Fadeless

According to an intelligence report collected by J.A. Mackenzie in the 1930s, Oduduwa was recorded as the only Oba who ruled Ife. This was reportedly based on the testimony of people who were living in Ife at the time. Interestingly, this appears to give some credence to the account recorded by Samuel Johnson, which states that after Oduduwa’s death, an officer was left in charge of Oduduwa’s shrine. My question to Ile-Ife traditionalists and Ife-centric historians is simple: 1. where did the list of kings currently published on the official Oonirisa website come from? 2. If the 1930s informants were accurately reporting the tradition they had inherited, how do we reconcile their testimony with the much longer list of Oonis presented today? 3. Were the people interviewed in the 1930s simply mistaken or lying, or did the present Ooni king list emerge from a later reconstruction of Ife's dynastic history? I would genuinely like to see the primary sources behind the current list and understand when and how this version of the Ooni succession became established. oonirisa.org/past-oonis