The Inception of Ile-Ife

ILE-IFE, NIGERIA

Ile Ife, also referred to as Ife, is an ancient Yoruba city within the southwestern a part of Nigeria. Ile Ife is claimed to be dated back around 500 B.C. when it had been founded and is that the oldest Yoruba city. it's presently a part of Osun State and has an estimated population of 501,000 people. Ife is home to at least one of Nigeria’s most prestigious universities, Obafemi Awolowo University, also because the explanation Museum of Nigeria. Ife is additionally a prominent regional agricultural center for a surrounding area that produces vegetables, grain cacao, tobacco, and cotton.
Ile Ife is that the city where the Yoruba believe their civilization began also because the location where the gods descended to earth. The name, Ile Ife, literally means place of dispersion. consistent with Yoruba tradition, Ife was founded by the deities Oduduwa and Obatala once they created the planet . Obatala fashioned the primary humans out of clay while Oduduwa became the primary divine king of the Yoruba people.

Historical evidence, however, tells a special story. consistent with historians the world was originally populated by the Igbo people when Oduduwa and his army invaded the town from the north, pushed the sooner inhabitants to the east, and established the primary Yoruba kingdom. After the death of Oduduwa, his sons and other descendants opened up from Ile Ife to found other Yoruba states. Eventually the Yoruba became one among Africa‘s largest ethnic groups. They also remain the overwhelming majority of Ife’s inhabitants. the present royal dynasty of Ile Ife is over eight centuries old. Alayeluwa Oba Okunade Sijuwade Olubuse II, the present ruler, became Oba (King) in 1980.
Ife is world famous for its art. Between 700 and 900 A.D. the town began to develop as a serious artistic center. By the 12th Century Ife artists were creating bronze, stone, and terracotta sculptures, a number of which are found today in museums in Nigeria, Europe, and North America. The art of Ife began to wane within the 1500s as political power and wealth shifted to neighboring kingdoms like Benin and Oyo.
Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), one among the leading academic institutions in West Africa , is that the major institution of upper learning within the city. Founded in 1962 because the University of Ife, it had been rechristened by the Federal Military Government of Nigeria because the Obafemi Awolowo University on May 12, 1987, in honor of 1 of its most distinguished founding fathers, eminent nationalist and former chancellor, Chief Jeremiah Obafemi Awolowo (1909–1987).