Maker of the Land, Ancestor of Kings
In the cosmogony of Ife, Oduduwa came down from heaven on an iron chain, carrying a snail shell of earth and a five-toed cock. He poured the earth on the primeval waters, the cock scratched it outward, and the first dry land appeared at Ile-Ife. In this version the task had belonged to Obatala, who drank palm wine on the way and fell asleep, and Oduduwa took it over and finished the work.
Having made the land, he ruled it as the first sacred king of Ife, and the Yoruba dynasties trace themselves to his household. Tradition counts seven crowned kingdoms founded by his children and grandchildren, among them Oyo, and the dynastic legend of Benin also reaches back to him; only rulers who can trace descent to Oduduwa may wear the fringed beaded crown, and the Ooni of Ife reigns as his direct successor.
Samuel Johnson's History of the Yorubas records another tradition, in which Oduduwa is a prince who migrated with his people from the east. His name has remained the anchor of Yoruba identity: the pan-Yoruba movement founded in London in 1945 called itself Egbe Omo Oduduwa, 'Society of the Children of Oduduwa'.
