Assassination in Beaufort County? Man killed in African Village stabbing was king of tribe

Monday’s fatal stabbing at the Oyutunji African Village in northern Beaufort County will likely send shockwaves across a small subculture of the U.S.: The murder victim was an internationally recognized ruler of the Yoruba, a centuries-old West African ethnic group with cultural communities across North America.

Adegbolu Abiogemo Adefunmi II, 47, was pronounced dead at 3:32 p.m. Monday at Beaufort Memorial Hospital from multiple stab wounds, according to the Beaufort County Coroner’s Office. He was known as the village’s “Oba,” which translates to “ruler” in the language of Yoruba.

Oyotunji’s official website names Adefunmi as the King of the Yoruba of North America, a title he inherited from his father. Up to 2,000 people are expected to attend his funeral, which has not yet been scheduled.

The woman charged with Adefunmi’s murder is his sister, 52-year-old Akiba Kasale Meredith, according to sheriff’s office spokesperson Master Sgt. Danny Allen. As of Tuesday afternoon, investigators would not say if the killing was motivated by village politics or arose from another type of dispute.

Adefunmi took over as the village’s ruler in 2005 following the death of his father, Oba Adefunmi I, who founded the Oyotunji African Village in 1973. The 10-acre community started with no plumbing or electricity and aimed for self-sustainability, although those utilities were later added and villagers buy many of their goods from the outside, according to previous reporting from the Beaufort Gazette.

Although the community was home to over 200 people at its height in the 1970s, Oyotunji’s current population is believed to consist of less than 10 families. It’s meant to emulate modern-day African villages of the Yoruba religion, which dates back to the first millennium in what is now Nigeria, Benin and Togo. Traveling down the dirt road off U.S. 17 that leads to the village, visitors are greeted with a sign reading, “You are now leaving the U.S. You are entering the Yoruba Kingdom.”

“Oyotunji became a hub of African culture in the United States,” Adefunmi told the Beaufort Gazette in 2009. “It’s a snapshot of what the African village and life is like. People suffering from cultural amnesia find themselves at our gates.”

Thought to be the oldest authentic African village in North America, the settlement drew attention from a “60 Minutes” camera crew in 1986 for its curious practices: Male leaders of the Oyotunji are known to practice polygamy, and some villagers follow Nigerian custom by intentionally scarring children’s faces as a mark of identity. Adefunmi himself bore long, visible scars on both cheeks as a result of that practice.

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