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9.1a Alabi, Abdurahman Kola. Adifa Community in Ilorin: Historical Notes. Self-published, c. 1990. Contains references to slaves, including treatment of slaves and children of slaves; and individual slaves, e.g., Balogun Afin. Transcript of text, accompanying notes by Ann O’Hear.

[Note: The founder of the Adifa Community was Daniyalu, a son of Alimi, but not one of the two who successively became emirs and founded the two ruling houses of Ilorin. The descendants of Daniyalu form a royal, but non-ruling, house.]

p. 6. [Note: reference is made to Daniyalu’s “famous descendants like Saidu, the first Shiaba of Ejidogari, Ahmadu Sauta (Kyauta), the first son of Saidu . . . [and] Sauta’s first son called Jima (Mohd. Jimoh).]

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p. 12. Before the arrival of Daniyalu at the location now known as Ile Sauta, Adifa, some settlers like one Aliyu (Fulani Tapa) . . . had been living there . . .

Alfa Aliyu . . was the Quranic teacher of one Ahmadu . . . On arrival, Daniyalu took over Ahmadu as his slave and sent him to Tanke to look after his farms . . .

p. 13. Mallam Daniyalu was the fourth male child of Shehu Alimi . . .

p. 15.  . . . Daniyalu was first apportioned the area known as Adifa between 1869 and 1891 . . .

Portions of land were similarly allocated to Daniyalu’s senior brothers . . . All the locations surround the Emir’s Palace, and their descendants have since been residing therein thenceforth to date.

. . . .

ORAL STATEMENTS BY AN ILORIN ELDER

According to one Alhaji Abdulkadiri Baba Agba Adedo of Ojagboro, Ilorin:-

. . . .

Oko Soge and Ajiya Saka-Saka were slaves who used to follow Daniyalu during Sallah or War.

Some of Daniyalu’s slaves moved to the present Tanke village in Ilorin.

. . . .

The slaves in those days used to be “Baba Kekere” (Junior D.H.).

. . . .

p. 16. [Note: statements from the elder continued.] Alao Omoolomi, Alabi Akobata and Umaru Sanda, who were Emir’s slaves, were separately apportioned houses at Ile Omooloni [sic], Ile Akobata and Ile Sanda respectively in Adifa Community by Emir Aliyu (1869-1891) . . .

Ile Soge (Apalando) was originated by people from Offa.

It was during the reign of Emir Sulimanu (Oba Sule), after the arrival of the British, that going to the districts as District Heads became imperative (1907) . . . In Adifa, Saidu was the first D.H. to go to Ejidogari.

When Saidu (Shiaba) became too old as the D.H. Ejidogari, his eldest son, Amodu Sauta, had to go and replace him there . . .

[Note:The testimony of the Ilorin elder identifies Umaru Sanda as an Emir’s slave. However, all the other material in this book identifies him as the son of Daniyalu. Other sources confirm this. The elder may have conflated this Umaru Sanda with another Umaru Sanda who was indeed a member of a group of former Emir’s slaves or their descendants who acted as baba kekere (intermediaries) and were involved in a major political crisis in Ilorin in 1936.]

p. 17.  . . . during installation of any of the District Heads of Ejidogari in Ilorin, a Fulani dance called “Ijo Olomo-Oba,” by [a] group of mostly elderly females, was always conspicuously displayed at Adifa compound. They often sing thus: “E ka lo Adifa ni le Daniyalu t’eru ti ndi omo-oba,” meaning “come to Adifa, Daniyalu’s compound w[h]ere the Slaves becomes a Prince,” referring to the non-discriminatory treat[ment]s given to princes and slaves by Daniyalu.

[Note: For suggested interpretations of this “non-discriminatory” treatment of slaves, see Ann O’Hear, 2.4b(ii) in this Archive, “Yoruba/Caliphate Society: Proverbs and Praise Poems,” Conference on Tales of Slavery: Narratives of Slavery, the Slave Trade, and Enslavement in Africa, University of Toronto, 2009.]

p. 22. CHAPTER FIVE.

EARLY SETTLERS AND THEIR DESCENDANTS IN ADIFA

[Note: Umaru (Humaru) Sanda is here listed as the second of Daniyalu’s children, and Saidu (Shiaba) is identified as the eldest of Umaru Sanda’s 21 children.]

p. 43.  CHAPTER TEN

MYTHICAL NOTES ON SOME OF THE EARLY SETTLERS

[Note: The expression “mythical notes” should probably be interpreted as “traditions.”]

1.ALFA DANIYALU . . .

The fourth male child of . . . Alimi . . . Daniyalu grew up to become a reknown Islamic Mallam . . . During the various wars and military expeditions . . . Daniyalu never went anywhere himself . . . he used to send his warriors like Oke Soge, Ajia Saka-Saka . . . When in 1861 the throne of the Emir of Ilorin became vacant . . . Daniyalu was denied the opportunity of becoming an Emir by the . . . Balogun Aafin . . . the king maker that installed Zubeiru . . . Daniyalu was said to have [told] the new Emir . . . : “You did not contest the rulership of Ilorin with me, it was Balogun Aafin who install you”. . . Daniyalu was said to have then cursed . . . Balogun Aafin thus: “But so far as Alfa Alimi was the one who born me, people will ask for the house of Balogun Aafin . . . and there will be no trace of it. Infact, the house shall turn to a market place.”

At that time Balogun Afin’s compound was adjacent to that of Magajin Gari. The house/compound was in no time consumed by the then Emir’s market . . . there is no trace either of the Balogun Aafin or his house any where again in Ilorin ever since.

[Note: Balogun Afin is the title of a major Emir’s slave.]

. . . .

2.UMARU SANDA . . .

Mallam Umaru Sanda was the second son of Alfa Daniyalu . . . He was the second Daudu Adifa . . . His administrative capability and love for peaceful co-existence led to his being sent . . . by the then Emir of Ilorin to the Emir of Bida on a reconciliatory mission . . . [Note: further details of this mission are given on p. 44.]

p. 44. 3.SAIDI: The first male child of Mallam Umaru Sanda[,] Saidu was the first Daudu Adifa appointed and sent as District-Head of Ejidogari in 1907 . . .

4.AMODU KYAUTA (AHMADU SAUTA). . .

. . . the second D.H. of Ejidogari,  he made more friends than enemies by his lifestyle . . . he was famous and loved by many . . . thro’ his rather extravagant generousity. . .

. . . .

p. 45.  Yet, it was said that amids[t] his merry-making activities, Sauta made sure he initiated all his children and even children of his brothers as well as those of friends or slaves into Western education . . .

. . . .

5.JIMA (MOH. JIMOH) . . .

. . . .

. . . Moh. Jimoh, the first son of Ahmadu Sauta, was . . . a carbon copy of his father . . .  especially as the 4th Daudu Adifa and District Head of Ejidogari.

. . . .

p. 47. . . . like his father Sauta, Moh. Jimoh initiated a number of children in and around Ejidogari into Western education as far back as 1946 . . . Jimoh made sure a number of school-age children were being taught how to read and write “in the verender of his house at Ejidogari, pending completion of a two-classroom elementary school then under construction.” [Note: no source given] Among the children he initiated were his brother . . . , children of his bodyguards and other settlers in Ejidogari . . .

[Note:It may reasonably be inferred, from the foregoing text on Sauta and Moh. Jimoh, that the “bodyguards” referred to were ex-slaves or their descendants.]

p. 48. . . .

QUOTABLE QUOTES IN 50 YEARS, KNOWN BETWEEN 1940 AND 1990

. . . .

Omo omo Alimi ti mbe l’Adifa

Omo omo Alimi ti mbe l’Adifa

Umoru Sanda omo Daniyalu,

Omo omo Alimi ti mbe l’Adifa.

. . . ./

p. 49.

. . . .

BY ALHAJI LABAIKA ONI WAKA, ILORIN.

[Note: on p. 48, the author of this work identifies his own connection with the Daniyalu community: his mother was the first child of Moh. Jimoh.]

[Note: in a genealogical tree on p. 51, Umoru (Umaru) Sanda is once again identified as a son of Daniyalu.]

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