Abbeokita, Or Abeakntah, an independent city of central Africa, in the Egba district of Yoruba, with a small territory containing several minor towns, on the Ogoon, which separates it on the W. from Dahomey, about 50 m. N. of Lagos, and 110 m. E. S. E. of Abomey; pop. of the city estimated by Major Burton in 1861 at 150,000, and of the whole state at 200,000. The city stands on a granite formation 567 feet above the sea level, and is surrounded by a mud wall six feet high thatched with palm leaves, 20 m. in circumference and enclosing much farming land. The name is derived from a flat rock 000 feet long covering the top of a high hill and projecting at the sides. The streets are generally narrow and very irregular and dirty. The houses are built of dried mud and thatched, with 10 to 20 rooms, surrounding an inner court where sheep and goats are kept. Several trades are carried on in a primitive way, and there are unions of smiths, carpenters, weavers, dyers, and potters, the last two composed of women. Regular markets are held, with very active traffic, chiefly by women, in cooked and uncooked food, vegetable oils, shea or tree butter, raw cotton, grass and other cloths, manufactures of excellent leather, cutlery and other European manufactures, and many other articles.

The currency is cowry shells, but in 18(37 it was proposed to introduce copper coins. Caravans go from Abbeokuta to Lake Tchad and Timbuctoo, respectively 800 m. (direct) X. E. and 850 m. N. X. W. The town is at the head of navigation on the Ogoon, which is ascended by light steamers during eight months in the year. The principal exports are palm oil and shea butter. The native cotton plant is perennial and the fibre good, and great efforts have been made to stimulate its cultivation. In 1859-'60 the quantity sent to England was about 2,300,000 lbs., but it soon fell off to about 400,000 on account of local war and indolence. - The government of Abbeokuta is entirely elective. There is a king, whose functions are chiefly judicial. The army is commanded by an almost independent general (balogun), with elected war captains. There is a sort of legislature composed of the so-called Ogboni lodges (of which there is one in each town) and the war captains, which controls the revenue and taxation, and is said to possess unlimited power. The income of the state consists of. taxes on products collected at the gates, amounting to about 1 per cent.

The religion of most of the people is fetishism, but missions have been established by the Wes-leyans, Episcopalians, and Baptists, whose converts in 1861 numbered about 1,500. They publish a newspaper in the Egba tongue, and there is a church built of wood with a mud steeple and a bell. The missionaries were temporarily expelled by a. mob in 1807. - Abbeokuta was founded in 1825 by refugees from numerous Egba towns which had been destroyed in war and many of their inhabitants carried off as slaves. Its people opposed the slave trade, established commerce with the English at Badagry and Lagos, and have successfully withstood many attacks from neighboring states, especially Dahomey and Ibadan. The king of Dahomey suffered disastrous defeats under its walls in 1851 and 1804.