When Adeniran Adeyemi II ascended the throne of Oyo in 1945, he became Alaafin at a moment when Yoruba kingship stood at a crossroads. The title still carried centuries of cultural authority, ritual weight, and historical prestige, yet its practical power had been steadily reduced. Colonial administration, and later regional governance, now controlled the machinery of law, taxation, and enforcement. The palace remained revered, but decision making increasingly took place elsewhere.
This shift defined Adeyemi II’s reign. The Alaafin was no longer a ruler whose word carried final authority in political affairs. Instead, he occupied a symbolic and cultural position within a rapidly modernising political landscape. In this environment, the actions, relationships, and perceived loyalties of a traditional ruler could draw the attention of government officials and political leaders in ways unknown to earlier generations.
Royal lineage and the Alowolodu house
Adeniran Adeyemi II was a member of the Alowolodu royal lineage and a son of Adeyemi I Alowolodu, a nineteenth century Alaafin whose reign coincided with the final erosion of Oyo’s political independence. This lineage gave Adeyemi II unquestioned dynastic legitimacy. It also placed him within a historical sequence of rulers who governed during a period of diminishing royal autonomy.
By the mid twentieth century, succession to the Oyo throne remained rooted in tradition, but the authority exercised by the Alaafin operated within boundaries set by external political power. Adeyemi II inherited not only a crown, but the constraints that came with it.
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Accession in 1945 and the limits of royal power
King lists consistently place Adeyemi II’s accession in 1945. His reign unfolded during the late colonial period, when indirect rule had long reshaped Yoruba governance and when political mobilisation was accelerating across the Western Region.
The Alaafin remained central to cultural life in Oyo. Festivals, rituals, and palace institutions continued to affirm the throne’s importance. Yet in political terms, the monarchy no longer stood above the state. Administrative councils, regional governments, and political parties now possessed the authority to intervene in matters that once would have remained internal to the palace.
This tension, between enduring prestige and shrinking power, defined the environment in which Adeyemi II ruled.
Party politics reaches the palace
By the early 1950s, Western Region politics had become sharply polarised. Political parties competed for influence, loyalty, and symbolic support. In this climate, traditional rulers were no longer distant figures standing above political struggle. Their perceived alignments mattered.
Accounts of Adeyemi II’s downfall consistently link his crisis to suspicions that he sympathised with the National Council of Nigerian Citizens, the NCNC, at a time when the Action Group dominated Western Region politics. Whether through direct involvement or perceived association, the Alaafin came to be viewed as politically problematic by regional authorities.
The palace, once insulated from partisan conflict, found itself drawn into it. The result was a confrontation between inherited authority and modern political power.
Deposition and exile
The end of Adeyemi II’s reign is recorded in two closely related ways. Royal chronologies commonly list his reign as extending from 1945 to 1955. Political and biographical accounts, however, describe his deposition and exile as occurring in 1954, following escalating political tension in the Western Region.
These accounts describe a process in which the regional government acted against the Alaafin, removing him from the throne and sending him into exile, first away from Oyo and later to Lagos. The decision reflected the prevailing belief that traditional authority could no longer operate independently of the political order, particularly when a ruler was seen as interfering, or potentially interfering, in party politics.
What followed marked a decisive moment in Yoruba political history. A throne that had once symbolised supreme authority was overridden by the mechanisms of modern government.
Life after the throne and the survival of the institution
Adeyemi II’s removal did not end the Alaafin institution. Oyo’s monarchy continued through the late colonial period and into independence. Adeyemi II himself lived in exile until his death in 1960, largely removed from public political life.
His legacy, however, endured through lineage. His son, Lamidi Adeyemi III, later ascended the throne in 1970 and reigned until 2022, becoming one of the most prominent traditional rulers in modern Nigerian history. Through this succession, Adeyemi II remained an important historical reference point, not only as a deposed monarch, but as part of a continuous royal line that adapted to new political realities.
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What Adeniran Adeyemi II represents
Adeniran Adeyemi II represents a turning point in the relationship between traditional authority and modern governance in Yorubaland. His reign illustrates how a throne could remain culturally powerful while becoming politically vulnerable. His deposition shows how party politics and regional government authority reshaped the boundaries of kingship.
His story is not one of palace intrigue or folklore. It is the story of an institution confronting a new political order, and of a monarch whose reign reveals how power shifted in mid twentieth century Nigeria. In the age of party politics, even the Alaafin of Oyo could be overruled.
Author’s Note
Adeniran Adeyemi II’s life captures the moment when Yoruba kingship entered the full force of modern politics. Revered but constrained, legitimate yet vulnerable, his reign shows how inherited authority collided with party power in the Western Region. His fall was not the end of the Oyo monarchy, but a clear signal that governance had changed, and that tradition would now exist alongside, and sometimes beneath, the structures of the modern state.
References
List of Rulers of the Yoruba State of Oyo, entry for Adeyemi II Adeniran, accession 1945, reign listed 1945 to 1955, Wikipedia.
Lamidi Adeyemi III, ancestry and note on Adeyemi II’s deposition and exile in 1954, Wikipedia.
Obituary, Alaafin Adeyemi III and his extraordinary life of battles, Premium Times Nigeria, 2022.
A Tale of Two Alaafins, From Adeniran Adeyemi II to Lamidi Adeyemi III, Premium Times Opinion, 2018.
Academic discussion of Yoruba royal institutions and twentieth century governance, University of Cape Coast journal article.
Sacred kingship and modern government among the Yoruba, Social Evolution and History journal article.
