Orompoto
Orompoto (also spelled Oronpoto){{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OokYAAAAIAAJ&q=oronpoto|title=World history, Volume 1 (Volumes 3-4 of Oxford illustrated encyclopedia)|author1=Harry George Judge|author2=Robert Blake|publisher=Oxford University Press (University of Michigan)|year=1988|isbn= 9780198691358|page=266}} was an Alaafin of the Yoruba Oyo Empire, the first female Alaafin to be precise.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YFt0AAAAMAAJ&q=orompoto|title=The Yoruba in Transition: History, Values, and Modernity|author1=Toyin Falola|author2= Ann Genova|publisher=Carolina Academic Press (University of Michigan)|year=2006|
isbn= 9781594601347|page=427}}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bT_Da35lFvoC&q=Orompoto+alaafin+of+Oyo&pg=PA63|title=Modernity and Its Malcontents: Ritual and Power in Postcolonial Africa|author= Jean Comaroff, John L. Comaroff|publisher=University of Chicago Press|page=63|year= 1993|isbn=978-0-226-1143-92}}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RTGnPAB4puAC&pg=PA89|title=Women in the Yoruba Religious Sphere (McGill Studies in the History of Religions) |author=Oyeronke Olajubu|publisher=SUNY Press|year=2003|isbn= 9780791458860|page=89}}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Hw9uf7sRKtIC&q=orompoto+female&pg=PA101|title=Studies in World Affairs, Volume 1|author= Kulwant Rai Gupta|page=101|publisher=Atlantic Publishers & Dist|year=2006|isbn= 9788126904952}} The empire of which she ruled is located in what is modern day western and north-central Nigeria.
History
Orompoto was the sister of her predecessor, Eguguojo.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RlUBDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA179|title=African Gender Studies: A Reader|author=Oyèrónkẹ́ Oyěwùmí|publisher=Springer|page=178|year= 2005|isbn =9781137090096}} She became the first woman to become "king" of the Oyo in the imperial era, and the first woman since the pre-imperial ruler Yeyeori. Orompoto assumed the throne because there was no male successor within her family at the time.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Jfe9BAAAQBAJ&pg=PA84|title=Sex and the Empire That Is No More: Gender and the Politics of Metaphor in Oyo Yoruba Religion (Berghahn Series) |author=J. Lorand Matory|publisher=Berghahn Books|year=2005|page=84|isbn= 9781571813077}} She helped drive the Nupe from Oyo in 1555. Orompoto lived in the 16th century.{{cite web|url=http://www.oduavoice.com/blog/2017/06/03/chronology-of-oyo-kingdoms-alaafins/|website=Odua Voice|title=Chronology of Oyo Kingdom's Alaafins|access-date=February 23, 2018}}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4SEiBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA114|title=West Africa Before the Colonial Era: A History to 1850|author=Basil Davidson|publisher=Routledge|year=2014|isbn=9781317882657|page=114}}
Orompto was the second Oyo monarch to reign in the new capital of Igboho.{{Cite book|title=Sex and the empire that is no more : gender and the politics of metaphor in Oyo Yoruba religion|last=Matory, James Lorand|date=2005|publisher=Berghahn Books|isbn=1571813071|oclc=910195474}} Some traditions of the oral record hold that she was miraculously transformed into a man before assuming the throne there.
Orompoto used horses extensively in military battles and may have obtained them from Borgu.{{cite book|title=The History of the Yorubas, From the Earliest of Times to the Beginning of the British Protectorate|author=Samuel Johnson, Obadiah Johnson|page=161}} She was reportedly masterfully skilled on horseback, and created a specialized order of cavalry officers within her army that were subject to the Eso Ikoyi. The first of its kind, the cavalry was a force to be reckoned with in the various wars with Oyo's enemies. Considered a skillful warrior herself, she is said to have distinguished herself at the Battle of Illayi. While fighting her enemies there, she lost three war chiefs in quick succession, titleholders that are known as Gbonkas in Oyo. The third of them is believed to have fallen with his face locked in an unnerving grin. The enemies thought that he was still alive and was making a mocking gesture, and were overwhelmed by what they considered to be their inability to best the Oyo gbonkas.{{Cite journal|last=Smith|first=Robert|date=1965|title=The Alafin in Exile: A Study of the Igboho Period in Oyo History|journal=The Journal of African History|volume=6|issue=1|pages=57–77|doi=10.1017/s0021853700005338|issn=0021-8537}} They abandoned the battlefield thereafter, and the Oyo later claimed victory.
She was succeeded by Ajiboyede.
References
{{Reflist}}
{{Alaafins of Oyo}}
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Category:Women in 16th-century warfare
Category:16th-century Nigerian women
Category:16th-century Nigerian people
Category:History of women in Nigeria
Category:16th-century monarchs in Africa
Category:16th-century women rulers
Category:Yoruba queens regnant
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