THE REAL IJEBU

THE Ijebu People inhabit the South-Central
part of Yorubaland - a territory that is
bounded in the North by Ibadan, in the
East by Ondo, Okitipupa and the West by
Egbaland. The Southern fringe is open to
the sea with the coastlines of Epe, Ejinrin
and Ikorodu. Despite the political division
which has these three towns in Lagos
while the main part of Ijebuland remains in
Ogun State, the people have always
regarded themselves as one entity even
when the immigration legends which have
often been cited point in different
directions.
There are immigration legends which tend
to link the Ijebu with the biblical Jebusites
and Noah (hence Omoluwabi -- omo ti
Noah bi -- the children of Noah) but these
are farfetched. Other immigration legends
trace the origin of Yoruba people, and by
implication, the Ijebu to Mecca where
Oduduwa, the legendary ancestor of the
Yoruba, was said to be the son of King
Lamurudu. Oduduwa, according to the
legend, had to be expelled from Mecca
when he resorted to idolatry. This is
another unacceptable story in that it
implied that the Yoruba must have come
into existence as a group after faithful
Muslims expelled Oduduwa some 1,500
years ago.
Ijebu traditional historians tend to stick to
the migration legend that the people
migrated to their present territory from a
region of Sudan called Waddai which
means that the Ijebu had a parallel
migration wave just like other Yoruba who
believe they came to their present abode
via Oduduwa. That claim seems to be
corroborated by a publication by one Haile
Mariam which states that "the most
powerful people that the Negede Orit
(ancient Ethiopian immigrants into Africa)
met in East Africa were the Jebus." Their
King was claimed to be so influential that
he appointed the governors of Yemen. If
that king was the same Olu-Iwa, the
legendary first Ruler of Ijebuland, we do
not know.
There is a lot of evidence in support of the
fact that the Ijebus migrated into Nigeria
from Sudan. The most obvious is the
Sudanese tribal mark which, though varied,
is duplicated all over Yorubaland. In
particular, the three vertical marks on both
cheeks are the national marks in Ijebu.
Moreover, in the border between South
Sudan and Ethiopia, the original language
which Arabic language has superseded is
very similar to Ijebu dialect. Names of
people such as Saba, Esiwu, Meleki
(corruption of Menelik) and many others
are still common in Ijebu and the South of
Sudan.
A kind of flute which was formerly used
during the coronation ceremony of the
Awujale is still used in Ethiopia and South
of Sudan. In the second place, the passage
quoted from 'Ethiopian History' by Haile
Mariam at the beginning of this essay
shows that Negede Orit which entered
Ethiopia
several centuries before King Solomon and
the famous Makida, Queen of Sheba (about
900 B.C.) met the Ijebus on the east Coast
of Southern Sudan.
The ancestors of the Ijebus who now
inhabit Ijebu-Ode and districts came into
Nigeria from the ancient Kingdom of
Owodaiye of Ethiopia which came to an
end as a result of Arab supremacy in Middle
East and the Sudan where Owodaiye was
situated. The Kingdom of Owodaiye was
bounded in the North by Nubia; in the East
by Tigre and the Kingdom of Axum; in the
West there was no clear boundary, while
along its South-Eastern border, it was
bounded by the land of Punt. With these
people the Ijebus share their culture and
religion. With the Tigrians and ancient
Axumites the Ijebus share their tribal
marks which are made up of three vertical
marks on the cheeks while with the
Egyptians, the Nubians and Puntite people,
the Ijebu share many of their funeral rites,
the Agemo cult and the Erikiran