How Abẹ́òkúta went from a chief without a crown to a crowned Aláké in 1854, and the attempt by returnee intellectuals and traditional chiefs to build a modern state there that collapsed in 1874.
The Yorùbá wey dem quote, the proverbs, oríkì, ẹsẹ Ifá, word list headwords, Odù names and citations dey exactly as the corpus record dem, for every language.
Abẹ́òkúta na di town wey get institutional style wey pass all for nineteenth-century Yorubaland because na refugees build am from scratch and dem had to invent their government as things dey go. E start under Ṣódẹkẹ́ without any king at all, get crowned Aláké for 1854, and between 1865 and 1874 run one experiment, di Ẹgba United Board of Management, to join traditional authority of chiefs with administrative capacity of Sierra Leone returnees. Di experiment fail, and Agneta Pallinder-Law analysis of why e fail na di standard academic account of di kind wahala wey modernisation on African terms face for dat period .
Di Aláké na di crown of Ẹgba Aké, one of di townships inside di Abẹ́òkúta confederation, wey dem promote make e be paramount over everything. No Aláké reign for Abẹ́òkúta until 1854 . Ṣódẹkẹ́ govern without crown until e die for 1844 or 1845, and after dat, di Ògbóni and di Ológun, wey be di civil-judicial and military groups, begin drag power and di sources describe di result as anarchy.
Ṣàgbùà Okùkẹ́nù, wey dem born around 1790 and na great-great-grandson of Laarun, wear crown on 8 August 1854 as di first Aláké to rule inside di fortified city of Abẹ́òkúta, and e reign till e die on 31 August 1862 . Na im be di Sagbua wey dey inside CMS correspondence, di chief wey Henry Townsend and Samuel Àjàyí Crowther deal with from 1845 go front, and na im receive di famous 1848 gift of English Bible and printing press from Church Missionary Society. Dis corpus never verify di CMS dealings directly from academic source as e dey prepare dis file, so e flag am like dat; Biobaku na di place to check .
Somoye serve as regent, first for 1845 to 1846 and again from 1862 . After dat, gap dey for record wey di sources no agree on: one list put Somoye second regency as 1862 to 1866 while e place Adémọ́lá I installation for 28 November 1869, wey leave three years without record, and another describe one single interregnum of about seven years between Okùkẹ́nù's death and Adémọ́lá's installation. Di seven-year reading, 1862 to 1869, make sense pass, and dem record di discrepancy here instead of to smooth am over .
Aláké Adémọ́lá I, wey be grandson of Jibodu through im mama Teniade, enter throne on 28 November 1869 and die in office on 30 December 1877 . Serious contest follow im accession against Oyekan, and Oyekan supporters, especially di Ògbóni chiefs, refuse to recognize im rule for years; Ẹfúnróyè Tinúbú support Oyekan for dat contest. Oyekan properly succeed am on 1 January 1878 and reign reach 18 September 1881 . Dem no depose Adémọ́lá I and e no abdicate; e die in office, and popular accounts wey talk different thing dey wrong.
Make person no confuse am with Aláké Ládàpọ̀ Adémọ́lá II, wey reign from 1920 to 1962 and im confrontation with Abeokuta Women's Union under Fúnmiláyọ̀ Ransome-Kuti for 1948 and 1949 belong to twentieth century and dem treat am for another place inside dis corpus.
Later nineteenth-century holders: Oluwaji, 9 February 1885 to 27 January 1889; interregnum from 1889 to 1891; and Oshokalu from 1891 .
Di EUBM na attempt to build modern administration for Abẹ́òkúta by joining di traditional elite, di chiefs and di Ògbóni, with di westernised Saro elite. E collect customs duties, issue postage stamps, and conduct correspondence with Lagos like state go do . Di first meeting wey get recorded minutes wey dem fit date happen on Monday 30 October 1865 inside Council Hall, and di minutes na di secretary, G. W. Johnson, record am .
G. W. Johnson na Saro man, wey dem born for Sierra Leone, wey first visit Abẹ́òkúta for 1863 during one short trip to Lagos, return go Sierra Leone, and relocate permanently to Abẹ́òkúta for 1865, where e serve as Secretary of di Board . Literature describe im arrival as eruption, and e influence Ẹ̀gbá leadership for di next thirty years. Dem know am by nickname wey appear for sources as Reversible Johnson and also Irreversible Johnson; dis corpus never establish which one correct and e record di two.
E no get relation with Samuel Johnson di historian or with James "Holy" Johnson, and di way surnames match among Saro figures, wey happen because dem give liberated Africans English names for Freetown, na something wey dey always bring confusion for dis period.
Pallinder-Law analysis of why e fail na di standard one: di Board stop to work when di chiefs loose interest, because e depend completely on support from traditional elite while e dey pursue modernising aims wey di conservative elite no share . Her wider argument na say Abẹ́òkúta's independence na largely illusion well before di formal annexation of 1914, because of military and financial dependence on di British . Di Board end for 1874.
Di reason why dis episode dey interesting na say e be African attempt to build modern administrative state, with African staff, wey dey use African political institutions, decades before colonial rule impose their own. E fail because of internal reasons inside Abẹ́òkúta rather than say dem suppress am, and na why e make sense to know about am: di question of weda traditional authority and modern administration fit join together na wetin dem ask and answer for practice, no be just for theory.
People dey often confuse dis one with EUBM and e no suppose be so. Di Ẹgba United Government get formal recognition for 1898 from Lagos Governor Sir Henry McCallum, to replace triumvirate government wey operate from 1893, and John Payne Jackson, editor of Lagos Weekly Record, get big hand inside di change and serve as adviser to Aláké Gbadebo I .
Im structure na Council of Chiefs wey di Aláké dey lead, Olóri Parakoyi as executive head, di Ìwàrèfà as senior advisers, di Ògbóni as judges and mediators, and city-state governments for under am. Dem dissolve am for 1918 afta di Adubi war, bikos Lugard see say di way im structure dey limit pawa no fit work wit indirect rule . EUBM operate from 1865 to 1874; EUG operate from 1898 to 1918. Dem na different bodies wey get one generation gap between dem.
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James "Holy" Johnson, Mọjọlá Agbébí and the generation of Sierra Leonean returnee clergy who took mission Christianity, found it would not admit them to leadership, and built African churches instead.
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An institutional and political history of the confederal city of Abeokuta from its founding around 1830 to the contemporary era.