ìjẹ̀bú aláarẹ́ẹ̀

Sup peeps🤟

I'm back and this time, I'll be talking briefly about a place called ìjẹ̀bú.👌

I know a lot of people that when they hear ijebu, what comes to their mind is gààrí.🙂

 It is situated along the highway between Shagamu and Benin City. 

Ijebu-Ode was by the 16th century established as the chief town of the Ijebu people (a subdivision of the Yoruba). As the seat of the awujale, the Ijebu political and spiritual ruler, it served as the capital of the Ijebu kingdom, which for several centuries dominated the trade between the ports of the Lagos Lagoon (including Lagos, 44 miles [70 km] west-southwest) and the Yoruba hinterland (especially Ibadan, 38 miles [60 km] north). 

Modern Ijebu-Ode is a major collecting station for kola nuts, which are purchased for trucking to the northern states. 

Ijebu-Ode also serves as a collecting point for cocoa and palm oil and kernels, which are exported from Lagos. 

The town’s industry includes a printing and publishing firm. Its artisans are known for their handiwork in iron. Local trade is primarily in yams, cassava (manioc), corn (maize), palm produce, and oranges; and rubber and timber have become important commercial products of the area.

Ijebu people dominated the commerce of Yoruba territory outside Lagos during the colonial period, the reasons for this, been attributable to their towns’ strategic locations on the boundary with colony province. They took advantage of the blockade of the produce trade which Ibadan/Oyo farmer entrepreneurs were carrying on with Lagos. They introduced the role of middlemen in the trade between coast and hinterland. For this reason, the Ijebu enjoyed great initial economic advantage.