The Ìjẹ̀ṣà: Ilésà and the Ọ̀wá Obòkun

The Ìjẹ̀ṣà occupy hilly, forested country east of Ilé-Ifẹ̀, with their capital at Ilésà under the Ọ̀wá Obòkun. Two things define their history. The terrain kept them out of the Ọ̀yọ́ empire, because cavalry cannot work in wooded hills, so the Ìjẹ̀ṣà were never incorporated into the system that shaped most of western Yorubaland. And their nineteenth-century subjection to Ìbàdàn produced the reaction that ended Ìbàdàn's expansion, in the person of Ògèdèngbé and the Èkìtìparapọ̀ alliance.

Ìjẹ̀ṣà has a further significance in the Atlantic record: Ìjẹ̀ṣà captives are heavily represented among those shipped in the wars of the 1860s to 1880s, and the Ìjẹ̀ṣà presence in Brazil and Cuba is correspondingly large.

The name and the title

The ruler's full style is Ọ̀wá Obòkun Adìmúlà of Ìjẹ̀ṣàland, addressed as His Imperial Majesty 1.

Obòkun is the interesting part and it carries the dynasty's founding story. Odùduwà went blind, and Ifá divination prescribed that his eyes be washed with seawater. His youngest son or grandson, named in the sources as Ajíbógun, undertook the journey to the sea and fetched the water, and from that act the title Ọ̀wá Obòkun derives, obòkun parsing as one who fetches, or the fetcher of, brine 1. The Ìjẹ̀ṣà are accordingly called Ọmọ Obòkun, children of the brine-fetcher, and the phrase is standard in Ìjẹ̀ṣà praise usage 1.

The praise formula circulating in Ìjẹ̀ṣà usage runs Ìjẹ̀ṣà ni ere, ọmọ Ọ̀wá, ọmọ Obòkun, which is quoted widely in Ìjẹ̀ṣà self-presentation. It is reproduced here as it circulates, and a full three-layer treatment would require a transcribed and attributed performed text, which was not located; readers should not take the phrase as a scholarly transcription.

Adìmúlà is a compound of the type common in senior Yoruba titles, conveying one who holds fast and survives or one whom people hold onto for survival, and it appears in several Yoruba royal styles.

Founding, and the dates that do not agree

The dates in the accessible sources conflict and should be reported as conflicting rather than averaged.

Samuel Johnson's account, followed in the reference literature, has the state founded around 1300 by Ajíbógun Ajaka, youngest son of Odùduwà 1. Another formulation gives the founder's full style as Ajíbógun Ajaka Ọ̀wá Obòkun Onídà Ràhàràhà and places the founding around 1300 2.

Ilésà itself is separately dated to about 1250 with a founder named Ọ̀wá Owalúsè, described as a grandson of Ajíbógun, who founded Iwara and then Ilésà as the permanent seat of the dynasty 2. The same source gives Owalúsè's reign as 1522 to 1526 2, which cannot be reconciled with a 1250 founding by the same man. Report the discrepancy; do not choose.

What the accounts agree on is the structure: an Odùduwà-derived dynasty, a founding act involving the sea, and a capital established at Ilésà with subordinate towns around it. The state of Ilésà consisted of Ilésà itself and a number of smaller surrounding cities 2.

The physical form was the classical Yoruba plan. Ilésà measured about three kilometres across within mud-built walls and a ditch, held thirty to forty thousand people at its height, and controlled territory extending twenty to thirty kilometres outward including more than a hundred and sixty subordinate settlements. The palace sat at the centre with town roads radiating outward, wards clustered along the main roads, and the farms of descent groups extending beyond the wards 3.

A missionary visitor, the Reverend William Clark, recorded in 1854 that Ilésà far surpassed any native town he had seen in black Africa, praising its clean and orderly streets 1. Quote that as what it is, a mid-century missionary assessment, but note that Clark had seen a good deal of the region and that the judgment is consistent with the archaeological picture of a planned town.

The nineteenth century and Ìbàdàn

Ilésà was sacked by Ìbàdàn in 1870 and the Ìjẹ̀ṣà came under Ìbàdàn's tributary system, with resident ajẹ̀lẹ̀ posted to extract tribute and enforce compliance.

The ajẹ̀lẹ̀ are the specific cause of what followed. They were resented in Ìjẹ̀ṣà and Èkìtì alike, and the reaction produced the alliance that ended Ìbàdàn's expansion.

Ògèdèngbé

Ògèdèngbé Àgbógungbòrò, born Orisarayibi Ogundamola in 1822, died 29 July 1910, was the Sèrìkí, commander-in-chief, of the Èkìtìparapọ̀ forces in the Kiriji war of 1877 to 1893 45.

His military education came from his enemies. He was captured in 1864 while defending Ìlàrà-Mọ́kin against Ìbàdàn and escaped after receiving training from the Ìbàdàn warrior Bada Aki-Iko; he was captured again at the Ìgbàjọ war of 1867 and escaped again, and the sources credit these episodes with teaching him Ìbàdàn's methods 5. He came to prominence within Ìjẹ̀ṣà by driving out the chief Odole Ariyasunle, accused of leaking military information to Ìbàdàn 5.

In 1878 the Èkìtì and Ìjẹ̀ṣà countries united in the alliance called Èkìtìparapọ̀, the combined forces of the Ìjẹ̀ṣà and Èkìtì, under Ògèdèngbé's command 5. The Kiriji war ran from 1877 to 1893, drew in several Yoruba states, and is the longest conflict in Yoruba history 45.

The eastern side's material advantage came from outside. The Ìjẹ̀ṣà diaspora at Lagos, wealthy and organised, raised money and purchased modern breech-loading rifles that were run up to the front, which is how a coalition of small hill states held the largest military power in Yorubaland to a standstill for sixteen years.

Ògèdèngbé repeatedly declined the throne of Ilésà and was instead given the chieftaincy title Obanla in 1898 in recognition of his conduct in the war 5. That refusal is worth noting: a war commander with the power to take a crown declining it and accepting a title within the existing order is not the usual outcome of a sixteen-year war, and it says something about how firmly the Ọ̀wá's office was held to be beyond military appropriation.

The Ìjẹ̀ṣà towns

Ìjẹ̀ṣàland comprises Ilésà and a substantial set of towns, among them Ìjẹ̀bú-Jẹ̀ṣà, Ìbòkun, Ìpetu-Ìjẹ̀ṣà, Èsa-Òkè, Èrìn-Òkè, Ìlàrẹ́-Ìjẹ̀ṣà, Ìjẹ̀bú-Ìjẹ̀ṣà and Ìpólé-Ìjẹ̀ṣà.

Ìjẹ̀bú-Jẹ̀ṣà is not Ìjẹ̀bú in the Awùjalẹ̀'s sense despite the name, and the distinction matters. Its tradition holds that it was founded by Ọba Agigiri Ẹgbọ̀rọ̀ganlada, the first Oníjẹ̀bú Ẹgbọ̀rọ̀, a son of Odùduwà Olófin Ayé and an elder brother of Ọ̀wá Obòkun Ajíbógun 6. On that account the town's seniority within the Ìjẹ̀ṣà group is older than the Ilésà dynasty's own, which is a claim Ìjẹ̀bú-Jẹ̀ṣà makes and Ilésà does not necessarily concede.

Gold

Ilésà sits on a documented gold belt. Geological assessment of the Ilésà gold belt puts its value at a minimum of five billion US dollars 1. Mining is largely artisanal and informal, with the attendant environmental and safety problems, and formal exploitation has repeatedly stalled. The gold is worth mentioning because it is an actual and unusual economic fact about the town, and because the pre-colonial Ìjẹ̀ṣà reputation as traders may have had a material basis in it, though that connection is not documented.

Current status

Ilésà is a city in Ọ̀ṣun State with a population of about 384,334 in 2016 1, the seat of the Ọ̀wá Obòkun and the centre of the Ìjẹ̀ṣà local government areas. It hosts Ilesa Grammar School, one of the older secondary schools in the region and a significant institution in the education of the Ìjẹ̀ṣà professional class, the University of Ilesa, upgraded from a college of education in 2023, and the Wesley Guild Hospital 1.

The Ìjẹ̀ṣà reputation for commercial energy and for education is old and is comparable to the Ìjẹ̀bú one, and the Ìjẹ̀ṣà diaspora within Nigeria remains a distinct and organised presence.