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Oduduwa was a Yoruba divine king, legendary founder of the Ife Empire and a creator deity (orisha) in the Yoruba religion. According to tradition, he was the holder of the title of the Olofin of Ile-Ife, the Yoruba holy city. He ruled briefly in Ife, and also served as the progenitor of a number of independent royal dynasties in Yorubaland. In Yoruba religious traditions, Oduduwa is seen as a divine or semi-divine being that was sent by the creator deity, Olodumare, from heaven to create the earth upon the waters. These beliefs are held by Yoruba traditionalists to be the cornerstone of their story of creation. Obatala, Oduduwa's sibling, and Oduduwa here are represented symbolically by a calabash, with Obatala taking the top and Oduduwa taking the bottom. In this narrative, Oduduwa is also known as Olofin Otete, the one who took the Basket of Existence from Olodumare. Historical accounts hold that he migrated intot the Ife valley from Oke Ora, a community to Ife's east. The time and length of his reign are not certain, but Yoruba spirituality believes that Oduduwa is believed to be as old as time itself. Oduduwa was the first ruler of a unified Ife, which before him had existed as a group of loosely allied communities of thirteen Elu. He is also the founding father of various independent royal dynasties in Yorubaland, and is today venerated as “the hero, the warrior, the leader, and the father of the Yoruba race”. The etymological derivation of the Yoruba name “Oduduwa” is: Odu-ti-o-da-uwa (i.e. Odu-ti-o-da-iwa). This translates literally to: The great repository which brings forth existence. Ife tradition, which modern Yoruba historians accord precedence, relates that Oduduwa was a personage who migrated from the community of Oke Ora, a hilltop abode to the east of the original Ife confederacy of communities known as the Elu. Leadership of the confederal agreement that existed between the thirteen communities of what would become Ife was structured to be rotational between the Obas of each community taking turns at chairmanship.

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Related concepts (11)

Yoruba people

The Yoruba people (Ìran Yorùbá, Ọmọ Odùduwà, Ọmọ Káàárọ̀-oòjíire) are a West African ethnic group who mainly inhabit parts of Nigeria, Benin, and Togo. The areas of these countries primarily inhabited by the Yoruba are often collectively referred to as Yorubaland. The Yoruba constitute more than 52 million people in Africa, are over a million outside the continent, and bear further representation among members of the African diaspora.

Yoruba religion

The Yoruba religion (Yoruba: Ìṣẹ̀ṣe), or Isese, comprises the traditional religious and spiritual concepts and practice of the Yoruba people. Its homeland is in present-day Southwestern Nigeria, which comprises the majority of Oyo, Ogun, Osun, Ondo, Ekiti, Kwara and Lagos States, as well as parts of Kogi state and the adjoining parts of Benin and Togo, commonly known as Yorubaland (Ilẹ̀ Káàárọ̀-Oòjíire). It shares some parallels with the Vodun practiced by the neighboring Fon and Ewe peoples to the west and to the religion of the Edo people and Igala people to the east.

Ifẹ

Ifẹ̀ (Ifẹ̀, also Ilé-Ifẹ̀) is an ancient Yoruba city in south-western Nigeria, recent in-depth archeologically estimates suggest Ife's founding to be between the 10th century BC and 6th century BC and is widely agreed upon by historians to be the oldest amongst the classical and post-classical Yoruba city-states. The city is located in present-day Osun State. Ife is about 218 kilometers northeast of Lagos with a population of over 500,000 people, which is the highest in Osun State according to population census of 2006.