Ooni of Ife

Who he is

Name

Not known (see the realm record: the king lists cannot be dated; the ooni of 1200 is somewhere between Oduduwa's first successors and the generation of Oranmiyan, depending on the chronology)

Title

Ooni of Ife

Since

not pinned

Family

The house of Oduduwa in the tradition

Confidence

low

What it holds

• Ile-Ife inside its first wall
• the farm villages round it
• the shrines of the creation traditions
• the Igbo Olokun glass works

How it was acquired

By descent within the house of Oduduwa (tradition).

Allies and rivals

The Yoruba kings who claim Ife descent; Benin, whose elders in tradition asked Ife for a prince; the older Obatala lineages in the town; the 'Igbo' raiders of the Moremi story (undated).

How things stand that morning

Holds the town; no dated event.

Wealth

Glass beads, sculpture, cloth, iron, farming, shrine offerings, and the northern trade in copper and salt.

Military

No army described; the town wall.

Threats

• Factional strife between royal and older lineages

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

1. 1200No dated event.Depends on: Not applicable Stopped by: Not applicable

Where the sources disagree

• The order Obalufon Ogbogbodirin, Obalufon Alayemore, Oranmiyan, Obalufon Alayemore again, Ayetise differs between the published lists.

Evidence: Undated king lists and art-historical datings.

On the map: The extent of the ooni's villages is estimated.

Primary sources for Ife

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

• Ife, Benin, Nri, the Yoruba towns and the Akan: archaeology and recorded tradition (no contemporary text; traditions written down from the 1890s). No text of any kind exists for the forest belt in 1200.