Earlier today, I authored a piece celebrating Yoruba culture, and some people of Ijebu origin took offence when I wrote in response to a comment that the Ijebu are not of the same ethnic origin as the Yoruba.
The Lukumi Edekiri people, now known as Yoruba, and the Ijebu have different roots. This used to be well known before colonialism.
They are all children of Olu-Iwa (Noah). However, the Lukumi Yoruba are descended from Lamurudu, the Scriptural Nimrod, whose name in Hebrew and Arabic is Namurudu (please research it. Fact check me). Lamurudu (or Namrudu in Arabic/Hebrew) was the grandson.
In Yoruba, L and N are interchangeable.
For example, some Yoruba people pronounce Limota as Nimota. And others say ki ni owi (what did you say), while others say ki’lo wi, meaning the same thing. That is how Namurudu became Lamurudu.
The Ijebu do not call themselves I-J-E-B-U, as an outsider would pronounce all syllables. They actually call themselves J-E-B-U, with the I before jebu silent. In the colonial map, they were referred to as Jaboo. Please research it.
And the Ijebu people are unlike Yoruba tribes in that they have something you would find nowhere else in Yoruba land. They have a king called Awujale.
The Awujale of Ijebu, Sikiru Adetona, revealed in an interview (which I urge every reader of this article to read: simply Google Middle East origins of the Ijebu) that the Ijebu originally came from the area around the Middle East to the Sudan.
This agrees with the biblical references in Joshua 11:3 and 12:10 and 2 Samuel 5:6-10.
So, if the Jebus were the original inhabitants of Jerusalem, where does the word Jerusalem come from?
You see, the Ijebu or Jebu is the name of the tribe. However, they name their towns, villages and habitations after the topography of their environment.
So, for instance, in modern-day Nigeria, the Ijebu towns are known by the prefix Ijebu, followed by a suffix indicating their topography. Today, the Ijebu towns are known as Ijebu-Ode (which may loosely mean outer Ijebu) and Ijebu-Igbo (which may loosely mean forested Ijebu). You also have Ijebu-Remo, Ijebu-Isiwo and other Ijebu towns, villages and communities that begin with the prefix Ijebu and end with a suffix depicting their topography or, to a lesser extent, their history.
The Jebu are the biblical Jebusites of Jebus-1 Chronicles 11:5. They were the original inhabitants of Jerusalem, which was known as Jebus in Scripture until David conquered it and started calling it Jebu-Isale, which was corrupted to Jerusalem.
You see this in 1 Chronicles 11:4:
“David and all the Israelites marched to Jerusalem (that is, Jebus). The Jebusites who lived there.”
However, Remo people are not Ijebu. Remo people are a Lukumi Edekiri (Yoruba) people, like any other Lukumi people, such as Egba, Awori, Ekiti, Owu, Oyo, Ondo, etc.
The term Ijebu-Remo is a colonial term derived from a British clerk’s ignorance. It came about because a colonial officer was tasked with visiting Ijebu and Remo, and in his travel log, he referred to both places as one place, using the term Ijebu-Remo instead of Ijebu/Remo or Ijebu and Remo, giving the impression that the two separate areas were, in fact, one geographical location.
Before British colonialism, Remo was known as Remo, not Ijebu-Remo. In fact, one of the first occurrences of the term Ijebu-Remo is found in British colonial records and later in a Hansard of the British Parliament, which is still available in Westminster, London, England.
The Hansard (a Hansard is a transcript of Parliamentary debates in the British Parliament) was published under the following reference-HC Deb 16 February 1938 vol 331 cc1871-2. You can find it online, and it is an evidentiary document that can be tendered in court.
In that Hansard, Mr Williams Ormsby-Gore, the 4th Baron Harlech and then Secretary of State for the Colonies, explained the mistake thus:
“The separation of Ijebu Remo from Ijebu Ode has been approved, not on the ground of any changes in the province but because the administrative arrangements decided upon and maintained by previous Governors were based upon an incomplete knowledge of tribal relationships as previously existing, which have now been fully examined by the commission. I am sending the hon. Member a copy of the commission’s report. I am aware that this decision must cause some dissatisfaction to the party opposed to separation, but I see no reason to reconsider it, nor can I agree that it is biased and unjust.”
The Ijebu have one paramount ruler, known as the Awujale. Remo people have their own paramount monarch called the Akarigbo.
Please note that history is not always pleasant. So, if this offends you, I apologise preemptively. I go where the facts of history take me.