Category: Towns/Cities
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Benin Empire is the kingdom of the Edo people in the Guinea Coast, near the mouth of the Niger. Portuguese travelers described its capital as a big city, surrounded by high wall, and having a broad street through the center. To be sure, the kingdom is, using R.E. Bradbury’s definition, the area within which the…
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Ile-Ife, the name which the town in the Nigerian rainforest 135 miles northeast of Lagos is called originates from the Yoruba myth of origin which designates it as the place of dispersion. Obatala in this myth descended with a task from Olodumare, or God, to create life. On his way, he was distracted by and…
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Onitsha History, as cleverly stated by author, Henderson, lacked an independent myth of primordial origins because in their cosmogony they simply relate themselves to the cultural focus of Nri where it is said the Onitsha dead go on their way to the underworld. Onitsha in one of its most plausible traditions, was founded when Chima…
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Ilesha is a town in Osun state, a little over 100 kilometers from Ibadan, and historically populated by the Ijesa people, a subgroup of the Yoruba who were one of the earliest migrants from ancestral home at Ile-Ife. Ilesha, meaning in one account, ile ti a sa, translating as “the home that we choose” is…
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Port Harcourt is a Nigerian port city, on the northern bank of the Bonny River, 30 nautica miles from the Bight of Biafra in the Atlantic Ocean. The city, discovered while a small fishing port in 1901 by Viscount Harcourt, a colonial administrative officer became capital of the Rivers State, with the creation of Rivers…
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Ogbomoso is located in Oyo state, south-western Nigeria. It used to occupy a small area along the road to Osogbo but is now a vast settlement with five local government areas which include smaller towns such as Gambari, Iresa-Adu, and Iresa-Apa, to mention a few. It was founded in the mid-17th century and its present…
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Ede is an ancient Yoruba town in Osun state, along the Osun River and the railway track connecting Lagos with the northern parts of Nigeria. The town hosts a federal polytechnic and a private university owned by the Redeemed Christian Church of God. Another private university, Adeleke, is being given a license to operate. There…
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Ijebu Ife, the old district of Ijebu province lying south east of Ijebu Ode contains three distinct units: the Ijebu Ife village area, the Isele village area, and a group of village and scattered hamlets named after the largest village, Ogbere having a distance of about 22 kilometres from Ijebu-Ode. Ogbere serves as headquarters to…
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Mushin is a Lagos district with one of the highest population concentration and a pool of small scale industries. The area, 12 kilometer square in sold land is slightly high so usually safe from flood. The Lagos State Polytechnic founded in the 1970s is located in Isolo area of Mushin. The area also shares close…
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Okuku is a principal town of Odo-Otin district in Osun state, a small Yoruba town straggling briefly along the main road from Osogbo to Ofa, close to the semi Savannah end of the northernmost parts of Southwest Nigeria. Men being predominantly farmers, enliven the town towards the end of each year, after cocoa harvest, changing…