"A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots" - Marcus Garvey.The manuscript of this book was written by Victoria Aikoroje (my late sister) driven by her passionate interest in tracing and establishing the origin of her people - the Ora people. Unfortunately, she could not publish the work because her life on earth was suddenly cut short. She died in 1984 aged 25 years.I took up the responsibility and task of publishing her manuscript into this book for the following reasons:*To keep alive the name and research work of the author. *To ensure that her valuable efforts to provide a credible narration of the history, origin, and culture of the Ora people are not wasted as a result of her demise.*To let the present and future generations of Ora people know where they came from and that because of their roots, they and their children are indeed "princes" and "princesses" who belong to the royal family of the great Benin kingdom as revealed by Victoria's research work.I have done very minimal edits to the original manuscript in order to rearrange the flow of the content for easy reading.The manuscript was dated April 1983 and for this reason, some aspects of the content of the book (as would be expected) have over the intervening period experienced social, political, geographical and economic changes. This calls for the reader to consider the text in the book from the perspective of the author writing her story during the aforementioned period. Please read, enjoy, be informed and intrigued.

A rich and accessible account of Yoruba history, society and culture from the pre-colonial period to the present.