Africa History: The first and only female Ooni of Ife. Queen Lúwo Gbàgìdá was a woman way ahead of her time who reigned as the Ooni of Ife and also the most predominant supreme ruler of Yoruba land.
As history would have it, she was a woman of enormous beauty, who derived great joy from her good looks. Although, history has not been kind to her because it was thought that men had always occupied the esteemed stool.
This is due to the fact that Nigerian history is passed down orally which can lead to negation in the list of Oonis’.
Her Legacy
In some records, she is called the Lúwo Gbàgìdá, an offspring of Otaataa from Owode compound, Okerewe. According to oral tradition, she was married to Chief Ọbalọran of Ilode and became the mother of Adekola Telu, the founder of Iwo town.
After the demise of Ooni Giesi, she was the first and only female to take up the crown as Ooni. Ooni Luwo being a beautiful woman and deriving great joy in her physical appearance and that of her surroundings, kept the townspeople i.e. men and women of Ife on their toes by ensuring they partook in keeping their environment well groomed and serene.
Due to the fact she did not enjoy walking on bare soil, she commissioned the creation of uncommon pavements (now owned by the Ife Museum) and various open-air courtyards paved with shreds of pottery to adorn her environment and any other Yoruba town she paid a visit to.
This was also used to punish law breakers as the paved the streets of Ile-Ife with quartz pebbles and broken pottery.
The miscreants were commanded to bake the clay, and later on use their bare hands to break it into pieces and afterwards lay it on the floor for the queen to walk on.
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Among all these, she was also said to filled with terror and feared especially by the men. She was known to dislike lazy men who broke her laws and was a nightmare to slackers.
There was no difference between slave and “child.” Everyone treated the same way. The elders of the land saw her as being “uncontrollable” and “high-handed.”
As a result of this, when her reign ended, the council of Obas had a meeting and promised never to make a woman the Ooni of Ife ever again.
Ooni Luwoo though given negative labels by her council of chiefs still assisted her son Adekola Tolu to create the city of Iwo, which resulted in making him the first Oluwo of Iwo.
The Story Of Attah Ameh Oboni – Nigerian King Who Chose Suicide Instead of Bowing to Queen of England
Attah Ameh Oboni was a revered Igala King. At a particular meeting held in Kaduna all the paramount traditional rulers in Nigeria. The queen of England was in attendance. Attah Ameh asked to remove his cap to greet the Queen of England as others had done.
Though he refused until they said he should leave the meeting if he would not remove his cap. But Attah was not like others, or was he? It was taboo for Attah to remove his cap in the public.
The entire hall where they were staying was occupied by a swan of bees emanating from the cap of Attah Ameh Oboni which he removed to greet the Queen.
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The Queen of England as well as other rulers in the meeting ran helter-skelter except the friendly Oba of Benin who was asked by Attah Ameh to go out before he removed his cap. The hall became empty as stung by the bees and the meeting ended.
History
According to history, Attah Ameh Oboni was asked to be arrested and handcuffed by the security people, which they did, but the handcuffs fell off his hands.
He was later locked up in a room on the instruction of the Northern rulers and guarded by the security personnel but only to find out later by the personnel that he had left the room. Yes, when the security was taking him to locked up, he told his driver, Amanabo of blessed memory, to take the car and be going to Idah while the security locked him in the room.
He then warned Amanabo not to look back until he felt a cool breeze in the car. Amanabo argued that he cannot leave the Attah there but later obeyed and started driving back to Idah from Kaduna.
After some time, he felt the cool breeze in the car, and Attah Ameh was sitting inside the car.
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The incident in the meeting made many traditional rulers which were mostly northerners to be angry, especially making kings run in such a manner because of bees.
This became one important sin, and it was like “one sin too many”.