Okuku is a city in the

Odo Otin Odo Otin is a local government area in Osun State, Nigeria. Its headquarters are in the town of Okuku. It has an area of 294 km and a population of 134,110 as of the 2006 Nigerian census. The LGA takes its name from the Otin River The Oti ...

Local Government Area of Ọṣun State, Nigeria. Okuku is about north of

Ikirun Ikirun is a town in Osun State, Nigeria. It is the headquarters of the Ifelodun Local Government Area. It is an historical city that derived its name from the first ruler of the town called Akinorun. Basetan was the first settler and founder ...

. It is the birthplace of

Olagunsoye Oyinlola Ọlagunsoye Oyinlọla (born 3 February 1951) is a retired Nigerian general, he became governor of Osun State in Nigeria in May 2003, and was reelected in 2007. He was a member of the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP). On 26 November 2010 ...

(born 1951), governor of

Osun State Osun State (; yo, Ìpínlẹ̀ Ọ̀ṣun), occasionally known as the State of Osun by the state government, is a state in southwestern Nigeria; bounded to the east by Ekiti and Ondo states, to the north by Kwara State, to the south by Ogun S ...

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

from 2003 to 2010.

Osun State University Osun State University (UNIOSUN) is a multi-campus university established by the Osun State Government under the administration of Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola. The university currently operates six campuses distributed across the six administra ...

has a campus at Okuku, the location of the College of Management and Social Sciences. It is also the place of origin of the Late rinceChief Justice T.A Irinoye of the defunct Gongola State 927 - 1992

Origins

Okuku is populated by

Yoruba people The Yoruba people (, , ) are a West African ethnic group that mainly inhabit parts of Nigeria, Benin, and Togo. The areas of these countries primarily inhabited by Yoruba are often collectively referred to as Yorubaland. The Yoruba constitute ...

. Tradition says it was founded by Oladile, a direct descendant of

Oduduwa Oduduwa was a Yoruba divine king. According to tradition, he was the holder of the title of the ''Olofin'' of Ile-Ife, the Yoruba holy city. He ruled briefly in Ife, and also served as the progenitor of a number of independent royal dynasties ...

. He and his brothers Alara, Ajero and Orangun left Ile-Ife at the same time. Oladile settled at a place near the

Otin River The Otin River is a river in Osun State, Nigeria. It is impounded by the Eko-Ende Dam. Legend According to Yoruba mythology, the orisha Otin is personified in the Otin River. She once protected the town of Inisa from invasion by its enemies, an ...

called Iko-Ikin, meaning "clump of palm nuts". The name evolved into Kookin. Kookin was a large a prosperous town, a center for iron working. Around 1760 Kookin lost a battle with the

Ijesha The Ijesha (written as Ìjẹ̀ṣà in Yoruba orthography) are a sub-ethnicity of the Yorubas of West Africa. Ilesha is the largest town and historic cultural capital of the Ijesha people, and is home to a kingdom of the same name, ruled by an ...

. The survivors moved a few kilometers north from the ruins of Kookin and founded the settlement of Okuku. According to myth the goddess Otin, personified in the Otin River, protected Okuku from invasion by enemies, and the townspeople therefore worship her. Otin was from the town of Otan, but came to Okuku to fight against invasions by its neighbors.

History

Okuku was subject to the

Oyo Empire The Oyo Empire was a powerful Yoruba empire of West Africa made up of parts of present-day eastern Benin and western Nigeria (including Southwest zone and the western half of Northcentral zone). It grew to become the largest Yoruba language, ...

in the period before the fall of Old Oyo, and then to the

Ilorin Emirate The Ilorin Emirate is a traditional state based in the city of Ilorin in Kwara State, Nigeria. It is largely populated by the Yoruba-speaking people, though the kingdom is a hybrid state due to the influence of the many other tribes that make ...

, which had a representative in the town. In 1878

Ibadan Ibadan (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Oyo State, in Nigeria. It is the third-largest city by population in Nigeria after Lagos and Kano, with a total population of 3,649,000 as of 2021, and over 6 million people within its me ...

was victorious in a battle at Ikurin in the

Jalumi War The Jalumi War, also called the Battle of Ikirun, was a battle that took place on 1 November 1878 in the north east of present-day Osun State, Nigeria. It was part of the larger conflict named the Ibadan War. The forces of Ibadan victorious in det ...

, and posted its representative to the town. The town is mentioned in a report of 1911 of a visit by the resident Captain

Cyril Hammond Elgee Cyril Hammond Elgee (18 October 1871 – 17 August 1917) was a British colonial administrator in Nigeria, based in Ibadan at the time when the basic colonial institutions were being established. During World War I (1914–18) he was Acting Commi ...

and the Ibadan chiefs to hear a boundary dispute between Okuku and nearby Iba. The dispute was unresolved until the late 1930s. In 1935

Ivor Frederick Wentworth Schofield Ivor Frederick Wentworth Schofield (5 July 1904 – 25 September 1979) was a British colonial administrator in West Africa. Life Ivor Frederick Wentworth Schofield was born on 5 July 1904 in Worcester, Worcestershire, England. He attended th ...

wrote a report on the town. He estimated that there were 1,606 inhabitants, and noted the "energetic and adventurous disposition" of the people. The town was accessible only by foot until the late 1930s, when the first road that could take a motor vehicle was built. The farmland of Okuku was completely planted with cocoa and kola trees in the 1930s and 1940s. Yields began to fall in the late 1940s as the trees passed their most productive age and the soil became exhausted. Farmers were forced to buy or rent land distant from the town, often at considerable distances. They would live on their land from March to November, leaving the town to old people and young children. The months from December to February would be the time for social activity in the town, for weddings and funerals, and for celebrations including Christmas and New Years.

References

Citations Sources * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Okuku Populated places in Osun State Towns in Yorubaland