Ife

Ife, or Ile-Ife, was a Yoruba city whose king bore the title Ooni. Yoruba tradition held that the deity Oduduwa made the first land there and founded a dynasty whose descendants established other kingdoms, including Oyo.

Around 1300 Ife produced naturalistic sculptures, many apparently under King Obalufon II. Oyo later eclipsed its political power, dominating Yoruba city-states from the seventeenth century, but Ife remained a spiritual centre and an authority on coronations. In the early nineteenth century Oyo's collapse sent refugees into Ife and drew it into the wars of Yorubaland.