An ethnic group in Atakpame, Togo, hold on to a distinct
brand of Yoruba they inherited from their forefathers, writes
AKEEM LASISI, just back from the West African country
Denise Fantchede would have been a Nigerian but for an
accident of history. She would, most likely, have been an
indigene of Ile-Ife in Osun State. But she is a native of
Atakpame, a community in Togo and one of those whose
ancestors migrated to the West African country when tribal
wars raged in the 17th century.
Yet, the same history that changed the course of her descent
has made her multilingual.
Fantchede speaks French, which is Togo’s official language.
She speaks English, which she learnt in school and in
neighbouring Ghana. She is also fluent in Ewe, one of the
indigenous languages in Atakpame. Most importantly, her
mother tongue is Ife, which some scholars would call Ife
Togo, an ‘independent’ Yoruba dialect spoken by the
majority of Atakpame indigenes, who trace their origins to
Ile-Ife.
Like Atakpame, like Idanre
In terms of landmark, Atakpame shares some similarities
with Ibadan and Abeokuta. While the capital cities of Oyo
and Ogun States flaunt the Olumo Rock and Oke Ibadan as
their ancestral symbols, respectively, Atakpame, a
settlement town that is about 160 kilometres away from
Lome, the Togolese capital, defines its origin by seven
mountains that surround it.
Just like many other towns in Yorubaland, where myths are
explored to trace the people’s roots, Atakpame’s history is
not complete without reference to the mountains. According
to some elders of the town, the rocks played supernatural
roles when the natives were engaged in battles with other
ethnic groups. This is how Atakpame also shares
topographical and historical similarities with Idanre, Ondo
State, a town famed for the huge and acrobatic mountains
that surround it.
According to Fantchede, Ife Togo is widely used in Atakpame
because the people, who trace their descent to Ile-Ife, are
the dominant group there. She, however, expresses concern
over the future of the language because not many young
people speak it.
She says, “The number of young people who speak Ife here
is decreasing because of changes in the society and the fact
that it is not taught in schools. But I speak it any time I have
the opportunity to do so. Our elders also use it constantly.”
Strange bed fellows
As a result of the entrenched cross-fertilisation that Ife Togo
has had with French, Ewe, et cetera, it is easier for the
Yoruba in Lome, Cotonou and Ajase, among others, to
understand one another than for the immigrant Yorubas in
Lome to understand Ife Togo speakers in Atakpame – and
vice versa.
A Yoruba scholar, Dr. Felix Fabunmi, notes that a language
that is spoken by many people, such as Yoruba, usually has
dialects that may differ from one another. In a research he
conducted on Ife numerals, the lecturer at the Obafemi
Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, acknowledges Ife Togo, Ife
Benin, Tsabe, Ajase and Idaatsa, which he describes as
Yoruboid, being “the mother tongues of speech communities
whose forefathers migrated from Nigeria to Dahomey, now
Republic of Benin.” This invariably covers the brand spoken
in Togo, too.
Fabunmi notes in a study titled ‘Vigesimal Numerals on Ife
(Togo) and Ife (Nigeria) Dialects of Yoruba’, “Today, the
capital of Ife (Togo) is Atakpame. The Ifè (Togo) dialect of
Yoruba is spoken by approximately 90,000 people in
Atakpame and the speakers stretch from the Benin
boundary up to Atakpame in Togo.
“The majority of these Ife settlers migrated from Ija-Oku in
former Dahomey into the Togolese territory and
subsequently founded the city of Atapkame.
“There are several other early settlers or ethnic groups in
Atakpame, such as Fon, Ewe, Aposo, Kabrelosso and
Ketokoli, but the people of Seti, Jama and Igberiko are
predominantly Ife. Other Ife (Togo) villages where speakers
of Ife reside include Alabata, Okutaya, Efujaye, Oko Asade,
Asoko Ayepada and Yanmosile.”
Ife Togo is well tone-marked
Yoruba is a tonal language, comprising the high, mid and
low tones. That is how a word such as ‘odo’ can mean
different things as the tone changes. These include odo
(mortar), odo (river) and odo (zero). Also, ‘ere’ can be
translated as play, sculpture and profit in different contexts
and with different tonal marks, just as ‘agbon’ can be a word
for basket, coconut or wasp.
Investigation by our correspondent reveals that the Ife Togo
dialect retains the tonal property of the Yoruba language.
Apart from the inflexions that the natives interviewed
demonstrate in their speeches, words in the books that our
correspondent bought in Atakpame are duly tone-marked.
Perhaps the only difference is that the mid tone, which is no
more marked in the modern Nigerian Yoruba language, is
still marked in Ife Togo.
Indeed, our observation also shows that Ife Togo has not
responded to the series of orthographical changes that the
standard Yoruba has experienced, especially since the early
1970s. As a result, while Yoruba grammar now forbids the
collocation of two consonants in a word, which makes Offa,
Otta, Oshogbo and Ogbomosho to be written nowadays as
Ofa, Ota, Osogbo and Ogbomoso, Ife Togo still flaunts words
such as nwon (they), itsu (yam) and Atakpame itelf!
As another Yoruba scholar, Mr. Mudasir Alabi, however,
notes, Ife Togo is as rich as any other dialect of the
language. Based on his observation in some of the books, he
notes that what it may also have lost in terms of the words
that the standard Yoruba borrowed from English and other
Nigerian languages, it has gained through its relationship
with French and other languages in Atakpame and Togo in
general.
“But I could also see that Ife Togo uses phonological
symbols in its writing of Yoruba vowels and consonants like
‘o’ and ‘j’,” Alabi says.
Highly imagistic
Our correspondent further observes that the Atakpame
variant of Yoruba is also imagistic. A review of the Ife Togo
Bible and other story books bought by our correspondent
that it is deep enough to produce a rich literature and
writers the way the Yoruba Language has produced great
works and writers that include Wole Soyinka, Niyi Osundare,
Amos Tutuola, Olawuyi Ogunniran and Lanrewaju Adepoju.
Our investigation does not reveal any major writer in Ife
Togo, but we came across artistes, especially singers who
have popularised the language in their works. Among them
is Victor Star, who has released several albums, including
‘Nonu-Etse-Yeesu’, which can be translated as ‘Thank You
Jesus’.
“She is a very popular singer in Atakpame. Many people like
her and she uses Ife in most of her songs,” Fanknede says.
Our correspondent also visited a pharmacy shop operated
by Kujo Akpo, where Ife si the medium of communication
with customers.
Like the Red Sea
Nagbe Kotannoa is very proud of the exploits of the
forefathers of the Ife people of Atakpame. A historian,
culture promoter and musician, Kotannoa is, in Atakpame,
synonymous with the Tchebe traditional art, whose features
are largely traceable to what obtains among the Yoruba in
Nigeria. Particularly, he promotes the pole dance, a variant
of what the Yoruba call ‘ageere’. In different parts of South-
West Nigeria, ageere dancers entertain people at socio-
cultural events, just as some of them work with
masqueraders.
Kotannoa, who worked in collaboration with Emmanuel
Lambert to produce ‘Thebe: Danse Traditional au Togo’, a
book that documents the activities of Tchebe dancers,
agrees with the authorities that trace the history of Ife Togo
to Ile-Ife, Nigeria.
According to Kotannoa, he and his people were, in the past,
referred to as ‘Anago’. But they rejected the term because
they believe it is derogatory. So, they opted for Ife, which
describes both the people and the variant of Yoruba they
speak.
He says, “Ife people came from Egypt. But our ancestors and
scholars also noted that we first got to Ile-Ife in Nigeria. Our
fathers lived in Ile-Ife for many years. Many of them were
babalawos (native doctors) and hunters. The tribal wars
sacked them from Ile-Ife.”
Kotannoa adds that while some people stayed in Nigeria, the
Ife Togo’s forefathers left. First, they settled in Benin
Republic, but had to move on when another war broke out.
He narrates the exploits of the adventurers in the bush,
including their encounter with a strange being called Akuda,
who relished dancing mesmerisingly on top of a tree.
According to him, Akuda was a one-eyed, one-breasted and
a one-legged being. A spiritualist would later tell them that
anytime they had a problem, all they needed to do was to
dance Akuda’s Thebee dance. The ‘drug’ became so potent
for them that even when they wanted to celebrate any
season, Akuda’s dance was top on the menu. Of course, the
dance, till today, features in Ife Togo’s annual New Yam
Festival.
Kotannoa adds that when war eventually pushed the people
to the present location in Togo, which had yet to be named
Atakpame then, they met the Udu people, said to be of
Ghanaian origin. But they were later outnumbered by the
Nigerian migrants.
Eventually, a prominent tree called Atakpara, from where
the people get chewing stick till today, inspired a name that
all the tribes agreed could define them.
“Atakpara was adjusted to Atakparame until it was finally
shortened to Atakpame,” Kotannoa notes.
The Ife in Togo also pay homage to the seven mountains –
especially the Oke Ekpa, the way natives of Ibadan pay
homage to Okebadan (Ibadan Mountain) and the Egba
salute Olumo Rock in Nigeria.
Kotannoa explains that at a point the fight became heated,
the Mount Ekpa opened and allowed the Ife Togo people to
pass through to the other side. It closed as soon as the last
person crossed.
He adds, “When the enemies got there, the mountain
opened again, but immediately swallowed all of them. It
swallowed them like the Red Sea. So, whenever we want to
celebrate Odun Itshu – the Yam Festival – our men go to Oke
Ekpa to perform the ceremony,” Kotannoa enthuses.
He gives the names of the other mountains as Oke Ologbo,
Akposo, Omi Kosi, Agama, Aru Egidigbe and Batabali.
A visit to the mountains by our correspondent showed that
they surround the town, which corroborates Kotannoa’s
assertion that they serve as a wall of defence for the people.
Not much is, however, going on there, perhaps in terms of
the need to really turn them into tourist attractions.
Echoes of Oyo Empire
While official figures say Atakpamé is the fifth largest city in
Togo by population (84,979 inhabitants in 2006), sources
identify the ‘Battle of Atakpame’ as one of the major wars
the people fought in 1764. That year, the town had played
host to a clash between “the rebellious Akyem vassal state
with the help of Yoruba mercenaries of the Oyo Empire and
the Dahomeans against the forces of the Ashanti Empire
under their Asantehene , Kosi Oboadum.
“The result of the battle was a crushing defeat of the Ashanti
forces and the death of their Juabenhene (head of one of
the royal clans). The repercussion of this defeat by the Oyo
Empire was the destoolment of Kusi Obodum, who was
replaced by a much younger and charismatic Asantehene,
Osei Kwadwo Okoawia,” an online source says.
However, there are no indications that the Yoruba in
Atakpame in any way pay allegiance to or maintain any
relationship with the Oyo heritage in Nigeria. But our
correspondent saw sights and sounds of Yorubaland,
including ‘real’ pounded yam (and not mechanised poundo
yam), moinmoin and akara, which were on sale, as part of
the cultural heritage of the Ife Togo people that their
ancestors must have taken from Ife.
Here, names also have meanings
In Yoruba, as is obtainable in many other African languages,
most native names have meanings and are usually symbolic.
‘Babawale’ means ‘Our father has returned home’. That is
why it is usually given to a boy born after the passage of a
father in the family. Its feminine counterpart is ‘Yetunde’,
‘Yewande’ or ‘Iyabo’, names given to a girl born after the
death of a mother.
Atakpame people of Yoruba origin still keeps this tradition.
For instance, Kotannoa says his full name is ‘Afo-kotana’ or
‘Afo-kotan-ninu’, meaning when people talk or say
something, a lot is still buried in their stomachs (minds).
Also. Agounkey explains that his name literally suggests ‘Ma-
gun-mi-ke’, suggesting ‘Ma-gun-mi-ni-kese’ – ‘Don’t push me
too much’ or ‘don’t push me with your elbow’, or,
metaphorically, ‘don’t push me to the wall/‘don’t provoke
me’.
Playing politics with Ife?
Although Kotannoa concedes that Ife Togo is neither official
nor taught in schools, he believes that the language cannot
die. While this contrasts with Fentchede’s position, who fears
that a language not embraced by the elite is endangered,
Kotannoa says, “Ife already dominates other languages in
Atakpame. Even Udu people now speak Ife. But Ife people
don’t speak Udu.”
Experts have argued that it is not possible to separate
language from politics. So it seems for Ife Togo and the local
politics in Atakpame.
Since Ife people trace their roots to Ile-Ife in Nigeria, one
would expect that they would physically maintain their link
with their origin. But this does not seem to be so. Chatting
with Kotannoa, for instance, our correspondent wondered
why Atakpame did not send any delegation to Ile-Ife when
the new Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi, was recently
installed. His response indicates that Ife Togo would
ordinarily want to oil its link with Yorubas in Nigeria, but
there are some political issues at home.
According to him, some politicians in Atakpame, at a point,
wanted to fly sentiments that the Ife Togo people were not
Togolese but Nigerians. Because this could weaken the Ife
Togo people’s chances, they, too, have learnt not to take
steps that their opponents could exploit to campaign against
them.
Church to the rescue
Recalling that it was Bishop Samuel Ajayi Crowther that
translated the Bible into Yoruba, it is interesting to find out
that a Christian organisation is in the forefront of the
propagation of Ife Togo in Atakpame. The group, the
Association Chretienne pour l’Alphabetisation et la
Traduction de la Bible en Langue Ife (the Christian
Association for Bible Translation and Literacy Programmes)
otherwise called ACATBLI, organises tutorials in the
language, with a focus on people who never had the
opportunity to acquire or learn it before.
As Crowther did, one of the main achievements of the non-
governmental organisation is the translation of the Bible
into Ife Togo. Titled ‘Iwe-Odaye Imole-Ikannyi’ (Iwe Idaye
Imole Ikeyin, that is The New Testament), the 635-page
publication is already in the hands of many people, with
ACATBLI’s Director, Kaleb Agounkey, saying only 2,000 copies
are now in stock, from the 11,000 produced in 2009.
The organisation’s literacy programmes are also being
supported with several other books it has published. Among
them are ‘Les Peuples Ife et Leur Origine’ – being a
comparative analysis of Ife Togo and an ancient Egyptian
language; ‘Obe Dictionnaire Ife-Francais’, which is an Ife
Togo-French dictionary.
While there are also several publications on different books
of the Bible, one other major lecture books produced by
ACATBLI is ‘Gbale-ee Tana o Gba Ona’ – ‘Gbale ki o to Gba
Ona’, literally meaning ‘sweep your home before you sweep
the road’. The idea here is to help Ife Togo people to protect
their identity even when they have to promote other values.
Agounkey says the project was started by partners who
came together in 1981. They began by developing the
phonetics and phonology of Ife Togo. The project covers
Bible translation, literacy and social development.
The director says the training that the centre gives to people
is not free, but it gets some funding from some
organisations, which it uses to settle some of the bills.
He adds, “When one of our partners who came from Sweden
went back to her country, she helped in getting some
funding from the Swedish government and other
organisations. We also work with Ife people who work in
other parts of Togo and Benin, because the area they occupy
is very large.”
Agounkey says ACATBLI teaches 3,000 people Ife annually
and it has, since the beginning of the campaign, trained up
to 25,000 people in the art of speaking and writing the
language.
“I am glad that a lot of people and the language are gaining
from our efforts. Other tribes have published and dedicated
their own New Testaments, but no one buys them.
“In our own case, many people, especially those from
different churches such as the Catholic, Anglican and Deeper
Life, use ours. Some congregations and a church like the
Deeper Life conduct all their programmes in Ife – their
sermons, songs and all. Many churches who conduct theirs
in French interpret it in Ife,” the director notes.
While ACATBLI holds some programmes at its centre where
it also operates a library and runs a printing section for its
publications, its men go round to teach the language in
various places. They also train leaders or representatives of
churches, associations and other groups, who go back to
teach their members. The challenges the institution faces,
the director says, include inadequate funding, apathy on the
part of the ‘new generation’ to work for God and health
hazards to which his workers are exposed when moving
from one place to another.
Nigerian films subtitled in Ife
Unlike Atakpame politicians, Agounkey hopes to network
with Nigeria. He will, therefore, welcome any initiative that
can make that happen. Specifically, he wants to work with
Nigerian film and music producers in such a way that
ACABTLI can translate their works into Ife Togo. He believes
there is a market waiting to absorb that.
But, while Agounkey is genuinely expecting that, some
pirates may have started reaping where they did not sow in
this regard. Our correspondent visited some film and music
shops in Atakpame, where he found out that several
Nigerian works are not only on sale, some of them have also
been translated or subtitled in French, Ife and some other
Togolese and Beninois languages – under very suspicious
circumstances.
Among the works sighted and bought by the journalist are
‘Ameka ye L’adem’ (featuring the likes of Funke Akindele and
Ini Edo); ‘Jalousie’ (Aki and Pawpaw) and ‘Flavi
Tiata’ (featuring Olu Jacobs and other Nigerian actors).
Stressful trip
By road, a trip from Nigeria to Togo ought to be fun-filled.
Ordinarily, it should give a traveller the opportunity to
experience three West African countries, with Republic of
Benin in the middle of the three.
He wants to sit by the window of the bus to see villages, see
people selling different things by the road side and have
access to one or two things he would like to buy. If he is a
nature freak, he wants to smell the flora and fauna of
different African towns and villages.
But that may really not be on an international route like the
Lagos-Cotounu-Lome. As this correspondent experienced, a
lot of fun killers are waiting for the dreamer almost
everywhere. First, how can a journey calculated to last six
hours, which eventually lasts 10 hours or more, spin
excitement? Within Lagos, it took one about three hours to
reach the bus terminus in Mile 2, the Cotounu-Badagry end
of the geography, from the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway end
the journalist took off from.
At Mile 2, we had to spend some four hours as the bus
endlessly waited for passengers. Yet, when we eventually left
Mile 2, we were filled with the hope that within six hours, we
would be in Lome. But two hours after, the bus still did not
get to Badagry, not to talk of Cotounu, as the road was
bedevilled by traffic jams.
Between Badagry and Lome, the bus had to stop many
times, at checkpoints where the principal target of security
guys is money, money and more money. Even at the
borders where Customs and other agents are waiting like
hungry lions, many passengers had to part with various
sums of un-receipted cefas.
The story was the same when this correspondent was
returning from Togo. For one, be it at Seme or Cotounu-
Lome boundary, West African borders are so rowdy, porous
and corrupt that one could be tempted to think that the
region is a million years away from civilisation.
