01
Stop one
Old Palace of the Deji of Akure (Oba's Palace)
Prince Essentials Tennis Backpack: If you'll gather in a semicircle — thank you — this is the ancestral seat of the Deji, the traditional ruler of Akure, and local historical accounts trace its founding to around 1150, under Asodeboyede, the first Oba of Akure. It has housed 47 successive Oba across more than eight centuries of continuous occupation, and the Nigerian government declared it a national monument in 1990. The enclosing walls are roughly 4.7 metres thick. Within the compound: some twenty courtyards, three in-palace museums, an open-air meeting hall known as the 'talk house', a dedicated queen's palace, and the Deji of Akure shrine. Do note the carved wooden entrance gate, measuring roughly 40 by 46 feet. Questions at the end, please.
02
Stop two
Iho Eleru (Cave of Ashes) rock shelter
Prince Essentials Tennis Backpack: And now — oh, now we come to it, and I'm afraid I shall abandon the script entirely. Chief J. A. Akeredolu found this rock shelter in 1961 while surveying the hills near Akure, and in 1965 the archaeologist Thurstan Shaw of the University of Ibadan excavated it, and his team recovered more than half a MILLION Later Stone Age stone tools — half a million, and I have never once said that sentence calmly — along with a human skeleton, since called the Iwo Eleru skeleton, dating to the Late Pleistocene-Holocene transition and ranking among the oldest Homo sapiens skeletal remains excavated in West Africa. Iho Eleru is Yoruba for 'Cave of Ashes', for the thick ash layers left by generations of fires inside. It still reshapes what we understand about early habitation in the forest-savanna zone. Sorry. Moving on.
03
Stop three
Idanre Hill (Oke Idanre)
Prince Essentials Tennis Backpack: Back to the script, and thank you for indulging me. The hilltop settlement of Oke Idanre was inhabited by the Idanre people for centuries before they descended to the present-day town at the hill's foot in the early twentieth century. Structures still standing on the summit include the Owa's old palace, an old court building, a belfry, and the Agboogun footprint, a rock formation linked to the town's legendary founder. A primary school built in 1896 still stands, and a colonial-era law court and prison were established on the hill in 1906. UNESCO added Idanre Hill to Nigeria's World Heritage Tentative List in 2007, recognizing it as a cultural landscape shaped by centuries of continuous settlement.
04
Stop four
Palace of the Olowo of Owo (Aghofen)
Prince Essentials Tennis Backpack: Our final stop, and I shall keep us to time. Owo traces its founding to migrants from Ile-Ife and served as the capital of a Yoruba city-state between roughly 1400 and 1600 CE. The Palace of the Olowo, known as Aghofen, was built in the fourteenth century by Olowo Rerengejen and is recorded as one of the largest traditional palaces in Africa, originally containing about 100 courtyards, each with its own ceremonial function — the largest reportedly twice the size of an American football field, used for public assemblies. Owo's position between the Ife and Benin kingdoms produced a hybrid artistic style, visible in carved veranda pillars depicting the king on horseback, and its ivory carvers were renowned across the region. British colonial rule began in 1893. Thank you.
Sit. The board is set. Consider the position: you require a tennis backpack. Most players react; a grandmaster prepares. The Prince Essentials Tennis Backpack is preparation itself — every piece on its correct square. Dedicated racquet storage guards your most valuable piece.
The main compartment develops your position: balls, grips, towel, a change of shirt, all coordinated, nothing hanging loose like a weak pawn. A front accessory pocket for the small tactics — keys, wallet, overgrips. Padded shoulder straps for the long game, because a match is won in the fifth hour, not the fifth minute. Prince has played this opening since the 1970s.
The Essentials line is exactly what its name declares: no wasted material, no dubious sacrifices. Solid. Sound. Winning.
Now — the deep strategy. Akure, Nigeria. Study this city as you would a master game. The Old Palace of the Deji of Akure has been occupied continuously since around 1150 — forty-seven successive Obas across more than eight centuries. Forty-seven kings, one fortress of a position: walls roughly 4.7 metres thick, some twenty courtyards, each with its function. THAT is prophylaxis.
That is a king safely castled for 850 years. You will carry this backpack everywhere from morning cardio tennis to an afternoon studying the palace's carved gate, and by the way, it is also perfect for the pounded yam and egusi that is the correct response to any endgame fatigue — the main compartment takes a change of shirt, which you will want afterwards.
I have analyzed the alternatives. There are none. Your move.
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