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Olugbemi. Adeyinka Ogunleye
1 week ago
Overview
On Ojude Oba
This is Balogun Kuku.… He started the Ojude Oba annual festival… He was a Regent of Ijebu Ode and his mother was a priestess of Osugbo. Balogu Kuku was a man of great means at his time. He made his wealth from selling arms to Ibadan.... …
Blogun Kuku had a large harem of many wives and children…. when the missionaries arrived, enforcing the concept of monogamy, he converted to Islam in a bid to keep his harem….…. As an opulence of his wealth, he built a mansion in the early 1890’s …. a masterpiece rivalling the house of nobility in Europe. It was built by an Afro Brazilian mason by the name Balthazar Reis. The inside of the house was designed with Victorian furniture and exotic wall papers…. No palace of a king anywhere in Yorubaland at the time came close.
His legends started with the tension between Are latosa of Ibadan and Awujale Afidipote of Ijebu. Seeing how resilient and near invincible the army at Ibadan was…. It worried him that from the 1840’s well past a decade, Ibadan engaged in the hottest of battles and always came back home victorious. More worrisome to the Awujale was that Are Latosa was determined to stretch the territoty of Ibadan all the way to the sea, to cut off the middle men that charged high overhead costs for luxury goods from Europe and most especially arms and ammunitions.
In a desperate attempt to frustrate Latosa’s campaign, Awujale Afidipote gave support to the Egba warriors and closed all the toll roads from the coasts to Ibadan. This blockade also frustrated the alternative route from which Ibadan got its ammunitions from Porto Novo through Imeko and Oke’Odan routes.
This show of aggression of the Awujale to Ibadan worried some of the top merchant class of Ijebu… They expressed their displeasures openly.… Ibadan merchants being their major trading partners were important to Ijebu’s economy…. Awujale Afidipote got enraged for what he termed as insubordination and banished them from Ijebu. Among those forced into exile included Sibeluwo and Mayungbe. Their properties were confiscated as well.
The trade embargo plunged Ijebu into a recession. They could not buy the farm products and other commodities from the interiors in large volumes (especially palm oil and slaves) and could not sell European products to the interiors.
Aare Latosa initiated an oath of peace with the Awujale to assure him he would never invade his kingdom…. he sent him slaves, fabrics, coral beads and baskets of farm produce. Afidipote received the gifts but refused to open the trade routes.
This show of defiance by the Awujale against Ibadan incited a revolution at Ijebu. The merchant class took advantage of the austerity in the land to incite a revolution against the Awujale with the help of the field marshal of Ijebu…. Balogun Onafowokan .
Onafowokan assembled an army at Oru and prepared for an invasion into Ije Ode…. When news of this got to the metropolis, Awujale’s advisers and children escaped to Epe in the early weeks of January, 1883. Five days later, Awujale vacated the throne and escaped to join them in Epe, before Onafowora reached the city to force him to commit suicide.
After his escape, Onafowokan became the defato ruler of Ijebu and placed a new ruler ( Tunwase Aboki) on the throne …. The military base at Oru converted into a market while Onafowokan relocated to the capital to exert his influence on power at the center….
Balogun Kuku (who at the time was the seriki of Ijebu Ode and a strong supporter of Onafowokan in the campaign against Awujale Afidipote) would ultimately be nominated to hold the fort at Oru. For all transactions at the market, he took commissions and with such magnitude of trade between two powerful regional blocs, he fast became one of the richest men in the region. his vast wealth came from commissions and direct sales of guns and salt.
Descendants of Balogun Kuku and Balogun Onafowokan play active roles in the annual Ojude Oba festivals.
Credit: Gbonka Ebiri on X
