Bode Thomas and the Alaafin
A brilliant young lawyer, an old king, and a rumour that outlived them both.
Walk down Bode Thomas Street in Surulere today and you'll pass banks, eateries and the steady Lagos traffic. Most people on that street have heard one thing about the man it's named after: that he barked like a dog until he died. Let's sit down together and look at that story properly, at what we know, what people believed, and why the legend stuck.
A young man in a hurry
Olabode Akanbi Thomas was born in Lagos in October 1919, into a family with roots in Oyo. He trained as a lawyer in Britain, and when he came home in 1948 he started a law firm with two other future giants, Rotimi Williams and Remilekun Fani-Kayode. It was called Thomas, Williams and Kayode.
He moved fast in politics too. He had been part of the Nigerian Youth Movement, became legal adviser to the Yoruba cultural body Egbe Omo Oduduwa, and helped Obafemi Awolowo found the Action Group, where he became deputy leader. He was one of the first to argue that strong regional parties were the way to build Nigeria. He also pushed for traditional rulers to be brought into the party. In 1952, still in his early thirties, he became one of Nigeria's first ministers, holding the transport portfolio.
In 1949 he was also given a chieftaincy title, Balogun of Oyo. Remember that title, because it matters for what comes next. Traditionally, a Balogun serves the Alaafin, the king of Oyo.
The meeting in Oyo
By 1953 the old order and the new were rubbing against each other. Under the new local government system, Bode Thomas had become chairman of the Oyo Divisional Council, and the Alaafin, Oba Adeyemi II, then in his sixties, sat on it as an ordinary member. Think about how strange that was. The king's own Balogun was now presiding over the king.
There was politics underneath, too. Bode Thomas sided with members of the Oyo Mesi (the kingmakers' council) who opposed the Alaafin over taxes meant to pay for schools and health care. The Alaafin, unusually for a Yoruba ruler of the time, leaned toward Nnamdi Azikiwe's NCNC rather than the Action Group.
The story goes that on 22 November 1953, when Bode Thomas walked into a council meeting, everyone stood up except the Alaafin. Bode Thomas is said to have rebuked the old king publicly for not rising to greet him. The Alaafin's reply, as it is usually retold, was simple and cutting. In Yoruba it was roughly: "Is it me you are barking at like that? Go on barking."
Fever, and a rumour
Bode Thomas fell ill very soon afterwards and died on 23 November 1953. He was 34, and it was his daughter's second birthday. Within days, people across Yorubaland were telling one version of events: he had gone home and barked through the night, like a dog, until the king's words took his life. Some whispered about poison instead.
Here is where a careful historian slows down. His friend and personal doctor, Dr Moses Majekodunmi, who later became a federal minister himself, wrote about those last days in his autobiography. In his account, Bode Thomas developed a fever in Oyo, came back to Lagos in a borrowed council lorry, and was delirious on the road, which frightened his mother. He then gathered his mother, his wife and the doctor and asked that no medicine be given to him unless his doctor approved it. That's a picture of a man with a serious fever. It isn't a tale of barking.
Even the small details don't fully agree. Some accounts say he died at home in Lagos, while others say he was taken to Ijebu-Igbo for treatment and died there. We note both, because a good archive shows you where the sources disagree.
So why does the legend live on?
Because it carries a lesson that many Yoruba listeners already believed: you do not humble an elder, and certainly not a king, in public. A sudden death right after a public quarrel was all the proof the story needed. The legend became a way of talking about respect, power and the clash between new politicians and old thrones.
The quarrel didn't end with his death, either. Tensions between the Alaafin and the Action Group-led Western Region government kept growing, and in 1954 Oba Adeyemi II was deposed and sent into exile.
Sources
- "Bode Thomas." Wikipedia. Life, career, Balogun title, council role, death date. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bode_Thomas
- "Did Bode Thomas bark to death? Verdict by Majekodunmi, his doctor." The NEWS, 31 Jan 2021. Quotes Dr M. A. Majekodunmi's autobiography, My Lord, What a Morning. thenewsnigeria.com.ng
- "The story of Bode Thomas, the iconic Nigerian lawyer who 'died barking like a dog after insulting a king'." Face2Face Africa. The popular account, the law firm, the political background. face2faceafrica.com
- "Story of Bode Thomas, the Nigerian lawyer who barked to death after insulting Alaafin of Oyo." OldNaija, 2 Dec 2019. The council meeting, the Alaafin's words, the poison rumour. oldnaija.com
Retold originally for Naija Tales. Dates were cross-checked across at least two sources, and where the sources disagree we say so. Spotted an error? Tell us.