Abeokuta was founded around 1830

Abeokuta is the state capital of Ogun State in southwest Nigeria. It is situated on the east bank of the Ogun River, near a group of rocky outcrops in a wooded savanna; 77 kilometres (48 mi) north of Lagos by railway, or 130 kilometres (81 mi) by water. As of 2006, Abeokuta and the surrounding area had a population of 449,088.

Abeokuta was founded around 1830 by Sodeke (Shodeke), a hunter and leader of the Egba refugees who fled from the disintegrating Oyo empire. The town was also settled by Christian missionaries (in the 1840s) and by Sierra Leone Creoles, who later became prominent as missionaries and as businessmen.

Chief Sodeke first settled Abeokuta (meaning literally "the underneath of the rock" or indirectly "refuge among rocks") in 1830 as a place of refuge from slavehunters from Dahomey and Ibadan. The village populations scattered over the open country to take refuge among the rocks surrounding the city. Here they formed a free confederacy of many distinct groups, each preserving the traditional customs, religious rites and the names of their original villages.

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