THE HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL
OF IBADAN HILL OF REFUGEIMPORTANCE: Esv. Lola Tomori anivs, rsv, mnim
Email: lolatomori1@gmail.com

The ‘Oke’badan’ an annual communal festival, for fertility rites and prosperity, was dedicated to the spirit of the hill, as a thanksgiving in the refuge which it provided in period of danger, and also to Lagelu, the mythical founder of Ibadan. The Okebadan festival provided an opportunity not only for merriment but also for criticism as songs were composed to condemn or praise rulers and their policies.
The word “Oke’badan” is derived from the contraction of the words Oke (hill or mountain) and Ibadan. Okebadan means Ibadan hill or the tutelary deity of Ibadan hill. The hill of Ibadan is believed to harbour a supernatural or spiritual being which protected the early settlers from the wrath of their enemies and attackers.
 
The Alawotan of Awotan and the Traditional Chiefs at the Grove of
Lagelu on Top of Ibadan Hill in January 2020

LAGELU SACRED GROVE ON IBADAN HILLS:
The site of the tomb of Lagelu on Awotan Hills with the adjourning surrounding remains a sacred ground. Two hundred meters square from the tomb, all shoes must be removed. It is assumed that anyone with shoes on is trampling on the remains of Lagelu.
The present site is embarrassing; a hut with palm thatched roof, shelters the remains of the great man. No one would have imagined that there lies the famous Lagelu, Oro Apata Maja, the founder of the largest city in Africa South of the Sahara. It is embarrassing that the situation has remained as it is for years after the exit of the great warrior and further of Ibadan.


There are three prominent hills on the plateau of Awotan. These are
Igbo Oke’badan
Oke Oso
Oke Odo Eleyele
Each of this hill has distinctive historical significance. It was at the peak of Igbo Oke’badan that a masquerade leading an Egba invasion if Ibadan in the 18th century as eternally destroyed. Legend has it that Lagelu, was forbidden from setting eyes on any masquerade. From the valley where he stood, he commanded the masquerade to be swallowed inside the bowels of the mountain. When the invading forces saw what happened, they scampered in different directions for safety.
The second hill Oke Oso, constantly emitted smoke, suggesting the presence of volcanic activities. But today the hill has remained dormant but the traces and signs of its past antecedents are still present.
The third hill, Oke Odo Eleyele, offered sanctuary to a number of creatures, particularly birds of different species as the doves, the goose and pigeons which swamp the foot of the hill with a perennial stream (Otenru) running through it and which empties its waters into the Eleyele dam.
Today, the stream is still running but strangely the beautiful birds no longer patronize the site. The source of Otenru stream is close to a village called Oriogbo Ojuabere.





THE SIGNIFICANCE OF OKEBADAN (IBADAN HILL)
Okebadan is significant in the religious and socio-cultural lives of the people of Ibadan, and this account for why the Okebadan festival is celebrated annually with pomp and pageantry. However, this is not peculiar to Ibadan people, as there are others hills and mountains of scared significance or deities of similar nature worshipped in several Yoruba communities. Examples of such deities are the Asaberi in Saki, Iyamapo in Igbeti and Olumo in Abeokuta. These are often associated with hill settlements. The people believed in the sacredness and sanctity of Okebadan (Ibadan Hill). Consequently, sacrifices are made to the goddess periodically and annually in Ibadanland.
When Baale Oyesile Olugbode (1851-64) did not have a male child, he divined and he was advised to make sacrifice to Okebadan which the new rulers in Ibadan from (1825 to 1851) knew nothing about. Oyesile then arranged for the Aboke family to return from Abeokuta and make the necessary sacrifice as he was advised. He subsequently had a male child named Aderigbe, who died in the Kiriji War in 1882 (Dr. Jide Fatokun, 2011 page 54).
This belief of the people was attested to by Theophilus Kerfer, a Swabian pastor who visited the same shrine on Okebadan Hill in 1853, according to O.O. Adekola; former Senior Research Fellow, Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan, Ibadan (2015). Theophilus Kerfer submitted that:
“We saw the sacred grave (sic) at a short distance, where, as it said among the people, supernatural beings, little men in white garments, could be seen in large numbers. But bad people went out with only guns to shoot them, therefore they have disappeared and come only in extra-ordinary times”
The above account seems to corroborate the people’s faith in the sanctity of Okebadan (Ibadan Hill at Awotan in Ido Local Government Area); precisely on Akufo-Apete Road, and the belief that supernatural beings inhabited the sacred place and could be seen physically even by non-believers.
Historic sites are increasingly recognized as important economic resources in both developed and developing countries.
CONCLUDING REMARKS
Improving the conservation and management of the heritage is not only important for preserving historic significance, but also for its potential to increase income-earning opportunities, and community competiveness.
The historic areas of the cities in Oyo State such as; Ayoku Cave (Orile Rock) in Akorede LCDA/Oluyole LGA, Okebadan (Ibadan Hill), Old Oyo National Park and suspended Lake in Ado-Awaiye, have been allowed to decay and largely abandoned. The absence of conservation plans and documentation procedures for most of the heritage sites in the state make them to be physically disrupted by insensitive to modern development.
The Awotan community in Ibadan in collaboration with the Ministry of Information and Culture of Oyo State should preserve and protect the two historical sites of Ayoku Cave and Okebadan/Lagelu Grove at Awotan which is being encroached upon now.