Osupa was born in Akure at some point in the late 18th century. He was the son of Arakale, the Oba that ruled their family's state from 1768 to 1818, and through him claimed hereditary kinship with all of the preceding rulers of both Akure and the neighbouring kingdoms of Ijeshaland and Ikereland. Through his mother, who was a daughter of Oba Akengbuda of Benin, he also claimed direct descent from the imperial dynasty that had provided the Oba of Benin since the medieval period, and through it could therefore trace his lineage all the way back to antiquity. As a result, he bore the orikiOgiso Otolu Apaara during his subsequent reign. In around 1818, the Benin empire invaded Akure, executed Arakale and carted away a number of hostages. Osupa was one of them, and he thereafter was forced to spend an extended period at the court of his maternal relatives in Benin City.
Reign
By the time that Osupa was allowed to return home by the Binis, his kingdom was in need of a king. With the support of the Ado Akure, a community of Akures that - like him - had ancestral links to Benin, he contested for the throne and was successfully chosen as the 34thDeji of Akure in 1834. Following his coronation, one of his first acts was to settle his fellow Ado Akures in the Igbeyin and Eyinke quarters of the town. He also bestowed chieftaincy titles upon them at this time, thus for the first time integrating into Akure a community that had been seen up to that point as everything from a colony to an army of occupation. Osupa then went on to establish Akure as an important vassal state of the Benin empire. His regular payment of tribute to the Benin palace started a tradition that lasted until the reign of his son Odundun I later in the century.
Death and legacy
Osupa died in 1846. After the reign of his son Adegboro Adeagbo, who became Oba Odundun, his direct lineage wouldn't produce another monarch for the duration of the succeeding century. In the early 1990s, the Osupa family was recognized as one of the official ruling houses of the Akure Kingdom by the military administration of Ondo State. It has since provided two further monarchs, including current incumbent Oba Odundun II. A prominent member of the Osupa royal family is OloyeOlu Falae, who is Oba Osupa I's great great grandson. He was a civil servant and politician who served as secretary to the Government of the Federation during the administration of Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida. He also ran for the office of the president of Nigeria following the resumption of democracy in 1999. For a number of years, it was believed that another descendant of Oba Osupa I was Adepoju Adesina, who styled himself Osupa III of Akure and who ruled Akure from 2005 until he was deposed by the government in 2010. Many Akure historians have since suggested that he bribed his way to the throne in the first place by giving the kingmakers about 20 million naira. He supposedly couldn't prove how he was descended from Osupa I. The current head of the Osupa ruling house, Odundun II, who is Oba Osupa's 2nd great grandson through Osupa's son Odundun, has also said that he was never a member of the royal family.
