The notorious Kiriji wars lasted from 1877 – 1886, was the mega war that ended all the protracted inter- tribal wars in the Yorubaland. Kiriji war camps were located on an area of land between Imesi-Ile in Ijeshaland and Igbajo (another historical town, a short six kilometers from Imesi-Ile) in Oshunland. The “Treaty of Peace&rdquo (Click here to read about War and Peace in Yorubaland); that ended this war was negotiated by Governor Alfred Moloney, then British Colonial Governor of Lagos, assisted by Reverend Samuel Johnson and Reverend Charles Philips. Although the treaty was dated June 4, 1886 it was signed by all the principal parties on various days between June 1886 and September 1886. This treaty signed at Imesi-Ile was significant because it represented the first attempt by the Yorubas to fashion out a constitution for a peaceful coexistence among the Yorubas of various kingdoms. Today, war relics, archaeological sites and monumental spots abound in Imesi-Ile, and already catching the attention of Tourists and Archaeologists.

Imesi-Ile abounds in cultural events, celebrating one festival or another, most prominent being the annual Egungun (masquerade) festival, with the grand Egungun (Ladunnwo) emerging every other year. This is usually an all town events with indigenes of Imesi-Ile within Nigeria and abroad coming home for celebration. On a different note, the contributions of these Egunguns during the Kiriji was noteworthy. Apart from Ladunwo who could help in maintaining law and order as well as protecting the territory from invaders, Iyekiye also plays the same role. Gbajero is also one unique masquerade that helps in sending witches out of the town when there was need for that. Other prominent masquerades of note include Gbado, Pelemba, Alagbo, Eiyeba – not to mention the purely entertainment ones like the “Owolewas” and the “Daadouns”. The Other cultural festivals worthy of mentioning include the Ogun festival, Otoporo, and the Imesi-Ile Festival of Drums and Dance steps.

Self-help has being the model of social development among the Imesi people, and the traditional local governing body, and later in the 20th century, Imesi-ile Progressive Association (formally Imesi-Ile Progressive Union – IPU), have been the tools for making this work. When Imesi-Ile people are summoned by their leaders, they respond in kind. The first road which linked Imesi-Ile to Ilesha and Oshogbo opened in 1936. It was a community self-help project. Other such projects include the first High School founded in 1956, the Post Office, the Dispensary, the Palace, the Imesi-Ile –Igbajo road, the Imesi-Ile – Okemesi road, and several other projects, including one now underway to establish an Imesi-Ile Polytechnic.

Traditional religions have been (and still is) practiced in Imesi-Ile before Christianity was introduced to Imesi-Ile in 1900 by the Methodist Missionaries. Moreover, there is a handful of Muslims in the town and all these live together in perfect harmony. It should also be noted that while violent conflicts, turmoil, destruction and death had been and are still being engineered and sustained in many parts of Africa using political, cultural or religious plurality as excuses. Imesi-Ile is a good example of how the people’s Imesi-Ile Progressive Association and the Church have organized local people in very constructive cooperative community development ventures with impressive achievements over a century.

Imesi-Ile has also been the centre of some medical breakthrough. David Morley began his medical career as an undergraduate in Cambridge and then at St Thomas’s Hospital, London. After graduating in 1947, he first learned about health care problems in the developing world during his national military service in Malaya. He worked for a short while in general practice, but then recruited by the Methodist Mission; he left the UK for rural Nigeria and began a career that would improve the health of millions. Professor June Lloyd of the British Paediatric Association described his work thus: “In the five years that he was in Imesi-Ile it is no exaggeration to say that he transformed the approach to the health care of children in the developing world. He showed that infant mortality could be cut by over 80 per cent, not by the introduction of modern medicine and the building of hospitals, but by education and use of locally available resources.”

Morley started Under-Fives Clinics run by local personnel, he trained local women to immunise the children, and he devised the ‘Road to Health’ growth chart – all concepts which have spread around the world. When he arrived, measles killed 1 in every 20 children in Imesi-Ile. He tried a new vaccine from the USA, at first on 20 children, and then on all the children from 1962 to 65. By 1965 Imesi-Ile had become the very first community in the world to record the eradication of measles through vaccination.

Going back to the idea of Imesi-Ile being a town of self-made model and of true patriots. From the first Chairman of IPU, The late Chief A.O. Makanjuola (Otun Owa of Imesi-Ile) and Senator L.T. Olamijulo – the longest serving IPU Chairman (1938-1962), to the likes of Oba Ajiboye (Ariyo-won-ye), Pa William Ojo , Chief J.I. Bifarin, Chief (Engineer) J.A. Olaniyan, Chief J.O. Awoyomi (Aragba-migo!), Chief S.A Ajanaku, Chief D.O.Oguntoye, Pa P.F. Familusi, Pa J.O. Fakolade, Mr. J. Olu Ojo, The Right Rev. Famonure, Pa (Pastor) Olufemi, Pa I.O. Ajiboye, Pa Omoyeni, Pa J.A Adeogba, Dr. S.O. Fasokun, Engineer Lanre Fakolade, Honorable Oluwole Siyanbola, Chief Mrs. Wura Ojo (Nee Itagbemi of the famed Elizade Motors), and many others of blessed memories. These forerunners served the town with relentless and absolute patriotism. Some did not have money, but their ideas were invaluable, some educated our generation, others brought otherwise impossible progress and spotlight to Imesi. It is gratifying to note that as we speak, this effort on self-improvement through die-hard patriotism is still the norm in the town. The difference now is that the people who are making these changes and differences are our contemporaries that we grew up with! If we are at home right now, most of us will be participating actively in the building of this “city set on a hill”. It would therefore amount to dereliction of civic and moral duty for us to be absent from the firing line under the guise of being here in the United StatesCanada. This is a clarion call to all Imesi-Ile people and their friends to join hands with us on this important building process.

If you ask me, I would say a needless war. Just like the Biafra war. Everything still boils down to ignorance

mannobi:
If you ask me, I would say a needless war. Just like the Biafra war. Everything still boils down to ignorance

I know that you are igboid

well, for you to say that the igbos fighting to leave zoogeria in the sixties was needless only shows your poor understanding of the geopolitical situation in the zoo!!!

the war we fought then only delayed the inevitable as you can see today that the vandals who killed innocent easterners in our tens of thousands in the north during the pogrom before the war have renewed their onslaught once again as they begin their grim, bloody and jihadi journey to our lands yet again to conclude, in their minds, the jihadist conquest of we southern Christians they started in the north!!!

children like you who refuse to know their history are often bound to repeat it!!!

keep enjoying your lagos and feeling that you are in a country that gives a shiit about you!!!

may it not be too late before you come to your senses!!!

winter is coming!!!

the international interventionist invaders are soon coming to the shiithole to tear zoogeria to pieces and we, the great easterners, are SOO gone from the shiithole ASAP, AMEN!!!

typing..............

Ok