyinbo could get an appointment with the Oba. When the Oba got his mother’s message, he ordered that his servants should fetch Ogeyinbo in the palace and tell him to return to where he came from because he had pronounced Orunbemekun the Olofun of Orofun in accordance with his mother’s instruction.
When Igbon or Gbogunron got the news that Ogeyinbo was coming back disappointed, he guessed rightly that he might plan to migrate to found his own domain like his grandfather, Aj ana. Gbogunron quickly arranged to move some important traditional things, especially artefacts for the worship of the Malokun diety, which Ajana brought from Ugbo and kept them away from the shrine. In his hurry to get those things out, he forgot Ufara calabash – Ugba Ufara which is usually placed side by side with Ugba Malokun. The myth is that Malokun male god is the husband of Ufara female, Okun in Yoruba means the sea and Ufara is a river both the husband and wife are water god and goddess.
When Ogeyinbo got to Orofun, he went straight to the Malokun shrine where the artefacts were kept and worshipped. He could find only Ugba Ufara and carried it away. On return to Orofun and hearing the role Gbogunron had played in his support, Orunbemekun fell very happy and grateful to Gbogunron and gave him the title of “Opalema”. Orunbemekun was crowned Olofun and Ogeyinbo, his junior brother relocated to Erinje with all his followers.
The descendants of Gbogunron and O became very close and it got to a point in their relationship that Gbogunron was crowning the Olofun. When they migrated from Orofun to Ohunmo, Gbogunron descendants followed and became important members of the community with contiguous settlements as such, an outsider can hardly differentiate Orunbemekun descendants from Gbogunron descendants.
Gbogunron family is one of the unique families in Irele. Igbon, the great anccestor of the Gbogunron family is one of the loyalists that followed Ajana from Ugbo when the latter left Ugbo as a result of seccession dispute regarding the Olugbo chieftaincy title.
When Ugbo people decided to installed Gbagba as the Olugbo, Ajana the senior brother who is the senior son of Olugbo Ameto, who should have ascended the throne grew annoyed and decided to move out of Ugbo to go and found his own separate domain where he could be crowned as an Oba. Igbon, the great ancestor of the Gbogunron was the Chief of the Malokun priests. Malokun is the diety the Olugbo took along with him while leaving Ife. Igbon was friendly with Aj ana and one of the few that was favourably disposed to Aj ana being made the Olugbo ofUgbo after the death of his father, Olugbo Ameto. Igbon opted to follow his friend Aj ana when the latter decided to migrate from Ugbo. He was the one that helped Ajana to pack all the necessary things from the Malokun shrine at Ugbo including the long brass drum Agba Ude. He followed Ajana on the creeks to places like Agerige. Ita Maporure, Ita Ayelala until they finally settled at Orofun, the present Igbekebo in Ese-Odo Local Government. The long brass drum brought from Ugbo dropped to the river and could not be retrieved again. It was at Orofun that Gbogunron crowned Ajana as Olofun of Orofun and he gave Gbogunron to Igbon, the title of the Ugbo chief that was next in rank to the Olugbo. Thus the title of Gbogunron became the most important title among Igbon descendants. All the ceremonies, titles, artefacts of Ugbo were replicated at Orofun. Arofun became another Ugbo in microcosm” Igbon maintained very close link with Ajana until Aj ana died. The problem that arose at Ugbo leading to the migration of Ajana from Ugbo repeated itself at Orofun at the demise of Ajana. Orunbemekun and Ogeyinbo two male children of Ajana were locked in horns on the succession to the throne. The matter was settled finally at Benin.
All right reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronics, mechanical, photo-copying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the author.
Copyright © HRM, Oba Olanrewaju Lebi, /Potter’s
House Limited, 2010. Published in Nigeria
By Potter’s House Limited RC 465885
37/21, Nnobi Street,
Off Kilo B/Stop, Ikate,
Surulere, Lagos.
I S B N: 978-978-907-626-li
DEDICATIONThis book is specially dedicated to the memory of my beloved mother who did all she could, to put me in the light of academic scenario.ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSince I received the inspiration to put together this book, I have found an extra strength to go through the process of documenting the ideas. Thus I give God Almighty the glory for providing me with that extra strength and inspiration to go through it. For without Him getting to this stage would have been an effort in futility.To my Chiefs and all the people of Irele, I say thank you for all the experiences I have had to share with you all the time. Ode-Irele, our ancestral home is our land and we must do all we can to put it in its rightful place of history.
My special thanks also goes to those individuals whom I spoke to about this idea and their responses became more encouraging to me. In this category of individuals are my brother, Mr Adeokuoroye Romimora, my Computer Operator and other aides. May you find assistance too when you need it.
Also a large chunk of thanks go to my Publishing House-Potter’s House Limited, Lagos and the MD/CEO, Mr. Oladipo Ibironke Duyile. I have been greatly encouraged by your reaction to the whole project from the moment you came in. It is my prayer that God will continue to assist you as you move up.
Oba Olanrewaju Lebi, Oyenusi III, Olofun of Ode-Irele, May 2010.
FOREWORD
In several African settings, quite often, getting people with the zeal to document their ancestral home is a difficult task. However, for the very few individuals with the courage to embark on such assignments, it is a feat that deserves commendation. Aside from this, it has often been a challenge for most of the traditional settlements in our land to get their history documented. Rather, it has often been a case of relying on oral transfer of stories from one generation to another
Like several other kingdoms, the history of Ode-Irele like must have been given different interpretations by many other people. This I am sure must have propel the author (Kabiyesi’s) interest in trying to put the records straight in giving the people of Ode-Irele an authentic version of the story of their homestead.
From experience, getting oneself involve in an exercise of this nature could normally attracts some level of second thought because of the fear of reaction to what such an author might have put together. But having gone through this script and hearing the oral history of other people I am but compelled to commend His Royal Majesty, Oba Olarewaju Lebi’s efforts at documenting his place of Origin and encouraging his people with the story of their land.
With this feat achieved by Kabiyesi, the traditional setting across Yoruba land has been challenged to take up the task of doing all they can to ensure that historical documentation of their domain is given a top priority. By all standard, Kabiyesi has done what will set the pace for. most other settlements in our land. One is once again encouraged that as tight as Kabiyesi’s schedule remain, he has been able to share his time between writing and attending to other matters his throne demands.
From all the book has to offer, the first chapter, History of Irele talks of the origin of Ode-Irele, its people and their geographical make up. The second Chapter titled Some Important Festivals in Ode-Irele explains to an average reader and students of history, the different festivals in Ode-Irele. This is followed by the third to sixth Chapters, all which has extensively been put together by the author to give an adequate information that will satisfy the inquisitive mind of the reader about Ode-Irele, his place of birth.
By going.this far, Kabiyesi as an author has successfully brought to bear the influence of education and exposure as very important factors in the choice kingship people for any settlement. It is very touching that most traditional settings in our society have remained undocumented even with their very long and rich historical settlement.
To all readers of this book, I commend this effort of Kabiyesi and expects that people with the quest for history will find it interesting to have copies of this book in their libraries and at the same time find a visit to Ode-Irele, a lifetime experience. I am once again challenged to commend Kabiyesi as an author and traditional ruler and I do hope that this will further encourage him to go into putting into documentation other ideas: that will take our people further away from the tradition of mainly relying on oral history.
Otunba BolaAdeyeye, Maiyegun ofEde land, Lagos Nigeria, May, 2010.
CHAPTER I
ODE IRELE.
Irele is one of the principal Ikale towns in former Okitipupa Division of Ondo state. It is the headquarters of Irele Local Government, the other communities that make Irele Local Government are Omi, lyansan, Aj agba, Akotogbo and Iju-Osun. These are Ikale communities with different history and origin. All these other communities speak both Ikale dialect and, Edo language because of the source of their migration to the present site. As a matter of fact, a couple of years past, some of the communities were grouped together under one Local Government known as “Benin Confederation”
Irele kingdom has boundary with lyansan, Ese-Odo Local Government at Sabomi, Ese-Odo Local Government at Igbobini, Aye in Okitipupa Local Government at Ominla, with Ondo/Odigbo Local Government at Ore, Edo State at Ofoso. Ode-Irele is the major town of Irele territory. There are some other smaller settlements in Irele territory, such as Gbeleju Loda, Lofo, Onipaanu,Atoranse-Ayadi, Aj ana, Otu Loya, Ayadi/Jrelejare, Litoto, Kajola, Oju Inn, Kidimo, Araromi, Likanran, Idogun, Lekun, Gbogi, Ludasa, Omonira/Lebi Akinbomi etc. The metropolis of Ode-Irele with very rapid urbanisation is about 5 square kilometers, it is the largest single human settlement in the whole of former Okitipupa Division, is still growing by leaps and bounds. Irele town is built on a hill in that, to enter Irele through all the roads that lead to the town, you have to climb a small hill. Irele has the largest population amongst all the towns in the former Okitipupa Division.
Irele people bear the generic name Ikale with other Ikale people in former Okitipupa Division. How they came by this name should form the subject of a different exercise. Irele Ikale has a unique and distinct feature, which stands him out amongst other Ikales. They are tall and good-looking. In dressing, their men are elegant, in character they are more rigid and very inflexible. At home they are honest because of the fear of “Umale” a vengeful spirit that kills thieves, knaves, witches and wizards and those who possess dangerous charms for harming other people or damage their material goods. For fear of this spirit, hardly can you find an Irele man adopting charms to acquire wealth, unlike other people in Nigeria. For that reason, Irele people are not as affluent as many other Ikales.
Irele people are very hardworking people. They are good farmers growing mostly food crops, until about some decades back when they turned to cocoa growing. As at now, Irele produces the largest quantity of cocoa in Ikale land. Irele people also produce the largest quantity of rubber. They also produce a large quantity of palm produce.
Irele people seem to have more land than many Ikale communities. Their main occupation is farming, practising mostly shifting cultivation system of farming. As a result of Irele extensive land, a Forest Reserve was created in Irele in 1918 measuring 18 miles by 7 miles known as OA II from where woods of all descriptions were produced for export and to be used for furniture making and building of houses.
Irele Forest Reserve appears the only one in the whole Ikale land. Out of the mineral resources in Irele land, bitumen has been geologically identified to be in very large and investible quantity. There is no doubt that with more geological work in Irele area, more mineral resources would be discovered. Irele has identical climate with all the coastal areas of Western Nigeria. During the rainy season, the rains are torrential, flooding many areas. The vegetation is evergreen, the soil is clayish, hence many land areas are water logged during the rainy season.
RESOURCES
Irele Kingdom is endowed with many resources. Palm produce is abundant in Irele, the climate is quite suitable for Palm fruits. Almost every family has small or large palm Estate. The former Western Nigeria Government acquired some parts of Irele for the planting of palm trees as Palm Estates.
Apart from palm produce, timber and other economic trees abound in Irele territory. Cocoa grows very well in Irele territory. As a matter of fact, Irele is perhaps the only area in former Okitipupa Division or Ikale, producing Cocoa in very large quantity. The unfortunate thing is that the large quantity of Cocoa produced in Irele is not graded in Irele Local Government Area. Owing to the fact that there is no Feeder Road to evacuate the Cocoa beans to Irele.
Irele territory appears to be the epicentre of the bitumen deposit in Ondo State indeed in Nigeria. Geological work has proved a very large deposit of bitumen in Irele territory; the mineral had been discovered during the colonial era. The indigenes of Irele have known about the bitumen deposit long ago hence a camp is up till now called Loda but did not know the economic value until recently, when a Canadian Company called JEREX International was granted licence to do some preliminary work on the bitumen deposit in Irele territory. The company worked for more than one year sinking about ten holes through which they confirmed the existence of gas deposit at Akinboni in Irele territory. It appears there are still some other unidentified mineral substances in Irele territory.
CHAPTER II
SOME IMPORTANT FESTIVALS IN IRELE
A part from the Christian festivals, there are many traditional festivals being celebrated annually at Irele. The important festivals starts with “ORE”
festival: This is a festival celebrated after growing crops on the farm. This festival was brought from Ife, from a place called (More) in Ile-Ife. After planting, a day is set aside for the people to rest, it has to be pointed out that at that time in ancient history, Irele people and indeed all the people bearing the name Ikale were mainly food crops farmers, growing crops such as yams, maize, melon, vegetables of various types, pepper etc. After the annual propitiation of the land and the planting of the crops, the myth is that the agreed date for Ore festival is the date the yams in the farm would hold their annual meeting in the farm and announce in their meeting, the size of tubers they would give their owners. Some would announce that their owners had pleased the land, the land had asked them to give their owners big tubers, some because their owners had not sufficiently pleased the land, the land had decided to give their owners small tubers etc. It is therefore forbidden for anybody to go to the farm on Ore festival day. It is interesting to note that Ore festival is still being celebrated at UTESE and USEN in Edo state, by the descendants of Olumisokun, left in Edo State on his way to
Irele.
Another important aspect of Ore festival is that before that date, no body is allowed to openly bring fresh yams to Ode Irele, on that day, rituals would be performed at the foot of Ore tree in front of Malokun shrine to inform Malokun that the people have completed planting the dry yams and that from then, fresh yams are allowed to be brought to Ode Irele town and Irele markets.
The next traditional festival is “OJOYEJUSU”, this is a special day sometimes in September or October, of every year depending on the appearance of the new moon in the sky, when the High Chiefs and chiefs would taste fresh or new yams. The mythical belief is that, this is the day the spirits of our ancestors come to visit their children at night to bless them. A lot of ceremonies and rituals are performed throughout the night This is followed with when Kabiyesi and Gbogunron would taste the new yam five days after. Eje Festival follows this.
Eje Festival: This is the day set aside by every family in Irele to offer new yams to their ancestors starting with Gbogunron. It is usually 5 days apart. Before it goes round the whole family in Irele, it would be late November or early December, this is the festival for ancestor worship. The beauty of the Eje festival is that during the festival, in each family, all their married daughters wherever they may be in Nigeria, are expected to come home, sometime with their husbands and stay with their families for five days. During the festival, each family is expected to bring out their masquerades to entertain people. It is a period when the farmers have completed their work on the farms and their crops are waiting for harvesting. It is a leisure period for them to rest for a few weeks before returning to embark on harvesting of their crops and preparing the ground for another planting.
Igbowo Festival: This is a festival performed every other year. After series of rituals and ceremonies, the Kabiyesi is supposed to dance in full traditional regalia with Ada (Sword) and Okute 3 times each with the two sacred instruments. It is a festival that attracts quite a large crowd of people both at home and outside even sometime dignitaries from other parts of the state and country.
CHAPTER III
THE PEOPLE OF IRELE
The people of Irele can be said to be from mainly two sources which in actual fact could be regarded as one source. Olumisokun the founder of Irele was from Ife. Olumisokun descendants form about 95% of the population of contemporary Irele. These are the descendants of Jagboju and Oyenusi the two male children of Olumisokun. Orunbemekun and Gbogunron were from Ugbo and in view of the fact that Ugbo people left Ife for the coastal area of the former Okitipupa Division of Ondo State. All Irele people could be validly said to originated from Ife.
There are four principal quarters in Irele, they are (1) Jagboju (2) Oyenusi (3) Orunbemekun and (4) Gbogunron/Aribo. Each of the people occupies different and distinct areas of Ode-Irele. Jagboju family occupies almost the centre of the town on the way from Ohunmo where he came from.
This is the area on the entry from Omi, on the way to Ohunmo. It is the area where currently the sacred Malokun shrine of Irele is situated. He settled his late brother Oyenusi’s children not far from him but they kept spreading because of their numerical strength. As at now Jagboju descendants occupy areas leading to Omi,Sabomi. Oyenusi descendants occupy areas from Malokun sacred shrine down to Ogbodogbo, to Ebute-Irele to Apere stream on Olowo-Irele road and beyond. Gbogunron who came along with Orunbemekun from Ugbo to Ohunmo to Irele, occupies contiguous area with Orunbemekun descendants, sharing farm land with them and Aribo.
Descendants of Gbogunron became larger than Orunbemekun in number and therefore had more farmland than Orunbemekun. Also in Ode-Irele, Gbogunron descendants have more houses and occupy larger land area than Orunbemekun descendants. In the midst of the two Ugbo families is Aribo who came from Mahin. Awogoke, a Mahin man married Lara, the daughter of Gbogunron. She returned to her father after the death of her husband. Each family keeps spreading in the area of Irele it occupies, thus some Jagboju descendants came across the Ijaw-Apoi at places such as Sabomi,Iyara,Iditala, Ebute-Ode and crossed over to places like Litoto, Akingboye etc., And Oyenusi descendants went as far as Onisere,Ore, Oluwa river, Otuloya, Egbe Gboroye,Taibo until they met Jyansan people at Ebijo and Edo, and Idanre people. at river Owena. The people keep spreading because of increase in population and, their shifting cultivation farming system, which necessitated moving to new land every year.
This system of farming has the advantage of enabling them to acquire more and more farmland on which they settled. Their population density was then very low. Any land on which they farmed became their own. They had the habit of inviting or accommodating non-indigenes into their midst. They did this by marrying their daughters to stranger elements, but the stranger elements must stay and farm with them. They would give the stranger free access to land for farming and building houses. The stranger is given equal treatment with the indigenes. After sometime, he becomes completely assimilated and can aspire to any political position especially if he is a powerful man who has a lot of food items in his barn, which is an indication that he could feed his wife and children if given a wife. As a result of this system, many people in Irele are maternal indigenes; Irele people adopted this system purposely to boosting their sparse population, compared with the land at their disposal. It helped them in fighting a war especially at a time when inter-tribal wars were very common in all communities, from which they supplied slaves for sale to the European and Arab slave traders.
Contemporary Irele people are mostly Christians, there are many churches in Ode-Irele, most of the churches are the Pentecostal Churches. The orthodox ones include Catholic, Anglican, Methodist, Baptist Salvation Army. Islamic religion is gradually finding its foot in Irele through the influence of the non-indigenes who are mainly from Osun, Kwara and from the northern parts of Nigeria. Some Irele people are animists, worshipping gods of trees, streams and stones, owing to their limited knowledge of the earth and their existence in the World and their surrounding. They cannot think in the abstract, the believe that God is so high above and can not be known, seen or reached to approach him therefore, they have to go through intermediaries like stones and trees which they can see. Irele people bear the generic name “IKALE” with the other Ikale people but are distinctly different from many Ikale in many ways. Oral story tellers stated that irele like many other communities in this area came under the awesome Benin Empire.:
The Oba of Benin sent his vassals to supervise some parts of his domain. The vassal sent to supervise this area was called “KALE”. Anybody from the area was referred to as Omokale which was later shortened Ikale. In like manner, the one sent to Lagos was known as “EKO” Lagosians thus became “OMO EKO”.
CHAPTER IV
JAGBOJU
Jagboju is the first son of Bagberume Olumisokun the founder of Irele who migrated from Ife via Idanre and Benin. Jagboju was prosperous, he had many slaves and many children, male and female. Some of his children are Erufa, the first son who was killed during the Osokoro war. His descendants are the present Yasere, Lurogho, Odunwo. Fabohun, whose descendants are now Obolo or Omo in Irele. Mamuwahan, whose descendants are now Obamoyegun and Akingboye and Ruwahe, Logbosere, whose descendants still retain the name of Logbosere, Lurogho, whose descendants still retain the name of Lurogho. Lemadoro maternal brother of Lurogho whose descendants retain the name Lemadoro. It was Jagboju that sort of merged the administration of those who migrated from Ugbo and those who migrated from Ife when he was Olofun and moved his headquarters to Irele his father’s settlement.
Jagboju is a ruling house in the Olofun of lrele Chieftaincy. As a matter of fact, it was on Jagboju that the crown of Olofun of Irele was extended to the female line. Under normal circumstance, a female child does not reign as an Oba. In exceptional cases, the crown is passed to the female line after performing some rituals to appease the spirits of the ancestors and obtain their consent for extending the crown to the female line. It was under that exceptional circumstances the crown of Olofun of Irele was extended to Lobimitan, wife of Olumisokun and mother of Jagboju and Oyenusi. Lobimitan was the daughter of Orunbemekun who was the son of Ajana who left Ugbo in annoyance with one of his father’s crowns.
The brother of Orunbemekun was Ogeyinbo. After the death of Ajana at Orofun, there was succession dispute between Orunbemekun and Ogeyinbo which Orunbemekun won, after obtaining the approval of the Oba of Benin. At that time, the great Benin Empire was so powerful that it was holding sovereignty over many areas of present Ondo state, due perhaps to the awesomeness of the empire or due to the proximity to Benin by this area or both almost all disputes in this area were referred to the Oba of Benin for adjudication.
As a result of the dispute, Ogeyinbo left Orofun with Ugba Ufara for Erinje where he became the Orungberuwa. He was with the support of some Ijaw people harassing Orunbemekun and his people who were under constant attacks from Ogeyinbo people at Orofun, by attack. Orunbemekun group had to move out of Orofun. Orunbemekun presumably heard about a nearby community under Bagberume Olumisokun near where they could go and live with Olumisokun so that they could be neighbours offering each other protection from the invading hordes. They and Gbogunron move to Irele. Olumisokun seeing that Orunbemekun was an Oba concluded that two Obas could not live in the same community. To be able to offer reciprocal,protection and assistance in time of need, he gave them a piece of land close to Irele where he could easily monitor the goings on in the Eastern side of Irele called Ohunmo very close to present day Omi. It was under that principle that Bagberume Olumisokun, gave land to Abodi of Ikoya and Lumure of Ayeka at Irele when they arrived at Irele on their way from Benin at Ohunmo, after Orunbemekun, Osomona, Orukotan, Kubeji and Jagbemi, all from the male line reigned as Olofun. At the demise of Jagbemi, the male line was bereft of suitable candidate to ascend the throne. Orofin the only surviving son was deformed and his son Oyinbo was a minor who could not be crowned a king. It was in the midst of that dilemma that Gbogunron who had all along been a great loyalist of Ajana and his descendants and who had been crowning all the Olofuns from Ajana at Orofun to Jagbemi, proposed that the crown be extended to the female line purposely to retain the crown. Ogeyinbo’s descendants conscious of the vacuum created were threatening to come and. acquire the crown to revenge past defeat and humiliation. Ohunmo people agreed with the proposal of Gbogunron and offered Lobimitan the daughter of Orunbemekun and mother ofJagboju and Oyenusi. By that arrangement the crown was given to Jagboju at Ohunmo where they requested Jagboju to produce a ram for sacrifice to the spirit of the ancestors for their approval to extend the crown to the female line. Jagboju presented the ram and was crowned the Olofun at Ohunmo. His Junior brother was to reign after him should the problem of shortage of suitable man power in the male line persist. The suitable manpower problem in the male line did persist resulting in the coronation of Six(6) Olofuns such as Lobiken, Opetusin, Fadulu, Aiyebosehin, Akingboye and Ojagbaletemi from the Jagboju and Oyenusi families before another suitable candidate in person of Olowomuwagun son of Oyinbo from the male line got to the throne.
It was during the reign ofJagboju at Ohunmo that there was an inter-tribal war known as “Ogun Osokoro” in which Oyenusi and two of his agile,strong and powerful able bodied sons, Akinyomi and Awohanma were killed. When the invaders were approaching, Oyenusi ordered his first son to carry Olofun Jagboju who was then very old and decrepitude to a safe area in the forest so that he might not be killed and decapitated and his head carried away by the enemies. Oyenusi was conscious of the far reaching consequences, should that happened which in Yoruba tradition, means that the community over which such Oba reigned has lost the crown for ever and they become slaves of the conquering community. Oyenusi and his sons faced the invaders gallantly, but the leader of the defending force, Oyenusi and his two sons as well as the son of his senior brother Olofun Jagboju called Ladeji were killed during the skirmish.
When the invaders were repelled, and Olofun Jagboju was brought out of the forest, he discovered that his brother and two of his young agile sons Akinyomi and Awohanma, as well as his own first son were killed. He lamented and mourned him for seven days. He concluded that Ohunmo his mother’s home was no longer suitable for him to stay. He decided to move his administration to Irele his father’s home “Ma rele baba mi” meaning “I will go to my father’s home” where Irele got her name.
Another school of thought stated that Olumisokun’s other name from Ife was Irele and that many people knew Irele as Ilu Irele. Jagboju’s pronouncement when he left Ohunmo seems to be more valid ground from where to draw a conclusion on how the name Irele originated. Jagboju was the first Olofun to reign at Irele, and the first Olofun to be bruried in Irele. At that time, his father Bagberume had left Irele for Igbodigo across river Oluwa in present Okitipupa Local Government. Ironically, Opetusin the first son of Oyenusi did not participate in the war in which his father and his two younger brothers were killed. As soon as he was able to take Olofun Jagboju to a safe distance, he too hid himself in the forest. It was the same Opetusin being the eldest son ofOyenusi and perhaps the only one left that was ripe to be crowned as an Oba, that Olofun Jagboju decreed should reign after him.
After Jagboju, four of his children reigned as Olofun at Irele and two of Oyenusi children viz: Opetusin and Ojagbaletemi reigned as Olofun at Irele, all from the female line and two from the male line Viz:
Olowomuwagun and Adetubokanwa reigned at Irele. It was through the strong support and backing of descendants of Oyenusi that. the two from the male line were able: to ascend the throne. When it was time for Olowomuwagun to reign, there was stiff opposition to the male line producing a candidate. At that time, it was the most senior Ijama that approves who should be crowned an: Oba. Lemadoro Oronghayi who was the most senior Ijama rejected the candidature of Olowomuwagun from the male line on the ground that he belonged to the family that spoilt Orofun “Omo Igun to ba Orofun je’. He sent for Lamiho in Gbeleju and Monitehin of Lumeko all descendants of Oyenusi to come and take the crown, they both refused. Olowomuwagun lobbied a lot. Lemadoro Oronghayi, decided to put a curse on anybody who would allow Olowomuwagun or anybody from the male line to ascend the throne of Olofun oflrele.
Lemadoro Oronghayi was old and could not see well. At the time he assembled Irele people to put a curse on whoever would allow anybody from the male line to ascend the throne, Fasolu who should be stamping the “Okute” on the ground realised that his sister called Saala was the wife of Olowomuwagun, and that should there be a permanent injuction restraining the male line from the throne, his sister’s descendants would not have the opportunity to ascend the throne in future. Instead of stamping the Okute on the ground Fasolu was stamping his foot on the ground simply because Lemadoro Oronghayi due to old age could not see but could only hear sound. It was as a result of that ruse that Olowomuwagun from the male line was able to ascend the throne. After Olowomuwagun from the male line, two descendants of Jagboju viz: Meseyino and Adepehin reigned before Adetubokanwa from the male line ascended the throne.
It was a battle royale before Adetubokanwa could ascend the throne through the support and backing of the descendants of Oyenusi prominent amongst who were Gboroye Abere Ademujimi who was then the most senior Ijama and Fasholu from the Lanusi family. Akinmodiro Lowofoyekun a descendant of Jagboju gave Adetubokanwa a stiff competition and opposttion that Adetubokanwa stiff opposition who for reasons of antecedent history, could have lost the battle, but for the backing and support of descendants of Oyenusi.
That singular action by descendants of Oyenusi must have been one of the reasons that informed the decision of Olofun Adetubokanwa when in 1952, he drafted a chieftaincy declaration for the Olofun chieftaincy title proposing three Ruling Houses for Irele which were (1) Orunbemekun (2) Jagboju (3) Oyenusi Ruling Houses. That document got to the Western Region Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Ibadan. Almost all the descendants of the five direct sons of Jagboju except the eldest one Erufa have at one time or the other ascended the throne of Olofun of Irele. It was when Jagboju moved to Irele that the title was known as Olofun of Irele. Previously it was known as Olofun of Orofun or Onorofun and at Ohunmo it was known as Olofun of Ohunmo or Olohunmo.
CHAPTER V
OYENUSI
Oyenusi is the second son of Lumisokun Bagberumen, and Lobimitan, the daughter of Orunbemekun. There are twenty-one quarters in Oyenusi, representing the twenty-one male children of Oyenusi. These are:
(1) Opetusin (2) Erijimokun, (3) Agbogun, (4) Akinyomi (5) Lanusi (6) Idogun (7) Woye (8) Gboroye (9) Gbeleju (10) Maran (11) Luhare, (12)
Orunto, (13) Ayadi, (14) Oge, (15) Lemikan, (16)Arogbo, (17) Owanaye, (18) Sokoti, (19) Aduwo, (20) Petu, (21) Arowa.
Opetusin was the first son of Oyenusi, his mother was Okunsanbi from Oka in Ondo. She came to Irele area in search of a child after many years of childless marriage. Jagboju induced her to marry his brother who was then a
bachelor because he was not particularly attractive. Okunsanbi had five children for Oyenusi such as (1) Opetusin, (2) Erijimokun, (3) Agbogun, (4) Akinyomi, (5) Olanusi,the father of Woye, Orunto, Ayadi, Oge, Arogbo, Lemikan, Owanaye, Akinyomi,the father of Lumeko and Idogun and Latima. Agbogun’s children could not be easily identified now, they are found mostly in Idogun and Olanusi families. The reason being that Agbogun was very wealthy and prosperous. He had more than 200 (two hundred) slaves serving him on the farm, he had many wives and children but died young leaving many children behind. Olanusi being the younger one inherited all Agbogun’s wealth, his wives and his children were scattered into Olanusi and Idogun families where they became assimilated and can hardly identify themselves. However they are now trying to organise themselves and recognise their separate identity.
The descendants of Oyenusi occupy the largest area of Irele land, from Owena river to areas such as Onisere, Pakunla, Lugbomudu, Italaje, Onipaanu, Otu Loya, Ufan, Egbe Gboroye, Atoranse-Ayadi, Akinboni, Igbo Lumeko, Onigbogbo, Lofo, Petu, Gbogi, Ludasa, Loda. The descandants of Oyenusi form about 75% of the population of Irele. They are educated and very progressive. Most of the developments in Irele have come through some of them. Out of ten Irele people eight of them are Oyeriusi descendants. The first wife of Oyenusi was Okunsanbi, an Ondo woman. She was the mother of Opetusin, Erij imokun, Akinyomi, Agbogun Lanusi. The descendants of these children have become for Opetusin – Opetusin, Luwoye, Shogbon etc for Erijimokun-Aragbuwa. Agbogun children are right now not easily identifiable in Irele they are, scattered and mixed up with the other Oyenusi children. Akinyomi has produced Lumeko and Idogun. Lanusi, the last son of Okunsanbi has produced, Woye, Orunto, Ayadi, Arogbo, Oge, Lemikan, Sokoti etc. The second wife of Oyenusi was Gboko whose descendants are now knowna Aduwo in Irele.
The third wife was ‘Kujo, daughter of Odogbo of 0mm. Odogbo of 0mi brought his crown from Benin. The descendants of Kujo are Amohun who later took the title of Petu and Ogunbato who later took the title of Gboroye. The family belongs to one of the most progressive in Irele because of their early acceptance of Christianity and contact with Western education. They unlike other Irele people have no jungle deity, which they worship. The fourth wife of Oyenusi was BIUWA, whose descendants are Maran.
The fifth, wife of Oyenusi was Ojayitemi, whose descendants are known as Gbeleju in Irele. They belong to one of the progressive families in Irele becuase of their early contact with Western education. They, like the Kujo children, have no jungle deity they worship. The settlement of the two families was contiguous. Ojayitemi and Gboko are said to be sisters married to the same man, Oyenusi. Oyenusi descendants became very many and later formed very large families. Each of the families has a prime chieftaincy title which belongs to all of them bearing the name of the first son of the family such as Gboroye, Maran apart from other minor chieftaincy titles. Whoever takes the prime chieftaincy title is supposed to be the leader or head of the family.
In traditional matters, despite his age, he is supposed to preside. Such prime chieftaincy titles include Opetusin Agbogun, Akinyomi, Olanusi, Aduwo, Petu Amohun, Gboroye, Jegun, Maran etc. Under the Sub-division of Chieftaincy titles, and after the prime titles comes title such as Shogbon, Akarigbo etc. In the minor titles such as Araghuwa, and Naiyeju you have such as Idogun, and Lumeko from Akinyomi. In the Jegun title, there are titles such as Lotin, Aiyeobasan and Orunbato. In Maran, you have titles such as Lisa, Loyinmi and Ojan, but all true and genuine descendants of the first son have right to the prime titles of the family.
Apart from the family titles, all Oyenusi descendants have one common and important chieftaincy title in Irele. The chieftaincy title is Ojomo. The title originally came from Ondo. It was brought by the first wife of Oyenusi Okunsanbi, an Ondo woman from Oka in Ondo. She was the mother of Opetusin, Erijimokun Agbogun, Akinyomi and Olanusi. She first gave the chieftaincy title to her husband, Oyenusi. After the death of Oyenusi, the title was given to Amohun who later became Petu, from Kujo. The title became the property of all Oyenusi children and rotates amongst them. Though for some time and until some years past, the children of Olanusi sort of monopolised the title and regarded it as theirs exclusively. There is a move to reverse the situation and normalise the rotational system of the Ojomo title amongst all Oyenusi children. Irele people have a tradition of not allowing anybody who is not a true descendant to take the title of the head of the family. For example, anybody whose father is not a true son of Ogunbato, Gboroye Ladokun, would not be allowed to take the Gboroye title. In view of our patrilineal system, we do not reckon with where the mother comes from. If the father is not a direct descendant, the son however wealthy or highly placed, would not be allowed to take the title. This is the practice in Irele tradition, and the whole of Yoruba speaking areas of Nigeria. The Ojomo title serves as a uniting factor for all members of the Oyenusi Ruling House in Irele. It is to give every member of Oyenusi Ruling House the true sense of belonging, which the title has to rotate amongst all the true descendants of Oyenusi.
The uniqueness of the title lies in the fact that no other Ruling House in Irele has right to the title. The only other title common to all members of Oyenusi Ruling House is the title of Oyenusi itself All the 21 families in Oyenusi Ruling House are as of right entitled to the Olofun of Irele stool. Out of the 21 families Opetusin has ascended the throne twice (1) Opetusin and (2) Ojagbaletemi. Kujo family-Gboroye is at present on the throne – Olanrewaju. The following families have not ascended the throne at all. They are:
(a) Erijimokun
(b) Agbogun
(c) Akinyomi
(d) Aduwo (e) Lanusi (f) Maran (g) Gbeleju
It is necessary for a declaration of each of the families be prepared to avoid future conflict and acrimony in ascending the throne of Olofun of Irele. Indeed, such declaration is necessary in each of the three ruling houses in Irele. The descendants of Oyenusi have multiplied many folds and have thus hitherto formed about Seventy Five Percent (7 5%) of the population of contemporary Irele.
CHAPTER VI
ORUNBEMEKUN.
This is one of the Ruling Houses in Irele Kingdom. Members of the Orunbemekun family are direct descendants of the Olugbo of Ugbo. Ajana, their great ancestor was the first son of Olugbo Ameto. He was the one that brought the crown being won at Irele from his father palace at Ugbo. When their was a succession dispute at Ugbo between Ajana, the elder and Gbagba his junior brother. The dispute factionalised Ugbo people, a faction supporting Ajana, the rightful prince to ascend the throne and the other faction supporting Gbagba the junior brother. Those who supported the junior brother against Ajana the senior and rightful prince regarded Aj ana as very harsh, high-handed and warlike. Since they were in the majority, they crowned Gbagba Olugbo of Ugbo Ajana grew annoyed and felt cheated. He found it humiliating for him to pay obeisance to his younger brother as the tradition demands that everybody should pay obeisance to an Oba in a community. He took one of his father’s: crowns and decided to relocate with his followers and decided to found his own domain instead of remaining in Ugbo to pay obeisance to his junior brother on the throne;
He therefore collected one of the crowns his ancestors brought from Ife, collected his followers and with the assistance of Igbon who later became Gbogunron, packed from the Malokun Shrine, the long bass drum,(Agba Malokun) the Malokun calabash, Ufara calabash and the necessary artefacts for the worship of Malokun. They enter the canoe and sailed to Orofun the present Igbekebo in Ese-Odo Local Government.
It was at Orofun that Ajana was crowned as Olofun. He replicated the administrative system at Ugbo in Orofun. It was there he gave the title Gbogunron to Igbon to replicate one of the important chieftaincy titles at Ugbo. At Ugbo, the Gbogunron was the right hand Chief of Olugbo. Ajana made Igbon the Gbogunron and termed him “Ikaton Olofun the right-hand man of Olofun. When Ajana died and his first son, Orunbemekun was to ascend the throne, the succession dispute that took Ajana to Orofun reared its ugly head again. :
Ogeyinbo was the junior brother of Orunbemekun. He too wanted to succeed their father instead of his rightful senior brother Orunbemekun. When the people of Orofun could not resolve the disagreement, both of them went to Benin. It is pertinent to note that this was during the famous Benin Empire. The Oba of Benin was controlling most of the present Undo State up to Lagos. He sent his vassals to supervise some of his vast empire. The vassal he sent to this area was called “KALE” where the Ikales got the generic name of Ikale, the one he sent to Lagos was also known as EKO. Benin then was like the present Supreme Court, which gives final judgment on matters referred there.
Ogeyinbo went straight to the palace of the Oba of Benin, while Orunbemekun accompanied by his pretty teenage daughter Lobimitan, went to stay with the King’s mother at Uselu through his daughters influence. After some time, Lobimitan presented his father’s case to the king’s mother as the king’s mother had developed special interest in her because of her beauty, the way she was carrying and conducting herself in the palace. That was before Ogeyinbo could get an appointment with the Uba. Lobimitan gave Oba’s mother the details of the dispute that took her father and his junior brother to Benin and solicited for the assistance of the Oba’s mother for her father to take the throne that properly belonged to him. The Oba’s mother sympathized with Lobimitan and her father Orunbemekun. She then sent a message forward to tell her son that the Obaship dispute brought to his palace from Orofun for which one of the contestants called Ogeyinbo was now in his palace should be resolved in favour of Orunbemekun who was with her in her palace at Uselu. This was before Ogeyinbo could get audience with the Oba. Immediately the Oba got his mother’s message, he sent for Ogeyinbo and told him to go back home, that he, the Oba had consented that Orunbemekun should ascend the throne of Olofun. Ogeyinbo returned home disappointed and decided to migrate to another place to found his own domain. He left Orofun hurriedly, went to the Malokun Shrine before he got to the shrine, Gbogunron had packed Ugba Malokun and all the other materials for the worship of Malokun. Ogeyinbo grabbed the calabash of Ufara, the water goddess supposed to be the wife of Malokun sea god. Ogeyinbo left Orofun in annoyance and after sailing for some time got to “Aluma” in Erinje.
In view of the threatening attack of Orofun by Ogeyinbo and his horde of followers, Orunbemekun and his people had to move to Ohunmo in present Irele Local Government. They settled at Ohunmo where three of his descendants Osomona, Orukotan, Kubeji, Jagbemi ascended the throne and reigned as Olofun, before Jagboju from the female line ascended the throne. From Ohunmo, they all moved en mass to contemporary Ode-irele after the Osokoro war when they got to Irele, they built their house in contiguous areas, as such, you find Orunbemekun, Gbogunron and Aribo in the same area while the descendants of Jagboju occupied another area and the descendants of Oyenusi in another area.
ARIBO: Aribo is another distinct family in Irele. Lara was the daughter of Gbogunron, married to Awogoke from Mahin. When her husband died, Lara returned to her father with her children. Since Gbogunron was very close to Orunbemekun, Lara stayed with her, father at Ohunmo. Gbogunron and Orunbemekun lived in very close proximity; a casual observer would conclude that they were related. Lara was relatively young when she lost her husband.. In view of their living together, Oyinbo one of Orunbemekun’s son befriended her and she had a son for Oyinbo called Olowomuwagun who later reigned as Olofun. Thus the descendants of Olowomuwagun are related to the Aribos, the descendants of Awogoke are the Aribos ‘in Irele. Aribo was the title of their father, Awogoke at Mahin.
CHAPTER VII
GBOGUNRON
T his is one of the distinct families in Irele kingdom but unlike the other three families, it is not one of the ruling houses in Irele kingdom. Igbon, the great ancestor of the Gbogunron family was originally from Mahin in Ilaje Local Government Area and one of the loyalists of Ajana that followed him to Orofun. He was the head of the Ifa priests of Amapetu at Mahin. He had an affair with the wife of Amapetu of Mahin and was about to be executed for having illicit sexual intercourse with the wife of an Oba, which is a sacrilege in Yoruba tradition. He ran t6 Ugbo to take refuge with Ajana, a very powerful warrior prince of Ugbo. One of the reasons Ugbo people denied Ajana the crown was his high-handedness and war like approach to everything. Samuel Ademola gboroye, Richmond Texas
When at Ugbo, Igbon became one of the Malokun priests because of his previous knowledge of traditional things as Ifa priest. He later graduated to be the head of the Malokun priests. Igbon was with Ajana during the succession dispute between Ajana and his junior brother Gbagba. When finally, Ugbo people decided to crown Gbagba, the junior brother of Ajana as the Ulogbo of Ugbo to succeed Olugbo Ameto of Ugbo, Ajana grew annoyed, and decided to migrate from Ugbo to found his own domain where he too would be crowned an Oba. With the help of Igbon, he took all the necessary things for his coronation and replicated all the artefacts for the worship of Malokun, a deity brought from Ife. He took the long brass drum and some of the movable things such as crown made of cowries, from the palace, and from the Malokun shrine Agbaide, Ugba Malokun, Ugba Ufara,Opa Aja, Okute, loaded into a hand paddled canoe and sailed to Orofun. Aj ana gave the title of Gbogunron to Igbon when he and his followers got to ‘ the present Igbekebo in Ese-Odo Local Government. After wandering about on the creeks for days before getting to places asAgerige, Ita Maporunre, Ita Ayelala, etc. it was at Orofun that the long brass drum dropped to the river and lost for ever.
It was at Orofun that Gbogunron crowned Ajana. Like Ulogbo of Ugbo, he, Olofun of Orofun thus at the same time installed Igbon as Gbogunron and made him the chief sovereignty of the Benin monarch. He sent his vassals to supervise distant territories and: collect tributes from the subjects. Thus “Kale” was sent to supervise this area and “EKO” to Lagos. The court of the Benin monarch was like the present Supreme Court, as the pronouncement from the palace of the Benin monarch including tm! by ordeal became the law and final authority on any matter especially matters referred to Benin. Any Oba who was not from Benin would not be allowed to wear a crown or accorded full recognition however powerful he may be. The only exception was Undo and Tie-Oluji who were the children of Alafin of Oyo, another powerful empire in Nigeria. The other exception was Olugbo of Ugbo who brought his own crown from Ife. A crown that predates the Benin crown.
Ogeyinbo went personally to appeal to the Benin monarch to pronounce him the Olofun of Orofun He stayed for sometime in the Oba’s Palace, before he could get appointment with the Oba Orunbemekun through the prompting and proding of his pretty teenage daughter Lobirnitan, also. went to Benin presumably through the advice of his daughter Lobimitan, who accompanied her father to Benin went to stay in the palace of the king’s mother at Uselu. After a few days in the Oba’s mother palace, Lobimitan presented her father’s case to the king’s mother and solicited for her assistance to convince the Oba to pronounce Orunbemekun her father, the Olofun of Orofun. Impressed by Lobimitan, the king’s mother’s sent a message to her son requesting him to prounce Orunbemekiun as the Olofun of Orofun and to send Ogeyinbo who was then in the palace away. This was before Ogeyinbo could get an appointment with the Oba. When the Oba got his mother’s message, he ordered that his servants should fetch Ogeyinbo in the palace and tell him to return to where he came from because he had pronounced Orunbemekun the Olofun of Orofun in accordance with his mother’s instruction.
When Igbon or Gbogunron got the news that Ogeyinbo was coming back disappointed, he guessed rightly that he might plan to migrate to found his own domain like his grandfather, Aj ana. Gbogunron quickly arranged to move some important traditional things, especially artefacts for the worship of the Malokun diety, which Ajana brought from Ugbo and kept them away from the shrine. In his hurry to get those things out, he forgot Ufara calabash – Ugba Ufara which is usually placed side by side with Ugba Malokun. The myth is that Malokun male god is the husband of Ufara female, Okun in Yoruba means the sea and Ufara is a river both the husband and wife are water god and goddess.
When Ogeyinbo got to Orofun, he went straight to the Malokun shrine where the artefacts were kept and worshipped. He could find only Ugba Ufara and carried it away. On return to Orofun and hearing the role Gbogunron had played in his support, Orunbemekun fell very happy and grateful to Gbogunron and gave him the title of “Opalema”. Orunbemekun was crowned Olofun and Ogeyinbo, his junior brother relocated to Erinje with all his followers.
The descendants of Gbogunron and O became very close and it got to a point in their relationship that Gbogunron was crowning the Olofun. When they migrated from Orofun to Ohunmo, Gbogunron descendants followed and became important members of the community with contiguous settlements as such, an outsider can hardly differentiate Orunbemekun descendants from Gbogunron descendants.
Gbogunron family is one of the unique families in Irele. Igbon, the great anccestor of the Gbogunron family is one of the loyalists that followed Ajana from Ugbo when the latter left Ugbo as a result of seccession dispute regarding the Olugbo chieftaincy title.
When Ugbo people decided to installed Gbagba as the Olugbo, Ajana the senior brother who is the senior son of Olugbo Ameto, who should have ascended the throne grew annoyed and decided to move out of Ugbo to go and found his own separate domain where he could be crowned as an Oba. Igbon, the great ancestor of the Gbogunron was the Chief of the Malokun priests. Malokun is the diety the Olugbo took along with him while leaving Ife. Igbon was friendly with Aj ana and one of the few that was favourably disposed to Aj ana being made the Olugbo ofUgbo after the death of his father, Olugbo Ameto. Igbon opted to follow his friend Aj ana when the latter decided to migrate from Ugbo. He was the one that helped Ajana to pack all the necessary things from the Malokun shrine at Ugbo including the long brass drum Agba Ude. He followed Ajana on the creeks to places like Agerige. Ita Maporure, Ita Ayelala until they finally settled at Orofun, the present Igbekebo in Ese-Odo Local Government. The long brass drum brought from Ugbo dropped to the river and could not be retrieved again. It was at Orofun that Gbogunron crowned Ajana as Olofun of Orofun and he gave Gbogunron to Igbon, the title of the Ugbo chief that was next in rank to the Olugbo. Thus the title of Gbogunron became the most important title among Igbon descendants. All the ceremonies, titles, artefacts of Ugbo were replicated at Orofun. Arofun became another Ugbo in microcosm” Igbon maintained very close link with Ajana until Aj ana died. The problem that arose at Ugbo leading to the migration of Ajana from Ugbo repeated itself at Orofun at the demise of Ajana. Orunbemekun and Ogeyinbo two male children of Ajana were locked in horns on the succession to the throne. The matter was settled finally at Benin.
All
right reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored
in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronics, mechanical, photo-copying, recording or otherwise, without
the prior written permission of the author.
Copyright © HRM, Oba Olanrewaju Lebi, /Potter’s
House Limited, 2010. Published in Nigeria
By Potter’s House Limited RC 465885
37/21, Nnobi Street,
Off Kilo B/Stop, Ikate,
Surulere, Lagos.
I S B N: 978-978-907-626-li
DEDICATION
This book is specially dedicated to the memory of my beloved mother who did all she could, to put me in the light of academic scenario.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Since I received the inspiration to put together this book, I have found an extra strength to go through the process of documenting the ideas. Thus I give God Almighty the glory for providing me with that extra strength and inspiration to go through it. For without Him getting to this stage would have been an effort in futility.
To my Chiefs and all the people of Irele, I say thank you for all the experiences I have had to share with you all the time. Ode-Irele, our ancestral home is our land and we must do all we can to put it in its rightful place of history.
My special thanks also goes to those individuals whom I spoke to about this idea and their responses became more encouraging to me. In this category of individuals are my brother, Mr Adeokuoroye Romimora, my Computer Operator and other aides. May you find assistance too when you need it.
Also a large chunk of thanks go to my Publishing House-Potter’s House Limited, Lagos and the MD/CEO, Mr. Oladipo Ibironke Duyile. I have been greatly encouraged by your reaction to the whole project from the moment you came in. It is my prayer that God will continue to assist you as you move up.
Oba Olanrewaju Lebi, Oyenusi III, Olofun of Ode-Irele, May 2010.
FOREWORD
In several African settings, quite often, getting people with the zeal to document their ancestral home is a difficult task. However, for the very few individuals with the courage to embark on such assignments, it is a feat that deserves commendation. Aside from this, it has often been a challenge for most of the traditional settlements in our land to get their history documented. Rather, it has often been a case of relying on oral transfer of stories from one generation to another
Like several other kingdoms, the history of Ode-Irele like must have been given different interpretations by many other people. This I am sure must have propel the author (Kabiyesi’s) interest in trying to put the records straight in giving the people of Ode-Irele an authentic version of the story of their homestead.
From experience, getting oneself involve in an exercise of this nature could normally attracts some level of second thought because of the fear of reaction to what such an author might have put together. But having gone through this script and hearing the oral history of other people I am but compelled to commend His Royal Majesty, Oba Olarewaju Lebi’s efforts at documenting his place of Origin and encouraging his people with the story of their land.
With this feat achieved by Kabiyesi, the traditional setting across Yoruba land has been challenged to take up the task of doing all they can to ensure that historical documentation of their domain is given a top priority. By all standard, Kabiyesi has done what will set the pace for. most other settlements in our land. One is once again encouraged that as tight as Kabiyesi’s schedule remain, he has been able to share his time between writing and attending to other matters his throne demands.
From all the book has to offer, the first chapter, History of Irele talks of the origin of Ode-Irele, its people and their geographical make up. The second Chapter titled Some Important Festivals in Ode-Irele explains to an average reader and students of history, the different festivals in Ode-Irele. This is followed by the third to sixth Chapters, all which has extensively been put together by the author to give an adequate information that will satisfy the inquisitive mind of the reader about Ode-Irele, his place of birth.
By going.this far, Kabiyesi as an author has successfully brought to bear the influence of education and exposure as very important factors in the choice kingship people for any settlement. It is very touching that most traditional settings in our society have remained undocumented even with their very long and rich historical settlement.
To all readers of this book, I commend this effort of Kabiyesi and expects that people with the quest for history will find it interesting to have copies of this book in their libraries and at the same time find a visit to Ode-Irele, a lifetime experience. I am once again challenged to commend Kabiyesi as an author and traditional ruler and I do hope that this will further encourage him to go into putting into documentation other ideas: that will take our people further away from the tradition of mainly relying on oral history.
Otunba BolaAdeyeye, Maiyegun ofEde land, Lagos Nigeria, May, 2010.
- See more at: http://ikalevoice.com/4/?p=1182#sthash.PhPvvkor.dpuf
Copyright © HRM, Oba Olanrewaju Lebi, /Potter’s
House Limited, 2010. Published in Nigeria
By Potter’s House Limited RC 465885
37/21, Nnobi Street,
Off Kilo B/Stop, Ikate,
Surulere, Lagos.
I S B N: 978-978-907-626-li
DEDICATION
This book is specially dedicated to the memory of my beloved mother who did all she could, to put me in the light of academic scenario.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Since I received the inspiration to put together this book, I have found an extra strength to go through the process of documenting the ideas. Thus I give God Almighty the glory for providing me with that extra strength and inspiration to go through it. For without Him getting to this stage would have been an effort in futility.
To my Chiefs and all the people of Irele, I say thank you for all the experiences I have had to share with you all the time. Ode-Irele, our ancestral home is our land and we must do all we can to put it in its rightful place of history.
My special thanks also goes to those individuals whom I spoke to about this idea and their responses became more encouraging to me. In this category of individuals are my brother, Mr Adeokuoroye Romimora, my Computer Operator and other aides. May you find assistance too when you need it.
Also a large chunk of thanks go to my Publishing House-Potter’s House Limited, Lagos and the MD/CEO, Mr. Oladipo Ibironke Duyile. I have been greatly encouraged by your reaction to the whole project from the moment you came in. It is my prayer that God will continue to assist you as you move up.
Oba Olanrewaju Lebi, Oyenusi III, Olofun of Ode-Irele, May 2010.
FOREWORD
In several African settings, quite often, getting people with the zeal to document their ancestral home is a difficult task. However, for the very few individuals with the courage to embark on such assignments, it is a feat that deserves commendation. Aside from this, it has often been a challenge for most of the traditional settlements in our land to get their history documented. Rather, it has often been a case of relying on oral transfer of stories from one generation to another
Like several other kingdoms, the history of Ode-Irele like must have been given different interpretations by many other people. This I am sure must have propel the author (Kabiyesi’s) interest in trying to put the records straight in giving the people of Ode-Irele an authentic version of the story of their homestead.
From experience, getting oneself involve in an exercise of this nature could normally attracts some level of second thought because of the fear of reaction to what such an author might have put together. But having gone through this script and hearing the oral history of other people I am but compelled to commend His Royal Majesty, Oba Olarewaju Lebi’s efforts at documenting his place of Origin and encouraging his people with the story of their land.
With this feat achieved by Kabiyesi, the traditional setting across Yoruba land has been challenged to take up the task of doing all they can to ensure that historical documentation of their domain is given a top priority. By all standard, Kabiyesi has done what will set the pace for. most other settlements in our land. One is once again encouraged that as tight as Kabiyesi’s schedule remain, he has been able to share his time between writing and attending to other matters his throne demands.
From all the book has to offer, the first chapter, History of Irele talks of the origin of Ode-Irele, its people and their geographical make up. The second Chapter titled Some Important Festivals in Ode-Irele explains to an average reader and students of history, the different festivals in Ode-Irele. This is followed by the third to sixth Chapters, all which has extensively been put together by the author to give an adequate information that will satisfy the inquisitive mind of the reader about Ode-Irele, his place of birth.
By going.this far, Kabiyesi as an author has successfully brought to bear the influence of education and exposure as very important factors in the choice kingship people for any settlement. It is very touching that most traditional settings in our society have remained undocumented even with their very long and rich historical settlement.
To all readers of this book, I commend this effort of Kabiyesi and expects that people with the quest for history will find it interesting to have copies of this book in their libraries and at the same time find a visit to Ode-Irele, a lifetime experience. I am once again challenged to commend Kabiyesi as an author and traditional ruler and I do hope that this will further encourage him to go into putting into documentation other ideas: that will take our people further away from the tradition of mainly relying on oral history.
Otunba BolaAdeyeye, Maiyegun ofEde land, Lagos Nigeria, May, 2010.
- See more at: http://ikalevoice.com/4/?p=1182#sthash.PhPvvkor.dpuf
Ode Irele: The History Of a People
Ode Irele: The History Of a People
Ode Irele: The History Of a People
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