Odù was launched in January 1955 from the University of Ìbàdàn under the editorship of S. O. Biobaku, H. U. Beier and L. Levi, and it carried its remit in its subtitle: Journal of Yorùbá and Related Studies. It was among the earliest academic journals in West Africa devoted specifically to African studies, publishing work on history, oral literature, religion, archaeology and the visual arts, and drawing on Nigerian scholars and international researchers alike.
When the journal was revived at the University of Ifẹ̀ it was renamed more than once. By July 1965 it was appearing as ODU, University of Ife Journal of African Studies, edited by I. A. Akinjogbin and numbered by volume. By 1969 it had restarted its numbering as a New Series and narrowed the subtitle again: that run calls itself A Journal of West African Studies, and its editorial statement is explicit that it succeeds the earlier Journal of Yorùbá, Edo and Related Studies while widening the field beyond Yorùbá scholarship to West Africa as a whole. The numbering restarts, so the two runs are catalogued here separately.
The OlongoAfrica Library holds issues 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7 and 8 of the original Ìbàdàn run, together with a companion publication from the same editorial circle — A Short History of Ede, part of the Yorùbá Traditional Histories series edited by Biobaku. From the Ifẹ̀ New Series it holds No. 2 of October 1969, edited by Michael Crowder, and No. 10 of July 1974, edited by Ọlásopé O. Oyèláràn and A. O. Anjọrin.
