Most people may not be aware that the oldest fossil remains in Nigeria - some have argued that they were actually the oldest in West Africa - were found by archaeologists in the southwestern area of Iwo Eleru, near Akure, they were dated to about 9000 BCE (The History of Western Africa by Amy McKenna, page 173). This is about 10,000 years before the birth of Jesus.
Microliths which are stone tools indicative of the Late Stone Age humans have also been found in Mejiro Cave, near old Oyo, Rock Shelter on the Jos Plateau, Ukpa Rock shelter near Afikpo, Kursakata, Daima, Mege and Ndufu. None was found in Benin. This shows that these areas were populated long before Benin. The Late Stone Age population of the areas mentioned above were cattle keepers and growers of sorghum (guinea corn). They had pottery and they sourced their stones from areas afar for production of ground stone axes and grinding stones for food production. They were engaged in the production of small fired clay models of animals and sometimes human beings depicting prehistoric arts. They buried their dead in crouched position closed to the settlement. This civilisation has an antiquity of 3000 years [ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE NIGERIAN REGION, 2007, Centre for Distance Learning, University of Maiduguri, pp. 2-3]. This also reveals that Yoruba and some other places in Nigeria had close to 3000 years of Late Stone Age civilizations which predate the existence of Benin.
Fast forward to the years of the common era, I am going to cite a scholarly journal article to support my assertion, mind you, these are researched findings by scientists and not some empty boasts of a misguided Palace orator or semi-illiterate historians.
"The regional impacts of Ile-Ife on the development of social complexity, especially the adoption of divine kingship, in the savanna and rainforest belts are far better understood than the processes of its own development. Recent archaeological studies in southwest Nigeria were aimed at accounting for the patterns of contacts and cultural historical relationships that culminated in the proliferation of Ife ceramics and iconographies after the thirteenth century in Yoruba-Edo region (Ogundiran, 2001, 2003; also see Eyo, 1974b). The occurrence of the Ife ceramic stylistic grammar in different parts of the Yoruba-Edo region, starting about
two centuries after they first appeared in Ile-Ife, suggests the primacy of Ile-Ife in regional interactions between A.D. 1000 and 1500." ['Four Millennia of Cultural History in Nigeria (ca. 2000 B.C.–A.D. 1900): Archaeological Perspectives.' Journal of World Prehistory, (2005) 19:150] This science supports to a significant extent the other claim that Edo is likely to be an offshoot of Yoruba or that their monarchy was derived from Yoruba monarchy instead of the other way round.
This findings above support my claim that Benin monarchy could be traced to Ile-Ife and not the other way round.
We can safely imply from this scientific evidence that Yoruba land had homo sapien (modern man) thousands of years before the existence of Benin or any other places in Nigeria; this is not ego-tripping, the facts and records are there.
What is the place of Benin in this scientific history? How can Benin be the origin of the Yoruba when science shows that the earliest human fossil remains were discovered in Yoruba land?
Anyone can come up to make any claim to serve tribal or political interest; however, opinions are free but facts are sacred.
Written by Olu Adegoke
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