Ooni of Ife urges Africans to write their history to correct distortions and false narratives
The Ooni of Ife, His Imperial Majesty Oba Enitan Ogunwusi Ojaja II, has called on Africans to begin writing the history of their race and people to correct erroneous impressions and distortions created by foreign writers. According to the monarch, this step is necessary to end the activities of individuals deliberately misrepresenting the facts about the history of the black race.
The Ooni made this call during the launch of a book titled “Ile-Ife: Cradle of the world,” written by Dr Maureen Tamuno, Nigeria’s High Commissioner to Jamaica and Belize, held in Lagos on Tuesday. The monarch stated that works like the book are essential in correcting the many errors being peddled about the black race, such as some people who have only one dynasty claiming to be older than Ile-Ife, which has three dynasties and is thousands of years old.
The Jamaican High Commissioner to Nigeria, His Excellency Esmond Reid, also spoke at the event and opined that only black people were in a position to tell their stories better. He urged black people to write their history themselves to stop false narratives about their history.
Tamuno, the author of the book, said she wrote the book after her appointment as an ambassador, where she discovered linkages between Ile-Ife and the Caribbean and black people in the Diaspora. She added that people from the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and other places traced their roots to Yorubaland and affirmed that Ife is the cradle of civilization.
The reviewer of the book, Prof. Siyan Oyeweso, said the book was the first coffee book on a city in the Southwest of Nigeria and challenged others to write their own. He also stated that the importance of Ile-Ife to Yoruba culture cannot be overemphasized, and an international conference on the ancient town has been scheduled for October this year.
The launch of the book was attended by dignitaries from within and outside the country, including envoys from India, Taiwan, Jamaica, the Asiwaju of Ife, Dr. Alex Duduyemi, and other prominent Ife sons and daughters.
Source: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2023/05/why-africans-need-to-write-their-own-history-ooni/
