The Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi, has challenged academia in Nigerian universities to properly document the history of Yoruba race rather than relying on jaundiced history.
He said proper documentation will not only foster unity but reveal the ties across ethnic groups, saying evidence showed that the Igbo race migrated from Ile-Ife.
The monarch put the challenge before the academia while addressing journalists ahead of an International Conference on ‘Ile-Ife and Yoruba Civilization: Nexus between Tradition and Modernity’, at his palace in Ife.
He said Yoruba race has about a quarter of its history documented, hence, the reason he is collaborating with select universities on the need to properly document the history of the race with a view to enhancing cohesion among the people globally.
“We have good evidence to believe that Igbo race has its roots here in Ile-Ife. There is Ile-Igbo here in the palace which was not a recent creation but has been existing here for decades. For this and many other reasons, I believe we need proper documentation of our history,” the Ooni said.
“We are not involving government in this project so that we can just place all the facts together, we must write our history properly and put things the right for the coming generations.
“As the 51st Ooni of Ife, in the third dynasty of Ife, I noted that there are so many facts that were not written down about the nexus of tradition and modality.
“Our oral tradition has not been adequately written down, so many facts and figures were distorted from the original history of Kaaro-o-o-jiire.
“For me to build the legacy for the entire Kaaro-o-o-jiire race, that is known as Yoruba people, we are discovering every day that our history is deeper than what we have in various academic institutions,” Ooni said.
He commended the team led by Professor Siyan Oyefeso, as very passionate and fantastic people working together to put history in the right perspective.
The royal father revealed that Ghanians had traced their lineage to Aga-Ako in Ile-Ife and that Ethiopians are sons and daughters of Oramiya in Okerewe, Eredumi ruling house in Ife to date.
“Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania categorically told me when I travelled to their countries that they migrated from Ile-Ife and they are sons and daughters of the source, while all these cannot be found in any archive.
“We are leading the team globally, nobody has documented the three dynasties, only the last dynasty, Ife Akanlubebe, of which I’m the 51st Ooni, was documented to a large extent.
“But the two, Ife Oodaye and Ife Ooyelagbo, some professors talked briefly on them, but during this international conference, the duo will be deeply rooted.
“Their rulers, supernatural beings that form these dynasties like the Luwos, the Agbaakos, the Oromos, Oranmiyans, all over the continents of Africans, the Bantoos, the Baribas will be dealt with,” Ooni added.
Oba Ogunwusi tasked the indigenes to support the conveners of the conference in order to properly document the history of their race.
Also speaking, a renown professor of history, Siyan Oyeweso, said the conference aims at bringing scholars together to discuss how to properly document the history of Yoruba, with focus on Ile-Ife as the source of the race.
