The palace of the Ooni of Ife has criticized the Oluwo of Iwo, Oba Abdulrosheed Adewale Akanbi, for his assertion that Ile-Ife is not the ancestral home of the Yoruba people.
Speaking on Tuesday, the Ooni’s spokesperson, Moses Olafare, dismissed the remarks as unworthy of an official response, urging the public to focus on narratives that promote unity rather than division.
Oba Akanbi had made the claim in a Facebook video while conferring a chieftaincy title at his palace. In the recording, the Iwo monarch argued that Ile-Ife “has no Yoruba culture” and that its dialect and certain expressions differ from mainstream Yoruba usage.
He stated:
“Ife is not the origin of the Yoruba race. They don’t speak our language. They call God ‘Eledumare,’ which does not exist in Yoruba. What we have is ‘Olodumare.’ They also use ‘Olofin’ for ‘owner of the palace,’ whereas Yoruba people say ‘Alaafin.’ Ile-Ife has no Yoruba culture. I am the Arole Olodumare because I’m here to tell the true history. Iwo holds the real history that has never been documented.”
Debates over the roots of the Yoruba people and the authority of traditional rulers to confer titles have long been controversial.
Just last month, The Punch reported a similar dispute between the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi, and the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Akeem Owoade, regarding the Ooni’s alleged conferment of the title “Okanlomo of Yorubaland” on Ibadan businessman Chief Dotun Sanusi. The Alaafin, through his media aide Bode Durojaiye, argued that no monarch other than himself could grant a title covering the whole of Yorubaland and gave the Ooni a 48-hour ultimatum to revoke it.
Olafare later mocked the ultimatum on Facebook, writing:
“We cannot dignify the undignifiable with an official response. The matter is already before the public court of opinion. Forty-eight hours, my foot!”
