Gberu

Gberu is the first of the eighteenth-century Alaafins in this batch to be killed by his own council, and the detail the tradition keeps is that the Bashorun who did it had been his friend. That is not decoration: the Oyo Mesi's power was a formal instrument with no appeal, so the only thing standing between a king and it was personal, and Gberu's case is the one that demonstrates how little that was worth. Twenty years later Gaa was using the same instrument four times in twenty years without pretending friendship at all.

Children

• Amuniwaiye

Domains

• sovereignty

Relations

• father of: Amuniwaiye

Sources

• Reference treatments of Gberu's reign, his forced suicide under Bashorun Jambu, and his son Amuniwaiye.