¹ Ìlàrè district is located in the geocultural zone of northern Ìjèsàland, one of the Yorùbà subgroups. The present town of Ìlàrè community, Ìlàrè-Ìjèsà is about thirty kilometers north of Ilésà and fifty kilometers northwest of Ilé-Ifè.

² Abiola, J. D. E., Babafemi, J. A., and S. O. S. Ataiyero Ìtàn Ilésà (Ilésà, 1932)Google Scholar; Olomola, I., “The Eastern Yorùbà Country Before Odùduwà: a Reassessment,” Conference on Yorùbà Civilization, ed. Akinjogbin, I. A. (Ifè, 1976).Google Scholar

³ Settlement cycling is defined here as fluctuations in the location of a community's settlement unit within a particular region, with each settlement unit (community) or a group of settlements maintaining its integrity as a sociopolitical unit at a specific period in time.

⁴ Matory, J. L., Sex and the Empire that is no More: Gender and the Politics of Metaphor in Oyo Yorùbà Religion (Minneapolis, 1994), 218.Google Scholar

⁵ The role of conflict and alliance in shaping the structure and patterns of local politics in Yorùbàland has been an important focus of study. For examples see Lloyd, P. C., “Conflict theory and Yorùbà kingdoms” in History and Social Anthropology (London, 1968), 25–62Google Scholar; Peel, J. D. Y., “Inequality and action: the forms of Ijesha social conflict,” Canadian Journal of African Studies 14 (1980), 473–502.Google Scholar It is important to note that some of the issues pertaining to the historically contingent episodes of factional conflicts and alliance have been discussed in anthropological literature; e.g., Brumfiel, E. and Fox, J., eds. Factional Competition and Political Development in the New World (Cambridge, 1994).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁶ For example, the well-guarded custom that forbids marital relationships between Ìlàrè and Ìbòkun, two communities six kilometers apart, until the present time is a product of animosity that developed more than 500 years ago, and this animosity continues to affect sociopolitical relationships between the two communities. This same sentiment of factional conflict between Ìbòkun and Ìlàrè is expressed by S. Ogungbemi on the need for a local government headquarters in Ìlàrè in a newspaper article titled “Local Government Will Bring Development,” Daily Sketch (Ìbàdàn) (9 May 1981).Google Scholar

⁷ These repositories of local knowledge are identified during the region-wide survey of cultural resources that B. Agbaje-Williams and I conducted in Ìjèsàland between 1990 and 1992, see Agbaje-Williams, B. and Ogundiran, A., Cultural Resources in Ìjèsàland (Ìbàdàn 1992).Google Scholar These informants are the local elite for whom the historical traditions have the most immediate relevance since the institutions that they preside over were the agents and subjects of the events that the traditions narrate.

⁸ Vansina, Jan, Oral Tradition as History (Madison 1985), 165–68Google Scholar, has discussed the mnemonic processes by which collective memory organizes information into narrative plots to achieve some institutionalized coherence and to communicate single or competing ideologies effectively. These mnemonic processes include the use of places, features, and monuments on the landscape.

⁹ Abiola, J. D. E., Babafemi, J. A., and Ataiyero, S. O. S., Ìtàn Ilésà (Ilésà, 1932).Google Scholar

¹⁰ According to the Prince Adebiyi Adedoyin (personal communication, 15 August 1992), the undated booklet, The Fact of the History of Ìlàrè, was published sometime in the mid-1960s. The author, S. Ade George, owned a printing press at Osogbo, about forty kilometers west of Ìlàrè, and it is rumored that he published the booklet during his unsuccessful contention for the throne of Owàlàrè, the kingship of Ìlàrè. Little is known of him by the present people of Ìlàrè, and his motives for writing and printing the manuscript are only matters of speculation among the royal families in Ìlàrè.

¹¹ These include Babayemi, N., “Oba Jije Ni Ilu Ìlàrè” (Final Essay, College of Education, University of Lagos, April 1975)Google Scholar; Falope, S. A., “The History of Ìlàrè from the Earliest to the Present” (N.C.E. Long Essay, Dept. of History, Oyo State College of Education, Ilésà, June 1984)Google Scholar; Ogungbemi, E., “Igbo Baba Ìlàrè in the History of Ìlàrè” (B. A. (Hons.) Dissertation, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ilé-Ifè, 1979)Google Scholar; Osobu, B., “‘Baba Ìlàrè’ Grove in the History of Ìlàrè” (N.C.E. Final Essay, Oyo State College of Education, Ilésà, 1984)Google Scholar; and Oyedeji, F. O., “A Brief History of Ìlàre-Ìjèsà” (N.C.E. Final Essay, Oyo State College of Education, Ilésà, 1984).Google Scholar A pamphlet that was published by Ogungbemi, Francis, Itan ati Oriki Ìlàrè-Ìjèsà (Akure, 1981)Google Scholar, to mark the final coronation ceremony of the incumbent Owàlàrè of Ìlàrè, Oba Adejoro Otebolaku Ogidan III on 24 December 1981 also provides comparative materials on the migration history and early historical development of Ìlàrè and its neighbors. All these writings are basically English translations of oral texts without any attempt at critical historical interpretation; and they are generally based on the structure and contents of the popular oral traditions in Ìlàrè.

¹² Of relevance here are the college theses on the historical traditions of Ìbòkun, Imesi-Ile, and Ìpolé: Adejumo, S. A., “The History of Ìbòkun from the Earliest till the Present Time” (N.C.E. Long Essay, Ilésà 1982)Google Scholar; Gbadeb, M. O., “The Significance of Ìbòkun in Ìjèsaland” (N.C.E. Long Essay, Ilésà, 1984)Google Scholar; Olatunde, F. A., “Óbòkun Festival in Ìbòkun” (N.C.E. Final Essay, Ilésà, 1981)Google Scholar; Ogundiran, A., “Archaeological Reconnaissance and Historical Reconstruction of Ìpolé-Ìjèsà” (M.Sc. dissertation, University of Ìbàdàn, Ìbàdàn).Google Scholar These research essays have yielded rich data for understanding the historical relationships between Ìlàrè and adjacent communities. Another important source of information was the pilot project that Babatunde Agbaje-Williams initiated in 1985 to collect oral historical traditions on the settlement history of northern Ìjèsàland and to identify archeological sites in the area. I have been fortunate to have access to the field-notes that Agbaje-Williams compiled between 1985 and 1986. Two publications by Peel, J. D. Y., “Kings, Titles, and Quarters: A Conjectural History of Ilesha: the Traditions Reviewed,” HA 6 (1979), 109–53Google Scholar, and “Kings, Titles, and Quarters: A Conjectural History of Ilesha: Institutional Growth,” HA 7 (1980) 225–58Google Scholar, on the dynastic and settlement history of Ilésà also offer a chronological framework for the development of Ilésà town that provides a good source for extrapolating the temporal sequence of regional events in which Ìlàrè district participated.

¹³ For similar perspective see Peel, , “Traditions Reviewed,” 110.Google Scholar

¹⁴ Chief Baloro Orisasunmi, Ìbòkun (personal communication, 11 September 1991); Chief O. Oguntoye, Imesi-Ile (personal communication, 12 September 1991). According to Chief Orisasunmi, the camp of Ohanko, one of the aboriginal groups, used to be located in the present market site in Ìbòkun. A shrine dedicated to Ohanko now denotes the location of the camp of Ohanko, and the shrine is marked with a raised circular laterite boulder about 1.5 meters high.

¹⁵ The survey of historical traditions of sociopolitical formation in Yorùbàland suggest that gerontocratic leadership was the precursor of paramount titled potentates in northern Ìjèsàland and other parts of Yorùbàland. See Obayemi, A., “The Yorùbà and Edo-Speaking Peoples and Their Neighbors Before 1600” in History of West Africa, ed. Ajayi, Ade and Crowther, M. (3d ed.: London, 1985), 255–322Google Scholar; I. Olomola, “The Eastern Yorùbà Country Before Odùduwà: a Reassessment” in Conference on Yorùbà Civilization.

¹⁶ Chief Orisasunmi (personal communication, 29 May 1991); Oba J. O. Fasoyin, the Alowa of Ìlówà (personal communication, 10 September 1991).

¹⁷ According to the historical traditions in the Ifè, Ìjèsà, and Èkìtì areas, the early hierarchical communities in northern Ìjèsàland were part of the vast network of settlements in central Yorùbàland that predated the beginning of the dynastic (Classical) period in Ilé-Ifè around the tenth-eleventh centuries. These communities had frequent interactions through trade, migrations, and exchange of itinerant specialists. The trends towards incipient sociopolitical centralization saw the emergence of “settlement-cluster polities” during the first millennium A.D. at Ifè. These trends seem to have begun by the tenth century or earlier in northern Ìjèsàland and many other parts of Yorùbàland. The advent of complex agricultural village settlements in northern Ìjèsàland, with titled leaders may therefore be seen as part of the wider sociopolitical transformations in Yorùbàland. The details of these traditions have been discussed by Obayemi, “Yoruba,” and Olomola, I., “Ifè Before Odùduwà” in The Cradle of a Race: Ifè from the Beginning to 1980, ed. Akinjogbin, I. A. (Lagos, 1992), 51–61.Google Scholar

¹⁸ Agbaje-Williams/Ogundiran, Oral Traditions.

¹⁹ Àjàlórun is described in the oral traditions of Ìlàrè as the junior brother of Odùduwà, the eponymous founder of centralized political institution in Ifè and a pioneer of sociopolitical revolution in Yorùbàland. According to Ìlàrè traditions, Àjàlórun helped his senior brother to establish the dynasty in Ifè. Once the dynasty of Odùduwà was firmly in place there, Àjàlórun, in deference to his senior brother's instructions, left Ifè to establish his own dynasty in Ìjèsàland. It is common in the Yorùbà historical traditions to regard the founders of other Yorùbà polities as “children” of Odùduwà. The invention of Odùduwà feature in the historical narratives of many Yorùbà communities during the colonial period has been discussed by A. I. Asiwaju, “Political Motivation and Oral Historical Traditions in Africa: the Case of Yorùbà Crowns,” Africa 46 (1976), 113-47. In the case of the traditions of Ìlàrè, however, Àjàlórun is regard as the “junior brother” of Odùduwà. The kinship relationship between Àjàlórun and Odùduwà may be a template of political relationship or an idiom for establishing regional legitimacy for the Alàrè institution, or it may be a metaphorical reference to the contemporaneity in the political developments of Ifè and Ìlàrè. Meanwhile, the archeological excavations conducted in Ìloyì, the settlement associated with Àjàlórun's rule, have shown that the iconographic and stylistic elements of Ifè material culture are replicated in Ìloyì, and that the settlement was occupied between the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries, a period that marked the peak of Ifè's artistic achievement and regional cultural influence. On the basis of the archeological evidence, I have suggested that Ìloyì belonged to the Ifè cultural sphere and that there was a metropole-frontier relationship between Ifè and Ìloyì (among others) from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century.

²⁰ According to the traditions recorded by E. Ogungbemi in 1978 (“Igbo Baba,” 7-9): “Following the instruction of Odùduwà, Àjàlórun set out with a number of followers including Olofin, Leigun, Èrèlè, Osuta, and Arijajo. Odùduwà ordered Aramufe, an important priest in Ifè, to be Àjàlórun's special orderly. Àjàlórun passed through a number of settlements before he arrived in Ìlàrè district. The first settlement that he encountered on the way was Ìbòdi. Aramufe left Àjàlórun's staff at Ìbòdì and the staff is worshipped till this day in Ìbòdì. From Ìbòdì, he reached Ítà-Balogun, an area in the present-day Ilésà town. There, he made one of his followers, Arapate, to govern the settlement and Àjàlórun”s sword was left there as a mark of his authority. Àjàlórun and the rest of the entourage continued their journey until they reached Esa Oke where he met a flourishing population of farmers. Before he continued his journey, Àjàlórun helped Esa Oke people fight their enemies and he left another staff there as a symbol for commemorating his power. From Èsà-Òkè, Àjàlórun reached Imesi-Ile and subdued the social groups around the area. From Imesi-Ile, he established a settlement in the area now known as Baba Ìlàrè grove and he later relocated the populations of the surrounding hamlets and villages to Ìloyì. The traditions mention Ìbòdì, Ilésà, Èsà-Òkè, and Imesi-Ile as the major places that Àjàlórun visited in his journey from Ilé-Ifè to Ìlàrè. These places however seem to be settlements that were brought under Ìlàrè's political control of Èka Òsun. Imesi and Èsà-Òkè, for example, were brought under the political suzerainty of Ìlàrè and the vestiges of the political influence of Ìlàrè over the two communities are preserved in their traditions till today. There is, however, no corroborative indication that Ìlàrè controlled territories as far afield as the Ilésà and Ìbòdì areas in the southern part of Ìjèsàland. Nevertheless, Ìlàrè could have interacted with these southern neighbors through trade contacts or exchange of migrating populations or itinerant specialists.”

²¹ The Prince Adebiyi Adedoyin (personal communication, 20 December 1992); Chief J. Aje (personal communication, 14 August 1992); Prof. Oludare Olajubu, Sokoti of Ìlàrè (personal communication, 19 December 1992).

²² Ogundiran, “Archaeological Reconnaissance.”

²³ “Confederacy” here refers to an aggregation of sociopolitical/settlement units under the leadership of a ruler of one of the constituent settlement units. The process by which a community became a member of the “confederacy” would have involved forcible incorporation and peaceful alliance. Such political formations, based on the alliance of peer village polities, seem to be the precursor to centralized dynastic development in most parts of Yorùbàland; see Obayemi, , “Yoruba,” 264.Google Scholar

²⁴ This information is based on the interviews that Babatunde Agbaje-Williams conducted with Chief Samuel Fakulujo, Oyela of Ìbòkun, Chief Emmanuel Orisasunmi, Baloro of Ìbòkun, and Oba J. O. Fasoyin, Alowa of Ìlówa. I am grateful to him for allowing me to use the information.

²⁵ Chief Emmanuel Orisasunmi, Baloro of Ìbòkun and Chief F. A. Ajayi, Lilere of Ìbòkun.

²⁶ For similar perspectives in other case studies, see Anderson, D., “Political Change in Chiefdom Societies: Cycling in the Late Prehistoric Southern United States” (Ph.D. University of Michigan, 1990), 21Google Scholar; Cordy, Ross, A Study of Prehistoric Social Change: The Development of Complex Societies in the Hawaiian Islands (New York, 1981), 3–4Google Scholar; Wright, H., “Prestate Political Formations” in On the Evolution of Complex Societies, ed. Earle, T. (Malibu, 1984), 42–43.Google Scholar

²⁷ According to Oba Adepoju Aboyede, the current Leigun of Igigun (personal communication, 13 August 1992), the first Leigun and Àjàlórun were brothers. By custom, Leigun, the senior brother, was supposed to receive the blessing of their “father” to establish a kingdom but Alàrè was favored by the father at the instigation of their mother. Leigun has since then ranked second to Alàrè in the political structure of Ìlàrè district. The second version, narrated by Chief Abraham Adeitan, Odofin of Igigun states that Leigun was a senior brother of Alàrè, and that both came from Ifè to settle in different locations in Ìlàrè area. The narrative by Chief Odole of Ìlàrè stresses the conflict between Alàrè and Leigun. Both were brothers but Alàrè was obedient to their father, and Leigun was not. Alàrè was therefore elevated to higher political authority. Conflict ensued between the two brothers because Leigun felt cheated that his birthright was being given to his junior brother. To resolve the conflict, Alàrè was sent out of Ifè with the task to lay out a path from Ifè across the virgin forest of Ìlàrè district and to establish his kingdom at the end of the path. Another version claims that Leigun was one of the prominent followers of Àjàlórun (otherwise known as Alàrè) into Ìlàrè area, and that Ìlàrè and Igigun settlements evolved about the same time. There is no way of ascertaining which version is true but I will suggest that the above stories are subtle ways of masking the historical realities of how Ìlàrè achieved political prominence at the expense of Igigun. The historicity of these traditions is that Igigun settlement was older than Ìlàrè, or that Leigun was an independent potentate before Alàrè dislodged Leigun's independence. The use of kinship metaphor in the description of the relations between the two potentates and their followers may represent the acknowledgment of Leigun as a firstcomer on the landscape of Ìlàrè district or that at some point in the past, the two had equal but competitive relationship. The picture from the oral traditions is that both Alàrè and Leigun were originally peer potentates before the political changes in the region transformed the position of Leigun to that of Alàrè's subordinate.

²⁸ Oba Adepoju Aboyede, Leigun of Igigun (personal communication, 13 August 1992); Chief Abraham Adeitan, Odofin of Igigun; Chief O. Fagbile, Odole of Ìlàrè.

²⁹ Panegyric of Alàrè and Leigun, recorded from Chief Joseph Fagbile, Odole of Ìlàrè.

³⁰ Recorded from Chief Abraham Adeitan, Odofin of Igigun.

³¹ Ibid.

³² The inherent principle of social relations and social organization among the Yorùbà is seniority, defined by relative age or chronology of membership. For discussions on the dominant factor of seniority as the basis of Yoruba social relations see Bascom, W., The Yorùbà of Southwestern Nigeria (Chicago, 1969), 54Google Scholar; Eades, J. S., The Yorùbà Today (Cambridge, 1980), 53Google Scholar; Fadipe, N. A., The Sociology of the Yorùbà (Ìbàdàn, 1970), 129.Google Scholar The first-comer is often considered as senior and s/he assumes the privileges and responsibilities of his/her seniority over latter-comers (junior relatives). However, in the arena of social organization and social hierarchy, the senior-junior relations between two or more social units are relational and dynamic. In other words, “how persons (and groups) were situated in relationships shifted depending on those involved and the particular situation” (Oyewumi, O., The Invention of Women [Minneapolis, 1997], 13).Google Scholar In view of the foregoing, one can understand why there would be persistent struggle and tension to shift the ladder of hierarchies among social units that were similar in size but whose social relations depended on hierarchical relationship defined by seniority.

³³ Èrèlè is one of the primordial deities in Yorùbàland and is associated with royalty, justice, and warfare. Two important bodies of oral texts on the importance of Èrèlé to Ìlàrè's sociopolitical network are contained in Olajubu, O., “Oro Ìlàrè: the Unseen Orisa of Ìlàrè,” paper presented at the 3rd World Congress of the Orisa Tradition and Culture, University of Ifè, Ilé-Ifè, Nigeria, 1986Google Scholar; Oyelade, S. B., “Odun Irele ni Ilu Ìkìrun” (B. A. thesis, Obafemi Awolowo University, 1976).Google Scholar

³⁴ Chief J. Aje, Loye of Ìlàré (personal communication, 2 October 1992); Oba J. O. Fasoyin, the Alowa of Ìlówà (personal communication, 10 September 1991); Professor Oludare Olajubu, Sokoti of Ìlàrè (personal communication, 3 October 1992); Chief Emmanuel Orisasunmi, Baloro of Ìbòkun (personal communication, 11 September 1991); Oba Adejoro Otebolaku, Ogidan III, the Owàlàrè of Ìlàrè (personal communication, 11 January 1997)

³⁵ Prince Adebiyi Adedoyin, Ìlàrè (personal communication, 20 December 1992); Chief J. Aje, Loye of Ìlàrè (personal communication, 13 August 1992); Professor Oludare Olajubu, Sokoti of Ìlàrè (personal communication, 20 December 1992).

³⁶ Osu Oja is still celebrated in Ìlàrè today. The festival takes place every two years and it still serves as a forum in which all the satellite Ìlàrè settlements and the social groups renew their pledge of support to the King of Ìlàrè.

³⁷ Oyelade, , “Odun Irele,” 91.Google Scholar

³⁸ Kopytoff, I., “The Internal African Frontier: the Making of African Political Culture” in The African Frontier, ed. Kopytoff, I. (Bloomington, 1987), 56, 59.Google Scholar

³⁹ Ogundiran, “Excavations.”

⁴⁰ Agbaje-Williams/Ogundiran, Cultural Resources.

⁴¹ According to the traditions recorded from Chief Emmanuel Orisasunmi, the Baloro of Ìbòkun (perssonal communication, 1991), Òbàràbarà Olòkunesin entered Ìlémùré through Obaasun (now Ipetu-Ile) area. When he came to Igbo Otebere, in the present day Oke Ese street in Ìbòkun town, he met Ìtà, the ruler of Ìlémùré, performing the annual worship and celebration of his gods and ancestors without playing the traditional Igbin drum and without any pageantry. Òbàràbarà Olókunesin was surprised to see Ìtà in such a lackluster solemn celebration and he demanded to know the reasons. Ìtà complained that Alàrè, the Lord of Éka Òsun and potentate of Ìlàrè, had forbidden him to celebrate his ancestors and gods with the sacred Igbin drum. He cataloged the oppressions that he and his people were suffering from Alàrè”s strict rule, and he sought the help of Òbàràbarà to liberate his territory from Alàrè.

⁴² Kopytoff, , “Internal African Frontier,” 38Google Scholar, has discussed the common use of kinship terms as metaphors for sociopolitical relations in many African societies. Thus, the terms such as “wife,” “mother,” and “sister” in historical narratives may at times convey sentiments of warmth, nurture, and attachment, as well as idioms for expressing intimate relationship, alliance, and subordination. Following the defeat of Ìlàrè, Alàrè is said to have issued a curse forbidding intermarriages between Ìlàrè and Ìbòkun. This custom is still observed in the two communities.

⁴³ This might explain why Èrèlè, a royal ritual cult that is popular in Ìkìrun to this day is widely acclaimed to have originated from Ìlàrè. Èrèlè festival is now a national festival for the Ìkìrun people, and through comparative analysis of the panegyrics and ritual songs of Èrèlè in both Ìlàrè and Ìkìrun, Oyelade, “Odun Irele,”has demonstrated that Èrèlè cult originated from Ìlàrè.

⁴⁴ Olatunde, , “Obokun Festival,” 9Google Scholar; Chief Orisasunmi, Ìbòkun.

⁴⁵ According to Chief E. Orisasunmi, the grove was originally an outpost palace and temple of Alàrè. On the other hand, Prince Adebiyi Adedoyin, Ìlàrè, and Oba Adejoro Otebolaku Ogidan III, Ìlàrè, referred to the site as a temple dedicated primarily to the worship of the deities of Alàrè.

⁴⁶ Chief Samuel Fakulujo, Oyela of Ìbòkun, Chief Emmanuel Orisasunmi, Baloro of Ìbòkun, and Oba J. O. Fasoyin, Alowa of Ìlówà.

⁴⁷ Given that four to six rulers are variously listed to have ruled between Òbàràbarà and Owàlúsé at different locations, it is plausible to suggest that at least one hundred years lapsed between Òbàràbarà's rule in Ìbòkun (after the Òkìpó war) and Owàlúsé's rule at Ilésà. Ogundiran, “Archaeological Reconnaissance” 153–54Google Scholar; Peel, “Traditions Reviewed.” The Òkìpó war and the end of Ìlàrè's political domination can therefore be placed sometime between 1400 and 1475.

⁴⁸ Etymologically, Otuluya means “O-tun-ilu-ya,” “he who re-establishes the town.”

⁴⁹ Archeological excavations in Òkun reveal transatlantic materials such as cowry shells and smoking pipes, showing that the settlement was occupied between about 1600 and 1800; Ogundiran, A., “New Archaeological Frontier, New Historical Boundary: Trade, Social Formation, and the Story of a Yorùbà Town (15th-18th centuries),” paper presented at the Walter Rodney Seminar Series, Boston University. 9 February 9 1998.Google Scholar

⁵⁰ Peel, J. D. Y., Ijeshas and Nigerians (Cambridge, 1983), 21.Google Scholar

⁵¹ For discussion on the Ilésà ritual field see Agbaje-Williams/Ogtindiran, Cultural Resources.

⁵² Until the present, the king of Ilésà partakes in the annual Óbòkun ritual festivals in Ìbòkun, and Ìbòkun also plays a very important role in the coronation rituals for a new king of Ilésà.

⁵³ Old Òyó became the most formidable empire in Yorùbàland in the mid-seventeenth century, and attempted to penetrate and annex the northern frontiers of Ìjèsà and Èkìtì territories in the eighteenth century. Its cavalry forces, however, failed to have much success because of the determined opposition of Ilésà forces to the Old Òyó intrusions. The contentious relations between Old Òyó and Ilésà lasted for most of the eighteenth century; see Law, R., The Oyo Empire (Oxford, 1977), 127–33Google Scholar, for a review of Oyo-Ìjèsà relations from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries.

⁵⁴ The sociopolitical meaning of such pre-nineteenth-century exchanges became a subject of controversy on the nature of the relationship between Ilésà and some of the communities in northern Ìjèsàland between 1901 and 1914. While Ilésà interpreted such exchanges to mean political subordination of the hinterland communities such as Imesi-Ile and Otan-Ile, the latter claimed the exchanges were not tributes, but complimentary gifts. National Archives, Ìbàdàn, OYOPROF 1/10, File 14- M.P. 4607/1901, M.P.2914/1903, and R.288/1914. The controversy came up again in 1981 between Ilésà and Ìlàrè-Ìjèsà during the preparation for the installation of the current Owàlàrè of Ìlàre, Ogidan, Oba Adejoro Otebolaku III, Nigerian Tribune (2 April 1982)ÌbàdànGoogle Scholar).

⁵⁵ According to the traditions that I recorded from Prince Adebiyi Adedoyin, Osaonipapa, the potentate of Ìlàrè at Òkun settlement, had a relationship with the wife of the ruler of Ìlàhún. The action led to animosity between the two and later degenerated to conflicts between Ìlàrè and Ìlàhún communities. In revenge, Ìlàhún successfully hatched a plot to poison the only source of drinking water for Òkun's populace.

⁵⁶ The narratives of intercommunity and intrasettlement conflicts that were supposedly induced by Osaonipapa's actions do not form part of the mainstream traditions in Ìlàrè, and only Prince Adedoyin, citing his grandfather, Oba Adedoyin (listed as the 56th Oba on the kinglist of Ìlàrè) as his informant, volunteered this information to me. He alluded to the fact that Osaonipapa was related to the present Osaakamola branch of the royal family in Ìlàrè (It should be noted that the informant belongs to the Osaakamola family branch).

⁵⁷ Ajayi, J. F. Ade and Akintoye, S. A., “Yorùbàland in the 19th century” in Groundwork of Nigerian History, ed, Ikime, Obaro (Ìbàdàn, 1980).Google Scholar

⁵⁸ Akintoye, S. A., Revolution and Power Politics in Yorùbàland, 1840-1893: Ibàdàn Expansion and the Rise of Èkìtì Parapo (London, 1971).Google Scholar

⁵⁹ Ibid.

⁶⁰ Prince Adebiyi Adedoyin, personal communication, 8 August 1992.

⁶¹ I am indebted to Prof. Oludare Olajubu, Sokoti of Ìlàrè, who provided me with detailed narratives of the settlement history of Ìlàrè-Ìjèsà since ca. 1910. Other informants on the family history in Ìlàre include Chief J. Aje (Loye of Ìlàrè); Mr. Michael Adebisi; Baba Adeyeye; Chief Samuel Babayemi (Loriomo of Ìlàrè); Chief O. Fagbile (Odole of Ìlàrè); Baba Faturoti; Baba Folorunso; Baba Iseolu; and Baba Joseph Ojo Ogundele.

⁶² Schmidt, Peter “Rhythmed Time and its Archaeological Implications” in Aspects of African Archaeology, ed. Pwiti, G. and Soper, R. (Harare, 1996), 658.Google Scholar

⁶³ Kopytoff, , “Internal African Frontier,” 22.Google Scholar