If you say that Ibadan is a metropolitan city that sits on hill tops, you will be right and perfectly in order. Yes, Ibadan sprawls on top of Seven hills and their valleys. This is not surprising to those who are versed in military strategies and defence. Mountain top is a natural redoubt. If you are on it, that is a vantage point from where you can see the surrounding areas of your location and also see what is happening there.
An aggressor on invasion mission is seen from a distance, thus hill top allows the person on it to promptly make a counter attack plan or fortify his position for a robust defence. That exactly was what the seven hills offered Ibadan at its formation years.
No wonder Ibadan indigenes are called sons and daughters of hills.
There is even a lyric in Yoruba language that sing-praises Ibadan indigenes as children or mountain: E ba ngbe omo oke lanti lanti. Literally it calls on people to help carry healthy and strong children of mountain. The most popular of the hills is Oke Ibadan at Awotan, a sub-urban area of Ibadan. It is celebrated every year.
Oke Ibadan or Ibadan hill at Awotan provided a fortress that protected residents of Eba Odan (near the plain) settlement when the Oyo Empire’s soldiers invaded the new settlement on the order of Oba Shago, who was the ruler of the kingdom at the time. Eba Odan people were accused of breaking a taboo. They unmasked a masquerader in the full glare of the public.
That was unacceptable hence the invasion.
Masquerade festival was (is) an annual celebration of the dead ancestors. Yoruba people believe in life after death and yearly during the festival welcome their past forebears who come home to visit their descendants, spotting masquerade costumes. During the festival, the visitors from heaven pray for the health and prosperity of their children on earth.
When the news of masquerade’s unmasking got to Oyo, it provoked anger of the Alaafin Shago, who ordered a punitive invasion of Eba Odan for the blaspheme. Lagelu, who was the founder of Eba Odan and his people ran for dear life to the top of Oke Ibadan. The hill gave them effective protection and saved many lives.
Once they were on top of the hill, they had the advantage of seeing the movement of the invading troops from a distance. This gave them an ample opportunity to quickly go into a counter attack, while simultaneously defending their position. The settlement in what could be called a valley was destroyed: After the storm, Lagelu and his people came down from the hill top to start building a new settlement they called Ebadan.
The site of the new settlement was however, very far away from Awotan where the settlement called Eba Odan had prospered. Now, with the knowledge of advantage of hill top, which Oke Ibadan afforded Lagelu and his people, it was not a surprise that they chose another hill top (Ori Yangi) at the present Oja’Iba area to settle. Oja Iba where they decided to build their new settlement is an extention of the present Mapo Hill that sprawls to Oke Bioku.
Later, when development brought by Britain, Nigeria’s colonial master came, Oke Mapo, Mapo Hill, became the site of the first modern hall in the town. It provided accomodation for district council offices and a hall to hold social events. Just as the first settlement, Eba Odan, that was invaded and destroyed by Oyo army, the then new settlement named Ebadan enjoyed peace, with its attendant prosperity, spurred by booming trading and commercial activities brought about by the advent of white men in the new town.
The prosperity that fueled population explosion soon became an object of envy. Neigbouring towns grew yellow with envy of Ebadan’s prosperous growth. The neighbours were not happy about the rapid growth and expansion of Ebadan.
They suspected and even knew that the new settlement could surge ahead of all of them and even take leadership position in Yorubaland. It was, therefore, not a surprise that Ebadan was invaded and plundered. Lagelu and many of his henchmen lost their lives.
Recall that the first settlement Eba Odan founded by Lagelu and those who followed him from Ile-Ife was invaded by the Oyo army.
Ebadan, the settlement the succeeded Eba Odan, though still headed by Lagelu, had a large population of people who migrated from Oyo and other neighbouring towns. This new group of people were either strong-headed people fleeing from persecution of the power that be in their towns or seeking to benefit from Ebadan’s prosperity. Despite the vehement violence unleashed on the town, it could not be totally destroyed by the invading army. The hill on which it stood was a redoubt that was impregnable. This, undoubtedly prevented its total destruction.
It’s, therefore, not an exageration to assert that people of Ebadan had learnt from the two attempts to wipe them out of existence and their resorting to hill tops for defence and protection. The hill tops are places that stand people on them a military advantage. The hill-top provides a vantage position that affords people on it an opportunity to see and strengthens their defence, which they could turn into attacking assault.
This would not only stop the invaders on their tracks, but also devastate them. That was why the new town that emerged from the ruins of Ebadan regarded hill tops as fortresses. The people, therefore, maximised the advantage of hill-tops to the hilt. The new town then became synonymous with hills. John Pepper Clerk, a poet even describes Ibadan in a poem entitled: Ibadan. He wrote: Running splash of rust and gold-flung and scattered among seven hills like broken China in the sun.
It could not have been otherwise, Ibadan people knew advantage(s) of residing on hill-tops and sited their city there. Call Ibadan a city or metropolis of seven hills and you would be correct.
Oke Ibadan, Oke Mapo, Oke Adu, Oke Aare, Oke Sapati, Oke Ado and Oke Bioku. Oke literally means hill. The seven hills listed above could, therefore, be said to be the pillars on which Ibadan stands. The hills made Ibadan impregnable in the past and could still be regarded its redoubt. No wonder Ibadan indigenes cannot joke with them.
– TAJUDEEN ADIGUN
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