Investigation into Site Re-Occupation Mechanism in Ijaye-Orile, Southwest

Nigeria: A Theoretical Approach.
Akinbowale M. AKINTAYO
Department of Archaeology and Anthropology,
University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria.
[email protected]

1.1 Introduction
Ijaye-Orile was one of the kingdoms that reigned in the Yoruba forest regions in the
late seventeenth and early eighteenth century. However, external aggression from
contemporary kingdoms led to a war which resulted into the sacking of the kingdom.
What followed was the abandonment of the settlement with many people fleeing to seek
asylum at nearby towns. This ultimately led to the desolation of the Ijaye-Orile with
just few inhabitants. The relics from archaeological expeditions in the settlement
attested to the fact that it was an established kingdom with its sphere of influence
reaching as far as Oke-Ogun area of present-day Oyo State, Nigeria (Figure 2).
Both Abeokuta-Oyo and the north-west routes linked Ijaye-Orile with the coast of
Lagos. Goods such as beads, camwood, shea butter (Butyrospermum paradoxum), and
food crops were exported from Ijaye-Orile through these routes (Folorunso &
Olayinka, 1997; Johnson, 1921). In addition, owing to its location, people from

different routes come to Ijaye-Orile to buy and sell and this accounted for why Ijaye-
Orile grew and became a big town before the war. To buttress the fact that Ijaye-Orile

was famous and known to be great producers of food items, during the period of the
popular Fulani war which displaced many Yoruba settlements like Ikoyi, Ika Odan
Esiele, etc., some of the displaced persons who had become fugitives were said to have
requested to buy food items in Ijaye-Orile while passing by, but the then Onijaye,
Mokaye Oyeniran, disagreed and did not grant the people permission to pass through
Ijaye-Orile to procure food items and this resulted in war which led to the sacking of
Ijaye-Orile. (Onaolapo 2013, pers. comm.).