No General Descriptions provided.
| - | 1601 CE 1769 CE |
| [50,000 to 100,000] people | 1770 CE 1800 CE |
| - | 1801 CE 1835 CE |
| 46,000 km2 |
| Year Range | Ilú-ọba Ọ̀yọ́ (ni_oyo_emp_2) was in: |
|---|
Sometimes referred to as Oyo Katunga, Katanga, Old Oyo, Oyo-oro, Eyo or the Oyo metropolis. Key structures were the defensive city walls, the palace (Afin) and the market (Ojo-Oba). “Old Oyo was perhaps the largest precolonial African city in terms of area. The full extent of the city was revealed only by systematic survey (Agbaje-Williams and Onyango-Abuje 1981). It is an excellent example of a “giant village,” an area of more than 50 sq km with a very low population density. […] British explorers such as Clapperton (1829) and the Lander brothers (1832) visited the capital; their accounts show clearly that Old Oyo was a multiple-walled, large cosmopolitan city with ditches.” [1] For a while after reclaiming Oyo from the Nupe, the capital was Oyo-Igboho. However, Oyo Ile was soon rebuilt and became the capital again. The capital also moved south of the site of Oyo Ile after its destruction during the last decades of the empire in the 19th century, part of why we’re designating 1835 as the last year of the empire here. “The town of Oyo, 55km north of Ibadan in Nigeria’s Western State, was founded about 1837 on the site of an earlier settlement named Ago. For centuries prior to this the Yoruba empire of Oyo had as its capital a town which is today variously referred to as Old Oyo, Oyo-ile (’Home Oyo’), Oyo-oro (’Oyo of the Ghosts’), Eyo or Katunga. About 1837 this town was abandoned and the paramount head of the Oyo Yoruba, the Alafin, took up residence some 130k to the south.” [2] “The site is now totally uninhabited, but vestiges of its former occupation, notably the earthen city walls, with a circuit of some 15 miles, may still be seen. This earlier capital is sometimes called Katanga or Katunga, in origin the name by which the Hausa people of northern Nigeria referred to the city. Since its abandonment in the 1830s, the site has also been known as Oyo Ile, or ‘Old Oyo’.” [3]
[1]: Storey, Glenn. ‘Urbanism in the Preindustrial World: Cross-Cultural Approaches’. University of Alabama Press, 2006: 155. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/JUZF8JHT/collection
[2]: Goddard, Stephen. ‘Ago That Became Oyo: An Essay in Yoruba Historical Geography’. The Geographical Journal vol.137, no.2 (1971): 207. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/9A2KMTEF/collection
[3]: Law, R. (1977). The Oyo Empire c. 1600 – c. 1836: A West African Imperialism in the Era of the Atlantic Slave Trade. Oxford University Press: 4. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/SB32ZPCF/collection
“[T]he application of the name Yoruba to this large group is a modern usage, strictly anachronistic for the period dealt with in this study. Originally the name designated only the Ọyọ, being the name by which the Hausa of northern Nigeria referred to the Ọyọ kingdom. The extension of the term to its present general signification , to refer to the linguistic group, was the work of the Christian missionaries in Sierra Leone who first studied these languages, among freed slaves of Yoruba origin there, in the nineteenth century. Even today the word is sometimes understood to refer specifically to the Ọyọ, who are commonly known as ‘Yoruba Proper’.” [1]
[1]: Law, R. (1977). The Oyo Empire c. 1600 – c. 1836: A West African Imperialism in the Era of the Atlantic Slave Trade. Oxford University Press: 5. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/SB32ZPCF/collection
“By 1730, Oyo had become the largest political formation in West Africa south of the River Niger, stretching its arms across both the savanna and the rainforest belts, with a vast network of towns, villages, colonies, and kingdoms under its control.” [1] “The Old Oyo Empire […] rose to prominence in the 17th century and reached its peak in the 18th century. When the empire finally collapsed in 1835, it was territorially the largest and the most politically powerful Yoruba kingdom ever. Scholars do not agree on the extent of the size of the Old Oyo Empire. However, However, what is certain is that at the height of its power in the 18th century, the eastern end of the empire extended from the coast near Badagry northward along the western boundary of Ijebu territories”. [2] Robin Law splits the chronology into: The Oyo Empire (c. 1600–c. 1790); The Fall of the Oyo Empire (c. 1790–c. 1836). [3] Law also includes a map named “3. The oyo Kingdom at its greatest extent (c. 1780).” [4] “Ojigi did not, however, carry the Oyo empire to its greatest power and extent. Dahomey revolted, and had to be reconquered in a war fought in 1739–48. Further campaigning was also necessary in Egbaland, under Ojigi’s successor Gberu. Expansion continued under Basorun Gaha, who usurped effective power at Oyo in 1754–74, and who was responsible for the Oyo colonization of the Ewon area of northern Egbado. The period of Gaha’s rule apparently also saw Oyo forces operating far away to the west, close to the River Volta, where they are reported to have inflicted a defeat on the Asante in 1764. It was under Alafin Abiodun, who overthrew Gaha in 1774 and ruled until his death in 1789, that the Oyo empire attained its greatest extent. Abiodun organized the Oyo colonization of the southern Egbado area around Ilaro, and exacted tribute from the coastal kingdom of Porto Novo. He also campaigned in Egbaland, and effected the conquest, in 1788, of the Mahi country between Sabe and Dahomey.” [5]
[1]: Ogundiran, Akinwumi & Agbaje-Williams, Babatunde (2017). In Gosselain, O. P., & MacEachern, S. Field Manual for African Archaeology (A. Livingstone-Smith & E. Cornelissen, Eds.): 69. Royal Museum for Central Africa, Tervuren. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/JRMZECR5/collection
[2]: Aderinto, Saheed. African Kingdoms: An Encyclopedia of Empires and Civilizations. ABC-CLIO, 2017: 244. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/EB5TWDG7/note/U7W4UF33/ collection
[3]: Law, R. (1977). The Oyo Empire c. 1600 – c. 1836: A West African Imperialism in the Era of the Atlantic Slave Trade. Oxford University Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/SB32ZPCF/collection
[4]: Law, R. (1977). The Oyo Empire c. 1600 – c. 1836: A West African Imperialism in the Era of the Atlantic Slave Trade. Oxford University Press: 89. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/SB32ZPCF/collection
[5]: Law, R. (1977). The Oyo Empire c. 1600 – c. 1836: A West African Imperialism in the Era of the Atlantic Slave Trade. Oxford University Press: 239. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/SB32ZPCF/collection
Another possible end date is 1896; last independent Alaafin (Adeyemi I Alowolodu) ruled 1876–1905, but from ~1888 Oyo was essentially a British vassal state/protectorate, and in 1896 it ceased to be regarded as a distinct power. It could be argued that the death of Alaafin Oluewu in 1835 (or 1837, when the capital was abandoned/moved; no Alaafin for those two intervening years) is a clearer endpoint. “The Old Oyo Empire […] rose to prominence in the 17th century and reached its peak in the 18th century. When the empire finally collapsed in 1835, it was territorially the largest and the most politically powerful Yoruba kingdom ever. Scholars do not agree on the extent of the size of the Old Oyo Empire. However, However, what is certain is that at the height of its power in the 18th century, the eastern end of the empire extended from the coast near Badagry northward along the western boundary of Ijebu territories”. [1] “The final end to a once glorious Yoruba empire came around 1835 in the Eleduwe War, when the capital of Oyo fell to the jihadist. It was completely sacked, with the entire population dispersed over other Yoruba territories. Historians of Yoruba agree that the collapse of the Old Oyo Empire left a political vacuum in the region and paved the way for a series of wars and revolutions that did not come to an end until the last decade of the 19th century, when the British imposed colonial rule on much of Yorubaland.” [2] Some disagreement over when the empire should be defined as ending in the 19th/what the empire’s boundaries were at that time. “The kingdom of Oyo emerged as the most extensive and prominent of all the Yoruba states. Oyo’s vastness, power and prominence earned it the legendry status of an empire. It subsequently declined and collapsed in the eighteenth century before British colonial intervention carved parts of the upper and lower Niger into what became Nigeria. Historians differentiate it from what remained of its rump after it collapsed by designating it as the Old Oyo Empire.” [3] NB There was an interval during which the Nupe occupied Oyo territory, approx. 1535–1600 or 1608. The Oyo ruling dynasty took refuge in neighbouring Borgu, but re-established the Empire in an even more centralised and expansive form. We’ve defined the period before this as the Early Oyo Empire, and after as the Late Oyo Empire.
[1]: Aderinto, Saheed. African Kingdoms: An Encyclopedia of Empires and Civilizations. ABC-CLIO, 2017: 244. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/EB5TWDG7/note/U7W4UF33/ collection
[2]: Aderinto, Saheed. African Kingdoms: An Encyclopedia of Empires and Civilizations. ABC-CLIO, 2017: 246–247. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/EB5TWDG7/note/U7W4UF33/collection
[3]: Ejiogu, EC. ‘State Building in the Niger Basin in the Common Era and Beyond, 1000–Mid 1800s: The Case of Yorubaland’. Journal of Asian and African Studies vol.46, no.6 (1 December 2011): 597. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/2H2CJNHP/collection
Depends on whether we think of eg Dahomey as a separate polity. “The extent of the Old Oyo Kingdom had been a subject of debate among the professional and non-professional historians. […] Among the states incorporated into the Kingdom was Benin on the east, and Dahomey on the west. […] It was able to incorporate into the imperial power such sub-Yoruba states like Ajase-Ipo, Igbomina, Ekiti, Egba and Egbado (Atanda, 1973:5); and non-Yoruba groups like Dahomey.” [1] Law suggests that the Kingdom of Dahomey and others were separate polities with a large degree of independence, but which still paid tribute to Oyo. Law outlines three categories of Oyo subjects, counting Dahomey and others as part of the third category, so it’s up for debate whether this counts as supra-polity relations or not. Categories are: “1. The area that, to use Araji’s phrase, ‘owed direct allegiance to the Alafin’, and was subject to a relatively centralized administration from the capital. […] 2. Those kingdoms whose dynasties were traditionally supposed to be descended from Oduduwa, the legendary king of Ile Ife, and over whom the Alafin claimed authority as the legitimate successor to Oduduwa’s kingship. Of these perhaps only the Egba were in any real sense subject to Oyo, but others (such as the Ijesa) were prepared to acknowledge loosely the suzerainty (or at least the senior status) of the Alafin. 3. States outside the Ife dynastic system which paid tribute to Oyo, such as Dahomey.” [2]
[1]: Akinwumi, O. D. (1992). The Oyo-Borgu Military Alliance of 1835: A Case Study in the Pre-Colonial Military History. Transafrican Journal of History, 21, 159–170: 160. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/J42GPW63/collection
[2]: Law, R. (1977). The Oyo Empire c. 1600 – c. 1836: A West African Imperialism in the Era of the Atlantic Slave Trade. Oxford University Press: 84–85. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/SB32ZPCF/collection
“The disintegration of the Old Oyo Empire effectively began around the 1820s, when ‘the slave trade from Africa had assumed gigantic proportions’ (Lovejoy, 1983: 135). One can rightly argue that its disintegration did not in any way exhaust warfare, slave-taking and their beneficiaries, the trinity that functioned in tandem to aid and then undermine the empire. […] The main successor states – Oke-Odan, New Oyo, Ilorin, Ibadan, Abeokuta and Ijaye – that emerged to fill the vacuum created by its disintegration were all products of the trinity. They thrived on militarist authority patterns as opposed to the age-old constitutional monarchical political system of the Yoruba (Falola and Oguntomisin, 1984, 2001). Ibadan, which emerged as the new imperial overlord, operated the quintessence of that new political culture based on militarism (Awe, 1965; Falola, 1985).” [1]
[1]: Ejiogu, EC. ‘State Building in the Niger Basin in the Common Era and Beyond, 1000–Mid 1800s: The Case of Yorubaland’. Journal of Asian and African Studies vol.46, no.6 (1 December 2011): 607. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/2H2CJNHP/collection
There was an interval during which the Nupe occupied Oyo territory, approx. 1535–1600. The Oyo ruling dynasty took refuge in neighbouring Borgu, but re-established the Empire in an even more centralised and expansive form (the Late Oyo Empire) after that. For a while after reclaiming Oyo from the Nupe, the capital was Oyo-Igboho. However, Oyo Ile was soon rebuilt and became the capital again.
Vassal states and a centralised system were present. “A combination of internal and external factors was responsible for the decline of Oyo after the death of King Abiodun in 1789. One notable external factor was the increasing power of its provincial and vassal states, which began to break away because the central government could not effectively administer the expanding empire. Provincial chiefs and warriors who were required to respect the order of the alaafin began to carve out part of the empire for themselves.” [1] Rulers of provincial towns “usually” appointed by the central authorities. “The appointment of [provincial towns’] rulers was usually ratified by the alaafin. Provincial towns were also required to send representatives to the Oyo metropolis during important festivals. Similarly, the alaafin would appoint a local representative (ajele) to monitor and oversee the affairs of provincial towns in order to maintain his interest.” [1] Though some of the outer parts of the Empire had their own rulers, they may still have an ajele (Egbado Corridor), and still paid taxes to the central government and to follow Oyo orders and give access to markets (Ajaland). “Provincial towns of the empire were allowed autonomy in their internal affairs alone; the central government controlled external affairs throughout the empire. But it was ensured, through the stationing of ajele (resident officials), that provincial towns did not conduct their internal affairs to the detriment of the Alafin and his government.” [2] “Except in the conduct of external relations, the implementation of capital punishment and the recruitment of the head chief, each subsidiary polity in a typical central Yoruba state (including tribute-paying polities) enjoyed autonomy in the conduct of its political affairs. The authority of the central states over their subsidiary polities was exercised mostly in raising manpower for military campaigns and revenue collection”. [3] As power shifted in the region, the nature of the empire also changed. Though the Oyo Empire still existed in 1835, it was past its peak and now subordinate to some states which has previously been tributary states of Oyo. “There is abundant literature on the establishment of Ilorin, but it must be emphasized that it was formerly a military outpost of Oyo until Afonja declared it an independent state. Afonja, the military leader of Oyo empire had earlier been sent to Iwere by Alaafin Aole. Though, Iwere was captured, Afonja refused to go back to Oyo; instead he came to Ilorin, where he embarked upon his secessionist career (Danmole et al, 1985: 21 - 26). Afonja was helped in his secessionist bid by the Islamic zealots from the newly established Sokoto Caliphate. […] d, Abd al-Salam applied and got a flag from the Emir of Gwandu to spread Islam to the south. Thus, he became the first emir of Ilorin in about 1823. Ilorin’s determination to survive as a muslim state amidst its hostile neighbours led to the creation of a military state with soldiers and civilians participating in the war of expansion. Ilorin soon began to expand at the expense of Oyo until 1840 when it was defeated at Oshogbo by Ibadan. The emergence of Ilorin indeed upset the military power in the region. The incessant raids on Oyo empire and the subordinate states in the 1820s and 1830s constituted a great threat to many states. […] Oyo’s Specific Reasons Oyo Empire had every reason to go into a military alliance with Borgu. As we have mentioned earlier, this was an empire that had enjoyed great power and influence until the late 18th century when it started to decline. At the beginning of the 19th century, it was already a vassal state to Ilorin. Several attempts were made to re-assert Oyo hegemony over Ilorin.” [4]
[1]: Aderinto, Saheed. African Kingdoms: An Encyclopedia of Empires and Civilizations. ABC-CLIO, 2017: 246. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/EB5TWDG7/note/U7W4UF33/collection
[2]: Atanda, J. A. ‘The Fall of the Old Ọyọ Empire: A Re-Consideration of its Cause’. Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria vol.5, no.4 (June 1971): 480–481. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/NR9MAEAE/collection
[3]: Ejiogu, EC. ‘State Building in the Niger Basin in the Common Era and Beyond, 1000–Mid 1800s: The Case of Yorubaland’. Journal of Asian and African Studies vol.46, no.6 (1 December 2011): 598. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/2H2CJNHP/collection
[4]: Akinwumi, O. D. (1992). The Oyo-Borgu Military Alliance of 1835: A Case Study in the Pre-Colonial Military History. Transafrican Journal of History, 21, 159–170: 161–162. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/J42GPW63/collection
“[T]he application of the name Yoruba to this large group is a modern usage, strictly anachronistic for the period dealt with in this study. Originally the name designated only the Ọyọ, being the name by which the Hausa of northern Nigeria referred to the Ọyọ kingdom. The extension of the term to its present general signification, to refer to the linguistic group, was the work of the Christian missionaries in Sierra Leone who first studied these languages, among freed slaves of Yoruba origin there, in the nineteenth century. Even today the word is sometimes understood to refer specifically to the Ọyọ, who are commonly known as ‘Yoruba Proper’.” [1]
[1]: Law, R. (1977). The Oyo Empire c. 1600 – c. 1836: A West African Imperialism in the Era of the Atlantic Slave Trade. Oxford University Press: 5. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/SB32ZPCF/collection
Islam and to a much lesser extent Christianity were also present, but Yoruba religions were built into the mechanisms of the Oyo Empire, eg the alaafin as divinely appointed ruler; the Ogboni. The rise of Islam contributed to the collapse of the Oyo Empire, and it could be argued that as some oba converted in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, Islam should also be coded here. “A combination of internal and external factors was responsible for the decline of Oyo after the death of King Abiodun in 1789. One notable external factor was the increasing power of its provincial and vassal states, which began to break away because the central government could not effectively administer the expanding empire. Provincial chiefs and warriors who were required to respect the order of the alaafin began to carve out part of the empire for themselves. The most consequential of these secessionist projects was that of Ilorin under Are Ona Kakanfo Afonja, the highest-ranked of the military chiefs. After carving Ilorin for himself, Afonja invited the Hausa-Fulani jihadist from the north to help populate his new territory. With time the Muslim jihadist, inspired by the teachings of Usman dan Fodio, a respected Islamic scholar based in Sokoto, the capital of the Islamic caliphate that covered much of present-day northern Nigeria, took over the town from him and launched an onslaught on the Oyo capital. The final end to a once glorious Yoruba empire came around 1835 in the Eleduwe War, when the capital of Oyo fell to the jihadist.” [1] “There can be no doubt that since the reign of Aole towards the end of the eighteenth century, Islamic influence had been penetrating into Yorubaland from the north. For example, in Old Oyo, the capital of the Old Oyo Empire, the trader, one Alajaeta, who appealed to Aole for protection when his goods were stolen was a Muslim. For, a copy of the Koran was one of the things reported stolen.” [2] “Islam had already been known to the Yoruba of Southern Nigeria even before the Jihad of Uaman dan Fodio. […] Islam reached Yorubaland by way of the desert to the north of the country or, to be more precise, by way of Hausaland. There have been Muslims south of the Sahara in Bornu and Hausaland from the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Islam originally entered Yorubaland, like in the North, through the efforts of Muslim traders.” [3] “Certainly, by the end of the imperial period there was a substantial community of Muslims in the Oyo capital, though the great majority of the population of the city remained pagan. […] There is no evidence that any Alafin of Oyo Ile ever adopted Islam, but a measure of official recognition was extended to the new cult. The Alafin appointed (or, rather, confirmed the selection of) the Imam, and the Imam in turn offered prayers for the Alafin. Islam, in fact, functioned at first very much like the indigenous pagan cults of Oyo.” [4]
[1]: Aderinto, Saheed. African Kingdoms: An Encyclopedia of Empires and Civilizations. ABC-CLIO, 2017: 246-247. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/EB5TWDG7/note/U7W4UF33/collection
[2]: Atanda, J. A. ‘The Fall of the Old Ọyọ Empire: A Re-Consideration of its Cause’. Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria vol.5, no.4 (June 1971): 488–489. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/NR9MAEAE/collection
[3]: Adelowo, E. D. ‘Islam in Oyo and its Districts in the Nineteenth Century’. Thesis, University of Ibadan, 1978, 35–36. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/UHKKZNRA/collection.
[4]: Law, R. (1977). The Oyo Empire c. 1600 – c. 1836: A West African Imperialism in the Era of the Atlantic Slave Trade. Oxford University Press: 76. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/SB32ZPCF/collection
Inhabitants. “According to explorers, the population of Old Oyo was considerable, but no specific figures were offered. Lloyd (1972) gives a figure of 50,000, although without explanation.” [1] “Using the survey estimates from Old Oyo of 1,870 ha of total pottery scatter and area of the compound courtyard complexes of 884 ha and then applying the density factors from above to the pottery scatter give population estimates of 111,976 (based on 167 ha per person), 130,769 (based on 143 ha per person), and 164,035 (based on 114 ha per person). The average of these three estimates is 135,593. Using the compound-courtyard spread figure of 884 ha and the same density estimates gives population estimates of 52,934 (167), 61,618 (143), and 77,544 (114). Its average is 64,099 (1,233 persons per sq km). The average of the pottery scatter estimates and the compound courtyard estimates is 99,846 (1,920 persons per sq km). This is not unexpected for the late eighteenth century, when the capital was at its zenith. […] Old Oyo and Ife have population sizes around 100,000 persons, near the limit of precolonial city population sizes (Fletcher 1986).” [2]
[1]: Storey, Glenn. ‘Urbanism in the Preindustrial World: Cross-Cultural Approaches’. University of Alabama Press, 2006: 156. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/JUZF8JHT/collection
[2]: Storey, Glenn. ‘Urbanism in the Preindustrial World: Cross-Cultural Approaches’. University of Alabama Press, 2006: 157. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/JUZF8JHT/collection
Inhabitants. “According to explorers, the population of Old Oyo was considerable, but no specific figures were offered. Lloyd (1972) gives a figure of 50,000, although without explanation.” [1] “Using the survey estimates from Old Oyo of 1,870 ha of total pottery scatter and area of the compound courtyard complexes of 884 ha and then applying the density factors from above to the pottery scatter give population estimates of 111,976 (based on 167 ha per person), 130,769 (based on 143 ha per person), and 164,035 (based on 114 ha per person). The average of these three estimates is 135,593. Using the compound-courtyard spread figure of 884 ha and the same density estimates gives population estimates of 52,934 (167), 61,618 (143), and 77,544 (114). Its average is 64,099 (1,233 persons per sq km). The average of the pottery scatter estimates and the compound courtyard estimates is 99,846 (1,920 persons per sq km). This is not unexpected for the late eighteenth century, when the capital was at its zenith. […] Old Oyo and Ife have population sizes around 100,000 persons, near the limit of precolonial city population sizes (Fletcher 1986).” [2]
[1]: Storey, Glenn. ‘Urbanism in the Preindustrial World: Cross-Cultural Approaches’. University of Alabama Press, 2006: 156. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/JUZF8JHT/collection
[2]: Storey, Glenn. ‘Urbanism in the Preindustrial World: Cross-Cultural Approaches’. University of Alabama Press, 2006: 157. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/JUZF8JHT/collection
Inhabitants. “According to explorers, the population of Old Oyo was considerable, but no specific figures were offered. Lloyd (1972) gives a figure of 50,000, although without explanation.” [1] “Using the survey estimates from Old Oyo of 1,870 ha of total pottery scatter and area of the compound courtyard complexes of 884 ha and then applying the density factors from above to the pottery scatter give population estimates of 111,976 (based on 167 ha per person), 130,769 (based on 143 ha per person), and 164,035 (based on 114 ha per person). The average of these three estimates is 135,593. Using the compound-courtyard spread figure of 884 ha and the same density estimates gives population estimates of 52,934 (167), 61,618 (143), and 77,544 (114). Its average is 64,099 (1,233 persons per sq km). The average of the pottery scatter estimates and the compound courtyard estimates is 99,846 (1,920 persons per sq km). This is not unexpected for the late eighteenth century, when the capital was at its zenith. […] Old Oyo and Ife have population sizes around 100,000 persons, near the limit of precolonial city population sizes (Fletcher 1986).” [2]
[1]: Storey, Glenn. ‘Urbanism in the Preindustrial World: Cross-Cultural Approaches’. University of Alabama Press, 2006: 156. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/JUZF8JHT/collection
[2]: Storey, Glenn. ‘Urbanism in the Preindustrial World: Cross-Cultural Approaches’. University of Alabama Press, 2006: 157. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/JUZF8JHT/collection
in squared kilometers. Varies over time, and estimates also vary. “It is clearly desirable to establish the territorial extent of the Oyo kingdom, but its precise boundaries are not in every case easy to fix. Indeed, the very concept of a linear frontier may not always be applicable. In most areas, however, at least the approximate limits of the kingdom at its greatest extent can be determined with some probability.” [1] “The total area of the Oyo kingdom at its greatest extent cannot be calculated with any precision, given the uncertainty about the location of its boundaries in many sectors. It must, however have been something in the order of 18,000 square miles. The population of this area in the early twentieth century seems to have been somewhere around three-quarters of a million: the population of the Oyo kingdom in the eighteenth century is likely to have been rather greater.” [2]
[1]: Law, R. (1977). The Oyo Empire c. 1600 – c. 1836: A West African Imperialism in the Era of the Atlantic Slave Trade. Oxford University Press: 85. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/SB32ZPCF/collection
[2]: Law, R. (1977). The Oyo Empire c. 1600 – c. 1836: A West African Imperialism in the Era of the Atlantic Slave Trade. Oxford University Press: 90. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/SB32ZPCF/collection
levels. Inferred from references to cities, towns and villages, extensive trade networks, and agricultural basis for economy: 1) capital, 2) royal towns, 3) ordinary towns, 4) villages or hamlets. There may be additional levels within these, as we know there were agricultural settlements as well as stops along trade routes. “There were two main types of provincial towns, namely royal towns and ordinary towns. The royal towns were administered by princes from the ruling house in the metropolis of Oyo, who were given the title of King (oba) and the opportunity to build their palace to resemble that of the metropolis. The ordinary towns, however, had loose or distant relations with the Oyo metropolis. Their head (bale) was of a lower status than the oba; a bale could not build his palace to resemble that of the Oyo capital or wear a crown, even though his function was exactly that of the oba […] The appointment of [provincial towns’] rulers was usually ratified by the alaafin. Provincial towns were also required to send representatives to the Oyo metropolis during important festivals. Similarly, the alaafin would appoint a local representative (ajele) to monitor and oversee the affairs of provincial towns in order to maintain his interest.” [1] “The archaeological survey strategies that have been used to address both topics are the subject of this chapter. The first to be discussed is the survey strategy for mapping the city of Oyo-Ile, the capital of Oyo Empire located in the savanna landscape. The second survey focuses on the Oyo colony that was established in the upper reaches of the rainforest belt (Upper Osun region) to advance the project of Oyo political expansion.” [2] “Although Oyo’s metropolis was in the savanna belt, it was in the rainforest that Oyo-Ile scored its first major success towards becoming an empire. It achieved this by establishing colonies on trade routes that linked the savanna hinterlands to the coast.” [3]
[1]: Aderinto, Saheed. African Kingdoms: An Encyclopedia of Empires and Civilizations. ABC-CLIO, 2017: 246. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/EB5TWDG7/note/U7W4UF33/collection
[2]: Gosselain, O. P., & MacEachern, S. (2017). Field Manual for African Archaeology (A. Livingstone-Smith & E. Cornelissen, Eds.): 69. Royal Museum for Central Africa, Tervuren. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/JRMZECR5/collection
[3]: Gosselain, O. P., & MacEachern, S. (2017). Field Manual for African Archaeology (A. Livingstone-Smith & E. Cornelissen, Eds.): 71–72. Royal Museum for Central Africa, Tervuren. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/JRMZECR5/collection
levels. 1) Oluwo (head of the Ogoni), 2) Ogboni, 3) Iya Kere (senior palace Sango priestess), 4) Mogba (Sango cult officials), 5) Elegun (Sango possession priests), 6) other priestly roles (eg linked to Ogun rather than Sango). There may have been several more layers. Many priestly roles also served administrative purposes. “Outsiders without any natal claim to the throne, the ayaba – wives of the reigning king and his predecessors – were entrusted somewhat more safely with administrative functions and prerogatives. They served as the heads of empire-wide priesthoods, as royal advisors, as intermediaries between the king and subject chiefs, and as provincial representatives of the palace. Some of the ayaba were “wives” of the apotheosized king Sango as well (Alaafin Adeyẹmi III, personal communication, 17 October 1988; see also Morton-Williams 1964a:255) Other wifelike palace delegates, known as ilari, served as diplomatic observers, toll collectors, messengers, cavaliers, royal guards, and priests (Biobaku 1952:40).” [1] “The ilari palace deputies were prepared by Sango cult officials (mogba), much after the manner of possession priests and priestesses (elegun), whose defining characteristic is the periodic displacement of their personal will. […] In order to invest them with the royal will, the senior palace priestess of Sango – the Iya Kere – initiated ilari in her palace apartment. Their heads were shaved, incised, and planted with powerful substances.” [2]
[1]: Matory, J. L. (2005). Sex and the Empire That Is No More: Gender and the Politics of Metaphor in Oyo Yoruba Religion. Berghahn Books: 9. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/C6VWWF8Q/collection
[2]: Matory, J. L. (2005). Sex and the Empire That Is No More: Gender and the Politics of Metaphor in Oyo Yoruba Religion. Berghahn Books: 10–11. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/C6VWWF8Q/collection
levels. 1) supreme military commander [Are Ona Kakanfo/basorun], 2 & 3) commanders/war chiefs [Eso, junior and senior], 4) lesser war chiefs [Balogun], 5) cavalry/archers, 6) ground troops called up from tributary states when needed – but there may have been other subdivisions. The Oyo Empire expanded throughout the 17th and 18th centuries due to its military power, notably cavalry and archers. Three main sections: Metropolitan Army, Eso and Tributary Army. The 70 Eso (junior war chiefs), split into senior and junior titles, were appointed by Oga Mesi and approved by alaafin, and headed up (after the Nupe) by the Are Ona Kakanfo, a supreme military commander/Field Marshal who was based in an important frontier province. The Metropolitan Army was for Oyo Ile’s six provinces, and headed up by the basorun. There were lesser war chiefs in this section of the military called the Balogun. Tributary states were required to provide local troops under local generals when required. “The absolute power theoretically given to the Alafin by the constitution was, by the same constitution, shared among the Alafin, the Oyo Mesi headed by the Basorun and the standing officers [the Eso] of the army headed by the Are Ona Kakanfo. Care was also taken to see that in normal circumstances, neither the Basorun nor the Are Ona Kankafo had a right to what was denied the Alafin, namely, to become an absolute ruler and a tyrant. Thus, the powers given to the Basorun could only be rightly exercised with the concurrence of his colleagues in the Oyo Mesi. And since other members of the Oyo Mesi were not just the creations of the Basorun, but appointed by the Alafin, we need not assume that they would, under normal circumstance, allow the Basorun to use his powers against the Alafin without cause. Similarly, the Are Ona Kakanfo could not unilaterally use the army. He was resident outside the capital. But the other standing Officers of the army, namely, the seventy Eso, were resident in the capital and were under the control of the Oyo Mesi. Besides, general mobilization to provide rank and file of the army could only be ordered by the Alafin, acting in consultation with the Oyo Mesi Thus, the army was jointly controlled by the Are Ona Kakanfo, the Oyo Mesi and the Alafin. In the circumstance, it is difficult to see how, under normal condition, the Are could use the army to stage a coup ďetat. This was more difficult since, apart from the officers, the army was not a standing one but always raised ad hoc. Worse still for the Are, he was not, except on the battle field, in control of the standing office.” [1] “The principal war-chiefs of the capital were the seventy Eso, divided into sixteen senior and fifty-four junior titles. The Eso titles were not hereditary, but were conferred individually on merit: this was no doubt a concession to the demands of military efficiency. […] Each of the Eso brought to the army his own band of troops, recruited from his personal retainers. The Eso and their retainers provided a core of specialist soldiers, and it was probably they who served as the cavalry and archers, highly trained soldiers in whom the power of the Oyo army primarily rested.” [2] Command structures of the metropolitan troops aren’t entirely clear, but Law suggests that throughout the Late Oyo Empire period the Eso were under the Oyo Mesi, though this changed after 1835: “…it is less clear under whose authority the Eso served. Johnson describes them as being subordinates of the Oyo Msei, each of whom commanded ten of the Eso, and Morton-Williams adds that the Oyo Mesi were responsible for nominating candidates for Eso titles, to be approved by the Alafin. However, Simpson asserts that only thirty of the Eso came under the Oyo Mesi, the other forty being subordinate to the Alafin’s palace eunuchs. Probably Johnson and Morton-Williams record the arrangement which held during the imperial period, while Simpson describes the new arrangement after the reorganization at New Oyo.” [3]
[1]: Atanda, J. A. ‘The Fall of the Old Ọyọ Empire: A Re-Consideration of its Cause’. Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria vol.5, no.4 (June 1971): 479. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/NR9MAEAE/collection
[2]: Law, R. (1977). The Oyo Empire c. 1600 – c. 1836: A West African Imperialism in the Era of the Atlantic Slave Trade. Oxford University Press: 189. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/SB32ZPCF/collection
[3]: Law, R. (1977). The Oyo Empire c. 1600 – c. 1836: A West African Imperialism in the Era of the Atlantic Slave Trade. Oxford University Press: 190. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/SB32ZPCF/collection
levels. 1) Alaafin (King/Emperor), 2) Basorun (head of Oyo Mesi) & Oluwo (head of Ogboni), 3) Ilari, 4) Ajele, 5) Oyo Mesi (broader Yoruba term = Igbimo) and Ogboni, 6) Oba (different oba will have slightly different titles, but all categorised as oba), 7) Balẹ/Baálẹ (non-royal town chief), 8) Baálé (male head of household). Many of these acted as counterbalances to each other, rather than being strictly hierarchical. Some definitions from Robin Law: “ajẹlẹ: representatives of the Alafin resident in the subordinate towns of the Ọyọ kingdom. Alafin: title of the ọba of Ọyọ. […] balẹ: ruler of a town of inferior status, without the right to wear a crown. (Distinguish bale, head of a lineage.) Baṣọrun: the principal non-royal chief of Ọyọ, the head of the Ọyọ Mesi. […] ilari: category of slaves of the Alafin, serving principally as his messengers. […] ọba: ruler of a town of superior status, with the right to wear a crown. […] Ọyọ Mesi: council of the seven principal non-royal chiefs of Ọyọ.” [1] Alaafin, literally “owner of the palace” is the King/Emperor, at least at the Empire’s fall in 1836. He may not leave the palace. The Oyo Mesi council of the city’s eight most senior chiefs, headed by the basorun, were also the heads of various city quarters, some parts of the Empire (the ekun) and major cults. They advised the alaafin on matters of foreign and domestic policy and economics, controlled the capital’s army, decided which candidate would become the new alaafin, and had the power to compel the alaafin to commit suicide. NB Saheen says eight chiefs made up the Oyo Mesi, but other sources suggest seven instead. “All the alaafins who reigned between circa 1658 and 1754 were compelled to commit suicide by the Oyo Mesi.” [2] The basorun was effectively prime minister. “By the late 18th century […] the delicate balance of power in the government was upset by some over-ambitious chiefs. Notable was Bashorun Gaha, the Prime Minister, who had for long arrogated to himself much power and had reduced successive Alaafin to puppets.” [3] This power structure was not static throughout the whole of the Late Oyo Empire. For example, Basorun Gaha: “Expansion continued under Basorun Gaha, who usurped effective power at Oyo in 1754–74, and who was responsible for the Oyo colonization of the Ewon area of northern Egbado. The period of Gaha’s rule apparently also saw Oyo forces operating far away to the west, close to the River Volta, where they are reported to have inflicted a defeat on the Asante in 1764. It was under Alafin Abiodun, who overthrew Gaha in 1774 and ruled until his death in 1789, that the Oyo empire attained its greatest extent.” [4] “Every individual Yoruba ‘belonged to an ebi (lineage) and the male members of a lineage, their wives (if they were married), and children lived together in one agbo-ile (compound)’ (Akintoye, 1971: 13). The ebi was the basic or lowest level of authority in the Yoruba political system.” [5] “The baálè’s authority extends to both judicial and legal autonomy in almost all issues that concerned the ebi and its members. Fadipe describes the baálè as ‘the chief law-giver and magistrate of the’ lineage (Fadipe, 1970: 106) who was called upon to intervene and resolve ill feelings between adult members that defied attempts by those involved to settle them. Except on issues that are in the exclusive list of the central polity, the authority of the baálè is the replica of the central government in both extent and practice. Such issues included ‘murder, witchcraft, incest violation, and the communication to women of the secrets of the secret society’ (Fadipe, 1970: 108). He exacted punishments through floggings for acts of theft, acts of sexual misconduct and ‘disrespect’ of elders by young people. In the case of persistent acts of theft and delinquency in young boys, he ordered severe flogging. There were situations when some baálè ‘even had dungeons of their own in which they imprisoned recalcitrant members of the compound’ (Fadipe, 1970: 109). The baálè collected assigned taxes from lineage members for onward transmission to the central bureaucracy of state. […] Without the baálè, the central authorities were unable to assign and assess levies for military duties and public works, much less issue summons to individual lineage members who were required to appear before the Igbimo. In situations when the people deemed part of a directive from the central authorities unpopular, the baálè’s authority extended to redirecting members of the ebi to disregard its enforcement.” [6] Palace slaves, notably the three main eunuchs, counterbalanced the Oyo Mesi’s power. “The Aláàfin relied on ‘an immense staff of slaves attached to the palace’ (Law, 1971: 29) to enforce his authority and safeguard his power by reducing his dependence on the Oyo Mesi as stipulated by the Constitution. Three of those slaves – all eunuchs – ‘in order of rank, the Ona Efa (“Eunuch of the Middle”), the Otun Efa (“Eunuch of the Right”), and the Osi Efa (“Eunuch of the Left”) who were responsible respectively for judicial, religious, and administrative matters’ (Law, 1971: 29) presided over that elaborate palace bureaucracy.” [7] The hundreds of ilari were appointed by the alaafin, and divided evenly between the sexes. As a representative of the gods, the alaafin was never seen in public; the ilari and subordinate ajele were his ‘messengers’. “The ilari was the other special aggregate of palace-slave functionaries through whom the various ajele – palace slaves – were appointed to represent the kingdom government in each of the provincial polities. Taxes and tributes from vassal polities flowed into the palace treasury through the ilari after they had been collected by the ajele.” [7] “The bureaucracy of state administration in subsidiary polities in each central Yoruba state was parallel to the one that obtained in the central state. For instance, under that bureaucracy, the conduct of military and civil affairs, respectively, was assigned to different state officials according to stipulations in the unwritten Yoruba Constitutions. Constitutional stipulations required powerful individuals who were appointed to the office of the Generalissimo in a central state to locate their headquarters and residence away from the capital”. [8] “The oba had many chiefs who helped him in the general administration of the town. First among these was the ’Basorun’, the leading member of the highest council of chiefs. Next was the Balogun. He was the officer in Charge of war. He was usually a man of valour who should see to the welfare of the royal household and the town in general. Next was the Parakoyi. He was originally an officer in the court of the Alaafin of Oyo in the days of the Old Oyo Empire. He was the officer in Charge of markets and traders, especially long distance traders. Others were the baales, the traditional compound heads, They were responsible to the chiefs. who in turn would report to the oba.” [9] “The palace organisation was recruited almost exclusively from slaves, together with the king’s wives and near ineligible kin. This was countered by the Oyo Mesi, a council of seven descent group heads, representing not only their own groups, but indirectly, the mogaji and members of other groups in their respective quarters. The ogboni continued as an association of free men in which the king and Oyo Mesi had minor offices. (Morton Williams’s diagrammatic representation of the political structure is one which other contributors could usefully have emulated.)” [10]
[1]: Law, R. (1977). The Oyo Empire c. 1600 – c. 1836: A West African Imperialism in the Era of the Atlantic Slave Trade. Oxford University Press: xiii. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/SB32ZPCF/collection
[2]: Aderinto, Saheed. African Kingdoms: An Encyclopedia of Empires and Civilizations. ABC-CLIO, 2017: 245. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/EB5TWDG7/note/U7W4UF33/collection
[3]: Akinwumi, O. D. (1992). The Oyo-Borgu Military Alliance of 1835: A Case Study in the Pre-Colonial Military History. Transafrican Journal of History, 21, 159–170: 160–161. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/J42GPW63/collection
[4]: Law, R. (1977). The Oyo Empire c. 1600 – c. 1836: A West African Imperialism in the Era of the Atlantic Slave Trade. Oxford University Press: 239. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/SB32ZPCF/collection
[5]: Ejiogu, EC. ‘State Building in the Niger Basin in the Common Era and Beyond, 1000–Mid 1800s: The Case of Yorubaland’. Journal of Asian and African Studies vol.46, no.6 (1 December 2011): 597. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/2H2CJNHP/collection
[6]: Ejiogu, EC. ‘State Building in the Niger Basin in the Common Era and Beyond, 1000–Mid 1800s: The Case of Yorubaland’. Journal of Asian and African Studies vol.46, no.6 (1 December 2011): 601–602. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/2H2CJNHP/collection
[7]: Ejiogu, EC. ‘State Building in the Niger Basin in the Common Era and Beyond, 1000–Mid 1800s: The Case of Yorubaland’. Journal of Asian and African Studies vol.46, no.6 (1 December 2011): 606. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/2H2CJNHP/collection
[8]: Ejiogu, EC. ‘State Building in the Niger Basin in the Common Era and Beyond, 1000–Mid 1800s: The Case of Yorubaland’. Journal of Asian and African Studies vol.46, no.6 (1 December 2011): 598. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/2H2CJNHP/collection.
[9]: Adelowo, E. D. ‘Islam in Oyo and its Districts in the Nineteenth Century’. Thesis, University of Ibadan, 1978, 13–14. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/UHKKZNRA/collection.
[10]: Lloyd, P. C. (1968). The Political Development of West African Kingdoms. The Journal of African History, 9(2), 319–329: 325. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/H4EJUEKP/collection
“Apart from the officers, the army was not a standing one but always raised ad hoc.” [1] “It will have been seen from the above discussion of the organization of the Oyo army that the Oyo disposed of no permanent standing force of soldiers. Even the specialist warriors such as the Eso and the military ilari in the capital served on a part-time basis, and would normally expect to return to their homes once a campaign was concluded.” [2]
[1]: Atanda, J. A. ‘The Fall of the Old Ọyọ Empire: A Re-Consideration of its Cause’. Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria vol.5, no.4 (June 1971): 479. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/NR9MAEAE/collection
[2]: Law, R. (1977). The Oyo Empire c. 1600 – c. 1836: A West African Imperialism in the Era of the Atlantic Slave Trade. Oxford University Press: 197. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/SB32ZPCF/collection
“The most multilayered and central signs accreted in the Oyo-Yoruba religions of spirit possession are the signs of wifeliness and of horsemanship, which the Oyo royal empire in the 16th to the early 19th century appears to have made into important signs and means of political delegation. The possession priesthood of Sango is not only the preeminent priesthood of the Oyo kingdom but also the priesthood richest in the symbolism of wifeliness and horsemanship. By contrast, the symbolism of guns, iron and men’s hunting and warfare predominates in the non-possession priesthood of Ogun, at the expense of wifely and equestrian symbolist. Despite the politically central contrast between them, or perhaps because of it, Sango and Ogun are the two most popular orisa in all of circum-Atlantic Yoruba religion.” [1] There were priestly roles which also served administrative purposes. “Outsiders without any natal claim to the throne, the ayaba – wives of the reigning king and his predecessors – were entrusted somewhat more safely with administrative functions and prerogatives. They served as the heads of empire-wide priesthoods, as royal advisors, as intermediaries between the king and subject chiefs, and as provincial representatives of the palace. Some of the ayaba were “wives” of the apotheosized king Sango as well (Alaafin Adeyẹmi III, personal communication, 17 October 1988; see also Morton-Williams 1964a:255) Other wifelike palace delegates, known as ilari, served as diplomatic observers, toll collectors, messengers, cavaliers, royal guards, and priests (Biobaku 1952:40).” [2] “[T]he organization of the Sango cult in the provincial towns was controlled from the capital, and Sango priests in the provinces had to travel to Oyo to receive instruction and initiation from the Mogba, the Sango priests of the royal shrine at Koso.” [3]
[1]: Matory, J. L. (2005). Sex and the Empire That Is No More: Gender and the Politics of Metaphor in Oyo Yoruba Religion. Berghahn Books: xviii. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/C6VWWF8Q/collection
[2]: Matory, J. L. (2005). Sex and the Empire That Is No More: Gender and the Politics of Metaphor in Oyo Yoruba Religion. Berghahn Books: 9. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/C6VWWF8Q/collection
[3]: Law, R. (1977). The Oyo Empire c. 1600 – c. 1836: A West African Imperialism in the Era of the Atlantic Slave Trade. Oxford University Press: 103. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/SB32ZPCF/collection
The Are Ona Kakanfo, Eso, etc. There’s an implication that there was state apparatus to pay military personnel, too (this quote seems to refer to the Eso, not to lower-ranking sodiers): “Second was the military might of the imperial army, which was based on the mobility of its strong army. The army which was made up of the Esos, constituted the nucleus of the imperial army. Third was the power that the state derived from its control of the trade route from the savannah to the sea (Awe, 1960:11). From the toll collected from the traders, the state could pay the soldiers and equip them.” [1]
[1]: Akinwumi, O. D. (1992). The Oyo-Borgu Military Alliance of 1835: A Case Study in the Pre-Colonial Military History. Transafrican Journal of History, 21, 159–170: 160–161. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/J42GPW63/collection
“The principal war-chiefs of the capital were the seventy Eso, divided into sixteen senior and fifty-four junior titles. The Eso titles were not hereditary, but were conferred individually on merit: this was no doubt a concession to the demands of military efficiency.” [1]
[1]: Law, R. (1977). The Oyo Empire c. 1600 – c. 1836: A West African Imperialism in the Era of the Atlantic Slave Trade. Oxford University Press: 189. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/SB32ZPCF/collection
Full-time specialists “The ilari was the other special aggregate of palace-slave functionaries through whom the various ajele – palace slaves – were appointed to represent the kingdom government in each of the provincial polities. Taxes and tributes from vassal polities flowed into the palace treasury through the ilari after they had been collected by the ajele.” [1]
[1]: Ejiogu, EC. ‘State Building in the Niger Basin in the Common Era and Beyond, 1000–Mid 1800s: The Case of Yorubaland’. Journal of Asian and African Studies vol.46, no.6 (1 December 2011): 606. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/2H2CJNHP/collection
Oyo Mesi is the Oyo Empire term for the broader Yoruba role of Igbimo: “The authority of the chiefs of state and the Igbimo extended to the performance of judicial functions. Their authority in this realm straddled the dimension of Directiveness and the exaction of compliance to judgments that they handed down in capital cases from members of the society. In this capacity, they constituted the Supreme Court in the central polity with the sole authority to try capital cases and other ‘indictable offences such as murder, treason, burglary, arson, unlawful wounding, manslaughter, incest … ’ (Fadipe, 1970: 209), as well as disputes between occupants of authority positions and appeals that emanated from lower judicial bodies in the constituent polities. The authority to grant pardons of all types belonged to the chiefs of state in its entirety. They and members of the Igbimo handled regular cases in regular sessions of the Igbimo during the course of the week while special sessions were convened when the occasion called for them (Fadipe, 1970). The fact that executions and jail terms were exacted in the capital by designated institutions in the state bureaucracy (Bascom, 1955; Fadipe, 1970; Akintoye, 1971) indicated the presence of some measure of regulated regimentation in the Yoruba authority patterns (Ejiogu, 2004).” [1]
[1]: Ejiogu, EC. ‘State Building in the Niger Basin in the Common Era and Beyond, 1000–Mid 1800s: The Case of Yorubaland’. Journal of Asian and African Studies vol.46, no.6 (1 December 2011): 600. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/2H2CJNHP/collection
Oyo Mesi is the Oyo Empire term for the broader Yoruba role of Igbimo: “The authority of the chiefs of state and the Igbimo extended to the performance of judicial functions. Their authority in this realm straddled the dimension of Directiveness and the exaction of compliance to judgments that they handed down in capital cases from members of the society. In this capacity, they constituted the Supreme Court in the central polity with the sole authority to try capital cases and other ‘indictable offences such as murder, treason, burglary, arson, unlawful wounding, manslaughter, incest … ’ (Fadipe, 1970: 209), as well as disputes between occupants of authority positions and appeals that emanated from lower judicial bodies in the constituent polities. The authority to grant pardons of all types belonged to the chiefs of state in its entirety. They and members of the Igbimo handled regular cases in regular sessions of the Igbimo during the course of the week while special sessions were convened when the occasion called for them (Fadipe, 1970). The fact that executions and jail terms were exacted in the capital by designated institutions in the state bureaucracy (Bascom, 1955; Fadipe, 1970; Akintoye, 1971) indicated the presence of some measure of regulated regimentation in the Yoruba authority patterns (Ejiogu, 2004).” [1] There were at least legal systems/precedents and clear rules for escalation, if not formal codes. “A further aspect of metropolitan interference in the local administration of the provincial towns was that in judicial matters their rulers were subordinated to the Alafin. Johnson observes: ’The [local] King’s civil officers judge all minor cases, but all important matters are transferred to the Alafin of Oyo, whose decision and laws were as unalterable as those of the ancient Medes and Persians.’ Judicial reference to the Alafin meant in practice judgement by the Ona lwefa, the palace eunuch who regularly deputized for the Alafin in judicial matters. The precise categories of cases which had to bebrought before the Ona lwefa are unclear. Disputes between provincial rulers were naturally judged at the capital. It is also generally agreed that disputes which could not be settled by the local ruler and his chiefs, or in which the disputants were not satisfied with their decision, might be taken to be judged at Oyo.” [2]
[1]: Ejiogu, EC. ‘State Building in the Niger Basin in the Common Era and Beyond, 1000–Mid 1800s: The Case of Yorubaland’. Journal of Asian and African Studies vol.46, no.6 (1 December 2011): 600. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/2H2CJNHP/collection
[2]: Law, R. (1977). The Oyo Empire c. 1600 – c. 1836: A West African Imperialism in the Era of the Atlantic Slave Trade. Oxford University Press: 103. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/SB32ZPCF/collection
Oyo Mesi is the Oyo Empire term for the broader Yoruba role of Igbimo: “The authority of the chiefs of state and the Igbimo extended to the performance of judicial functions. Their authority in this realm straddled the dimension of Directiveness and the exaction of compliance to judgments that they handed down in capital cases from members of the society. In this capacity, they constituted the Supreme Court in the central polity with the sole authority to try capital cases and other ‘indictable offences such as murder, treason, burglary, arson, unlawful wounding, manslaughter, incest… ’ (Fadipe, 1970: 209), as well as disputes between occupants of authority positions and appeals that emanated from lower judicial bodies in the constituent polities. The authority to grant pardons of all types belonged to the chiefs of state in its entirety. They and members of the Igbimo handled regular cases in regular sessions of the Igbimo during the course of the week while special sessions were convened when the occasion called for them (Fadipe, 1970). The fact that executions and jail terms were exacted in the capital by designated institutions in the state bureaucracy (Bascom, 1955; Fadipe, 1970; Akintoye, 1971) indicated the presence of some measure of regulated regimentation in the Yoruba authority patterns (Ejiogu, 2004).” [1]
[1]: Ejiogu, EC. ‘State Building in the Niger Basin in the Common Era and Beyond, 1000–Mid 1800s: The Case of Yorubaland’. Journal of Asian and African Studies vol.46, no.6 (1 December 2011): 600. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/2H2CJNHP/collection
As well as the large market in in front of the Afin (palace) in Oya-Ile, there were markets in smaller settlements. “Like other Yoruba towns Ago would have consisted of a cluster of large thatched family compounds (agbo ile). An early traveller in Yorubaland has left a description of the typical compound. ’A compound’, he wrote, ’is an enclosed space (generally in the form of a square) bounded by a mud wall about seven feet high. There is but one entrance to this enclosed space’ (Stone, 1900). The nucleus of the settlement would have been the compound of the oba and in front of it would have been located the principal market.” [1] “During the survey, local informants identified a number of important activity areas. They identified Locus B as the area where the imperial governor, his family and his attendants lived, with the stable of horses located in Locus G. The pottery-making workshop and a market site were reportedly present in Locus C, while iron manufacture took place in Locus f. Another market site was reportedly located in Locus E. Test excavations were carried out in each of these loci and other areas in order to better understand the settlement pattern and the material life of Ede-Ile.” [2]
[1]: Goddard, Stephen. ‘Ago That Became Oyo: An Essay in Yoruba Historical Geography’. The Geographical Journal vol.137, no.2 (1971): 207–208. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/9A2KMTEF/collection.
[2]: Gosselain, O. P., & MacEachern, S. (2017). Field Manual for African Archaeology (A. Livingstone-Smith & E. Cornelissen, Eds.): 74. Royal Museum for Central Africa, Tervuren. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/JRMZECR5/collection
“The survey achieved three goals: (1) It led to the identification of the residential area, comprising mostly compound-courtyard structures (impluvium architecture), granary stone structures, a vast palace complex, a dug-out water reservoir, refuse mounds, as well as grinding stones and grinding hollows on rock outcrops. (2) It provided the spatial and density distribution of artifacts, mostly pottery. (3) It made purposive problem-oriented selective excavations possible because the provenance of many of the features is known.” [1]
[1]: Gosselain, O. P., & MacEachern, S. (2017). Field Manual for African Archaeology (A. Livingstone-Smith & E. Cornelissen, Eds.): 70. Royal Museum for Central Africa, Tervuren. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/JRMZECR5/collection
“The survey achieved three goals: (1) It led to the identification of the residential area, comprising mostly compound-courtyard structures (impluvium architecture), granary stone structures, a vast palace complex, a dug-out water reservoir, refuse mounds, as well as grinding stones and grinding hollows on rock outcrops. (2) It provided the spatial and density distribution of artifacts, mostly pottery. (3) It made purposive problem-oriented selective excavations possible because the provenance of many of the features is known.” [1]
[1]: Gosselain, O. P., & MacEachern, S. (2017). Field Manual for African Archaeology (A. Livingstone-Smith & E. Cornelissen, Eds.): 70. Royal Museum for Central Africa, Tervuren. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/JRMZECR5/collection
Markets. “Like other Yoruba towns Ago would have consisted of a cluster of large thatched family compounds (agbo ile). An early traveller in Yorubaland has left a description of the typical compound. ’A compound’, he wrote, ’is an enclosed space (generally in the form of a square) bounded by a mud wall about seven feet high. There is but one entrance to this enclosed space’ (Stone, 1900). The nucleus of the settlement would have been the compound of the oba and in front of it would have been located the principal market.” [1]
[1]: Goddard, Stephen. ‘Ago That Became Oyo: An Essay in Yoruba Historical Geography’. The Geographical Journal vol.137, no.2 (1971): 207–208. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/9A2KMTEF/collection.
There was extensive trade throughout the Oyo Empire and beyond (trans-Saharan, overseas). “Elaborate trade routes to the coast were established and maintained.” [1]
[1]: Ejiogu, EC. ‘State Building in the Niger Basin in the Common Era and Beyond, 1000–Mid 1800s: The Case of Yorubaland’. Journal of Asian and African Studies vol.46, no.6 (1 December 2011): 605. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/2H2CJNHP/collection
“The multiple wall system at OyoIle – the palace (innermost) wall, main outer (defence, with deep ditch) wall, outer wall 2 (with shallow ditch), and the northeast and northwest walls – demonstrates a complex history of urban formation (ig. 2). At its peak, the ancient capital had a north-south dimension of 10 km while its east-west spanned 6 km. The survey achieved three goals: (1) It led to the identification of the residential area, comprising mostly compound-courtyard structures (impluvium architecture), granary stone structures, a vast palace complex, a dug-out water reservoir, refuse mounds, as well as grinding stones and grinding hollows on rock outcrops. (2) It provided the spatial and density distribution of artifacts, mostly pottery. (3) It made purposive problem-oriented selective excavations possible because the provenance of many of the features is known.” [1]
[1]: Gosselain, O. P., & MacEachern, S. (2017). Field Manual for African Archaeology (A. Livingstone-Smith & E. Cornelissen, Eds.): 70. Royal Museum for Central Africa, Tervuren. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/JRMZECR5/collection
“No written records of the Ọyọ themselves survive from the period before the collapse of the Ọyọ empire in the 1830s, though it is likely that some once existed. The Ọyọ empire was certainly not a wholly illiterate society. It is known that Islam began to spread among the Ọyọ from countries to the north as early as the sixteenth or seventeenth century, and individual Ọyọ could well have acquired literacy in Arabic along with the Islamic religion. The Ọyọ also imported numbers of slaves from the Muslim countries to the north. Some of these were certainly literate in Arabic, and some Ọyọ probably used literate northern slaves as secretaries. The French trader Landolphe records that a party of Ọyọ ambassadors whom he met in the Benin area in c. 1787 were literate in Arabic: such ambassadors would probably have been royal slaves, and those met by Landolphe may well have been northerners. […] If the existence of written records in the Ọyọ capital during the imperial period is somewhat speculative, there can be no question that such records were kept in Ilọrin, the subordinate town of the Ọyọ kingdom whose revolt in the late eighteenth century played a crucial role in the collapse of the Ọyọ empire. […] To date, however, the only Ilọrin document which has come to light from this period is a letter to ‘Abd al-Salām, the Emir of Ilọrin, from Abdullāh, the Emir of Gwandu, written in 1829, which deals with the illegality of castration.” [1]
[1]: Law, R. (1977). The Oyo Empire c. 1600 – c. 1836: A West African Imperialism in the Era of the Atlantic Slave Trade. Oxford University Press: 12–13. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/SB32ZPCF/collection
“The influx of Islam into West Africa was very significant. Through Islam, the people of diverse ethnic groups and languages found a common bond of allegiance to a central authority. Ability of Muslims to read and write and to communicate over long distances made them valuable in advising the rulers of the Ancient Empires of West Africa. […] The educational value of Islam was tremendous. Some rulers employed Muslim Interpreters to record events in Arabic language and to communicate with more distant rulers on behalf of the rulers. As a result of the influx of foreign Muslims into West Africa, Arabic writing and learning were introduced.” [1]
[1]: Adelowo, E. D. ‘Islam in Oyo and its Districts in the Nineteenth Century’. Thesis, University of Ibadan, 1978, 24–25. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/UHKKZNRA/collection.
Arabic. “The influx of Islam into West Africa was very significant. Through Islam, the people of diverse ethnic groups and languages found a common bond of allegiance to a central authority. Ability of Muslims to read and write and to communicate over long distances made them valuable in advising the rulers of the Ancient Empires of West Africa. […] The educational value of Islam was tremendous. Some rulers employed Muslim Interpreters to record events in Arabic language and to communicate with more distant rulers on behalf of the rulers. As a result of the influx of foreign Muslims into West Africa, Arabic writing and learning were introduced.” [1]
[1]: Adelowo, E. D. ‘Islam in Oyo and its Districts in the Nineteenth Century’. Thesis, University of Ibadan, 1978, 24–25. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/UHKKZNRA/collection.
“There can be no doubt that since the reign of Aole towards the end of the eighteenth century, Islamic influence had been penetrating into Yorubaland from the north. For example, in Old Oyo, the capital of the Old Oyo Empire, the trader, one Alajaeta, who appealed to Aole for protection when his goods were stolen was a Muslim. For, a copy of the Koran was one of the things reported stolen.” [1]
[1]: Atanda, J. A. ‘The Fall of the Old Ọyọ Empire: A Re-Consideration of its Cause’. Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria vol.5, no.4 (June 1971): 488–489. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/NR9MAEAE/collection
Islamic literature. As Islamic scholars and missionaries were present in the Oyo Empire, and the Qur’an is recorded as being present, we can infer other Islamic texts were also in the Oyo Empire. “There can be no doubt that since the reign of Aole towards the end of the eighteenth century, Islamic influence had been penetrating into Yorubaland from the north. For example, in Old Oyo, the capital of the Old Oyo Empire, the trader, one Alajaeta, who appealed to Aole for protection when his goods were stolen was a Muslim. For, a copy of the Koran was one of the things reported stolen.” [1]
[1]: Atanda, J. A. ‘The Fall of the Old Ọyọ Empire: A Re-Consideration of its Cause’. Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria vol.5, no.4 (June 1971): 488–489. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/NR9MAEAE/collection
“Local trade was facilitated by the use as currency of the cowry shell (cypraea moneta), which was imported ultimately from the Maldive Islands in the Indian Ocean. The date at which the Oyo adopted this currency is uncertain. The use of cowries in Oyo is first attested in a contemporary source -only in the 1780s.” [1] “It is impossible to estimate what proportion of the Alafin’s imperial revenues came from these trade taxes as opposed to the fixed tributes. But even these fixed tributes did not, as Ajayi appears to suppose, represent taxes on agricultural production as opposed to trade. A considerable proportion of the tributes was paid in cash-for example, Dahomey paid 400 bags of cowries (about $4,000) annually. And part was paid in the form of imported European goods for example, the tribute of Dahomey included coral, European cloth, muskets, and gunpowder and that of Porto Novo consisted of ’the richest European commodities’, while within the Oyo kingdom Ilase paid gunpowder, flints, and tobacco and Ifonyin ’cloths and other articles of European manufacture’.” [2] “Oyo rule over the towns of the kingdom involved, first, the payment of an annual tribute (in Yoruba, asingba or isin). The oba and bale of the subordinate towns were required to bring their tribute to Oyo in person at the annual Bere festival, at which they followed the chiefs of the capital in paying their homage and tribute to the Alafin. […] The basic element in the tribute paid by the provincial towns was the bere grass used for the thatching of the palace roofs, the giving of which was symbolic of subordination to the recipient. In some cases, the tribute may have consisted solely of this bere grass. This is claimed, for example, at Iwo. But usually the towns paid additional tributes in money (i.e. cowry shells) and kind. The town of Saki is said to have paid two rams and ten bags of cowries (i.e. 200,000 cowries, or about 100 dollars).” [3]
[1]: Law, R. (1977). The Oyo Empire c. 1600 – c. 1836: A West African Imperialism in the Era of the Atlantic Slave Trade. Oxford University Press: 209. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/SB32ZPCF/collection
[2]: Law, R. (1977). The Oyo Empire c. 1600 – c. 1836: A West African Imperialism in the Era of the Atlantic Slave Trade. Oxford University Press: 231. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/SB32ZPCF/collection
[3]: Law, R. (1977). The Oyo Empire c. 1600 – c. 1836: A West African Imperialism in the Era of the Atlantic Slave Trade. Oxford University Press: 98–99. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/SB32ZPCF/collection
“It is impossible to estimate what proportion of the Alafin’s imperial revenues came from these trade taxes as opposed to the fixed tributes. But even these fixed tributes did not, as Ajayi appears to suppose, represent taxes on agricultural production as opposed to trade. A considerable proportion of the tributes was paid in cash-for example, Dahomey paid 400 bags of cowries (about $4,000) annually. And part was paid in the form of imported European goods for example, the tribute of Dahomey included coral, European cloth, muskets, and gunpowder and that of Porto Novo consisted of ’the richest European commodities’, while within the Oyo kingdom Ilase paid gunpowder, flints, and tobacco and Ifonyin ’cloths and other articles of European manufacture’.” [1] “Oyo rule over the towns of the kingdom involved, first, the payment of an annual tribute (in Yoruba, asingba or isin). The oba and bale of the subordinate towns were required to bring their tribute to Oyo in person at the annual Bere festival, at which they followed the chiefs of the capital in paying their homage and tribute to the Alafin. […] The basic element in the tribute paid by the provincial towns was the bere grass used for the thatching of the palace roofs, the giving of which was symbolic of subordination to the recipient. In some cases, the tribute may have consisted solely of this bere grass. This is claimed, for example, at Iwo. But usually the towns paid additional tributes in money (i.e. cowry shells) and kind. The town of Saki is said to have paid two rams and ten bags of cowries (i.e. 200,000 cowries, or about 100 dollars).” [2]
[1]: Law, R. (1977). The Oyo Empire c. 1600 – c. 1836: A West African Imperialism in the Era of the Atlantic Slave Trade. Oxford University Press: 231. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/SB32ZPCF/collection
[2]: Law, R. (1977). The Oyo Empire c. 1600 – c. 1836: A West African Imperialism in the Era of the Atlantic Slave Trade. Oxford University Press: 98–99. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/SB32ZPCF/collection