{{Unreferenced, date=June 2022 ''For the Local Government Area of Oyo State, see Oluyole, Nigeria.'' Chief Oluyole was a distinguished, dominating army commander from Oyo. He rose to fame as Bashorun, a title he subsequently made famous, and was one of the leaders who contributed immensely to the military and economic development of

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 ...

during the city's formative years, a period which had its share of tumult and uncertainty. He was born in Old Oyo to the polygamous family of Olukuoye by

Omoba Oba means ″ruler″ in the Yoruba and Bini languages of West Africa. Kings in Yorubaland, a region which is in the modern republics of Benin, Nigeria and Togo, make use of it as a pre-nominal honorific. Examples of Yoruba bearers include Oba ...

Agbonrin, a daughter of the Alaafin Abiodun.

Life and career

Due to the strain caused by the Yoruba civil wars of the 19th century, Old Oyo's senior chiefs fought among themselves over who was to occupy the vacant throne of the

Alaafin of Oyo Oyo, Oyo State, is the seat of the line of the rulers of Oyo. Their territory, a constituent rump state, is located in contemporary Nigeria. Since the 1900 political absorption into Southern Nigeria of the kingdom that it once served as a metro ...

. This led to the collapse of the empire, which in turn forced many Oyo natives to leave their abode in the

West African West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations geoscheme for Africa#Western Africa, United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, ...

savannah and move towards the thick

forest A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...

s of southern

Yorubaland Yorubaland () is the homeland and cultural region of the Yoruba people in West Africa. It spans the modern-day countries of Nigeria, Togo and Benin, and covers a total land area of 142,114 km2 or about 60% of the land area of Ghana. Of this ...

for their relative safety. However, the resulting influx of northern Yorubas known as Oyos to the

hinterland Hinterland is a German word meaning "the land behind" (a city, a port, or similar). Its use in English was first documented by the geographer George Chisholm in his ''Handbook of Commercial Geography'' (1888). Originally the term was associated ...

led to skirmishes and later wars with the Egbas, who controlled a large chunk of the region. It was during this era that Oluyole rose to prominence. He first gained esteem when he was a member of the victorious coalition that won the Owu wars, which eventually led to the collapse of many Egba towns including Ibadan. As a reward for the prominent role he played in defeating the Egbas at Ipara and Ijebu-Remo, and to strengthen the disparate Oyo nobility which had weakened as a result of the wars, Oluyole was made the Areago of Ibadan. He later created for himself the post of Osi-Kakanfo, the third in command of the Ibadan army. After the success of the Owu war, a power vacuum emerged in the vital military leadership sphere in Yorubaland. Oluyole took on the challenge in successfully defending his new city, Ibadan, against the regrouped Egbas, the Fulanis and the Dahomeyans. He was later crowned the Oloye Bashorun, a title which made him the military leader of Ibadan and ex officio prime minister of Oyo. By this time, he was considered by many to be a prominent

exilarch The exilarch was the leader of the Jewish community in Persian Mesopotamia (modern day Iraq) during the era of the Parthians, Sasanians and Abbasid Caliphate up until the Mongol invasion of Baghdad in 1258, with intermittent gaps due to ongoing ...

of the scattered people of Oyo. Possibly only the Alaafin himself had more authority amongst the Oyos. He was also a successful farmer, with large estates of

tuber Tubers are a type of enlarged structure used as storage organs for nutrients in some plants. They are used for the plant's perennation (survival of the winter or dry months), to provide energy and nutrients for regrowth during the next growin ...

crops and

vegetables Vegetables are parts of plants that are consumed by humans or other animals as food. The original meaning is still commonly used and is applied to plants collectively to refer to all edible plant matter, including the flowers, fruits, stems ...

. He had one of the largest productive

plantations A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. Th ...

in Ibadan, with indigenes always touring his farm, trying to imitate his innovative

planting Sowing is the process of planting seeds. An area or object that has had seeds planted in it will be described as a sowed or sown area. Plants which are usually sown Among the major field crops, oats, wheat, and rye are sown, grasses and leg ...

technique. His effective power could be explained by his will to control economic and social events indirectly, as opposed to through blunt force. For the fear of Oluyole, and also for lack of efficient pricing, many traders usually did not sell their products when he took his to the

market Market is a term used to describe concepts such as: *Market (economics), system in which parties engage in transactions according to supply and demand *Market economy *Marketplace, a physical marketplace or public market Geography *Märket, an ...

References

*Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation; 1960, Eminent Nigerians of the Nineteenth Century: A Series of Studies Originally Broadcast by the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation Oyo Empire People from Ibadan Yoruba military personnel Yoruba farmers 19th-century Nigerian people Yoruba royalty Abiodun family History of Ibadan