Queen Oluwo & St Perpetua

Professor Ekpo Eyo, a former head of the Nigerian museums system, narrates a curious oral tradition concerning Oni Oluwo, a distinguished Yoruba ruler. Apparently she was walking around the capital city of Ife when her regalia got splashed with mud. Oluwo was so upset by this that she ordered the construction of pavements for all the public and religious places in the city. Archaeology confirms that: “Pavements … are widespread in Africa. Potsherd pavements are the most common types of pavements known in West Africa … The most consistent reports about excavated pavements in West Africa have so far come from Ife, specifically the sites at: Oduduwa College, Lafogido, Ita Yemoo, Obalara’s Land and Woye Asiri Land.”

The pavements embellished the courtyards and often had altars built at the ends against walls. Peter Garlake adds that: “Many [of the pavements] had regular and geometric patterns, often emphasized by the incorporation of white quartz pebbles in their surface. Such pavements have been found on prehistoric sites from Tchad [sic] in the northeast to Togo in the west.”

When Christianity began to spread as a new religion, many Africans from Carthage and Numidia converted to it. The Roman authorities who ruled North Africa at that time were not pleased and developed a policy to combat the religion. On 17 July 180 AD, they executed the first martyrs of the African Church. Five women and seven men were put to death in a single day. The leader of the martyrs was a 22 year old woman called Perpetua. She was married and had a child. At a later date, a chapel was built for her memory in Carthage dedicated to St Perpetua. All twelve martyrs were Numidians, however, who were taken in chains to Roman-controlled Carthage to be tried and punished. Perpetua’s brother was also executed as was a slave-girl called Felicitas. She gave birth just before being put to death.