Question 5
- List any three towns which were involved in the Yoruba civil wars of 19th century.
- In what four ways did the wars affect the people in Yorubaland?
Observation
This was a very popular question, well attempted and good marks earned by candidates. The A part of the question expected the candidates to list any three towns involved in the Yoruba Civil War of the 19th Century. Many candidates got this right and mentioned the required number of towns involved. E.g. Owu, Ijaye, Ekiti, Ijebu etc. While a good number of candidates got the A part of the question right, many others failed to explain how the wars affected the people in Yorubaland. They instead, discussed the effect of the fall of old Oyo Empire. Candidates were expected to mention the following points in order to get good marks in part B.
(i) The wars led to the fleeing of people;
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(ii) Establishment of a number of new states and refugee towns e.g. Abeokuta, Oke-odan etc;
- (iii)They led to the disintegration and extinction of some states;
(iv) The wars created an atmosphere of insecurity to lives and property; The volume of the slave trade in Yorubaland increased as large numbers of people were sold into slavery.