ISANLU-ISIN (The Isin Giant)

THE ISIN GIANT

Welcome to DISINGIANT  blogpost.

 The giant of all the communities in Isin land is Isanlu. Isanlu  is  situated in Isin LGA of Kwara Nigeria.Iits geographical coordinates are 8 14’ 0” North, 5 5’ 0” East and the original name (with diacritics) is Isanlu-Isin in Nigeria (generally refered to as ISANLUYEYE). The langusge spoken in this community is fervent Igbomina.

Isanlu-Isin is a major town among the towns that make up the Isin a sub group of the Yorubas Known as the Igbomina.  Igbominas are Yoruba people who speak a peculiar dialect of the Yoruba language. Underlining their culture also in that general Yoruba trait, that would make one look at the little variation that there is as inconsequential.

THE IGBOMINA

The Igbominas migrated majorly from Oyo and Ile-Ife in series (a group is also said to have migrated from Ketu in today’s Republic of Benin). The Igbominas which falls into the northwestern part of Yorubaland covers an area of about 9,000 to 15,000 sq. miles. This area before the advent of the Fulani, Stretches from Awton through Ilorin to Share in present kwara State.

The Ife group were the first to migrate into Igbomina. This was around the 16^th or 17^th Century. They settled in area “In an area probable bounded by the present day town of Offa, Ilorin, Share, Oke-Ode, Omu-Aran and Illa-Orogun in Osun State ”. However, it should be noted that they came in different groups and at different times.

The second group, the Oyo-Igbomina arrived into the same area already occupied by the by the Ife-Igbomina. Perhaps, due to the fact that the new arrivals were from a state with strong military tradition, they forced the Ife group to move from the area. This is especially noticeable around Ilorin and Offa. The Ife group in those area then migrated eastward, where the Tapas (Nupes) resisted their advancement. They thus, retreated southwards to areas bounded by “…..the towns of Omupo, Ajasse, Agbonda, Illa, Omu-Aran, Isanlu-Isin, Oro, Igbaja to mention but a couple”. However, isolated groups of Ife-Igbomina can still be found in areas of yaru and Share Yoruba. Oro-Ago is said to have migrated from Ketu into the region about this same time.

Importantly, it worth mentioning here also that initially, it was the LAND that they dwell and not the people that was called Igbomina. Orangun of Illa, a son of Okanbi the only son of Odududuwa, inherited the land from his grandfather. This was after he had founded the land, together with Esinkin Olomu. Esinkin Olomu, possessed an Ogbo (a cult object in the form of a club) which knows the way to the bank of the Niger, hence his appellation ‘Ologbo’ connotes ‘one who possessed Ogbo’ and the whole surroundings were made up of forest and bush which Yorubas called ‘Igbo’. When at crossroads, Esinkin Olomu will be contacted for direction who will consult the ‘Ogbo who knows the road’ (Ogbo lo mo ona or Ogbo mona). The word ‘Igbo’ and ‘Ogbo’ were used interchangeably and Igbomina was derived, used and accepted for the description of the land which Orangun had inherited. The Orangun of Illa therefore is the original inheritor from Ile-Ife of the land on which all the Igbominas latter settled. And the people that later settled in the land which Oragun inherited are today called the Igbominas.

Today the land belongs to the various Igbomina towns that settled in it. Under what circumstances the Orangun lost the land, cannot with the evidence at hand be known.