1918 Adubi War: My grandfather's Story

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"Ma yin e pelu Ota ibon", he jokingly brags in Yoruba language as he tries to roll the wheels of his wheel chair. My grandfather was stuck on a wheelchair for the last part of his years. He was popularly called "Old Soldier" by everyone even his own children got acclimatised to the name. One thing he hated was cheating or bribery.

One evening, when we paid him a visit, my cousins and I gathered around him and asked him how he got the gun he hung on the wall in his bedroom. My grandfather told us how he fought the famous Adubi War. The Adubi war is a very popular event that happened in the history of Nigeria in 1918.It is a very popular war as it one of the first anti-whitesupremacy war in the country. Adubi war happened in Egbaland (presently called Abeokuta) when local natives stood against British soldiers when the British imposed a direct taxation method on them. The war started when the second-in-command to the people of Egbaland called Awapè charged the youths to oppose the direct tax system. My grandfather was among the youths that stood up against the British soldiers. During the war, my headed a group of youths that kidnapped the secretary to the Commandant of the British army at the entrance of the city where they were stationed. He described how he and his battalion made spiritual fortifications to protect themselves against gun shots. It was at the war, he rescued my grandmother from the British army. The youths destroyed so many properties established by the British with the use of native guns and charms.

My grandfather tells the story with joy and makes emphasis on how he shot a British soldier on the Leg and how he held his gun. Till his death, he never admitted that they lost the war as historians claim.

Ma yin e pelu ota Ibon means I would shoot you with my gun

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