ABSTRACT
Nevertheless, the inhabitants of the southern kingdoms, Ijebu, Awori, and Egbado, must have been aware of the great and mysterious ocean which washed the boundaries of their land. The fishermen on the lagoon knew that these placid waters were separated by only a narrow strip of land from the tumultuous Atlantic waves. The Ijebu kingdom was a large one, probably next in size to Oyo. The capital of the kingdom and seat of the senior ruler, the Awujale, was the centrally placed town of Ijebu Ode. Since about 1830 the Egba have been concentrated in their great metropolis of Abeokuta, the town ‘under the rock’, and in the surrounding district on both sides of the River Ogun. To the west of Egbaland across the River Ogun lived the Egbado, their name contracted from egbaluwe, ‘the wanderers towards the river’ – probably an allusion to the River Yewa, which runs through their land to the lagoon at Badagry.
