Hill settlements and their abandonment in Western Yorubaland

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Periodical article

Title:	Hill settlements and their abandonment in Western Yorubaland
Author:	Cleave, M.B.
Year:	1963
Periodical:	Africa: Journal of the International African Institute
Volume:	33
Issue:	4
Pages:	343-352
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Nigeria
Subjects:	rural society history
External links:	https://www.jstor.org/stable/1158079 https://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&res_dat=xri:pao:&rft_dat=xri:pao:article:4011-1963-033-00-000029
Abstract:	Villages and small towns in the savanna and derived savanna area of West Africa have, at some time, moved down from hill sites to their present position on the plains. It has been suggested that settled conditions resulting from the penetration of colonial administration the stimulus in a number of cases in the Western Region of Nigeria, notably Okeiho which was moved in 1917, and Igbetti in 1905. In the Afenmai district of northern Benin, fortified hill sites were abandoned and villages were moved down to the plains after British administration entered the district in 1904, while New Idanre in Ondo Province was laid out with broad streets on a rectangular plan at the foot of the hill, leaving Old Indra on the hill-top site. This paper outlines the reasons for the earlier choice of hill-top sites and for later movement of settlements in a small part of the derived savanna in Ibadan and Oyo Provinces. References; fig.; French summary.