Ọyọ

Encyclopaedia of Islam

Ọyọ was a West African Yoruba empire rivaling Ife, where kingship existed from at least the 12th century. Ọyọ grew in importance from the 16th century with the rise of the Atlantic slave trade. The empire linked northern trade routes along the Niger with the Atlantic. Muslims from Borno, Hausa, Nupe and the former Mali and Songhay were resident in its capital and along the route to the sea, but the Alafin and the vast majority of the people followed their traditional religion.

Struggle between central and provincial government produced a series of serious internal crises. At the death of the Alafin Awolẹ in 1796, the governor of Ilorin, Afọnja, broke from Ọyọ. To secure his independence against a resuscitating Ọyọ, he allied himself in 1817 with Fulani Muslims connected with Sokoto. Their leader, Ṣāliḥ, conducted a successful jihad against Ọyọ with the help of pastoral Fulani and Muslim town residents and slaves. His son `Abd-al-Salām turned on Afọnja and was recognized by Sokoto as "Emir of Yoruba". After a sustained campaign, by 1836 the capital, Ọyọ Ile, was destroyed and the heartland of the empire incorporated into the Ilorin emirate.

Ilorin's jihad to the sea met resistance from new Ọyọ, Ibadan, and later the British in Lagos, but was ultimately blunted by the disappearance of its economic target, the Atlantic slave market.

Bibliography: S. Johnson, The history of the Yorubas, London, 1921. R. Smith, Kingdoms of the Yoruba, London, 1969. J.F.A. Ajayi & R. Smith, Yoruba warfare in the nineteenth century, Cambridge, 1971. J.A. Atanda, The new Ọyọ empire, London, 1973. S.O. Biobaku, Sources of Yoruba history, Oxford, 1973. See Robin Law, The Ọyọ empire c.1600-c.1836, Oxford, 1977, for more references.

(J. Kenny)