The Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Abimbola Akeem Owoade has paid historic visit to the Bamgbose family in Bahia, Brazil, where elders of Pilão de Pratal traced their ancestry to Oyo Kingdom.
According to Bode Durojaiye, the director of Media and Publicity to the Alaafin, the visit demonstrates affirmation of shared history, ancestry, identity, and the enduring legacy of Ọ̀yọ́ Kingdom among Afro-Brazilian communities that have preserved Yorùbá civilisation across generations.
He said the Alaafin's visit further underscores the growing cultural relationship between Nigeria and Brazil, where millions continue to preserve the Yorùbá traditions through Candomblé, language, music, festivals, and ancestral practices.
Durojaiye also disclosed that the visit united traditional rulers, Ifa priests, Ìyálórìṣà, Babalórìṣà, scholars, community leaders, and hundreds of Afro-Brazilians in what many described as a symbolic homecoming between the Kingdom of Ọ̀yọ́ and descendants of Yorùbá ancestors whose traditions have endured in Brazil for generations.
He added that the the occasion highlighted the extraordinary resilience of Afro-Brazilian culture more than a century after separation from their ancestral homeland.
The statement noted that families such as the Bamgboses have continued to preserve their names, customs, rituals, and historical memories that maintain a living connection with Ọ̀yọ́.
Clad in magnificent crimson royal regalia associated with the legacy of Ṣàngó, Durojaiye said Oba Owoade made a commanding entrance that immediately captivated the gathering.
"As the sound of traditional drums filled the air, Oba Owoade was welcomed with resounding chants of “Kábíyèsí!”, “Ṣàngó Olúkòso!”, and other royal praises," he said.
The director also noted that the atmosphere was deeply emotional with attendees describing the occasion as witnessing the living continuity of the Aláàfìn’s sacred institution, which remains inseparable from the historical legacy of Ṣàngó in Yorùbá civilisation.
Elders of Terreiro Pilão de Prata publicly spoke about the Bamgbose family’s ancestral origins, drawing upon oral traditions carefully preserved within the community to affirm the family lineage to ancient Ọ̀yọ́ Empire.
According to Durojaiye, the public acknowledgement by the Bamgbose lineage before the Aláàfìn transformed the visit into a moving reunion between descendants of Africa and one of the continent’s oldest surviving royal institutions.
Elders expressed hope that the Aláàfìn’s historic tour would encourage deeper academic collaboration, cultural exchange, heritage preservation, and stronger bonds between both sides of the Atlantic.
In his address, the Alaafin expressed dismay at the extent to which the Yoruba have sold out their own culture and adopted foreign gods.
"As a people, our culture, politics and religious experience have been extremely unfulfilled. The Yorubas are now falling in the same condition through which the African Americans had allowed themselves to be seduced by preachers of a foreign gospel.
"We know that the universalist inspiration which has come to the Yoruba through Christianity and Islam has reduced their concern or allegiance to their own god and by extension to their own nationality.
"The Yoruba will be very much reduced in their political, cultural and spiritual development by their seduction into these alien religions. Concerted efforts must be intensified at increasing inspiration to become national or to recognise nationhood," Oba Owoade noted.
He added, "So with that, we see the Yoruba in the diaspora, as it is popularly called, to be the Yoruba that will greatly guide and influence the Yoruba in the ancient homeland, who for the most part are tending to move away from a sense of preservation of their own culture and tradition, particularly religion".
Oba Owoade maintained that the time had ripped for Yoruba at home and in the Diaspora to start partnering for development.
"Without doubt, we can find strength in unity. This has become imperative so that whenever our brothers and sisters in Diaspora come home, they won’t be complainers about how things are not working, but rather, they would see themselves as partners and partakers in the overall development for a better future of their home land," the foremost monarch said.
He stressed that in this technology-driven age when the whole world has virtually dissolved into a global village, meaningfully partnering is a foundation for success.
He highlighted such collaboration to provision of intellectual, technological, communication and marketing plans for the homeland as required for modern transformation.
The reception reinforced the expanding cultural dialogue between traditional institutions in Nigeria and the African diaspora in Brazil.
Elders expressed the hope that the Aláàfìn’s historic tour would encourage deeper academic collaboration, cultural exchange, heritage preservation, and stronger bonds.
Other historic places visited by the Alaafin included the oldest Òrìṣà House in Salvador where the Brazilians celebrated Olúkòso, and the Brazilians of Ìjesa Descent in Salvador, Bahia, at the130-year-Old Ilé-Àṣẹ Kálẹ̀ Òbòkún-Ìjèṣà, among others.
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