The end of the Kiriji War did not occur through one decisive victory or unconditional surrender. The principal confrontation between Ibadan and the Ekiti Parapo confederacy ended through negotiation in 1886, but the wider Yoruba military crisis continued for another seven years.
On 23 September 1886, peace was formally proclaimed at the Kiriji Mesin battlefield. The principal Ibadan and Ekiti Parapo camps were subsequently evacuated and burned. However, Ilorin had not joined the settlement, the Ife and Modakeke conflict remained unresolved, and armed forces continued operating on other fronts.
The wider war cycle ended in 1893, when Governor Gilbert Thomas Carter travelled through the interior with soldiers, colonial officers and a Maxim gun. His intervention secured the dispersal of the opposing Ibadan and Ilorin camps. Agreements signed with Oyo and Ibadan during the same year also placed increasing restrictions on Yoruba political independence.
The Imperial Background
The Kiriji War emerged from the political order Ibadan had constructed after the collapse of the old Oyo Empire.
Ibadan’s victory over Ilorin at Osogbo around 1840 strengthened its reputation as the leading military power in much of Yorubaland. Its armies subsequently intervened across Ijesa and Ekiti country. Tributary obligations, military pressure and the conduct of Ibadan’s resident representatives created growing resentment.
Eastern resistance developed into the Ekiti Parapo confederacy. From 1879, its armies confronted Ibadan around the fortified camps of Kiriji and Oke Mesin, near Igbajo and Imesi Ile. Neither side achieved a conclusive victory.
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Ibadan remained militarily powerful, but the eastern alliance demonstrated that the city could not easily restore its former authority. By the middle of the 1880s, both armies had suffered from prolonged mobilisation, declining resources, disrupted commerce and war weariness.
Historian S. A. Akintoye distinguishes between the principal Kiriji War, which he dates from 1879 to 1886, and the “last rumblings of war” between 1886 and 1893. The first period covers the main Ibadan and Ekiti Parapo confrontation. The second covers continuing mobilisation and conflict on the Ife and Offa fronts.
The End of the Kiriji War Began with Negotiation
Peace efforts had begun before direct intervention by the Lagos colonial government. Yoruba rulers, commanders, civil chiefs, traders, religious authorities and messengers repeatedly attempted to negotiate. These initiatives usually failed because of distrust, incompatible territorial demands and disagreement over which army should withdraw first.
A significant change occurred at the end of January 1886, when Lagos was separated administratively from the Gold Coast and reconstituted as a separate colony under Governor Alfred Moloney. One of Moloney’s first major concerns was the continuing instability of the Yoruba interior.
Moloney selected two Yoruba Anglican clergymen as his messengers. Samuel Johnson was assigned principally to the Oyo and Ibadan side, while Charles Phillips approached the Ekiti Parapo authorities.
The Governor issued their formal instructions on 1 March 1886. Johnson left Lagos the following day and travelled through Ijebu, Ibadan and Oyo. Phillips approached the eastern leaders through a different route.
Both men eventually reached the principal war fronts. They met on the battlefield under flags of truce, exchanged the positions of the opposing commanders and arranged an armistice. They also visited the Ife and Modakeke front and attempted to obtain Ilorin’s participation.
The Ilorin commanders rejected their intervention, but the Ibadan and Ekiti Parapo leaders agreed to send authorised representatives to Lagos.
The Treaty of Peace, Friendship and Commerce
The representatives arrived in Lagos with authority to negotiate. Peace terms were agreed on 31 May and incorporated into a Treaty of Peace, Friendship and Commerce dated 4 June 1886.
The treaty was not signed by every ruler on a single day. After the authorised representatives accepted its terms in Lagos, Johnson and Phillips returned to the interior. They obtained the marks of the rulers, chiefs and commanders concerned during June and July.
Some provisions faced serious opposition. The Ekiti Parapo leadership objected to the decision concerning Otan, Iresi, Ada and Igbajo. Ogedengbe, the Seriki of Ijesa and principal Ekiti Parapo commander, initially refused to sign because the four towns were being left under Ibadan.
Phillips continued negotiating with Ogedengbe and the eastern leaders. Ogedengbe eventually accepted the treaty on 1 July.
One of the treaty’s most important provisions declared that the rulers, chiefs and peoples of the Ekiti Parapo alliance on one side, and the authorities and people of Ibadan on the other, would respectively retain their independence.
This clause prevented Ibadan from restoring its former imperial authority throughout Ekiti and Ijesa country. It represented the central political achievement of the eastern revolt.
The settlement nevertheless included compromises favourable to Ibadan. Otan, Iresi, Ada and Igbajo were recognised as part of Ibadan’s territories. Inhabitants who wished to leave were to be allowed to depart with their movable property.
The Unresolved Modakeke Question
Modakeke received separate treatment. The treaty proposed reconstructing the community on land between the Osun and Oba rivers, north of its existing location.
Modakeke people wishing to remain under Ibadan were to move to the new site. Those choosing to live under Ife authority could do so, but the existing Modakeke settlement was to come under Ife.
The arrangement was not successfully implemented. Modakeke resistance, Ife demands and disagreements over land prevented a lasting resolution. Forces connected with Ibadan, Ekiti Parapo and Ijebu eventually withdrew from the Modakeke front, but the underlying conflict remained unsettled.
The treaty therefore succeeded most clearly at the principal Kiriji battlefield. Its attempt to settle the Ife and Modakeke conflict proved far more difficult to enforce.
Ratification at Kiriji Mesin
Governor Moloney left for Britain before the treaty could be implemented. The acting administration appointed Henry Higgins, the Acting Colonial Secretary, and Oliver Smith, the Queen’s Advocate, as special commissioners.
The commissioners travelled with fifty Hausa soldiers armed with Martini Henry rifles, a seven pounder gun and rockets. British military power was therefore present during the settlement, although it had not yet reached the level demonstrated during the later conquest of Ijebu.
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On 23 September 1886, the commissioners received the leading chiefs and representatives at the Kiriji Mesin battlefield. Ajayi Osungbekun, the Balogun of Ibadan, and Ogedengbe swore friendship according to their respective religious customs.
The treaty, the ratification document and the Governor’s proclamation were read and interpreted. The authorised signatories then affixed their marks and seals. A seven gun salute announced the formal establishment of peace.
The ratification ordered the withdrawal of the armies from Kiriji and Oke Mesin. It required the evacuation to be completed by noon on 28 September, after which the camps would be destroyed.
Withdrawal was not completed immediately after the ceremony. The Ibadan camp was nearly deserted by 25 September. Its principal commanders left on 26 September, and Ogedengbe departed after learning of their withdrawal.
On 28 September, the commissioners fired the signal guns. Both principal camps were set ablaze and almost completely destroyed.
The main Kiriji battlefield had disappeared.
Why the Wider War Continued
The 1886 settlement ended the principal Ibadan and Ekiti Parapo confrontation, but it did not create complete peace throughout Yorubaland.
Ilorin was not a signatory to the treaty. Its conflict with Ibadan over Offa and the northern approaches remained unresolved. The Egba authorities had not participated in the final negotiations, while the Ife and Modakeke dispute continued despite the treaty’s attempted territorial solution.
Military commanders and armed followers therefore remained politically important after 1886. Ibadan maintained a presence around Ikirun, while Ilorin forces operated from the northern front. Elements of the Ekiti Parapo military organisation also remained mobilised.
The years after 1886 were neither a continuation of the principal Kiriji battlefield nor a period of stable peace. They were years of incomplete demobilisation and continuing political tension.
Meanwhile, the Lagos government was becoming increasingly determined to control access to the interior. Commerce depended on roads carrying agricultural produce, imported goods and travellers between Lagos and Yoruba towns. Ijebu control of important routes repeatedly brought the kingdom into conflict with colonial officials.
In 1892, negotiation gave way to conquest.
The British Conquest of Ijebu
British and colonial forces invaded Ijebu territory under Lieutenant Colonel F. C. Scott. At the Yemoji crossing, the expedition employed a Maxim gun, a seven pounder and rockets against determined Ijebu resistance.
The expedition entered Ijebu Ode on 20 May 1892. The defeat demonstrated the concentrated military power available to the Lagos government. It also changed the circumstances in which other Yoruba governments negotiated with Britain.
The conquest of Ijebu showed that the Lagos administration was prepared to use military force to open routes and impose its authority. Yoruba rulers and commanders now had to consider not only their regional rivals but also an expanding colonial power equipped with modern artillery and machine guns.
Carter’s Armed Intervention in 1893
Governor Gilbert Thomas Carter left Lagos on 3 January 1893. He travelled with Hausa troops, Captain Robert Lister Bower and a Maxim gun that remained conspicuously present during the journey.
At Abeokuta, Carter negotiated with the Egba authorities. A Treaty of Friendship and Commerce was concluded on 18 January. It recognised Egba independence and promised that no portion of Egba territory would be annexed without the consent of its lawful authorities, provided the treaty was observed.
Carter then travelled through Iseyin to Oyo. On 3 February, Alaafin Adeyemi signed a treaty with the Lagos government.
The agreement allowed British subjects access to Oyo territory and granted them rights to trade, build houses and possess property according to local law. The Alaafin promised to protect Christian ministers, prohibit human sacrifice within the territory under his control and avoid wars that threatened trade with Lagos.
More importantly, the treaty prevented the Alaafin from ceding territory or entering an agreement with a foreign government without British consent. Disputes that could not be settled by two appointed arbitrators would ultimately be decided by the Governor of Lagos.
The Alaafin remained a recognised ruler, but his freedom in diplomacy, territorial negotiations and warfare had been substantially restricted.
The Final Dispersal of the Armies
Carter continued through Ogbomoso to Ilorin, where he held discussions with the Emir. He then travelled to a position between the opposing Ibadan and Ilorin camps near the River Otin.
The Ibadan commanders argued that they were defending the country against Ilorin and would return home once the Ilorin army withdrew. The Ilorin representatives claimed that they occupied their own farms and that the more distant Ibadan army should leave first.
Carter refused to reopen the older historical dispute. He fixed a date for the simultaneous dispersal of both camps and appointed representatives to supervise the withdrawal. The Awere stream near Erin was established as a boundary between the two sides.
The camps were broken up, and the Ibadan army began its return. It reached the city walls on 22 March 1893 and made its ceremonial entrance the following day.
The soldiers returned without suffering a decisive battlefield defeat. However, they had also failed to conquer the Ekiti Parapo alliance or remove Ilorin from the northern frontier.
Their return marked the end of the wider Yoruba war cycle.
The Ibadan Agreement of 1893
Carter reached Ibadan on 26 March and attempted to obtain another agreement. The chiefs refused to sign.
They had only recently returned from years of military service. The city had not completed the reorganisation of its government, and there was no generally accepted civic leader authorised to conclude such an agreement. The chiefs also opposed Carter’s proposal for a European Resident.
Carter left Ibadan without securing their consent.
After Fijabi became Bale, Acting Governor George Chardin Denton returned to the matter. An agreement was concluded at Ibadan on 15 August 1893.
It recognised Ibadan’s administrative relationship with Iwo, Ede, Osogbo, Ikirun, Ogbomoso, Ejigbo, Iseyin and other dependent territories. It also required Ibadan to accept the provisions of the Oyo treaty and guarantee free passage between Lagos and the interior.
The chiefs agreed to receive European officers and members of the Lagos Constabulary whenever the Governor considered their presence necessary. They also undertook to provide land for a possible railway.
Disputes arising from the agreement were to be considered by two arbitrators. If the arbitrators disagreed, the Governor of Lagos would make the final decision.
The agreement preserved Ibadan’s internal hierarchy, but it introduced direct mechanisms for colonial political and military supervision.
The Meaning of the Two Ending Dates
The date 23 September 1886 marks the formal peace between Ibadan and the Ekiti Parapo alliance at the main Kiriji battlefield. It brought an end to the central confrontation and secured recognition of eastern independence.
The year 1893 marks the dispersal of the remaining Ibadan and Ilorin camps and the return of the Ibadan army. It also marks the agreements through which British influence became more deeply embedded in Yoruba political affairs.
Yoruba rulers, chiefs, commanders, missionaries and intermediaries played indispensable roles in the peace process. Johnson and Phillips carried messages, established contact between the armies and helped obtain signatures from political and military leaders.
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Britain, however, was not simply a neutral mediator. The 1886 commissioners travelled with soldiers and artillery. By 1893, the conquest of Ijebu and Carter’s armed journey had placed Britain in a commanding position.
Yoruba states also entered different political relationships with Britain. The Egba treaty explicitly recognised Egba independence. The Oyo treaty restricted the Alaafin’s foreign relations and military freedom. The Ibadan agreement authorised the presence of colonial officers and constabulary forces.
Ilorin remained outside the Lagos treaty system. Royal Niger Company forces conquered the emirate in 1897, placing it on a different path of colonial incorporation.
Conclusion
The end of the Kiriji War occurred in two principal stages.
The first came in 1886, when negotiation produced the Treaty of Peace, Friendship and Commerce. The treaty recognised the respective independence of Ibadan and the Ekiti Parapo alliance and dismantled the principal Kiriji and Oke Mesin camps.
The second came in 1893, when Carter’s armed intervention secured the dispersal of the opposing Ibadan and Ilorin camps. Agreements with Oyo and Ibadan then expanded British authority over trade, arbitration, foreign relations, transportation and security.
Yoruba diplomacy contributed decisively to the peace, but the political setting changed between 1886 and 1893. The settlement of 1886 emerged from negotiation supported by a limited colonial military presence. The final dispersal occurred after Britain had demonstrated overwhelming force in Ijebu.
The wars ended without a decisive Yoruba battlefield victor. At the same time, the freedom of Yoruba governments to conduct diplomacy, wage war and settle regional disputes independently was beginning to disappear.
Author’s Note
The ending of the Yoruba wars was not a single moment or a peace imposed entirely from outside. Yoruba rulers, chiefs, commanders, missionaries and intermediaries shaped the negotiations that dismantled the Kiriji battlefield in 1886. Yet unresolved conflicts allowed British power to become increasingly decisive. By 1893, peace had been secured, but it came with treaties, armed supervision and restrictions that marked the advancing loss of Yoruba political sovereignty.
References
Samuel Johnson, The History of the Yorubas: From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the British Protectorate, especially Chapters XXIX to XXXV and Appendix A, first published in 1921.
S. A. Akintoye, Revolution and Power Politics in Yorubaland, 1840–1893: Ibadan Expansion and the Rise of Ekitiparapo, Longman, 1971.
I. A. Akinjogbin, editor, War and Peace in Yorubaland, 1793–1893, Heinemann Educational Books Nigeria, 1998.
