Ilobu Day
Annual
The town’s own day. Sons and daughters come home from Lagos, Abuja and further, the Olobu receives them in council, and the Union takes stock of the year in public.
Ilobu-Asake Development Union — the official home of Ilobu, Ọṣun State: the town's history, its people, and the Union's work at home and in the diaspora.
Ilobu · Irepọdun · Ọṣun State
A land of virtuethat has never turneda stranger away.
Ilobu-Asake Development Union
Founded several centuries ago by a hunter who saw a tranquil land with a worthwhile mineral. People came for the salt, and stayed for the welcome.
From the Ilobu-Asake Development Union
Everything herebegan withsomebody stopping.
A hunter out of Ọyọ Ile made camp where the ground gave up salt, and the traders who came for it found somewhere worth staying. Several centuries later Ilobu is eleven quarters on the old Ogbomoṣo road — a mosque standing since 1845, a church since 1909, a market that still keeps its own four-day week, and a crown that has changed hands fifteen times without once being taken.
The town’s history, its people and its photographs are recorded and kept by the Ilobu-Asake Development Union, on behalf of Ilobu at home and in the diaspora.
- 15
- Olobu, from Laarosin to today
- 1845
- The Central Mosque
- 11
- Quarters
Ilobu-Asake Development Union
ilobu.org
The Ilobu-Asake Development Union represents the town at home and in the diaspora.
A hunter came from Ọyọ Ile.
His oracle told him to stop here.
In this ground, they found salt.
Ilu-Obu — the town of salt.
Travellers came for it, and rested.
Some never left.
Ilobu
Act 02 · The story
Kept by the Ilobu-Asake Development Union
The salt
- A hunter came from Ọyọ Ile.
- His oracle told him to stop here.
- In this ground, they found salt.
- Ilu-Obu — the town of salt.
- Travellers came for it, and rested.
- Some never left.
Ilobu
Act 03 · The Olobu
Fifteen reigns.The crown moves in turn.It has never been taken.
From Laarosin, who stopped walking here, to Asiru Olatoye Olaniyan II, crowned in 1974 and reigning still. Four ruling houses take the title strictly in rotation.
- Olujide
- Aworinde
- Olusilo
- Oniyitan
Laarosin · dates not recorded
Ajayi · eighty years
Olaniyan II · reigning
Act 04 · What we keep
A town oftwo faiths andone calendar.
Mosque and church stand a few streets apart and have done for over a century. Between them the older observances continue, and once a year the whole town — whichever way it prays — comes home for the same day.
Erinle Festival
Annual
Erinle is a river and a deity, and Ilobu is among the towns that keep him. The rites move between the town and the water, and they are older than any building standing here.
Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha
Twice yearly
The Central Mosque has stood since 1845. On both Eids the congregation fills every balcony of it, then the town walks — imams, elders and children together, from the mosque out through the quarters.
Christmas and Easter
Through the year
St Michael’s was built of laterite stone in 1909 and has kept the Christian calendar in Ilobu ever since. Carols at Christmas, the vigil at Easter, and a congregation that has never been separate from the rest of the town.
Adire eleko
In 1955 an Austrian artist came to live in this town, learned to draw cassava starch onto cloth here, and only afterwards went to Oṣogbo and became famous for it. The craft did not start there. It was already here.
A shrine veranda in Ilobu. IDU archive, date unconfirmed.
Act 05 · Ilobu now
Several centuriesis a long timeto still be here.
Fifty thousand people woke up in this town this morning. Everything above this line is history. Everything below it is today.
- The hour
- 6:41 am
- The week
- Ọjọ Oṣe
- Ọjọ Awo
- Ọjọ Ogun
- Ọjọ Jakuta
- Ọjọ Oṣe
- On the throne
- 19,140
- Egungun
- 194
Monday 19 October · 23° overcast
The town keeps a four-day market week alongside the Gregorian calendar.
days. Ọba Asiru Olatoye Olaniyan II has worn the crown since 25 May 1974.
days, about. It falls in May and runs seven; the palace sets the opening each year.
Ilobu today
An ordinary afternoon on the road through the town.
Act 06 · Itan
What the recordnever held,someone still remembers.
Elders of Ilobu, recorded in Yoruba and transcribed. This is the part of the town’s history held only in memory, and the part most at risk of being lost.
The first recordings are being made. If an elder in your family holds the town’s history, the Union would like to hear from you.
Act 07 · The missing
Over four centuries of history,and photographs of sixty years.
Central Mosque, Jumu‘ah
IDU archive
The Olobu receiving visitors
IDU archive
St Michael’s Anglican Church
IDU archive
Primary Schools 1 & 2, Laaro
IDU archive
1974
The coronation
Not yet in the archive.
Chiefs in council
IDU archive
A street through the town
IDU archive
1960s
Ọja Ọba
Not yet in the archive.
Ojutu bridge
IDU archive
The palace gate
IDU archive
undated
Adire dyers, Isalẹ Ọja
Not yet in the archive.
Festival procession
IDU archive
The town hall
IDU archive
Shrine veranda
IDU archive
any year
Erinle festival
Not yet in the archive.
The mosque from the road
IDU archive
undated
The first school class
Not yet in the archive.
Arcade detail
IDU archive
Ọba Olaniyan II, crowned
IDU archive
undated
Ọja Ọba on a market day
Not yet in the archive.
14 of these 20 frames hold a photograph. If you have images of Ilobu — a ceremony, a market, a classroom, a portrait — the Union would be glad of a copy for the archive.
Act 08 · The Union at work
The IlobuDevelopment Unionaccounts for all of it.
Everything on this site is published by the Union — thirteen elected officers, chapters at home and in the diaspora, and one obligation: to say plainly what has been raised, what it built, and what is still waiting.
About the UnionPrimary health care
Underway
Thirteen public health centres serve the town, headquartered at Anwo, which carries the laboratory, dental, and monitoring units.
The Taoheed Lagbaja hospital for critical cases stands at roughly three quarters finished. Until it opens, critical cases travel to Oṣogbo.
- 13
- Centres operating
- 1
- Comprehensive hospital
The abandoned ward
Stalled
The ALGON hospital on Council Road was built and never opened. It is the single largest unused asset the town owns.
Reopening it would cost a fraction of building it again.
Public primary schools
Finished
Eight public primary schools, three of them running paired A and B streams — Gbobamu, Laaro, and Methodist.
- 8
- Schools
- 3
- Paired streams
Water
Waiting
Boreholes across the eleven quarters, prioritised by distance to the nearest source.
Borehole figures are being confirmed quarter by quarter and will be published in full.
Figures being confirmed.
- —
- Planned
- —
- Finished
Eleven quarters, and not all of them have a borehole. The Union publishes which quarters are served and which are next in line for work.
The Union publishes what it raises and what it spends. Figures still being confirmed are marked as such.
Act 09 · Arrival
0km
You are home.
However far you have come.
You are welcome here. Begin wherever you can.