Ofinran was a 16th-century

king King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...

of the

Oyo Empire The Oyo Empire was a powerful Yoruba empire of West Africa made up of parts of present-day eastern Benin and western Nigeria (including Southwest zone and the western half of Northcentral zone). It grew to become the largest Yoruba language, ...

West Africa West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Maurit ...

who succeeded Onigbogi as

Alaafin Alaafin, or ''The Owner of the Palace'' in the Yoruba language, is the title of the emperor of the medieval Oyo empire and present-day Oyo town of West Africa. He ruled the old Oyo Empire which extended from the present day Benin republic to Ni ...

after the latter had left for exile in

Borgu Borgu is a region in north-west Nigeria and in the northern Republic of Benin. It was partitioned between Great Britain and France by the Anglo-French Convention of 1898. People of Borgu are known as Bariba or Borgawa. History According to the ...

with a few other

Yorubas The Yoruba people (, , ) are a West African ethnic group that mainly inhabit parts of Nigeria, Benin, and Togo. The areas of these countries primarily inhabited by Yoruba are often collectively referred to as Yorubaland. The Yoruba constitute ...

from Oyo. Ofinran was then made king in a foreign land and joined his host in expeditions around the

Niger River The Niger River ( ; ) is the main river of West Africa, extending about . Its drainage basin is in area. Its source is in the Guinea Highlands in south-eastern Guinea near the Sierra Leone border. It runs in a crescent shape through ...

and the two communities co-existed. However, the favorable treatment of the Oyos in Borgu was short-lived. Hostilities soon emerged and Ofinran and his men decided to leave for a town called Kusu. In the process of their ill luck of being driven away from their original homes, they may have believed their problems was due to the unfavorable disposition they originally had towards the Ifá deity. While in Kusu they embraced the

Ifá Ifá is a Yoruba religion and system of divination. Its literary corpus is the ''Odu Ifá''. Orunmila is identified as the Grand Priest, as he revealed divinity and prophecy to the world. Babalawos or Iyanifas use either the divining chain kno ...

divinity and called for a man named Alado to initiate the Alafin and his subjects in order to wade away any ill wind related to their original rejection of Ifá. Also, according to Oyo fables, it was during this period that the

Egungun Egungun, (''egúngún'' with Yorùbá language tone marks) in the broadest sense is any Yoruba masquerade or masked, costumed figure. More specifically, it is a Yoruba masquerade for ancestor reverence, or the ancestors themselves as a collectiv ...

festivities also emerged in Yoruba land. It was thought that the Egungun priest followed the Yorubas from Borgu into Kusu. Ofinran later died and was buried in a palace in Saki.

References

Alaafins of Oyo Oyo Empire Yoruba mythology 16th-century monarchs in Africa 16th-century Nigerian people {{Africa-royal-stub