Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 23 (2004) 119132

www.elsevier.com/locate/jaa

On the frontier of empire: understanding the enclosed walls

in Northern Yoruba, Nigeria
Aribidesi A. Usman*
African American Studies, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287-3802, USA
Received 18 November 2003; revised 4 December 2003

Abstract
The enclosure walls found among small-scale societies of Igbomina in northern Yoruba shared similar characteristics
with some well-known walls of large political centers in various parts of tropical Africa, particularly Nigeria. The study
of settlement walls of Igbomina provides an understanding of the nature of the Yoruba frontier region in the north. By
virtue of its location on the border with the Nupe to the north, Igbomina became a competing zone between rival core
polities, the Old Oyo and the Nupe, and later, Fulani and Ibadan states. It therefore seems that the construction of
enclosure walls was to counter aggressions on the frontier and protect local communities from invaders. However, the
functions of enclosure walls in Igbomina may have uctuated from defensive to sociopolitical. The rise and expansion
of Old Oyo Empire into Igbomina from the 16th century and the formation of relations with the local elites brought
greater sociopolitical changes to the area, evident in settlement aggregation, large site size, and ceramic changes. Thus,
enclosure walls may have been a good indicator of the power of the local rulers and a symbol of cohesive social organization within the settlements. Ethnohistorical sources, archaeological survey, and excavation form the core of this
examination of settlement walls on the northern frontier of Yoruba.
2003 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Nigeria; Iron age; Pottery; Enclosure; Rampart; Warfare; Yoruba; Igbomina; Old Oyo; Nupe

Walls have for some time fascinated archaeologists

and historians working on Iron Age materials from
Africa. The practice of surrounding settlements with
walls was very common in Africa over the last 3000
4000 years (Connah, 2000). African city walls consisted
of enclosures, either single or multiple, that entirely or
partially surrounds a settlement. They are found in varieties of ways and materials: sometimes of stone or
mud, earth, or with banks and ditches, timber stockades,
or naturally grown vegetation. These walls may have
been primarily a protective strategy from increased
competition for resources, caused by expanded population or environmental deterioration (Connah, 2001).
The increasing use of horses in warfare in the West
*
Fax: 1-480-965-7229.
E-mail address: aribidesi.usman@asu.edu.

African savanna from the 13th or 14th century onwards

also forced many towns and cities to protect themselves
(McIntosh and McIntosh, 1988). However, enclosed
walls had other functions. It could represent a cohesive
social unit, and as social marker or status symbol, which
clearly distinguished dwellers from outsiders.

Overview of some West African walls

Prior to the 19th century, walls and ditches surrounded every major town in the southwest of Nigeria,
the Yoruba heartland. The most common form of walls
were earthen ramparts, often consisted of both an inner
wall enclosing the living area, and an outer wall that
protected the farmland and other important resources
(Ajayi and Smith, 1971). Oyo-Ile, the capital of Old Oyo

0278-4165/$ - see front matter 2003 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jaa.2003.12.002

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A.A. Usman / Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 23 (2004) 119132

Empire, exhibited a complex multiple wall system that

consisted of both inner and outer walls (Soper and
Darling, 1980). The wall contained about 17 gates (or
entrance), and the inner and outer walls were 18 and
21 km, respectively.
Two other Oyo settlements with enclosed walls, Ipapo-Ile and Koso, are located near Old Oyo. Ipapo-Ile is
a single-bank, convex type that was originally constructed as a dump-rampart without a ditch (AgbajeWilliams, 1990). Although Ipapo-Ile shared some
characteristics with Old Oyo wall, the Ipapo-Ile wall was
small, and the wall was probably not constructed until
the Fulani invasion in the rst half of the 19th century
(Agbaje-Williams, 1990). At Koso, walls probably built
in loops and thick mud courses surrounded a former
northern seat of Old Oyo power. The standing wall was
about 1 m thick, and the average height of about 4 m
(Agbaje-Williams, 1990).
As described by Mabogunje and Omer-Cooper
(1971), the Owu Ipole, an important kingdom of the
Yoruba, had at least two concentric wall circuits of
wide-topped rampart types of about 3.6 m high. The
outer wall is about 11 km in diameter with a circumference of about 33 km, while the inner wall is about
5 km across and roughly 14 km in circumference. Also
associated with the walls were undetermined number of
gates, and forts constructed at intervals along the walls
where the defenders launched surprise attacks on the
invaders (Johnson, 1921, p. 209).
Ife, an important Yoruba city, is a two-wall settlement with numerous added loops. According to Ozanne
(1969), the central area (original An enclosure now
delineated only by roads and pathways) has a circumference of about 3.8 km. The inner wall of medieval Ife
has a circumference of about 7.8 km, while the outer
medieval wall is about 14 km in circumference; the wall
height is about 4.5 and 2 m thick with no ditch. Modern
Ife wall is estimated about 162 km in circumference, and

between 3 and 5 m high with a ditch about 2.5 m deep.

The basic two-concentric wall system of Ife is similar to
Old Oyo wall (Soper and Darling, 1980). At Ife, the
concentric walls indicates complex series of phases in
which the city grew up around the palace of the ruler
(Ozanne, 1969). A summary of the wall lengths of some
Yoruba cities is provided in Table 1, and these compare
favorably with those from Igbomina to be discussed
later in the paper.
Outside Yorubaland, the Benin city walls, which
have been studied in some detail, would parallel to some
extent the Ife wall system. The wall system was originally built to delineate the royal precint of the Oba
(king) from the surrounding area (Connah, 1975; Darling, 1976). As further land was taken under control by
population increase or fusion with neighboring communities by aliation or conquest, additional walls were
built to enclose the area (Soper and Darling, 1980). The
height of Benin wall, from the excavated bottom of the
ditch to the top of the earthen bank, is about 17.4 m and
total length in excess of 16,000 km (Connah, 2001).
In Hausaland the Kano city wall in the north of
Nigeria was constructed of both mud-bricks and
dumped earth. Early European travelers, colonial sources, and archaeological study have provided some
information on the nature of the city wall. In the mid1820s Captain Hugh Clapperton described the wall as
about 24 km in length, over 9 m in height, with 15 entry
gates, and a dry ditch on both the inner and outer sides
(Denham et al., 1826). In 1902 during the early days of
the establishment of European colonies, Frederick Lugard was faced with the task of storming the wall, and he
admitted: I have never seen, nor even imagined, anything like it in Africa (Lugard, 1903, p. 28).
The walls of Zaria, described by Sutton (1976),
present a supercially close parallel with Old Oyo. The
Zaria City Wall has a circumference of nearly 16 km and
with Kano is the largest of the Hausa wall. The basic

Table 1
The Yoruba wall systems (length in km)
Yoruba towns

Wall system

Palace

Inner

Outer

Loops

New Oyo
Ife medieval
Ife modern
Igboho
Owu
Ibadan
Owo
Ado-Ekiti
Old Oyo

Double wall
Double wall
x
Triple wall
Double wall
Single wall
x
Single wall
Multiple wall

1.2
3.8 ?
9
x
x
x
2.8
1.5
7.5

x
7.8
x
x
7.8
14.4
8.4
x
18

10.4
14
16.2
22.4
34 ?
38.5
17.8
5.5
21

x
x
Numerous
3.7
x
x
Probable
x
16

Igbomina
Gbagede
Iyara

Single wall
Single wall

x
x

x
x

x, Information not available; ?, may not be exact.

Source. Other Yoruba walls (Soper and Darling, 1980, pp. 6181).

3.4
2.08

x
x

A.A. Usman / Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 23 (2004) 119132

design is of a ditch and a rounded earthen dump-rampart, above which stood a straighter, slightly sloping
face built of egg-shaped sun-dried bricks, and a counterscarp occasionally visible outside the ditch (Soper and
Darling, 1980). The construction of the city wall took
place probably between the 15th and 17th centuries
(Sutton, 1976). The Amina wall, which post-dates the
city wall was a territorial marker, linking the Kufena
inselberg to Zaria town and encloses agricultural land.
The wall is about 13.5 km long, and can stand up to
about 6 m high in some section (Soper and Darling,
1980).
A breakdown of the studies of these early West African city walls shows they mostly represent large and
historically known sites. This has been the main focus of
archaeological research programs in West Africa until
recent. It is so much easier to investigate sites that are
known from written documents or oral traditions. Also,
the remarkable artistic traditions and massive architecture associated with some of these sites made them more
attractive for archaeological eld research. The overall
result is that archaeological work has been limited to
relatively large sites, remarkably the states and their
capitals, leaving out the outlying settlements.
It is presently recognized that small-scale societies,
especially those often called periphery, were more dynamic than previously thought (MacEachern, 1993;
Renfrew and Cherry, 1986; Rowlands, 1987; Schortman
and Urban, 1992). Enclosure walls like those in large
political centers have been found among small-scale
societies of Yoruba in central Nigeria. It appears that
the same forces and needs, which made construction of
enclosure possible at large centers, were also at work in
the periphery. This investigation examines enclosed
walls of Igbomina in Yoruba northern frontier. The
main question is: What can these walls system tell us
about the Igbomina area during the Old Oyo kingdom?
In an attempt to understand this, the paper will: (1)
examine the physical characteristics of the enclosed
walls, and (2) explore the functional implications of the
walls as dened elsewhere in Africa, and as applicable to
northern Yoruba.

The making of the frontier settlements

The northern Yoruba frontier (or northern frontier
of Old Oyo) is part of the area that is today called Igbomina. This area has also been called north central
Yorubaland. It is located in the Irepodun, Ifelodun, and
Isin local government areas of Kwara State, Nigeria.
The area stretches from the southern part of Ilorin in the
northwest to parts of Ekiti in the southeast. Before 1918
when the British colonial administration altered the
northsouth border, the Igbomina extended to the
southeast banks of the Niger River up to Jebba, and to

121

Illa in post-colonial Yoruba state of Osun. Geographically, the area is in the savanna belt of Nigeria and is
characterized by at plains, tall grasses, scattered trees,
and chains of hills (Fig. 1). The topography in the
northeast Igbomina is more rugged and hilly than the
western Igbomina. The hills, known as the Ire Range,
divide the northeastern from the western Igbomina.
The Igbomina land is inhabited by a group of people
who speaks a related Yoruba dialect called Igboona.
The area is divided into about nine sociopolitical units
or village-groups, such as Magbon, Ilere, Esisa, Isin,
Erese, Iyangba, Eku-mesan Oro, Eku Apa, and Ipo
(Dada, 1985; Pemberton and Afolayan, 1996; Usman,
2001) (Fig. 2). The people claimed to have arrived in the
area at dierent times in history and from various places. Oral traditional accounts trace descent either from
Ife, Old Oyo, or elsewhere in Yorubaland. It appears
that the large-scale Yoruba immigration northward
witnessed in the 16th century was preceded by smallerscale immigration or, at least, ceramic emulation. From
the available archaeological data, establishment of settlements in Igbomina by the Yoruba may have begun, at
least, by the 13th century (Aleru, 1998; Usman, 2001).
Based on the Ife and Oyo pottery types found in the
area, it appears that, either Ife, Oyo, or related groups
have settled in Igbomina, or the indigenous settlers in
Igbomina interacted with Oyo and Ife centers by that
time (Usman, 2001). However, if the thermoluminiscence date of 1100 AD (Stevens, 1978) obtained for Esie
stone carving is reliable, the occupation of Igbomina
may be at least a century earlier.
Igbomina has been described as a northern province
of Old Oyo (Johnson, 1921; Law, 1977), based on the
geopolitical division of the territory under the Old Oyo
administration. The Osin River east of Ajasepo may
have formed the Old Oyo boundary (Law, 1977; Usman,
2001). Old Oyo controlled or inuenced several Igbomina towns east and west of the Osin River (Biscoe,
1912; Burnett, 1912a,b; Law, 1977). It is also likely that
Old Oyos inuence or establishment of administration
was limited by rugged terrain in the area east of Osin
River (e.g., Ilere, Esisa) (Usman, 2000). The Igbomina,
and certainly most of northern Yorubaland, is regarded
as the dispersal point for most groups of people now
living to the southwest of Nigeria (Obayemi, 1976;
Oyelaran, 1998; Usman, 2001). The pre- and 19th century wars in the area had created large-scale population
displacement (Ajayi and Akintoye, 1980; Usman, 2001).
By the 16th century the frontier communities had
been established by the Old Oyo empire, through expansion and consolidation, the displacement of the
Nupe, and the occupation of the conquered land by
groups from Ife and Oyo-Yoruba speaking areas (Adepegba, 1982; Obayemi, 1976). The creation of frontier
communities was for strategic purposes, be it economic
or political. The military importance of the Igbomina to

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A.A. Usman / Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 23 (2004) 119132

Fig. 1. Post-colonial Yoruba states of Nigeria showing the Igbomina.

Fig. 2. Igbomina village units and archaeological sites mentioned in the text.

A.A. Usman / Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 23 (2004) 119132

the Old Oyo was vital, particularly its strategic position

between Old Oyo and an enemy, the Nupe. For Old Oyo
in Igbomina, military threats included the Nupe invasions and the exile of the Oyo from their capital in the
15th century (Smith, 1976). The Nupe victory was shortlived, however, as Old Oyo regained its power and established a military outpost, Igbaja, in Igbomina on
what had been Nupe territory in order to check Nupe
raids (Law, 1977, p. 91). The presence of aggressive
groups like the Nupe, and the Ibariba to the north might
have facilitated the establishment of the frontier communities, and the unication of the area under Old Oyo
control, providing a common leadership and defense
(Usman, 2000).

The walls
Beginning from the 16th century, Gbagede, Iyara,
Ila-Yara in western Igbomina, and several settlements in
northeastern Igbomina, were associated with dierent
kinds of walls from earthen ramparts with ditch, to mud
courses, and stone barriers. The practice of building
fortications seems to have continued throughout the
18th century, as relics of town walls have been found at
some extant Igbomina settlements (Akpobasa, 1994;
Usman, 2001). The investigation of Gbagede and Iyara

123

walls rst took place between January and June 1995.

The survey involved taking measurements between
points along the wall using tapes, ranging poles, and
prismatic compass. Due to obstruction from vegetation,
only about 90% coverage of the wall was achieved
during this period. Between January and June 2003,
further investigation of the walls was carried out using
GPS equipment, and with better ground visibility the
mapping of the walls at the two settlements was accomplished. The investigation was also extended to the
northeastern Igbomina where evidence of walls has
survived. The main concern here is to provide a description of the walls and examine their relevance to
northern Yoruba frontier represented by Igbomina settlements. A more detailed discussion of the excavation
and analysis of materials have been provided elsewhere
(Usman, 2000, 2001).
Gbagede was surrounded by wall constructed probably of thick mud wall. All that is left of the wall are
banks in varying widths (46 m) and heights (12 m)
(Fig. 3). Stones and pottery protrusion were observed on
the wall, and it appears they were already incorporated
in the soil dug from previously inhabited areas. Three
main entry gates (AC) probably with sentry, and two
or three minor entrances, were associated with Gbagede.
The width of the entry gate A, parallel to the west wall
was 13.4 m. Gate B is about 8.3 m wide located almost

Fig. 3. Section of Gbagede wall with ceramic protrusion.

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A.A. Usman / Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 23 (2004) 119132

on the northwest wall. Gate C is in the northeast corner

of gate B, and with its small size and absence of recess
walls, it could represent a small opening rather than a
major entry gate. Observed within the wall are small
ditches or pits that were randomly situated. Some of the
pits walls contained exposed granites that suggest the
pits may have been used in the past as water reservoir.
Gbagede is a single walled site with a circumference of
3.4 km (3313.86 m), and the site area approximately
612,360 m2 or 0.612 km2 (Fig. 4). Excavated charcoal
samples from Gbagede gave a radiocarbon result of
320  60 BP (Beta-88414) and 495  45 BP (A13053)
which calibrates to possible calendar age ranges of 1450
1670 AD at 95% probability and 13241350 AD at
95.4% probability, respectively. The dates indicate that
at least some of the charcoal also forms part of the relics
from an early stage in the towns development, until
probably in the 16th century when the town wall was
constructed.
Iyara site is located about about 2 km southeast of
Gbagede, and enclosed by wall constructed of earthen
rampart (Fig. 5). The name, Iyara, is synonymous with
the conspicuous walling system. Iy
ar
a or Y
ar
a in Yoruba means trench or ditch behind the walls of a town.
The estimated height of Iyara wall ranges from 1.2 to
3 m, and the width from 4.3 to 5.5 m. The walls height
increased to about 3.3 m or more when measuring from

the bottom of the ditch. Two main entry gates were

identied. The rst, gate A, is about 6.8 m wide and
located on the northeast corner of the wall; the second
gate, B, is about 4.3 m wide, located on the southwest
wall. Some small openings on the south wall were
probably minor entrance to the site. The Iyara wall is
associated with a continuous ditch located outside the
wall (Fig. 6). The depth of the ditch varied from one
section of the wall to another with the deepest about
1.3 m. Such deep ditch was unique of rampart built wall,
since their enormous sizes required considerable amount
of soil to build than freestanding mud wall. The Iyara is
a single-walled settlement, with a wall circumference of
about 2.8 km (2079.82 m). The limit of the site, which is
thought to be within the wall, was approximately
385,720 m2 or 0.386 km2 (Fig. 7).
In the northeastern Igbomina, there is a dierent
kind of wall characteristically dierent from Gbagede or
Iyara walls. These are rock piles and boulders arranged
to form a linear wall to a considerable height along
edges and entrances to hilltop sites. Sometimes, this
arrangement could extend for upward of 1 km or more
in length. In most places only stones of various sizes
were formed as walls (Fig. 8), while in some, for example, at Aun I, stones and mud courses were combined to
form a wall (Fig. 9). The association of walls with settlements in this part of Igbomina occurred from the late

Fig. 4. Survey map of Gbagede wall and excavation units.

A.A. Usman / Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 23 (2004) 119132

125

Fig. 5. Section of Iyara exterior ditch and earthen rampart.

17th century, which was apparently connected with the

occupation of hill top sites as a result of increase raiding
of the inhabitants by the Nupe.

Functional interpretation
The rains of several seasons, the activities of land
developers and farmers, have made it dicult to get the
actual picture of the walls from their remains today.
However, from what is left of the physical characteristics
of settlement walls, it might be possible to determine
why the wall was constructed in the rst place. Several
studies have referred to enclosing walls as defensive

features (Connah, 1972; Haase, 1985; Laerty, 1973;

Okpoko, 1987; Ozanne, 1969; Webster, 1975). Apparently the encircling nature of some walls (whether partial
or complete), the height and width, and the number and
type of entry gates, were sucient reason to call them
defensive.
Walls ranging between 0.9 and 1.8 m high provide
adequate protection against opponents armed with bows
and arrows (Laerty, 1973). By looking at the design
and layout of Gbagede and Iyara enclosures one might
learn something about the character of the warfare involved. The height of the walls estimated between 1 and
3 m may be enough to present some obstacles to cavalry
soldiers. Some comparative examples abound elsewhere

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A.A. Usman / Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 23 (2004) 119132

Fig. 6. Section of Iyara earthen rampart.

Fig. 7. Survey map of Iyara earthen rampart and pottery collection/excavation units.

A.A. Usman / Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 23 (2004) 119132

Fig. 8. Remains of stone barrier in northeast Igbomina.

Fig. 9. Mud/stone wall at Aun I, northeast Igbomina.

127

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A.A. Usman / Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 23 (2004) 119132

in Nigeria. The 4 m high walls of Owu Ipole (Mabogunje

and Omer-Cooper, 1971), and the 9 m high walls of
Kano (Connah, 2001, p. 43), were a response to the
highly mobile cavalry forces of the West African savanna. Also, the multiple enclosure walls of Old Oyo,
Ife, and Ipapo-Ile were designed to provide defense
against attackers (Agbaje-Williams, 1990; Soper and
Darling, 1980). With such walls, attackers either on
horses or on foot could be slowed down, while the defenders rallied behind the wall to plan a counter-attack.
Looking at the nature of the high walls, tropical
African city walls were probably not designed to withstand artillery weapon, unlike some European military
structures in Africa such as the late 16th century Fort
Jesus in Mombasa, Kenya (Connah, 2001, p. 43). Firearms did not become important weapon in Yoruba
warfare before the 1820s (Olutoye and Olapade, 1998;
Smith, 1967). Until the 19th century, bows and arrows
were important item in the armament of the Yoruba
armies (Smith, 1989, p. 70). There is a reference to the
use of bows and arrows by the Borgu, neighbors of the
Oyo, in the time of Alan Onran, who reigned at Oyo
around the middle of the 16th century (Smith, 1967).
The recovery of iron points from excavations at Gbagede, Olupefon, Obaloyan, and Apere sites in Igbomina
indicate the importance of the item in the area, and
possibly its use in warfare before the introduction of
rearms (Fig. 10).
Low or breast-work type of wall in Yorubaland was
constructed due to the increasing use of rearms, which
could be easily red over it (Ajayi and Smith, 1971). The
high walls could oer considerable protection from bows
and arrows and opportunity for the defenders to launch
attack from inside. The Oyo cavalry who also used bows
and arrows were so skilled that their arrows could go
through a small opening in a wall upwards of a hundred yards distance (Smith, 1989, p. 72). However, the
relationship between the two types of walls and weapons
as suggested above may not be that simple. It has been
suggested recently that both high and lower types of
walls were used in West Africa before the introduction
of rearms, and that availability of manpower and the
degree of urgency probably determined the size of walls
(Smith, 1989).
The surrounding ditches were an important feature
of the defenses. They seem to have been dug on both
sides of the wall, but usually found on the outside. They
were in varying depth, depending on the height of the
wall. Of the sites investigated in Igbomina, only Iyara
exhibited this characteristic the most. The ditch, which is
continuous and located outside the wall, may have
provided additional obstacle to approaching foot and
cavalry soldiers in their advance. The depth of the ditch
added extra height to the enclosing wall, making it difcult for attackers to surmount. At Ketu and Owu in
Yorubaland, the ditches were up to 5 or 6 m deep and 2

or 3 m wide (Mabogunje and Omer-Cooper, 1971; Ajayi

and Smith, 1971).
The construction of stone barriers and mud-walls in
northeastern Igbomina accompanied the occupation of
hilltop sites in the area from the late 17th century. According to oral accounts, the rock piles were constructed
to slow down NupeFulani, and later Ibadan, cavalry
soldiers, while the hills facilitated a commanding view of
approaching invaders and provided a comfortable position for hurling rocks. Clarke, in 1854, recognized
similar stone piles among the Igbeti in northwest Yorubaland, which he described as innumerable small
rocks scattered in profusion and confusion. . . [this] was
the stratagem of mode of warfare resorted to when the
Igbeti were attacked by Ilorin (Clarke, 1972, p. 76).
Several communities in this area of Igbomina, such as
Aun, Oro Ago, Ofaro, Owa, Aan, Alaabe, Ikosin, OkeOyan, and Agunjin were situated in a naturally fortied
areas and houses built on and between rock outcrops.
The Oro Ago warriors stationed themselves on hilltop
and between rock outcrops, from where they unleashed
heavy rocks and hail of poisoned arrows on the Ibadan
invaders (Akintoye, 1971).
Enclosure walls should be informative about the level
of political stress and inter-group conict, existence,
threat or fear of military invasion. The Igbomina is located in the frontier area between the Old Oyo and the
Nupe where competition for resources was intense. The
construction of walls for defensive purpose was therefore
a necessity. Warfare was a major and unpredictable variable in Igbomina up to the early 19th century. Old Oyos
expansion from the 16th century involved taken land from
the Nupe. The expansion of Yoruba and occupation of
land may have placed the Yoruba groups in armed conict with the Nupe. The incessant frictions between the
Yoruba and Nupe which continued throughout Old Oyo
period has been described as a attempt by the Nupe to
reclaim the lost land (Adepegba, 1982).
Enclosing walls may have functioned as spatial demarcations, social or territorial markers, and as a means
of social regulation (Adler, 1990; Kane, 1989; Ozanne,
1969). In describing Ife walls, for example, Ozanne
(1969, pp. 32) claimed that, the communities. . . must
have had a more elaborate social structure than that of
autochthonous hamlets of early life. The fact of building
a wall indicated a single though probably segmented,
polity, in which relations must have been carefully ordered. By demarcating a groups place in the environment, a boundary becomes a symbol of the social
and political group (Wilson, 1988, p. 60) and may
function to reinforce its identity. The fact that residential groups chose to demarcate their settlements with
walls implies that the space and its contents were highly
valued (Tringham, 1972, p. 470).
Some local elites in Igbomina may have taken advantage of their strategic location and relation with Old

A.A. Usman / Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 23 (2004) 119132

129

Fig. 10. Excavated metal points from Igbomina.

Oyo to aggrandize power. Initially, newly emergent local

rulers may rely on contacts with core elites to establish
their power especially through anal ties. The increasing waves of migration into northern Yorubaland following the establishment of Old Oyos authority, and the
need for land to settle, may have led to immigrant
groups appealing to the local elites who acted as the
custodian of the states conquered territory. Local chiefs
then became the rallying point for these immigrants, and

could use these circumstances to promote and consolidate authority and power. By the 17th century, while the
Igbomina was in the Old Oyo Empire, the Old Oyo
authority boosted the prestige of Olupo, a local political
elite, by using him as local superintendent of Oyo interests in Igbominaland (Akintoye, 1971). The character
of Gbagede enclosure may be related to the sociopolitical importance of the settlement as a capital or head
town where the ruler, Olupo, resided (Elphinstone,

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A.A. Usman / Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 23 (2004) 119132

1921). The Gbagede and Iyara walls may have political

connotations, such as the presence of a highly valued
political institution, and as an enhancement of privacy
and prestige, while signaling the existence of a high degree of political and social cohesion. In such a case the
status of the inhabitants and their ruler would have been
enhanced by the very existence of the enclosure walls.
Changes in the size and shape of enclosures through
time may also reect similar changes in the settlement
(Connah, 2001). It is assumed that a reconstruction of the
history of a settlements walls may provide some understanding of the development of the settlement. While there
are no data from Igbomina to test the sequence of walls
development, what is known from dated charcoal is that
construction of walls and ditches may have followed the
large-scale immigration into Igbominaland in the 16th
century. Elsewhere in Africa attempts to address such issue have been very successful (Connah, 1975; Ozanne,
1969; Quarcoopome, 1993; Soper and Darling, 1980;
Sutton, 1976). The archaeological study of the remains of
the Kano city wall by Moody, for example, identied
three phases of growth in the wall system: in the 11th and
12th century AD, the late 15th century, and the 17th
century; a sequence documenting the growing size and
importance of the city as the second millennium AD
progressed (Moody, 1967).
Wall enclosure implies the presence of centralized direction, collective eort, labor availability, and resource
surplus. The construction of the vast network of Benin
city walls, for example, would required at least
150,000,000 person hours of work over a period of several
centuries (Darling, 1984). The digging of the ditches at
Bigo in Uganda would have required the removal of over
200,000 cubic meters of earth and rock, which implies
several men hours of work (Posnansky, 1969). It is very
likely that the Gbagede and Iyara walls would require
workers smaller than those suggested above and shorter
period of construction. However, regional centers can
encourage local population concentrations, while political elites may coerce people to live nearby, where they can
be watched more easily and be better controlled (Cowgill,
1975). Such large population could provide labor for
public works (e.g., walls, ditches), for craft production,
could be taxed, and could be organized for defensive
purposes (Anderson, 1990). Whatever the situation in
Igbomina, the enclosure walls in Igbomina, like in the
large centers, were major projects that would have required discipline and planning, as well as a respectable
leader with the ability to marshal the labor and provide
food while the work was in progress.

Discussion and conclusion

The study of site enclosures in Igbomina reveals how
an architectural feature might have functioned in regard

to prehistoric social relations. The exigencies of security

on the one hand may have prompted the walls. Old
Oyos expansion into northern Yoruba in the 16th century and the creation of frontier (or periphery) settlements to cater for Oyos interest provided the
foundation for hostilities. One important problem faced
by Oyo expansionism was how to defend and protect the
newly established frontiers from external incursions. The
Igbomina was strategically important to Old Oyo, at
least in terms of military security. Its location between
the Nupe and Oyo had the advantage of protecting
Oyos northern frontier from the Nupe, and probably
ensure access to northern goods, such as horses (Obayemi, 1976).
Equitable alliances, more or less, between social
groups can resolve the problems faced by threatened
populations (Gregor, 1990). It seems likely therefore
that the cooperation by Old Oyo with the Yoruba local
elites in the area of the Nupe must have been greatly
stimulated by the need to unite to face Nupe aggression,
which persisted until the end of the Old Oyo suzerainty
in the late 18th century. The communities may have
considered cooperation with Old Oyo as advantageous,
as their own defense would have been assured (Obayemi,
1976). The organization of Old Oyo Empire, based on
the periphery or provincial system, made warfare
possible. Resources were mobilized, often with the
blessing and outright assistance of local chiefs, and with
the expectation that they would serve as allies to provide
support, including food and warriors, should the state
be attacked (Law, 1977).
The competitive milieu between Old Oyo and Nupe,
which led to the consolidation of Igbomina under the
Old Oyo, may have stimulated rapid sociopolitical
changes in the area. The increased occupation of Igbomina from the 16th century following the Old Oyo expansion is accompanied by changes in the frequency and
distribution of pottery motifs (Usman, 2000). The
presence of large numbers of Old Oyo pottery decorative
motifs, such as snail shell in western Igbomina, indicates
not only the contribution of new social groups but also
the dominance of certain social groups over others
(Usman, 2000). The prevalence of Oyo pottery decorative motifs in Igbomina may suggest the important role
played by Oyo elements in the society. The ceramic design changes and enclosure walls may be physical manifestations of these internal changes in the periphery.
Wall enclosures should be able to provide information on cultural identity and cultural relationships,
specically from similarities in design, materials, and
constructional methods (Connah, 2001). The Gbagede
and Iyara enclosures had in common certain characteristics with other Yoruba and non-Yoruba walls such as
Old Oyo, Ife, Ijebu, Ipapo-Ile, Owu, and Benin. Common to all of these are the characteristics of the enclosures, consisting of earthen ramparts or mud-built wall,

A.A. Usman / Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 23 (2004) 119132

entry gates, ditches, etc. Yet, such closeness in settlement

walls may suggest clearly indigenous aliation and
cultural similarities. The dierences in the walls of Igbomina and those of the large centers are in size or scale,
and depended on factors such as, the population of the
town, the intensity of the pressure necessitating construction, and the inuence of the ruler or war leader
who directed the project (Darling, 1984; Ojo, 1966;
Posnansky, 1969).
The Gbagede and Iyara are single wall system constructed of mud and earthen ramparts with ditches
placed inside or outside the wall. At Gbagede, several
small ditches or pits are located arbitrarily inside the
wall. The single ditch at Iyara is continuous, deeper,
concentric, and located outside of the wall. The dierences in the ditches between the two sites may be functional. The cultural deposit of Iyara is not yet well
understood. This is a result of limited excavation at the
site compared to Gbagede. Oral tradition from Ajasepo
and its environ suggests that Iyara was a war camp
founded by one Balogun Adelani, a warrior from Old
Oyo. Although there is no concrete evidence to back this
claim, the Yoruba armies often constructed war camps
which both in their defenses and the laying out of houses
and farms took on the appearance of settled towns
(Ajayi and Smith, 1971, p. 28). Whatever the case, the
impressive nature of the Iyara wall indicates that its
construction was oriented towards meeting the defensive
needs of the 17th century.
Finally, the encircling nature of walls, ditches, and
excavated weapons of war suggests a climate of hostility
and help dened the Yoruba northern frontier. The Igbomina may have constructed enclosed walls and evolved
towards increased centralized control and hierarchy in
reaction to the aggressive Nupe on its borders. Thus, like
Benin, Old Oyo, Ife, Kano, and Bigo walls, the Igbomina
wall enclosures are testimony of the power of their rulers,
and indicative of a cohesive social organization in the
area. It is possible that warfare, exemplied by the wall
systems, suggests the collapse of a system of balanced but
competing Yoruba and Nupe polities.

Acknowledgments
The research work reported here is part of the Igbomina project funded by the Wenner-Gren Foundation
(1994/95, 2002/03) and the Balantine Fund (1994/95). I
am highly indebted to the following people who assisted
in various aspects of the research: Jonathan Aleru, and
Raphael Alabi of the University of Ibadan, and Kayode
Adewusi of National Museum, Esie. My thanks also go
to the National Commission for Museums and Monuments for providing me with a research permit and
laboratory space.

131

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