Aribidesi Usman

A View from the Periphery: Northern Yoruba Villages during the Old Oyo Empire, Nigeria

Abstract The 15th to late 17th centuries A.C. in Yorubaland, Nigeria, witnessed the rise and expansion of the Oyo Empire, a development that also left its mark on its peripheries. This paper examines village activities and changes in settlement patterns on the periphery of the Oyo Empire, primarily the Igbomina area of north-central Yorubaland, and to what extent these changes can be attributed to regional sociopolitical change, especially the rise and expansion of Old Oyo authority. North-central Yorubaland was politically and militarily important to the Old Oyo state, maintaining military alliances with the villages on its peripheries in the face of persistent military threats from neighbors to the north. Old Oyos relations with north-central Yorubaland seem to have initiated change, evident in large chiefly elite sites, large enclosed wall systems, an increase in ritual activities, and stylistic similarity in pottery decoration shared with Old Oyo. Ethnohistorical sources, archaeological survey, and excavation form the core of this reconstruction of political relations between Old Oyo and Igbominaland.

THE ETHNOHISTORY AND ARCHAEOLOGY OF WARFARE IN NORTHERN YORUBA

The location of Igbomina in the middle belt of Nigeria and as a frontier Yoruba region opened it to the influence from powerful, competing states of Oyo, Nupe, Fulani, and Ibadan. The expansion of the Oyo Empire in the 16th century, which was accompanied by the large migration of Yoruba northward, led to frequent military aggression on the northern boundary with the Nupe. This paper examines military aggressions in the Igbomina area of north central Yorubaland. Military threat or warfare had initiated various responses in Igbomina, as evident in community aggregation, building of fortifications, production of weapons, and settlement abandonment. The high level of military aggression in Igbomina had also acted as an instrument of socio-political changes in the area as seen in increased centralized control and hierarchy. Oral-historical sources, archaeological survey and excavation form the core of this examination of military aggression in Igbomina.

Sociopolitical formation on the Yoruba Northern frontier: A report of recent work at Ila-Iyara, North Central Nigeria

The 15 th – 17 th century AD was a period of sociopolitical changes throughout Yorubaland. A critical review of the traditional histories and the results of recent archaeological research in Igbomina reveal that these changes were not restricted to the central Yoruba areas but also manifested in the Yoruba periphery. Ila has been described as a major regional polity in northern Yoruba, whose early development may have followed a similar trajectory as the Old Oyo state. This paper is a report of our recent archaeological survey, excavation, and finds at Ila-Iyara, the major Ila political center occupied between the 14 th and 17 th centuries. Ila-Iyara exhibits evidence of large elite center, fortifications, sacred sites, iron working, and ceramic types similar to those found at Oyo, Ife, and Benin. The archaeological work in Ila-Iyara also provides further insight into the processes of socio-political development, the dynamics of changes, and the different web of interactions on the Yoruba northern frontier prior to the 18 th century.