The Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi, has challenged academia in Nigerian universities to properly document the history of Yoruba race rather than relying on jaundiced history.
He said proper documentation will not only foster unity but reveal the ties across ethnic groups, saying evidence showed that the Igbo race migrated from Ile-Ife.
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The monarch put the challenge before the academia while addressing journalists ahead of an International Conference on ‘Ile-Ife and Yoruba Civilization: Nexus between Tradition and Modernity’, at his palace in Ife, on Saturday.
He said Yoruba race has about a quarter of its history documented, hence, the reason he is collaborating with select universities on the need to properly document the history of the race with a view to enhancing cohesion among the people globally.
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“We have good evidence to believe that the 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”.
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Also speaking, a renowned professor of history, Siyan Oyeweso, said the conference aims to bring scholars together to discuss how to properly document the history of Yoruba, with a focus on Ile-Ife as the source of the race.
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