Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi, the Ooni of Ife, has urged academics in Nigerian colleges to accurately record the history of the Yoruba race rather than depending on slanted history.
The Igbo race migrated from Ile-Ife, he claimed, and thorough documentation will not only promote unity but also demonstrate the linkages among ethnic groups.
In a press conference before an international conference on “Ile-Ife and Yoruba Civilization: Nexus between Tradition and Modernity” at his palace in Ife, the king posed the challenge to the academic community.
He claimed that just a quarter of the history of the Yoruba race has been adequately documented, which is why he is working with a few colleges to do so in order to strengthen racial solidarity.
“We have good evidence to believe that Igbo race has its roots here in Ile-Ife. There is Ile-Igbo here in the palace which was not a recent creation but has been existing here for decades. For this and many other reasons, I believe we need proper documentation of our history,” the Ooni said.
“We are not involving government in this project so that we can just place all the facts together, we must write our history properly and put things the right for the coming generations”.
Also speaking, a renown professor of history, Siyan Oyeweso, said the conference aims at bringing scholars together to discuss how to properly document the history of Yoruba, with focus on Ile-Ife as the source of the race.
