Political Institutions of the Oyo Empire

I. Introduction

Precolonial West Africa is a region that seems to be somewhat neglected by historians, and is certainly never discussed in American education.  This leads to most not knowing much of anything about West Africa, and those that are aware of the region tend to think of the political instability that characterizes the region in the modern era.  Historical discussions regarding the region are usually limited to European interactions with West African societies from the age of the Atlantic Slave Trade through colonial occupation.  These discussions usually do not mention the empires and sophisticated states that existed in the region before European colonization.  These states not only had considerable influence over the global economy for a period of time, but also constructed state systems that are entirely unique from traditional Western conceptions of a “state.”  The political institutions of many of these precolonial states resemble some of the institutions outlined by the United States Constitution.  These institutions are generally viewed as being invented by the writers of the Constitution, but evidence suggests that many of these same institutions were constructed in West African states before American independence.  That is to say, West African states are not given the credit they deserve for the complex and sophisticated political institutions they developed.

The Oyo Empire was the most powerful and influential state in Yorubaland, a region of West Africa that is now split between the modern-day states of Nigeria and Benin.  The Oyo Empire began as a small state with very little influence beyond its borders.  The Alafins, the title given to the head of state in Oyo, were able to use trading relationships to increase the state’s influence and military capability.  Over time, the state conquered nearby states in Yorubaland to eventually form an empire.  The empire was at the height of its power in the late 17th and early 18th century, when it controlled much of the territory that constitutes Yorubaland.1

The Oyo Empire is a useful case study because the size of the empire necessitated the formation of complex political institutions to ensure that the empire remained the dominant state in the region while also resisting any potential European expansion beyond the coast.  As this collection will outline, the government of the empire cannot be reduced purely to a monarchy as this would be very misleading.  While the Alafin of Oyo was the head of state chosen in a hereditary manner, the state still contained sophisticated political institutions that dealt with legislative, executive, and judicial issues.  A complex system of taxation was also developed in which the Alafin would be able to fund projects in exchange for granting many of the communities in the empire with significant internal autonomy.  This arrangement is very similar to the conceptions of a federal government that were growing in popularity around the world during this time.  West African states are often not considered when discussing the origins of this system.

This collection of sources aims to address the question of how political leaders in the Oyo Empire structured their state to accomplish their strategic goals of maintaining a position of political and economic importance in the region.  The context of the Atlantic Slave Trade at the time is important to this research topic, but this collection seeks to move beyond this explanation.  The various political, religious, and cultural traditions of the region are also to be considered when attempting to understand the motivations behind the construction of these political institutions in the case of the Oyo Empire.

II. Methodology

The idea for this collection came from a combination of my personal interests in politics and African history.  I was specifically inspired by other courses I had taken on African history and African culture that exposed me to the cultural traditions of West Africa.  During the brainstorming process for this collection, I chose to narrow my focus to political institutions and state formation because this was a topic that I had a personal interest in and a topic that I had taken courses on in the past as well.  I began by broadly researching the largest and most powerful states in West Africa, with a particular focus on the scope and depth of sources that discussed political institutions in these states.  Some other possible states that I considered for this collection were the Sokoto Caliphate and Kingdom of Benin.  I eventually decided on the Oyo Empire because it existed in a region I was interested in studying and there were far more resources available on the empire in comparison to other West African states from the time period.

I began my research with the online collection of sources available through the ZSR library at Wake Forest University.  The first search I made was for any sources that contained information on both the Oyo Empire and politics.  This seemed to be a natural, but broad, point of departure for researching the topic of political institutions and structure within the empire.  The search returned a fair amount of results that I was able to initially browse through and note which sources may be of interest for this collection.  Upon briefly reading through parts of these sources, I noticed that many of the sources emphasized the economic context of the Oyo Empire.  This inspired my next search, which was for any sources that contained information on both the Oyo Empire and economics.  Once again, this was a relatively broad search that returned a fair amount of sources that could be included in this collection.  I attempted to narrow this search and the previous search related to politics, however any narrower search attempts returned too few sources to be specifically mentioned in this section.

My next step was to search for primary sources, as all of the sources I found through an initial search of the ZSR library database were secondary sources.  Thankfully, I had many databases at my disposal that contained primary sources on African history.  I began with the Church Missionary Society database, but was unable to find any relevant sources related to the Oyo Empire on the database.  While there were some mentions of Oyo, I did not think that these sources would be helpful for my specific research on the political institutions of the empire.  I then examined several databases that had archived African newspaper publications since 1800, however this date range made it difficult to find anything relevant for this collection.  Finally, I searched through the Empire Online database of primary sources and was able to find some useful primary sources.  These sources were all written accounts from Christian missionaries to West Africa, and I was unable to find any relevant primary sources from African authors.  All in all, finding primary sources on the Oyo Empire proved to be a real challenge as there is very little written history on the empire itself.

As I was searching for sources through the ZSR library website, I noticed one source that could be useful was only available as a physical book in the library.  I located the section where the book was stored, and actually found several other books in the same section that discussed the Oyo Empire and Yorubaland.  I used the index section of these books to determine if the Oyo Empire was specifically mentioned.  Many of these books not only included information on the Oyo Empire, but they also contained entire chapters dedicated to political institutions in both Yorubaland broadly and, in some instances, within the Oyo Empire specifically.

One final strategy I used for gathering sources was looking through the citations of the sources I had already found.  This revealed additional sources that filled in some of the larger gaps in information I had yet to address up to this point.  I was hoping that this strategy would produce more primary sources for this collection, but unfortunately I was only able to find secondary sources using this method.

In many ways, the research process for this collection is reflective of the overall discipline of African history.  There were a decent amount of secondary sources available, but there were still far fewer sources than one would expect given that the Oyo Empire is widely regarded as the most powerful and influential pre-colonial empire in Yorubaland.  The difficulty of locating primary sources is also indicative of many of the challenges that African historians face when completing research.  When I was able to find a primary source, the information within the source was still not entirely comprehensive and required information from other sources to be fully digestible.  Another layer of complexity is added when one considers that all of the primary sources I was able to locate were written records from European authors.  This means that the sources have to be approached critically with the understanding that some of the information may be misleading or inaccurate.  Once again, this is a common issue that African historians face when completing research on specific topics such as the one this collection seeks to address.

III. Curated Collection

Fadipẹ, N. A. The Sociology of the Yoruba. Ibadan: University Press, 1970.

Fadipe’s book on the social life of Yoruba people analyzes systems of kinship, economic organization, and political organization within the various Yoruba states.  The book is a compilation of Fadipe’s extensive research that was published posthumously by editors at the University of Ibadan in Nigeria.  Nearly all of the chapters in this book are relevant to the broader topic of this collection, but I found that the chapter entitled “Political Organisation” was the most applicable.  This chapter analyzes Yoruba political institutions and governance structures that were observed across the region of Yorubaland.  While the chapter discusses these topics broadly, Fadipe makes several clear connections between the political institutions he observed and the political institutions of the Oyo Empire.  This allows for a deeper understanding of not only governance under the Oyo Empire, but also trends in governance throughout the region that reveal the influence of the governance structure of the Oyo Empire.  This source is also particularly important because it is an entirely African creation, which is somewhat unique among secondary sources on the Oyo Empire.  The book is the product of research done by an African scholar from the region who is more likely to understand particular nuances within Yoruba society that European scholars may not notice or fully understand.  This makes the source especially important within this collection as a different perspective is shared.

The functions of the state council, with the king either immediately at the head or in the background were legislative, judicial and executive.

Legislative.  The legislative functions of the council consisted chiefly of ad hoc orders, such as imposing prohibition on commercial intercourse between members of the state and those of some other community; or the issue of regulations which came under customary laws, such as a reaffirmation, at a time of unusual activity on the part of burglars, of what penalties awaited those caught, and the fixing of time within which anyone might venture to go out at night.  There was nothing like planned legislation.  Examples of legislative enactments of far-reaching constitutional importance are not, however, wholly lacking in Yoruba history.  One example was the ruling, following the death of a king on the battle-field, that the Alaafin should not lead a military expedition in person.  Another example, also from the Oyo monarchy, was the decision that the eldest son of the reigning king should not be required to put an end to his life on his father’s death as was, hitherto, the practice, but should be allowed to succeed him.  This was such a far-reaching constitutional change at the time that it resulted in a sanguinary civil war, which ended in the sack of the insurgent city of Ijaiye.  

Judicial.  The judicial functions of the council consisted of its being the highest tribunal in the country as well as the final court of appeal with the exception of the special prerogative of the king to grant pardon.  As a judicial body the council dealt with disputes between chiefs, between parties belonging to different wards (which thereby came under the jurisdiction of different chiefs), and with cases appealed from lower courts.  It also dealt with criminal cases or what might be called indictable offenses such as murder, treason, burglary, arson, unlawful wounding, manslaughter, incest, witchcraft and sorcery, and knowledge by women of the mystery of occult societies.

Executive.  The executive function of the council of state consisted of taking decisions on questions of policy relations between the capital and its offshoots and tributaries, and external relations.  Under external relations come questions of peace and war.  There were also questions of finance (whether to raise funds by special taxation); and public works (the clearing of paths and bush, the bridging of swollen streams, the building of town walls and moats, the building and repair of the king’s palace and the making of roads).

Not the least important of the executive functions of the state council was the religious duty of ensuring the health, public safety and prosperity of the community.  Public health and public welfare were the greatest concerns of the government, which promoted these goals through the medium of religion. 

Law, Robin. The Oyo Empire, c.1600-c.1836: A West African Imperialism in the Era of the Atlantic Slave Trade. Oxford Studies in African Affairs. Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press, 1977.

Law’s book is an extremely comprehensive account of the rise and fall of the Oyo Empire, and provides a great deal of information that is relevant to the subject of this collection. Within the chapter entitled “The Oyo Kingdom,” Law devotes significant attention to the government of the Oyo Empire.  He outlines the organization of the empire’s bureaucracy, foreign policy, judicial system, and tax codes within this chapter.  The information that Law provides in this book is very helpful for developing a deeper understanding of the sophisticated governance structures that existed within the empire.  The analysis of the expansion of the Oyo Empire that Law provides is also incredibly helpful for understanding the origins of these institutions.  Similarly, the section in the book on the collapse of the Oyo Empire contains evidence that allows for a better understanding of the shortcomings or flaws within these political institutions that compromised the overall stability of the empire.  Law states that the purpose of this book is to examine the Oyo Empire within the context of the expanding Atlantic Slave Trade, and how this development contributed to a process of political centralization.  While this collection seeks to emphasize African political trends and leaders, the context of the Atlantic Slave Trade is essential to a transparent account of the events that transpired in the Oyo Empire.  The process of political centralization and the development of political institutions in the Oyo Empire is inseparable from the broader global context of the time, making this source worthy of inclusion in this collection.

The chiefs and officials of the capital played an important role in the administration of the Oyo kingdom, as intermediaries between the provincial towns and the Alafin.  Johnson notes that ‘Every one of [the provincial oba] as well as every important Bale has an official at Oyo through whom he can communicate with the crown’.  The ‘officials’ here referred to were important title-holders of the capital, to whom the provincial towns were attached.  These Oyo chiefs were referred to by the people of the towns under them as baba (father), usually rendered by modern scholars as ‘patron’.  The patron chiefs served generally as spokesmen of their clients’ interests before the Alafin, and communicated their petitions to him.  They also transmitted their clients’ tribute to the Alafin at the annual Bere festival, and received back a share of it from him.  It has been suggested that the towns attached to a patron might be termed a ‘fief’.  This seems unexceptionable provided that it is realized that the Oyo ‘fiefs’ did not consist, as was usual in medieval Europe, of property in land, but merely of rights to a share of tribute.  Nor does it appear that the Oyo ‘fiefs’, like those of medieval Europe, were granted specifically and explicitly in return for a promise of military service by the fief-holder.

In the case of Egbado it was possible to trace a growth of effective royal control over the province, culminating in the establishment of a highly centralized administration staffed by the Alafin’s palace slaves.  It is less easy to trace any similar process of centralization in the older provinces of the kingdom, but there are grounds for suggesting that in these too the imperial period saw a progressive growth of royal power.

In other, smaller Yoruba kingdoms, it appears that the administration of subject towns was normally left entirely to the chiefs of the capital, to whom the subject towns were attached as clients.  Such a system of ‘fiefs’ also existed, as has been seen, in the Oyo kingdom, and it seems likely that this was the original mechanism by which the Oyo kingdom was administered.  However, in Oyo the Alafin was able to establish closer royal control over the provinces, by three means, all of which involved the use of his palace slaves.  First, many important ‘fiefs’ were granted to the senior palace officials rather than to the non-royal chiefs of the capital: whether this was effected by a transfer of towns from the latter to the former, or merely by assigning newly conquered towns to the palace officials, is not certain.  Second, the baba kekere were introduced, in order to establish royal control over the relations between the fief-holders and their client towns.  And third, the ajele were placed in the provincial towns as the Alafin’s permanent representatives, thus dispensing altogether with the need to depend on the chiefs of the capital for communication with the provinces.  In the older provinces this process of centralization does not seem to have been carried further, but in the two provinces which were organized latest the role of the palace slaves was even more important.  Thus, in the Igbomina province, there is evidence suggesting that the Alafin’s agents were responsible for collecting local taxes; while in Egbado, not only did the palace slaves take over local tax collection, but an ajele in effect became the provincial head.

“Letters from the Front.” Church Missionary Society, 1911. https://www-empire-amdigital-co-uk.wake.idm.oclc.org/Documents/Detail/letters-from-the-front/1516641?item=4022430.

This primary source is an account of the ceremony in which a new Alafin is crowned in the Oyo Empire.  “Alafin” is the title given to the individual leader of the Oyo Empire, and is an individual of considerable importance and power in the region.  This source is from the archives of church mission activity in the region.  This source is a detailed account of the coronation of a new Alafin following the death of the previous Alafin.  The source discusses the traditional plan for succession, and how this was actually deviated from by elites in Oyo society.  The firsthand account of the coronation ceremony also reveals much about the governance structure of Oyo, in which individual states submitted to the rule of the Alafin.  This event also reveals the importance of tradition and spiritual beliefs in governance at the time.  This source is particularly important because it is one of the only primary sources on the Oyo Empire that is easily accessible without traveling to the region itself.  It is important to consider that this is a European source with a religious purpose for traveling to the region.  As a result, this source must be approached critically with the understanding that some of the details may not be accurately portrayed due to intentional or unintentional choices made by the authors.  That being said, the detailed account of the coronation ceremony does display the importance of the Alafin as an individual leader for both African communities in the region and for Europeans seeking to develop economic and political relations with West African communities.

The coronation of the Alafin of Oyo took place on the morning of May 11, 1911.  It will be remembered that his father, the late Alafin, died on January 6.  Although not entirely without precedent it was nevertheless contrary to the general customs of the town for an Aromo to succeed his father.  The ex-Aromo, the son of the late Alafin’s predecessor, who was living in exile at Ila, would have been elected if custom had been closely followed.

For several days previous to May 11, tributary kings and chiefs with their followers began to pour into the town, which now presented an unusually animated appearance.  On the morning of the 11th guns were fired to let people know when to leave their homes, and about half an hour afterwards a second volley was fired just as the District Commissioner arrived at the palace.  This was also the signal for the general populace to enter.

After this another important part of the proceedings began.  It was time now for the tributary kings and chiefs to do homage to their newly-crowned master.  The first to do this were the nine leading chiefs of Oyo.  The method of procedure was as follows.  From a considerable distance they ran or walked quickly to a certain spot about fifty yards in front of the Alafin.  They then prostrated themselves at full length and rolled over several times on the ground.  This done they got up and ran back, but appeared again and repeated the above performance.  This was done four times.

Two persons who attracted more than usual attention were the Bale of Ago Are and the Are Kakanfo Sepeteri, who inherit their titles as warriors.  Their waists were hung with numbers of charms, and leopard skins reaching down to their feet.  After prostrating and rolling in the usual way they danced with clubs in their hands to the beating of special drums.  Altogether they presented a fierce and warlike appearance.  Their object was to show the Alafin with what readiness they were willing to obey his orders.

The Oniware of Iware next came forward.  He was not well received because he once rebelled against the authority of the Alafin.  After him came the messengers of the Oni of Ife with a beaded staff from his hands.  The Oni is regarded with great reverence by the Yoruba people because his town is, according to their tradition, the cradle of their race.  The messengers placed the staff on the ground and an important person from the Alafin’s presence came forward.  Another brought a calabash of water which was poured on the ground in four places round the staff.  At the same time words were being uttered in a quiet undertone.  Kola nuts were then broken on the spot, the staff was taken to the Alafin, who returned it to the messengers. 

Osadola, Oluwaseun Samuel, and Oluwafunke Adeola Adeleye. “A Re-Assessment of Government and Political Institutions of Old Oyo Empire.” Quaestus, no. 16 (April 2020): 19–31.

This source provides the most detailed description of the political institutions in the Oyo Empire.  Descriptions of the role of the Alafin, appointed bureaucratic officials, and the judicial system are all contained in this source.  Unlike other sources, this source does not aim to analyze the political structures for their efficacy or relationship to modern conceptions of government, but rather seeks to provide a detailed summary of the various political institutions within the Oyo Empire.  The authors of this source specifically chose the Oyo Empire as the subject of their research because they wanted to better understand how colonial systems of government in Yorubaland were implemented, and the challenges faced by colonial rulers in the region due to a lack of understanding of the local political context.  One of the main points of emphasis in this source was the decentralized nature of the government of the Oyo Empire.  This is a theme that was apparent in many sources, but it was especially apparent in this source as the authors outlined the position and function of specific political institutions within the government.  Another point of emphasis that made this source intriguing was a discussion of the system of “checks and balances” that the authors observed in their research.  This term is almost universally associated with the construction of the American government, and this source shows that this sophisticated political concept existed in Africa prior to the American Constitution.

Before the advent of the British in Yorubaland, Yoruba kingdoms maintained an orderly and unified political system which is still in effect till today. A Yoruba kingdom (e.g., the Oyo kingdom) was made up of a headquarters (i.e., Olu-Ilu) and other local towns and villages. However, its political administration consisted of a central level and subordinate units. The central level was headed by the Oba (king) and assisted by a handful of chiefs and other political figures in the administration of the kingdom, while the subordinate units, headed by Baales, concentrated only on the administration of the towns and villages in the kingdom. Like the Oba, the Baale also had a group of chiefs that assisted him in his area of jurisdiction.

However, the Baale of each town and village is entitled to pay annual homage (isakole) to the Oba at the central level. Any erring Baale can be relieved of his post or sanctioned to certain punishment respective of his offence since all Baales were responsible to the Oba at the central level, but this must have the consent of some offices in the administration. The Yoruba political administration had a decentralized structure, i.e. power was constitutionally shared among all political levels/sections of the kingdom ranging from the highest to the lowest unit, unlike the Hausa political system which was highly centralized.

The Yoruba political administration was also based on the ultimate principle of 'check and balance' which implies that each of the administrative levels can check, challenge or nullify actions of other levels irrespective of their administrative hierarchy, for example, in the political system of the Oyo empire, the Oyomesi (the 7 hereditary kingmakers headed by Basorun) and the Are-Ona-Kakanfo (head of the army) acted as checks to the Alaafin who can be deposed by being presented an empty calabash or parrot's egg if found incompetent or guilty of impeachable crimes, for example, Are-Ona-Kakanfo Afonja, with the help of some of the Oyomesi, presented an empty calabash to Alaafin Aole signifying his rejection as the king which was to be followed by his suicide. However, it can be safely concluded that the Yoruba political system had a semblance to the modern federal system of government.

Of all the kingdoms and empires in Yorubaland, the Oyo political system was the most popular and outstanding as it was able to influence issues in other kingdoms like Ijebu, Ife, Dahomey (now the Republic of Benin) and so on.

Butcher, Charles, and Ryan Griffiths. “War, Interaction Capacity, and the Structures of State Systems.” International Theory 13, no. 2 (July 2021): 372–96. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1752971920000019.

This source is a theoretical study on state formation broadly that uses the Oyo Empire as a case study.  The study aims to understand how states construct systems in which there is an overarching institution that retains authority over an entire empire, while smaller administrative units still retain a great deal of internal autonomy.  While much of this source is a more broad argument about the process of state formation, the case study of the Oyo Empire outlines some important factors to consider when analyzing political structures and institutions within the empire.  The authors of the study focus on the social and economic context of the region to help explain why the Oyo Empire was structured in such a way as to provide many of the administrative units with a high degree of autonomy.  Additionally, the authors of the study relate the governance structure of the Oyo Empire to governance structures across West Africa.  This suggests that there are similar characteristics across West African societies that influenced the decision to implement a specific political structure.  The authors devote attention to the ways in which the Oyo Empire’s political institutions allowed elites in Oyo society to pursue specific strategic goals related to political and economic influence in the region.  This study focuses solely on government and political structures, meaning that conclusions drawn from this study need to be combined with evidence from other sources to adequately support any assertion regarding the Oyo Empire’s political structure.  That being said, the evidence and arguments within this study are very useful and relate to information found in other sources within this collection.

Outside of Oyo Ile were towns under the suzerainty of the Alafin, organized into provinces with some having a head town, such as the cities of Saki and Iganna (Law 1977, 88). Variations in bargains between the center and the towns reflected ‘what he [the Alafin] could get away with’ but the suzerain relations described below generally held across the empire. Towns/polities were forbidden from engaging in foreign policy – they could not make war or form alliances with other polities (Law 1977, 100). They were obliged to bring payments (i.e. transfers) to the Alafin that were provided at the annual Bere festival in Oyo Ile, but retained wide-ranging autonomy over how those resources were extracted. Payments consisted of livestock, grasses used for thatching, and cowries (cash) (Akinjogbin 1966, 450). For example, the large town of Saki paid two rams and 10 bags of cowries annually (Law 1977, 100). Tribute was unreliable. For example, ‘in 1775 Kpengla attempted to evade the payment of coral as part of the tribute to Oyo on the plea that none was obtainable from European traders’ (Law 1977, 174) and successfully evaded paying tribute on two other occasions. Taxes were not directly collected by the Alafin, state revenues were obtained from religious dues in the capital, loot from warfare, judicial fees and fines, and the annual tribute festival (Akinjogbin 1966; Morton-Williams 1967). A palace slave (ilari) stationed in towns outside of Oyo Ile acted as the ‘eyes and ears’ of the Alafin; however, there may not have been more than one ilari per town (Asiwaju 1989, 704).

Increased competition in the 18th and 19th centuries did spur some peripheral states to switch from tribute to suzerain relations, a finding that is consistent with our model. For example, Usman (2000, 46) notes, based on archaeological evidence, that ‘the presence of aggressive groups like the Nupe, and the Ibariba to the north, might have stimulated the unification of the Igbomina [a peripheral state] under Old Oyo control, providing a common leadership and defense’. There are also other examples of competition in West Africa causing states to band together in loose suzerain relations, creating bigger, but decentralized, states (Sanders 1979).

Overall, the structure of the Oyo Empire was common in West Africa during the period. While experiments in centralization were taking place in kingdoms like the Massina caliphate, the majority of states – the Sokoto Caliphate, the Tukolor Empire, Futa Jallon, Futa Toro, the Mandika empire – were all decentralized polities (Ajayi 1989; Person 1989) and no states that we are aware of switched from transfers to extraction before colonization.

Ejiogu, EC. “State Building in the Niger Basin in the Common Era and Beyond, 1000–Mid 1800s: The Case of Yorubaland.” Journal of Asian and African Studies 46, no. 6 (December 1, 2011): 593–614. https://doi.org/10.1177/0021909611405831.

This source is a useful addition to the collection because it devotes attention to some topics that the other sources only briefly mention.  Namely, this source focuses on the role of kinship, religion, and the slave trade with regards to the state formation of the Oyo Empire.  Other sources discuss kinship, especially in relation to the Alafin, but this source provides a far more detailed description of the various kinship networks within the empire that characterized the manner in which political institutions developed.  Additionally, this source devotes attention to the impact of religion on the state formation processes observed in the Oyo Empire.  Religion is relatively absent from the other sources.  This source, however, uses religion as an explanation for the specific processes of state formation within the Oyo Empire.  This is important to consider because many of the primary sources on the empire are written records from Christian Europeans who traveled to the region as missionaries.  These sources are likely to dismiss or inaccurately portray local religious customs that could have had a very significant impact on the formation of political institutions in the Oyo Empire.  Finally, this source makes the argument that the formation of the empire was driven by the expansion of the Atlantic Slave Trade.  While there are certainly other factors that must be included in a discussion on the formation of the Oyo Empire, the slave trade still characterized economic activity in the region.  Engaging with these arguments is important for fully understanding the processes of state formation in the region for not only the Oyo Empire, but other states in Yorubaland as well.

The kingdom of Oyo emerged as the most extensive and prominent of all the Yoruba states. Oyo’s vastness, power and prominence earned it the legendry status of an empire. It subsequently declined and collapsed in the eighteenth century before British colonial intervention carved parts of the upper and lower Niger into what became Nigeria. Historians differentiate it from what remained of its rump after it collapsed by designating it as the Old Oyo Empire. Yoruba authority patterns upon which Old Oyo and other Yoruba monarchical states thrived derived from unwritten constitutional stipulations. The unwritten nature of the Constitution rendered the separation of powers clauses vague (Law, 1971). In Old Oyo, that vagueness was the basis of some of the problems that arose in the eighteenth century when some individual political actors in the state availed themselves of the opportunities created by slave-taking and war to enhance their economic and political powers in society with far-reaching implications and enormous consequences for the stability and continued viability of the empire itself. All of those consequences account for its decline and ultimate collapse.

However, authority in the apex-structured political system of the Yoruba obtains in the following configuration. Every individual Yoruba ‘belonged to an ebi (lineage) and the male members of a lineage, their wives (if they were married), and children lived together in one agbo-ile (compound)’ (Akintoye, 1971: 13). The ebi was the basic or lowest level of authority in the Yoruba political system. A combined group of several lineages constituted the adugbo or ward, which was the next and second level of authority amongst the Yoruba. The apex level of authority resided in the Ilu or Town. Since Yoruba society is lineage-based, the Ilu is organized according to all the ebi that founded and constitute it.

State policy in Old Oyo was jointly formulated by the Aláàfin and the Oyo Mesi through constitutional arrangements that designated the former as the ultimate arbiter only in principle but invested the obligation on him ‘to take account of the views of the Oyo Mesi, who conferred separately from him’ (Law, 1971: 28). The Oyo Mesi’s power encompassed the constitutional authority to overrule the Aláàfin and even to compel him to abdicate by committing suicide. But the latter’s immense power extended to granting ‘approval … for succession to all Oyo titles, religious, military, and civil, including the Oyo Mesi titles’ (Law, 1971: 29). He granted the final approval for all capital punishments (Law, 1971), up until the capture and slaughter of an Aláàfin in a campaign that had gone bad against the Nupe in the seventeenth century, he led the Oyo army into battles (Smith, 1965).

IV. Conclusion

Researching the political institutions of the Oyo Empire presented challenges that are quite commonly faced when researching any topic on precolonial African history.  The goal of this collection is to accumulate primary and secondary sources on the political institutions of the Oyo Empire to develop a more complete understanding of the various motivations behind the construction of these institutions.  Each of these sources contributes to this overall goal by offering unique perspectives on the form and function of political institutions, cultural norms, and religious traditions of Yorubaland and the Oyo Empire.  African history is a discipline that functions differently from traditional notions of “history,” however this does not make it any less worthy of study.  This research aims to support the assertion that African states developed sophisticated and complex political institutions to the same extent that other states across the globe did during the same time period.