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| At the Baale's house in Ijaiye ojutaiye with his wife |
YoruByte: this is the concluding part on
the post last week on Why The Aare-Ona-Kakanfo always die fighting. You can
read the earlier part at http://t.co/lg5Q65XLRg.
….. So, Kurunmi, having brazenly challenged
the King of Oyo and commander-in-Chief of the Yoruba nation, had to prepare for
war. The war officially commenced on 10th of April 1860. The Ibadan
warriors were the main army of the Alaafin. They were led by Balogun Ibikunle.
It was known to all that Ibikunle went to that war with great reluctance. He
had seen many battles and knew the horrors of war. Especially one against one’s
blood. For the ijaiyes and the Ibadans were indeed cousins. A soon as Ibikunle
mounted his horse, his Akewi (bard) gave utterances to the following pathetic
strains:
Baba mi n re igbo odaju o (My master
proceeds to the fields of the heartless ah! )
Nibiti olomo meji yio ku ikan ( where the
parent of two will be left with but one)
Nibiti olomo kan yio pohora (where the
parent of one will be left all forlorn)
Iya mi ni n ma wa, ko pada o (Let him whose
mother forbids him to come go back)
Baba mi ni n ma wa, ko pada (Let him whose
father forbids him to come go back)
Baba mi kiniun onibudo n lo o (My Lord, the
master of the camps proceeds)
Iyawo mi to gbe, ko pada leyin baba mi (Let
him whose betrothed is of age to be wed go back from following my Lord).
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| The Alaafin's side of the bank at Ose River |
The Ijaiyes too were prepared for the war.
There was an assortment of charms. Oonde (charmed belts), Okingbe (skin
pierce-proof charms), Akaraba (back-to-sender charms), Aluwo (slap-and-fall
charms) and the warrior chiefs of
Kurunmi were soaked in herbal concoctions for 3 days before the war.
The first battle was fought at Apata Ika
(the Ika Rocks) which was midway between Ijaiye and Ibadan. There, the Aare
realized too late that he shouldn’t have engaged in a war with the Alaafin. As
he saw the army of the Ibadan warriors. 184 towns and villages mustered against
ijaiye only. From Moniya, to Iware, to Fiditi, Akinmorin, Onidundu, Imini,
Ilora, Ikija, …. E.t.c all facing Ijaiye!
Another realization that dawned on Aare
Kurunmi was that his too strict rulership of Ijaiye has made him not have
enough arms and ammunitions. In order that he might secure for himself a safe
and authoritarian position, he had killed many brave men of Ijaiye and had forbidden
any of his chiefs from accumulating ammunitions of wars. So, after only three
battles, he found that his magazines were exhausted. The ijaiyes now had to
resort to bow and arrows, with matchetes. Oh my, the dexterity with which
Kurunmi marshalled the war. Shooting and cutting down the foe while directing,
and inspiring his men. What he lacked in youthful energy, he made up for in
experienced wisdom. However, with low supply of ammunitions, the Ijaiyes lost
ground rapidly.
Because Ijaiye was the major supply route
of food to Ibadan, and the only other option left to the ibadans were the Egbas
in Abeokuta, the Ibadan warriors went to sign a pact of allegiance with the
Egbas. But barely 2 months into the war, Kurunmi also sought the support of the
Egbas. For inexplicable reasons, the Egbas decided to support the Ijaiyes even
though they had an allegiance with the Ibadans!
Of the Egba chiefs ONLY Sokenu was opposed
to supporting the Ijaiyes. This caused a strong altercation between him and the
other Egba chiefs. “After the oath of allegiance and friendship with the
ibadans,” said Sokenu, “It would be a serious breach of faith, and even the
gods will be against us”. In going, the other chiefs said to him “we must not
meet you alive on our return,” and he retorted, “If at all you return alive”.
This, it is believed caused his death as shortly after this, he became
paralysed (from poison it is believed) and died. The Ijebus supported the Egbas
too and the Emir in Ilorin, who feared that the Oyos would reclaim Ilorin back
also seized the opportunity to get into the war.
The Egbas arrived in time to replenish the
ammunitions of the Ijaiyes.
At first, Balogun Ibikunle did not believe
that the Egbas had come to support the Ijaiyes, but when his men went out for
some minor fights and came back to inform him that the Egbas had indeed come to
support the Ijaiyes, the Ibadans were alarmed. “In Kurunmi,” said they, “we
have an equal match already, and how to face the combined force with the
overwhelming host of the Egba?”
But Ibikunle encouraged the soldiers.
“Death,” he said, “is preferable to the shame of a defeat, or the humiliation
of being made a prisoner”. “Here is his head is better than here is his face”
said Ogunmola, the right hand man of Ibikunle. Ogunmola then drew out his
jackknife and said to all “it must be victory or …. DEATH.” Ogunmola was indeed
a warrior of warriors. A diminutive man but full of courage, guile and
strength.
With Ogunmola’s speech, the Ibadan warriors
made up their minds that it was victory or nothing. Egbas or no Egbas. The die
was cast! Ghenghen…
At length, the day of the major battle
arrived. The Egba army marched out in their resplendent colours, and the Ibadan
warriors marched out too. Kua, Kua, Kua, the warriors’ heels struck the ground.
At the onslaught, the battle was tough.
Sweat ran, blood flowed, heads rolled and limbs severed. Yet, the warriors
fought on. After a few hours, Ogunmola ran to Ibikunle and told him not to
bother with the Egbas, for though they were much in numbers, they don’t know
how to fight. The real problem would be the few Ijaiyes who are thorough
trained fighters, and Aare Kunrunmi himself, who alone, was worth half of the
fighting men on the field. True to Ogunmola’s words, the egbas fell before 5
hours. Their aims were too high, they were not hitting targets at all. Infact,
after that battle, the Ibadans made jeering songs at the egbas, singing....
Kanakana Ajibade The crows of Ajibade
Ohan, ohan ni n dun. Ohan, ohan they cry
A ri egba lokankan, a se bi ogun ni Egbas, At a distance appear like a force
Ija suke suke ni ija Egba But nerveless and feeble, Egbas are in fight
Ija lile lile ni’ja Oyo Strenuos and brave, Oyos are in fight
The Egbas coming to support the ijaiyes
eventually became a curse in disguise. Because though the Egbas brought a lot
of Ammunitions for the Ijaiyes, they were really eating up the food produce. So
in no time, Ijaiye became short of food. They had to resort to food from
Iseyin. Ibikunle seeing this, told his men to block the food supply from Iseyin
to Ijaiye to ensure the soldiers were starved. This starvation formed the first
turning point of the war. For food, the Ijaiyes had to turn to Iwawun, a town
that had an allegiance to Ijaiye. To ensure the Ijaiyes would be able to
continue getting food supplies from Iwawun, Kunrunmi sent his 5 sons along with
other trusted soldiers to Iwawun to guard the place.
The major point that turned the war was the
battle at the Ose River. The Ibadan warriors consulted the oracle before the
commencement of the war, and the oracle was said to have warned that they MUST
NOT cross the Ose River first. So when the warriors got to the bank of the Ose
river, they stopped and made a camp.
The Ijaiye warriors also consulted the
oracle in their own town separately, and the ifa oracle forbade them from
crossing the Ose river first. So when the ijaiye warriors also got to the bank
of the Ose river on the other end, they stopped and made a camp. Both sides
were waiting for the other side to cross the river first. The ijaiye people did
not know why the Ibadan people were not crossing the river, neither did the
Ibadan people know why the ijaiyes were not crossing the river too. Both camps
sat on either side waiting idly for 14 days!
On the 8th day of waiting,
Ibikunle asked his trusted lietenant, Ogunmola to go to Iwawun town to sack the
town so that food supply to Ijaiye would stop. Several commentators have
posited that it was the knowledge of the history of the Kurunmi war that Obafemi
Awolowo employed in stopping food supplies to Biafran soldiers. This was
technically what put the Nigerian Civil war to an end.
Anyways, as much as Ogunmola tried in
Iwawun, he couldn’t get hold of the town as the town was advantageously
situated on a hill.
On the 14th day at the bank of
the Ose river (some said the ibadans actually used the asaasi charm on the
egbas as the Ijaiyes themselves were too protected with charms), the Egbas came
to Kunrunmi and asked why the hell they were just sitting there idly? They said
they couldn’t just be sitting there. “we didn’t come all the way from Abeokuta
to come stare at your Ose river, if our wish was to see rivers, the Ogun river
is sufficient for us”. Aare Kunrunmi tried to tell them that crossing the river
first has been forbideen by the oracle. “Ah, Kunrunmi is scared of Ibadan
warriors,” they said, “instead of him to admit that he is a scared cat, he is
covering up with a conjured oracle statement”.
It got to a point that the Egba warriors
told Aare Kunrunmi that if he didn’t get on with the war, they would turn back
and go to Abeokuta. At that point, Kunrunmi had no choice but to accede to the
pressure. Off he galloped with his men across the Ose river to fight the
warriors of the Alaafin.
It was a castatrophic move. Not only did
the Ibadans completely route the ijaiye warriors, it was on that same day that
Ogunmola got lucky and took hold of Iwawun town. All the five sons of Aare
Kurunmi who were part of the ijaiyes protecting Iwawun were captured, and Ogunmola
beheaded them all. Including Arawole who was the eldest son.
Everyone in the camp of the Ibadans were
angry at Ogunmola for his heartless murder of Kunrunmi’s children. For although
Kurunmi was now a foe, he was still a venerable man in the history of the
yorubas. Ibikunle the balogun was said to have shed a tear when he heard of the
death of Aare Kunrunmi’s children.
When Ogunmola returned to Ibadan, Balogun
Ibikunle expressed himself bitterly to Ogunmola. “Arawole”, said he “is our own
companion, and the Aare a contemporary of our fathers, how long further has he
to live, and who is to uphold his house?” Ogunmola justified his acts by saying
“if we want the war to be over soon, sentiment must give way to something
practical, a crushing blow was needed at Iwawun, and that is what I have
dealt.” (To understand how fierce Ogunmola is, you need to know how he disciplined one of his wives that misbehaved).
The blow was indeed crushing for the
Aare-ona-kakanfo. He became disillusioned. Even at the war front, he was
fighting without a purpose any more. Some day as they retreated back after another
routing from the Ibadan warriors, he was heard murmuring to himself “nje emi ni
mo jebi oro yi? (Am I then in the wrong in this matter?). he was hitherto been
confident of success from the supposed justice of his cause. Aare Kunrunmi died
of a broken heart in the month of June 1861. There was no gunshot on his body
at his death.
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| At Ijaiye Orile with Chief Olaniyan |
Thus was the story of a brave and
courageous Aare-ona-Kakanfo, Aare Kunrunmi.
Ps: the war ended on March 17, 1862. True
to Sokenu’s words, none of the Egba chiefs returned from the war alive. Ijaiye
was completely sacked. It was said that the Alaafin wanted Ijaiye not to be
ever habitable again to serve as a reminder to people who crossed the Alaafin’s
path. So a hunch back and an albino were tied together back to back and were
buried alive as a curse to the land. It is believed that even if people come
back to inhabit the town, when the amount people get to a certain certain
secrete number, the town would go desolate again. Ijaiye ojutaiye was then
formed about 10 kilometers away from the original ijaiye which is Ijaiye Orile.
Chief Oye Olaniyan who is the current
second in command in Ijaiye Orile informed me that propriations of the elders
(Eyonu awon agba) has been made and the curses have been waved.
I pray that Ijaiye Orile prospers, and I
pray that Ijaiye Ojutaiye prospers.
A Special thanks to Chief Oye Olaniyan of
Ijaiye Orile for granting me access to his library.
A special thanks to the Baale of Ijaiye
Ojutaiye and his Olori too, for the history of Ijaiye Ojutaiye.
