Greetings!
One thing that has been keeping the human way of life which is our cultural heritage is history. Without history, so many things would have gone into extinction. But for the existence of history, life continues and we humans are able to pass across to even the unborn generations our traditions and cultures.
Having said this, I would like to share with us a history of how the Yorubas’ lost Ilorin to the Hausa/Fulani.
In history, we were told that the Yorubas, in the south western part of Nigeria, were the predominant occupants of the city, but because of something that went wrong between the then Alaafin who happened to be the monarch of the ancient Oyo empire and the generalissimo of the empire, we were told that the generalissimo conspired with the fulani soldiers and was later betrayed by them and that's how the city was taken from the Yorubas the rightful occupant.
However, in all that was being said about the two ethnic groups in Nigeria, one would know that it's a one sided story which is meant for both the victor and the vanquish.
I know people would wonder why I refer to this particular history as a one sided history when I say it's meant for both the victor and the vanquish.
Well, my reference to was because both parties told us stories that favoured them and with this I believe both have tampered with the true stories, with one party trying to make us believe the reason they betray and hijacked the city from the other party and also, the other party trying to play an emotional game as to why they were betrayed and chased out of their formal occupied city.
So, with this short history and with what transpired between the victor and the other side, I have come to realize that history is not always correct and that both parties are always working hard to give a favorable account of their own part of the story which has become history.
Recently, there's been a tug of verbal war between two foremost traditional rulers in the south western part of Nigeria which is predominantly occupied by the Yoruba people who are believed to be the descendants of their progenitor in the person of the legendary Oduduwa.
Both monarchs who were in this tug of war were claiming superiority based on what history presented to them which might have been tampered with as I too have heard of the two conflicting histories which I didn't really know which and which not to believe in.
However, not all histories are tampered with as there are still true histories out there, but in most cases, histories are always tempered by the parties involved so as to make the readers or listeners to believe in their own side of the story, just to tell the world that they are the one that have done the right thing.
In conclusion, history is good as it has really helped us to preserve our culture and identity as people, but at the same time, it can be tampered with to favour the victor and denigrate the vanquished.
This is my entry to week 187, edition 02 of the weekly Featured contest in the Hive Learners community.
Thanks for reading.
Picture is Ai generated.