Why all Aare-ona-kakanfos die fighting -Concluding part.

   

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 10^th 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).

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 8^th 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 14^th 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.

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.