Thank you for your feedback. In actual fact, there is nothing called Yoruba, just as there is no such thing as Hausa-Fulani. The term Yoruba is a made up word created by Bishop Samuel Ajayi Crowther.
And that is not the only mistranslation Bishop Crowther did. Many people today refer to satan in Yoruba as Esu. In actual fact, satan is not Esu, and Esu is not even a demon or an evil being. He is a benevolent òrìṣà.
Before the British raised Bishop Crowther to come up with an ethnic identity for the people now wrongly referred to as Yoruba, you were either Egba, Owu, Oyo, Ekiti, Awori, Jekri (Itsekiri), Ilaje, Igala, Igbomina, Akoko, etc.
Then you had the Jaboo, or Jebu (the addition of I at the beginning to make it ‘Ijebu’ is recent), who were of a different ethnic nationality with a separate origin.
The people now referred to as Yoruba are an Edekiri people. If you go to South America, and specifically, Brazil, and Cuba in Central America, you will find them speaking a purer ‘Yoruba’ (especially in Cuba) than in Nigeria. But the Cubans do not call it Yoruba.
They refer to their language as Lukumi or Lucumi. This is because their ancestors were taken as enslaved people before Bishop Crowther came up with the term, Yoruba.
If you read Bishop Crowther’s account of his capture by Fulani slavers from Osogun at the age of 12, you will note that as he was taken to Lagos, he could not communicate fully with the other Lukumi tribes on the route from Osogun, in modern-day Oyo, to Badagry. That is because he was Oyo, and they were Egba and later Awori.
Using the term, Yoruba cuts you off from your fellow Lukumi. Have that at the back of your mind.
Bishop Crowther was called Yar’*** by the Fulanis who captured him. I know the meaning. It is very negative. It is that word which they called him that he mispronounced as Yoruba. And it has been used to derogatively refer to the people in the old Oyo Empire, probably from as far back as the times of the Songhais. Probably. I am not sure, hence my qualification.
The word Lukumi is still used by my people, the Itsekiri, to refer to each other. We call each other Olukumi, which directly translates to my bosom person.
The word Olu is paramount with all Lukumi people. It denotes our ancestry.
Many people, including a good number of modern-day ‘Yoruba’ intellectuals, believe that Oluwa means Lord. No, it does not. Oluwa connotes Lord, but it does not mean lord. It is actually a compound word, Olu Iwa, which means Lord of Iwa. Iwa means character, or virtue. Which is why, until today, we Itsekiri believe that your measure as an individual is not the virtue of your wealth, but rather the wealth of your virtue. Again, Olu-Iwa.
Olu-Iwa is believed in Yoruba mythology to be the scriptural Noah.
The Lukumi word Omoluabi is actually a bastardisation of Omo-ti-Olu Iwa-bi (the child that Olu Iwa, meaning Noah, gave birth to).
Now, if you go to Scripture, you see proof of this.
In Genesis 10:6, Noah’s Son, Ham, gave birth to Cush.
“The sons of Ham: Cush, Egypt, Put and Canaan”.
Cush in Hebrew means Black.
Genesis 10:8 says:
“Cush was the father of Nimrod, who became a mighty warrior on the earth.”
In Hebrew and Arabic, the name is not Nimrod. It is Namurud. That Namurud is the same person the people now wrongly referred to as Yoruba call Lamurudu. Why the Europeans translated Namrud to Nimrod, I would not know. Usually, you do not translate names.
All these people were Omo-ti-Olu Iwa-bi. Olu-Iwa, again, being Noah.
Please note that these were not Hebrews. I am not claiming that we are Hebrews. We are not. We are Cushitic Black people. We influenced the Hebrews. Not vice versa. As you can see clearly in Scripture.
Moses ran away from his people and married a Cushite woman.
“Miriam and Aaron began to talk against Moses because of his Cushite wife, for he had married a Cushite.”-Numbers 12:1.
Her Black father was the person who taught Moses everything he knew about God:
“Moses listened to his father-in-law and did everything he said”-Exodus 18:24.
Many people think that Cushite refers to the present nation of Ethiopia. No. Ethiopia only became known as Ethiopia in 1935. Prior to 1935, Ethiopia was known as Abyssinia, or Habeesha.
The word Ethiopia originates from the old word, Ethiope, which means Black.
That is why if you understand Odu Ifa divination, you will read what Moses taught the Hebrews, and just smile.
Thanks again, and may God bless you.
