Place:Ikirun, Osun, Nigeria

source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Ikirun is a town in Osun State, Nigeria. It is the headquarters of the Ifelodun Local Government Area. It is an historical city that derived its name from the first ruler of the town called Akinorun.

Basetan was the first settler and founder of present-day Ikirun. He was a hunter. and in one of his hunting expeditions, he came across another settlement nearby in Igbo Irele headed by Akinorun. Basetan convinced Akinorun to join him in present-day Ikirun. However, because Basetan was a hunter who used to go on long hunting sprees, he left the day-to-day administration of the settlement in the care of his new friend, Akinorun with the understanding that he would, whenever he was around stand in as the deputy. With this arrangement the rulership was progressively ceded to Akinorun and his descendants with Basetan as the Eesa (deputy), up to the present time, comes from the Basetan lineage. In recognition of this arrangement, whenever a new Akinrun is installed he mandatorily spends sometime in the Eesa's palace as the Eesa's guest (his original landlord) before moving into his palace.

This is also captured in the oriki of the Basetan descendants as “omo arile gba ofe kunrin, which literarily means “he who has enough space in his compound to accommodate male guests". There is a commemorative pillar in oja Oba in Ikirun with the inscription “Basetan, ode to te ilu Ikirun do," which literarily means “Basetan, the hunter who founded Ikirun".

Research Tips