history

ONDO HISTORY

Rev J. A. Leigh who was the first person to write about the history Ondo Kingdom in 1917 has it that the Ondos originally came from Oyo Alaafin. The progenitor of the Ondos who ruled between 1510 – 1530 was a female, Pupupu who was the daughter of Aláàfin Oluaso of Oyo Empire. Pupupu being a twin child had to be exiled with his twin brother and their mother, Olú, because giving birth to twins was an abomination in those days. Being royals however, they were spared the mandatory death penalty and had to be exiled in a royal manner out of Oyo to establish their own Kingdom elsewhere.

Aláàfin Oluaso thereafter gave them a sizeable entourage of slaves and a hunter named Ija to create a new life for themselves outside of Oyo Empire. According to history, the beaded crown given them was to be shown to any interceptor they might come across on their way. The significance of this was for them to be accorded royal eminence.

On the other hand, Akoko stick was to be used in identifying their place of settlement. In other words anywhere it voluntary stood upright after it had been thrust into the mother earth three times, that place should be their divine place of settlement. Ìjà led them to a place called Igbo Ijamo (the forest discovered by Ija), but they soon found Igbo Ijamo unsafe and traveled to another place called Epe where a man named Yangede welcomed them. Here history proved it that one of the twins died during their short stay at Epe and was buried there. This may not be unconnected with the significant position of Epe in today’s traditional set up in Ondo Kingdom.

When the remaining members of the team left Epe, they headed for the present day Ile – Oluji where they experimented their Akoko stick which fell three times, this implied that, that was not their place of settlement. They then continued their journey towards the present day Ondo. They entered Ondoland through ‘Oke – Agunla’ where they were able to see the plains of Ondoland while noticing that a little distance away from them, smoke was oozing out into the air. At that point, they were convinced that they were going to meet some people there.

From Oke Agunla they moved through Ọ̀nà’wuọ̀ to Ifore where they met a man called Ekiri. Meanwhile, they had left the beaded crown at Ile – Oluji with the mother of the twins. After some interactions with Ekiri, they went back to Ile – Oluji for the beaded crown to prove their royal status. They thrust their Akoko or Edo on the soil of Ondo and it stood firmly, signifying that Ondo was the chosen land.

Upon arriving in Ondo, the party encountered three groups of people in the territory: the Ifore, the Udoko and the Oka. There was not much struggle for control or violence as the three groups recognized the “Princely” nature of Aláàfin royal lineage and accepted them as rulers. The original inhabitants were gradually assimilated into the culture of the newcomers.

Due to linguistic dynamism, UDE EDO became ODE DO until Ode Ondo was later coined from Odedo. That was how the name, Ondo simply came into being.