The Yoruba civil wars which lasted for over seventy years (1821-1893) no doubt had important consequences for Yorubaland in particular and West Africa in general. One of the results for Yorubaland was the consequent destruction of Old Oyo by the Fulani in 1837 and the absorption of metropolitan Oyo into the Fulani emirate of Illorin. Today nothing remains of that former great metropolis of Yorubaland as the Alafin Atiba was forced to move a hundred miles south to Ago Oja to found the present site of New Oyo. The civil wars were partly responsible for the fate of Old Oyo, for they made it impossible for the Yoruba chiefs to rally round the Alafin to defend the metropolis. Had they done so, they might perhaps have halted the southward march of the Fulani 93 and saved Old Oyo for Yorubaland. The civil wars not only completed the break-up of the Oyo empire into a large number of rival states but also led to the founda- tion of a number of new towns and states. Prominent among these were Ibadan and Abeokuta. These city-states were founded by refugees from the Owu War between Owu and Ife ( 1821-25) and those from Oyo and other northern states overrun by the Fulani. "These two towns soon developed into very powerful thickly- nopulated and well-organised city-states, and soon joined the Egba states in the competition for supremacy." Ibadan became the bulwark of Yoruba defence against the Fulani and defeated the latter at Oshogbo in 1840, thus halting their advance to the sea. Ibadan and Abeokuta-products of the civil wars-had since their foundation in the 19th century played leading roles in Yoruba history till the present day But the disruptive effects of the wars tended to weaken the traditional social, political and religious ideas and institutions of the Yoruba. According to Dr. JFA Ajayi, "The new towns and states were experimenting with new forms of government and military organisations. Turbulent characters were challenging tradition in various ways. Confidence in the old gods were shaken at many points. "This state of affairs together with war-weariness created an atmosphere which was to some extent favourable to missionary activity in Yorubaland. Another effect of the wars was the intensification of the slave trade resulting in an ever-increasing flow of slaves to the Yoruba slave markets and to the coast. These slaves were prisoners taken in the wars. While some were retained as domestic slaves to work on Yoruba farms, the greater majority were sent to the coast and sold to Europeans slaves-dealers. In the 19th century, Yorubaland was the greatest exporter of African slaves on the whole of West Africa. And because of the activities of the British preventive squadron in capturing slave vessels on the West African coast, the Yoruba had become the most predominant group of liberated slaves in the colony of Sierra Leone by the 1830s . One of them was the boy Ajayi who was to become the future Bishop Crowther.
It is obvious that the civil wars slowed down economic and social progress in Yorubaland. Farms were laid waste by plundering armies. Whole towns were destroyed, thousands killed or captured as slaves and thousands turned into refugees. It is estimated that about 153 Egba towns and villages alone were destroyed in the wars. Johnson describing the appalling situation in his "History of the Yorubas' says," Aged people who could not be carried away were left to perish. The doleful lamentations of parents who had lost their children and of thousands of widows and orphans were heart-rending. Bereft of everything in such a hasty and sudden flight, they were reduced to abject misery and poverty among strangers and could only support life by doing menial work, by procuring firewood or leaves for sale and such like "(Page 201) Finally, the Yoruba civil wars made British intervention in Yoruba affairs inevitable in the interest of British Commerce. It was to put an end to the futile civil strife and ensure the free flow of legitimate trade from the hinterland to Lagos that the British Lagos administration intervened in Yoruba politics. The establish- ment of a British garrison at Ilaro in 1890, the punitive expedition against Ijebu in 1892 and the treaties with Abeokuta, the Alafin of Oyo and Ibadan in 1893 in effect converted Yorubaland into a British protectorate. British intervention never theless benefited both Britain and Yorubaland. It restored peace to Yorubaland after nearly a century of destructive civil wars. Trade began to flow once again from the hinterland to the coast to the mutual benefit of European and African traders and Lagos as the chief port of Yorubaland began to prosper more than ever before.
ORIGINALLY WRITTEN BY FREEVIBES
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