Waja

Àgbélé Symbol and the Branding of Ìyámòpó Mountain in

Ìgbẹ́tìfor Heritage Tourism.

by

Adeola Adeitan Lameed

Department of Sustainability Studies, University of Ibadan
Francesca Chinyere Ukpokolo and David A. Aremu
Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Ibadan
Abstract
This paper examined how the Àgbélé symbol can brand Ìyámòpó
Mountain a Twenty-first Century tourist site, attracting tourists to
Ìgb̀ ẹ̣́
̣̣́tì. Clifford Geertz’s Symbolic and Interpretive and Walt Whitman
Rostows’ Modernisation theories served as the framework. Qualitative
and quantitative approaches were adopted. Seventy-six informants
were interviewed while 212 questionnaires were administered to
tourists to determine how Àgbélé symbols can brand Ìyámòpó
Mountain. Content analysis was used to analyse qualitative data while
descriptive statistics were used to report the quantitative data. Àgbélé
rock pedestals with extraordinary aesthetic quality embody cultural
meanings for members of the Ìgb̀ ẹ̣́

̣̣́tì community in Ọ̣́lo ̣̣́runsogo Local
Government and also serve as tourist’s attraction. An aggregate of
82.4%; 73%; 77.8% and 74% of the respondents agreed that tourists
can identify Ìyámòpó Mountain through Àgbélé symbol, Àgbélé
symbol can attract tourists to Ìyámòpó and can be used to brand
Ìyámòpó Mountain and other tourism resources, respectively. Using
cultural symbols can be employed to brand tourism destinations.
Keywords: Agbele hill, Tourism Destination, Symbol, Ìyámòpó
Mountain, Ìgb̀ ẹ̣́
̣̣́tì