Urbanisation forces on the landscapes and the changing value-systems of Osun Sacred Grove UNESCO Site, Osogbo, Nigeria

Abstract

The metamorphic process of rapidly changing value-systems and landscapes of the traditional Yoruba city of Osogbo, Nigeria is mainly due to the trio of urbanisation, modernisation and globalisation forces. Through a qualitative analysis of the monarchical periods, the study documents the transformations that have occurred to the value-systems and respective urban landscapes of the city from its grove origin c.1800 to 2015. The aim is to examine the process of urban landscape development with a view to generating a landscape model. Through a monarchical chronology, it accounts for the roles of politics, sociocultural orders, architecture, land use, urban governance, housing and religion in shaping the present urban form. The periods were discovered to have emerged along with four semi-concentric landscape categories including the natural, traditional, modern and post-modern. The study asserts the roles of the monarchical system in landscape heritage conservation and concludes with a landscape prognosis model for the archetypal city, a hub for the Yoruba nation.

Keywords:

• Globalisation
• modernisation
• Osogbo
• Osun-Grove
• urbanisation