1. The research on which this paper is based was financed by a grant from the British Social Science Research Council. I am indebted to the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Ife, and especially to Professor A.A. Akiwowo, for its hospitality during the period of fieldwork, 1973-75. For helpful discussion on particular points I am grateful to Dr. Deirdre La Pin, Miss Karin Barber, Dr. Robin Law, Dr. Paul Hair, and, above all, Mr. Michael Ekundare of Ilesha, an enthusiast for the history and traditional organization of his town.

2. E.g. Koelle's, Sigismund “Idsesa” informant Degbite, alias Samuel Cole of Freetown, where there were “a great many of his countrymen.” Koelle misunderstood his informants’ information that it was “west of Ado,” locating Ilesha near Badagry, west of Ado Odo. Polyglotta Africana, ed. Dalby, D. and Hair, P.E.H. (Graz, 1963), p. 5.Google Scholar

3. On the little evidence, see Willett, F., “Archaeology” in Biobaku, S.O., ed., Sources of Yoruba History (Oxford, 1973), pp. 134–36Google Scholar: “the excavation at Ilesha provides an example of the way in which historical evidence in the form of oral tradition can be of help to the archaeologist.” If so, Willett's attempt is amazingly inept. Of the two Owa he mentions, Gbegbaaje reigned in the second, not the third, quarter of the nineteenth century, and was not the “son” but a remote descendant of Atakunmosa, who probably reigned ca. 1600.

4. Clarke, W.H., Travels and Explorations in Yorubaland 1854-58, ed. Atanda, J.A. (Ibadan, 1972), pp. 120–40Google Scholar; Hinderer, D., “Journal for 1858,” CA2/049 (C.M.S. Archives, London)Google Scholar; May, D.J., “Journal in the Yoruba and Nupe Countries in 1858,” Journal of the Royal Geographical Society 30(1860), pp. 212–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

5. Akintoye, S.A., Revolution and Power Politics in Yorubaland, 1840-1893 (London, 1971).Google Scholar Little else has been written about Ilesha, except for several unpublished papers by Awe, Bolanle, esp. “Ogedengbe of Ilesha: an Introductory Note,” University of Lagos School of African and Asian Studies, Staff Seminar Papers 1968/69, pp. 161–93.Google Scholar

6. E.g. Lloyd, P.C., “Yoruba Myths: a Sociologist's Interpretation,” Odu 2(1955), pp. 20–28Google Scholar; Boston, J.S., “Oral Tradition and the History of Igala,” JAH 10(1969), pp. 29–43CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Robertson, A.F., “Histories and Political Opposition in Ahafo, Ghana,” Africa 43(1973), pp. 41–58CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Atkinson, R.R., “Traditions of Early Kings of Buganda: Myth, History, and Structural Analysis,” History in Africa 2(1975), pp. 17–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

7. Still the most common stance in the historiography of the Yoruba, e.g. Smith, Robert S., Kingdoms of the Yoruba (London, 1969).Google Scholar

8. As I have argued in “Sociology and the Historiography of the Yoruba,” JHSN, forthcoming.

9. Feierman, Steven, The Shambaa Kingdom (Madison, 1974).Google Scholar

10. Ibid, p. 9.

11. Law, R., “Early Yoruba Historiography,” History in Africa 3(1976), pp. 68–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

12. Law's, work on Oyo excepted (The Oyo Empire c. 1600-c. 1836, Oxford, 1977, esp. pp. 18–24Google Scholar), although it does not seem to me that he has paid enough attention to the likely effects on traditions borne by particular groups and institutions within the town of Oyo of the destruction of the old capital and its reconstitution on another site, and under wholly different conditions, in the nineteenth century. See further below, note 108. Ilesha, which despite its sack in 1870 was never wholly deserted, presents few problems of this order.

13. Cf. O. Ogunba, “Ceremonies” in Biobaku, Sources, chapter 7.

14. P.J. Meffre and J.P. Haastrup on behalf of Owa Adimula Agunloye-bi-Oyinbo (known in Ilesha by his praise-name of Bepolorun or Bepo) to Lt. Gov. of Lagos, enclosure No. 10 in CO 147/43, PRO, London.

15. Meffre, P.J., “Towns destroyed by the Ibadans in the Ijesha Country,” in CMS (Y) 1/7/5 National Archives, Ibadan [NAI].Google Scholar

16. Atundaolu, H., “A Short Traditional History of the Ijeshas and Other Hinterland Tribes,” Lagos Weekly Record, 15 June-27 July 1901.Google Scholar On Atundaolu himself see Golden Jubilee Celebration Committee, Fifty Years of Methodism in Ilesha Circuit 1898-1948 (Ilesha, 1948)Google Scholar; also his own account in “A Bird's Eye View of the Ilesha Question” in Lagos Standard, 9 and 18 August 1905Google Scholar, and references to his later activities, historical and astrological, in Ayandele, E.A., Missionary Impact on Modern Nigeria 1842-1914 (London, 1966), pp. 251, 260, 264.Google Scholar

17. “A Short Sketch of the History of Ilesha District,” enclosed in letter to Resident, Oyo, 6 June 1920 in OYO PROF 3/986-8/1027, vol. 1 (NAI). Further on Ward-Price (who came to be celebrated for his command of Yoruba, and whose later work on land tenure showed him to be ethnographically capable) in his autobiography Dark Subjects (London, 1939).Google Scholar

18. Abiola, J.D.E., Babafemi, J.A., and Ataiyero, S.O.S., Itan Ilesa (Ilesha, 1932).Google Scholar

19. I am grateful to Messrs. A.D. and Gabriel Abiola, Chief Abiola's eldest sons, for details concerning their father's life in several interviews during 1974 and 1975 and on his role in the R.O.F. to his former chief clerk, S.A. Oloke, Apena of the R.O.F. at Oshogbo, interview 17 Dec. 1974. On his connections with ‘enlightened’ elements outside Ilesha, see issues of The Yoruba News in the 1920s and 1930s, passim.

20. After the prolonged friction between Ilesha and the British, who originally located the administrative center of all northeastern Yorubaland at Oke Imo just outside Ilesha, Ilesha was made a subordinate center of Ife Division of Oyo Province in 1914, and the Owa was gazetted as a “second-class chief.” A major aim of the Improvement Society from the 1920s was to get these measures reversed (see Minute Book of the society, Fadugba Papers, University of Ife Library). The origin of Itan Ilesa may be seen as far back as 1924, the year after the Society was founded, when Abiola wrote to The Yoruba News (20 May) urging support for the Society and the need for a new history of the Ijesha.

21. On which see Law, , Oyo Empire, p. 20Google Scholar; Agiri, B.A., “Early Oyo History Reconsidered,” History in Africa 2(1975), p. 3.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

22. Opitan translates as “historian” which, however, obscures the word's full connotation in Yoruba, for itan can mean, besides “history,” other kinds of prose narratives such as fables and parables. On the concept of itan I am much indebted to discussions with Deirdre La Pin; for a fuller account of the genre see her “Story, Medium and Masque: the Idea and Art of Yoruba Storytelling” (PhD thesis, University of Wisconsin, 1977), esp. pp. 30–110.Google Scholar

23. D. Iunii Iuvenalis Saturae, ed. Housman, A.E. (Cambridge, 1905), pp. xiff.Google Scholar

24. D.S.O. Fadeyibi to District Officer, Ife, 2 Sept. 1942, in OYO PROF 3/986-8/1027, vol. 2 (NAI). He belonged to the family of the Obaloro of Ibokun, a priest of Orisa Onifon who plays a significant role in the Owa's installation (he picturesquely describes the office as “Archbishop of Ijeshaland.”) He gave 66 Owa down to Aromoloran who had just died, compared with 35 in Abiola. From No. 41 to No. 66 his list is identical with Abiola's, to whom he must have been indebted, and presumably the extra names derived from Ibokun sources and were intended to magnify Ibokun's role as the center of the kingdom at an earlier period.

25. Oni, J.O., A History of Ijeshaland (Ilesha, c. 1969). His kinglist, pp. 57–58Google Scholar, clearly derives from Abiola et al., just as his account of the Owa's installation comes (almost verbatim, pp. 49-56) from Risawe Adedeji's, S.O.Brief History of the Owa of Ijeshaland Chieftaincy Title (Ibadan, 1957).Google Scholar Mr. Oni comes from Ijebu-jesha and his book does contain directly collected oral traditions from several subordinate communities in the district.

26. Ataiyero, S.A., A Short History of the Ijeshas, Part I (Ilesha, 1977).Google Scholar Chief Ataiyero, Loja of Isireyun, is the youngest recognized son of Owa Ataiyero and so is closely related to S.O.S. Ataiyero, J.D.E. Abiola's co-author.

27. Oke, M.O., Itan Ile Ijesa (Ibadan, 1969).Google Scholar It also contains most of Adedeji, Brief History, translated into Yoruba.

28. In these lists the orthography given in each source is reproduced (except for some obvious printers’ errors). Later on, to avoid confusion, I have adopted as the rendering of an Owa's name the version most commonly used in spoken Ijesha -- thus Uyiarere, Owaluse (for Bilayiarere, Owanise, etc.). The meaning of the prefix Bila- or Ibiila- attached to the names of many Owa is not clear, but since it seems to incorporate the element bi (= “beget”), it probably has to do with their status as royal ancestors. It is note-worthy that with Owa whose names so begin, Bila has been added, in most cases, to an element from their oriki or praise-names rather than to their personal name, a more perishable element. Thus Bilasa (Asa abodofunfun, recorded by Atundaolu), Bilatutu (Otutu bi Osun, ibid.), Bilaro (Oro so gudugudu kari, recorded Abiola et al.), etc.

29. “Arijileshi” in Ward-Price is a simple gaffe and need not detain. It stands out in his genealogy since, though stated to be the 18th Owa, he is presented as ancestor of (10) Ojagodo and (16) Ponlose. In fact the name is an oriki of Ojagodo (Arijelesin), as given by Abiola et al., and must have been mistaken for the name of a separate Owa.

30. Atundaolu's representation of Ajibogun and Obokun as separate persons probably arises from an attempt to meet the divergent traditions concerning the place of Obokun's death: Ibokun tradition placing it there, while Ilesha tradition placed it at Igbadae close to Ilesha.

31. Johnson, Samuel, The History of the Yorubas (London, 1921), pp. 381–82.Google Scholar

32. D. Olubi, Reports, 6 and 16 June, 6 July 1870, CA 2/075 (C.M.S. Archives, London).

33. See above notes 14 and 15.

34. Lagos Weekly Record, 20 July 1901.

35. Abiola et al., chapters 30-31. Ataiyero, , Short History, pp. 45–46Google Scholar, makes Agunlejika reign from March 1868 to February 1869, and Oweweniye from May 1869 to 1874, placing the drowning in 1874. In another work of his own, Oro Wura: Iwe Oniranti awon Agba Amona awon Ewe, lati 1822 de 1938 (“Golden Words: a Book to Jog the Memory of the Elders, Guides of the Young,” [Oshogbo, 1939]Google Scholar), Abiola placed the succession dispute which brought Oweweniye to the throne against his rival Odigbadigba in 1873. The dispute involved rival allies at Ibadan, so it is described in Johnson, , History, pp. 384–86, and securely dated to 1871.Google Scholar

36. On the concepts of ori (personal fortune) and iwa (character) see Idowu, E.B., God in Yoruba Belief (London, 1962), pp. 144-45, 154 ff, 170Google Scholar, and Thompson, Robert F., Black Gods and Kings (Bloomington, 1976), p. 1.Google Scholar

37. As, for example, Odigbadigba's reliance on Ibadan support in his effort to be Owa in 1871 was held as a reproach against his descendant Owa Ogunmokun when he used the power of the regional government at Ibadan against the majority at Ilesha, who supported the rival political party in the 1950s. See pamphlet by Famoto, A.O., Alaye Pataki nipa Oba Owa Ogunmokun (Ilesha, 1960), p. 17Google Scholar, which concludes on the ominous reminder that Odigbadigba was murdered on the way to Ibadan!

38. Meffre in CMS (Y) 1/7/5 (NAI).

39. Johnson, , History, p. 371.Google Scholar

40. Ariyasunle became Odole as the client of Lejofi Alaka, first in the series of mid-nineteenth century Ijesha warlords, and participated with him in the plot which led to the murder of Owa Gbegbaaje and the elevation of Ofokutu; he then encompassed the liquidation of Alaka: oral testimony, Chief Malomo the Agbayewa, 29 Aug. 1974, and Mr. Falye of Ijofi, head of Lejofi Alaka's lineage, 21 Aug. 1974. It is interesting that while some of this kind of detail about civil discord found its way into Abiola et al.'s history, a great deal did not, but is still preserved in family traditions.

41. See Akintoye, , Revolution and Power Politics, pp. 56–57.Google Scholar

42. Hinderer, “Journal,” said the “head chief” (which does not mean “king”) was Akoli, probably Okanle[biogbo], Aniyasunle's proper name, given in Abiola et al., chapter 27. The Owa was not named.

43. Thus in an almanac I have seen, commemorating the centenary of Christianity in Ilesha and produced by the Anglicans there in 1957; also in Ataiyero, , Short History, p. 44.Google Scholar

44. Abiola deserves credence here because of his lineage's close connections over several generations with Ibokun. His grandfather Oruru fled there to escape factional strife in Ilesha, and his mother was an Ibokun woman; the mother of the Ogboni of Ibokun in 1960s came from Abiola's family. A.D. Abiola, interviews, 12 March, 16 April 1974.

45. Johnson, , History, p. 293.Google Scholar

46. This was clearly shown when La Pin and I taped an oral itan concerning the Ilesha Riot of 1941 from Chief Daniel Gidigbi, a skilled opitan. He began by characterizing the riot in general terms and then, before proceeding to this particular outbreak, gave brief sketches of two similar, earlier instances: inu sise bee, eyi to saaju bee ni … (“within the tradition/class of such doings, this one came first …”).

47. These others were the Eleduwe, Abemo, and Oshogbo wars. On the dating see Law, , Oyo Empire, pp. 292–96.Google Scholar

48. Adeyokunnu, Chief T.O., Loja of Oshu, interview, 17 April 1974Google Scholar; also Oni, J.O., History of Ijeshaland, pp. 33–35.Google Scholar Such a date for the synoecism of Oshu is also implied by Meffre's “Towns destoryed,” (compiled in 1882, but evidently referring to before Ibadan's depredations) which gave as separate communities places which after the synoecism were just quarters of Oshu (e.g. Aguja, Obanifon, Ajido).

49. It is not, of course, impossible that some of those enslaved in the first war were among those who, returning from Lagos like Meffre did in 1866, were attacked by Ifewara people in the second war, and it may be that some of these, or their descendants, were among Abiola's informants, giving him a straw by which to relate the two wars in time.

50. See Abiola et al., chapter 12, referring to the rulers of Ara, Ado, Ido-Ekiti, Ila, Otun, Ondo, Ijero, Efon, and Igbajo being compelled to contribute to the building of Ilesha's town walls by Oluodo (Bilaro).

51. This document, Iwe Itan Oko Apara (“History of Apara's Farm”), was shown me by courtesy of Messrs. Richard, H.A., and Akin Apara, and a photocopy is now deposited in the University of Ife Library. It consists of nearly 100 pages written in a foolscap notebook by Peter Apara's eldest son, J.B. Apara (d. 1964) some time after 1939. The information it contains about early family history and the nineteenth century was imparted by Peter Apara to his gathered children on 15 March 1919. The Apara family farmed beyond Ipoye, northwest of Ilesha, and Peter Apara, one of the strong men with Owa Ajimoko I (1896-1901), was granted lands on the banks of the Oshun in the region of the settlements whose devastation the history describes. The Otaide and Ali Wars are recalled in the oral tradition of several villages of this area (e.g. Ilorigbon, Oke Osin), collected by me in July 1975 with the help of Mr. J.A. Ojo.

52. Law, , Oyo Empire, pp. 290–91.Google Scholar

53. Ibid, p. 280.

54. Confirming a casual observation of Wrigley, C.C. in his “Kinglists of Buganda,” History in Africa 1(1974), pp. 129–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

55. See Henige, David, The Chronology of Oral Tradition: Quest for a Chimera (Oxford, 1974)Google Scholar, passim.

56. E.g. Ife (Law, “Traditional History” in Biobaku, , Sources, pp. 38–39Google Scholar), and Ondo (traditions referred to by Smith, , Kingdoms, pp. 64-65, 112–13.Google Scholar

57. Idown, E.B., Olodumare: God in Yoruba Belief (London, 1962), pp. 24–29Google Scholar, for Oduduwa's gender.

58. Owari is represented as the usurper whom Owaluse, founder of Ilesha, defeated and deposed; he disappeared into the earth at Ipole. The most “official” opinion in Ilesha (the Owa, Chief Agbayewa) considers him to have been a male ruler, illegitimate because he was not of agnatic descent, but there is also widespread popular tradition that Owari was female. Boston, “Oral Tradition and Igala,” notes that one of the early Ata is represented as female, having married the ancestor of the leading non-royal kingmaker, and advances the plausible explanation that this signifies the subordination of the immigrant royals to the representatives of indigenous Igala society, the kingmakers. Nothing like this seems available to explain Ilesha's “female” rulers.

59. Awe, Bolanle, “The Iyalode in the Traditional Yoruba Political System” in Schlegel, Alice, ed., Sexual Stratification: a Cross-Cultural View (New York, 1977), pp. 144–60.Google Scholar

60. For a criticism of Lloyd's, P.C. thesis in his “Agnatic and Cognatic Descent among the Yoruba,” Man, n.s. 1(1966), pp. 484–500Google Scholar, that different areas of Yorubaland are marked by quite different systems of descent, see my “Sociology and the Historiography of the Yoruba,” cited in note 8, which quotes Bender's, D.R. valuable and neglected paper, “Agnatic or Cognatic: Reevaluation of Ondo Descent,” Man, n.s. 5(1970), pp. 71–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

61. Thus Chief Adesuyi the Aleki, great-grandson of Gbegbaaje and recognized spokesman of the descendants of Owa Bepo, interview 23 Dec. 1974. It is of interest that Ward-Price's informant (most likely Bepo's son Aromolaran who became Owa in 1920) represented the link between Gbegbaaje and Atakunmosa as Bilajila.

62. With the possible exception of OKE ESE, though this is rather doubtful. See below, Part II.

63. Thus Akesan is recalled as having founded Arogbo, one of the streets in IFOFIN quarter, for a wife who was barren, but who later bore children here: Lifofin and chiefs, interview 23 Dec. 1974. Abiola et al. apologized for having nothing to say about him, but he was not a noteworthy ruler (oba olokiki),

64. The line represented by Folagbade the Alaba (a Loja) in 1920 and his son Okiri, who in 1942 claimed that Bilajara was one of the four houses of the royal lineage: CSO 26/40259, and letter of 6 July 1942 in OYO PROF 3/986-8/1027 vol. 2, NAI. Abiola et al. have nothing to say of Bilajara except to record his oriki. As noted above, Atundaolu attributes a significant Igbajo War to Bilajila.

65. This figure derives from a random sample survey of households which I conducted in Ilesha between July and September 1974.

66. E.g. Ijebu has a rule that only an abidagba (born to a reigning oba) is eligible: Ayandele, E.A., “The Awujales of Ijebuland” in Crowder, M. and Ikime, O., ed., West African Chiefs (Ile-Ife, 1970), esp. p. 234.Google Scholar Oyo excluded whole segments of the royal lineage. Law, , Oyo Empire, p. 66.Google Scholar

67. As Ajimoko I was made Aloro (Loja of Iloro) after his nomination as Owa in 1896, and Ogunmokun was made Luwaro in 1956.

68. The District Officer wrote to the Minister of Local Government in 1957, when “ruling houses” were being constituted, that the kingmakers (all nonroyal chiefs) denied that there had traditionally been any such rotational system, and certainly the historical record of succession does not suggest one (letter dated 4 May 1957 in file CB 141/14/1, Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Ibadan). In 1901 and 1920 the title was quite seriously contested by sons of the just deceased Owa.

69. The best example of such a pedigree is provided by C.A. Lufadeju, Loja of Ibala to District Officer, 8 April 1920 in OYO PROF 3/986-8/1027 voc. 1, (NAI).

70. We might note in passing that it is very common in West African dynasties with a widely rotating succession that an early period is alleged to have had father-to-son succession, which is so easily and economically explained as an artefact of the later genealogical system itself, that we should be very chary of assuming a real change of succession practice without clear additional evidence. An ingenious and learned example of this incaution is Law, , Oyo Empire, pp. 57–59.Google Scholar On the other side see Agiri, , “Early Oyo History Reconsidered,” esp. p. 5.Google Scholar

71. Abiola et al., name 70; Ekundare, M.I., Iwe Itan awon Adugbo Kokan to wa ninu Ilu Ilesha [“History of Every Quarter in Ilesha”], (Ilesha, 1966)Google Scholar, itemizes 44, of which three (Imo, Irojo, and Ilerin) are neither ogbon nor adugbo strictly, but villages, formerly outside the town walls, which have become suburbs and units of urban government during this century.

72. Further on this see below Part II.

73. This general characterization of the founded quarters was confirmed in a detailed survey of IROYE, the latest founded, conducted Dec. 1974-Jan. 1975.

74. In some cases, it appears, another day was adopted -- e.g. ANAYE people went to the Afin on the ije (sixth day after) of Ibegun -- but the norm was the festival of the Owa-founder.

75. See above n. 71.

76. On the way in which the quarter organization was used to great effect by the NCNC see Sklar, Richard L., Nigerian Political Parties (Princeton, 1963)Google Scholar, and J.D.Y. Peel, “Inequality and Action: the Forms of Ijesha Social Conflict,” to be published in a volume on inequality in Africa edited by Sara S. Berry.

77. Chiefs were interviewed in: OKESHA, EREJA, IJOKA, IRO, ISIDA, IJOFI, ISINKIN, IJAMO, ISARE, IKOYI, ISONA, ITISIN, EGBEIDI, IDASA, IGBOGI, OMOFE, IFOSAN, IFOFIN, ANAYE, OKE IYIN, ILORO, IWERE, AYESO, OKEOYE, IROYE.

78. When I interviewed the Lorunyin and chiefs, 10 Sept. 1974, I was told that Biladu founded it and his son Bilajara came to live here so disagreement seems to be total.

79. Lewere and chiefs, 15 Aug. 1974, specified Bilagbayo as founder, alleging in proof that it was on his day they went to the Afin. But a later foundation was hinted at in the tale that the quarter was founded “later in the day” from IKOTI, whose attribution to Bilagbayo is certain -- which points to Bilagbayo's descendant Obara, named by Atundaolu.

80. Layeso and chiefs, 10 Sept. 1974, said Obara, and that they made their festival on the day of Bilagbayo.

81. Luroye and chiefs, 15 Dec. 1974, did say Ofokutu, but they supported it with an aetiological tale of the quarter's name which was so obviously borrowed from a well-established one told about OROGBA (= “Oro-Oluodo survives”) that it looked like an attempt to make plausible a new attribution of founder. So perhaps Abiola's Ponlose is preferable.

82. Quoted by Chief, Sawe, head of IJAMO, 17 June 1975.Google Scholar

83. Of the sample of nine household heads in the 1974 Survey (which did not include the Saoye) only three were born in OKE OYE (and two of those were sons of men born at Iperindo); two were born in other quarters of Ilesha; and four were born in district communities out on Road VII (Iperindo, Ise, and Ajido).

84. According to Malomo, Chief J.O., the Agbayewa, interview of 23 July 1974.Google Scholar

85. The Ona Meje (“seven roads”) first make their appearance in Meffre's “Towns destroyed by the Ibadans in the Ijesha country,” where they are the organizing principle of his account.

86. Retold in Abiola et al., Itan Ilesa, chapter 12.

87. “Ilesha for its cleanliness, regularity, the width and straightness of its streets and the elevation for comfort of foot passengers far surpasses any native town I have seen in Africa. Blocks of buildings could be distinctly marked out by the regularity with which the streets cut each other, thus preventing the town from presenting that confused mass of roofs so generally visible.” Clarke, , Travels and Explorations, p. 137.Google Scholar

88. On Atakunmosa, see Abiola et al., Itan Ilesa, chapter 8, Oni, , History of Ijeshaland, p. 72.Google Scholar

89. Chief Sedile (second in the quarter, there being then no Batisin) and other ITISIN chiefs, interviewed 6 Aug. 1974. Other titles of Benin origin were Bakina and Ejigbo at ITISIN, also Osodi and Ohunorun at IDASA.

90. See Arifalo, S.O., “An Analysis and Comparison of the Legends of Origin of Akure” (Undergraduate Dissertation, Department of History, University of Ibadan, 1966)Google Scholar, for which I am grateful to the author for lending me a copy; Weir, N.A.C., “Intelligence Report on Akure District, Ekiti Division (1934),” CSO 26/10995 (NAI).Google Scholar

91. See Egbarevba, Jacob U., A Short History of Benin (Ibadan, 1960), p. 33Google Scholar, which also gives a version of the link with Akure.

92. Ryder, A.F.C., Benin and the Europeans (London, 1969), pp. 6, 14–15Google Scholar; Bradbury, R.E., “Chronological Problems in the Study of Benin History” in his Benin Studies (London, 1973), pp. 17–43.Google Scholar

93. Interviews with Chief Bode Phillips, Aduloju II, Ogboni of Ilesha, 1 Aug. 1974, and with other members of that lineage: I.F. Opesusi, 31 Oct. 1974 and elders of Ule Agbede, Igando street, 23 Dec. 1974.

94. Weir, “Intelligence Report,” mentioned under Igbogi, 22nd Deji of Akure, a trade between Benin and Ilesha and Ilorin in guns, salt, and iron. The reference to guns, and Ilorin makes it sound anachronistic, these being nineteenth-century details, probably added to an earlier core embodied in the related story that the Deji sent to borrow cutlasses and axes from the Owa and the rulers of Ondo, Ise-Ekiti, and Owa. Akure had a war with Ise and Owa over the borrowed tools, but not apparently with Ilesha. “Coastal iron,” by contrast to the kind smelted around Oyo and Ibadan, was still an important commodity in these parts at the end of the nineteenth century: see Sir William McGregor, 21 May 1901, in CO 879/58/580, PRO.

95. Icon and Image (London, 1974), pp. 72–75.Google Scholar

96. Quoted by Akinyeye, Olu, “Ogun-God of Iron,” West Africa (12 June 1978), p. 1127.Google Scholar On the political connotations of roads (ona) and their opening see above on the Ona Meje of Ijeshaland.

97. Law, , Oyo Empire, pp. 128–29Google Scholar, effectively demolishes the apparently firm synchronism offered for Owaluse by S.O. Ojo, the local historian of Oyo in his Iwe Itan Oyo, Ikoyi ati Afijio (c. 1961), pp. 39, 71.

98. Ado, Ara, Ido, Ila, Otun, Ondo, Ijero, Efon, and Igbajo are mentioned by Abiola et al., Itan Ilesa, chapter 12, though this is more a stock list of Ilesha's rivals to east, north, and south than a precise tally of just which communities were subjected.

99. Law, , Oyo Empire, pp. 38-39, 150, 264–65.Google Scholar

100. Unfortunately the Arapate title was vacant during the period of my fleldwork. Written sources and common knowledge apart, information was derived mostly from Chief Fadugba the Sinlaiye (a palace title hereditary within Arapate's lineage), interviewed 1 Sept. 1974.

101. See again, Awe, “Iyalode.”

102. See Saraibi, S.A., Itan Kukuru nipa Isedale Ilu Igangan [Short History of the Foundation of Igangan], (Ilesha, n.d.)Google Scholar; also interview with Igangan chiefs, 9 Aug. 1974, whose account did not differ from that of Mr. Saraibi.

103. Interview, Lanaye and quarter-chiefs, along with Chief, Sinlaiye, 1 Sept. 1974.Google Scholar

104. Saraibi, , Itan Kukuru, p. 9.Google Scholar