Some Historical Facts About The Ilorin And Kwara Yoruba

After reading the memorandum sent by the leaders of the Yoruba people of Kwara State to the National Conference, I must repeat much of what I once wrote in this column about the history of the Yoruba of Ilorin and of Kwara. The Fulani never conquered Ilorin nor invaded Yorubaland. These historical facts need to be emphasized and re-emphasized.



Ilorin was a small town in the Oyo Empire by the beginning of the 19th century. Afonja, Baale of Ilorin, who also held the title of Are Ona Kakanfo of the Oyo Empire, rebelled against his king, the Alafin of Oyo, in 1817. (There is no space here for the reasons for his rebellion). In order to sustain his rebellion, he was desperate to build a large and powerful army. To that end, he did a number of desperate things.



First, he invited the people of nearby villages to move to Ilorin and turn Ilorin into a large town. Many people so moved, but most refused.



Secondly, he reached out to many prominent friends all over the Oyo country, and invited them to come and live in Ilorin. Some accepted his invitation and came. Among these was a rich trader named Solagberu from Kuwo. Another was a man named Alimi, a Fulani man who had long lived in the Oyo country peddling charms from town to town. Afonja employed Alimi to make charms for him and his army.



Thirdly, Afonja decided to exploit a religious situation that was causing trouble in the country at the time. A Jihad movement had started in Hausaland in the north in 1804, generating wars and stormy Islamic evangelism there. It was started and led by an immigrant people called Fulani. The Fulani immigrants were few among the large Hausa nation, but very many of the Hausa who were already Muslims sided with the Fulani – and thus made it possible for the Fulani to defeat the ancient Hausa kings and make themselves rulers over Hausaland.



Some of the violent Jihadist preachers trickled south into the Oyo country. Everywhere they came, they were causing a lot of commotion by preaching violent and disrespectful sermons against the Oyo kings and chiefs, and against Yoruba culture in general. Yoruba people, with their tradition of religious tolerance, were alarmed; and angry crowds began to attack the preachers. Afonja decided to exploit the situation by issuing a general invitation to the Muslims to flee to him in Ilorin, promising to give them protection there. Thousands of frightened Muslims fled to Ilorin, and Afonja trained many of them for his army. (Afonja himself did not intend to convert to Islam, and he never did).



Fourthly, most rich Oyo families had Hausa, Nupe and Fulani slaves - used mostly in farming, trading, livestock rearing, etc. Most were Muslims.



Afonja decided to exploit this also. He issued a proclamation saying that if any slaves ran away from their owners and came to him in Ilorin, he would give them freedom and protection there. Large numbers of slaves, mostly Hausa, fled to Afonja, and he trained some of them for his army.



Afonja thus had his large town and large army. Most of his army’s commanders and soldiers were Oyo Muslims. A few of the soldiers were Muslim Hausa – all slaves recently set free by Afonja. But many of his Hausa soldiers were unruly. He warned or threatened them repeatedly, but with no result. When he at last decided to discipline them, they mutinied. Afonja was killed in the mutiny - in 1823.



Meanwhile, while Alimi had been making charms for the army, he had become a friend to many of the Oyo commanders who were Muslims, and these hadmade him Imam (Islamic teacher and preacher) for the Muslim community in the army. After Afonja›s death, the same friends gradually made their Imam the ruler of Ilorin. They also created some officers among the Hausa soldiers - for instance, Balogun Gambari. The powerful men doing all these things were Oyo.



That then is how Oyo people made a Fulani man the ruler of Ilorin. When Alimi died, his elder son, Abdulsalam, was elevated to his father’s position by his father›s powerful Oyo Muslim friends. Adulsalam had lived in the Jihad in Hausaland and had only recently come to live with his father in Ilorin. He knew that the Jihad had made the Fulani the rulers of Ilorin - with a Fulani Sultanate based in Sokoto and quasi-independent Fulani Emirs in the separate Hausa kingdoms. So, after he was made ruler of Ilorin, he sent to Hausaland to announce that he had established an Emirate in Ilorin and to ask that his Emirate should be accepted as part of the Fulani Sultanate.



In this way, Ilorin became a Fulani Emirate, ruled by a Fulani family.