Orality and Mythology: Reconstructing the Traditions of Origin of Ondo and Idanre People of Southwestern Nigeria

This paper opens a new vista in the histories of two Yorùbá subgroups in Eastern Yorùbáland. The paper sheds light on the conflicting oral traditions and mythologies of evolution of the two prominent Eastern Yorùbá people, the Ondo and Idanre peoples, a topic that has been neglected by scholarship on African historiography. In dominant mythologies of the two Eastern Yorùbá people, the belief is that the origins of Ondo and Idanre monarchies are distinguishable. It is also believed that Ondo exercised significant sociocultural, linguistic, political and economic influences over Idanre. Through extensive oral interviews and participant observation of sociocultural ceremonies in Ondo and Idanre, I challenge the beliefs that Ondo and Idanre people emanated from different cultural and historical roots and routes. I argue that Ondo’s accounts of origin clash with the popular narrative of the dispersal of the Yorùbá people from Ile-Ife, and with the historical, cultural and political systems of Oyo and Ile Ife. I contend that the conflicting history of origin of Ondo and Idanre must be seen as a product of an age-long communal conflict peculiar with heterogeneous societies that comprised people with related cultural and historical backgrounds, remarkably different political aspirations and loyalties. I conclude that the Ondo monarchy, if not derived directly from Idanre, is of the same source.