ON THE ORIGIN HISTORY OF IJEBU

Ololade M. Ekundayo
ESCAE University (Anglophone Annex) Porto Novo, Republic of Bénin
[email protected]

Key words: Ijebu, Ijebu History, Ijebu Historical Linguistics, History of Bini, History
of Benin Kingdom, Ijebu-Benin

Introduction
This paper presents the result of an investigation into the provenance of the ethnonym Ijẹbu,
which was carried out with intent to gain insight into the history of the Ijẹbu people. The Ijẹbu
are a major branch of the Yoruba tribe of South-western Nigeria. However, knowledge of the
pre-colonial past of this group is still heavily clouded, and this research purposes to contribute
to the illumination of that past.

Summary of Existing Concepts on the Etymology of Ijẹbu

1. Feed of the Deep

Reverend Samuel Johnson in his History of the Yoruba presents the tradition that Ijẹbu
was coined from ijẹ ibu, “feed of the deep”. The narrative behind this conception is that
the Ijẹbu at that time were subjects of the King of Bini*, an ancient kingdom of the Edo
people whose location currently falls within the Edo State of Nigeria. According to the
tradition related by Johnson, this powerful king reserved the Ijẹbu people for use as
sacrifice to the god of the ocean (Johnson, 1921: 19), wherefore they were referred to as
‘feed of the deep’ ocean.

*The spelling Bini is adopted here instead of the alternative Benin in order to avoid
confusion with the Republic of Benin, a neighbouring country of Nigeria.

2. Ajẹbu and Olode

The most popular tradition about the origin of the Ijẹbu is that they migrated to their current
location where they met an autochthonous people, the Idoko (Ayandele, 1992; Ayantuga,
1965: 1-3). Some accounts indicate that the people migrated from Waddai, a place in

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 today’s country of Sudan. Proponents of this Waddai tradition include Oba Sikiru Adetona,
the current Awujalẹ of Ijẹbu, and the historian E. A. Ayandele (Ayandele, 1992).
Some other traditions claim that they migrated from Ile-Ifẹ, yet others from Bini through
Ile-Ifẹ (Alao and Oguntomisin, 2002). The migrations were said to have been in three
waves. The first was led by one Olu Iwa who gave his daughter to Oduduwa for wife while
passing through Ile-Ifẹ to Ijẹbuland. Then there was a second wave, and finally the third
one led by Ogboroganluda, also identified as Obanta, who is said to be a son of Oduduwa
born by Olu Iwa’s daughter (Ogunkoya, 1956, 48-53). These traditions tell the common
story that the name of the chief Ijẹbu town, Ijẹbu Ode, was coined by combining the names
of two major characters in the narrative – Ajebu and Olode – who accompanied Olu Iwa
on his migratory journey to Ijẹbuland.

3. Ajẹbujẹsa

Another interpretation that has been presented is that Ijẹbu comes from the praise-
name/cognomen of the people as ajẹbujẹsa, i.e. people who rove the sea and the lagoon
(Okubote, 2009). This narrative is clearly premised on the fact that a sizeable part of
Ijẹbuland is riverine.

4. Hint of a Bini Cognate

According to Egharevba in his Short History of Bini, Ijẹbu was at a time under Bini
influence, and the name Ijẹbu was replicated in the name of a place within the Bini
Kingdom, Uzẹbu. He suggests that the two names are cognates, or at least that one is a
borrowing from the other, but he does not clearly indicate which name was the first in time

Three Units of Ijẹbu

The Ijẹbu have two peculiar features that attract special historical interest. Firstly, quite unlike
the case of most other Yoruba sub-ethnic groups, the communities that bear the name Ijẹbu do
not form a contiguous land mass. At least three Ijẹbu units can be identified in different parts
of Yorubaland. The first and largest unit cuts across Ogun and Lagos States, and this unit is
what we generally refer to as Ijẹbuland. Over time this area has evolved into two sub-units now
identified as Ijẹbu (with centre at Ijẹbu Ode) and Rẹmọ (with centre at Ṣagamu). In the rest of
this paper this combined unit shall be referred to as Ijẹbuland.

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The second unit is a major kingdom in Osun State named Ijẹbu-Jẹṣa. The natives tell in their
oral tradition that the kingdom was originally named Ijẹbu Egboro, and was founded by one
Agigiri nicknamed or titled Ogboroganluda (a name which also features in the tradition of
origin of Ijebuland). Their monarch then was titled Onijẹbu Egboro. It has been further
claimed that Ijẹbu Egboro was renamed Ijẹbu-Jẹṣa under colonial influence, and the ruler’s
title changed to Ogboni of Ijẹbu-Jẹṣa (Arojojoye II, 1969). The title of Oba Onijẹbu Egboro
was later restored, however, though the name Ijẹbu-Jẹṣa has stayed. This tradition of origin is
somewhat problematic in that it states further that the founders of Ileṣa and Ijẹbu-Jẹṣa were
brothers who left Ile Ifẹ together and founded their individual kingdoms next to each other. If
this part of the narrative is true, then how come one kingdom bears the ethnonym Ijẹbu and
the other does not? The tradition provides no answer.

The third unit is a town in Ọwọ area of Ondo State named Ijẹbu. It is ruled by a monarch titled
Ọjọmọ Oluda, who is next in rank to the Ọlọwọ in the area. This Ijẹbu is claimed variously to
have been founded by migrants from Bini or Ifẹ, and later joined by others from diverse areas
(Okajare, 2016), but it bears a heavy cultural imprint of Bini.

The second point of interest about these Ijẹbu units is that the three of them do not speak the
same dialect of Yoruba. Ijẹbu Ọwọ speaks the Ọwọ dialect, which is not the same as spoken
by the Ijẹbu of Ijẹbuland, though the two dialects belong to what has been classified as the
South-Eastern Yoruba dialect group (Adeniyi, 2010). On their part the people of Ijẹbu-Jẹṣa
speak Ijẹṣa, a Central Yoruba dialect that is quite unlike the Ijẹbuland or Ijẹbu Ọwọ dialects.
These disparities raise a number of questions. If spatial and linguistic affinities are eliminated,
as it were, what then is the unifying factor for these different units that bear the same ethnonym?
Does the ethnonym Ijẹbu as adopted by these units actually refer to a sub-ethnic group with a
common ancestry from which the current units dispersed? If so, where was the original home
of these ancestors, and how did the dispersal occur? If not, how did the three units come to bear
the same identity as Ijẹbu?

Hypothesis of an External Source

Against the background of currently available information on the histories of the individual
Ijẹbu units, no basis has been found for concluding that they have ever lived as a united polity
or had a common ancestry. It appears safe, therefore, to set out with the hypothesis that the

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uniting ethnonym, Ijẹbu, does not indicate a common ancestry for the three Ijẹbu units. This
hypothesis has the following implications:

a. The ethnonym must have been acquired from an external source by each unit,
individually and separately, and possibly at different times;
b. The external source of the ethnonym was probably common for the three units; and
c. If this common source could be found, then the meaning of the common ethnonym
might equally be discovered.

The rest of this paper presents the outcome of the endeavour to validate the hypothesis
developed above.

Evaluation of Existing Etymologies

Dr Johnson’s tradition of ijẹ ibu (feed of the deep) has been widely discredited, and deserves
no further mention except to the extent that it points at some form of relationship between Ijẹbu
and Bini in those early times (Alao and Oguntomisin, 2002). Moreover, the tradition also fails
to indicate what name the people were known by before they came under the supposed Bini
oppression. Neither is the supposed coinage of Ijẹbu from Ajẹbujẹsa satisfactory. As a
descriptive term indicating a riverine people, it only fairly fits one of the three units, i.e.
Ijẹbuland; for the other two are clearly non-riverine. Ijẹbu-Jẹṣa to which Ajẹbujẹṣa sounds
deceptively similar is landlocked. The narrative about Ajẹbu and Olode is equally
unconvincing. These two names appear in the tradition as mythical/legendary characters who
only serve the purpose of giving meaning to the name of the town of Ijẹbu Ode, capital of
Ijebuland. If we should accept this etymology, then how should we explain the extension of
the ethnonym to Ijẹbu-Jẹṣa and Ijẹbu Ọwọ? Once again, this appears to be a desperate attempt
to give a meaning to the ethnonym at all cost.

However, Egharevba’s narrative deserves further consideration, especially because of certain

noticeable linguistic and cultural correspondences. As mentioned above, Egharevba tried to
establish a correspondence between Ijẹbu and Uzẹbu but not in very clear terms. At the
linguistic level, Ijẹbu and Uzẹbu are close enough to be considered as possible cognates. The
z [z] sound in Bini can be seen to correspond to j [dz] in Yoruba, especially as Yoruba does
not contain [z] in its consonant inventory and Bini does not contain [dz]. Other examples of
this correspondence between the two languages are ẹzọ/ẹjọ (court case); eziza/ajija or aaja (a
spirit believed to capture people and take them away, sometimes for years); aza/aja (a type of

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bell); bọlọzọ/bọlọjọ (fleshy); azẹn/ajẹ (witch); ozi/iji (strong wind); and oziya/ojia (a tree). As
for the initial vowels I and U, these are allophonic variants in Yoruba; therefore both Ijẹbu and
Ujẹbu are equally valid, and the native Ijẹbu people use both variants.
At the cultural level, the ruler of Uzẹbu in Bini Kingdom is titled Ezọmọ, and that of Ijẹbu
Ọwọ is titled Ọjọmọ Oluda. Again Ezọmọ and Ọjọmọ are cognates. Oluda, the qualification to
the Ọjọmọ’s title, means ‘one who possesses the sword’. That qualification fits as well the
profile of the Ezọmọ, who was the High Commander of the Bini army. Till today the sword is
an important symbol of both Bini and Ijẹbu royalties. Indeed, one of the appellations of the
Awujale of Ijẹbuland is Uku Oluda (Sword-bearing Death). These correspondences are not
strange, however, since it is known that Ijẹbuland, Ọwọ, and Ijẹṣaland were areas of intense
interaction in the Yoruba-Bini cultural sphere in pre-historic times. According to Akinwunmi
Ogundiran, “the areas of Ijesa, Ife, Owo, and Benin belonged to the same sphere of
sociocultural interactions between the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries.” (Ogundiran, 2002).
When all these facts are considered, Bini becomes a suspect as the source of the ethnonym
Ijẹbu, through the Bini place name Uzẹbu.

Now most Yoruba place names (i.e. names of towns and villages) have a two-part structure.
One part is an affix (usually a prefix, but sometimes a suffix) that qualifies the other part which
usually carries the substantive meaning. Examples are: Ibadan (Savannah edge); Idọwa
(Owa’s settlement); Muṣin (Place of iṣin tree); Igbobi (Kola-nut forest); etc. The substantive
part of the name is the one shown in bold characters, while the other is the affix. Keeping in
mind this two-part structure, the word Ijẹbu can be broken into its assumed parts, namely Ij-,
and ẹbu, but this split does not produce any meaning in Yoruba language. However, it does
reveal a pattern of many place names containing the same prefix of Ij-. These include Ijagba,
Ijara, Ijaye, Ijero, Ijeun, Ijasi, Ijẹmọ, Ijẹṣa, Ijalẹ, Ijoko, Ijọra, Ijugbẹ, Ijanikin, Ijẹja, Ijagun,
Ijanna, Ijabẹ, Ijamọ, Ijegun, Ijẹda, Ijẹdẹ, Ijofi, Ijomu, Ijọka, Ijumu, Ijoun, Ijagemọ, Ijakọ, Ijọwa,
Ijeru, Ijio, etc. Knowing that Yoruba words are always vowel terminal, we realise that the prefix
Ij- is incomplete, the final vowel having been elided off in the above-mentioned place names.
However, one place name of the same pattern happens to retain a variant of its pronunciation
in which the final vowel is not so elided. This is Ijẹ-Ododo, a settlement in Ikọtun area of Lagos
State. Thus we are able to determine the full prefix as Ije, though there is yet no hint of its
meaning.

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Similarly, the word Uzẹbu first appears to have no meaning in Edo. But when given the same
treatment, we have the prefix Uz(e) and the substantive ẹbu. Fortunately, the word ẹbu is
extant in Bini. It is defined as a “temporary resting-place, e.g. in travelling, or for hunters, the
place whence one sets out and returns to roast one's meal…” (Melzian, 1937: 48). Ẹbu is
rooted in the verb bue which means “to stop for a long time in a certain place” (Melzian,
1937: 21). Furthermore, the prefix uze is found in a number of words from where its meaning
can be derived as “a place” e.g. Uzekhae (a sandy place) (Melzian, 1937: 214), Following
this analysis, a place named Uzẹbu would be a town or village used as a place of (extended)
stopover. Uzẹbu having such a general meaning, it is to be expected that it should not be a
unique place name, and this explains why there are several Uzẹbus within the domain of the
ancient Bini Kingdom. One each exists in Benin City, Irrua, Opoji, and Ewohinmi areas.
There may well be others. It can be conjectured, therefore, that such places were so named by
Bini travellers, outside as well as inside of the Bini Kingdom.

Analysis of the cognateness of Ijẹbu and Uzẹbu can be taken beyond the prefix to find out if
the substantive part of the word, i.e. ẹbu, is attested in other Yoruba place names and with the
same meaning. The first case that comes up is Ibu, a town in the Waterside area of Ijẹbuland.
It is instructive that the tradition of origin of this town says that the settlers came originally
from Bini. So this settlement could have been their place of extended stopover before they, or
part of them, settled there permanently. Indeed, oral tradition represents this Ibu, though now
a small town, as an important icon in the creation of the Ijẹbu nation and the maintenance of
its national ethos. It is said that during the journey of Ogboroganluda/Obanta to Ijẹbuland from
Ifẹ (said in some accounts to be from Bini through Ifẹ), he sojourned a while at Ibu. There he
encountered Obinrin Ojowu, the deity that was to become a defining attribute of the Ijẹbu world
(Okubote, 2009). Obinrin Ojowu is today one of the three ritualistic festivals that are exclusive
to the Ijẹbu people, the others being Agemo and Eluku. Studies by this researcher have revealed
that Obinrin Ojowu Festival of the Ijẹbu, also variously called Ebibi, Eibi or Ebi festival, is
deeply connected with the Igue Ewere festival of the Bini.

Secondly, there is the Yoruba word ewu which means place of temporary lodging.
Interestingly, this word is missing in the Dictionary of Modern Yoruba (Abraham, 1962) which
remains the standard reference. But the omission is not surprising because ewu is not a national
Yoruba word; it is restricted to Ijẹbu and possibly a few other close dialects. There are many
locations in Ijẹbuland that bear this word in their names, this time as a prefix: Ewu Lẹmọ, Ewu
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Idahọmi, Ewu Ọlọja, Ewu Ajenifuja, Ewu Ode, Ewu Ogun, Ewu Olopo, Ewu Osi, Ewu Dodo,
Ewu Baalẹ, Ewu Balogun, Ewu Ẹlẹpẹ, Ewu Oloriṣa, Ewu Ṣọba, etc. These mean Lẹmo’s
temporary lodging, Dahomeans’ temporary lodging, etc. The Ijẹbu word ewu is clearly a
cognate of Bini ẹbu.

If we conclude that Yoruba Ijẹbu is truly a cognate of Bini Uzẹbu, with the same meaning of a
place of extended stopover, we shall immediately encounter a new vista of meaning and
potential analysis. It would follow that the name was derived from people of Bini origin,
presumably as place name in the first instance before it transformed into an ethnonym. Similar
to the Uzẹbu case, then, Ijẹbu should be expected to be a non-unique place name. It can now
be understood why there are multiple places named Ijẹbu in different parts of Yorubaland
which are neither genetically nor spatially related. In the nature of such transformations, parts
of the Bini travellers (or migrants) must have finally settled down in those places and mixed
with the local population, so that they are part of today’s ‘natives’ in those places. That much
is contained in various traditions of Ijẹbuland (Talbot, 1926) and Ijẹbu Ọwọ (Okajare, 2016)
where some of the peoples claim Bini origin.

Extensions and Variants of the Construct

Furthermore, once the prefix Ij(e) is taken to mean ‘place’, many of the Yoruba place names
mentioned above, which first appeared to be meaningless, begin to acquire meaning as follows:
Ije Ododo Place of flowers (or place of scarlet cloth)
Ijagba Place of barrels, or place of elders, depending on how it is pronounced.
Ijara Place of Ara people?
Ijaye Place of much space (or place of Aaye people?)
Ijero Place of reason?
Ijẹmọ Place of palm fronds
Ijẹja Market place
Ijegun Place of eegun tree
Ijomu Place of omu tree (or Omu people)
Ijanna Place of the Ana (people)
Ijọka Place of Oka (people)
Ijẹdẹ Place of hunters
Ijoko Place of stones (or of Oko people)
Ijọwa King’s place (palace)
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 Ijagẹmọ Place of chameleons (or of agẹmọ masquerade)
Ijio Place of money?
Ijeru Place of eru (a kind of spice)
Ijẹṣa Place of pottery (or Place of Choice)
Ijakọ Place of cocks?
Ijẹda Place of nature
Ijofi Place of ofi (cloth)?
Ijumu Place of drinks?
Ijohun Place of Ohun (people)?
Ijalẹ Place of Ale (the Earth deity)?
Ijugbẹ ?
Ijeun ?
Ijanikin ?
Ijagun ?
Ijabẹ ?
Ijasi ?
Ijọra ?
Further research is required to determine the conclusive meanings of some of the place names
where the substantive part can have more than one meaning. Moreover, in a few cases no
meaning can be adduced to the substantive part yet, possibly because that part is itself another
word of antiquity the meaning of which has become obscure.

It should be noted that the list of place names in contemplation here is not open to all place
names that have the Ij- prefix. The following additional conditions must be satisfied for any
place name to qualify to be on the list:
a) the initial I must bear a low tone. (Only then can it represent the Ije, which has an initial
low-tone).
b) the second vowel must not bear a high tone (since the ‘substantive’ second part of the
place name, being a noun, cannot begin with a high tone under Yoruba tonal rules).
There are two other formats of Ij- initial place names that are excluded from the list. In the first
format, the prefix can be another word entirely, such as Ija (quarrel); Ijẹ (fish bait); Ijọ (group,
congregation, council). For instance, Ijọwa can be interpreted as the king’s council, different
from the king’s place as first interpreted above. In the second format that is excluded, the place
name is a compound verbal which is nominalised by the initial I. In this sense Ijọwa can again
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be interpreted as I-jọ-wa, arriving together. In the case of Ijọwa, therefore, three interpretations
are possible: king’s place, king’s council, or arriving together. In such a case other evidence
of historical nature is required to determine which of the possible interpretations is applicable.

Fortunately, given the restrictive rules stated above, the number of prefixes that can cause this
kind of uncertainty is extremely limited. For example, the prefix Iju (forest, jungle) and Ijo
(dance) are excluded because their initial I is of a mid tone.

A survey of many Yoruba place names reveals that there are at least two variants of the Ij- root,
namely:

a. Iṣ-, along with its allophone Is-

b. Ej-

Iṣ- (Is-) is attested in the following place names.

Isẹyin Place of palm fruits

Iṣẹri Place of the river
Isọya Place of cane-rats?
Iṣokun Place of beads (particular type used by the Ogboni/Osugbo)
Isiwu Place of the boundary
Iṣọpẹ Place of palm trees (or Place of Ifa divination cult)
Iṣọnyin Place of (dead wood) larva?
Iṣara ?
Iṣaga ?
Isede ?
Iṣẹkiri ?
The variant Ej- is attested in one known place name, which is Ejigbo (Place of Igbo people?).
However, this is one of those cases where further evidence is required to make a conclusive
interpretation since Ej- can as well resolve to Eji (two), or Eje (seven). A second place name
that bears the initial Ej- is Ejinrin, but this case is rather peculiar because ejinrin is the name of
a plant, and there is the chance that the town might have derived its name from this plant.
Also attested is the ‘Ṣ- variant, i.e. the case where the initial vowel of the prefix is elided – a
regular phenomenon in Yoruba. The place names identified to bear this variant are:
Ṣaṣa Place of hawks?

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Ṣajẹ Place of witches?
Ṣaki ?
Ṣaarẹ ?

A Living Parallel
Those who may consider it aberrant that parts of Yorubaland should be living under a name
casually given by Bini travellers or migrants should be appeased by the fact that it is not an
isolated phenomenon. There is a close parallel in the case of places in Yorubaland named
Sango. Sango is the Yoruba pronunciation of Hausa Zango, which has the dictionary meaning
of a halting place for the night but in practice has come to mean a settlement of Hausa traders
(Robinson, 1913: 420). Sango has become the permanent names of several such areas, with the
result that we now have Yoruba people in different parts of Yorubaland whose home town is
named Sango.

Summary
A summary of the foregoing analysis is that the ethnonym Ijẹbu can safely be taken to mean a
place of temporary sojourn, a name derived from Bini travellers and migrants into Yorubaland.
Further research is required to gather evidence that will enable a final conclusion on the exact
nature of Bini-Yoruba interaction in these spaces that led to the adoption of the Ijẹbu ethnonym.
The possible directions of such research are indicated in the relevant section below.

Need for Further Research

Mention has already been made in relevant sections above about the need for research to
confirm the conclusive interpretations of some place names based on the Ijẹbu/Uzẹbu cognate.
However, the gap represented by these few inconclusive cases is not fundamental, and does
not affect the validity of the analysis that has been presented. But there is a much more
important question to ask: By what ethnonym(s) were the Ijẹbu people known before the Bini
incursion? The attempt to answer this question creates a dichotomy between Ijẹbuland and the
other two places named Ijẹbu. It can be assumed that the pre-Bini occupants of Ijẹbu-Jẹṣa were
Ijẹṣa like their neighbours. The founder of Ijẹbu-Jẹṣa is reported by tradition to be a blood
brother of the founder of Ilesa, the capital of Ijẹṣaland, and the two communities share a border.
The pre-Bini occupants of Ijẹbu Ọwọ, similarly, must have been Ọwọ people, though the town
later absorbed migrants from other parts of Yorubaland and neighbouring tribes (Okajare,

10
2016). In other words, in Ijẹbu-Jẹṣa and Ijẹbu Ọwọ the term Ijẹbu was adopted by the people
mainly to qualify their territories, while they retained their sub-ethnic identities as Ijẹṣa and
Ọwọ respectively.

But the case of Ijẹbuland is different. We do not know so far what the land and the people as a
group were called in times immediately preceding the Bini incursion – i.e. before they adopted
Ijẹbu as ethnonym. The narrative maintained so far is that the Ijẹbu people migrated to the area
and displaced or mixed with the Idoko, considered to be autochthons, before the advent of Bini.
Now if, according to the postulation of this paper, the people were named Ijẹbu only after the
Bini incursion, what were they called before then? Two possible hypotheses can be developed
from this situation. The first is that the migrants who displaced and/or mingled with the Idoko
came from different sources and shared no common ethnonym, each being known by its local
identity, until the advent of the Bini group(s). The second hypothesis is that all the ‘three waves’
of migration into the area originated from Bini. This would mean that the original Ijẹbu were
Bini people who met the Idoko on ground, and were later joined by migrants from other
sources. Further research in this direction promises to be rewarding.

Furthermore, there are two important but obscure words associated with Ijẹbuland, Ọbanta and
Awujalẹ. Ọbanta, also known as Ogboroganluda, is one of the appellations attributed in
tradition to the leader of the ‘third wave’ of immigrants into Ijẹbuland who later became the
overlord and took the title of Awujalẹ. No satisfactory etymology has been found so far for
these words; and it is the opinion of this researcher that if the roots of these words were found,
they would reveal history. It is necessary, therefore that efforts should continue towards
discovering the provenance of the words Ọbanta and Awujalẹ.

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