Friday special : The rise and fall of the Oyo Empire.

                                                               The Rise Of Oyo Empire.

 The Yoruba people lived in a manner  of states clustered around the centrally located  mother Kingdom of Ife. These states were bounded on the north by the Niger , on the east by the Benin, on the south by the Gulf of Guinea and on the west by the Dahomey and the Virgin. Inter-state relation were govern that the mother state, Ife,  must not be attacked. Due to the central location of Ife and its On,  a considerable degree of peace was thus maintained among the daughter kingdoms. Oyo and Ketu were situated in the Savannah, the other Kingdoms within the tropical forests. 

In the sixteenth century Oyo began to rise from a junior kingdom due to position of commercial prosperity and military power.Oyo's prosperity was as a result of its fertile soil and its position as the leading Trade Centre south of the Niger. Its  market was the pivot if three trading  systems ; one from the Nupe and the Hausa to the north,  another from the Yoruba forest kingdoms to the east and south and yet another from the coastal ports on the Gulf of Guinea. Oyo also developed as a manufacturing centre; its high quality clothes, leather and iron products finding ready sale. 


Commercial wealth was necessary to Oyo to maintain its military power which was built around a fast striking  Calvary force. 


The Oyo Empire began to crumble in the late eighteenth century and collapsed in the early nineteenth century, not only from external pressure, the revolts of restive vassals and from loss of its commercial supremacy but because of its failure to find a governing formula which would combine effective leadership with popular checks upon unbridled autocratic power. 

        Political Weakness Of Oyo 


The Oyo political system was built on a system of check and balance centring around four powerful figures; the Alafin, the Bashorun, the Oluwo  and the Kakanfo. Theoretically all power came from the Alafin who was self -divine.  His administration was headed by three lieutenant; the Ona Efa, the chief Judgein dispensing imperial justice, the Otun Efa, the administrative head of Shango,  a cult which worshipped the Alafin's deified ancestors,  and the Osi Efa,  the controller of the palace finances who set and received  the tributes and trolls of the empire as well as heading its intelligence services  

Next to the Alafin was the Bashorun, leader of the Oyo Mesi or council of Notables, comprising seven prominent lineage chiefs of the capital . The Oyo Mesi acted as a check upon the Alafin's power in several ways. They were lineage-appointed office holders and the Alafin had little control over their appointment. They as well as the Alafin, held judicial power in the capital,  they acted as mediators for provisional and vassal chiefs in their dealings with the Alafin. 



The third power of the empire was the Ogboni  headed by the Oluwo.  The Ogboni chiefs like the Oyo Mesi were elected by the various lineage OT great families. They too had judicial function,  especially in cases involving the opinion carried considerable weight in its decision. The Oluwo controller the Ifa oracle which could accept or reject the Bashorun decision to command the Alafin's suicide. 

The Kakanfo and his seventy war chiefs (the Eso)  we're expected to be loyal to the Alafin, their promotion depends on the Oyo Mesi. 


In the third quarter of the eighteenth century the political system became so unbalanced that it brought about civil war. Bashorun Haha raised give Alafin to the throne and destroyed four of them while he and his family ruled despotically and unchecked until the empire groaned under his iron hand. Finally, Alafin Abiodun while prostrating daily before Haha secretly plotted with the provincial chief and the Kakanfo. The chiefs rose and massacre Gaha's family and followers while the Kakanfo marched into the capital , beseiged Gaha in his compound and burnt him at the stake. 

Taking advantage of the civil war  the Egba under 'Lishabi the Liberator' murdered  the Alafin's  Ilari and proclaim their independence. 

      


                            Collapse Of The Empire

Just like the Roman Empire, Oyo Empire was destroyed cause they were not able to rule Oyo just like the Romans could not rule Rome. The empire crumble in 1817 when Afonja and his jihadists warrior  sacked Oyo 

The empire might have survived  and even defeat Ilorin if the Onikoyi of Ikoyi, the largest provisional town of the empire did not switch side and fight alongside Afonja