Oyo is a city in
Oyo State,
Nigeria, founded as the capital of the
Oyo Kingdom in the 1830s and known to its people as 'New Oyo' (Ọyọ Atiba) to distinguish it from the former capital to the north, '
Old Oyo' (Ọyọ-Ile), which had been deserted as a result of rumors of war. Its inhabitants are mostly of the
Yoruba people, and its ceremonial ruler is the
Alaafin of Oyo.