31/01/2024
THE STORY OF OYOTUNJI: A YORUBA (West Africa) KINGDOM IN UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 🇺🇲
Oyotunji African Village is a village located near Sheldon, Beaufort County, South Carolina that was founded by Oba Efuntola Oseijeman Adelabu Adefunmi I in 1970. Oyotunji village is named after the Oyo empire, a pre-colonial Yoruba kingdom lasting from the 1300s until the early 1800s in what is now southwestern Nigeria. The name literally means “O̩yo̩ returns” or “O̩yo̩ rises again” or “O̩yo̩ resurrects” referring to the African Yoruba kingdom of Oyo, now rising in a new form near the South Carolina seashore.
Oyotunji village covers 27 acres (11 ha) and has a Yoruba temple which was moved from Harlem, New York to its present location in 1960. It was originally intended to be located in Savannah, Georgia, but was eventually settled into its current position after disputes with neighbors in Sheldon proper, over drumming and tourists.
HOW OBA EFUNTOLA ADEFUNMI I FOUNDED OYOTUNJI
During the slave trade era, many Africans were taken as slaves abroad. While going, some left with their culture and tradition which they continued within the foreign land where they found themselves. They continued with the culture and tradition of their fathers so as to maintain their identity.
The Yorubas in slavery are among the Africans that maintained their culture in the strange land and it was handed down to their children from generation to generation.
Many of their children, after the abolition of the slave trade, have married children of their former masters thus having children of mixed blood, that notwithstanding, they still carry on with their African culture in the foreign land since most of them cannot trace their root back to Africa.
The Yoruba culture has been one of the prominent and most celebrated one throughout the world till date. In the faraway United States of America, there is a Yoruba community namedv O̩yo̩tunji African Village. It is located near Sheldon, Beaufort County.
