Abeokuta

 

(ä'bēōkū'tə, ăb'–) , city (1991 est. pop. 377,000), SW Nigeria. It is the trade center for an agricultural region producing rice, yams, cassava, cotton, fruit, vegetables, and palm products. Manufactures of the city include beer, cement, dyed textiles, and canned foods. There are granite quarries nearby that provide building materials for S Nigeria. Abeokuta was founded in the 1830s by Egba refugees from the Yoruba civil wars.

Abeokuta is a city in Ogun State in southwest Nigeria and is situated at 7°9′39″N, 3°20′54″ECoordinates: 7°9′39″N, 3°20′54″E, on the Ogun River; 64 miles north of Lagos by railway, or 81 miles by water. As of 2002, the Abeokuta proper had an estimated population of about 230,000, while the figure for the city and outlying environs was approximately 500,000 individuals.

Geography and agriculture

Abeokuta lies in fertile country, the surface of which is broken by masses of grey granite. It is spread over an extensive area, being surrounded by mud walls 18 miles in extent. Palm-oil, timber, rubber, yams and shea-butter are the chief articles of trade. It lies below the Olumo Rock, home to several caves and shrines.

History

Abeokuta (a word meaning under the rocks), dating from 1825, owes its origin to the inroads of the slavehunters from Dahomey and Ibadan, which compelled the village populations scattered over the open country to take refuge in among the rocks surrounding the city. Here they constituted themselves a free confederacy of many distinct groups, each preserving the traditional customs, religious rites and even the very names of their original villages.

Notable natives

The city is the birthplace of several famous Nigerians, including:

• Dotun Ransome Kuti, teacher and clergyman
• Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, womens' rights activist
• Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola, politician
• Fela Kuti, musician and singer
• Peter Olakeinde Sogbesan, civil servant
• Wole Soyinka, Nobel Prize-winning author
• Peter Akinola, Anglican archbishop
• Olusegun Obasanjo, President from 1999 to 2007

References

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.

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