Chapt 1: - My Roots

Chapter 1

My Roots

Maternal

The source of my story is my mother, Late Victoria Tomire.

Madam Ojorubutu, my maternal great grandmother, a native of Iyin Ekiti, was captured into slavery and taken to Ilorin.

Likewise, Pa Olatomi, from Aisegba Ekiti, suffered the same fate and was taken to Ilorin too. In Ilorin they met and got married and bore two children, Olofinse and Olayinka.

When slave trade ended, in the 19th century, the couple regained their freedom and they both left Ilorin together. Ojorubutu was unsure whether she would meet her parents alive in Iyin. However, she struck an agreement with her husband that if she got to Iyin and met her parents alive, she would settle down in Iyin to take care of her aged parents. Fatefully, Ojorubutu met her parents alive! That was how she settled at Iyin with her two children -Olofinse and Olayinka. There were exchanges of visits between Pa Olatomi and Ojorubutu (for my mother knew their home at Aisegba) but Olofinse and Olayinka were destined to remain there. There they got married and finally settled but paid occasional visits to their Aisegba home. The rest is history.

Subsequently, Ojorubutu got married again to one of the Esan's family in Iyin Ekiti. There she bore her remaining two female children, Olofinteye and Adetola.

Thereafter, Olayinka (Chief Ejio Olupekun of Okesale Quarters, Iyin Ekiti) my maternal grand-father, got married to Ige. The couple bore Victoria Tomire, Adeniyi (who later became Chief Ejio), Bosede, Ibidunni and Folowosele. Tomire and Adeniyi have died while Bosede, Ibidun and Folowosele (who succeded his brother, Adeniyi as Chief Ejio) are still alive as at the time of writing this book.

My Paternal Origin

Oral history, as told me by my father, Gabriel Omogboyega, has it that my paternal grandfather, Molayemi (the late Odofinyin of Iyin Ekiti) fathered nine children: Faseluka, Oyeyemi, Asipon, Ige, Omotola, Omogboyega, Arujo, Aina, and Ereola- through his four wives: Isikalu, Olofinteye, Faluke and Ajayi. (The names of the children are not arranged in order of seniority please!)

Amongst the four wives of Pa Molayemi, the writer is of the Ajayi grand-motherhood, Omogboyega being her first child. For the purpose of this book, that is as far as my paternal history will be traced.