Renowned Nigerian author, Reno Omokri has shared his views about the influence of the people of Yoruba on the Bible.
He shared this on his Instagram handle and it reads;
“The Ijebu, The Yoruba and Their Influence on The Bible and Judaism (conclusion)
By Reno Omokri
Now, I have used the word, Yoruba, to describe the Omo Oduduwa as distinct from the Jebu or Ijebu. But ask any Yoruba elder for the meaning of Yoruba and they have no clue. The truth is that before the British came, there was NOTHING like Yoruba.
You were either Egba, Owu, Ijesha, Awori, etc. You will not find any document bearing the word Yoruba from the 18th century. The omo Oduduwa now called Yoruba used to call themselves omooluabi.
The word Yoruba actually comes from the word Yar’Iba. It is a Fulani word dating from the days of slavery. If you read the memoirs of Bishop Samual Ajayi Crowther, he did not refer to himself as Yoruba.
In his memoirs, Ajayi Crowther revealed that he was raided from his village in Osogun (in present day Oyo state) by Fulani slave raiders (different from slave traders).
The Fulani were notorious for raiding tribes of the lower Niger. They called the Igbo Yar’Miri, which is a derogatory name that they still call them in the North (Nyamiri). The Yorubas they called Yar’Iba. I know the meaning of that word and it is so derogatory that I will not reveal it here.
It was the British, who in search of an ethnic identity for the Omo Oduduwa, took the derogatory word Yar’iba, and mispronounced it as Yoruba.
The actual name for the Yoruba or the Omo Oduduwa, is omoluabi, which is a word that evolved from omo-ti-olu-iwa-bi, meaning the child that the lord of character begat.
Many people, including many modern day Yoruba speakers, think that Oluwa means Lord. No it does not. Oluwa connotes Lord, but it does not mean just lord. It means Lord of Iwa, meaning character, or good morals.
Now what is the origin of omo-ti-olu-iwa-bi? Many, myself included, think It goes back to the origin of Adam, the child that had no mother or father but was begotten by the Lord as we read in Genesis 2, which itself agrees with the folkloric origins of Oduduwa’s ancestral line through Lamurudu.
I know that these revelations may be shocking and could even seem like heresy to some of my readers, but I urge everyone who has read this to research it.”
Source: ghgossip.com
