EKO A BENIN CAMP AND OUTPOST AFTER GELEGELE SEAPORT
by Dr. Paul Osa Igbineweka
Yoruba should stop fabricating history. Let’s set the record straight. At the Camp (Eko) or Outpost, Benin were the first on the Island by extant history not any group called Yoruba, because the name Yoruba was unknown at that particular time.
Before the Benin outpost or camp called Eko, the Benin Hunters and poachers of Elephant had navigated the terrain, where Elephant Tusks or Ivory Tusks were harvested for artefacts in the forest of Isherin (oha-eni).
As a sailor King, Oba Orhogbua established Eko as camp or outpost on the Island. And made advances to the coast of Dahomey at Port Novo and Volta Delta. Long before that the Benin that migrated to Ghana as the Ga people occurred during the time of Ọba Udagbẹdọ (1299 A.D.).
On the Eko camp or outpost, it was the arrival of the Aworis who first settled at Isherin, not the Islands, but some of them from the hinterland of Isherin led by Ogunfumilure (sic) moved further to the Island and found food wrapping leaves floating on the waters, and by quest of inquiry found people in the Camp already established by the Benin.
These people of Awori were the Adejos from Ife to Isherin and later to the Island that eventually settled with the Benin in the area of the Lagoons. (Ref: The historical evolution of Lagos and Short History of Benin). They were made to pay royalty (Isakole) to the Oba of Benin. However, they still form part of the royalty in Lagos.
They spoke the mixed language of Idu (Ẹdo) and Olukumi. To the Benin, Awori were related by being the descendants of the people of Oduduwa whom the Benin known as Ekaladerhan).
By the influx of the Ijebu, Egba and others from the hinterland to Lagos they were overwhelmed and lost their true identity and peculiarity, and swallowed up by the general Yoruba language. At the outset they were not called Yoruba.
The late Bishop Samuel Ajayi Crowther evolved the combination of the similar dialects to form general Yoruba language which also include some common used words of Ẹdo-Idu and Oyo dialect as the basic dialect.
To say they spoke Yoruba language in Benin palace during the period of Oranmiyan is not true. The language which the Aworis had in Ife was Olukumi, Ẹdo-Idu and Ilaje. Oranmiyan spoke Olukumi. It was that Olukumi he used in Benin.
Hence, the Benins would say, “ma ma hẹ zẹ Ẹdo fo, amaiwẹ Olukumi.” (we have not yet spoken our Ẹdo language to its fullest, talk less or how much more of Olukumi.
The people of Olukumi were seriously affected by the slave raiding of Oyo empire that most were sold into slavery that we found today as descendants in the diaspora.
Those left in Ife migrated enmass through Igodomigodo (Benin) to Anioma in Delta State. That is where the real Olukumi people are today, with some words similar to aspects of Yoruba, but distinct. Related to Olukumi dialect as variant of Ẹdo-Idu are the native of Usẹn.
Oduduwa or Oranmiyan never spoke a language called Yoruba when such name was not in existence. It is an aberration to describe Benin or Oyo empires with terms applicable to modern Nigeria, when Nigeria was not in existence.
That is the major error of Yoruba history. There were Benin Empire territories and Oyo empire in the hinterland with boundaries at Otun, and were contemporaries at some stage, yet Oyo empire was not Yoruba empire, but that is the picture being painted by Yoruba historians.
To me it was quite dishonesty to distort history by modern or latter names credited to territories. Now some have forgotten that Benin Empire had the Bight along the coastal territories, before the British incursion that created Southwest province, that were now called Yoruba States.
Some today still deny that Benin was an empire, and that Benin was only a kingdom in Benin City without territories. That is the extent of their historical dishonesty.
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