BeninBookClub

Ẹdo people and their words are “Yoruba”, right? The year was 1615 when Ahmad Baba first used the word “Yariba” to describe fleeing fighters from Jihad that went to settle in a foreign land called Oyo, while drafting his biographical treatise of Mi'raj al-su'ud. However, some oral accounts argued that “Yariba” was already a word used to describe the Oyo people by Hausa and Songhai natives and not a condescending remark. By 1645, “Yariba” had become an established attribute used to describe the people of Oyo but note that this may not be what the then Oyo people called themselves. Within this context, Ẹdo people of Benin were already a thriving global nation with structured communities, language, political administration, art, military, and diplomatic relations with Europe. There was a fine traceable link between its previous Ogiso Dynasty that could only be traced to have began far back 40BC down to the Ọmọ N’Ọba dynasty that began in the 1100s. By the 1400s Ẹdo people had expanded territorially, with many neighboring cultures either being influenced, controlled, or owned by the Ẹdo people of Benin. One thing has stood consistent about Ẹdo - THE TRACEABLE LINK BETWEEN ITS MONARCHY FOR THOUSANDS OF YEARS AND THE CONSISTENCY OF ITS LANGUAGE AND ARTISTIC HISTORICAL PRESERVATION BETWEEN TWO DYNASTIES TILL DATE. Judging by the fact that ONLY Oyo people were referred to as “Yariba” from the 1600s, while there was NO SUCH PEOPLE AS YORUBA, is it then possible that “Yoruba” people influenced the monarchy of Ẹdo people and the Ẹdo language? Let us even assume Benin sprang up from nowhere in the 1100s with just the Ọba Dynasty, how did a tribe that was not in existence at the time have influenced it? There weren’t even any other Monarch on earth at the time with the “Ọba” as a “title”. It is like saying “English influenced Latin” while Latin was already a great-great grandpa before English existed. The word “Yoruba”, corrupted from “Yariba” was first used in the 1800s to refer to the Oyo people still. In that sense, it is correct that the primary Yoruba people are the Oyo people, so far they eventually accepted the identity. By 1843, Bishop Ajayi Crowther, in collaboration with the Church Missionary Society (CMS), sort to establish the grammatical construct for Yoruba in order to translate the bible. It was at this point and year that first Grammar of Yoruba Language was written. Bishop Ajayi Crowther was born in 1809 in Osugun of Oyo Empire. So, you can understand that this was personal to him. In formalizing the Yoruba language, Ajayi Crowther adopted the Roman Latin alphabets to curate the book titled The Vocabulary of Yoruba Language in 1852. After decades of translating the Holy Bible into Yoruba (Bibeli Mimọ), Crowther achieved success in eventually standardizing the Bible in Yoruba by 1880. The Yoruba language had included thousands of mixed words from different peoples of Western Niger in a way that most of the missionary formations in the Western Niger Area could relate and catch up with biblical studies. Same language was used in academic studies, leading to the widespread adoption of Yoruba Language by many in the region. In 1857 also, Ajayi Crowther moved to begin the standardization of “Ibo” language in the Eastern Niger - story for another day. Meanwhile, through the CMS, Hope Waddel had already moved for the standardization of Efik Grammar in 1840 in the far Eastern Province. One might ask why Ẹdo was not standardized too. You wanted Britain to standardize the language of a people that caused them a bloody war? A people Britain hoped their language, culture, history, and traditions could be wiped out by infusing Ẹdo into the Yoruba Structure of Western Niger? Be logical, at least. Here we are. The next time you claim Yoruba influenced Ẹdo in any way, be sure you know what you’re saying. No disrespect to Oyo people tho. History is history. GO AND VERIFY. Ọba Gha Tọ Kpẹre, Isẹẹ!🦇🐆