Background to the Names of Roads
In a document titled, Background to the Names of Roads and Halls, published in 1969, by the Ibadan University Press, edited by Dr. O Adewoye of the History Department later, the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ibadan, Professor Ade Ajayi, also of the Department of History, had emphasized in the foreword to the booklet the extent to which the Department of History has been closely associated-with the naming- of roads on the University Campus. Dr. K. O. Dike then Head of History Department was Chairman of a road-naming committee between 1955 and 1960. The committee was revived in 1962 and Dr Adewoye was appointed chairman. Even by 1966, the History Department had difficulty in recollecting the exact significance of some of the names. It was a good thing to have embarked on the compilation and keeping proper record of which, no doubt, will be of interest to members of the university community and friends of the University.
The reproduced notes here are based on the files by the Road Name Committee; others were compiled under Professor Ade Ajayi’s direction by two postgraduate students, Messrs. A. L Asiwaju and D. Nwasike in 1966-7 and later edited by Dr. O. Adewoye.
Roads
ABDULLAHI ROAD in the north-west area of the University, runs north from the junction of Saunders Road, Laird Road and Phillipson Road and links Parry Road with Elliot Close.
It is named after ‘Abdullah ibn Muhammad (1763/67-1829), the younger brother of Shehu Usuman dan Fodio, and the first Emir of Gwandu. ‘Abdullah (known locally as Abdullahi) was a great scholar, poet, teacher, religious reformer and administrator. His well-known and significant works in Arabic include Tazyin al- Waraqat, an edited version of which was published by the University of Ibadan Press in 1963.
AFRICANUS HORTON ROAD branches southwards from Niger Road near the Athletic Tracks, runs between the Mathematics and Chemistry Departments and leads to the University Computing Centre.
It is named after James Africanus Beale Horton (1835-1883), a scientist, a medical practitioner and author. He was born in Sierra Leone of Igbo parents. He attended the C. M. S. Grammar School and the Fourah Bay Institution in Freetown. In 1853, on the recommendation of the C. M. S. authorities, he was sent to Edinburgh University, where he took his M. D. degree in 1859. In the same year he published his thesis, “The Medical Topography of the West Coast of Africa”. He was assigned to the Army Medical Service and he spent the years 1859-1880 at various stations on the West coast from the Gambia to the Bight of Biafra. A writer of note, he was concerned with the development of the African. Among other things, he advocated vocational education, the establishment of a West African university, and political independence. His writings in this sphere include Political Economy of British West Africa (1865) and West African Countries and Peoples (1868).
AKINYELE ROAD branches off Barth Road to the south and leads to the International School. It is named after a distinguished Ibadan family which was among the first to adopt Christianity in the City and has produced a number of educators as well as leaders in Church and State. Among these were the late Diocesan Bishop of Ibadan, the Right Reverend A. B. Akinyele (1875-1968), a well-known theologian, an exponent of Yoruba language and phi­losophy, founder and first principal of Ibadan Gram­mar School; and Oba I. B. Akinyele (1882-1964), the Olubadan of Ibadan (1955-1964), president of the Christ Apostolic Church and author of a history of Ibadan, published in Yoruba and English.
ALZAYYATI CRESCEN branches off Phillipson Road in the northwest after about 400 feet from the junction of Saunders Road and Laird Road.
It is named after AI-Hassan ibn Muhammad al-Wazzan al-Zayyati (or AI-Fasi), the Arab traveller and scholar more popularly known as Leo Africanus (c. 1485-c. 1554). As a young man he travelled exten­sively on commercial and diplomatic missions in North Africa. He also journeyed through the Western Sudan, visiting the present-day Northern Nigeria. In about 1518 while travelling by sea from Constantinople to Morocco, he was captured by pirates and taken as a slave to Pope Leo X. The Pope converted him to the Christian Faith and in 1520 baptised him with his own names Johannes and Leo. Alzayyati moved in literary circles, acquired Latin and taught Arabic. His greatest work The: History and Description of Africa (originally published in Italian in 1526) is an important source of information on the peoples of Western Sudan in the sixteenth century.
AMINA WAY, lying north of Oduduwa Road, forms a loop linking senior staff residential quarters in the older section of the University.
Queen Amina, after whom the road ‘is named, was said to have ruled Zaria in the middle of the sixteenth century. Tradition credits her with many exploit. She was supposed to have built the famous ancient walls in Hausaland (Ganuwar Amina or Amina Walls). According to the Kano Chronicle she con­quered as far south as Kwararafa and Nupe, exacting tributes from every conquered town. Trade flourished in. her reign. For some time at least she succeeded in unifying the various Hausa states.
APPLETON ROAD runs from Carver Road between Physics and Zoology Departments and leads to the Physics Experimental Site and the Climatological Station.
It is named after Sir Edward Victor Appleton, C. B. E., K. C. B., D. Sc., an English Physicist, born in 1892 at Bradford, Yorkshire. He was for some time professor of Natural Philosophy at Cambridge University. During the Second World War he was in charge of the British atomic bomb research. From 1939 to 1949 he was secretary to the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, and was later principal and vice-chancellor of Edinburgh University. He won the Nobel Prize in 1947 for his researches into the physics of the atmosphere, particularly for the discovery of the ionized layer of the atmosphere named after him.
ATIBA ROAD is the northern entrance to the University running past the Senior Staff School and the Police Post to the centre of Abadina.
It is named after Atiba, the first Alafin of present-day Oyo (c. 1839-1858). He was the son of Alafin Abiodun. He established a new capital of the Oyo Empire at Ago-Oja (later called Oyo) after the destruction of the former one by the Fulanis from Ilorin. He made efforts to unify the Yoruba in the face of incursions from Dahomi and Fulani invaders. He abolished the tradition of crown princes dying with the ruling Alafin and thus revolutionized the law of succession in Oyo.
BARTH ROAD forms part of the present (1968) southern boundary of the University. It branches southwest-­wards off Lander Road.
Heinrich Barth (1821-1865) was a German scholar and explorer who travelled extensively in the Western Sudan, including what is now Northern Nigeria between 1849 and 1855. His Travels and Discoveries in Northern and Central Africa, 1849-1855 is a rich source of information on the history geo­graphy and ethnography of the areas he covered.
BATUTA ROAD is the first turning to the left on Saunders Road coming from its eastern end. It links Saunders Road and Sankore Avenue.
Abu Abdallah Mohammed Ibn Batuta (or Battutah) 1304-1368 was a great Muslim Berber traveller and scholar born in Tangier. His journeys between 1325 and 1355 extended from the Niger basin to China. He also visited Southern Persia, Iraq, Yemen and touched on such important East African towns as Mombasa, Kilwa, and Mogadishu. His book, Ibn Battuta, Travels in Asia and Africa, 1325-1354, translated into English by H. A. R. Gibb, is a wealth of information and geographical descriptions.
BENUE ROAD branches westwards off Emotan Lane near the University Mosque past the Faculty of Education and a number of Flats to link with Massaba Road.
It takes its name from the river Benue, an important tributary of River Niger. The Benue rises from the Adamawa mountains, to the north of the Cameroon highlands. It runs for about 800 miles approximately from east to west- before it joins the Niger at Lokoja. It is navigable as far as Garua during the rainy season by fairly big steamers.
BINI ROAD branches off Amina Way and runs northeast almost to the centre of the loop formed by Amina Way.
The road is named after the Bini people who are today in the Mid- Western State of Nigeria. They claimed to have come from Egypt. After a brief sojourn at He-Ife, they arrived at their present location in historic times. They founded the Benin kingdom which expanded far and wide between the fourteenth and seventeenth centuries to become one of West Africa’s largest and best organized states. Its jurisdiction extended as far as Onitsha and beyond, east of the Niger and as far west as Lagos, Badagry and Whydah. . (Lagos was originally founded by a Benin army). The kingdom also expanded to the north­east and the northwest, exercising jurisdiction over parts of the Yoruba country. It lost her independence in March 1897 when a British military expedition captured Benin City, its capital. The Bini people are known for their arts and crafts, especially for their brasswork, ivory and wood carvings. It has been estimated that over 20,000 works of arts were taken away from Benin City during its capture in 1897. Benin works of art are now found all over the world.
CARR ROAD, in the southwest area of the campus, is the first turning to the right going south on Ekwuno Road.
It is named after Henry Rawlinson Carr (1863­-1945), a most distinguished Nigerian mathematician, educationist and administrator. He was government inspector of Education, 1889-1918, and commissioner of Lagos Colony, 1918-1924. His well-known library of about 30,000 volumes formed the nucleus of the University of Ibadan Library.
CARVER ROAD runs parallel to Niger Road to the south of it along the Chemistry and Physics Laboratories.
George Washington Carver (1864-1943) was an Afro-American scientist who devoted his life to agricultural research. Born of slave parentage, he received his education from a number of American colleges, including the famous Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. From his research he showed the value of diversification of crops. He also experimented with a wide variety of food crops and discovered ways by which they could be converted to other products. A great philanthropist, he gave out his life savings of $33,000 to establish the Carver Foundation in. 1940 to carry on his research.
CHAD ROAD passes by the Faculty of Education and the Institute of African Studies and links Cross Road with Benue Road.
It takes its name from the Lake Chad on the .northeast corner of Nigeria. The Chad is a basin of inland drainage, about 850 ft above sea level. It is fed by a. number of rivers, the largest of which is the Shari which brings down enough water to swell it to a maximum height of 24ft in December and January. The lake is at its lowest in Mayor June, losing its waters largely by evaporation and seepage.
CHAPEL ROAD runs approximately northwards from the front of the University Bookshop, crosses Emotan Lane and passes through Abadina to the junction of Atiba Road, Farm Road and Dina Road. Along it are the Roman Catholic Chapel (the Chapel of Our Lady Seat of Wisdom) and the Protestant Chapel (the Chapel of Resurrection) from both of which the road takes its name.
CHIMA ROAD runs northwards from Atiba Road near the Motor Transport Yard.
Chima was the legendary founder of the town of Onitsha in the East Central State of Nigeria. After their fight with the Bini on the west of the Niger, Chima led his people across the river to the present town of Onitsha. He is also credited with instituting the Obiship and creating titled chiefs to help in the administration of the town. . The western Ibos are sometimes referred to as the children of Chima (umu Eze Chima)
CROSS ROAD is the road that links the new extension to the main Library and the Institute of African Studies.
It is named after River Cross in South-Eastern Nigeria. The Cross rises in the highlands of Southern Cameroon and flows in a great arc round the Oban hills and then southwards into the Atlantic at Calabar. With a total length of about 300 miles it is an important means of transport and communication during the rains. It served this purpose to European missionaries and traders in the nineteenth century.
CROWTHER LANE branches off Amina Way near the Department of Veterinary Medicine and runs north­east-ward into another residential area.
Samuel Ajayi Crowther (c. 1806-1891) was a famous Nigerian Christian leader, a distinguished missionary and educationist and pioneer of linguistic studies of Yoruba, Nupe, Ijaw and others. Captured as a slave in the Yoruba country in 1822, he was educated in Sierra Leone and, Britain. He was a member of the Niger Expeditions of 1841, 1854, and 1857, travelled extensively and worked in different parts of Nigeria. He played a dominant part in trans­lating the Bible into Yoruba which has become the basis of written Yoruba language and literature. He founded the C. M. S. Niger Mission in 1857 and was consecrated bishop in 1864, thus becoming the first African bishop of modern ‘times. He was awarded an Oxford D. D. for his linguistic studies and a Gold Medal of the Royal Geographical Society for his accounts of his travels.
DAN FODIO ROAD also branches off Amina Way. It begins near the University Provision Shop, runs eastwards to meet Bini Road.
It is named after Usuman dan Fodio (1754-1817), the great Muslim scholar and reformer who led the Fulani jihad against the Habe rulers of Hausaland in 1804. The jihad led to the establishment of the Sokoto Caliphate that brought unity to the Hausa states and the bulk of Northern Nigeria outside Bornu and is therefore an important milestone in the evolution of Nigeria. The best known writings of Dan Fodio include Kitab al-Farq, Nur al-Albab, Tanbikhu ‘l-ikhwan and Wathiquat abl-al-Sudan.
DINA ROAD is the continuation of Chapel Road beyond the intersection of Farm Road and Atiba Road.
Dina was the original owner of the land on which Abadina now stands. Abadina is really “Abaa Dina”, meaning Dina’s Cottage.
DYKE ROAD runs from the southeastern corner of the University Court between Tedder Hall and the Students’ Union Building and leads to Emotan Lane
Montague Dyke was an Englishman who devoted” his life largely to the problems of agriculture in West Africa. In the course of a long life of service in the agricultural departments in West Africa he built up a famous scientific library of some 10,000 books, journals, pamphlets and reprints which he presented to the University of Ibadan Library.
EBROHIMIE ROAD is in the southeast area of the University. It branches east from Lander Road and runs parallel with Oduduwa Road.
Ebrohimie was the town founded in the latter half of the nineteenth century by Olomu (c. 1810-1883), a great trader on the Benin River. It was made famous by Olomu’s son, Chief Nana (1852-1916) who was appointed governor of Benin River (1884-1891) by the British Administration. The strategic location of the town at the mouth of the Benin River leading into Urhobo country and the hinterland of Ethiope and Jameson rivers gave Nana a virtual monopoly of the trade of the area. He later quarrelled with the British and his town was captured on September 25, 1894 - after two previous abortive attempts. Nana was prominent among Nigerian leaders who began by seeking to trade with the British and ended up resisting their political ambitious.
EKWUNO ROAD links Macaulay Road and Carr Road and meets Ijoma near the southern end of Pepple Road.
Ekwuno (born c. 1745), otherwise known as Olaudah Equiano or Gustavus Vassa, was taken as a slave from his home in Igboland to Virginia, U. S. A. and later to England. While in England he purchased his freedom in 1766 and took an active part in the anti-slavery movement. His autobiography, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano or Gustavus Vassa (London 1789) is a most important written source of information on Igbo society in the mid-eighteenth century.
EL KANEMI ROAD branches southwest-wards from. Lander Road and leads to Nnamdi Azikiwe and Independence Halls of Residence.
It is named after Shehu Mohammed EI-Kanemi, the effective ruler of Bornu between 1809 and 1835. It was largely owing to his reforms of the military, administrative and religious life of Bornu that Bornu was able to resist incorporation into the Sokoto Caliphate. He was a distinguished Muslim. scholar and administrator and perhaps the best known of his writings was his exchange of letters with Sultan Mohammed Bello on the causes and the nature of the Fulani Jihad. The dynasty he founded still reigns in Bornu.
ELLIOT CLOSE is the cul-de-sac north of Parry Road at the northwestern corner of the University campus.
It is named after the Rt. Hon. Walter E. Elliot (1888-1958), P. C., C. H., M. C., F. R. S., F. R. C. P. He was a distin-guished physician, parliamentarian, minister of state, writer and broadcaster. He was also closely associated with the administration as Rector of two Scottish Universities - Aberdeen and Glasgow. As Chairman of the Commission on Higher Education in West Africa (1943-1945) he paved the way for the foundation of the University of Ibadan and similar institutions of higher learning in Common­wealth West Africa.
EMOTAN LANE branches southwest-wards off Amina Way, intersects Chapel Road, near the Roman Catholic Chapel and runs past Tedder Hall, the Arts Block and the Students I Tennis Courts to the Botany Department.
Emotan was a market woman who became famous by saving Ewuare, later king of Benin (1440-1473) from his enemies. She thus won the Oba’s special favour. When she died, she was buried in the market place on the spot where she used to sell her wares. A tree was planted on her grave, and she became deified. At the suggestion of Oba Akenzua II, the Benin Local Admi­nistration erected a statue to her memory. The statue unveiled on 20th March 1954, has replaced the original tree.
EYO ROAD branches off Ijoma Road near its junction with Niger Road close to the Geology Department and runs southwest-wards behind the Registrar’s house.
It is named after Eyo Eyo (later King Eyo Honesty II) of Creek Town, Calabar, a great merchant and a pioneer in oversea trading. As a young man he worked on board an English slaver as a “cabin boy”, sailing from Calabar to the West Indies with slaves and from the West Indies to Liverpool to buy trade goods and finally back to Calabar to trade the goods for slaves. While on board the slaver he learnt to speak reasonably good English which later helped him in establishing his own oversea trade. By 1857 he was shipping palm oil directly to England. His oversea trading ventures made him the richest man in Calabar in his days. King Eyo was sympathetic to Christian missionaries, encouraging them to build mission houses and schools - in his conviction that that familiarity with the European way of life would redound to the benefit of his people. He, however, refused to accept baptism and came to oppose some of the reforms attempted by missionaries and their interference in political issues. He died in 1858 after a long reign.
FARM ROAD. From the junction of Chapel Road, Oluyole Road and Dina Road, Farm Road runs westwards and ­then northwestwards to the Botanical Gardens and beyond. Along the road is the Faculty of Agriculture’s Experimental Farm which gives it its name. It is likely to become the road to the University’s new acquisitions of l, 200 acres.
IJOMA ROAD AND IJOMA PLACE. Ijoma Road branches southwards off Niger Road near the Geology Depart­ment and then runs westwards to the boundary of the University. The residential quarters off the middle of this road to the north is Ijoma Place.
Both the Road and the Place are named after Ijoma, a great warrior and chief in the Ogoja area of the South-Eastern State. The Road Naming Committee, care the Estate Officer, will be glad to receive more details about him.
JAJA AVENUE branches east from Park Lane near the Arts Theatre past the University Health Centre, to join Lander Road.
It is named after JaJa of Opobo in the Niger Delta (1821-1891). (His full name was Jubo Jubogha, abbreviated by Africans as Jo Jo, and by Europeans as JaJa). He was a successful merchant who rose to the position of power and influence in Bonny as the head of Anna Pepple House to which he was sold as a slave at about the age of 12. Acrimonious rivalry between him and his rivals compelled him to leave Bonny in 1869 to found a new city state. On Christmas Day in 1870 he proclaimed the foundation of his new kingdom which he called Opobo after Opubu the Great, the illustrious king of Bonny. He led the opposition against European penetration of the eastern. Nigerian hinterland from 1879 to 1887 when he was deported to the West Indies by the British Administration. In 1891 he was allowed to return to Opobo, but died at Teneriffe on the voyage home.
KURUNMI ROAD links Ijoma Road with Sankore Avenue. It is the third turning to the left coming from the eastern end of Sankore Avenue.
Kurunmi of Ijaye was one of the outstanding military and political leaders in Yorubaland in the nineteenth century. He was one of the founders of Ijaye which under his rule grew in size, prosperity and fame. He held the most important military title in the Yoruba country, the Are Ona Kakanfo (i. e. the Fiela. Marshal). He was a fearless, just and firm ruler who welcomed missionaries but yielded no ground for their proselytization. He died in August 1861, a few months before Ijaye itself was destroyed by Ibadan in what later became known as Ijaye War, 1860-1865.
LADIPO LANE, in Abadina, links Dina Road with Chima Road. It is the first turning to the right going north on Dina Road.
Ladipo was the original owner of this piece of land, and when the University acquired the site, the ruins of his farm hut and his other property were still to be seen.
LAIRD ROAD AND LAIRD PLACE. Both are in the western part of the campus. Laird Road forms a roundabout with Phillipson Road and Saunders Road and leads to the University of He (Ibadan Branch). Almost midway off the Road and to the west of it is Laird Place, connecting some residential quarters.
Macgregor Laird (1808-1861) was noted for his endeavours to open up the Niger to trade after the Landers’ exploration of it in 1830. In 1832 he accom­panied a commercial expedition up the Niger. He returned to Liverpool in 1834 and in 1837 became Secretary of the British and North American Steam Navigation Company. Keenly interested in the commercial prospects of the Niger, he founded the African Steamship Company in 1849. In 1854 he sponsored the first successful commercial expedition up to the Niger. It was on this expedition that the regular use of quinine as curative and preventive medicine for malaria was experimented with and found effective. Henceforth until his death he was in charge of regular steamship services between England and West Africa.
LANDER ROAD is the first turning left on Oduduwa Road coming from the main University gate. It runs past EI-Kanemi Road and at the junction with Barth Road turns eastwards.
It is named after Richard Lander (1804-1834) who accompanied Hugh Clapperton through the Yoruba country to Sokoto in 1825-26. Following Clapperton’s death he retraced the journey and his journal supple­mented Clapperton’s to tell the story of the expedition. He was therefore one of the earliest European writers on the interior of the Yorubaland. With his brother John Lander (1807-1839), he returned in 1830 to discover the mouth of the River Niger. They journeyed on foot through Badagri to Bussa and in two leaky canoes sailed down the Niger. The accounts of this expedition published as Journal of an Expedition to Explore the Course and Termination of the Niger (London, 1832) contain valuable ethnographic and historical materials on the Yoruba and other peoples of the lower Niger basin.
LIBRARY DRIVE runs from Emotan Lane in front of the Arts Block to the northern entrance of the main University Library from which it takes its name.
LISABI CRESCENT runs in a loop to connect two points of the western end of Niger Road.
Lisabi is believed to have been the leader of Egba Independence movement against the suzerainty of the Alafin of Oyo between about 1775 and 1780. He is much revered by the Egbas who today proudly refer to themselves as “Omo Lisabi”, that is, children of Lisabi.
MACAULAY ROAD is the last road to the southwest of the campus. It is the second turning to the right on Ekwuno Road going south.
Herbert Samuel Heelas Macaulay (1864-1946), a civil engineer, musician, journalist and politician, is generally acclaimed “Father of Nigerian nationalism”. He was the grandson of Samuel Ajayi Crowther, the first African bishop on the Niger. In spite of his middle class background and accomplishments he broadened the base of Lagos and, ultimately Nigerian politics to include traditional chiefs, market women, trade unions and the masses. A “bete noire” of the Colonial Administration in his adult life, he captured the imagination of the masses in Lagos as no other man did in his days. In 1923 he founded the Nigerian National” Democratic Party (NNDP), the first political party in the country. A veritable political organ was the Daily News (the first daily newspaper in Nigeria) which he launched in 1925.
MADAKI ROAD runs between the Athletic Track and the Cricket ground and links Cross Road with Niger Road.
The Madaki or Madawaki (literally, owner of the horses) was the head of the cavalry and commander in-chief of the army in the old Hausa states of Northern Nigeria. He personally led the army in battle and to him belonged half the booty of war out of which he re­warded the troop and officers who fought under his command. He was a member of the king’s war council and a close adviser to the king. As Master of the Horse he encouraged skill in horse riding which has remained one of the most popular of the older sports in Nigeria. The office of the Madaki now carries civil rather than military responsibilities in the Emirs’ Council.
MASSABA ROAD links Sankore Avenue with Parry Road. It runs past the eastern end of Saunders Road and the western end of Benue Road.
Massaba was the Emir of Nupe from about the middle of the nineteenth century to 1872. Son of a Fulani father and Nupe mother, he tried to reconcile the Nupe with Fulani rule. He readily appreciated the importance of Europeans trading on the Niger and co-operated with explorers and the Royal Niger Company officials to consolidate his own power in Nupe. By 1870 there was a flourishing trade with several English firms. For her ivory, shea butter and other products Nupe received principally arms and gun powder. Nupe under Massaba became the most powerful state on the lower Niger and expanded southwards into Igalla, Akoko and parts of the Edo empire.
NIGER ROAD runs from Kuti Hall at the southern end of Park Lane past Sultan Bello Hall, the Science Laboratories to the Vice-Chancellor’s Lodge, veering north to link up with Sankore Avenue.
The River Niger after which it is named takes its source from the Futa Jallon Highlands and flows over a distance of about 2,600 miles. The most navigable part of it lies within Nigeria. Culturally and commercially it has been an important link between the Yoruba, Igalla, Nupe, Hausa and other peoples living within its basin.
OBONG ROAD branches northwards off Oduduwa Road after about 600 yards from the main gate to link up with Amina Way.
Obong is the traditional title of the ruler of Calabar. It compares with such titles as the Alafin of Oyo, the Mai of Bornu, the Kabaka of Buganda or the Negust Negusti of Ethiopia.
ODEZIAKU ROAD runs south of the junction of Olubi Road and Oluyole Road, past the Faculty of Agriculture, Physiology and Anatomy Departments and meets Amina Way.
It is named after John Moray Stuart-Young (1881-1942), the O’Dazi Aku of Onitsha. A novelist, poet and journalist Stuart- Young was much loved by the people of Onitsha because at a time when Europeans abhorred the idea of mixing with Africans, he not only lived among them, he also associated himself with their causes. He lived at Onitsha from about 1902 until his death in 1942. He defended the rights of African traders against the competition of big firms like the United Africa Company. He had a reputation among the people of Onitsha for thrift and uprightness and he was popularly known as “Odeziaku” (the care-taker of wealth). His writings include Merely a Negress (1904), Out of hours (1909), A Calabash of Kola Nuts (1911), Coaster at home (1916) and The Iniquitous Coaster (1917).
ODUDUWA ROAD is the main dual-carriage road leading into the University from Oyo-Ibadan road.
Oduduwa is, traditionally, the ancestor of the Yoruba people. He is believed to have migrated from somewhere in the Middle East. It is also believed that he first settled at He-Ife which is still regarded as the ancestral home of the Yoruba. Most crowned heads of Yorubaland trace their descent from Oduduwa. He has been deified and is revered by the Yoruba who commonly refer to themselves as “Omo Oduduwa” (the children of Oduduwa).
OLIAKU LANE runs north from the front of Sultan Bello Hall, past the Nigerian Institute of Social and Economic Research.(NISER) and the Students’ Union building to join Dyke Road at the southwestern corner of the University Court.
The Road Naming Sub-Committee, care the Estate Officer, will welcome information about Oliaku.
OLUBI ROAD links Atiba Road with 01uyole Road, running close to the Police Post.
It is named after the Rev. Daniel 01ubi (baptised 1848, ordained 1871, died 1913), an Anglican clergy­man. He was the first African clergyman in Ibadan. He and the Rev. Edward K. Buko were the only African clergymen who, up to 1890, had been trained wholly in Nigeria and were not immigrants from Sierra Leone or England. He supervised the work of the C. M. S. including the expansion of education, in Ibadan and much of the Yoruba country by himself for almost twenty years after the departure of Rev. D. Hinderer who had brought him up in his own household.
OLUYOLE ROAD leads to the Senior Staff School from the roundabout formed by Odeziaku Road and Olubi Road in front of the Maintenance Yard.
Oluyole was a prominent military leader in Yorubaland in the nineteenth century who rose from one position of eminence to another because of his abilities. In 1830 he became the Bale (ruler) of Ibadan, originally a war camp which he organized into a proper town. He was also a principal factor in the founding- of present day Oyo during the reign of Atiba, the Alafin of Oyo, 1839-1858. He was made the Basorun of Yoruba1and in 1836, a position roughly equivalent to that of the Prime Minister. Ibadan is often described as “Ile Oluyole” (the house of Oluyole) a reflection; of his role in laying the foundation of the City. He died in 1850.
PARK LANE runs from the main administration building between the Car Park and the Senate buildings to the end of Niger Road in front of Kuti Hall.
It is named after Mungo Park (1771-1806) a Scottish doctor who made two journeys to the River Niger in 1795 and 1805, sponsored respectively by the African Association (London) and the British Government. He died at Bussa during the second journey in 1806. Although a gate was not immediately opened “.to every commercial nation to enter and trade from the west to the eastern extremity of Africa”, as the African Association claimed, Park’s discoveries gave an important momentum to the final opening up of the Niger to European trade.
PARRY ROAD runs westwards from Massaba Road to join Alzayyati Crescent.
Dr. John Horace Parry (b. 1914) sometime Professor of History and Vice-Principal of the University College of the West Indies, was the third principal of the University College, Ibadan, 1956-1960. His tenure of office was marked by expansion and development. New buildings were erected or begun; the Institute of Education was established; the Faculty of Economics and Social Studies was established from a pre-existing department of Economics and the student population of the University rose from just under 500 in 1956/57 to 1,110 at the end of 1959/1960 academic year when he left to become the Principal of the University College of Swansea, Wales. Since October- 1965 he has been. Professor of Oceanic History and Affairs at Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. U. S. A. His writings include The Spanish Theory of Empire (1940). The Audiencia of New Galicia (1948), Europe and a Wider World (1949), A Short History of the West Indies (1956), The Age of Reconnaissance (1963) and The Spanish Seaborne Empire (1966).
PEPPLE ROAD links Ijoma Road with Sankore Avenue. It is the second turning left on Sankore Avenue coming from its eastern end.
The Royal House of Pepple ruled in Bonny in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. (Pepple is the ­anglicized form of Pelekule or Perekule, the name of the first king of the House). The House produced a line of remarkable rulers, including Opubu the Great who died in 1830. In them Bonny found an important source of unity and strength. The last remarkable ruler of the line was William Dappa Pepple who was exiled in 1854 by John Beecroft, the British Consul for the Bight of Biafra. He returned to Bonny in October 1861 but died five years later. Dappa was succeeded by his son Prince George Pepple. George was only king in name. Since 1854 the effective rule of Bonny had passed into the hands of the Regents and Chiefs.
PHILLIPSON ROAD runs approximately westwards from the junction of Laird Road and Saunders Road.
It is named after Sir Sydney Phillipson (b. 1892) C. M. G., M. A., the Financial Secretary to the Nigerian Government (1945-1948) and Commissioner on Special Duties (1948-1960). In the latter capacity he played a very important part in most aspects of Nigeria’s development; the establishment of marketing boards; the development of the Nigerian Colleges of Arts and Technology, fiscal reforms, Nigerianization of the Civil Service, the separation of Southern Cameroons from Nigeria and others. He was inti­mately connected with the growth of the University of Ibadan. He urged the’- Government to make available vast sums of money to the institution. His proposal in 1952 for the establishment of an “expendable” endowment fund gave it some financial stability. He was the Chairman of the University’s Provisional’ Council, 1951-1959. During the same period he was also Chairman of the Council of the University Teaching Hospital and of the Nigerian College of Arts, Science and Technology.
SANKORE-AVENUE runs approximately westwards from the Institute of African Studies to join Laird Road at the extreme west of the campus.
It is named after the famous Sankore Mosque at Timbuktu which was the great intellectual capital of Western Sudan in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. It drew Arabic students and scholars from all over Muslim Africa and it probably reached the height of its intellectual prominence during die reign of.’ Muhammad Askia, Emperor of Songhai 1494-1529. The University centre of Sankore fell on evil days towards the end of the sixteenth century when Mulai Ahmed EI-Mansur, the Moroccan Emperor, sent his army into the Sudan. In 1591 Timbuktu was sacked and plundered. The literati of Sankore, bound in chains, were sent across the Sahara to Marrakesh with their books and other possessions. Their works survive largely in references to them in the Tarikh es Sudan and Tarikh el-Fettach. SAPARA ROAD branches northwestwards off the junction of Benue Road and Emotan Lane and leads to the Depart­mental buildings of Forestry and Post- Basic Nursing.
It is named after Dr. Oguntola Sapara (1861­1935) L.R.C.P., L.R.C.S. (Edinburgh), F.R.I.P.H. (Glasgow), one of the earliest Nigerian doctors, qualified to practise medicine in 1895. As Assistant Colonial Surgeon, he took great interest in traditional practices of medicine, showed the importance of under­standing the social background of patients and, with this approach, made the Massey Street Dispensary in Lagos a popular resort of mothers and infants. A nationalist to the core, he discarded his European names and became well-known in his white agbada. He was a younger brother of the equally famous Honourable Christopher Sapara Williams (1855-1915), lawyer and unofficial member of the Legislative Council in Lagos, 1901-1915.
SAUNDERS ROAD runs westwards from Massaba Road to the roundabout at the junction of Phillipson Road, Laird Road and Abdullahi Road.
John Tennant Saunders was the second Principal of the University College, Ibadan, 1953-1956; He brought to the University a considerable experience in University administration and he consolidated the pioneer efforts of his precedecessor in office, Kenneth Mellanby. He saw to the completion of many building projects. Course offerings were increased and so was awarded the C. M. G. His University College, Ibadan (London, Cambridge University Press, 1960) gives an account of the role he played in the evolution of the University.
TRACTOR ROAD branches off Farm Road and leads west­wards to the offices of the Faculty of Agriculture’s Teaching Farm.
The Tractor, a modern farming implement, gives the road its name.
THE UNIVERSITY COURT is a rectangular set of roads round the main administration building, the Tower Court and Trenchard Hall. University Court North runs from the main gate of Tedder Hall to the Chapel Road near the new Bookshop Building. University Court East is the main taxi-park at the western end Oduduwa Road. University Court South runs from the western end of Queen Elizabeth Hall, past the main entrance of the Administration Building, past the Geography Department to link up with Dyke Road. University Court West runs from the junction of Dyke Road and Oliaku Road to the main gate of Tedder Hall.

INDEX TO THE MAP

ROADS
A bdullahi Road B2-3
Ijorna Road B4-C5
Africanus Horton Road D4
Jaja Avenue F5
Akinyele Road E6
Kurunrni Road B3-A4
Alzayyati Crescent A3
Ladipo Lane E-F2
Amina W ay F4-G4
Laird Road B3-A4
Appleton Road D4-5
Laird Place A3
Atiba Road F2-G2
Lander Road G6
Barth Road E6-F6
Library Drive E4
Batuta Road B3 Lisabi Crescent C3-4
Benue Road D3-E4 Macaulay Road B5
Bini Road G4 Madaki Road D4
Carr Road B5 Massaba Road C3
Carver Road D4 Niger Road C4-D4
Chad. Road D3-D4 Obong Road F4-5
Chapel Road F3-F4 Odeziaku Road F3
Chima Road F2 Oduduwa Road G5
Cross Road F2 Oliaku Lane E4-S
Crowther Lane G3 Olubi Road G3-2
Dan Fodio Road F4-G4 Oluyole Road G3
Dina Road E2 Park Lane E5-FS
Dyke Road E4 Parry Road C3
Ebrohimie Road G5-G6 Pepple Road B4
Ekwuno Road B5 Phillipson Road A3
El Kanemi Road E6-FS Sankore Avenue C3-D4
Elliot Close A2-B2 Sapara Road E3-4
Ernotan Lane E4-F4 Saunders Road B3-C3
Eyo Road C4 Tractor Road D2
Farm Road Dl-E2 University Court E4-F4
Ijoma Place C4

RESIDENTIAL AND OTHER HALLS
Clinical Students’ Hostel UCH Postgraduate Hall F4-S
Drapers’ Hall D4 Queen Elizabeth Hall FS
Independence Hall E6 Sultan Bello Hall E5
Kuti Hall E5 Tedder Hall E4
Mellanby Hall E-F4 Trenchard Hall E-F4
Nnamdi Azikiwe Hall E5-6
Departments and Offices
Abadina Clinic F3 Institute of Librarianship
Administration F4-5 (Education) D4­
Adult Education (Education) D4- International School via E6
Agriculture F-G3 Language Laboratory F5
Anatomy F-G3 Library D-E4­
Arabic Studies (Arts) E4 Linguistics (Arts) E4
Arts Faculty (Arts) E4 Maintenance (W. M.) F2.-3
Arts Theatre E-FS Mathematics C-D4
Athletic Track D4 Midwifery Centre F3
Biochemistry G3 Modern Languages (Arts) E4
Botanical Garden Dl Mosque E4.
Botany D-ES Motor Transport (M. T.O) FZ-3
Canteen D4 National Archives E3
Catering Department F5 fmr. N.I.S. E.R. Building E5
Catering Flats FZ & F3 G5 Nuffield House (N) C3-4­
Cemetery E4 Parasitology F3
Chairman’s Lodge (Ch) C4 Pharmacology G3
Chancellor’s .Lodge (C} B4 Physics D4-5
Chapel, Catholic F4 Physics, Experimental Site D6
Chapel, Protestant. F3 Physiology F-G3
Chemistry D4 Police. G2-3
Classics (Arts) E4 Political Sc. (Social. Sc.) E5
C1imatological Station D-E6 Post Office G-H5
Club (Senior Staff) F3 Pre-Clinical F-G3
Computing Centre C4 Press D4
Conference Centre F3-4 Radiation Protection
Council Chamber (C) F5 Service (R. P. S.) D5
Economics (Social Sc.) E5 Religious Studies (Arts) E4
Education D4 Science - Lecture Theatres D5
English (Arts) E4 Senate F5
Farm C-Dl Sewage Plant D2
Fish Pond B5 School of Drama (Theatre) E5
Ford Flats (F2) C3 Sociology (Social Sc.) E5­
Forestry E3 Sports Field D-E4
Geography E5 Staff’ Shop F3
Geology C-D4 Students Union E4
Guest Flats F3 Tennis Courts E4
Gymnasium (Gym) D4 University Bookshop F4
Health Centre (Health) F5 Veterinary Sciences F-G3
History (Arts) E4 Vice-Chancellor’s Lodge C4
The Polytechnic, Ibadan via A4 Vice-Chancellor’s Guest
Institute of African Studies D4 Chalet (G.C.) B4
Institute of Child Health D3 Zoology (and Zoo) D5