PRINCE ATIBA: HIS EARLY LIFE AND HISTORY

Prince Atiba was the son of King Abiodun by an Akeitan woman. According to one account, he was born in the city of Oyo, his father died when he was but a child, and when Abiodun's children were being ill-treated by King Aole his mother fled with him to her own town in the country.

But another account was of a more romantic interest and is more probable, as being characteristic of that age. According to this account, his mother, a slave at Gudugbu, was given as a hostage to the Alâfin of Oyo. She had an intimate friend who was much distressed by this separation. After 8 or 10 weary months, she was resolved at all costs to go up to the city to visit her friend with whom she had been associated from childhood.

The Gudugbu hostage was too insignificant to be noticed among the crowd of women in the King's harem until this strange visit of her friend drew the King's attention to her. The visitor from the country loitering within the precincts of the palace was asking all whom she saw coming from the women's quarters to call her Eni-Olufan one of the King's wives, but no one knew who that was. At length King Abiodun was told that a woman from the country was asking for one of his wives, and this unusual incident aroused the King's curiosity.