Saturday 15 August 2015

'Abobaku' tradition has been abolished in 1859! ...the custom is NOT practised anywhere in Yorubaland today

"Ife has never practiced the tradition before and no one can point to anywhere in Yoruba land today where the tradition is under vogue. Abobaku is a system in the past and it has gone with the past. It is vicious and malicious to peddle what you know nothing about to score a mere rhetoric point. We are proud of our ancestral past"!

I have watched the show of vacuity as it is been displayed by some of the online gurus (mediocre) in the recent time about the Abobaku saga. It is ignoramus to jump into the pool you have not delved before.

Abobaku is a traditional practice in the ancient Yoruba Empire. Abobaku custom is peculiar to the Ancient Oyo-Yoruba Empire. It is not heinous as some people take it to be, rather it is a matter of choice, people compete to occupy the position of Abobaku just as other positions because while the king is alive, the Abobaku enjoys de facto power and he shares in the glory of His Royal Highness.


In the Ancient Oyo-Yoruba Empire, it was constitutional for Aremo to be Abobaku, he is to be buried with his father. After the Owu War in 1827, there came the creation of Ibadan and Ijaye in 1829 and 1830 respectively.

Ogunmola headed Ibadan as Kurunmi who later became Are Ona Kakanfo became the leader of Ijaye. Alaafin Atiba succeeded Alaafin Oluewu in 1837, but at the demise of Alaafin Atiba in 1859, Adelu who was Aremo and supposed to be Abobaku (someone that dies with king) refused to die with the king and wanted to succeed his father. And because of the benefits Ibadan enjoyed under Alaafin Atiba, they wanted continuity by supporting Aremo Adelu to become Alaafin against the tradition.

On the contrary, Ijaye did not want the continuity and wanted to protect the culture of the kingship, there started a war of superiority between Ibadan's combatants and Ijaye's warriors in which Ibadan came out victorious and Aremo Adelu became Alaafin Adelu in 1859. This was how the doctrine of Abobaku ended in Oyo-Yoruba Empire.

Ife has never practiced the tradition of Abobaku before and no one can point to anywhere in Yorubaland today where the tradition is under vogue.

Abobaku is a system in the past and it has gone with the past. It is vicious and malicious to peddle what you know nothing about to score a mere rhetoric point. We are proud of our ancestral past!

- Ogunwoye Gbemiga Samson

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