... holder of the title of the Ooni of ile-ife, the Yoruba Holy City. He was not only the first ruler of a unified Ife, but also the progenitor of various independent royal dynasties in Yorubaland and ancestor of their numerous crowned kings. His name, phonetically written by yuraba language-speakers as Odùduwà and sometimes contracted as Ooduwa, Odudua or Oòdua is today venerated as "the hero, the warrior, the leader and father of the Yoruba race".For a long time as propagated by early writers of Yoruba history, like the Bayajidda legend of the Hause people, he was said to be an Eastern prince whose people were driven out of their kingdom in Mecca in Arabia and were forced to migrate in a long march to present day south western Nigeria, though this belief is now thought to reflect later Islamic influences.
Through a war lasting many years, Oduduwa was able to defeat the forces of the 13 indigenous communities of Ife led by Obatala and formed these communities into a single Ife unit.
Oduduwa held the praise names Olofin Adimula, Olofin Aye and Olufe. Following his posthumous deification, he was admitted to the Yoruba pantheon as an aspect of a primordial divinity of the same name. (I am here and we were there)
#oduduwa# #legend# #
#yoruba_tribe# #history# #yorubaculture# #Africa# #yoruba_origin#
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