Author: Johnson Okùnadé

“Eekun Iyawo” It is a tourist centre in Lanlate, One of the seven Ibarapa towns in Oyo State, Nigeria. Lanlate shares a common boundary with a neighbouring town called Eruwa, which is about ten minutes drive.

Onifade was my tour guide to Olofin rock, Lanlate. Ifaseun joined Onifade as my tour guide as we climbed through rocks and trekked the forest to the mystical site; Eekun Iyawo (KNEELS OF THE HOUSEWIFE).

There is a Chinese saying that: “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me”

Just like Onifade scared me when we visited the “Olofin lake water” beside “Olofin Rock”, he succeeded again in scaring me. He gave me a stern warning not to move close to the pool beside Eekun Iyawo. He said anyone or anything that falls inside the pool will not be able to come out as the water inside the pool leads straight to heaven, I must confess that he succeeded in “fooling me again”.

In truth, it was said to be one of the rumoured myths attached to Eekun Iyawo tourist site, not a discovered fact. Although there are lots of myths attached to the pool beside Eekun Iyawo. It was even concluded that the water leads somewhere, although nobody knows where.

INTRODUCTION

On a certain day, before noon, the said housewife (Iyawo) climbed to the top of the Rocky Mountain to wash her husband’s clothes at the same time cook.
As she was doing both, the soup she was cooking wanted to fell so as she was struggling to retrieve the pot of soup, her kneels imprinted on the rock.

She fell into a pit very close to where she was washing with the water she was using to wash. She disappeared, nobody saw her corpse, till date. But the water she was using to wash formed a pool mystically on the rock. The pool is still there up till now, and the water never gets dry.
Due to constant experiments, it was concluded that the water leads somewhere, it’s not a stagnant pool.

The incident drew the attention of the community to the mountain but no one could enter into the pool due to uncertainty of where it leads, even till date.

THE STORY BEHIND “EEKUN IYAWO”

The story has it that a certain housewife (Iyawo or Iyawo-Ile) was said to be very dutiful and hardworking, she was always multitasking herself and impressing her husband with her caring deeds.

On a certain day, she had to wash her husband’s cloth and at the same time cook a delicious meal for her husband before returning from where he was working (probably farm) in the afternoon.

But the water was scarce in Lanlate that time, she couldn’t get water to wash and cook for her husband like she wanted to. This didn’t dissuade her from performing her responsibilities has a housewife (Iyawo-Ile).

Lanlate as a settlement was surrounded by four major hills namely; Onidan, Ota-epo, Olofin and Araye. Lanlate his known to have lots of rocky hills, so the housewife (Iyawo) concluded that if he could climb to the top of a mountain, he would most likely see a waterfall, flowing water or a stagnant pool of water she can use to wash her husband’s clothes and cook for him as well.

Before noon, she packed all she needed to cook together with the dirty clothes and after climbing mountains and walking inside the forest for a while, she came across the water which she can use to cook and at the same time wash clothes.
Even up till date, as discovered when I visited “Eekun Iyawo” the route to “Eekun Iyawo” is a forest with lots of mountains to climb.

The time was fast spent, so the housewife (Iyawo-Ile) was in haste to cook, wash the clothes and still get back home in time before her husband’s arrival from work (probably farm). She looked for a suitable spot to cook and wash at the same time, set up everything she needed to cook and while waiting for the food to be well cooked, she decided to wash the dirty clothes.

On the spot (apparently where Eekun Iyawo is situated today) there was a deep pit directly in front of where she was cooking, she decided in her mind to be pouring the dirty water used in washing clothes in the pit.

She assumed a position on her knees directly in front of the food she was cooking and started washing her husband’s cloth. She was in a hurry, trying to supervise the food she was cooking and at the same time rushing to finish washing the clothes on time.

While rushing, the food didn’t balance well on the firewood cooker she set up, so she tried using one hand to balance the food well on the firewood cooker and before she knew what was going on, the food fell from the firewood cooker into the pit she was pouring water from the cloth to.

As she struggled to retrieve the food from falling into the pit, she also slipped from where she knelt washing clothes and fell into the pit together with the food she was preparing and the water she was using to wash the clothes.

It was said that her knees imprinted on the mountain and the pit became a mystic pool. The knees are still imprinted on the mountain till date and directly beside the imprinted kneels (Eekun Iyawo) is a pool, the water inside the pool never gets dry no matter what.

The incident drew the attention of the community to the mountain but no one could enter into the pool due to uncertainty of where it leads, even till date.

Nobody is truly certain if the pool leads to heaven like my little tour guide, Onifade claimed but due to constant experiments, it was concluded that the water leads somewhere, it’s not a just a stagnant pool. But no one knows where it leads.

CONCLUSION

Eekun Iyawo as a tourist site is not well kept or modern in any way. It seems neglected and not taken seriously at all. The route to Eekun Iyawo is not encouraging and if you’re not really determined, you’ll turn back; I almost did!

The story behind the tourist site and the spots seen on Eekun Iyawo demonstrates a “noble” and “proud” history, myths and legends of Yoruba heritage; which seems to be going into extinction already.

The Oyo State government can actually do something about it, that’s all we say every time and dodge our own responsibility. But I believe Lanlate doesn’t have to wait for the Oyo State Government. The natives of Lanlate can actually make the tourist site more attractive and welcoming.

SPECIAL THANKS TO:

• Onifade and Ifaseun; both of them served as my tour guide to Eekun Iyawo
• Chief Falola Adigun Okunade; Asoju awo of Lanlate.
• Chief Adesokan; The Asipa of Lanlate.
• His Royal Majesty, Oba Alhaji Abdul-Lateef Olawuyi Olagoke, Arowooje II, Onilala of Lanlate.

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Before ÒYÓ became what we know today as Oyo town and Oyo state, it was known as ÒYÓ-ILÉ which Historians referred to as OLD OYO EMPIRE.

That was the Era when the ALÁÀFIN had autonomous power and were referred to as; “Alaşę ikeji Orişa” ( the 2nd in command to the gods). There was an absolute Power endowed to the Alaafin all over a great portion of the Yoruba Kingdom. The powers can only be checked by the OYOMESI, for the purpose of CHECK and BALANCE.

In fact, there was one Alaafin who ordered for the head of his father-in-law, simply because the wife indirectly challenged his Authority while bathing the Alaafin in the bathroom. (You can grab a copy of BASHORUN GAA to see the full story).

Thus, the trio phrase of; ‘IKÚ BÀBÁ YÈYÉ” which is translated as; ” THE DEATH, THE PATERNAL and THE MATERNAL” might not mean anything to us in this modern Democratic Era but in the ancient Yoruba Days, it meant a great deal.

Behind the Alaafin, Oyo’s Palace in the Ancient days were rows of stalls where wood and calabash carvers known as ONÍRÈSÉ engaged in their craftwork. ONÍRÈSÉ as earlier said literally means CALABASH CARVERS but among these carvers, one was nicknamed ONÍRÈSÉ. He was a Divinely gifted Carver.

During his birth, an IFA priest who was consulted by his parent informed that the newborn baby will be a great leader and one day, he will find himself in a strange land across the Ocean among the white people. But he must not engage in any work other than the Carving business.

His kinsmen were not surprised with the calibre of people that were patronizing ONÍRÈSÉ as he was growing into the carving business. The Alaafin, his chiefs, Kings from neighbouring towns, and all idol worshippers were all customers to this young man. His work was second to none in the entire Yoruba Region.

One day, some Europeans who had come to Oyo for tourism and to study the Monarchical system of the Oyo Empire stumbled into the stall of ONÍRÈSÉ and they were completely amazed by the excellent craft works done by him. After said and done, ONÍRÈSÉ found himself in an exhibition in Switzerland where his work became the best among others. ONÍRÈSÉ spent 13 years touring different parts of Europe with the help of a European lady who had become his close Associate.

After tying the knot with this lady after an Exhibition in a small town in Sweden, ONÍRÈSÉ decided to return home with his new bride for a proper African traditional wedding.

The entire Oyo township and its environment were filled to the brim with people who had come to witness this very rare marriage. It was a showcase of pure African tradition and the Europeans that witnessed the occasion were fully entertained.

After the wedding rites, the Alaafin bestowed the title of BAALE ÌRÈSÉ to ONÍRÈSÉ for the great honour he brought to Oyo kingdom. With the new title and responsibility, the Alaafin believed that the white woman would not take the great man back to her strange land again.

At this period back home, ONÍRÈSÉ desists from making calabash again rather he focused on other lucrative businesses and the governing of his little Area. His old customers who were highly placed all over the Yoruba Kingdom approached him to make Calabash for them but he refused bluntly, encouraging them to patronize his kinsmen who are still into the business. This attitude annoyed some prominent chiefs in Oyo and they reported him to the Alaafin, saying the man had become so arrogant and disrespectful. They wanted Alaafin to give him a marching order to continue with the carving skill.

The Alaafin in his wisdom replied thus; Eyin Oyomesi, BÍ ONÍRÈSÉ BÁ KÒ TÓ LÓHUN Ò FÍN’GBÁ MÓ, ÈYÍ TÓ TI FÌN SÍLÈ KÒ LE PARUN LAELAE”. This simply means; if ONÍRÈSÉ, the calabash carver desist from making calabash again, the ones he had made in the past can never perish.

Credits: Omo Lamurudu Media Facebook Page

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1. Ogbomoso Ajilete
   Si ogo re l’a fe korin
   Iwo t’a te s’arin odan
   Okan ninu ilu Akin
2. A-to-sa-si n’jo t’o buru
   Abo f’eniti eru mba
   Odi t’ota ko le parun,
   Ogun Filani ko ri mi
3. Oluwa olodumare
   F’ow’otun re d’ilu wa mu
   F’oba at’won ‘gbimo wa
   L’emi at’ife ododo.
4. Kede re fun gbogbo eda
   Egan ni “he” erin tobi
   Ajanaku po, o ju ra
   Ilu na l’ola gbangba ni
5. N’ijo ‘re elere ni iwa
   B’ise ya, a se kangun ni
   Omo Shoun fe ilu won
   Ilu nwon ni Orisa nwon.
6. So f’awon wundia ti ndan
   Fawon Okunrin rogbodo
   E ho ye, e sape, e fo
   Ilu ‘bukun! L’a bi nyin si
7. Awon Odo Ogbomoso
   Yarin ‘ta re, ilu ti wa
   Koto pelu gegele re
   Igbo odan re l’ayo wa
8. Ki lo le mu wa gbagbe re
   Ilu ‘Telorun at’ayo
   Titi a o fi s’asunji
   L’a o ma korin inyin re.

Composed by: Late Mr. D. Oladele Ajao
Former Senior Tutor, Baptist College, Iwo
(Harmony done by Rev A. B. Adeleke)

Ogbomoso Folk song
Ati de’nu Oko a sin mi o.
Ade’nu oko a simi
Ogun kan ko ja ja ja
Ko ko Ogbomoso ajilete
Ade’nu oko a simi

Note: The supposed “Ogbomoso Folk song” can be used as the chorus for the stanzas in the anthem

Ogbomoso o
Ogbomoso o
Mo feran re
Ilu akoni

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Funmilayo Anikulapo Ransome-Kuti, born on October 25, 1900, was the Nigerian daughter of a returned slave who lived in the Yoruba Region. Well-educated with a colonial education and a Christian background, she was radicalized through the actions of the British occupation of Nigeria: its racism, sexism and economic violence.

Ransome-Kuti’s political activism led to her being described as the doyen of female rights in Nigeria, as well as to her being regarded as “The Mother of Africa.”

Sadly, most people, myself included, grew up only knowing her to be the first woman in the country to drive a car; an insignificant task compared to other greatness she emanated. She was a great leader, a bold and brave woman. She didn’t just talk about freedom from oppression, she acted and fought gallantly all her life against all forms of injustice and oppression.

Early Life of Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti

Francis Abigail Olufunmilayo Thomas was born on 25 October 1900, in Abeokuta, to Chief Daniel Olumeyuwa Thomas (1869-1954) and Lucretia Phyllis Omoyeni Adeosolu (1874-1956) of the Jibolu-Taiwo family. Her father was the son of a returned slave, Ebenezer Sobowale Thomas, from Sierra Leone, who traced his ancestral history back to Abeokuta in what is today Ogun State, Nigeria. He became a member of the Anglican faith and soon returned to the homeland of his fellow Egbas.

Funmilayo Randsome-Kuti’s parents believed in the value of education. She was one of the first women to attend Abeokuta Grammar School for her secondary education in 1914, where she would go on to teach.

In 1919 she left for Wincham Hall School for Girls, Cheshire, England, to pursue her studies. By the time of her return to Nigeria in 1922, no doubt in reaction to the racism she had encountered in Britain, she had dropped her Christian name, Frances Abigail.

She returned to Nigeria and became a teacher, three years later, on 20 January 1925, she married the Reverend Israel Oludotun Ransome-Kuti. He also defended the commoners of his country and was one of the founders of both the Nigeria Union of Teachers and the Nigerian Union of Students. Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti organized literacy classes for Women in the early 1920s and founded a nursery school in the 1930s.

She founded the Abeokuta Ladies’ Club (ALC) for educated women involved in charitable work in 1942. She also started the Social Welfare for Market Women club to help educate working-class women (which formed the first adult education programme for women in Nigeria).

Ransome-Kuti received the national honour of membership in the Order of the Niger in 1965. The University of Ibadan bestowed upon her the honorary doctorate of laws in 1968. She also held a seat in the Western House of Chiefs of Nigeria as an Oloye of the Yoruba people.

Activism

Throughout her career, she was known as an educator and activist. She and Elizabeth Adekogbe provided dynamic leadership for women’s rights in the 1950s. Ransome-Kuti founded an organization for women in Abeokuta called the Abeokuta Women’s Union, with a membership tally of more than 20,000 individuals, spanning both literate and illiterate women.

Traditionally, Yoruba society was divided into male and female administrative sections. Although men in Nigeria held the position of clan chiefs, women had traditionally held political authority which was shared with men, particularly concentrated in areas of trade.

With the coming of formal colonial rule through the Berlin Conference of 1884, the British authorities occupying Nigeria restructured the governance of the society: establishing the position of “Warrant Chiefs” as middlemen to act between the traditional authorities and those of the colonisers, elevating the traditional and largely symbolic position of clan chief to a political power broker and created the Sole Native Authority, to which only the men holding local political power were admitted.

In 1918, a colonial tax on palm oil to be paid by all men in Nigeria caused major uprisings; in 1929 the British extended taxation to women and also goats which were usually the personal possessions of women. As soon as the rumours of such taxation were confirmed, the women of Nigeria rose up. After an initial incident where a Warrant Chief had attacked a female householder and thousands of local women had encircled his home, singing songs, and attacking the house before insisting on his resignation and dragging him to the courthouse to be tried for assault, huge gatherings of women appeared across Nigeria protesting at Warrant Chief’s offices, burning courts and European owned shops demanding an end to the tax.

The Aba Women’s Rebellion eventually ended in bloodshed after two months on December 17th, 1929 as 32 women were killed when the British military fired into a crowd of protesting women.

Although some compromises were made to the governance structure and methods of collection, the tax on women remained in place.

By the late 1940s, the burden of taxation was becoming unbearable as the colonial authorities squeezed more and more from its protectorates in the aftermath of the Second European War. Funmilayo Anikulapo-Kuti, then the headteacher of a local school, who had previously set up several organisations bringing together middle-class women, had heard of the struggles of the market women and the fightback that they had started and established the Abeokuta Women’s Union – an explicitly political organisation uniting the working class market women with middle-class women. This was designed to challenge both colonial rule and the patriarchal structure. Two hundred thousand women joined.

From the initial demands of an end to the taxation regime, the confidence and demands of the AWU grew with proposals to replace the flat rate tax on women with taxation on expatriate companies, investment in local initiatives and infrastructure including transportation, sanitation and education and the abolition of the Sole Native Authority and its replacement with a representative form of government, including women.

The Abeokuta Women’s Union was a well-organized and disciplined organization. Mass refusal to pay the tax combined with enormous protests, organized under the guise of “picnics” or “festivals”. The response from the authorities was brutal as tear gas was deployed and beatings were administered.

Anikulapo-Kuti ran training sessions on how to deal with this threat, teaching women how to protect themselves from the effects of tear gas and how long they had to throw the canisters back at the authorities.

The British colonizers teamed up with their local lackeys to subdue the women. At one protest, the Ogboni sacred stick was brought out – a symbolic artefact of the secretive male cult of the Ogboni – supposedly imbibed with great powers, and the women were instructed to go home before evil spirits overcame them.

When the women shrank back in fear, Anikulapo-Kuti grabbed the stick and waved it around declaring that the women now had the power before taking it with her and displaying it prominently in her home.

This action gave her a reputation of fearlessness and courage that led 20,000 women to follow her to the home of Alake, the “pseudo-king” of Nigeria and a colonial stooge, who chased him out of the house, condemning him to exile on the threat of castration.

FUNMILAYO RANSOME-KUTI founded the Egba or Abeokuta Women’s Union along with Grace Eniola Soyinka (her sister-in-law and the mother of the Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka). This organisation is said to have once had a membership of 20,000 women. Among other things, Ransome-Kuti organised workshops for illiterate market women. She continued to campaign against taxes and price controls.

Oba Oladapo Samuel Ademola and Chief Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti

The Alake of Egba land is the paramount ruler of the Egbas, comprising Egba Alake, the Owu kingdom, Oke Ona and Gbagura. Oba Oladapo Samuel Ademola II, ascended the throne of the Alake of Egba land in 1920 after the demise of Oba Gbadebo I, on the 28th of May 1920.

Oba Oladapo Samuel Ademola 11, was an educated Oba, with a deep sense of business acumen. His son, Justice Adetokunbo Ademola became indigenous Chief Justice of Nigeria in 1960. Oba Oladapo Samuel Ademola II ruled for 42 years, but he was in exile for two years, between 1948 to December 1950, as a result of a protest against native authorities, especially against the Alake of Egba land, by the Women’s Union, led by Mrs Funmilayo Ransome Kuti (the mother of Afrobeat Legend, Fela Anikulapo Kuti) ably supported by Eniola Soyinka-her sister-in-law and mother of the Nobel Laureate-Wole Soyinka. This organization with a membership of over 20000 women campaigned vigorously against taxes and price control.

The Abeokuta Women’s Union was a well-organised and disciplined organization. The Egba women’s refusal to pay abnormal taxes, combined with enormous protests, organized under the guise of picnics and festivals, was a guise to beat the security of the British colonizers, who teamed up with the local lackeys, to subdue the women.

At one protest, the “Oro” stick was brought out as a symbolic artefact of the secretive male cult of the Ogbonis, supposedly imbibed with great powers, and the women were instructed to go home before evil spirits overcame them.

When the women shrank back in fear, Funmilayo Ransome Kuti, grabbed the stick and waved it around, that woman now had the power before taking it with her, displaying it prominently in her home.

This action gave her, a reputation of fearlessness and courage, which led 20,000 women to follow her to the home of Alake of Egba land (Alake Ademola). As the women protested outside the King’s Palace, they sang in Yoruba;

“Alake, for a long time you have used your penis as a mark of authority that you are our husband, today we shall reverse the order and use our vagina to play the role of husband”.

With this unified action and song, they chased him out of the Palace, condemning him to exile on the threat of castration and this resulted in the king’s abdication.

Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti; Lioness of Lisabi

Funmilayo Ransome Kuti was a teacher, a political campaigner, women’s rights activist and traditional aristocrat, who was described by the West African Pilot Newspaper as the “Lioness of Lisabi”. She was the first woman in Nigeria to ride a car. She served with distinction as one of the most prominent leaders of her generation.

From her upbringing in a privileged household, her colonial education and her Christian religion, in her later years Anikulapo-Kuti embraced her Yoruba heritage and worked to give pride back to the colonized, insisting that children at her school were registered using their African, rather than European names.

She abandoned her Western style of dress, favoured by middle-class women in the late 40s, adopting the traditional wrapped cloth of the lower-class market traders, and gave speeches exclusively in Yoruba, necessitating the British to find translators to interpret her words.

In the early 1970s, she changed her surname to Anikulapo-Kuti to further identify herself with Yoruba culture, thereby following the example of her son, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, a popular musician and a fierce critic of Nigeria’s military governments from the 1960s.

In 1977 some 1,000 soldiers stormed the family property in Lagos, which Fela had transformed into a commune that he called the Kalakuta Republic. During the assault, soldiers dragged Funmilayo by her hair and threw her out a second-story window. She died of complications from her injuries 8 weeks later.

Funmilayo Ransome Kuti’s Family

Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti married Isreal Oludotun Ransome Kuti and they both gave birth to four children, one dying shortly after birth, all three who survived carried on her legacy of political activism.

Isreal Oludotun Ransome-Kuti

Funmilayo Ransome Kuti’s husband; Isreal Oludotun Ransome-Kuti was the first President of the Nigeria Union of Teachers

In 1931, Israel was appointed as the pioneering President of the then-newly formed Nigeria Union of Teachers, a position he held until his retirement in 1954.

Kuti Hall, one of the halls of residence at the University of Ibadan which opened in 1954, is named after Israel Oludotun Ransome-Kuti.

On April 6, 1955, Israel died of a cancer-related illness at his residence in Abeokuta, Ogun State

Olikoye Ransome-Kuti

Funmilayo Ransome Kuti’s son; Olikoye Ransome-Kuti became an AIDS activist speaking out for the Africans abandoned to the ravages of the disease.

Olikoye Ransome-Kuti was a paediatrician, activist, and health minister of Nigeria.

He held various teaching positions, including a visiting professorship at Baltimore’s Johns Hopkins University’s School of Hygiene and Public Health. He wrote extensively for medical journals and publications. He won both the Leon Bernard Foundation Prize and the Maurice Pate Award, in 1986 and in 1990 respectively.

Olikoye Ransome-Kuti died on 1 June 2003. He was survived by his wife of 50 years Sonia and three children.

Beko Ransome-Kuti

Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti’s son; Bekololari Ransome-Kuti founded the first Nigerian human rights organization. Beko Ransome-Kuti helped to form Nigeria’s first human rights organization, the Campaign for Democracy, which in 1993 opposed the dictatorship of General Sani Abacha. In 1995, a military tribunal sentenced him to life in prison for bringing the mock trial of Olusegun Obasanjo to the attention of the world.

He was adopted as a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International and freed in 1998 following the death of Sani Abacha.

Beko Ransome-Kuti was a fellow of the West African College of Physicians and Surgeons, a leading figure in the British Commonwealth’s human rights committee, chair of the Committee for the Defense of Human Rights and executive director of the Centre for Constitutional Governance.

Beko Ransome-Kuti never went to Nigerian funerals or weddings, notable for the huge sums of money that are often spent by families on such occasions, at which people were lauded for how much money they stuck on musicians and dancers (“spraying”). He was against such a gratuitous display of wealth.

Beko Ransome-Kuti died on 10 February 2006, at approximately 11:20 P.M. at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Idi-Araba, Lagos, Nigeria at the age of 65 from complications of lung cancer. The state government honoured him with a statue in 2010.

Fela Anikulapo-Kuti

Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti’s son; Fela Anikulapo-Kuti became a musician writing songs inspiring a generation.

Also professionally known as Fela Kuti, or simply Fela, was a Nigerian multi-instrumentalist, musician, composer, pioneer of the Afrobeat music genre and human rights activist. At the height of his popularity, he was referred to as one of Africa’s most “challenging and charismatic human rights activist music performers.”

Fela Kuti was outspoken; his songs spoke his inner thoughts. His rise in popularity throughout the 1970s signalled a change in the relationship between music as an art form and Nigerian socio-political discourse.

Fela Kuti was a political giant in Africa from the 1970s until his death. Kuti criticized the corruption of Nigerian government officials and the mistreatment of Nigerian citizens. He spoke of colonialism as the root of the socio-economic and political problems that plagued the African people.

Corruption was one of the worst, if not the worst, political problems facing Africa in the 70s and Nigeria was among the most corrupt countries of the time.

The Nigerian government was responsible for election rigging and coups that ultimately worsened poverty, economic inequality, unemployment, and political instability, which further promoted corruption and thuggery.

Fela’s protest songs covered themes inspired by the realities of corruption and socio-economic inequality in Africa. Fela Kuti’s political statements could be heard throughout Africa.

Kuti’s open vocalization of the violent and oppressive regime controlling Nigeria did not come without consequence. He was arrested on over 200 different occasions and spent time in jail, including his longest stint of 20 months after his arrest in 1984.

On top of the jail time, the corrupt government would send soldiers to beat Kuti, his family and friends, and destroy wherever he lived and whatever instruments or recordings he had.

“Imagine Che Guevara and Bob Marley rolled into one person and you get a sense of Nigerian musician and activist Fela Kuti.”

—Herald Sun, February 2011

On 3 August 1997, Olikoye Ransome-Kuti, already a prominent AIDS activist and former Minister of Health, announced his younger brother’s death a day earlier from complications related to AIDS.

However, there has been no definitive proof that Kuti died from complications related to HIV/AIDS, and much scepticism surrounds this alleged cause of death and the sources that have popularized this claim. For example, it is widely claimed that Fela suffered and may have possibly died from Kaposi’s sarcoma, which is associated with HIV/AIDS infection. However, there are no known photos of Kuti with telltale lesions; moreover,

Kuti was honoured with a lying-in-state in which his remains were encased in a five-sided glass coffin for full public viewing. More than one million people attended Fela’s funeral at the site of the old Shrine compound. The New Afrika Shrine has opened since Fela’s death in a different section of Lagos under the supervision of his son Femi.

Other notable family members of Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti include her grandsons; Femi Kuti and Seun Kuti, her Nephew; Wole Soyinka, her niece Yemisi Ransome-Kuti amongst others

Achievements of Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti

• Took part in the pre-independence conferences that laid the groundwork for Nigeria’s First Republic
• One of the women appointed to the native House of Chiefs, serving as an Oloye of the Yoruba people
• Ranking member of the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons
• Treasurer and President Western Women Association of the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons
• Leader of Abeokuta Women’s Union.
• Leader of Commoners Peoples Party
• Leader of Nigeria Women’s Union.
• The first woman to drive a car in Nigeria
• Winner of the Lenin Peace Prize

Death

In old age, her activism was overshadowed by that of her three sons, who provided effective opposition to various Nigerian military juntas.

Obasanjo was angered by Fela’s criticism of the military as “zombies” who intimidated ordinary Nigerians while allowing the corruption and exploitation of communities to go unchecked.

In 1978 Ransome-Kuti was thrown from a third-floor window of her son Fela’s compound, a commune known as the Kalakuta Republic, when it was stormed by over a thousand Nigerian soldiers acting under orders from General Obasanjo.
She lapsed into a coma in February of that year, and died on 13 April 1978, as a result of her injuries. She spent eight weeks in a coma before passing away.

After her death, Fela took her coffin to Dodan Barracks(then Nigeria’s Supreme Military Headquarters), General Olusegun Obasanjo’s residence together with a newly written song “Coffin for a Head of State”.

An anti-colonialist, womanist and revolutionary to the end, it is what she would have wanted.

Ransome-Kuti is one of the most prominent figures in Nigerian history and inspired women across Nigeria through her brave acts and most notably her fight for women in the country. Some say that she paved the way for women in Nigeria to have better lives.

BIOGRAPHY OF ONILALA OF LANLATE

In Yoruba land, the Oba is an unquestionable monarch. He is not primus inter pares (first among equals), he is revered and widely known as being second only to the gods- “Igbakeji Orisa”.

His Royal Highness, Oba Alhaji Abdul-Lateef Olawuyi Olagoke, Arowooje II, Onilala of Lanlate is a humble, pleasant, considerate, patient, reasonable, fearless, God-fearing and exceptionally friendly.

You’ll learn a lot from his biography!

EARLY LIFE

His Royal Highness, Oba Alhaji Abdul-Lateef Olawuyi Olagoke, Arowooje II, Onilala of Lanlate was born on 22nd August 1954 to late prince Raheem Olagoke of Bioku Ruling House and Mrs Olatooke Olagoke of Alaarun’s Compound, Isale Togun, Lanlate. He is the second child of the family of five children but the first male child.

The father who was a farmer in his lifetime lived in Jobi village near Maya, Lanlate together with his family including the little Abdul-Lateef. In 1963 and on request, he was released to live with his maternal grandmother; late Mrs Fadewe Abake of Elegun’s Compound, Oke-Imale, Lanlate in preparation for his elementary education.

Between 1963 and 1969, he attended St Paul African Church School, Lanlate and obtained Primary School Leaving Certificate. At the time, Financial constraints and other considerations within the family precluded him from pursuing his desire to further his education in 1970. However, due to his love for education, he eventually enrolled as a private candidate, sat for 2005 May/June WAEC and obtained good results for future use.

CAREER AND JOB

Owing to his inability to further his education in 1970, he joined his uncle Mr Sunday Ayorinde in Ifo town, Ogun state to take apprentice in fashion designing where he spent two years. Rising from his love for education, he eventually enrolled as a private candidate, sat for 2005 May/June WAEC and obtained good results.

In his determination to be self-dependent and be responsible for the upkeep of his family being the first male child, In 1972, he left his uncle to join a business tycoon in Abeokuta, Alhaja R.A. jooda as a sales clerk from where he discovered that Timber business is very lucrative and decided to go for it by joining Mr Amos Jibulu; now of blessed memory.

Between 1979 and 1984, he made his modest living from his timber business in both Abeokuta and Igboora using it to sustain his family as well as other commitments and interests. Being a responsible and very hardworking man, he ventured into farming from 1984 – 1993 in order to be self-sufficient.

In 1994, he re-opened his timber business in Ijebu-Igbo and managed it directly and sometimes by proxy until 2006 when he officially completed the process of his nomination as the king of Lanlate.

KINGSHIP

Arising from the passage of Kabiyesi Babatunde Oloye of Bioku Ruling House in 1984, the entire Bioku Ruling House consensually appointed him as Mogaji in line with the tradition, the position he held successfully for several years. Obligatory, however, the position necessitated his initial relocation back home thereby disrupting his timber business.

On January 30, 2007, His Royal Highness, Oba Alhaji Abdul-Lateef Olawuyi Olagoke ascended the throne of his forefathers, but as Baale of Lanlate following the approval of his appointment in 2006 by his Excellency, Sen. Rasheed Adewolu Ladoja, the former Governor of Oyo State, Nigeria.

Lanlate kings dating back to the era of the Oyo empire. Alaafin, was the title of the emperor of the medieval Oyo empire of southwestern Nigeria Yorubaland; the official title of the ceremonial ruler of the contemporary Oyo. Lanlate kings has always been a subject to Oyo town, hence Baale of Lanlate. But earlier this year; 2019, he was upgraded to a full-fledged king as approved by the Oyo state government and with the full consent, presence and supervisor of the Alaafin of Oyo; His Imperial Majesty Oba Lamidi Olayiwola Adeyemi III.

PERSONAL LIFE

His Royal Highness, Oba Alhaji Abdul-Lateef Olawuyi Olagoke, Arowooje II, Onilala of Lanlate is a humble, pleasant, considerate, patient, reasonable, fearless, God-fearing and exceptionally friendly.

In 1976, he got married to Olori Mrs Ganiyat Olagoke and today the marriage is blessed with promising children and grandchildren. Kabiyesi loves his people and he is loved by all and he has some awards based on social and religious activities to his credit which includes 2011 Peace Award by ANUNSA, The Polytechnic, Eruwa Campus among others. Religiously, he performed holy pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina in 2011.

Kabiyesi is many things to many people:

• Lanlate Youth Muslim call him “MUKADAM”
• Lanlate Youth Association pronounced him as “OBA ALADE MEJI”
• Committee of Friends in Ijebu-Ode call him “OGBAGBA AGBOTE WOLE I”
• Maya Community pronounced him “OLUBORI”
• Eruwa Muslim Community named him “SURULERE I”
• To World all Souls Winners Evangelism, he is “OTA YAGO LONA I”
• He is “ILUFEMILOYE I” to the entire Lanlate community

•••

Special thanks to:

• Chief Falola Adigun OKUNADE
• The Asipa of Lanlate; Chief Adesokan
• His Royal Highness, Oba Alhaji Abdul-Lateef Olawuyi Olagoke, Arowooje II, Onilala of Lanlate

Reference:

Program of events of the final presentation of staff of office to Oba Alhaji Abdul-Lateef Olawuyi Olagoke, published 26th of January 2013

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