A Brief Look Into Ibadan, The Largest City in West Africa, Filled With Hills, Rust And Shine!

Ibadan the Political Capital of Yorubaland is a city built on Seven Hills.
The Seven Hills are:
1. Oke Padre
2. Oke Ado
3. Oke Bola
4. Oke Mapo
5. Oke Are
6. Oke Sapati
7. Oke Mokola. .

But Ibadan is not just a City of Hills.
It is also a City of ‘Bottoms’.
Loosely translated, ‘idi’ means bottom or the backside.
Several people have attached sexual innuendoes to the names.
However, the actual translation indicates that some of the ‘idis’ were connected with how the settlers converged at a point, thereby leading to how they arrived at the names given.
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Go around the city and you can locate the various ‘idis’
1. Idi-Arere,
2. Idi-Ose,
3. Idi-Ishin,
4. Idi-Ape,
5. Idi-Ayunre,
6. Idi-Obi
7. Idi-Ito
8. Idi Ogungun
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For instance, Idi-Arere is a location where the early settlers converged and held meetings under an ‘Arere’ tree.
The actual full name is Idi- Igi Arere under the Arere (Obeche) tree.
Idi- Arere is located between Oja-Oba and Molete.
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Idi-Ose, which should actually be Idi-Igi Ose (under the Ose [baobab] tree), is located around Ojoo/Moniya Road.
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Idi-Ishin is located around Jericho GRA area and was named after the Ishin (Ake Apple) tree.
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Idi-Ape is located at the intersection of Iwo road and Bashorun and was named after the Ape tree.
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Idi-Ayunre, which is located at the outskirts of the city, on the way to Ijebu-Ode, was named after the Ayunre (Albizia Zygia) tree.
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Idi-Obi was named after the kolanut tree.
Ditto for Idi-Ikan and Idi-Ito. .
Ibadan is also a city with several junctions popularly called ‘Orita’. In Yoruba mythology, these ‘oritas’ or junctions are places where sacrifices are offered.

Popular Oritas in Ibadan are:

1. Oritamefa – a junction that leads to six roads [around UCH]
2. Oritamerin – [a junction that leads to four roads].
3. Orita Aperin.
4. Orita Bashorun. Some of the names have been shortened nowadays with Orita Bashorun now simply referred to as Bashorun,
5. Orita Challenge now Challenge
6. Orita Aperin simply Aperin. .
And still talking about names, several names in Ibadan have their origin in the inability of the residents to pronounce the original names ..