Part 2 — Chapter 35

Chapter XXXV. THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE BRITISH PROTECTORATE After the titles and ofl&ces had been distributed, and the town settled down once more to the duties of civil Ufe, the chiefs held a consultation about the Agreement Governor Carter had called upon them to sign, and which they were not then in a position to consider. After the pros and cons had been dul}' weighed it was agreed that with proper safeguards they might agree to it, provided the Governor gave due consideration to their objections. A letter was then addressed to the Governor asking him to send up the document for them to reconsider in a regularly constituted assembly. Governor Carter having in the meantime left for England, on his furlough, this request was cabled to Downing Street and the Acting-Governor, G. C. Denton, Colonial Secretary, was ordered in reply to visit Ibadan in person and present the Agreement. Accordingly in August, 1893, the Acting-Governor visited Ibadan for that purpose. The document was again read and interpreted to them, and after due consideration the following letter was addressed to the Acting-Governor stating clearly the objections in their way to signing the Agreement. Ibadan, August 14th, 1893. Your Excellency,—We are not unmindful of all the kindness done to us by Her Majesty the Queen, nor are we unappreciative of it: and, in order to be frank we desire to state to you our fears in objecting to a Resident European which we trust Your Excellency will see to. First, we fear the authority and respect of the Bale and chiefs will suffer deterioration, as there may be two courts of appeal. 2. We fear our slaves will assert their freedom by running to the Resident. 3. We fear our wives will be taken by the soldiers which will be a source of great offence to us. 638 4. We consider our land as our inalienable property inherited from our forefathers, and never subject to sale. We consider it also our greatest wealth bestowed upon us by the Almighty and we do not desire it to go out of our hands. If the Governor will see that our rights are not trespassed we make no scruple to sign all the terms of the Treaty. We are your good friends, FijABi THE Bale x (his mark). And OTHER Ibadan Authorities. G. C. Denton, Acting Governor. The following was the reply to the above letter by the Acting- Governor :— Ibadan, August 14th, 1893. Gentlemen,—In reply to the letter of this date which was handed to me by you this morning, I have the honour to inform you that the conditions of the Agreement you tell me you are prepared to sign, do not contemplate interference with the Native Government of Ibadan in any way. 2. I may also say that the officer in charge will not as at present proposed hold any court or take any action opposed to local customs and observances so long as they do not conflict with the ordinary principles of humanity. 3. The officer placed in charge at Ibadan will be instructed that it is not the intention of the Lagos Government to inter- fere with the domestic slavery so long as it is conducted on humane principles, as the country will still remain vested in the Ibadan authorities. I fail to see that slaves will obtain their freedom by running to the Resident. 4. Any Hausa who takes a woman of the country away from her home, against her will, will be severely punished. 5. With regard to the question of land, the Agreement only deals with a place for the erection of quarters for an officer and men, and sufficient grounds for a construction of a line of railway should it be deemed advisable to undertake such a v/ork. 6. In neither case can it be said that alienation of the land is contemplated. And that there may be no mistake on this point, I am quite prepared to guarantee that in recognition of your right, rent be paid to you for what land is utilized under the Agreement. 640 THE HISTORY OF THE YORUBAS 7. I can with safety promise you that your rights will not be infringed by the Lagos Government, the only object aimed at being to preserve peace, to secure open roads and reasonable freedom of action to the inhabitants generally. I am, gentlemen. Your good friend, G. C. Denton, Acting-Governor. After the receipt of this letter and after further consideration the Agreement was signed the next day by the Chiefs, {vide App. A). But before signing the Agreement, and in consideration of the Treaty signed by them at Kiriji in which the removal of Modakeke was made binding on them, and in order to speak their minds with regard to the same, they submitted the following document to His Excellency, the Acting-Governor. A brief statement of the Modakek§ affair. Ibadan, August i^ih, 1893. Your Excellency,—We beg to say that the real intent of the article respecting the Modak§ke affair in tha former treaty was not understood before signature : but when the first Com- missioners (headed by Mr. Higgins) came up and were at Moda- keke and insisted upon the removal, then the late Agbakin of Modakeke who was one of the signatories was surprised and said, that he did not understand it so, and our contingents there then, viz., the present Balogun and Asipa, sent to us and we expressed our concurrence with the then Agbakin of Modakeke as to our understanding of the article. It obliged the Rev. S. Johnson to come to us at Ikirun and we told him the same thing. When the Commissioners still insisted then the late Agbakin told them that it was one of the late Ife kings, Degunle by name, also known as Abi-ewe-ila, who gave their fathers the land out of pity, as the Ifes illtreated them by making sacrifices with them : and since then they lived and flourished there, and served them as landowners ; and the several times they fell out the Ifes were the aggressors, or were the first to fire at them, but God usually gave them the victory. They know no other home. When the Commissioners still insisted on their removal then the Agbakin said that the place beyond the river Osun mentioned by the Commissioners was a forest without a house to accommodate them and no cultivation to supply them with food, he then asked them to look at the town and think of the probable number of old and infirm men and women, with the infants and sucklings that may perish by exposure to the weather and then asked whether they would be able to stand responsible before God for the loss of their lives. This made them desist to press further the point, and matters remain as they are. 2. By right of conquest we have had our Ajeles in the Ijesa, Ekiti, Yagba and Eton countries right up to Otun and now that the Ijesas, etc., have rebelled. Your Excellency, is it right for any one of the rebellious towns to dictate to us as the Ijesas have done in asking us to remove our Ajele from a town which does not rebel as they have done ? It is because we are conscious of the Queen's power and goodwill that we have accepted a Resident, paying Her Majesty due deference. Ought not the Ijesas to pay us some deference ?- In the first article of the Treaty the whole of the Ekun Otun and Ekun Osi are put under us, the Ife and Modakeke people form a part of the Ekun Osi. We think they and the Ijesas need being informed of this. We leave the subject to Your Excellency's wise consideration. We are, Your Excellency's, FijABi, the Bale, x (his mark). With the other Authorities of Ibadan. After Governor Carter's return from England, Capt. R. L. Bower, with a force of about 100 Hausas, was sent up to be the first Resident and Travelling Commissioner of the Interior Yoruba having his headquarters at Ibadan. The Ibadan authorities were prepared to assign him a place in the town for residence, but he marched through and took up his quarters outside the town walls, in the space between the town and the ancient city of Owu. With the establishment of the British Protectorate a new era dawned upon the country. It marked the close of the fourth and the beginning of the fifth period. What the distinguishing feature of this new era will be, and how long it will last, are questions which only the future can answer. When we have allowed for all the difficulties of a transition stage, the disadvantages that must of necessity arise by the appUcation of rules and ideas of a highly civilized people to one of another race, degree of civilization, and of different ideas, we 642 THE HISTORY OF THE YORUBAS should hope the net result will be a distinct gain to the country. But that peace should reign universally, with prosperity and advancement, and that the disjointed units should all be once more welded into one under one head from the Niger to the coast as in the happy days of Abiodun, so dear to our fathers, that clannish spirit disappear, and above all that Christianity should be the principal religion in the land—paganism and Mohammedan- ism having had their full trial—^should be the wish and prayer of every true son of Yoruba. THE SEQUEL. The Protectorate has been established and everything has settled down : but this end has not been easily attained as may ,Yery well be imagined. The country had to be convinced that a new regime had dawned upon it, and that the people must con- form to it. This was not unaccompanied at first by a method high-handed and somewhat violent under successive Residents, but that was not unexpected. We shsJl here but briefly indicate how the new order of things affects each unit, and incidentally we shall discover who were the real disturbers of the peace of the country. § I. Abeokuta The Egbas rigidly kept to the Treaty, so that the Lagos Govern- ment could find no fault with them. The intelligent portion of the community was admitted to a share in the Government, and they strove to conduct everything after the model of a civihzed state. In fact it was the general opinion that in many things they ignored the rule, " Make haste slowly." The early career of the Alake and the new Government Secretary was highly beneficial to the well-being and progress of the Egba community. § 2. Ibadan It took the Ibadan rank and file some time to realize the fact that intertribal wars are for ever at an end in this country. It was customary with them, after the conferring of new titles that they should go to a war, for each chief and especially for the Balogun to recommend himself thereby to the people as fit for the title he holds. The Ilorins remained the only power they had not come to any definite terms with, so we were not surprised to hear on all hands, " Nje Bower k6ni si ogun Ilorin yi fun wa " (" Will not Capt. Bower then open for us an Ilorin campaign ? ") To be at home with nothing definite to do was rather irksome to those whose trade was war. Happily most of the important chiefs had huge farms wherein were engaged many of their domestics, and the majority of the men also were farmers, but a good many were warriors pure and simple. No wonder then that for some time burglaries, arson, etc., were rife in the community. Again, there soon followed a series of blunders which startled the community not only of Ibadan but also all the Yoruba country, e.g., the threat to arrest the Bale of Ibadan upon the ground of a supposed intrigue with Ilorin ! But this charge which had no foundation in fact, was easily disposed' of: all the same it seemed necessary in high quarters to do something which would strike terror into the whole country " in order to keep order " ! The Osi Bale therefore offered himself to be arrested instead, for the Bale's person he said was sacred, and that to arrest him would mean the break up of the town. This was followed by the arrest of the Balogun of Ibadan " until the man was found who had insulted Captain". But there was no such man. The salutation usually accorded to a gentleman on horseback by shaking the fist towards him was mistaken for a threat ; and how was the Balogun to know who thus saluted the Captairi out of doors some days after the event, in a huge town like Ibadan some miles away from his residence ? But this was speedily atoned for, and the Balogun honourably returned to his house. Then came the clash with Oyo over the case of Lagunju the ex-Timi of Ede, who appealed to his Suzerain to exert his good offices to restore him to his post. And again over the case of a man sent from Iseyin to be emasculated for the usual offence for which that was the form of punishment. This resulted in what was known as " the bombardment of Oyo," during which a ricochet shot hit the AlAfin on the knee. This was however admitted to be a blunder, and the matter was speedily adjusted by the Governor on his return from furlough. After a short time the people and the energetic Resident got to know each other better, and there was not only harmony, but even friendship between them, especially at Oyo : for it was subsequently found out that the mistakes and misunderstandings were all due to imperfect information in which the part played by the interpreter was not only dishonourable but highly repre- hensible, and he was condignly dealt with. But Ibadan never really settled down till after about eighteen months, when the Government of Lagos enlisted two battaHons of men for mihtary service in Northern Nigeria. This opening afforded relief to all those ardent spirits whose profession was arms, and with a wonderful celerity they imbibed and assimilated the new method of drill and discipUne, by which they were led to a successful campaign. Again, the railway undertaking absorbed the energies of many. Since then, Ibadan has had varied experience under various Residents. § 3- IJESA It was hardly recognised that the Ijesas under Ogedemgbe were given to warfare as much as the Ibadans, only that the scene of their operations was distant from Lagos but nearer Benin. Chief Ogedemgbe's war boys were known as Ipayes, and much mischief was done by them to the country people during the war. This habit they found hard to give up now that wars were over. All warhke spirits, including princes who thought they could do anything with impunity were among the number of his war- boys. Molestations of their country people, robberies, brigandage, and violence of every kind were of frequent occurrence, and he of course always shared the booty or plunder with them. Matters were from time to time reported to the Resident at Ibadan. Capt. Bower wrote twice to warn Ogedemgbe to keep his men in check ; the old chief regarded this warning as a huge joke. That the soldiery should be given to violence was a matter of course to him, he simply laughed over the matter. The offence was repeated and that in an aggravated form on the men of Ara, and was duly reported. Capt. Bower, after due notice, went over to Ilesa,. and according to arrangement, summoned at the King's palace a meeting of all the chiefs. Ogedemgbe, after a delay of about forty minutes, met him there, and the Captain after relating the cases and the warnings he had given their chief, there arrested him in the presence of them all. Ogedemgbe had the good sense to warn his boys to refrain from any violent act in order to rescue him, and thus he prevented bloodshed— but by forced marches ere the news became generally known he was far distant. He was interned at Iwo instead of being brought to Ibadan the headquarters, " lest his old enemies might exalt over him." This, however was a mistake, for Ogedemgbe would simply have come back to his old home. The actual perpetrators of the crime were also seized and cast into prison at Ibadan. Capt. Bower also seized those rifles now in Ogedemgbe's possession which were used against the Ibadans at Kiriji. They were said to be an alarming number of perfect weapons of precision. Ogedemgbe remained at Iwo for a httle over a year. When in 1896 Mr. Haastrup (generally known as Daddy Kumoku) was elected the Owa of Ilesa, he pleaded for him with the Governor and Ogedemgbe was released and restored to Ilesa. He was given the title of Oba'la, the next in rank to the Owa himself. The war-boys have since been suppressed and dispersed. § 4. The Ekitis The Ekitis are mostly farmers and traders ; there was only 646 THE HISTORY OF THE YORUBAS one chief amongst them who was devoted to wars. This was Fabumi of Imesi Oloja Oke. He also had war-boys given to violence as those of Ogedemgbe. Reports had from time to time to be made of him to the officer stationed at the River Otin of violence to peaceful traders, capturing and selling them as slaves to Benin, and other acts of brigandage. The captain usually sent to warn the King of Oke Mesi, till on one occasion even the King himself sent his son to complain of Fabumi: then it was that the situation dawned upon Captain Tucker. Then he knew that Fabumi was the culprit and not the King, who was powerless, being a man of about 120 years of age ! Next he found a list drawn up by Captain Bower in which the name of Fabumi appeared as one of the troublesome spirits of the country, next after Ogedemgbe, and one to be arrested. He consequently went up with about twenty Hausa soldiers and arrested him, and brought him bound to the River Otin camp, and the next day he sent him on to the Resident, Captain Hawtayne, at Ibadan. The Captain gave him a good warning and set him at liberty. He was hence- forth quiet, and subsequently became King of Mesi Ipole. It will be remembered that it was he who effected the capture of Ilori the Osi, by simulating Akintola's war cry ; it was he who decoyed the Ibadan army to the clefts of Mesi Ipole ; but he failed to take Modakeke. He was an honourable warrior. § 5. Ife and Modakeke According to the Treaty of 1886, Modakeke was to be removed from Ife soil, and rebuilt in a place between the Rivers Osun and Oba, and the Ibadans were to see that this was carried out. That portion of the Treaty was galling to the Ibadans, the Modakekes simply would not hear of it, but the Ifes were jubilant, and were determined to see it carried out. Modakeke was a large town, and the immediate removal was simply impracticable. In vain did they ask that a reconciliation be made between themselves and the Ifes so that they might remain on the spot dear to them, containing as it did the ashes of their fathers ; the present generation knew no other home. But the Lagos authorities would not stultify themselves by going behind the Treaty, as it were, although they took no steps to enforce it, nor would the Ifes yield to anything except removal. Thus they remained together for years. Subsequent Governors, who actually knew the towns, had their hands tied by the Treaty, much though they would have Uked to see things effected differently. In course of time, however, the Ifes were practically indifferent about it, as intermarriages between them had all but made them one people, and the hope was being entertained that the matter would die away, and that Modakeke would remain. But Adelekan, the newly-created Owoni of Ife, a man as austere as he was uncompromising, was unremitting in his efforts to see Modakeke removed. He went so far as to conciUate Governor Carter in 1896 by giving him three of those national and ancestral works of art known as the " If§ Marbles." But since the general peace was kept, and th6 Moda- kekes were as industrious as they were loyal to the Ifes, and both populations seemed to Uve together in amity except for the Owoni, neither he nor his successors renewed the proposal to remove Modakeke. Sir WiUiam MacGregor, during his regime as Governor, among other places visited He Ife. He granted the Owoni an annual subsidy on account of his position. Thinking he had secured his man in this Governor, the Owoni with plausible excuses, but chiefly for this purpose, undertook the unusual course of visiting Lagos in person. He did so but without effect, for Sir WiHiam had seen the towns himself. But still, Adelekan was unremitting in his hostilities towards the Modakekes, causing them repeated annoyance, fomenting disorders, and by false reports and unsubstantiated charges, got the two most powerful chiefs—the Balogun and the Otun—transported to Ibadan under charges of disturbing the peace. Then, later on, during the regime of Sir Walter Egerton (himself being on furlough at the time) the Owoni, armed with a copy of the old Treaty, got round the officer stationed at He Ife, and it would seem secured his connivance. The Ifes thereupon took it upon themselves to molest and annoy the Modakekes in every possible way, even to the extent of entering their houses and seizing anything they took a fancy to, doing violence to men and women in a way they dared not do without provoking a war, before the Pax Britannica was imposed. The Owoni knew what he was about when he got the Balogun and the Otun removed to Ibadan. The officer located at He Ife saw all this but said and did nothing, which was very significant. The Modakekes saw that a higher power was now behind the Ifes and that they would have no redress. Thus it came to pass that on the 27th day of March, 1909, twenty-three years after the imposition of the Treaty, the town was broken up. Those of them who were descended from the Owus removed to their ancestral homes to Owu Ipole, between Ife and Ijebu, others to Gbangan, some to Oduabon, others to Ede ; the bulk of the people, however, with the Ogunsua or Bale of Modakeke removed to a place called Odekomu somewhere midway between Ede, Ife and the Ijesas, 648 THE HISTORY OF THE YORUBAS about ten miles from Ife, just beyond the river Sasa which after the war was made the boundary of Ife territory. Adelekan seems to have been raised up for the purpose of breaking up Modakeke, for he commenced his hostihties against the town soon after he was raised to the stool of the Owoni, and he died the year after the breaking up of the town. " They drove us twice from our home," he used to say, " and we must see that they are driven permanently from theirs." Want of sufficient land for farming prevented the people from concentrating in a spot as at Modakeke. Unfortunately Ode- komu is not on a caravan route, and that has restricted its popu- lation ; but it is a small, compact and flourishing town, the people happy, contented and progressive as usual. Providence, who ordereth and controlleth all things, saw that it was time Modakeke should cease to exist after they had nobly done their part in shaping the history of the Yoruba country. § 6. Ilorin The Ilorins quickly showed themselves as the real disturbers of the peace of the country, and the real cause of the protracted war: for whereas the disturbances in the other provinces were more or less domestic and local, it was left for them to engage in poUtical disturbances which under the old regime would have drawn forth the Ibadan army out of home. No sooner had the Ibadans gone home from Ikirun, and Governor Carter and his party had left them, than they broke the agreement arrived at with them and placed Ajeles (poUtical Residents) at Ikirun and Osogbo. The boundary between the Ibadan and Ilorin territory had been fixed at the A were stream, to the south of Erin, leaving Erin and Ofa to the Ilorins, but the towns and villages hitherto under Ibadan protection were definitely excluded from Ilorin interference. For this encroachment therefore Captain Bower had to go to Ilorin to remonstrate with the Emir for disregarding the compact made with the Ilorins by Sir Gilbert Carter. The Ilorin chiefs took great exception to the manner Captain Bower was addressing their King, but partly from fear, and partly from the intervention of the Emir, they were restrained from laying violent hands on him. They called Captain Bower "Bawa" (pronounced Bah- wah) ; that in Hausa is the name of a slave. All their great men have each one a Bawa—their principal slave—and hence Captain Bower was taken for Sir Gilbert Carter's slave ! For a slave to be talking after that manner to, and threatening their King, was intolerable ; as it was, he was said to have been literally hustled out of Ilorin. Captain Bower, having driven the Ilorin political Residents out of Ikirun and Osogbo, encamped with his handful of Hausa soldiers at the banks of the River Otin—a river of ill-omen to the Ilorins since the Jalumi War—about five miles north of Ikirun. He sent to Lagos for re-inforcement, and he was granted a force of about 200 men with which he effectually protected the northern provinces of Yoruba from Ilorin encroachments. All was apparently well after this, the weekly caravans from Ilorin and beyond went to and returned from the coast, the messengers of the Emir of Ilorin frequently camieto the camp and as the Hausa soldiers were all Gambaris, mostly from beyond Ilorin, the intercourse between them and Hausas from Ilorin was frequent and natural, not knowing they were all spies ! All of a sudden at the end of March, 1896,—Captain Bower being then at Ibadan—the Ilorins came in force one morning, swooped down upon this small garrison and nearly overwhelmed it. With shell and shrapnel, and by the use of rockets, the noise of which they called Sango, the garrison succeeded in driving them back. The force was naturally strengthened, and wisely so, for within three months the same thing was repeated; however, the Ilorins then made but a poor show. Towards the end of 1896 the Ilorin army came out for a regular campaign. It was a very large army, and they carried all before them till they came within a few miles of the camp. The reception they had twice received on previous occasions ill-disposed them to make a third trial of a frontal attack. For the present they swept along their old haunts to the Northern Ekiti laying siege to Otun and Orimope, both within the Lagos protectorate, with the intention of getting round to Ikirun and Osogbo and taking the camp at Odo Otin in the rear. From private information received of there being spies in the camp who would set fire to it immediately the Ilorins came and the fight commenced. Captain Shaw, the officer then in command drew up the whole of the men on parade and then with a sergeant and two privates entered each tent and turned out about twenty- three men in all who had no business to be there ! They were " on a visit to their countrymen," they said. Strict precautions were then enforced about admitting strangers into the camp. From messages received from the Owore of Otun, about twenty men of the Hausa force were sent under Asani, a sergeant, to observe the movements and intentions of the Ilorin hosts ; and these reported an overwhelming force, and that Otun was sure to be taken unless they received timely assistance. For this reason Sergeant-Major Dangana was sent with about eighty men with some rockets. The Sergeant-Major was a skilful and rehable leader: he dared not expose his small force to the overwhelming hosts of the Ilorins, but he hid some in a bush commanding a by- path to their rear, and the rest he posted on a rock in full view of the Ilorins. At the sight of them the Ilorins gave a shout and made for them, led by their Balogun Adamu, son of the late Karara and leader of the expedition. But the horses could not go on the craggy rocks, and the Lagos troops were therefore safe from their lances. Dangana then ordered volleys to be fired on them, the rockets also rent the air about them and frightened many away. Adamu was fatally hit on the neck, and in their presence he divested himself of his war-dress, and entrusted it to one of his men with orders not to stop till he reached home with it, for that he himself might not reach home. The dress was an heirloom in the family, from his grandfather AH. Their leader wounded, the Ilorins gave way and the Lagos troops followed them cautiously till they came within striking distance of the camp. There they discharged two or three rockets which set the camp on fire, and the host gave way ! A large portion of them had gone a-pillaging in the morning, and these, returning to find their leader dead and the camp fired and broken up, made the best of their way home, being pursued only a httle way by the Ekitis of Otun and neighbourhood. Here the Ilorins lost hundreds of riderless horses. Thus the camp at the River Otin was again saved from the determined attack of these intrepid horsemen. By these repeated attacks on the Lagos troops and the disturb- ance of the peace, the hopes of the Ibadans were for a while raised for an Ilorin campaign. But in February, 1897, the forces of the Royal Niger Company having its headquarters at Lokoja, with the two battaUons raised at Ibadan, entered Ilorin from the north after a single pitched battle before the gate of that city. Thus Ilorin has been subjugated and a Resident placed there to this day. The disappointment of the Ibadans was shared by those who had hopes of seeing the Yoruba country once more united under the AlAfin of Oyo by the subjugation of Ilorin by the Ibadan forces backed by a force of British troops. But it seemed this was not to be. The Ilorin power has thus been thoroughly broken, and the garrison was removed from the River Otin.