The Yoruba-speaking peoples of the Slave Coast of West Africa : their religion, manners, customs, laws, language, etc : with an appendix containing a comparison of the Tshi, Gã, Ęwe, and Yoruba languages / by A.B. Ellis.

  • Ellis, A. B. (Alfred Burdon), 1852-1894.
Date:
1894
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Yoruba-speaking peoples of the Slave Coast of West Africa : their religion, manners, customs, laws, language, etc : with an appendix containing a comparison of the Tshi, Gã, Ęwe, and Yoruba languages / by A.B. Ellis. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Afunja had, since 1807, remained in possession of llorin, where he had sought to strengthen himself by encouraging Mohammedans to settle, and, about 1825, while Amodo was engaged with the invading tribes from the north, he again made war upon Yoruba. He captured and destroyed a number of towns, and was apparently about to carry all before him, when, for some reason that has never transpired, he was con- veyed back to the town of llorin by those very Hausa mercenaries through whose aid he had hoped to be- come Alafin, and pubhcly burned alive. The Moham- medan party had for some years been dominant in llorin, and now, declaring that it would no longer recognise a pagan king, it elected a Mohammedan to the supreme power, and severed the connection with Yoruba. llorin now took the lead in the Mohammedan in- vasion of Yoruba, and the Yorubas seem to have been invariably worsted. In 1830, when it was visited by Lander, Old Oyo was still the capital of Yoruba, but between 1833 and 1835 it was captured and destroyed by the Mohammedans, and the Yorubas, flying south- wards, founded their present capital Oyo, about ninety miles south of the old one. The Egbas, taking advantage of the overthrow of Yoruba, declared them- selves independent, but the Yorubas, as soon as they were settled in their new territory, attacked them with vigour, and drove them out of all their northern towns. A desultory war then lingered till about 1838, when the Egbas abandoned their territory, and moving to the south, founded their present capital, Abeokuta. The new town was divided into several distinct