Babatunde Josèphe

"You agreed to stay and take Papa under your wing and train him in our ways. I know that you changed his life for the better."

―Eseosa, regarding Babatunde's meeting with Adéwalé.

Babatunde Josèphe (born 1738) was a member of the Saint-Domingue Brotherhood of Assassins. The son of the Assassin Adéwalé and Bastienne Josèphe, he eventually fathered a son named Eseosa, who also joined the Brotherhood. He is an ancestor to Milton Jones.

Biography

Early life

Conceived after a night of passion between his parents in Port-au-Prince, Babatunde initially grew up unaware of who his father was. Described as a "pleasant child", he later became a restless and wild teenager, so to keep him in line and out of trouble, his mother began telling him stories about his father Adéwalé, the Assassins, and their Creed.

In 1751, Babatunde met Adéwalé when the latter returned to Port-au-Prince to offer aid to victims of the great earthquake. Adéwalé took him under his wing and began training him to become an Assassin.

Joining the Assassins

"It is my hope that when your business in the colonies has concluded, you will return here. Help me reform our Brotherhood and make Saint-Domingue a home."

―Babatunde in a letter to Adéwalé, 1751.

Discovering the existence of the Saint-Domingue Assassins, led by the unstable Maroon Mentor François Mackandal, Adéwalé asked his son to keep watch on Mackandal during his absence, as the Assassin soon left Saint-Domingue in pursuit of the Master Templar Lawrence Washington, who had stolen two precious artifacts from Mackandal's camp. Babatunde did so and joined Mackandal's Brotherhood, intending to keep his Mentor's actions in check.

In the meantime, he wrote to Adéwalé to report on the situation in Saint-Domingue: the Assassin Vendredi was still missing, having presumably been killed during the earthquake, and Mackandal was becoming increasingly volatile. As promised, Babatunde continued to keep an eye on his Mentor, and also suggested that Adéwalé seek the help of the Colonial Assassins, led by his old friend Achilles Davenport, to find Washington and recover the artifacts he had stolen. Babatunde closed his letter by wishing his father would return to Saint-Domingue soon and help turn the colony into a home for all its inhabitants.

Raising Eseosa

Eventually Babatunde married an Edo woman with whom he fathered a child, Eseosa, in 1757. While his son was growing up, Babatunde would tell him stories about his late grandfather Adéwalé and the Brotherhood, instilling in him the values that later led Eseosa to join the Assassins.

Sharing his grandfather's and father's dream of an independent Saint-Domingue where black and white citizens lived together in peace, Eseosa resolved to continue their work and rebuild the Saint-Domingue Brotherhood. He saw Mackandal and his brutal ways as a disgrace to the Creed, and hoped to succeed where Mackandal's Assassins had failed.

Behind the scenes

While Eseosa's Codex in Assassin's Creed: Initiates states that Bastienne only started talking to Babatunde about his father when he was fifteen and that Babatunde met Adéwalé as a grown man, he apparently met his father after the 1751 Port-au-Prince earthquake, when Babatunde was around thirteen.

Etymology

The name Babatunde originates from the Yoruba language and means "father returns" or "father has returned"; it was typically given to boys with a deceased male ancestor, such as a father or grandfather.

Appearances

• Assassin's Creed: Initiates (first mentioned)
• Assassin's Creed: Rogue (mentioned only)