Imagine growing up in a city with one of its most famous landmarks right there, seeing it in pictures, hearing people talk about it, and still never actually visiting.
That was me. I grew up in Abeokuta and had lived there all my life, but somehow, Olumo Rock was always just… there. I knew it was one of the places people visited when they came to Abeokuta, but because I lived there, I never really felt the need to go.
Until last year, when I finally did. And honestly, I didn’t expect a place I had known for years to make me feel like I was discovering my own city for the first time.
The first thing that surprised me was history. Before that visit, Olumo Rock was simply a familiar landmark. But as our guide told us about how the Egba people sought refuge around the rock during the 19th-century Yoruba inter-city wars, the place suddenly felt different. The caves and crevices provided shelter, while the height of the rock gave them an advantage for spotting approaching enemies. This was not simply a place people climbed the view; it had once been a place of refuge and survival. Even the meaning of Abeokuta, “under the rock,” suddenly felt more real.
Then we climbed to the top. And I will be honest, by the time I was halfway up, I was beginning to question my decision. But eventually, we made it to the highest point, and the view was worth it. Abeokuta looked completely different from the above. Streets and places that had become so ordinary to me suddenly looked unfamiliar, almost like I was seeing them through a different lens. I had not travelled to another city or state, yet somehow, I had found a new perspective of the place I had always called home.
The day was more than just Olumo Rock. We visited the Nike Art Gallery and spent time looking at beautiful artworks, African prints and traditional clothing. We ate local food, drank palm wine, took pictures, laughed and simply enjoyed being there. It felt less like ticking a tourist attraction off a list and more like spending a day getting properly acquainted with a part of Abeokuta I had taken for granted.
That was the part that stayed with me. Sometimes, familiarity makes us overlook what is right in front of us. We know the name of a place so well that we stop being curious about its story. We pass a landmark so often that it becomes part of the background. We grow up around traditions, food and places without ever stopping to experience them from a different perspective.
For me, Olumo Rock was not underrated because nobody knew about it. It was underrated by me. I had lived in Abeokuta all my life and still had not taken the time to experience one of the places that tells such an important part of its story. And I suspect I am not the only Nigerian who has done this. There are probably people who have lived for years in Lagos, Kano, Enugu, Calabar, Ibadan, or Port Harcourt without visiting places that tourists would happily travel miles to see.
Probably that is the thing about discovering Nigeria: sometimes, you do not have to go very far. You just have to stop treating familiar places like the background. There is always another story to hear, another meal to try, another tradition to understand, another place to see differently.
Olumo Rock had been there all along. I just needed to finally see it.
