Osifekunde of Ijebu (born circa 1795) was an Ijebu man whose documented narrative, as a victim of The Trans Atlantic Slave Trade, serves as one of the earliest Western records of

Yoruba 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 ...

land.

Early life

Osifekunde was from Epe,

Ijebu Ode Ijebu-Ode is a town in Ogun State, South Western geopolitical zone in Nigeria, close to the A121 highway. The city is located 110 km by road north-east of Lagos; it is within of the Atlantic Ocean in the eastern part of Ogun State and p ...

but was born in Makun, a suburb of

Sagamu Sagamu or Ishagamu is a conglomeration of thirteen towns located in Ogun State along the Ibu River and Eruwuru Stream between Lagos State, Lagos and Ibadan, founded in the mid 19th century by members of the Remo branch of the Yoruba people in ...

in about 1795. His father was Adde Sonlou, an Ijebu warrior who fled Makun as a result of a skirmish resulting in the death of another warrior. In addition to time in Epe as a result of his father Sonlou's asylum, Osifekunde spent time in the Kingdom of Benin. Osifekunde's grandfather was Ochi-Wo who held the office of Ladeke.

Victim of the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade

Osifekunde was about 20 years old (approximately 1810) when

Ijaw Ijaw may refer to: *Ijaw people *Ijaw languages The Izon languages (), otherwise known as the Ịjọ languages, are the languages spoken by the Izon people in southern Nigeria. Classification The Ijo languages were traditionally considered a ...

pirates captured him in the

Niger Delta The Niger Delta is the delta of the Niger River sitting directly on the Gulf of Guinea on the Atlantic Ocean in Nigeria. It is located within nine coastal southern Nigerian states, which include: all six states from the South South geopolitical ...

lagoon and sold him to Brazilian slave merchants.

Meeting with Pascal d'Avezac-Macaya in Paris

About 20 years after Osifekunde was forcibly transferred to

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

, he accompanied his master (one Mr. Navarre) to

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

where he was employed as a servant and went by the names 'Joaquim' and 'Joseph'. In Paris he happened upon Pascal d'Avezac-Macaya, an ethnographer and vice-president of the

Société Ethnologique de Paris The Société Ethnologique de Paris was a French learned society set up by William Frédéric Edwards in 1839.West Africa Squadron The West Africa Squadron, also known as the Preventative Squadron, was a squadron of the British Royal Navy whose goal was to suppress the Atlantic slave trade by patrolling the coast of West Africa. Formed in 1808 after the British Parliame ...

) but Osifekunde didn't take the offer and according to P.C. Lloyd "preferred servitude under his former master in Brazil, where he could be with his own son". There are no accounts of Osifekunde after his chance encounter with Pascal d'Avezac-Macaya. Seemingly frustrated by the transient nature of his encounter with Osifekunde, Pascal d'Avezac-Macay wrote:

Let me bring these disconnected pages to a close, a hasty collection of incomplete data drawn from an unexpected source sifekundeand one that too soon became silent. Especially during my work of coordination I have become conscious of many important gaps that remain to be filled; but I no longer have Osifekunde to answer my questions, and I can only offer the results of our long and often fruitless conversations.

References

{{Authority control 1795 births People from Sagamu 18th-century Nigerian people 19th-century Nigerian people African slave trade Ijebu Kingdom Yoruba history People who wrote slave narratives Yoruba slaves Nigerian expatriates in France Nigerian emigrants to Brazil Year of death unknown Brazilian people of Yoruba descent Brazilian slaves 19th-century slaves