Episode 2
In the class…
The class was still not filled to its full capacity by the time we got in. We could see so many other students talking and gisting and we also joined in the conversation after we have found a place in the front row of the class.
Some few minutes later, we heard the loud thud of professor Olamoyegun’s old fashioned shoes in the entrance of the class, got called to order and maintain a dead silence. However, it was a tradition whenever he got to enter the class as he walked majestically to the board in his usual fashion. One thing I admire was is mode of dressing. “This man would have been a palm-wine tapper or a primary school teacher if he had not been a lecturer. I mumbled.
“In previous classes, we’ve been looking at some historical events that have happened in Nigeria. In the past two classes we discussed mostly is about the wars that have happened in Yoruba land. We discussed about the Jalumi war of 1878. The battle of Ikirun which was a bloody war fought by the people of Ibadan on the side of Ikirun against the allied forces of Ilorin, Ila, Ekiti and Ijesha on November 1, 1878 in the northern part the modern day Osun state. Basically the Jalumi war was among the devastating civil wars that plagued the Yoruba nation in the 19th century, did you all still remember that?
Yes sir. We all chorused.
We also talked on the Osogbo war of 1840. The battle of how the Fulani’s tactically captured and made Ilorin their territory and how they subjugate the old oyo empire in 1836/1836. Another one we talked about was the Mugbamugba war when I explained how Are-Ona Kakanfo Afonja was murdered and how Ilorin was seized by the Fulani Jamma and also how Alimi became the first Fulani ruler of Ilorin not with the title of Oba or Baale but Emir which solidifies that the total control of Ilorin, a Yoruba town had gone to the Fulani’s.
Who else still remembered some other wars, we talked about in the previous class?
The Egba Dahomey war sir! I said
In what year? Professor Tanmo asked immediately
1851. I replied.
Good! Good of you Kola. He said.
Now, for the project on this particular course, I have got an approval from the school authority. You are all going to embark on a journey.
All the class started murmuring…
