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Hello readers and fellow bloggers, how is your preparation for the weekend? it is another edition of weekly featured content titled "home town" on hive learners community.
We all have different definitions to what hometown means, to me it is a place of origin, a geographical zone that represents the root of families or an ancestral land or location. As a person who is deeply rooted in the Yoruba tribe, I cherish my hometown a lot, it is a kind of culture especially among majority of Yorubas to be identified by their hometown. people from similar hometown are said to have similarities in their pattern of behaviour.
My paternal side of the family, which includes my dad originated from Ogun State, Ayepe local government to be precise due to this, I acquired majority of my academic certificates from Ogun State e.g I attended Remo divisional high school located at Sagamu Ogun state, from JSS1 to ss3.
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I attended gateway Polytechnic sapade, where I acquired my National diploma certificate.
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I attended moshood abiola Polytechnic, Ojere, Abeokuta, where i recently finished my Higher national diploma program.
Though it was not a forced decision by my dad but it is obvious that Ogun State is one of the states with best academic structure and facilities in Nigeria.
Ogun State is blessed with a lot of resources including granite rocks and limestone, due to this it has become home for industrial facilities such as WAPCO, A cement producing industry, Ogun State is quite peaceful and less crowded unlike Lagos state and most amazing thing about Ogun State especially places like Abeokuta it is the price of transportation, you have no idea how far β¦50 will take you in Abeokuta it is amazing ππ.
Though I have a lot of memories of different cities and towns in Ogun State but I have never been to my home town in Ayepe, not even once since I have been giving birth to due to some paternal conflict my dad doesn't want us to get missed in, instead I got to spend majority of hometown visit and holidays in "EPE".
I know you must be thinking, where is Epeπ.
Epe is a city located in Lagos state, I am a person with two states certificate of origin π, let me explain why. I was born in Lagos state and my parent also live in Lagos state but apart from that, my mom is from Lagos state, which makes Lagos state my mum state of origin, while my dad Ogun State.
immediately after my birth just like every other new born kid in the family, my birth certificate was collected and since my dad was not planning on sending us to Ogun State to attend primary education at a very young age, I and my elder brother attended promise international school. part of the requirements for entry was state of origin certificate and since my paternal late grandmother worked at a local government council as at then, it was more easy to request for my Lagos state certificate of origin than certificate of origin in ogun state. it was when I wanted to acquire my secondary school education at Ogun State, that was when I requested for my certificate of origin for Ogun State.
Back to the subject matter, my hometown, since we were not privileged to visit our hometown at Ayepe local government, Ogun State. we mostly visited our hometown where my maternal late grandmother and grandfather lived, at a local government in ogun State called Epe.
Epe is close to the water side, one of the primary occupation of members of that local government is fishing, till civilisation came and majority abandoned fishing. I can still remember a lot of fishing stories told by my mom and grandmother, it was fascinating and adventurous.
Epe unlike capital cities in Lagos state, Epe is very peaceful and the air is so refreshing and amazing, especially when you visit areas such as ayetoro market, it is mostly considered a fish market. it is amazing what you can get at the lowest cost.
one of my favourite fish i prefer buying from ayetoro market is YOYO fish, it is a very skinny type of fish, it looks like a baby fish, you can shew without feeling any bones in it.*
We usually visit Epe during holiday periods and occasional events such as family gatherings and parties but ever since my maternal grandmother passed away our visit to Epe has reduced, well up till this moment my elder brother lives their, he moved their after NYSC camp, that is where he did his PPA. I visited there recently when we went to the beach.
Populace of epe are amazing, believe me when I say this, they have this following qualities.
sense of belonging, oneness and attachment to the community :in the sense that, they have the believe that no matter where they travel to across the world during their old age, especially in the case of their untimely death they must be brought back to their community, they believe that is the only way they can find peace. so we have a lot of children who came back to Epe after many years they have traveled. And anytime we visit Epe the way they welcome us with different gift especially fish, I love that kind of welcoming, They will be like AWON ARA EKO TI DE O (ijebu language) which means people of Lagos are here.
festive period celebration one of the most celebrated religious festival in Epe apart from the traditional ones is ILEYA CELEBRATION
This picture was taken last 2 years during ileya festival
this is celebration is mostly attributed to the Muslims, which is a celebration ordained by prophet Muhammad based on my knowledge. This celebration brings about different kind of activities such as Slaying of rams and ITA OBA VISIT
Ram Slaying is one of the popular activities in ileya period, I love this part, I always find myself eating goat meat to my satisfaction or eventually I end up with indigestion ππ€£.
ITA OBA VISIT involves visit to king palace, this event takes place a day after ileya day, there are a lot prominent Fuji musicians invited, especially K1. different age groups will wear same clothes, some will parade with horses, this is common among families with royal lineage. there is a social class ranking based on the surnames, through your surname they will identify how wealthy your lineage is, the funny part is that, you might not be wealthy but as long as your surname is a historical or popular figure in Epe land, you will be given that respect.
***All pictures are mine except indicated otherwise **