The Alááfin was enjoying what seemed to approach a century-long reign, a century marked by the renaissance of Uwára's power. Tozàn, which was not much more than a cultural identity or geographic region, was starting to once again take shape as a state as the Alááfin subjugated province after province to her rightful rule. The organisation of such a state, if it was to last beyond her life, required roads for news to reach Uwára fast and for soldiers to quell any uprising before they organised themselves or to stop a foreign army before it properly crossed the borders.

However, the state of the old highways was deplorable; their pavements reduced to overgrown trails due to centuries of decay. Only the southern road between Akà and Olòyà was in decent state, because trade between Soyofàn and the Lagoon City was necessary for both of their economic survival even in times of great uncertainty. The construction and maintenance of the roads was an expensive endeavour that required funds small states could not produce and it was so labour intensive that it necessitated workers from outside the region where the road was being built.

The Alááfin took a systematic and pragmatic approach to this and solved the labour need handily simply by turning to history and doing what had been done before her. In Soyofàn her armies and in Ewo-Ife the Karògù were producing astronomical amounts of slaves from all the enemy captives. Especially in Ewo-Ife thousands of heathens were shipped off in chains. This labour was free and expendable. With the labour from Soyofàn she had constructed an impressive, entirely new highway to lead all the way from Akà, through the heart of Soyofàn and then north-east towards Uwára. This way, Uwára would be directly connected to the wealthy land and also profit from the trade going between Soyofàn and the north as Uwára became a stop for those merchants.

With the labour gained from slaves taken in Ewo-Ife, the first projects were undertaken in support of the Karògù by constructing clear, rain-season proof roads to supply the war in Ewo-Ife. After that, further slaves were taken to restore the great highways of old: the Northern Road, which went all the way from the coast to Uwára from where it followed the Ilesi River, and the Southern Road mentioned before, between Olòyà and Akà, which was still of essential economic importance.

The Alááfin further mandated from her local magistrates who ruled over districts to maintain certain necessary routes. These were paved and certainly meant for use by the army if needed, but mainly intended for local trade and development. Tozàn knew no great mountain ridges and the only deep jungles it had were thin and located in the densely populated south, so there was no reason to allow provinces to be isolated from Uwára.

Map

• Yellow are the specifically mentioned highways
• Orange are the roads from the last paragraph
• Blue are relevant navigable rivers