Battle of Ogbomosho

Battle of Ogbomosho
Date	1830s
Location	Ogbomosho
Result	Decisive Fulani Victory
Belligerents
Ilorin Emirate	Yoruba Allied Forces
Commanders and leaders
Alimi & Chief Solagberu	Toyeje Baale of Ogbomosho
Strength
Unknown	Unknown
Casualties and losses
Unknown	Unknown

The Battle of Ogbomosho was a battle between the Ilorin Emirate of the Sokoto Caliphate and the Yoruba Oyo Empire in modern day Ogele. This battle was narrated, and written down by the accredited Yoruba historian, Samuel Johnson in the book The History of the Yorubas.

Background

The tragic end of Afonja the Kakanfo by the hands of his Jamas has long been anticipated by thoughtful men who deprecated their information, and had predicted the worst for the nation when slaves became masters. The death of the Kakanfo struck the nation with such awe and bewilderment that it took the people a whole year to bring them back to their right mind. Seeing the whole faith of the nation was trembling in the balances it were, all the people united to avenge the death of Afonja, while in the meantime, the crafty Fulani had been strengthening itself for the conflict. He had studied the yorubas and knew how to circumvent them. Toyeje the Baale of Ogbomosho and the commander of the late Kakanfo's right, was promoted to the post of Kakanfo and the whole nation was united under his standard to expel the Fulanis from Ilorin. They encamped at a place called Ogele, where they were met by the Fulani horse aided by a powerful Yoruba moslem chief Solagberu of Oke Suna. Another fatal mistake of Solagberu's. A sanguinary battle was fought in which the Fulanis were victorious. They routed the Yorubas and followed up their victory, which resulted in desertion or destruction of many great towns in Ibolo province.^[1] The only important towns left in that part were Ofa, Igbomina, Ilemona, Erin and a few others. The refugees could only carry away such of their personal effects which could be snatched away in a hasty flight, as the Fulani horse kept hovering in their rear. They found temporary refuge in any walled town where a powerful chief happened to be there, maybe, to await another siege by the conqueror. The distress caused by the calamity cannot be described. Aged people who could not be carried were left to perish. The doleful lamentations of parents who had lost their children and of thousands of widows and orphans were heartbreaking.^[2] Bereft of everything, without money or anything that could be converted into money in such 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.^[3]

References

^ Johnson, Samuel (1956). The History of the Yorubas: From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the British Protectorate. C.M.S. (Nigeria) Bookshops.
^ Johnson, Samuel (2010). Johnson, Obadiah (ed.). The History of the Yorubas: From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the British Protectorate. Cambridge Library Collection - African Studies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-108-02099-2.
^ The History of the Yorubas

[1] Johnson, Samuel (1956). The History of the Yorubas: From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the British Protectorate. C.M.S. (Nigeria) Bookshops.

[2] Johnson, Samuel (2010). Johnson, Obadiah (ed.). The History of the Yorubas: From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the British Protectorate. Cambridge Library Collection - African Studies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-108-02099-2.

[one-3] The History of the Yorubas

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