Ago-Iwoye

Iwoye was a settlement established in 1425 with 73 Imososi families and is considered "one of the ancient towns in Yorubaland."[3] Iwoye, also called Wojaiye, coexisted peacefully with surrounding areas for several centuries until the 1800s ushered in a 70-year period of fratricidal wars.[8][3] The Egba were interested expanding into Abeokuta, inspiring violence between the two groups and "le[ading] to the desertion of many places."[3] The original land on which Iwoye stood was not exempt. The brutal Gbedeke War of 1831 saw Iwoye moving southeast to seek out "a new War Camp" (Ago).[8][4] The new settlement was called Ago Meleki, "Meleki's Camp," for the man who led the Iwoye retreat.[4][8] The organisation Ago Iwoye Progressives Union is said to have inspired the village to merge Ago and Iwoye, thus commemorating their previous home and celebrating their new one.[9][4] It was officially changed in 1946.[9]

Islam trickled into town via soldiers, settlers, immigrants, traders, and enslaved Muslims.[3] They had a sizeable presence by the end of the 19th century and occupied villages alongside Hausa, Fulani, Tapa, and Yoruba communities.[3] Ago-Iwoye's leaders, the Osugbo, as well as other traditionalists were not welcoming and threatened them with death.[3] Scholar Alfa 'Uthman Akeugberu knelt one day to pray in front of a non-Muslim friend, which was forbidden.[3] The town Elders decided to sacrifice him and tied him to a tree; his friend later rescued him.[3] Following this attempted assassination, the Muslim community in Ago-Iwoye fell apart and emigrated to the nearby villages of Difase and Eredo.[3] By the 1890s, the religion had reemerged and were welcomed back by the town.[3] One of the male members of the Osugbo fraternity witnessed what he believed was a family member recovering from illness at the verge of death; he subsequently converted to Islam, taking several of his group with him.[3] Akeugberu eventually established the town's first Arabic and Qur'anic school.[3]

British colonisation began in the mid-19th century but became official in 1914, and Ijebu-Igbo, Imusin, and Ago-Iwoye were, "for administrative convenience, turned into political units," each under a designated baale.[4][10] In Ago-Iwoye, the title rotated between the villages.[4]

Christian missionaries first started to introduce western education and Christianity to the town in 1892 but were unsuccessful.[3] They returned later that year to take advantage of the upset caused by the Magbo War of 1892, also known as the British-Ijebu War.[3] With Britain occupying Ijebuland, the missionaries were accompanied by British soldiers as they spread the word of Christ.[3] The Church Mission Society and the Wesleyan Methodist Church were at this time the largest presence in town.[3] The Wesley School, the first Christian institution in Ago-Iwoye, began converting students from Arabic schools to give them a "new education."[3] Conversion techniques included forcibly baptising Muslim children, indoctrinating them at schools where they were away from their parents, and giving them Christian names.[3] As western education spread, the idea of literacy came under fire; Islamic scholars were now considered illiterate under "a new system of literacy."[3] Further, Christianity was seen as a prerequisite for getting any sort of gainful employment throughout the 68 years of colonial rule.[3]

In the early 20th century, Ijebu-Igbo, Imusin, and Ago-Iwoye came together to "[advance] territorial group interest under colonial dispensation" and formed advocate groups, respectively the Iejebu-Igbo Patriotic Society (1922), the Ago Progressive Union (1926), and the Ijebu-Imusin Progress Society (1932).[4] Due to Britain's indirect rule, area customs were respected, but did not stop them from bringing capitalism into Ogun and surrounding areas by establishing a market economy and monetising political offices that had historically been hereditary.[4]

Tides turned for Muslims in the 1930s, when Muslim schools expanded, and non-Christians were given legal protection in the face of forced conversion under an education ordinate: "No child in a government school could receive religious instruction to which the parents or guardian has objected or could be forced to present when such instruction was given at such school."[3] Whereas Christian missionaries weaponised Qur'an passages, Muslim scholars started finding commonality between the two holy books.[3] Regardless, English and Yoruba became the languages of instruction rather than Arabic.[3]

Decolonisation began with earnest in 1957 and Nigeria gained independence from British colonial rule on 1 October 1960.[11]

Like many parts of Africa, Ago-Iwoye has an active Black Axe presence.[24] The Aiye cult group, as they are also known, started as a Nigerian crime syndicate that eventually made its way into the highest societal positions and is now international.[25] Black Axe began as a student cofraternity at the University of Benin and primarily recruits males ages 16–23, specifically targeting university students.[26]

On 16 June 2005, a boy walking home from Wesley High School at night with a friend was shot dead by "the Vigilante Group."[27] The next morning, angry OOU students stormed the king's palace and burned it down.[12][27][28] The fighting—at this point between townspeople and students—was only stopped when police from Abeokuta arrived.[27] The university closed for a while afterwards.[29] Security in Ago-Iwoye has increased since then, with more volunteers working with police to keep the peace.[12] Oba Adunugbe believe that "hired hoodlums" were pretending to be protesting OOU students.[12] In 2013, due to the university being the main target for crime and violence, Ogun State brought in APCs to "monitor and curtail the nefarious activities of the hoodlums who used to terrorise the university community.[12]