Ajagbo
Yoruba · mortal · oyo empire · Recorded classification
Ajagbo matters for one act of constitutional engineering. The Oyo Mesi and their head the Bashorun could unmake an Alaafin; a standing field marshal appointed by the Alaafin, outranking them in war, was the counterweight. It worked for a century and then did the opposite — the two men who ended the empire were a Bashorun, Gaa, and an Are Ona Kakanfo, Afonja. The hundred and forty years attributed to his reign are a chronological artefact and the record says so rather than repeating it.
Domains
- sovereignty
- military command
Relations
- foundational precursor to: AfonjaAjagbo created the office; Afonja held it and used it to break the empire it was invented to defend. The link is the office, not descent.Reference treatments of Ajagbo as the Alaafin who introduced the title of Are Ona Kakanfo, and of Afonja as the Are Ona Kakanfo of the early nineteenth century. (secondary)
Sources
- Ajagbo is a warlike seventeenth-century Alaafin of Oyo, conventionally dated c. 1600-1659 and credited with an implausible 140-year reign, who introduced the title of Are Ona Kakanfo and professionalised the Oyo army.: Reference treatment of Ajagbo, his disputed reign length and his institution of the Are Ona Kakanfo. (secondary)