Oduduwa

Odùduwà (Ooduwa, Odudua or Oòdua) was a Yoruba divine king, a creator deity (orisha) in the Yoruba religion, and the legendary figure who ushered in the classical period that later led to the foundation of the Ife Empire. His earthly origins are from the village of Oke Ora. According to tradition, he was the holder of the title of the Olofin of Ile-Ife, the Yoruba holy city. He ruled there briefly and also served as the progenitor of a number of independent royal dynasties in Yorubaland, with the praise names Olofin Adimula and Olofin Aye.

While archaeologists and historians estimate Oduduwa's kingly existence to the Late Formative Period of Ife (800-1000CE), indigenous Yoruba oral chronology more properly places Oduduwa's as well as Obatala's era somewhere in between the 9th and 7th centuries BCE much closer to the founding of Ile-Ife, as well as explains the name Oduduwa an Obatala are powerfully symbolic names, so many would be princes within the Yoruba medieval period would swiftly adopt it as a second name for clout and prestige. So ancient Oduduwa an Obatala most likely aren't the same as medieval Oduduwa and medieval Obatala based on indigenous oral history. Yoruba religious adherents take it one step further explaining spiritually Oduduwa, together with Obatala, are even seen to be aligned with creator divinities cloaked in human-form as old as the earth itself.

The etymological derivation of the Yoruba name "Oduduwa" is: Odu-ti-o-da-uwa (i.e. Odu-ti-o-da-iwa). This translates literally to: The great repository which brings forth existence.