Oduduwa, Olofin Adimula, Emperor and Founding Father of the Yoruba people, phonetically written by his people as Odùduwà and sometimes contracted as Odudua or Oòdua, is generally held among the Yoruba to be the ancestor of the crowned Yoruba kings.Oral history of the Oyo-Yoruba recounts the coming of the Oba Oduduwa from the east, sometimes understood by some sources as the “vicinity” of Mecca, but more likely signifying the region of Ekiti and Okun sub-communities in northeastern Yorubaland/central Nigeria. Ekiti is near the confluence of the Niger and Benue rivers, and is where the Yoruba language is presumed to have separated from related ethno-linguistic groupings like Igala, Igbo, and Edo.