Ekiti State, Nigeria Genealogy

Africa Nigeria  Ekiti State

Guide to Ekiti State, Nigeria ancestry, family history and genealogy: birth records, marriage records, death records, census records, parish registers, and military records.

Information
Ekiti was an independent state prior to the British conquest. It was one of the many Yoruba states in what is today Nigeria. Ekiti State is a state in southwest Nigeria, created on October 1, 1996 alongside five other new states by military dictator General Sani Abacha. The state, created out of the territory of Ondo State, covered the former twelve local government areas that made up the Ekiti Zone of old Ondo State; however, on creation, it took off with sixteen (16) Local Government Areas (LGAs), having had an additional four carved out of the old ones. Ekiti State is one of the thiryt-six states (including the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja) that constitute the Nigeria.

The Ekiti, whose ancestors migrated from Ile-Ife as a people, form one of the largest ethnic groups in Yorubaland. Ekitis are culturally homogeneous and they speak a dialect of Yoruba language known as Ekiti. The homogeneous nature of Ekiti confers on the state some uniqueness among the states of the federation. Slight differences are noticeable in the Ekiti dialects of the Yoruba language spoken by the border communities to other states. For example, the people of Ado local government area do not speak exactly the same dialect with the people of Ijero Local government area, while the people of Ikole area speak something different from the people of Ikere area. The communities influenced by their locations include Otun (Moba land) that speaks a dialect close to the one spoken by the Igbominas in Kwara State. The people of Oke-Ako, Irele, Omuo speak a similar dialect to that of Ijesas of Osun State. However, part of the uniqueness of the Ekitis is that where ever is your own part of the state, you will understand well, when the other Ekiti man/woman speaks, in spite of the dialectal variations. In addition, all towns in Ekiti State take a common suffix, "Ekiti," after their names.

Towns and administrative divisions
The people of Ekiti State live mainly in towns. These towns include: Ado, Awo-Ekiti, Efon-Alaaye, Aramoko, Ikole, Ikere, Ire, Ijero, Ayetoro, Ipoti, Igogo, Ise, Itapa, Otun, Usi, Ido, Emure, Iyin, Igede, Ilawe, Ode, Oye, Omu, Omuo, Ilupeju, Ikoro, Ikun, Iye, Ijesa-Isu, Ayedun, Aisegba, Osin, Okemesi, and Igbara-Odo.

History
Ekiti was an independent state prior to the British conquest. It was one of the many Yoruba states in what is today Nigeria. Ekiti as a nation and districts of Yoruba race had her progeny in Oduduwa, the father and progenitor of Yoruba race. Just like every major subethnic division in Yorubaland. Ekiti has her origin from Ile-Ife (the cradle land of Yorubaland). The Olofin, one of the sons of the Oduduwa had sixteen (16) children and in the means of searching for the new land to develop, they all journeyed out of Ile-Ife as they walked through the Iwo - Eleru(crave) near Akure and had stop over at a place called Igbo-Aka(forest of termites) closer to Ile-Oluji.

The Olofin, the sixteen children and some other beloved people continued with their journey, but when they got to a particular lovely and flat land, the Owa-Obokun(the monachy of Ijesha land) and Orangun of Ila decided to stay in the present Ijesha and Igomina land of in Osun state. While the remaining fourteen (14) children continued with the journey and later settled in the present day Ekiti land. They discovered that there were many hills in the place and they said in their mother's language that this is 'Ile olokiti' the land of hills. Therefore the Okiti later blended to EkitiI. So Ekiti derived her name through hills.

Genealogy

 * Africa Surname & Regional Genealogy Sites


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 * Family History & the Collections of the Royal Geographical Society

Websites

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