An excursion into the “Yoruba Nation Now” advocacy.

“Being like the others” has come to characterize the human form of governance since its adoption by the children of Israel, despite their being reminded by God what a government or society under a king will be and which will not be good for them.

They rejected the warning, and the repercussions came in the form of their experiences under different kings, from Saul’s extreme disobedience to Josiah’s complete obedience, both victims of the foundational pursuit of trying to “be like the others”, consequently destroying both.

(1)     King Saul: 1 Samuel 15: 1-23(abridged)

“Now the word of the LORD came to Samuel, saying, “I greatly regret that I have set up Saul as king, for he has turned back from following Me, and has not performed My commandments.” ………… “So, Samuel said, “When you were little in your own eyes, were you not head of the tribes of Israel? And did not the LORD anoint you king over Israel? Now the LORD sent you on a mission, and said, ‘Go, and utterly destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are consumed.’ Why then did you not obey the voice of the LORD? Why did you swoop down on the spoil, and do evil in the sight of the LORD?”

And Saul said to Samuel, “But I have obeyed the voice of the LORD AND gone on the mission on which the LORD sent me and brought back Agag king of Amalek; I have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. But the people took of the plunder, sheep and oxen, the best of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice to the LORD your God in Gilgal.”

So, Samuel said: “Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice,

And to heed than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, He also has rejected you from being king.”

(2)     King Josiah: 2 Kings 23: 24-25

“Moreover, Josiah put away those who consulted mediums and spiritists, the household gods and idols, all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, that he might perform the words of the law which were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of the LORD. Now before him there was no king like him, who turned to the LORD with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the Law of Moses; nor after him did any arise like him”.

2 Chronicles 35: 20-24

“After all this, when Josiah had prepared the temple, Necho king of Egypt came up to fight against Carchemish by the Euphrates; and Josiah went out against him.  But he sent messengers to him, saying, “What have I to do with you, king of Judah? I have not come against you this day, but against the house with which I have war; for God commanded me to make haste. Refrain from meddling with God, who is with me, lest He destroy you.” Nevertheless, Josiah would not turn his face from him, but disguised himself so that he might fight with him and did not heed the words of Necho from the mouth of God. So, he came to fight in the Valley of Megiddo.

And the archers shot King Josiah; and the king said to his servants, “Take me away, for I am severely wounded.” His servants therefore took him out of that chariot and put him in the second chariot that he had, and they brought him to Jerusalem. So, he died, and was buried in one of the tombs of his fathers. And all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah.”

To “be like the others” had been a constant with the children of Israel since their days in the wilderness.

In modern times, what has been GOOD to modern Europe, or the United States was not in trying to be like the others, which enabled both to transform the physical world, including advances in knowledge and understanding of the world that has now compelled the willing or unwilling migration of the African into these places.

The question for us, Christians in Africa today, therefore, is why should we expect anything GOOD to come out of trying to be like the others, exemplified by the Nation-State, and which the “Yoruba Nation Now” is advocating?

Yoruba (and African) history cannot be divorced from all that has happened in history: we have experienced empires/fiefdoms, slavery, and its repercussions in creating our own Diaspora, up till date, colonial rule, and now, the NATION-STATE, which was bequeathed by the colonial forces and which “YORUBA NATION NOW” wants to sustain, which is another way of saying we want to be like the others, hence examples of such countries that emerged from “breaking up” are always cited—the former Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, Singapore, the Sudan etc.

Yet the “Nation State” that emerged from the breakup of the Holy Roman Empire was not to “be like the others” in that there was none to be like, since the era established the formal State Structure as a form of governance, with Political power residing in the People, neutralizing the “divine right of kings” which had replaced the previous “city-state” structures as the ultimate source of power.

The “State” as a form of governance replaced the fiefdoms and kingdoms within the Holy Roman Empire, were established largely along their Ethno-Lingual realities, exercising a monopoly of law and order (and violence) through institutions of government aimed at mediating conflicts and crisis within the society at large.

Some retained their monarchies only as historical and “cultural” preservations with no direct influence or participation in the running of the State, a function which has now passed onto the hands of the Public and exercised through periodic elections, otherwise known as democracy.

About a century later, the United States of America came into being, not because it wanted to “be like the others” but as their negation, more so when they were refugees and victims fleeing persecution from the “others” and therefore cannot but refrain from being like them.

The United States, despite being a Nation-State of the White, Anglo-Saxon Protestants (WASP), was able to incorporate non-WASP Europeans into its State formation through the Federal System, which came into being in world history as a consequence of the creation of the United States in a direct challenge to what obtained in Europe. 

In both instances, they drew from their historical experiences within the trajectory of human history, and established paradigms in consonance with their existential realities, the opposite of “being like the others”.

Why then is the advocacy of “Yoruba Nation Now” hinged on “being like the others”? Especially when the maintenance of the current African Nation-States is based on a patronage system dependent on State resources (Prebendalism) through which these Nation-States are managed for the benefit of Euro-America, their creator, and arguably the singular reason why Africa’s Political Economy is not geared towards the transformation of Africa’s existential circumstances.

The Nation-State paradigm in Africa cannot but operate as a Prebend, which, by definition, is antithetical to social development and was indeed “overthrown” alongside the “divine right of kings” in Europe.

“Yoruba Nation Now”, as a Nation-State, is akin to being “like the others” and contrary to the historical experiences of Euro-America, from which it was derived.

If not the NATION-STATE, then what?

(To be continued)

© Wale Odeku, November 12, 2021 

Website: https://solomonoluwabiyi.com  

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