HISTORY - THE EMERGENCE OF REFORMED OGBONI FRATERNITY

Life they say withouth history is meaningless

Rich history is classified as a reliable diary. Today we bring to you the origin of The Reformed Ògbóni Fraternity and it's founder 

           Rev. T.A.J Ogunbiyi O.B.E, L.T.H. 

                       (Born 1866-1957)

           Founder of the Reformed Ogboni                                    Fraternity 

                                 (ROF)

He was one of the early Christian fathers of Lagos who embraced the Christian faith and was baptized 'Jacob'.

His father was Chief Ashogbon of Ebute-Ero, Lagos who sent him to the CMS Grammar School, Lagos. Having spent a year in the school, his father told him that he was preparing him for mission work, as he had trained Jacob's brothers in trade.

Jacob took strong objection and wanted to be either a carpenter or tailor. he eventually opted to train as a printer, and his father agreed, hoping this would improve his reading, leading to a clerical occupation.

He was apprenticed to R. B. Blaise. From there, he was receptive to mission work and was admitted to the CMS Training institution.

After his training, he was sent to Fourah Bay College, Sierra Leone to read Theology. On his return to Nigeria, he became active in the church and in the social environment.

In 1917, he founded the Reformed Ogboni Fraternity (ROF), a measure intended to marry the traditional Ogboni with the orthodox Christian establishment which had excommunicated members who belonged to the Ogboni.

Ogunbiyi was a religious iconoclast who nevertheless was appointed Archdeacon of Lagos in 1921, and in this capacity, wielded influence in the politics of Lagos. He was appointed into the Legislative Council of Nigeria in 1936, representing the colony division of Lagos.

According to extract from Canada IRBC: Before 1900 in Nigeria, it was the spread of foreign freemasonry and the seizure of control by the Europeans that impelled our nationalists then to begin to advocate the kind of indigenous freemasonry represented by societies like the ROF.

Source: Yoruba History by NNP

The Ogboni and other Secret Societies in Nigeria by R.E. Dennett

The Rev. T. A. J. Ogunbiyi, who is the author of "The Traditional Origin of Ogboni," quoted further on, informs me that the Ogboni is not a king's council; that he is not the chief of the Ogboni, but that he may become a member of it.

Here is what he writes about it in his parish magazine, The Ogboni Fraternity : —

Assuming that the component parts of the Bene Esse of any nation are Polity, Religion, and Society, I submit that the Ogboni Fraternity is best considered under the third heading.

As practised by the indigenous natives, like all kindred fraternities in Africa, at least along the West Coast, it may be termed "rude freemasonry," to use the expression of a late Bishop of Sierra Leone ; but no sooner is it scrutinised by any educated native who has also got an insight into those of civilised places of the world, than he would discern that it stands on all fours with any recognised fraternity.

Unlike the Egungun, Oro, Adamorisa, Gelede, which may rightly be considered under Religion, it has nothing to do with spirit or demon worship;  its main object is to fraternise the community to which it is introduced and keep them closely bound together for mutual succour and support with a strong chain of fidelity.

Candidates are initiated into it by oath-taking, and duly entrusted with passgrips, passwords, and emblems.

But as oaths are seldom taken without some religious ceremony, and as they are taken in the name of the god most revered by the people, the heathen takes his oath at the shrine of the god best known to him, which naturally to a Christian, Jew, or Moslem is abominable, as it is idolatrous.

This part and this part alone constitutes the religious phase of the fraternity.

Generally the Ogboni fraternity has not within its province the political control of any town, nor does it arrogate to itself its legislature.

The ruler of the craft is as distinct from the king or a political chief as the Worshipful Master of a Masonic Lodge to the Sovereign of a country.

But in some places where the fraternity is patronised by kings and chiefs who have been impressed with the unshaken fidelity of the constituents of the craft and have learnt to respect them, certain judicial concessions were made to its distinguished personnel equivalent to the appointment of J.P.'s of civilised places.

The members of this fraternity, by virtue of the oaths taken and consequent bond of fellowship, claim the right of seeing the last of a brother and depositing his remains in the bosom of mother earth, and this they could not be doing according to the heathen rite, which entails much feasting and slaughtering of animals in sacrifice, eventually plunging the family and relatives of the deceased into the quagmire of heavy debt.

This and other extraneous practices mentioned inter alia above, the Christian Ogboni Fraternity, in the light of civilised fraternities, expunged, substituting Christian for the decidedly objectionable heathen custom that found its way to this wonderfully helpful craft, and thus made it become a precious jewel compared with the same jewel in the dust.

In the early days missionaries who studied the principles of the Ogboni craft at close quarters, particularly in Abeokuta, permitted not only the Christians but also native clergy and spiritual teachers, for the sake of convenience, to be initiated into its mysteries.

Indeed, veteran missionaries, among whom were the late Rev. J. Townsend, J. B. Wood, and V. Faulkner, were said to be initiated into the Ogboni mysteries in Abeokuta. 

No Christian was ever disciplined for being an Ogboni.

NOTE

This is an exclusive excerpt from the Journal of the African Society. v.16 1916-17