HISTORY / HERITAGE

Let's travel a bit down memory lane

Àgùdà ò jẹ lábẹ́ẹ Gẹ̀ẹ́sì... On the surface, the statement means  The Catholics do not rely on the English for sustenance. But it has a deeper context.

During the transatlantic slave trade era, Portuguese and British took a lot of slaves from Nigeria. The slaves taken by Portuguese were taken to Brazil. Right from then, Yorùbá people made clear distinction between the British and the Portuguese. The British were called Òyìnbó Aláwọ́ Funfun while the Portuguese were called Òyìnbóo Potogí. 

Let's now look into the people refered to as Gẹ̀ẹ́sì (English) in the proverb. Between 1775 and 1783, the American fought Independence War with the British in order to gain their independence. The British recruited some Africans to fight for them against the Americans in the war, with the promise of freedom after the war. Well, Britain lost the war and the British, alongside the African slaves who fought for them fled to the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. During this time, Sierra Leone (Africa) was already existing as a British colony for freed slaves. The slaves who fought during the American Independence war were freed and sent to Sierra Leone.

These freed slaves who were sent to Sierra Leone were known as Krios. From there, some of them returned to Nigeria. These returnees spoke English and were protestants. They had what we can call white collared jobs. They were government workers, clerks.... You know...office jobs. If your surname is Rhodes, Doherty, Williams, Handle and so on, your grandparents/great grandparents belonged to this group.

Now, to the Agudas. They are the returnees from Brazil. If your surname is Da Silva, Pereira, Fernandez, Da Costa and so on, your grandparents/great grandparents were Àgùdàs. While the Gẹ̀ẹ́sìs were protestants Christians, the Àgùdàs were Catholics. That's why the Catholic churches are still called Ìjọ Àgùdà in Yorùbá till today.

Anyways, the Àgùdà had blue collared jobs. They were carpenters, plumbers, electricians, builders and so on. They were very rich too - richer than the Gẹ̀ẹsìs, if I may say.

Trust Nigerians with "I better pass you mentality." You know how some white collared employees feel big these days? How they feel they're better than the professionals who may even be richer than them? Something like that happened then. Gẹ̀ẹ́sìs, being closer to the government and doing white collared jobs were feeling big and wanted to prove that they're better than the Àgùdàs.

The Àgùdàs then replied them "Àgùdà ò jẹ lábẹ́ẹ Gẹ̀ẹ́sì, iṣẹ ọwọ́ọ wa làwá ń jẹ" which means "Àgùdàs (Brazilian returnees) do not rely on Gẹ̀ẹ́sì (Sierra Leonean returnees) for sustenance, we are self-sufficient professionals. The statement became more widely used and it has since then become a template answer for people who want to subjugate someone that gains no benefit from them.

Tainkyu ✌🏾

👉 @Arojinle