“A three-eyed stranger cannot see more than a one-eyed native.”
-Orunto Baalufe Owu
Among the Yorùbá, we say that wisdom does not dwell in the loudest voice, but in the one who knows where the ancestors planted the first iroko. A traveller may possess three eyes, yet he cannot see beyond the one eye of the child born and nurtured on the soil of his forebears.
The history of the Owu Kingdom in Abeokuta is not a garment woven overnight, neither is it a market tale to be altered by every passer-by. It is an inheritance received from our ancestors, guarded by our royal institutions, preserved in oral tradition, affirmed in documented history, and carried in the hearts of generations.
He who has not drunk from the ancient stream cannot truly describe its source. Àlejò kì í mọ ibi tí òkúta ti ń yọ omi. A stranger does not know where water springs from the rock. Likewise, àgbà kì í wà l’ọ́jà kí orí ọmọ tuntun wọ. When elders are present, history should not be turned upside down by ignorance.
Those who seek to narrate Owu history without understanding its sacred foundations are like hunters pursuing the rainbow. However far they travel, they will return with empty hands, for truth does not reveal itself to those who chase appearances instead of knowledge.
Our heritage is ancient. Its roots reach into the earliest foundations of Yorùbá civilisation and the enduring legacy of Odùduwà. Such a history is not sustained by sentiment but by memory, scholarship, tradition, and the unwavering testimony of those entrusted with its preservation.
Let every seeker of truth approach with humility, for bí a bá fẹ́ mọ ìtàn ìlú, a máa béèrè lọ́wọ́ àwọn tí ìlú bí. If one truly desires to know the history of a people, one must learn from those whom the land itself has nurtured.
I speak not to quarrel, nor to seek approval. I speak because the ancestors entrusted this heritage to our care. We owe them truth, and we owe posterity an undiluted account of who we are.
I remain a proud son of Owu Abeokuta. While others may speak from conjecture, I shall continue to speak from inheritance, preserving, protecting, and proclaiming the enduring legacy of our fathers. For àṣà ni ìpilẹ̀ ìjọba; ẹni tí ó bá sọ àṣà nù, a sọ ìtàn ara rẹ̀ nù—culture is the foundation of every kingdom, and whoever abandons it also abandons the story of his own existence.
-Chief Abiodun Lasile DL MnbR
Orunto Baalufe Owu Kingdom Abeokuta
