The Story Of How Alaafin Ajaka Was Asked To Step Down For Sango

Around the year 1252, Basorun Erindinlogunagbonkosedaniifa, the head of the Oyo Mesi, approached Alaafin Ajuan, also known as Ajaka, who had succeeded Alaafin Oranyan, and advised him to step down.
As, according to the Oyo Mesi, Ajaka was too gentle to be an Alaafin of Oyo.

Unsurprisingly, the calm and gentle king acceded to the request. Unlike his father, Alaafin Oranyan, Ajaka was of a peaceful disposition who loved animal husbandry and encouraged it among the people.
Ajaka avoided wars with other kingdoms. In fact, he paid tribute to his cousin, Olowu, and was seen as weak by the Oyo Mesi.

Therefore, it was not startling that he stepped down. As a result, Ajaka relocated to Igboho where he remained in exile for the next seven years.
Immediately after Alaafin Ajaka stepped down, the Basorun and the kingmakers replaced him with his fearless and violent half-brother, Sango.

Alaafin Sango had a habit of emitting fire and smoke from his mouth.

His mother was the daughter of Elempe, a Nupe king, who formed an alliance with Oranyan by giving him his daughter as his wife. Thus, Sango was half-Nupe, half-Oyo. The new Alaafin never grew up to know his mother as she died when he was still a baby.
But Sango’s finger was thicker than his father’s waist.
The kingmakers who had coveted him to be the Alaafin because of his wild, warlike disposition and fiery temper to destroy his enemies, did not know what was in store for them.
His first act was to resist Olowu who took advantage of Sango’s youth by demanding tribute from him. But the fiery king refused and Olowu besieged Oko, the capital.

With volumes of smoke coming out of his mouth and nostrils, Olowu and his army were completely routed.
Therefore, with his fresh victory and other subsequent victories, Sango firmly established himself on the throne. He was, therefore, too joyous and became tyrannical.

With his smoke, fire and lightning, Sango greatly increased the dread his subjects had of him.
Sango reigned for seven years, the whole of which period was marked by his restlessness. He fought many battles and was fond of making charms. He was said to have the knowledge of some preparation by which he could attract lightning that one day killed his wives and his children.

All Oyo was now astir, not only to sympathise with the King, but also to tell him to step down as the people had an abhorrence for a King who was into making deadly charms.
The kingmakers could not take it anymore and the new Basorun, Salekuodi, boldly told Sango that the gods and the people had rejected him as Alaafin and he had to commit suicide. The Alaafin complied and hanged himself on a shea butter tree at Koso around the year 1259. His staunch followers later deified him as a god.

With shame in their eyes, the Oyo Mesi then recalled Ajaka, Sango's half-brother, from exile, and he once more held the reins of government. To this day, Alaafin Ajaka remains the only royal in the over 700-year history of Oyo to have ruled twice as king.
from Historyville on X