Ibadan was coined from ‘Iba‑Odan’, not ‘Eba‑Odan’ — Traditionalist
The President of the International Council for Ifa Religion, Fayemi Fakayode, has corrected a long-standing misconception about the origin of the name of the ancient Yoruba city of Ibadan. He said it was not derived from the words Eba and Odan, but from Iba and Odan.
Fakayode made this clarification during the presentation of a paper titled “A Sociocultural Relevance of Osemeji Festival in the Modern Time” at the 2025 Osemeji Obamoro Conference held at the House of Chiefs, Secretariat, Ibadan, Oyo State, on Saturday.
He explained that if the words were truly Eba and Odan, the city’s name would have morphed into Ebadan through normal linguistic transformation. “Iba + Odan,” however, naturally evolved into “Ibadan”.
“The point is that Ibadan was coined from Iba+Odan and not from Eba+Odan. Lagelu was the Jagun of Ile-Ife who left Ile-Ife because of the feud with the then Ooni of Ife. He and his followers settled in the meadow between the grassland and Egba forest, and as hunters, they lived on hunting; they had a pantry for the game, and many hunters patronised the pantry.
“In the Yoruba language, pantry is called ‘Ileba’ or ‘Iba’ while meadow is ‘Odan,’ so Ilébà/Ibà Òdàn can be translated as ‘pantry in the meadow.’
“Also, the claim that white men mispronounced Ebadan as Ibadan is far from the truth because there is ‘Ę’ in the English language, like ‘Elephant’ and ‘Egg’. The whitemen could have pronounced ‘Ebadan’ properly if it were to be so. They would have also turned ‘Ede’ town in Osun to ‘Ide’ and ‘Egba’ land in Ogun State to ‘Igba,’ if they could not pronounce ‘Ẹ’. You can see the logic.
“We need to correct this henceforth so that our children and grandchildren can be educated early,” he added.
Another presentation at the event, titled “The Roles of Isese Practitioners in Economic Development,” was delivered by the former Secretary of the Oyo State Branch of the Nigerian Institution of Surveyors, Dasola Fadiran.
He highlighted the impact of artworks, herbal remedies, products, and traditional festivals on tourism as contributions of Ìsèse to economic development in the state and across Nigeria.
“The name ‘Ibadan’ was erroneously believed to have been coined from the Yoruba phrase ‘Eba Odan’ (sometimes stylised as ‘Eba-Odan’), which translates to ‘by the edge of the meadow’ or ‘at the fringe of the savannah/meadow.’
“This was supposed to reflect the city’s strategic founding location on the boundary between forest and open grassland regions in southwestern Nigeria, making it an ideal spot for a war camp and trade hub during the turbulent 19th century.
“This has fueled the faulty historical context, which says that Ibadan emerged around 1829 amid intertribal wars in Yorubaland, following the fall of the Owu kingdom. Warriors and refugees from Ife, Oyo, Ijebu, and Egba groups settled there, turning it from a temporary military outpost into a major Yoruba power centre.
“The name captures this transitional geography; ‘Eba’ means ‘edge’ or ‘outside,’ and ‘Odan’ refers to a grassy plain or savannah,” Fadiran concluded.
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