Place name · Undated oral tradition · Legend
Image: Ilorin stone in Idi Ape.jpg — Abdurrazaq A.F.O, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
A hunter's visits to a sharpening stone offer one explanation for the name of Kwara's capital.
Long ago, the story goes, a hunter called Ojo Isekuse came from the Ilesa country and settled in a compound in what is now Ilorin. Ojo had a friend nearby named Eyinla, and Eyinla had a good stone. Ojo spent a lot of time there sharpening his cutlass.
So whenever someone asked where Ojo was, the answer was the same: at the stone, sharpening iron. Ilo irin. Soon other people were bringing their hoes and knives to the same spot. The place became known by what people did there, and the name grew into Ilorin.
You can still see it. In the Idi Ape area of the city, near the entrance to a building, sits a battered piece of rock known as Okuta Ilorin, the stone of Ilorin.
In 2016 an elder who lived beside it, Alhaji Idris Magaji Nda, told its story. When he was a boy in 1948, he said, worshippers still left food and animals beside the stone as offerings. Since then it had been chipped and broken, and pieces taken away for building. What's left is a fraction of what was.
Guides at the emir's palace were still telling visitors the sharpening story in 2024.
It is not the only explanation. Other traditions say Ilorin's name has to do with elephants, or with a land of iron. People also argue about who really founded the town. A stone can't settle that.
But the hunter's version is the one you can stand next to. A hunter sharpening his blade, a friend's stone, and neighbours telling each other where to find him. If the story is true, one of Nigeria's big cities is named after an everyday chore.
