Why Ilorin is Yoruba

Ilorin, the Kwara state capital, has an identity crisis. Although its language and dominant culture is Yoruba, the people insist that they are not Yoruba but ‘Ilorin,’ an amorphous identity that does not draw from ethnicity but rather from a fluid cultural identity that evolved due to the unique history of the people and the city.

This situation leads to confusion and intense debate over what exactly is the Ilorin identity and how this differs from being Yoruba. This head-scratching palaver is interesting because ethnic pride is fierce in Nigeria and the marker of ethnic groupings is mainly through language, culture and history, all of which are interconnected. Going by those, the Ilorin people would easily be classified as Yoruba since their language, culture as expressed through dressings, names, and others, as well as the early origins of the city are obviously Yoruba.

However, it is not that simple. The average Ilorin man would be offended to be called a Yoruba person, and insists, “Ilorin ni wa” (we are Ilorin). This debate about the ethnicity of the Ilorin people and city was recently ignited over the controversy that trailed the halt of the Isese festival by the Emir of Ilorin. The Isese is a traditional Yoruba religion that is popular in southwest Nigeria, where the Yoruba are the majority. The action of the Emir, which was executed by some Islamic scholars caused an uproar in the southwest, resulting in four states of the region declaring public holidays to celebrate the Isese festival.

And further stoking the ethnicity debate about the Ilorin people. As per history, the earliest settlers of what is today known as Ilorin were Baruba people, who speak the Bariba language and are now commonly found in Baruten and Borgu LGAs in Kwara and Niger states respectively. A large number of the people are also in Benin Republic. The Baruba, however, did not last long in Ilorin or establish a thriving community there before leaving at some point.

The first thriving Ilorin community was founded by a Yoruba man called Ojo Isekuse around 1650. He too left after some controversy over incest with his daughter. Other Yoruba families remained in the city, notably the Asajus who lived close to the sharpening stone after which Ilorin was named. By the early 19th century, Ilorin had become part of the large Oyo Empire and was a medley of ethnic nationalities including the Yorubas, Hausas, Nupes, Fulanis, Barubas and others.

Of all these groups, the Yorubas were clearly the dominant and regarded as the aborigines. The language of the city was Yoruba as was the emerging culture. In addition, the government was Yoruba-led as the city was a vassal state of the Oyo Empire. All of which is not unusual. Often when a minority group comes in contact with or mixes with a major group, it assimilates the culture of the more dominant group, adopting its language and norms, and in time losing its original language and culture. This is common in history and was true for Ilorin. Which is why the Yoruba language and culture dominated other groups.

The controversy over the ethnicity of the city has its roots in the conflict between Afonja, the Oyo military chief stationed in Ilorin, and Mallam Alimi, a Fulani cleric and warrior. The conflict revolves around a power struggle as Afonja, rebelling against the Oyo Empire, sought the assistance of Alimi and his Fulani fighters to defeat his adversaries. However, Alimi and his Fulani forces gained influence and power within Ilorin over time, ultimately outsmarting and overthrowing Afonja and establishing the Fulani Emirate in the city.

Alimi’s victory marked a turning point in the history of the city, as the Fulani Emirate came to dominate the political and cultural landscape, incorporating Islamic traditions into the governance of Ilorin, which has shaped Ilorin’s identity and governance for generations to come. Since then, the successive traditional rulers of Ilorin have been Fulanis, descendants of Alimi, in a Yoruba-dominated city.

And since history is often written by victors, the narrative that has gained ground is about the non-Yoruba identity of the people, coupled with a deliberate suppression of (Yoruba) tribal identity as a marker for the population, and in its stead, the promotion of Islam as the rallying point for the people. So Ilorin occupies a unique place in Nigeria, being the only city where there is a deliberate effort to suppress ethnicity as a form of identification. Not even Kano, a city which shares similar attributes as Ilorin, is this evident.

Although like Ilorin, Kano has a Fulani emir in a city dominated by Hausa people, it is generally accepted that Kano is a Hausa city-state and even significantly, if you ask a Kano Hausa man about his origin, he would proudly say Hausa, instead of Kano, which is the equivalent of what the Yoruba Ilorin person would say. Yet, Kano also assimilated various ethnic groups and in some form is a medley of ethnic nationalities with a core Hausa population. But these other Hausa-speaking groups were the ones that adapted and not the other way around.

On Ilorin, two factors other than Islam are responsible for the success of the erasing of ethnic identity. One, the existence of the modern Nigerian state and two, the early political leadership to emerge from Ilorin. Kwara state is classified as northern Nigeria, being in the north-central. In post-independence Nigerian politics when political parties were regional-based, Ilorin sided with the Northern People’s Congress (NPC) that dominated the northern region.

In the Second Republic, it also went with the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) which was northern-oriented. The political parties that were dominant in the Yoruba Southwest at both times were the Action Group and the Unity Party of Nigeria, founded by Chief Obafemi Awolowo. So, it was very convenient for the Ilorin promoters of the NPC and NPN, in solidarity with their northern colleagues to minimise their Yoruba identity while promoting political participation based on northern commonality. This would have been different if Kwara had been part of the southwest region.

Also, until recently, the Ilorin political leadership, as exemplified by the Sarakis – father and son – is not of primary Yoruba origins. While there is some controversy over the origins of Olusola, the patriarch of the family that dominated Kwara politics for up to 50 years, it is now generally agreed his paternal roots go back to Mali, probably to Fulanis from that country. While the family held sway in Ilorin and Kwara, Yoruba irredentism would probably not have earned any Ilorin man a seat at their table and this fear of missing out politically would, no doubt, have forced many to conform.

So, a combination of factors contributed to the socialisation of the Ilorin person into not identifying himself by ethnicity. But even this is not clear-cut. In the last presidential election, Ilorin took pride in the fact that the presidential candidate of the APC and now president, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, is Yoruba. The sing-song among the electorate was “Yoruba lo’kan” or “awa Yoruba lo kan” (‘It is the Yoruba’s turn,’ or ‘it is we Yoruba’s turn’), which suggests a strong cultural affinity with the presidential candidate. Also, among the Ilorin people, especially descendants of Afonja, many reject the dominant narrative that Ilorin is not a Yoruba city and seek every opportunity to state otherwise.

In conclusion, is Ilorin Yoruba? Yes, it is, but it is also Fulani, Igbira, Hausa, Baruba and many of the ethnic nationalities that have melded in the city. If we concede that identity belongs to the owner and that people are free to choose their own identity, then no one would quarrel with the Ilorin man electing to identify himself as he pleases. But history should be a different matter and not based on our whims or biases. And the story that history tells us is that Ilorin is predominantly Yoruba, both in its founding, culture, and language, and this cannot be eroded by kingship, religion, or revisionism.