A short historical expose of Igbara Oke in the Ekiti dialect by a native speaker
Igbara-Oke, a nodal town that is located on a mountain top, with a panegyric, "Omo Eleye Ti N Ke Weye". A town that has never lost any battle, and has never been conquered by any town during the inter-tribal war. According to the historian, it was reported that the then Oba of Ilesa sent emissaries headed by Ogedengbe to Olowa when they heard of the performances of Igbara-Oke at the war.
Every town and domain has their history, and where they started or migrated from. The history of Igbara-Oke could be traced back to the fifteenth century, when they migrated from Ile-Ife, under the hierarchical supervision of Olowa Arajaka and his children, Alarelu and Adeyiba, who were then known as brave warriors.
Olowa Arajaka was known as OLOWA AJAKA, the son of Obalufon Alayemore, the sixth Ooni of Ife, who was the first Oba to use beaded Crown. When Olowa Arajaka left with his two sons, they left with a crown given to them by Obanifon, as well as the sword of Alayere, Igba-Ifa, guns and some farm implements.
Although, they stopped and stayed briefly at numbers of places before they arrived at the present day Igbara-Oke. Amongst the places they stopped were present day Ilesa, Alaaye, Igbo Onigbagbara, Onikolo. They later settled temporarily at Olowinrin for thirteen years.
At Olowinrin, Arajaka, the leader of the group gave birth to twins, Alarelu and Adeyiba. The people at that time suffered great disaster at Olowinrin. An epidemic broke out and claim the lives of Olowa Arajaka and other people. This disease forced the people to leave Olowinrin, and went in two different directions.
Alarelu and his group departed South wards of Olowinrin to Odo-Oko, which later became Igbara-Odo, while Adeyigba went upwards to Oke-Oko, which later became Igbara-Oke.
The name Igbara was gotten from a forest called "Aigbara" where Adeyiba was born. The forest also contains a kind of leave called "Ewe Aigbara" that serves as herbs to cure diseases during that time.
When the two brothers parted ways to settle at different domain, Alarelu, the elder son took the name "Arajaka", and his brother, Adeyiba chose to bear "Olowa" from their father's name, OLOWA ARAJAKA. That is why we have Arajaka in Igbara-Odo and Olowa in Igbara-Oke.
Adeyiba later became the first king of Igbara-Oke, and he divided the town into six quarters, with a Principal Chief as the head of each quarters. These six chiefs also have minor chiefs under them who were given responsibilities for conflict resolutions, peace, security, and sacrifices to the gods and welfare matters.
The general believe that Oluji was the first Oba of Igbara-Oke is very untrue. Oluji came to Igbara-Oke for hunting.
However, the reign of all these Obas have been highly significant and they played prominent role in rural development, social and economic integration.
The Olowa of Igbara-Oke is one of the 54 recognised kings in Yoruba land that wears beaded crown, as prescribed by the Ooni of Ife in which was documented in the 1902 Federal Republic of Nigeria Gazette.