By David A. Granger
The Oyo Empire was established by the Yoruba people. Oyo was made a state of modern Nigeria with its capital at Ibadan in 1976, but it had already existed as an empire more than 300 years earlier.
Oyo was no different from other Yoruba states in the 15th century, except for its location in the savannah region and its relations to its northern neighbours. The Oyo Empire, originally founded on seven metropolitan states called ‘Yoruba Proper’, extended into other Yoruba districts and non-Yoruba vassal states. Stability during this expansionary phase was preserved by the traditional Yoruba socio-political structures and an evolving constitutional system.
The Kwa-speaking Yoruba people shared a common language, acknowledged a common ancestral home (Ile-Ife), practiced common customs and religion and shared a similar social organization. The rulers attended the annual bere festival which reinforced cultural and political cohesion.
The patrilineal (idile) household was the basic element of every Yoruba compound (agbo ile). Adjacent compounds formed wards (adugbo), several of which were grouped as a town (ilu), each having its own king (oba). Each Yoruba town was relatively autonomous and, initially, the political structure in the seven Yoruba provinces dominated by Oyo were annexed.
The Alafin became paramount under the constitution but his power was not absolute. The Oyo Mesi, a council of the seven non-royal rulers of ‘Yoruba Proper’ states, had the duty of both selecting the new Alafin and, also, rejecting tyrants. The Ogboni, a cult which was made up of elders, mediated between the Alafin – the ‘companion of the gods’ – and the Oyo Mesi, the voice of the nation. There was, therefore, a built-in system of checks and balances which also prevented the accession or minors or idiots to the position of Alafin and, similarly, provided for the removal of tyrants and incompetents.
The Alafin ruled provinces and vassal states from his palace (afin) through a bureaucracy of eunuchs (iwefa), envoys (ilari) and residents (ajele). Political organization developed parallel to the process of territorial expansion thereby strengthening the Alafin’s personal power. The empire’s administration was centralized under him through a palace-based bureaucracy.
Trends towards administrative centralization emphasised the importance of the quality of personal rulership in the early stages of imperial growth. Alafin Abipare, for example, established the capital at the original site of Oyo Ile in the first half of the 17th century. Obalakun, his successor, started the southern sweep and the next Alafin, Ajagbo, regarded as the ‘founder of the Oyo Empire’, embarked on a career of conquest. Alafin Ojigi (c. 1726-1730) extended the frontiers of the empire to the Niger River to the north, the Osun River to the east and the Opara River to the west.
The conquest of Oyo by one of its northern neighbours – Nupe (c. 1550) – paradoxically triggered its rise. The defeated Yoruba fled to refuge in Borgu from where the reconquest of their native heartland – Oyo Ile – was planned. This was accomplished by Alafin Abipa (c. 1600). The rise of Oyo could be said to be based first and foremost on its military power.
Oyo’s army was a well-organised fighting force. Its most powerful arm was the corps of cavalry (elesin), supported by archers (olofa) and infantry (elese). The field army was led by 70 war chiefs (eso) and divided into two large wings under a commander-in-chief (areonakakanfo). The employment of cavalry in those days, in particular, gave Oyo a decisive advantage over its dismounted neighbours.
The favourable geographical location and resource endowment in a fertile areas of the savannahs contributed to the rise of Oyo. The imperial capital – Oyo Ile – lay astride the trade routes between the northern savannahs to the southern forests and coast. It was close enough to the earlier empires of the Western Sudan to benefit from commerce and communication and, doubtless, to gain access to horses for the cavalry.
Oyo’s fertile savannahs enabled the cultivation of cereals such as millet and maize. Kola nut, shea butter and oil palm products were extracted from the forest. Textiles, tools, utensils, pottery and weapons were manufactured. The rearing of domestic animals in areas free from the Tsetse fly – the vector of trypanosomiasis which severely affected all livestock – was also possible. Some of these goods were traded for horses, hides, saddles, salt, cotton and natron from the north, thereby strengthening both the army and the economy.
Oyo’s economic wealth, therefore, was derived from agriculture and manufacturing which occupied the bulk of the population. Long-distance, north-south commerce and revenue from various taxes, tolls, tributes from dependencies, cult dues, judicial fees and fines and profits from the markets, also enriched the state.
Ample food production and relative prosperity engendered population growth which, in turn, provided added strength to the army, bureaucracy and mercantile community. Population pressure, accordingly, stimulated the demand for new lands for settlement and for revenue from tributary states.
Military success generated captives for commerce. Commercial success facilitated the acquisition of horses for warfare. Oyo, though not initially a coastal state, was directed southwards through warfare to meet the Europeans – Dutch, English, French and Portuguese – who were assiduously conducting the Trans-Atlantic Trade in Captive Africans to the Americas. Oyo reached the ocean where it became submerged in the trade by the middle of the 18th century.
Oyo’s wars provided thousands of captives for trade with the Europeans only to be enslaved on the plantations of Brazil, the Guianas and the Caribbean. Persons of Yoruba descent were still living in Bagotville-Canal No. 1, West Bank Demerara in Guyana, in the first quarter of the 20th century. The remnants of Yoruba religion, music, sculpture and speech which persist among their descendants are evidence of the powerful cultural roots out of which grew a great empire.
