Post by Honorebu on May 5, 2016 22:29:10 GMT
Most towns in the 10 local government council areas that make up Oke-Ogun area in Oyo state are heavily populated by Fulani herdsmen who had settled there for decades from the Northern part of the country. There is therefore mixed customs, traditions and inter-tribal marriages And of course clashes. Today, it is noteworthy that very high numbers of Fulanis are fully integrated into their host communities. Some have made advantage of the indigenisation policy -by birth and long stay to lay claim to the town they are currently residing. As of today, generations into their fourth now reside and lay claim in various zones of Oke-Ogun. Chief Correspondent, TUNDE OGUNESAN reports.
He gave out a silent aura of a Nigerian of northern extraction, yet when asked about his name, he quickly replied, “I am Adepoju.” After a pause, this reporter stretched the interaction a little further. “But your father must be from the North. You must be Fulani. How can you be Adepoju?,” he asked.
He stuck to his gun, speaking a distorted form of the Yoruba language. “My name is Adepoju”
“You are from which state?”, this reporter asked him and he answered, I am from Ilero. I was born there.
Ilero, is a community in Kajola LGA of Oke Ogun, Oyo State
When prodded further on how he would claim to Ilero as his home town and appropriate a Yoruba name despite being obviously Fulani, he said, “My parents told me that I am also Usman but I am largely called Adepoju. My parents were born around Igboho but we live now in Ilero. I don’t know anywhere else. I also know Ilorin. At a point, I was asked to travel to Kano to acquire more knowledge of the Quran. I went and spent six years there. After that I was asked to travel to Maiduguri for advanced Quranic lessons but there, it was impossible for me to stay. The harmattan was extreme and I could not bear it. My nose bled and I had split feet.
I said I had had enough and decided to come home. I returned to Ilero.” he said with a tone of finality.
Like Adepoju, Mr Kehinde Mosobalaje, aged 50, with northern ancestry has spent all his life in Otu, Oyo State. He recently performed the Ijala chant on Ajilete FM, located in Alaga, Itesiwaju Local Government area of Oyo State. His wife is from Sepeteri in Saki-East Local Government area.
Mosobalaje is one of hundreds of Fulani cattle rearers who have migrated from their original birthplace down the south. His grandfather, Saliu Abagun came to Otu, Itesiwaju Local Government over 80 years ago. One of his children, Mosobalaje Mohammed gave birth to Kehinde, who today sees himself as an indigene of Otu.
The People
Today, there are many fulanis like Mosobalaje and Adepoju in various towns in the 10 Local Government areas of Oke-Ogun, in Oyo state. From Itesiwaju to Kajola, Iwajowa, Iseyin, Atisbo, Saki-East and others, the Fulani have found comfort over a period of years.
As an ethnic group, the Fulani/Yoruba people relationship in the region has become a union which is difficult to separate.
The Community
The Oke-Ogun people are predominantly farmers and the zone is almost officially termed the food basket of the state. The climate favours the growth of food crops like yam, cassava, millet, maize, fruits, rice and plantains. Cash crops such as citrus, tobacco and timber also abound in the region. Despite this the zone has many uncultivated land. The region also has many streams. The weather in this zone is also not significantly different from that of the north.
These features among others are the reasons why the community become hospitable for herdsmen since time immemorial. So, from Kwara, Sokoto, Kebbi, Niger, Kano, Zamfara, Adamawa, Jigawa, Kaduna among other Northern states in Nigeria, herdsmen considered the region as safe to travel down to especially during the dry season. In the process, many of them never returned home. They stayed behind and became part of the society.
Most of the Fulani people told South west Tribune that their forefathers travelled down from their states in search of favourable climate for their cattle business. And because the land was fertile, they stayed and lived till they died while their offspring inherited their business and properties.
To some, their forefathers left the north during war times and having found solace in these communities, they settled there.
Sixty year-old Oseni Iyanda hails from the Fulani community in Kwara state. Today, he has not only integrated fully in Komu where his grandfather settled down after a local war in Ilorin, Kwara State, he claims that he hails from Olowu’s compound in Komu. “I am part and parcel of the compound,” he said.
According to Iyanda, his grandfather, a herdsman, Balogun Mohammed migrated from Ilorin to Komu where he was received by members of the Olowu’s compound in the town. He said his father, Usman Abagun, who also died over 20 years ago told him that they are from Komu. And today, nothing has changed as the Baloguns have been well integrated into the compound.
Iyanda himself who just retired from the services of Itesiwaju Local Government said his children are erecting structures in their fatherland, Komu, today.
One of Iyanda’s son, Babatunde, who is of the fourth generation also ascertained that “I am from Komu. I married my wife Mulikat from Okeho when I was training as bricklayer there. I can’t go anywhere because I was born here. I am from Olowu’s compound in Komu.”
Today, the Komu natives today regard the Baloguns as members of Olowu’s compound.
But while the Baloguns have integrated into one of the compounds in Komu, some Fulanis have remained independent communities, retaining their Fulani essence while also claiming to be indigenes of the towns they reside in.
In Igbojaye, also In Itesiwaju local government, for example, a group of Fulani herdsmen also from Kwara State informed the South west Tribune how they have been able to settle down in the community.
The group numbering over ten in separate interviews recounted how they came from Ilorin to Ipapo, also in Itesiwaju local government area before they relocated to Igbojaye.
The head of the Fulani in Igbojaye, Mallam Buge Usman, led the delegation to the interview session which was arranged by two of the local chiefs in Igbojaye; Otun of Igbojaye Chief Ayandele Julius Ayanwumi and Bashorun of Igbojaye, Chief Timothy Sulola, on the order of the traditional ruler, Olu Igbo of Igbojaye, Oba Zaccheus Olatunji Oyeleke Alobaloke III.
Others on the team were: Yahmusa bani Gbonke, Isa Umaru, Alhaji Isa Adamu, Alhaji Samo Masudo, Alhaji Hamzat Adam, Alhaji Abdulahi Amodu, a.k.a baba dudu and Adamu Bello.
As stated by Chief Ayanwumi, there has been mutual co-habitation between the two tribes in the town. He informed that this was even made easy by the virtue that most of the leaders of the Fulani community in the town are known to them. He added that “we knew their parents while growing up, some were our mates while we can tell stories of some of them. All those sitting here were born right before us in Igbojaye.”
In addition, Chief Ayanwumi noted that the town is peaceful, more so that they never disrespect our traditional institution.
“They have been respecting our traditional institution from the days of their fathers who first came to our town. In the course of our relationship, we have developed mechanism to resolve our differences. Economically, we relate very well. Their wives sell milk and cheese to us while they also subsidize cattle for us whenever the need arises. The only thing they have not done so far since they’ve been here is to signify political intention,” Chief Ayanwumi stated.
The Fulani delegation was led by Mallam Usman, who was also given birth to in Igbojaye over 50 years ago. While stressing the essence of their years of relationship and stay in the town, Usman said “no Fulani can abuse any native in the town with our language. Many Yoruba in this town now speak Fulani fluently.”
He added that since their fathers settled down in Igbojaye, there has been mutual relationship with the community.
“We have been co-existing peacefully. No problem whatsoever. When we have one, we’ve come up with an understanding on how best to settle it. We were born here and still living here. We grew up to know that we hail from Itesiwaju local Government. I have never been to Ilorin, this land profits us.”
And of course, their language and proverbial way of describing issues really confirms that Mallam Usman and his people had really integrated with the people. When asked how they can help in curbing the atrocities of their fellow kinsmen who torment the people of the city, Usman replied; “Ti e ba mu ehoro igbo wa sile, ko le gbele. Bi oro won se ri niyen,” meaning if you bring a hare from the bush, it cannot adhere to the system at all.
While the Balogun in Komu, Mosobalaje in Otu dress as Yorubas and even speak ‘Onko’ language synonymous with the local people of Oke-Ogun, others like Usman still prefer to dress the Fulani way and still regard themselves as natives of the town they reside in.
While some of them have fully and properly integrated into the main community, living in towns and running their businesses from there, others still prefer to operate from their traditional settlements popularly known as “Gaa Fulani” in the inner farmlands.
In Igbojaye, Itesiwaju Local Government, Alhaji Yamusa Bani Gbonke in his sixties married Mrs Tawa Yamusa and the marriage produced three children.
Mallam Yamusa said he dreamt of marrying a Yoruba woman and had that dream fulfilled by marrying a Yoruba woman as his third wife.
According Yamusa, in his staggering Yoruba language despite never being to his home town since birth, “It never came as accident. I wish to have a Yoruba woman as a wife and it came to pass. But for the records, I married her as a girl, not that I took another man’s wife.”
His wife, Mrs Tawa Yamusa, who cant speak Fulani, revealed that the marriage which was contracted in 1993 has produced three children, and is still working till today.
“It all started as a relationship and it blossomed into marriage. He paid my dowry as husband. He has built a house for me. He never forced any business on me because some people expected that maybe I should be selling cow milk as some of their women do.
“I was in school while the relationship started. I chose the business I wish to venture into then. Initially, I was selling bread and egg including some provisions, later I added liquor and soft drinks which I still sell till today. And to the glory of God, he has built a house for me here in Igbojaye.”
Her children also cannot speak Fulani because they are not living with the family. Interestingly, one of them has also married a Yoruba girl.
Another example is that of Audu Rabiu’s family in Ilero, Kajola Local Government.
Audu, a butcher from Zamfara State came to Ilero around 30 years ago. Four years after, he married a native of Ilero, Modinat. Today, both Audu and Modinat’s union is a reference point in the city. The marriage has produced five children.
Also, Jabi Buge is currently enjoying his marriage to a Fulani woman and even proudly says “I’m also planning to marry a Yoruba woman.”
Tribune
He gave out a silent aura of a Nigerian of northern extraction, yet when asked about his name, he quickly replied, “I am Adepoju.” After a pause, this reporter stretched the interaction a little further. “But your father must be from the North. You must be Fulani. How can you be Adepoju?,” he asked.
He stuck to his gun, speaking a distorted form of the Yoruba language. “My name is Adepoju”
“You are from which state?”, this reporter asked him and he answered, I am from Ilero. I was born there.
Ilero, is a community in Kajola LGA of Oke Ogun, Oyo State
When prodded further on how he would claim to Ilero as his home town and appropriate a Yoruba name despite being obviously Fulani, he said, “My parents told me that I am also Usman but I am largely called Adepoju. My parents were born around Igboho but we live now in Ilero. I don’t know anywhere else. I also know Ilorin. At a point, I was asked to travel to Kano to acquire more knowledge of the Quran. I went and spent six years there. After that I was asked to travel to Maiduguri for advanced Quranic lessons but there, it was impossible for me to stay. The harmattan was extreme and I could not bear it. My nose bled and I had split feet.
I said I had had enough and decided to come home. I returned to Ilero.” he said with a tone of finality.
Like Adepoju, Mr Kehinde Mosobalaje, aged 50, with northern ancestry has spent all his life in Otu, Oyo State. He recently performed the Ijala chant on Ajilete FM, located in Alaga, Itesiwaju Local Government area of Oyo State. His wife is from Sepeteri in Saki-East Local Government area.
Mosobalaje is one of hundreds of Fulani cattle rearers who have migrated from their original birthplace down the south. His grandfather, Saliu Abagun came to Otu, Itesiwaju Local Government over 80 years ago. One of his children, Mosobalaje Mohammed gave birth to Kehinde, who today sees himself as an indigene of Otu.
The People
Today, there are many fulanis like Mosobalaje and Adepoju in various towns in the 10 Local Government areas of Oke-Ogun, in Oyo state. From Itesiwaju to Kajola, Iwajowa, Iseyin, Atisbo, Saki-East and others, the Fulani have found comfort over a period of years.
As an ethnic group, the Fulani/Yoruba people relationship in the region has become a union which is difficult to separate.
The Community
The Oke-Ogun people are predominantly farmers and the zone is almost officially termed the food basket of the state. The climate favours the growth of food crops like yam, cassava, millet, maize, fruits, rice and plantains. Cash crops such as citrus, tobacco and timber also abound in the region. Despite this the zone has many uncultivated land. The region also has many streams. The weather in this zone is also not significantly different from that of the north.
These features among others are the reasons why the community become hospitable for herdsmen since time immemorial. So, from Kwara, Sokoto, Kebbi, Niger, Kano, Zamfara, Adamawa, Jigawa, Kaduna among other Northern states in Nigeria, herdsmen considered the region as safe to travel down to especially during the dry season. In the process, many of them never returned home. They stayed behind and became part of the society.
Most of the Fulani people told South west Tribune that their forefathers travelled down from their states in search of favourable climate for their cattle business. And because the land was fertile, they stayed and lived till they died while their offspring inherited their business and properties.
To some, their forefathers left the north during war times and having found solace in these communities, they settled there.
Sixty year-old Oseni Iyanda hails from the Fulani community in Kwara state. Today, he has not only integrated fully in Komu where his grandfather settled down after a local war in Ilorin, Kwara State, he claims that he hails from Olowu’s compound in Komu. “I am part and parcel of the compound,” he said.
According to Iyanda, his grandfather, a herdsman, Balogun Mohammed migrated from Ilorin to Komu where he was received by members of the Olowu’s compound in the town. He said his father, Usman Abagun, who also died over 20 years ago told him that they are from Komu. And today, nothing has changed as the Baloguns have been well integrated into the compound.
Iyanda himself who just retired from the services of Itesiwaju Local Government said his children are erecting structures in their fatherland, Komu, today.
One of Iyanda’s son, Babatunde, who is of the fourth generation also ascertained that “I am from Komu. I married my wife Mulikat from Okeho when I was training as bricklayer there. I can’t go anywhere because I was born here. I am from Olowu’s compound in Komu.”
Today, the Komu natives today regard the Baloguns as members of Olowu’s compound.
But while the Baloguns have integrated into one of the compounds in Komu, some Fulanis have remained independent communities, retaining their Fulani essence while also claiming to be indigenes of the towns they reside in.
In Igbojaye, also In Itesiwaju local government, for example, a group of Fulani herdsmen also from Kwara State informed the South west Tribune how they have been able to settle down in the community.
The group numbering over ten in separate interviews recounted how they came from Ilorin to Ipapo, also in Itesiwaju local government area before they relocated to Igbojaye.
The head of the Fulani in Igbojaye, Mallam Buge Usman, led the delegation to the interview session which was arranged by two of the local chiefs in Igbojaye; Otun of Igbojaye Chief Ayandele Julius Ayanwumi and Bashorun of Igbojaye, Chief Timothy Sulola, on the order of the traditional ruler, Olu Igbo of Igbojaye, Oba Zaccheus Olatunji Oyeleke Alobaloke III.
Others on the team were: Yahmusa bani Gbonke, Isa Umaru, Alhaji Isa Adamu, Alhaji Samo Masudo, Alhaji Hamzat Adam, Alhaji Abdulahi Amodu, a.k.a baba dudu and Adamu Bello.
As stated by Chief Ayanwumi, there has been mutual co-habitation between the two tribes in the town. He informed that this was even made easy by the virtue that most of the leaders of the Fulani community in the town are known to them. He added that “we knew their parents while growing up, some were our mates while we can tell stories of some of them. All those sitting here were born right before us in Igbojaye.”
In addition, Chief Ayanwumi noted that the town is peaceful, more so that they never disrespect our traditional institution.
“They have been respecting our traditional institution from the days of their fathers who first came to our town. In the course of our relationship, we have developed mechanism to resolve our differences. Economically, we relate very well. Their wives sell milk and cheese to us while they also subsidize cattle for us whenever the need arises. The only thing they have not done so far since they’ve been here is to signify political intention,” Chief Ayanwumi stated.
The Fulani delegation was led by Mallam Usman, who was also given birth to in Igbojaye over 50 years ago. While stressing the essence of their years of relationship and stay in the town, Usman said “no Fulani can abuse any native in the town with our language. Many Yoruba in this town now speak Fulani fluently.”
He added that since their fathers settled down in Igbojaye, there has been mutual relationship with the community.
“We have been co-existing peacefully. No problem whatsoever. When we have one, we’ve come up with an understanding on how best to settle it. We were born here and still living here. We grew up to know that we hail from Itesiwaju local Government. I have never been to Ilorin, this land profits us.”
And of course, their language and proverbial way of describing issues really confirms that Mallam Usman and his people had really integrated with the people. When asked how they can help in curbing the atrocities of their fellow kinsmen who torment the people of the city, Usman replied; “Ti e ba mu ehoro igbo wa sile, ko le gbele. Bi oro won se ri niyen,” meaning if you bring a hare from the bush, it cannot adhere to the system at all.
While the Balogun in Komu, Mosobalaje in Otu dress as Yorubas and even speak ‘Onko’ language synonymous with the local people of Oke-Ogun, others like Usman still prefer to dress the Fulani way and still regard themselves as natives of the town they reside in.
While some of them have fully and properly integrated into the main community, living in towns and running their businesses from there, others still prefer to operate from their traditional settlements popularly known as “Gaa Fulani” in the inner farmlands.
In Igbojaye, Itesiwaju Local Government, Alhaji Yamusa Bani Gbonke in his sixties married Mrs Tawa Yamusa and the marriage produced three children.
Mallam Yamusa said he dreamt of marrying a Yoruba woman and had that dream fulfilled by marrying a Yoruba woman as his third wife.
According Yamusa, in his staggering Yoruba language despite never being to his home town since birth, “It never came as accident. I wish to have a Yoruba woman as a wife and it came to pass. But for the records, I married her as a girl, not that I took another man’s wife.”
His wife, Mrs Tawa Yamusa, who cant speak Fulani, revealed that the marriage which was contracted in 1993 has produced three children, and is still working till today.
“It all started as a relationship and it blossomed into marriage. He paid my dowry as husband. He has built a house for me. He never forced any business on me because some people expected that maybe I should be selling cow milk as some of their women do.
“I was in school while the relationship started. I chose the business I wish to venture into then. Initially, I was selling bread and egg including some provisions, later I added liquor and soft drinks which I still sell till today. And to the glory of God, he has built a house for me here in Igbojaye.”
Her children also cannot speak Fulani because they are not living with the family. Interestingly, one of them has also married a Yoruba girl.
Another example is that of Audu Rabiu’s family in Ilero, Kajola Local Government.
Audu, a butcher from Zamfara State came to Ilero around 30 years ago. Four years after, he married a native of Ilero, Modinat. Today, both Audu and Modinat’s union is a reference point in the city. The marriage has produced five children.
Also, Jabi Buge is currently enjoying his marriage to a Fulani woman and even proudly says “I’m also planning to marry a Yoruba woman.”
Tribune
