Ifẹ̀ is an ancient Yoruba city in south-western Nigeria, founded in the 6th century. The city is located in present-day Osun State. Ifẹ̀ is about 218 kilometers northeast of Lagos with a population of over 500,000 people, which is the highest in Osun State according to population census of 2006.
Yorubaland is the homeland and cultural region of the Yoruba people in West Africa. It spans the modern-day countries of Nigeria, Togo and Benin, and covers a total land area of 142,114 km2 (54,871 sq mi). Of this land area, 106,016 km2 (74.6%) lies within Nigeria, 18.9% in Benin, and the remaining 6.5% is in Togo. Prior to European colonization, a portion of this area was known as Yoruba country. The geo-cultural space contains an estimated 55 million people, the majority of this population being ethnic Yoruba.
The Oyo Empire was a Yoruba empire in West Africa. It was located in present-day southern Benin and western Nigeria. The empire grew to become the largest Yoruba-speaking state through the organizational and administrative efforts of the Yoruba people, trade, as well as the military use of cavalry. The Oyo Empire was one of the most politically important states in Western Africa from the mid-17th to the late 18th century and held sway not only over most of the other kingdoms in Yorubaland, but also over nearby African states, notably the Fon Kingdom of Dahomey in the modern Republic of Benin on its west.
The culture of Nigeria is shaped by Nigeria's multiple ethnic groups. The country has 527 languages, seven of which are extinct. Nigeria also has over 1150 dialects and ethnic groups. The three largest ethnic groups are the Hausas that are predominantly in the north, the Yorubas who predominate in the southwest, and the Igbos in the southeast. There are many other ethnic groups with sizeable populations across the different parts of the country. The Kanuri people are located in the northeast part of Nigeria, the Tiv people of north central and the Efik-Ibibio are in the south South. The Bini people are most frequent in the region between Yorubaland and Igboland.
Oyo State is an inland state in southwestern Nigeria. Its capital is Ibadan, the third most populous city in the country and formerly the second most populous city in Africa. Oyo State is bordered to the north by Kwara State for 337 km, to the east by Osun State for 187 km, partly across the River Osun, and to the south by Ogun State, and to the west by the Republic of Benin for 98 km. With a projected population of 7,976,100 in 2022, Oyo State is the sixth most populous in the Nigeria.
Christopher Adebayo Alao-Akala was a Nigerian politician and police officer. He served as governor of Oyo State in 2006, and again from 2007 to 2011. He was the candidate of the ADP in the 2019 Governorship election in Oyo State.
The Ijesha are a sub-ethnicity of the Yorubas of West Africa. Ilesha is the largest town and historic cultural capital of the Ijesha people, and is home to a kingdom of the same name, ruled by an Oba locally styled as the Owa Obokun Adimula. The present ruling family of Ijesha is the Aromolaran family with the current reigning Owa Obokun being Oba Gabriel Adekunle Aromolaran.
The Legends of Africa reflect a wide-ranging series of kings, queens, chiefs and other leaders from across the African continent including Mali, Benin, Ghana, Nigeria, Congo, Ethiopia, Eritrea and South Africa.
The documented history begins when Oranyan came to rule the Oyo Empire, which became dominant in the early 17th century. The older traditions of the formerly dominant Ile-Ife kingdom are largely oral.
Modakeke is a town in Osun State, South West Nigeria, with a population of close to 500,000 people. The Modakekes are also known as the "Akoraye" and have a history of valor at war and are prosperous farmers.
The Yoruba people are a West African ethnic group who mainly inhabit parts of Nigeria, Benin, and Togo. The areas of these countries primarily inhabited by the Yoruba are often collectively referred to as Yorubaland. The Yoruba constitute more than 48 million people in Africa, are over a million outside the continent, and bear further representation among members of the African diaspora. The vast majority of the Yoruba population is today within the country of Nigeria, where they make up 20.7% of the country's population according to Ethnologue estimations, making them one of the largest ethnic groups in Africa. Most Yoruba people speak the Yoruba language, which is the Niger-Congo language with the largest number of native or L1 speakers.
Ado-Odo is the metropolitan headquarters of the kingdom of Ado, renowned for its Oduduwa/Obatala temple, the ancient fortress of the traditional practice of Ifá. Oodu'a is also regarded by traditionalists as the mother of all deities worldwide. All of these made Ado an inviolate territory in western Yorubaland—the same "father-figure" status accorded to Ile-Ife. Unlike the other kingdoms, which had at one time or the other engaged in the internecine wars that ravaged Yorubaland in the nineteenth century, Ado stood out as an unconquered sanctuary city-state throughout the period.
Alayeluwa Oba Okunade Sijuwade CFR was the fiftieth traditional ruler or Ooni of Ife from 1980 to his death in 2015, taking the regnal name Olubuse II. He was the traditional ruler of the Yoruba Kingdom of Ile-Ife a traditional Yoruba state based in the town of Ife in Osun State, Nigeria. He was crowned on 6 December 1980 in a ceremony attended by the Emir of Kano, Oba of Benin, Amayanabo of Opobo and Olu of Warri, as well as by representatives of the Queen of the United Kingdom.
Stephen Adebanji Akintoye, also known as S. Banji Akintoye, is a Nigerian-born academic, historian and writer. He attended Christ's School Ado Ekiti, Nigeria from 1951–1955, and studied history at the University College, Ibadan (1956–1961), and doctoral studies from 1963-1966 at the University of Ibadan, where he was awarded a PhD in History in 1966. He taught at the History Department at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria, where he became a professor and Director of the Institute of African Studies from 1974-1977. He has also taught African History in universities in the United States including the University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida; Montgomery County Community College, PA, and Eastern University, St. Davids, Pennsylvania. Akintoye has written four books, chapters in many joint books, and several articles in scholarly journals. He took a leading part for some time in the politics of Nigeria and served on the Nigerian Senate from 1979–1983 during the Second Republic. He currently lives in Cotonoue, Benin Republic. Akintoye is one of the current leading scholars on the history of the Yoruba people. His most recent work, A History of the Yoruba People, draws on decades of new findings and thinking on Yoruba studies that challenges some previously dominant notions about the origins of the Yoruba. This work dispels the Middle Eastern and Arabia origins propounded by such scholars as the late Samuel Johnson (1846–1901) and also gave prominence to the works on the Pre-Oduduwa Period by Ulli Beier among others. Akintoye also gave prominence to the role of Ilé-Ifè over that of Oyo. A reviewer, Wale Adebanwi, notes: "...this book directly contests and shifts th e focus of Yoruba history away from what many have called the Oyo-centric account of Samuel Johnson... Where Johnson avoids the creation myth that positions Ife as the sacred locus of Oduduwa's original descent and the orirun (creation-source), Akintoye, justifiably, restores Ile-Ife to its proper place as "ibi ojumo ti mon wa'ye" ..."
Joseph Adebowale Atanda was a Nigerian native of Eruwa, in Oyo State, Nigeria. He obtained his B.A. (Hons) in History in 1964 from the University of London and a PhD. in history in 1967 from the University of Ibadan.
Ipetumodu () is a city in Osun State, in the southwestern part of Nigeria. It is the headquarters of the Ife North local government. The city is under the leadership of traditional ruler with the title of Apetumodu, which means "one who killed an antelope for sacrificial purposes for Odu".
Iwoye-Ketu is a town primarily located in Imeko Afon, Ogun State in southwest Nigeria with its western portion in Benin. The community shares a border with the Iwajowa local government area of Oyo State on the north. It is renowned for its production of cotton.
The Òǹkò, otherwise known as Òkè Ògùn people, are a Yoruba people group inhabiting the areas drained by the upper Ogun river in Northwestern Oyo state in Nigeria. They were historically a part of the once expansive Oyo empire, but are distinct from the Oyo proper.
Thomas Jefferson Bowen (1814–1875) was an American expatriate Baptist missionary who spent considerable time of his missionary activities in Ijaye, Ogbomosho and a few other towns within the present Oyo State. His work established the foundation of the Baptist mission in Nigeria. Bowen's intention to proselytize to Africans in the interior in particular the Fulanis was stopped by the Emir of Ilorin, Bowen then concentrated his effort in Yorubaland until his return to America. While in the U.S., he began to promote the creation of an America colony of free blacks in Africa.
The Kiriji War, also known as the Ekiti–Parapo War, was a 16-year-long civil war between the subethnic kingdoms of the Yoruba people, specifically divided between the Western Yoruba, which was mainly the Ibadan and Oyo-speaking Yorubas, and the Eastern Yoruba, who were the Ekiti people, Ijesha, Ijebu people, and others.
