A KING OR A REGENT

Female kings are not easy to come by in the Yorubland as you would male kings. 

In the 14th and 16th centuries, two women made history and they became kings in the Ife and Oyo empires respectively. No other female became king after their reign according to history but we still have Regents on the throne in modern-day Yorubaland.

Regents are females who are put on the throne as “placeholders” till there is an old enough male in the royal family to ascend the throne. In the Yoruba language, they are called ‘Adele Oba.’

Ile-Ife the ancestral land and origin of the Yoruba people has only had one female king since it was founded; Ooni Luwoo Gbagida, the 21st Ooni of Ife who ascended the throne and became the King during the 14th century.

She was married to Chief Obaloran who also happened to be a king at that time in Ife. It was said that there were many kings during that century under the rulership of the Ooni of which her husband was one. 

Ooni Luwoo was known for her beauty and hatred for an untidy environment. The council of chiefs at the time saw her as uncontrollable due to her stern actions which was unfavorable to the council and swore to never install a woman as a king in Ife. 

During her reign, she engaged in massive town planning, public works, and construction. She made lazy citizens install tiles called ‘Apadi Luwoo’ on the ground she walked on because she hated walking on bare ground. Some of these installed tiles still exist in Ile-Ife to date.

She is the mother of Adekola Telu; the founder and first Oluwo of Iwo. She was preceded by Ooni Giesi and was succeeded by Ooni Lumobi. 

Similar to Ooni Luwoo, in the Oyo empire from 1554 to 1562, there was a female Alaafin of Oyo; Orompotoniyun also known as Alaafin Orompoto whose real name was Olufunmilayo Ademiluwa. 

She was initially a regent in the empire after the passing of her older brother; Alaafin Ajiboyede. All her younger brothers were too young to have assumed the throne at the time and that led to her installation as a reagent.

When she heard the plans of the Oyo mesi (Council of Chiefs) to take royalty away from her family, she said she would become the Alaafin. The Oyo mesi told her that she could not be as she was a woman. Orompotoniyun told the council of chiefs to give her seven days after which she will prove her masculinity to them. 

Of a truth, on the 7th day, she stripped naked in front of the council and the record has it that she had the genital part of a man, and as such conclusions were drawn that she was the first human to have ever transgendered or could she have been a hermaphrodite?

Alaafin Orompotoniyun was a battle woman who won many battles for the Oyo empire. A great tactician with brilliant and novel ideas, one of the techniques she created included her Cavalry (horse fighters) tying leaves to the tail of their horses to clear their trail off the path.

In 1557, she went as far as Timbuktu in modern-day Mali to acquire horses for her horsemen in battle.

A true warrior, Orompotoniyun died on the battlefield during the Ilayi war ending her eight-year reign, and was succeeded by her brother; Alaafin Eguguojo.

While there have been no other records of any female king in Yorubaland, these female kings led the two most powerful empires at the time of their reign. 

In Yorubaland, we still have female regents on the throne but, these regents are not allowed to have partners while they are on the throne. What could be the reason for this?