70 Black Americans Trace Roots to Oyo

As they will say, if you don't know where you  are going at least you're  sure of where you're coming from. And as the Yoruba adage do say, "never use your left hand to describe the location of your  father's house. So did upheld by these 70Black Americans who traced their ancestral lineage to the ancient town of Oyo.

At a civic reception organised for the visitors,  the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Olayiwola Adeyemi 111  urged the Federal, States Governments and other  individuals to, as a matter of utmost concern, embark on re-integrating Yorubas across the globe back to their ancestral roots, in order to save their souls from continued trauma.

He did emphasized the urgent need for world leaders to conserve Oyo Yoruba traditions as international heritage of exceptional value.

According to him, ‘’concerted efforts must be intensified at increasing inspiration to become national or to recognise nationhood. So with that, we see the Yoruba in the diaspora, as it is popularly called, to be the Yoruba that will greatly guide and influence the Yoruba in the ancient homeland, who for the most part are tending to move away from a sense of preservation of their own culture and tradition, particularly religion’’.

‘’As a people, our culture, politics and religious experience have been extremely unfulfilled. The Yorubas are now falling in the same condition through which the African Americans had allowed themselves to be seduced by preachers of a foreign gospel. We know that the universalist inspiration which has come to the Yoruba through Christianity and Islam has reduced their concern or allegiance to their own god and by extension to their own nationality. The Yoruba will be very much reduced in their political, cultural and spiritual development by their seduction into these alien religions,” he said.

‘’Oyo Empire was in possession of all the land. Oyo was very fast in expansion and became one  of the earliest states with  a  central authority  system. This makes Oyo, probably the  greatest of  the  forest states in West Africa. At   the highest of its existence, having fully developed a sophisticated internal system of government, Oyo dominated all other Yoruba kingdoms namely; Ife, Ekiti, Ijesa, Egba, Ijebu, Ondo,Sabe and Owu. It stretched into Dahomey, Togo and parts of the Ashanti in Ghana.

 Lamenting on how scores and scores of Africans, particularly the Yorubas are being encouraged to disrespect ,dishonour and abandon anything African by the Western world, Oba Adeyemi said African religious beliefs are demonized and discarded to  the extent that some misguided Africans now abandon their family names  in preference to names without bearing to  their backgrounds.

  

‘’Without doubt, we can find strength in unity. This has become imperative so that whenever our brothers and sisters in Diaspora come home, they won’t be complainers about how things are not working, but rather, they would see themselves as partners and partakers in the overall development for a better future of their home land. Partnership is a voluntary collaborative agreement between two or more parties in which all participants agree to work together to achieve a common purpose. Partnerships, he explained, share interest, concerns and create visions for the future’’.

As the Co-ordinatorof the visit tagged as ‘ancestral homage ’, Segun Olaleye, rightfully said the Yorubas from the United States under the auspices of THE NIGERIA BLACKOUT is a yearly trip during which  hundreds of Black Americans travel to Nigeria to experience the Economic and Cultural Powerhouse of West Africa.

‘’The Nigeria Blackout Mission is to encourage Black Americans to trace their roots, and to regularly visit and embrace the culture of West Africa’’.

Convener of the programme and Founder of Arewa House of Culture, Princess Folasade Adeyemi, who described the visit of the Black Americans as ‘’ historic and identification with their roots’’,  charged Younger Yoruba generation ‘’to advance to the extent that they increase the knowledge or institution among African Americans, who will serve the need for knowledge improvement through television and resurrection and introduction of stories and background images that established a sense of celebration of their African ancestry’’.

Glamour was added to the colourful event with Oba Adeyemi’s unique dance steps, as the visitors were elated and could not hold back their excitements.

At the ceremony, there was cultural displays, dance and metaphysical power exhibition.

LONG LIVE AFRICA

GOD BLESS NIGERIA

Source: The Nation