I
have watched the show of vacuity as it is been displayed by some of the
online gurus (mediocre) in the recent time about the Abobaku saga. It
is ignoramus to jump into the pool you have not delved before.
Abobaku is a traditional practice in
the ancient Yoruba Empire. Abobaku custom is peculiar to the Ancient
Oyo-Yoruba Empire. It is not heinous as some people take it to be,
rather it is a matter of choice, people compete to occupy the position
of Abobaku just as other positions because while the king is alive, the
Abobaku enjoys de facto power and he shares in the glory of His Royal
Highness.
In the Ancient Oyo-Yoruba Empire, it was constitutional
for Aremo to be Abobaku, he is to be buried with his father. After the
Owu War in 1827, there came the creation of Ibadan and Ijaye in 1829 and
1830 respectively.
Ogunmola headed Ibadan as Kurunmi who later
became Are Ona Kakanfo became the leader of Ijaye. Alaafin Atiba
succeeded Alaafin Oluewu in 1837, but at the demise of Alaafin Atiba in
1859, Adelu who was Aremo and supposed to be Abobaku (someone that dies
with king) refused to die with the king and wanted to succeed his
father. And because of the benefits Ibadan enjoyed under Alaafin Atiba,
they wanted continuity by supporting Aremo Adelu to become Alaafin
against the tradition.
On the contrary, Ijaye did not want the
continuity and wanted to protect the culture of the kingship, there
started a war of superiority between Ibadan's combatants and Ijaye's
warriors in which Ibadan came out victorious and Aremo Adelu became
Alaafin Adelu in 1859. This was how the doctrine of Abobaku ended in
Oyo-Yoruba Empire.
Ife has never practiced the tradition of
Abobaku before and no one can point to anywhere in Yorubaland today
where the tradition is under vogue.
Abobaku is a system in the
past and it has gone with the past. It is vicious and malicious to
peddle what you know nothing about to score a mere rhetoric point. We
are proud of our ancestral past!
- Ogunwoye Gbemiga Samson
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