Browsing by Author "Adebayo, P. F."

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    The Roles of Hunters in the Formation of States in West Africa
    (Department of History & Diplomatic Studies, Tai Solarin University of Education, Ijagun, Ogun State, 2014) ABOYEJI, Adeniyi Justus; Adebayo, P. F.
    Thousands of years ago, all humans were believed to have subsisted by hunting and fruits-gathering, with little or no agriculture. Man, had thus found it both convenient and rewarding, from primordial times, to co-habit in social groups. He has immensely multiplied his predisposition to earn a living from nature; hunting and survival (i. e. the preservation of his existence from possible extinction) being two significant factors. A better appreciation of the importance of hunting among early humans, as now believed by many scientists, reveals that early humans both scavenged and hunted. Warriorhood, militarism and belligerency also came as a gradual transmogrification from the humble background of hunting. Being vulnerable to his immediate and older neighbours, the primitive hunting man grew as a child of necessity; necessity, being the mother of invention! Many of life’s great discoveries came as accidentals—fire, farming, iron metallurgy, etc., ditto also for hunting. However, these accidental discoveries were often borne out of the necessity of the ages. Necessity, the mother of invention, has moved hunting from its humble beginning of just enriching diets, providing security (via the development of social groups) and preserving humanity from possible extinction by antique dangerous monsters (via the evolution of the hunting man), to making man become more sedentary by launching him into the eras of agricultural revolution and iron technology! Notable hunters such as the biblical Nimrod, described as “the first potentate on earth” and a “mighty hunter in the eyes of God who built empires such as Babylon, Erech, Accad and Calneh in Shinar; one Ojo Isekuse of Ilorin; Timi of Ede, the Olu-Ode, a notable archer—one of Sango’s two famous warriors, Kurunmi of Ijaiye; Soun Ogunlola of Ogbomoso; Sodeke of Abeokuta, etc. remain notable as reputable legendary hunter-warriors in the history of states formation and empire-building in West Africa. Such were responsible for the founding of settlements all over West Africa! Today, the contributions of the hunter to civilization and states formation can, perhaps, at best, be better encapsulated in this discourse than could just be imagined from a cursory observation!