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Yoruba people
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{{Short description|Ethnic group in West Africa}}{{redirect|Yoruba}}{{pp|small=yes}}{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2020}}- the content below is remote from Wikipedia
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Etymology
The oldest known textual reference to the name Yoruba is found in an essay (titled – Mi’rÄj al-á¹¢u’Å«d) from a manuscript written by the BerberBOOK, Lorcin, Patricia,books.google.com/books?id=LmxQDwAAQBAJ&dq=Ahmad+Baba+al-Timbukti+&pg=PP1, The Southern Shores of the Mediterranean and its Networks: Knowledge, Trade, Culture and People, 2017-10-02, Routledge, 978-1-317-39426-6, 42, en, jurist Ahmed Baba in the year 1614.JOURNAL, John O. Hunwick, Ahmad BÄbÄ on slavery, Sudanic Africa, 11, 14 October 2021, 131–139, 25653344, The original manuscript is preserved in the Ahmed Baba Institute of the Mamma Haidara Library, while a digital copy is at the World Digital Library.WEB,www.wdl.org/en/item/9661/, The Ladder of Ascent in Obtaining the Procurements of the Sudan: Ahmad Baba Answers a Moroccan’s Questions about Slavery, 14 October 2021, Mi’rÄj al-á¹¢u’Å«d provides one of the earliest known ideas about the ethnic composition of the West African interior. The relevant section of the essay which lists the Yoruba group alongside nine others in the region as translated by John Hunwick and Fatima Harrak for the Institute of African Studies Rabat, reads:We will add another rule for you, that is that whoever now comes to you from among the group called Mossi, or Gurma, or Bussa, or Borgu, or Dagomba, or Kotokoli, or Yoruba, or Tombo, or Bobo, or K.rmu – all of these are unbelievers remaining in their unbelief until now. Similarly kumbe except for a few people of HomboriWEB,www.artsrn.ualberta.ca/amcdouga/Hist347/autumn%202012/additional%20readings/ahmad_baba.pdf, Mi’rÄj Al-á¹¢u’Å«d, 39, 14 October 2021, This early 1600’s reference implies that the name Yoruba was already in popular demotic use as far back as at least the 1500s. Regarding the source and derivation of this name, guesses were posited by various foreign sociologists of external sources. These include; Ya’rub (son of Canaanite, Joktan) by Mohammed Bello,JOURNAL, Braima Alias Abraham a Study in Diffusion, 14 October 2021, 1258069, Jeffreys, M. D. W., Folklore, 70, 1, 323–333, 10.1080/0015587X.1959.9717164, Goru Ba by T.J Bowen, or Yolla Ba (Mande word for the Niger river) etc.BOOK,books.google.com/books?id=XkM6AQAAMAAJ&dq=bowen+yolla+ba+yoruba&pg=PA264, Central Africa: Adventures and Missionary Labors..., Pg. 264, 1857, Bowen, T.J., Sheldon, Blakeman, 978-0-598-72128-0, These guesses suffer a lack of support by many locals for being alien to (and unfounded in) the traditions of the Yorubas themselves.JOURNAL, E.G. Parrinder, M. Wight, John O’Leary, C. M. Botley, Letters to the Editor, Folklore, June 1959, 70, 2, 423–425, 10.1080/0015587X.1959.9717182, 1259324, In his work, Abeokuta and the Camaroons Mountains c.1863, the English ethnologist Richard F. Burton reports of a Yoruba account in 1861, noting that the name “Yoruba” derives from Ori Obba, i.e. -The Head King.WEB,books.google.com/books?id=6H3N0L3x2SAC&q=229%2F, Abeokuta and the Camaroons Mountains, Pg. 229, 14 October 2021, Burton, Sir Richard Francis, Based on oral and written sources, this name existed before the 1500s. It was applied ex-situ originally in reference to the Yoruba sociolinguistic group as a whole. Centuries later however, it evolved to be applied exclusively to the Ọ̀yá»Ì subgroup when this subgroup rose to attain imperial status, particularly at its apogee (c.1650 – c.1750) until in the mid-1800s when this trend was reversed back to the original context.Names
As an ethnic description, the word “Yoruba” has roots in a term borrowed by Europeans in the earlier part of the 19th century and incorporated into usage in reference to the Oyo Empire of the time.BOOK,books.google.com/books?id=d2q5o25NNfcC&pg=PA19-20, Trinidad Yoruba: From Mother Tongue to Memory, Maureen Warner-Lewis, 19, 978-976-640-054-5, University of the West Indies, 1997, BOOK, Law, Robin, Professor of African History, The Oyo Empire, C.1600-c.1836: A West African Imperialism in the Era of the Atlantic Slave Trade, 1977, Clarendon Press, 978-0-19-822709-0,books.google.com/books?id=U4VvQgAACAAJ, In his book, Hugh Clapperton began to subject the word to early changes in its evolution from the existing Hausa exonym Yaraba, to “Yourriba” as was his customary way of addressing the King of Oyo.BOOK,books.google.com/books?id=9chIAAAAcAAJ&dq=%22Dahomey%2C+and+inquired+if+the+king+of+Yourriba+put+to+death+such+a+number+of+people+at+his+customs+as+at+those+of+Dahomey.%22&pg=PA41, Journal of a Second Expedition Into the Interior of Africa; to which is Added the Journal of Richard Lander from Kano to the Sea-Coast, Hugh Clapperton, 41, John Murray, 1829, Further evolution of the ethnic description to the larger ethnolinguistic group of which Oyo is a part is the subsequent work of 19th century missionaries who categorized all members of the ethnolinguistic group by “Yoruba” and helped incorporate it into the language of the Oyo people as their own self-definition.BOOK,books.google.com/books?id=d2q5o25NNfcC&pg=PA20, Trinidad Yoruba: From Mother Tongue to Memory, Maureen Warner-Lewis, 19, 978-976-640-054-5, University of the West Indies, 1997, BOOK, Encyclopedia of the Yoruba 2016, June 20, 2016, Indiana University Press, 978-0-253-02156-4, 3–5,books.google.com/books?id=jep3DAAAQBAJ&dq=%22the+elite+popularized+the+idea+of+%22&pg=PA5, BOOK, Boscolo, Cristina, Odún: Discourses, Strategies, and Power in the Yorùbá Play of Transformation, 2009, Brill, 978-90-420-2681-0, 96,books.google.com/books?id=LPl5DwAAQBAJ&dq=%22word+yoruba%22&pg=PA96, Competing terms such as Nago, Lucumi, and Aku, used in identifying Oyo’s ethnolinguistic family, have not reached the same level of popular usage as the term “Yoruba” though widely used in areas where ethnic sub-populations themselves can be found.BOOK,books.google.com/books?id=d2q5o25NNfcC&pg=PA19-20, Trinidad Yoruba: From Mother Tongue to Memory, Maureen Warner-Lewis, 20, 978-976-640-054-5, University of the West Indies, 1997, In comparison, the phrase of intraethnolinguistic origin used by the Yoruba people is “Ọmá» Káà árá»Ì€-oòjÃire”, literally meaning, “The People who ask ‘Good morning, did you wake up well?” This is in reference to the culture of greetings identifiable within the Yoruba culture.BOOK, Encyclopedia of the Yoruba, June 20, 2016, Indiana University Press, 978-0-253-02156-4, 144–145,books.google.com/books?id=jep3DAAAQBAJ&q=greetings%20for%20virtually%20every%20kind%20of%20%20situation, Through parts of coastal West Africa, where Yorubas have been found, they have carried their culture of lauding one another with greetings of different forms, applicable in different situations, along with them. Another term used is, “Ọmá» Oòduà ”, meaning “The Children of Oduduwa”, referencing the semi-legendary king who is believed to be the founder and ancestor of the modern Yoruba people.BOOK, Encyclopedia of African History 3-Volume Set, July 4, 2013, Taylor & Francis, 978-1-135-45670-2,books.google.com/books?id=umyHqvAErOAC&q=%22Omo%20oodua%22, The Yorubas are also called Alaata in some Akan-speaking communities.History
{{See|Ifẹ}}{{See also|Yoruba religion}}By the 8th century, a powerful kingdom already existed in Ile-Ife, one of the earliest in Africa.WEB, Ile-Ife {{!, Nigeria|url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Ile-Ife|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|language=en|access-date=2020-05-20}} It was viewed by the Yoruba as capital of the realm of humanity, based on the oldest pre-dynastic traditions of it being associated with Oba Tala, Sango, Yemoja, Oduduwa, Orunmila and a host of primordial beings believed to have descended from the heavens (Ode Orun) in Yoruba godlore.JOURNAL, 24520425, The Issue of “Oduduwa” in Yoruba Genesis: The Myths and Realities, Ojuade, J. ‘Sina, Transafrican Journal of History, 1992, 21, 139–158, File:HistoYoruba.jpeg|left|thumb|Some Yoruba cities of the 190x190pxThe historical Yoruba develop in á¹£itu, out of earlier Mesolithic Volta-Niger populations, by the 1st millennium BCE.JOURNAL, Adeyemi, A., 2016-04-18, Migration and the Yorùbá Myth of Origin, European Journal of Arts, 36–45, 10.20534/eja-16-1-36-45, 2310-5666, Oral history recorded under the Oyo Empire derives the Yoruba as an ethnic group from the population of the older kingdom of Ile-Ife. The Yoruba were the dominant cultural force in southern and northwestern Nigeria as far back as the 11th century.BOOK,books.google.com/books?id=466fAAAAMAAJ&q=Yoruba+civilisation, 323, When We Ruled: The Ancient and MediÅ“val History of Black Civilisations, Robin Walker, Every Generation Media (Indiana University), 2006, 978-0-9551068-0-4, The Yoruba are among the most urbanized people in Africa. For centuries before the arrival of the British colonial administration most Yoruba already lived in well structured urban centres organized around powerful city-states (ÃŒlú) centred around the residence of the Oba (king).BOOK,books.google.com/books?id=XKIaBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA150, African Voices on Slavery and the Slave Trade: Volume 1, The Sources, Alice Bellagamba, Sandra E. Greene, Martin A. Klein, Cambridge University Press, 2013, 978-0-521-19470-9, 150, 151, In ancient times, most of these cities were fortresses, with high walls and gates.{{Citation|last=Falola|first=Toyin|editor2-first=Toyin|editor2-last=Falola|editor1-first=Ann|editor1-last=Genova|title=The Yorùbá Nation|work=Yorùbá Identity and Power Politics|year=2012|pages=29–48|publisher=Boydell and Brewer Limited|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/yoruba-identity-and-power-politics/yoruba-nation/C306461CC9ABF9D5754B6C3D1D10148B|isbn=978-1-58046-662-2}} Yoruba cities have always been among the most populous in Africa. Archaeological findings indicate that Ã’yó-Ilé or Katunga, capital of the Yoruba empire of Oyo (fl. between the 11th and 19th centuries CE), had a population of over 100,000 people. For a long time also, Ibadan, one of the major Yoruba cities and founded in the 1800s, was the largest city in the whole of Sub Saharan Africa. Today, Lagos (), another major Yoruba city, with a population of over twenty million, remains the largest on the African continent.THESIS,archive.org/stream/aspectinyorubani00jnti/aspectinyorubani00jnti_djvu.txt, PH.D, Aspect in Yoruba and Nigerian English, Timothy Temilola, Ajayi, University of Florida, 2001, Internet Archive, 8 July 2015, Archaeologically, the settlement of Ile-Ife showed features of urbanism in the 12th–14th century era. In the period around 1300 CE the artists at Ile-Ife developed a refined and naturalistic sculptural tradition in terracotta, stone and copper alloy – copper, brass, and bronze many of which appear to have been created under the patronage of King Obalufon II, the man who today is identified as the Yoruba patron deity of brass casting, weaving and regalia.BOOK, Blier, Suzanne Preston, Art and Risk in Ancient Yoruba: Ife History, Politics, and Identity c. 1300, 2015, Cambridge University Press, 978-1-107-02166-2, The dynasty of kings at Ile-Ife, which is regarded by the Yoruba as the place of origin of human civilization, remains intact to this day. The urban phase of Ile-Ife before the rise of Oyo, c. 1100–1600, a significant peak of political centralization in the 12th century,ENCYCLOPEDIA,books.google.com/books?id=umyHqvAErOAC&q=yoruba+kingdom+oyo+encyclopedia+african+history&pg=PA672, Ife, Oyo, Yoruba, Ancient:Kingdom and Art, Encyclopedia of African History, Kevin Shillington, 978-1-57958-245-6, 672, Routledge, 22 November 2004, 1 May 2014, BOOK, Hegemony and culture: politics and religious change among the Yoruba, David D., Laitin, 111, University of Chicago Press, 1986, 978-0-226-46790-0,books.google.com/books?id=dHbrDvGQEbUC&pg=PA111, is commonly described as a “golden age” of Ile-Ife. The oba or ruler of Ile-Ife is referred to as the Ooni of Ife.WEB,au.encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_781536070/Ife_(kingdom).html, Encarta.msn.com, 1 November 2009, 1 November 2009,www.webcitation.org/5kx5Ant2O?url=http://au.encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_781536070/Ife_(kingdom).html, BOOK,books.google.com/books?id=xAyCAAAAMAAJ&q=Yoruba+civilisation, A Living Tradition: Studies on Yoruba Civilisation, L. J. Munoz, Bookcraft (the University of Michigan), 2003, 978-978-2030-71-9,Oyo, Ile-Ife and Lagos
Ife continues to be seen as the “spiritual homeland” of the Yoruba. The city was surpassed by the Oyo EmpireBOOK, Peoples of Africa, Volume 1, Fiona, MacDonald, Elizabeth, Paren, Kevin, Shillington, Gillian, Stacey, Philip, Steele, 385, Marshall Cavendish, 2000, 978-0-7614-7158-5,books.google.com/books?id=joh5yHfcF-8C&pg=PA385, as the dominant Yoruba military and political power in the 11th century.Oyo Empire at Britannica.comFile:The Ade-Are crown in Ile Ife.jpg|thumb|left|The Ade-Are crown in Ile IfeIle IfeThe Oyo Empire under its oba, known as the Alaafin of Oyo, was active in the African slave trade during the 18th century. The Yoruba often demanded slaves as a form of tribute of subject populations,{{Citation|last1=Domingues da Silva|first1=Daniel B.|title=Atlantic Slavery and the Slave Trade: History and Historiography|date=2018-11-20|encyclopedia=Oxford Research Encyclopedia of African History|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-027773-4|last2=Misevich|first2=Philip|doi=10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.013.371}} who in turn sometimes made war on other peoples to capture the required slaves. Part of the slaves sold by the Oyo Empire entered the Atlantic slave trade.BOOK, Thornton, John, 1998, Africa and Africans in the Making of the Atlantic World, 1400–1800, 2nd, Cambridge University Press, 122, 304–311, BOOK, Alpern, Stanley B., 1998, Amazons of Black Sparta: The Women Warriors of Dahomey, New York University Press, 34, Most of the city states{{Citation|title=The Dispersal of the Yoruba People|work=The Development of Yoruba Candomble Communities in Salvador, Bahia, 1835–1986|year=2014|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|doi=10.1057/9781137486431.0006|isbn=978-1-137-48643-1}} were controlled by Obas (or royal sovereigns with various individual titles) and councils made up of Oloye, recognized leaders of royal, noble and, often, even common descent, who joined them in ruling over the kingdoms through a series of guilds and cults. Different states saw differing ratios of power between the kingships and the chiefs’ councils. Some, such as Oyo, had powerful, autocratic monarchs with almost total control, while in others such as the Ijebu city-states, the senatorial councils held more influence and the power of the ruler or Ọba, referred to as the Awujale of Ijebuland, was more limited.In more recent decades, Lagos has risen to be the most prominent city of the Yoruba people and Yoruba cultural and economic influence. Noteworthy among the developments of Lagos were uniquely styled architecture introduced by returning Yoruba communities from Brazil and Cuba known as Amaros/Agudas.THESIS, Alonge, Marjorie Moji Dolapo, Afro-Brazilian architecture in Lagos State: a case for conservation, 1994, Newcastle University,theses.ncl.ac.uk/jspui/handle/10443/883, Yoruba settlements are often described as primarily one or more of the main social groupings called “generations”:BOOK,books.google.com/books?id=cAoOAQAAMAAJ, Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria (Volume 9, Issues 2–4), Historical Society of Nigeria, The Society (Indiana University), 1978,- The “first generation” includes towns and cities known as original capitals of founding Yoruba kingdoms or states.
- The “second generation” consists of settlements created by conquest.
- The “third generation” consists of villages and municipalities that emerged following the internecine wars of the 19th century.
Language
(File:Degree of Presence of The Yoruba and ‘Yoruba derived’ groups in Nigeria, Benin and Togo at Subnational levels.jpg|center|650px|thumb|Degree of Presence of The Yoruba and derived’ Ede groupsJOURNAL,www.afrikanistik-aegyptologie-online.de/archiv/2007/132, A synchronic lexical study of the Ede language continuum of West Africa, Afrikanistik Online, April 2008, 2007, 4, Kluge, Angela, WEB, https:international.ipums.org/international-action/variables/group/ethni, Ethnicity clusters of Benin data set, Yoruba group – IPUMS Census Data, WEB, https:www.researchgate.net/publication/334522095, Ethnocultural study of agriculture in Northern Benin, Alibori department 12% Mokole Yoruba, INSAE 2013, 28 September 2021, in Nigeria, Benin & Togo at Subnational levelsWEB,www.peoplegroups.org/explore/ClusterDetails.aspx?rop2=C0233#topmenu/, People groups: Yoruba language cluster, 1 September 2021, )The Yoruba culture was originally an oral tradition, and the majority of Yoruba people are native speakers of the Yoruba language. The number of speakers is estimated at 30 million in 2010.The number of speakers of Yoruba was estimated at 20 million people in the 1990s. No reliable estimate of more recent date is known. Metzler Lexikon Sprache (4th ed. 2010) estimates 30 million based on population growth figures during the 1990s and 2000s. The population of Nigeria (where the majority of Yoruba live) has grown by 44% between 1995 and 2010, so that the Metzler estimate for 2010 appears plausible. Yoruba is classified within the Edekiri languages, and together with the isolate Igala, form the Yoruboid group of languages within what we now have as West Africa. Igala and Yoruba have important historical and cultural relationships. The languages of the two ethnic groups bear such a close resemblance that researchers such as Forde (1951) and Westermann and Bryan (1952) regarded Igala as a dialect of Yoruba.The Yoruboid languages are assumed to have developed out of an undifferentiated Volta-Niger group by the first millennium BCE. There are three major dialect areas: Northwest, Central, and Southeast.This widely followed classification is based on Adetugbá»’s (1982) dialectological study – the classification originated in his 1967 PhD thesis The Yoruba Language in Western Nigeria: Its Major Dialect Areas, {{ProQuest|288034744}}. See also BOOK, Adetugbá», The Yoruba Language in Yoruba History, Sources of Yoruba History,archive.org/details/sourcesofyorubah0000biob, registration, Saburi O., Biobaku, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1973, 183–193, 0-19-821669-6,archive.org/details/sourcesofyorubah0000biob/page/183, As the North-West Yoruba dialects show more linguistic innovation, combined with the fact that Southeast and Central Yoruba areas generally have older settlements, suggests a later date of immigration into Northwestern Yoruba territory.{{Harvnb|Adetugbá»|1973|pp=192–3}}. (See also the section Dialects.) The area where North-West Yoruba (NWY) is spoken corresponds to the historical Oyo Empire. South-East Yoruba (SEY) was closely associated with the expansion of the Benin Empire after c. 1450.{{Harvnb|Adetugbá»|1973|p=185}} Central Yoruba forms a transitional area in that the lexicon has much in common with NWY, whereas it shares many ethnographical features with SEY.Literary Yoruba is the standard variety taught in schools and spoken by newsreaders on the radio. It is mostly entirely based on northwestern Yoruba dialects of the Oyos and the Egbas, and has its origins in two sources; The work of Yoruba Christian missionaries based mostly in the Egba hinterland at Abeokuta, and the Yoruba grammar compiled in the 1850s by Bishop Crowther, who himself was a Sierra Leonean Recaptive of Oyo origin. This was exemplified by the following remark by Adetugbá» (1967), as cited in Fagborun (1994): “While the orthography agreed upon by the missionaries represented to a very large degree the phonemes of the Abẹokuta dialect, the morpho-syntax reflected the Ọyá»-Ibadan dialects”Group identity
Yoruba people have a sense of group identity around a number of cultural concepts, beliefs and practices recognizable by all members of the ethnic group. Prominent among these, is the tracing of the entire Yoruba body through dynastic migrations to roots formed in Ile-Ife, an ancient city in the forested heart of central Yorubaland and its acceptance as the spiritual nucleus of Yoruba existence. Following this linkage to the ancient city of Ife is the acknowledgement of an historic crowned king, Oduduwa, a personage nominally considered the ‘father’ of the Yoruba people. According to Ife’s own account, Oduduwa ‘descended’ into the originally thirteen semi-autonomous proto-Ife communities which existed in a state of confederacyJOURNAL, Obayemi, Ade, Ancient Ile-Ife: Another Cultural Historical Reinterpretation Pg.167,www.jstor.org/stable/41857206, Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria, 30 July 2023, 151–185, 1979, 41857206, based around a swampy depression surrounded by seven hills that would later on become Ife from the community of Oke Ora, an elevated abode located at the summit of a hill to Ife’s East.BOOK, Adebayo, Akanmu, Culture, Politics, and Money Among the Yoruba, 6 February 2018, Routledge, 978-1-351-52419-3,books.google.com/books?id=vPdKDwAAQBAJ&dq=Oduduwa+oke+ora&pg=PT19, 30 July 2023, en, The intervention of Oduduwa, a native of Oke Ora and considered an outsider in the politics of the Ife valley is widely acknowledged in Ife to be the turning point that revolutionized the politics of the confederacy which was at the time, led by ObatalaBOOK, Ogunremi, Deji, Adediran, Biodun, Culture and Society in Yorubaland, 1998, Rex Charles Publication, 978-978-2137-73-9,books.google.com/books?id=Dm8uAQAAIAAJ&q=Oduduwa+oke+ora, 30 July 2023, en, Beyond the historical accounts surrounding Ife and its ancient rulership, more cultural markers which unite the Yoruba people as members of the same ethnicity include the universal recognition of a number of spiritual concepts and chief divinities (Orisha), who have achieved pan-Yoruba statuses. These divinities are venerated as embodiments of natural forces and divine power. They are also the mediators between the common people and Olodumare, God. They include some now such well-known divinities as; Obatala, Ogun, Orunmila, Osun, Eshu, Olokun, Yemoja, Osanyin, Shango, Among others. These are now recognizable in the New World as divinities brought across the Atlantic by people of Yoruba descent. There in their new ex-situ environment, they serve as a mechanism of maintaining group identity, as well as a powerful connection to the Yoruba homeland among people of Yoruba descent and others. Examples of such new world practices are: Santeria, Candomble, Umbanda, Kélé and Trinidad Orisha, which are not only religious societies, but also actual ethnic societies for those who sought to maintain their unique heritages over time, although anyone could join as long as they became immersed in the Yoruba worldview.Linguistically, the Yoruboid languages, and in particular the Edekiri subgroup, form a closed group of mutually intelligible dialects which strongly bound the people who speak them together as members of the same linguistic community. This dialectal area spans from the lands of the Ana-Ife people in central Togo and eastern Ghana eastwards to the lands of the Itsekiri people in the western Niger Delta around the Formosa (Benin) and Escravos river estuaries. This span of land, inhabited by geographically contiguous and culturally related subgroups, were divided into separate national and subnational units under the control of different European powers as a result of the Berlin Conference in 19th century Europe and the resultant administration. The Yoruba also notably developed a common identity under the influence of Oyo, a regional empire that developed in the northwestern savanna section of yorubaland as a result of a kingdom founding migration from Ife. As opposed to Oyo which was a highly militaristic grassland polity, the Ife Empire was forest based and spread its influence rather through religion, politics, philosophical Ideology and commerce between 1200 and the mid 1400s. With the decline of Ife, Oyo expanded as the new Yoruba power and established its own influences over Kingdoms stretching from central Togo in the west to central Yorubaland in the east, and from the Niger river in the north to the Atlantic coast in the south, taking in the whole of Dahomey, southern Borgu, the Mahi states, southern Nupe and the Aja people. Between the 16th and 19th centuries, Oyo had numerous campaigns in the region and established a reputation among the neighbouring kingdoms of; Ashanti, Dahomey, Borgu, Nupe, Igala and Benin as well as further afield in the lands of the Songhai, Hausa Kingdoms and others, solidifying its place in the greater region as a powerhouse strategically placed between the forest and the Savanna and representative of a cultural unit it powerfully defended and stood in association with. During the 18th century, in the days of Ajagbo, an Oba of Oyo, the rulers of the Yoruba-speaking kingdoms of Oyo, Egba, Ketu, and Jebu styled each other “brothers” while recognizing the leadership role Oyo plays among them.BOOK, Ellis, Alfred Burdon, Yoruba-Speaking Peoples of the Slave Coast of West Africa: Their Religion, Manners, Customs, Laws, Language, etc., 1894, Chapman and Hall, 978-1-4655-1661-9,books.google.com/books?id=F6yAVS7gB7QC&dq=“In+the+days+of+Ajagbo“&pg=PT12, At the beginning of the 19th century, the Yoruba community was made up of the following principal units; The British colony of Lagos, traditionally called Eko; Ketu, a western Yoruba state bordering the kingdom of Dahomey; Egba, with its capital at Abeokuta; Jebu, a southern Yoruba kingdom in the immediate vicinity of an inland lagoon; A confederation of Ekiti sub-tribes in the hilly country to the northeast; Ibadan, a successor republican state to Oyo; Ijesha; The historic kingdom of Ife which continued to maintain its sacred primacy; Ondo, on the east; The littoral Mahin/Ilaje on the southeastern maritime coast, and several other smaller states such as the Egbado, Akoko groups, Yagba, Awori as well as independent townships, consisting of a town and its outlying dependent villages such as Oke odan, Ado, Igbessa.BOOK, Ellis, Alfred Burdon, Yoruba-Speaking Peoples of the Slave Coast of West Africa: Their Religion, Manners, Customs, Laws, Language, etc., 1894, Chapman and Hall, 978-1-4655-1661-9,books.google.com/books?id=F6yAVS7gB7QC&dq=“Their+inhabitants+are+Egbados,+or+Southern+Egbas+(Egba-odo“&pg=PT5, Various other cultural factors which bind the Yoruba people include historic dynastic migrations of royals and the micro migrations of people within the Yoruba cultural space which has led to the mixing of people evidenced by the duplication and multiplication of place names and royal titles across Yoruba country. Today, places with names containing; Owu, Ifon, Ife, Ado Etc, can be found scattered across Yorubaland regardless of subgroup. Same can be observed of certain localized royal titles e.g; Ajalorun, Owa, Olu. Olofin, the original title of Oduduwa in Ife is remembered in the lore of most places in Yorubaland.Occupational engagements like farming, hunting, crafting, blacksmithing, trading as well as fishing for the coastal or riparian groups are commonplace. Joint customs in greeting, birth, marriage and death, a strong sense of community, urbanism, festivities and a respect for the elderly are also all universal Yoruba concepts.BOOK, Encyclopedia of the Yoruba, June 20, 2016, 978-0-253-02156-4, 5,books.google.com/books?id=jep3DAAAQBAJ&dq=%22the+elite+popularized+the+idea+of+%22&pg=PA5, Falola, Toyin, Akinyemi, Akintunde, Indiana University Press,Pre-colonial government of Yoruba society
Government
File:Oyoxviii.jpeg|thumb|Oyo EmpireOyo EmpireMonarchies were a common form of government in Yorubaland, but they were not the only approach to government and social organization. The numerous Ijebu kingdom city-states to the west of Oyo and the Egba people communities, found in the forests below Ọyá»’s savanna region, were notable exceptions. These independent polities often elected a king though real political, legislative, and judicial powers resided with the Ogboni, a council of notable elders. The notion of the divine king was so important to the Yoruba, however, that it has been part of their organization in its various forms from their antiquity to the contemporary era.File:Palace of Alaafin of Oyo circa mid-1900s - Colorized.png|thumb|left|Palace of the King of Oyo circa 1900s – Colorized]]During the internecine wars of the 19th century, the Ijebu forced citizens of more than 150 Ẹgba and Owu communities to migrate to the fortified city of Abeokuta. Each quarter retained its own Ogboni council of civilian leaders, along with an Olorogun, or council of military leaders, and in some cases, its own elected Obas or Baales. These independent councils elected their most capable members to join a federal civilian and military council that represented the city as a whole. Commander Frederick Forbes, a representative of the British Crown writing an account of his visit to the city in the Church Military Intelligencer (1853),JOURNAL, 117–131, 10, 1, Journal of African History, The Egba at Abeokuta: Acculturation and Political change, 1830–1870, 1969, Earl Phillips, 10.1017/s0021853700009312, 180299, 154430100, described Abẹokuta as having “four presidents”, and the system of government as having “840 principal rulers or ‘House of Lords,’ 2800 secondary chiefs or ‘House of Commons,’ 140 principal military ones and 280 secondary ones.“BOOK,books.google.com/books?id=eiQHFrA7GUwC&pg=PR18, Contributions of Yoruba People in the Economic & Political Developments of Nigeria, Jacob Oluwatayo Adeuyan, AuthorHouse, 2011, 978-1-4670-2480-8, 18, 12 October 2011, He described Abẹokuta and its system of government as “the most extraordinary republic in the world.”Leadership
Gerontocratic leadership councils that guarded against the monopolization of power by a monarch were a trait of the Ẹgba, according to the eminent Ọyá» historian Reverend Samuel Johnson. Such councils were also well-developed among the northern Okun groups, the eastern Ekiti, and other groups falling under the Yoruba ethnic umbrella. In Ọyá», the most centralized of the precolonial kingdoms, the Alaafin consulted on all political decisions with the prime minister and principal kingmaker (the Basá»run) and the rest of the council of leading nobles known as the Ọyá» Mesi.WEB, Selecting a new Alaafin: Oyo Mesi and the burden of tradition and truth,www.premiumtimesng.com/opinion/554519-selecting-a-new-alaafin-oyo-mesi-and-the-burden-of-tradition-and-truth-by-hammed-isiaka-eyinade-adelabu.html?tztc=1, 2023-09-18, www.premiumtimesng.com, Traditionally kingship and chieftainship were not determined by simple primogeniture, as in most monarchic systems of government. An electoral college of lineage heads was and still is usually charged with selecting a member of one of the royal families from any given realm, and the selection is then confirmed by an Ifá oracular request.BOOK, Ellis, Alfred Burdon, The Yoruba-speaking Peoples of the Slave Coast of West Africa: Their Religion, Manners, Customs, Laws, Language, Etc. With an Appendix Containing a Comparison of the Tshi, Gã, EwÌœe, and Yoruba Languages, 1894, Chapman and Hall,books.google.com/books?id=x9UKAAAAIAAJ&q=%22Chapter%20X.%20System%20of%20government%22, The Ọbas live in palaces that are usually in the center of the town. Opposite the king’s palace is the Ọja Ọba, or the king’s market. These markets form an inherent part of Yoruba life. Traditionally their traders are well organized, have various guilds, officers, and an elected speaker. They also often have at least one Iyaloja, or Lady of the Market, who is expected to represent their interests in the aristocratic council of oloyes at the palace.BOOK,books.google.com/books?id=vf8VAQAAIAAJ, 112, Africa since 1914: a historical bibliography, 17, ABC-Clio Information Services, ABC-Clio Information Services, 1985, 978-0-87436-395-1, BOOK,books.google.com/books?id=0VGBAAAAMAAJ, Where Women Work: A Study of Yoruba Women in the Marketplace and in the Home, Issues 53-56 of Anthropological papers, Niara Sudarkasa, University of Michigan, 1973, 59–63,City-states
{{See also|Oyo Empire#Political Structure}}The monarchy of any city-state was usually limited to a number of royal lineages.A. Adelusi-Adeluyi and L. Bigon (2014) “City Planning: Yoruba City Planning” in Springer’s Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures (third edition), ed. by Helaine Selin. A family could be excluded from kingship and chieftaincy if any family member, servant, or slave belonging to the family committed a crime, such as theft, fraud, murder or rape. In other city-states, the monarchy was open to the election of any free-born male citizen. In Ilesa, Ondo, Akure and other Yoruba communities, there were several, but comparatively rare, traditions of female Ọbas. The kings were traditionally almost always polygamous and often married royal family members from other domains, thereby creating useful alliances with other rulers.JOURNAL, The Yoruba and Their Language Newspapers: Origin, Nature, Problems and Prospects, Studies of Tribes and Tribals, 2004, 10.1080/0972639X.2004.11886508, Salawu, Abiodun, 2, 2, 97–104, 194810838, Ibadan, a city-state and proto-empire that was founded in the 1800s by a polyglot group of refugees, soldiers, and itinerant traders after the fall of Ọyá», largely dispensed with the concept of monarchism, preferring to elect both military and civil councils from a pool of eminent citizens. The city became a military republic, with distinguished soldiers wielding political power through their election by popular acclaim and the respect of their peers. Similar practices were adopted by the Ijẹsa and other groups, which saw a corresponding rise in the social influence of military adventurers and successful entrepreneurs. The ÃŒgbómìnà were renowned for their agricultural and hunting prowess, as well as their woodcarving, leather art, and the famous Elewe masquerade.JOURNAL, 10.1086/203234, The Beginnings of Agriculture in West Africa: Botanical Evidence, 1985, Sowunmi, M. A., Current Anthropology, 26, 127–129, 145073849, File:The belief in the god of thunder sango in the traditional Yoruba society 4.jpg|thumb|right|Depiction of a traditional SangoSangoGroups, organizations and leagues in Yorubaland
Occupational guilds, social clubs, secret or initiatory societies, and religious units, commonly known as Ẹgbẹ in Yoruba, included the Parakoyi (or league of traders) and Ẹgbẹ Ọdẹ (hunter’s guild), and maintained an important role in commerce, social control, and vocational education in Yoruba polities. There are also examples of other peer organizations in the region.BOOK,books.google.com/books?id=v4MYAAAAYAAJ, Diversity of Creativity in Nigeria: A Critical Selection from the Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on the Diversity of Creativity in Nigeria, Bolaji Campbell, R. I. Ibigbami, Department of Fine Arts, Obafemi Awolowo University, 1993, 309, 978-978-32078-0-6, BOOK,books.google.com/books?id=KGGTAAAAIAAJ, Indigenous Organizations and Development Higher Education Policy Series (IT studies in indigenous knowledge and development), Peter Blunt, Dennis M. Warren, Norman Thomas Uphoff, Intermediate Technology Publications, 1996, 978-1-85339-321-1, WEB,books.google.com/books?id=ju5EAQAAIAAJ, Africa, Volume 68, Issues 3-4, Diedrich Westermann, Edwin William Smith, Cyril Daryll Forde, International African Institute, International Institut, 364, 1998, BOOK,books.google.com/books?id=fLIXAQAAMAAJ, Memoirs of the American Anthropological Association, Issues 63–68, American Anthropological Association, 1944, When the Ẹgba resisted the imperial domination of the Ọyá» Empire, a figure named Lisabi is credited with either creating or reviving a covert traditional organization named Ẹgbẹ Aro. This group, originally a farmers’ union, was converted to a network of secret militias throughout the Ẹgba forests, and each lodge plotted and successfully managed to overthrow Ọyá»’s Ajeles (appointed administrators) in the late 18th century.Similarly, covert military resistance leagues like the Ekiti Parapá» and the Ogidi alliance were organized during the 19th century wars by often-decentralized communities of the Ekiti, Ijẹsa, ÃŒgbómìnà and Okun Yoruba to resist various imperial expansionist plans of Ibadan, Nupe, and the Sokoto Caliphate.Society and culture
(File:Yorubaland Cultural Area of West Africa.jpg|thumb|Yorubaland Cultural Area of West Africa)In the city-states and many of their neighbours, a reserved way of life remains, with the school of thought of their people serving as a major influence in West Africa and elsewhere.Today, most contemporary Yoruba are Muslims or Christians. Be that as it may, many of the principles of the traditional faith of their ancestors are either knowingly or unknowingly upheld by a significant proportion of the populations of Nigeria, Benin and Togo.BOOK, Aderibigbe, Gbola, Medine, Carolyn M. Jones, Contemporary perspectives on religions in Africa and the African diaspora, 12 October 2015, Palgrave Macmillan US, 978-1-137-50051-9, 1034928481,Traditional Yoruba religion
{{further|Ifá|Yoruba medicine}}The Yoruba religion comprises the traditional religious and spiritual concepts and practices of the Yoruba people.BOOK, Yoruba Hometowns: Community, Identity, and Development in Nigeria, Lillian Trager, January 2001, Lynne Rienner Publishers, 978-1-55587-981-5, 22,books.google.com/books?id=DUznKhxaVxkC, 28 February 2014, Its homeland is in Southwestern Nigeria and the adjoining parts of Benin and Togo, a region that has come to be known as Yorubaland. Yoruba religion is formed of diverse traditions and has no single founder.BOOK, Yoruba Culture: A Philosophical Account, Kola, Abimbola, Paperback, Iroko Academics Publishers, 2005, 978-1-905388-00-4, Yoruba religious beliefs are part of itan, the total complex of songs, histories, stories, mythologies, and other cultural concepts that make up the Yoruba society.File:Ogunda Meji.jpg|thumb|left|Ogunda Meji, one of the sixteen principals of 256 Odus (the corpus of Ifa literature) represented on a virtual Opon IfaOpon IfaNext to the Veneration of ancestors, one of the most common Yoruba traditional religious concepts has been the concept of Orisa. Orisa (also spelled Orisha) are various gods and spirits, which serve the ultimate creator force in the Yoruba religious system (Ase). Some widely known Orisa are Ogun, (a god of metal, war and victory), Shango or Jakuta (a god of thunder, lightning, fire and justice who manifests as a king and who always wields a double-edged axe that conveys his divine authority and power), Esu Elegbara (a trickster who serves as the sole messenger of the pantheon, and who conveys the wish of men to the gods. He understands every language spoken by humankind, and is also the guardian of the crossroads, OrÃta méta in Yoruba) and Orunmila (a god of the Oracle). Eshu has two forms, which are manifestations of his dual nature – positive and negative energies; Eshu Laroye, a teacher instructor and leader, and Eshu Ebita, a jester, deceitful, suggestive and cunning.BOOK, Abimbola, Kola, Yoruba Culture: A Philosophical Account,books.google.com/books?id=4G7Xv-wapEMC&pg=PA58, 23 May 2015, 2006, Iroko Academic Publishers, 978-1-905388-00-4, 58, Orunmila, for his part, reveals the past, gives solutions to problems in the present, and influences the future through the Ifa divination system, which is practised by oracle priests called Babalawos.Olorun is one of the principal manifestations of the Supreme God of the Yoruba pantheon, the owner of the heavens, and is associated with the Sun known as Oòrùn in the Yoruba language. The two other principal forms of the supreme God are Olodumare—the supreme creator—and Olofin, who is the conduit between Ã’runn (Heaven) and Ayé (Earth). Oshumare is a god that manifests in the form of a rainbow, also known as Ã’sùmà rè in Yoruba, while Obatala is the god of clarity and creativity.These gods feature in the Yoruba religion,BOOK, Bascom, William Russell, Ifa Divination: Communication Between Gods and Men in West Africa,books.google.com/books?id=CS0h4Ye9puUC&pg=PA3, 23 May 2015, 1969, Indiana University Press, 978-0-253-20638-1, 3, as well as in some aspects of Umbanda, Winti, Obeah, Vodun and a host of others. These varieties, or spiritual lineages as they are called, are practiced throughout areas of Nigeria, among others. As interest in African indigenous religions grows, Orisa communities and lineages can be found in parts of Europe and Asia as well. While estimates may vary, some scholars believe that there could be more than 100 million adherents of this spiritual tradition worldwide.Kevin Baxter (on De La Torre), “Ozzie Guillen secure in his faith”, Los Angeles Times, 2007{| class=“wikitable” style="line-height:20px;text-align:left;“! style="width:12%; color:#fff; background:navy;” |Name ! style="width:14%; color:#fff; background:navy;” |Deity Of! style="width:4%; color:#fff; background:navy;” |Ethnic Group! style="width:4%; color:#fff; background:navy;” |Religion! style="width:14%; color:#fff; background:navy;” |Member Of! style="width:4%; color:#fff; background:navy;” |HomelandMythology
File:Divination tapper, Yoruba, Nigeria, 1800s, ivory - Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum - DSC00262.jpg|thumb|right|An Iroke or Irofa (Ìròkè Ifá) is the divination tapper of the Yoruba. It is long, slender and often slightly curved. Used in combination with the Opon IfaOpon IfaOral history of the Oyo-Yoruba recounts Odùduwà to be the progenitor of the Yoruba and the reigning ancestor of their crowned kings.{{Cquote|He came from the east, understood in Ife traditions to be the settlement of Oke Ora, a hilltop community situated to the east of Ife.}}{{cquote|After the death of Oduduwa, there was a dispersal of his children in a series of kingdom founding migrations from Ife to found other kingdoms. Each child made his or her mark in the subsequent urbanization and consolidation of the Yoruba confederacy of kingdoms, with each kingdom tracing its origin due to them to Ile-Ife.}}{{Cquote|After the dispersal, the aborigines became difficult, and constituted a serious threat to the survival of Ife. Thought to be survivors of the old occupants of the land before the arrival of Oduduwa, these people now turned themselves into marauders. They would come to town in costumes made of raffia with terrible and fearsome appearances, and burn down houses and loot the markets. Then came Moremi Ajasoro into the scene; she was said to have played a significant role in the quelling of the marauder advancements. But this was at a great price; having to give up her only son Oluorogbo. The reward for her patriotism and selflessness was not to be reaped in one lifetime as she later passed on and was thereafter deified. The Edi festival celebrates this feat among her Yoruba descendants.WEB,www.yorubaalliance.org/Newsletter/newsletter74.htm, Who are the Yoruba!, 6 February 2011,www.yorubaalliance.org/Newsletter/newsletter74.htm," title="web.archive.org/web/20110702194235www.yorubaalliance.org/Newsletter/newsletter74.htm,">web.archive.org/web/20110702194235www.yorubaalliance.org/Newsletter/newsletter74.htm, 2 July 2011, }}Philosophy
Yoruba culture consists of cultural philosophy, religion and folktales. They are embodied in Ifa divination, and are known as the tripartite Book of Enlightenment in Yorubaland and in its diaspora.Yoruba cultural thought is a witness of two epochs. The first epoch is a history of cosmogony and cosmology. This is also an epoch-making history in the oral culture during which time Oduduwa was the king, the Bringer of Light, pioneer of Yoruba folk philosophy, and a prominent diviner. He pondered the visible and invisible worlds, reminiscing about cosmogony, cosmology, and the mythological creatures in the visible and invisible worlds. His time favored the artist-philosophers who produced magnificent naturalistic artworks of civilization during the pre-dynastic period in Yorubaland. The second epoch is the epoch of metaphysical discourse, and the birth of modern artist-philosophy. This commenced in the 19th century in terms of the academic prowess of Bishop Samuel Ajayi Crowther (1807–1891). Although religion is often first in Yoruba culture, nonetheless, it is the philosophy – the thought of man – that actually leads spiritual consciousness (ori) to the creation and the practice of religion. Thus, it is believed that thought (philosophy) is an antecedent to religion. Values such as respect, peaceful co-existence, loyalty and freedom of speech are both upheld and highly valued in Yoruba culture. Societies that are considered secret societies often strictly guard and encourage the observance of moral values. Today, the academic and nonacademic communities are becoming more interested in Yoruba culture. More research is being carried out on Yoruba cultural thought as more books are being written on the subject.Christianity and Islam
File:Church of the Pater Noster Mount of Olives, Jerusalem 11.jpg|thumb|right|The Lord’s prayer in Yoruba language, 300x300pxThe Yoruba are traditionally very religious people, and are today pluralistic in their religious convictions.BOOK,books.google.com/books?id=nkbYlltTi4sC&pg=PA103, Religion and National Integration in Africa: Islam, Christianity, and Politics in the Sudan and Nigeria, Islam and society in Africa, John O. Hunwick, 103, Northwestern University Press, 1992, 978-0-8101-1037-3, The Yoruba are one of the more religiously diverse ethnic groups in Africa. Many Yoruba people practice Christianity in denominations such as AnglicanismBOOK, Mathews, M.P., Nigeria: Current Issues and Historical Background, Nova Science Publishers, 2002, 978-1-59033-316-7,books.google.com/books?id=hTs6GpM4zDMC&pg=PA136, 2023-08-05, 136, while others are Muslims practicing mostly under Sunni Islam of the Maliki school of law. In addition to Christianity and Islam, a large number of Yoruba people continue to practice their traditional religion. Yoruba religious practices such as the Eyo and Osun-Osogbo festivals are witnessing a resurgence in popularity in contemporary Yorubaland. They are largely seen by the adherents of the modern faiths as cultural, rather than religious, events. They participate in them as a means to celebrate their people’s history, and boost tourism in their local economies.File:Anna hinderer church and mission house at ibadan pic2.jpg|thumb|left|Anna Hinderer church and mission house at IbadanIbadanChristianity
The Yorubas were one of the first groups in West Africa to be introduced to Christianity on a very large scale.BOOK,books.google.com/books?id=DdFvbW5tWpYC&q=christianity+in+yorubaland&pg=PA77, Pre-Colonial Africa in Colonial African Narratives: From Ethiopia Unbound to Things Fall Apart, 1911–1958, Dr Donald R Wehrs, Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2013, 978-1-4094-7495-1, Christianity (along with western civilization) came into Yorubaland in the mid-19th century through the Europeans, whose original mission was commerce.BOOK,books.google.com/books?id=OdbBBwAAQBAJ&pg=PT74, Scientific Pilgrimage: ‘The Life and times of Emeritus Professor V.A Oyenuga’. D.Sc, FAS, CFR Nigeria’s first Emeritus Professor and Africa’s first Agriculture Professor, Ãdébáyò Ãdésóyè, AuthorHouse, 2015, 978-1-5049-3785-6, BOOK,books.google.com/books?id=m2V1AAAAMAAJ, Western Yorubaland under European rule, 1889–1945: A Comparative Analysis of French and British Colonialism. European Philosophy and the Human Sciences, A. I. Asiwaju, Humanities Press (Ibadan history series, the University of Michigan), 1976, 978-0-391-00605-8, BOOK,books.google.com/books?id=fUqcAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA1162, The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, Frank Leslie Cross, Elizabeth A. Livingstone, Oxford University Press, 2005, 1162, 978-0-19-280290-3, The first European visitors were the Portuguese, they visited the neighboring Bini kingdom in the late 16th century. As time progressed, other Europeans – such as the French, the British, the Dutch, and the Germans, followed suit. The British and the French were the most successful in their quest for colonies (these Europeans actually split Yorubaland, with the larger part being in British Nigeria, and the minor parts in French Dahomey, now Benin, and German Togoland). Home governments encouraged religious organizations to come. Roman Catholics (known to the Yorubas as Ijo Aguda, so named after returning former Yoruba slaves from Latin America, who were mostly Catholic, and were also known as the Agudas or Amaros) started the race, followed by Protestants, whose prominent member – Church Mission Society (CMS) based in England made the most significant in-roads into the hinterland regions for evangelism and became the largest of the Christian missions. Methodists (known as Ijo-Eleto, so named after the Yoruba word for “method or process“) started missions in Agbadarigi / Gbegle by Thomas Birch Freeman in 1842. Agbadarigi was further served by E. C. Van Cooten, E. G. Irving, and A. A. Harrison. Henry Townsend, C. C. Gollmer, and Ajayi Crowther of the CMS worked in Abeokuta, then under the Egba division of Southern Nigeria in 1846.{{Citation|last=Adebanwi|first=Wale|title=Seizing the Heritage: Playing Proper Yorùbá in an Age of Uncertainty|work=Yorùbá Elites and Ethnic Politics in Nigeria|year=2014|pages=224–243|publisher=Cambridge University Press|doi=10.1017/cbo9781107286252.011|isbn=978-1-107-28625-2}}Hinderer and Mann of CMS started missions in Ibadan / Ibarapa and Ijaye divisions of the present Oyo state in 1853. Baptist missionaries – Bowen and Clarke – concentrated on the northern Yoruba axis – (Ogbomoso and environs). With their success, other religious groups – the Salvation Army and the Evangelists Commission of West Africa – became popular among the Igbomina, and other non-denominational Christian groups joined. The increased tempo of Christianity led to the appointment of Saros (returning slaves from Sierra Leone) and indigenes as missionaries. This move was initiated by Venn, the CMS Secretary. Nevertheless, the impact of Christianity in Yorubaland was not felt until the fourth decade of the 19th century, when a Yoruba slave boy, Samuel Ajayi Crowther, became a Christian convert, linguist and minister whose knowledge in languages would become a major tool and instrument to propagate Christianity in Yorubaland and beyond.WEB, Yorupedia,yorupedia.com/subjects/yoruba-religion/christianity-and-islam/, Christianity and Islam Introduction, 14 September 2015, 21 July 2015,yorupedia.com/subjects/yoruba-religion/christianity-and-islam/," title="web.archive.org/web/20150721043138yorupedia.com/subjects/yoruba-religion/christianity-and-islam/,">web.archive.org/web/20150721043138yorupedia.com/subjects/yoruba-religion/christianity-and-islam/,Islam
Islam came into Yorubaland around the 14th century, as a result of trade with Wangara (also Wankore) merchants,BOOK,books.google.com/books?id=_nKXOThUEpcC&dq=wangara+yoruba&pg=PA440, Arabic Literature of Africa: The writings of central Sudanic Africa, 1994, E.J. Brill, John O. Hunwick, Rex S. O’Fahey, 440, 978-978-2347-29-9, a mobile caste of the Soninkes from the then Mali Empire who entered Yorubaland (Oyo) from the northwestern flank through the Bariba or Borgu corridor,WEB,nigerianfinder.com/islamic-education-in-nigeria-how-it-all-began/, Islamic Education in Nigeria: How It All Began, 10 August 2019, Nigerian Finder, during the reign of Mansa Kankan Musa.BOOK,books.google.com/books?id=1ha_bmASvRIC&pg=PA168, Mission Et Progrès Humain (Mission and Human Progress) Studia missionalia, 168, fr, Gregorian Biblical BookShop, 1998, 978-8-876-5278-76, Due to this, Islam is traditionally known to the Yoruba as Esin Male or simply Imale i.e. religion of the Malians. The adherents of the Islamic faith are called Musulumi in Yoruba to correspond to Muslim, the Arabic word for an adherent of Islam having as the active participle of the same verb form, and means “submitter (to Allah)” or a nominal and active participle of Islam derivative of “Salaam” i.e. (Religion of) Peace. Islam was practiced in Yorubaland so early on in history, that a sizable proportion of Yoruba slaves taken to the Americas were already Muslim.BOOK,books.google.com/books?id=NQwcAlYxP7sC&pg=PA157, Unfree Labour in the Development of the Atlantic World, Paul E. Lovejoy, Nicholas Rogers, Routledge, 2012, 157, 978-1-136-30059-2, The mosque served the spiritual needs of Muslims living in Ọyá». Progressively, Islam started to gain a foothold in Yorubaland, and Muslims started building mosques. Iwo led, its first mosque built in 1655,{{Citation|last=White|first=Julie|title=Learning in ‘No Man’s Land’|date=2015|work=Interrogating Conceptions of ‘Vulnerable Youth’ in Theory, Policy and Practice|pages=97–110|publisher=SensePublishers|doi=10.1007/978-94-6300-121-2_7|isbn=978-94-6300-121-2}} followed by Iseyin in 1760, Eko/Lagos in 1774, Shaki in 1790, and Osogbo in 1889. In time, Islam spread to other towns like Oyo (the first Oyo convert was Solagberu), Ibadan, Abẹokuta, Ijebu Ode, Ikirun, and Ede. All of these cities already had sizable Muslim communities before the 19th century Sokoto jihad.{{Citation|last=Beek|first=Walter E. A. van|editor1-first=W. E. van|editor1-last=Beek|title=Purity and statecraft: the Fulani jihad and its empire|date=1988-12-31|work=The Quest for Purity|pages=149–182|publisher=De Gruyter|doi=10.1515/9783110860924-008|isbn=978-3-11-086092-4|hdl=1887/9002|hdl-access=free}}Traditional art and architecture
File:Yoruba peoples armlet (16th century).jpg|thumb|right|Intricately carved ivory bracelet from the Yoruba people of OwoOwoMedieval Yoruba settlements were surrounded with massive mud walls.BOOK,books.google.com/books?id=pMjHpEyDqJMC&q=Yoruba+adobe+mud+houses&pg=PA168, Traditional Buildings: A Global Survey of Structural Forms and Cultural Functions Volume 11 of International Library of Human Geography, Allen G. Noble, I.B.Tauris, 2007, 978-1-84511-305-6, Yoruba buildings had similar plans to the Ashanti shrines, but with verandahs around the court. The wall materials comprised puddled mud and palm oilBOOK,books.google.com/books?id=fwc5AAAAIAAJ&q=Yoruba+roofs&pg=PA40, The Yoruba Today), Jeremy Seymour Eades (Changing cultures), Cambridge Latin Texts (CUP Archive), 1980, 978-0-521-22656-1, while roofing materials ranged from thatches to corrugated iron sheets. A famous Yoruba fortification, the Sungbo’s Eredo, was the second largest wall edifice in Africa. The structure was built in the 9th, 10th and 11th centuries in honour of a traditional aristocrat, the Oloye Bilikisu Sungbo. It was made up of sprawling mud walls and the valleys that surrounded the town of Ijebu-Ode in Ogun State. Sungbo’s Eredo is the largest pre-colonial monument in Africa, larger than the Great Pyramid or Great Zimbabwe.BOOK,books.google.com/books?id=ZPnDBAAAQBAJ&q=Sungbo%27s+Eredo+Yoruba+structure&pg=PA144, The History of Africa: The Quest for Eternal Harmony, Molefi Kete Asante, Molefi Kete, Asante, Routledge, 2014, 978-1-135-01349-3, BOOK,books.google.com/books?id=_dRnaZS9L3wC&q=Sungbo%27s+Eredo+Africa%27s+largest+monument&pg=PA158, Cultural Heritage, Ethics and the Military Volume 4 of Heritage matters series, 1756-4832, Peter G. Stone, The ‘Heritage Matters’ Series, Boydell Press, 2011, 978-1-84383-538-7, 158, (File:British Museum Room 25 Pair of door panels Olowe Yoruba Detail 17022019 4950.jpg|thumb|left|Yoruba door, wood carvings; used to record events {{Circa|1910}})File:Anna Hinderer building.jpg|thumb|left|Early 19th century Yoruba architectureYoruba architectureThe Yorubas worked with a wide array of materials in their art including; bronze, leather, terracotta, ivory, textiles, copper, stone, carved wood, brass, ceramics and glass. A unique feature of Yoruba art is its striking realism that, unlike most African art, chose to create human sculptures in vividly realistic and life sized forms. The art history of the nearby Benin empire shows that there was a cross–fertilization of ideas between the neighboring Yoruba and Edo. The Benin court’s brass casters learned their art from an Ife master named Iguegha, who had been sent from Ife around 1400 at the request of Benin’s oba Oguola. Indeed, the earliest dated cast-brass memorial heads from Benin replicate the refined naturalism of the earlier Yoruba sculptures from Ife.WEB,www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/beni_2/hd_beni_2.htm, Origins and Empire: The Benin, Owo, and Ijebu Kingdoms, The Metropolitan Museum of Art (Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History), 9 July 2015, A lot of Yoruba artwork, including staffs, court dress, and beadwork for crowns, are associated with palaces and the royal courts.BOOK,books.google.com/books?id=UQ1QAAAAMAAJ&q=Yoruba+palace+architecture, Yoruba palaces: a study of Afins of Yorubaland, G. J. Afolabi Ojo, University of Michigan, 1966, JOURNAL, Risawe’s Palace, Ilesa Nigeria: Traditional Yoruba Architecture as Socio-Cultural and Religious Symbols, African Research Review, 4, 3, N Umoru-Oke, 10.4314/afrrev.v4i3.60187, 2010, free, BOOK,books.google.com/books?id=6bW41qkth0EC&q=Yoruba+architecture&pg=PA742, The Sustainable World Volume 142 of WIT transactions on ecology and the environment, 1746-448X, C. A. Brebbia, Wit Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Wessex Institute of Technology (WIT Press), 2011, 978-1-84564-504-5, BOOK,books.google.com/books?id=9NcVAQAAIAAJ&q=Yoruba+palace+architecture, Ornamentation in Yoruba folk architecture: a catalogue of architectural features, ornamental motifs and techniques, Cordelia Olatokunbo Osasona, Bookbuilders Editions Africa, 2005, 978-978-8088-28-8, The courts also commissioned numerous architectural objects such as veranda posts, gates, and doors that are embellished with carvings. Yoruba palaces are usually built with thicker walls, are dedicated to the gods and play significant spiritual roles. Yoruba art is also manifested in shrines and masking traditions.BOOK,books.google.com/books?id=fZwVAQAAIAAJ&q=Yoruba+art+and+architecture, Yoruba: nine centuries of African art and thought, Henry John Drewal, John Pemberton, Rowland Abiodun, Allen Wardwell, Center for African Art in Association with H.N. Abrams, 1989, 978-0-8109-1794-1, The shrines dedicated to the said gods are adorned with carvings and house an array of altar figures and other ritual paraphernalia. Masking traditions vary by region, and diverse mask types are used in various festivals and celebrations. Aspects of Yoruba traditional architecture has also found its way into the New World in the form of shotgun houses.BOOK,books.google.com/books?id=zBumTdxwcMAC&pg=PA16, The Houses of Buxton: A Legacy of African Influences in Architecture, Patricia Lorraine Neely, P Designs Publishing, 16, 2005, 978-0-9738754-1-6, BOOK,books.google.com/books?id=G7kzQMytrMoC&q=Yoruba+architecture&pg=PA76, Common Places: Readings in American Vernacular Architecture, Dell Upton, John Michael Vlach, University of Georgia Press, 1986, 978-0-8203-0750-3, 1986, BOOK,books.google.com/books?id=zPgsAQAAIAAJ&q=Yoruba+architecture, Architectures of Nigeria: Architectures of the Hausa and Yoruba Peoples and of the Many Peoples Between--tradition and Modernization, Kevin Carroll, Society of African Missions, 1992, 978-0-905788-37-1, BOOK,books.google.com/books?id=Uk1Tbdsq99gC&q=shotgun+houses+yoruba&pg=PA299, The Yoruba Diaspora in the Atlantic World (Blacks in the Diaspora), Toyin Falola, Matt D. Childs, Indiana University Press, 2005, 978-0-253-00301-0, 2 May 2005, WEB,www.nps.gov/ethnography/aah/aaheritage/FrenchAm_pop11.htm, National Park Service: African American Heritage & Ethnography, Shotgun Houses, 3 December 2014, BOOK,books.google.com/books?id=nyzjBAAAQBAJ&q=Reading+the+Architecture+of+the+Underprivileged+Classes, Reading the Architecture of the Underprivileged Classes, Nnamdi Elleh, Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2014, 978-1-4094-6786-1, 86–88, Today, however, Yoruba traditional architecture has been greatly influenced by modern trends.File:Brooklyn Museum L54.5 Fragment of a Head (3).jpg|thumb|right|Terracotta head representing oni or King of 250x250pxMasquerades are an important feature of Yoruba traditional artistry. They are generally known as Egúngún, singularly as Egún. The term refers to the Yoruba masquerades connected with ancestor reverence, or to the ancestors themselves as a collective force. There are different types of which one of the most prominent is the Gelede.BOOK,books.google.com/books?id=IIqc3pizziAC&q=Yoruba+gelede+masquerades, Gẹlẹdẹ: Art and Female Power Among the Yoruba, Indiana University Turkish Studies, Midland books (Traditional arts of Africa), 565, Henry John Drewal, Margaret Thompson Drewal, Indiana University Press, 1983, 978-0-253-32569-3, BOOK,books.google.com/books?id=o3o_-JwBwW4C&q=Yoruba+gelede+masquerades&pg=PA15, 51, Playful Performers: African Children’s Masquerades, Simon Ottenberg, David Aaron Binkley, Transaction Publishers, 978-1-4128-3092-8, An Ese Ifa (oral literature of Orunmila divination) explains the origins of Gelede as beginning with Yemoja, the Mother of all the orisa and all living things. Yemoja could not have children and consulted an Ifa oracle, and the priest advised her to offer sacrifices and to dance with wooden images on her head and metal anklets on her feet. After performing this ritual, she became pregnant. Her first child was a boy, nicknamed “Efe” (the humorist/joker); the Efe mask emphasizes song and jests because of the personality of its namesake. Yemoja’s second child was a girl, nicknamed “Gelede” because she was obese like her mother. Also like her mother, Gelede loved dancing.After getting married themselves, neither Gelede or Efe’s partner could have children. The Ifa oracle suggested they try the same ritual that had worked for their mother. No sooner than Efe and Gelede performed these rituals – dancing with wooden images on their heads and metal anklets on their feet – they started having children. These rituals developed into the Gelede masked dance and were perpetuated by the descendants of Efe and Gelede. This narrative is one of many stories that explains the origin of Gelede. An old theory stated that the beginning of Gelede might be associated with the change from a matriarchal to a patriarchal society among the Yoruba people.The Gelede spectacle and the Ifa divination system represent two of Nigeria’s only three pieces on the United Nations’ Oral and Intangible Heritages of Humanity list, as well as the only such cultural heritage from Benin and Togo.Festivals
File:Eyo Olokun.jpg|thumb|right|EyoEyoOne of the first observations of first time visitors to Yorubaland is the rich, exuberant and ceremonial nature of their culture, which is made even more visible by the urbanized structures of Yoruba settlements. These occasions are avenues to experience the richness of the Yoruba culture. Traditional musicians are always on hand to grace the occasions with heavy rhythms and extremely advanced percussion, which the Yorubas are well known for all over the world.WEB,tribes.tribe.net/africanspirituality/thread/92f4fde8-0ddf-491a-aa47-47f0c0af0d6e, 10 June 2015, Yoruba Culture, Tribes, 18 September 2007, 10 June 2015,tribes.tribe.net/africanspirituality/thread/92f4fde8-0ddf-491a-aa47-47f0c0af0d6e," title="web.archive.org/web/20150610090351tribes.tribe.net/africanspirituality/thread/92f4fde8-0ddf-491a-aa47-47f0c0af0d6e,">web.archive.org/web/20150610090351tribes.tribe.net/africanspirituality/thread/92f4fde8-0ddf-491a-aa47-47f0c0af0d6e, Praise singers and griots are there to add their historical insight to the meaning and significance of the ceremony, and of course the varieties of colorful dresses and attires worn by the people, attest to the aesthetic sense of the average Yoruba.File:Arugba Osun.jpg|thumb|left|The Arugba leading the procession to the Osun groveOsun groveThe Yoruba are a very expressive people who celebrate major events with colorful festivals and celebrations (Ayeye). Some of these festivals (about thirteen principal ones)BOOK,books.google.com/books?id=cfftg4o77QIC&q=Yoruba+festivals+America&pg=PA60, Mapping Yorùbá Networks: Power and Agency in the Making of Transnational Communities, Kamari Maxine Clarke, Duke University Press, 978-0-8223-3342-5, 59, 60, 12 July 2004, are secular and only mark achievements and milestones in the achievement of mankind. These include wedding ceremonies (ÃŒgbéyà wó), naming ceremonies (ÃŒsomolórúko), funerals (ÃŒsìnkú), housewarming (ÃŒsÃlé), New-Yam festival (ÃŒjesu), Harvest ceremonies (ÃŒkórè), birth (ÃŒbÃ), chieftaincy (ÃŒjòyè) and so on.BOOK,books.google.com/books?id=2c4VAQAAIAAJ&q=Yoruba+igbeyawo, Understanding Yoruba life and culture, Nike Lawal, Matthew N. O. Sadiku, Ade Dopamu, Africa World Press (the University of California), 22 July 2009, 978-1-59221-025-1, Others have a more spiritual connotation, such as the various days and celebrations dedicated to specific Orisha like the Ogun day (Ojó Ã’gún) or the Osun festival, which is usually done at the Osun-Osogbo sacred grove located on the banks of the Osun river and around the ancient town of Osogbo.BOOK,books.google.com/books?id=IKqOUfqt4cIC&q=Yoruba+festivals&pg=PA346, Traditional Festivals, Vol. 2 [M – Z], ABC-CLIO, 978-1-57607-089-5, 346, 2005, The festival is dedicated to the river goddess Osun, which is usually celebrated in the month of August (Osù Ã’gùn) yearly. The festival attracts thousands of Osun worshippers from all over Yorubaland and the Yoruba diaspora in the Americas, spectators and tourists from all walks of life. The Osun-Osogbo Festival is a two-week-long programme. It starts with the traditional cleansing of the town called ‘Iwopopo’, which is then followed in three days by the lighting of the 500-year-old sixteen-point lamp called Ina Olojumerindinlogun, which literally means The sixteen eyed fire. The lighting of this sacred lamp heralds the beginning of the Osun festival. Then comes the ‘Ibroriade’, an assemblage of the crowns of the past ruler, the Ataoja of Osogbo, for blessings. This event is led by the sitting Ataoja of Osogbo and the Arugba Yeye Osun (who is usually a young virgin from the royal family dressed in white), who carries a sacred white calabash that contains propitiation materials meant for the goddess Osun. She is also accompanied by a committee of priestesses.NEWS,www.mynewswatchtimesng.com/behold-new-arugba-osun-wants-doctor/, Newswatch Times, Behold, new Arugba Osun, who wants to be doctor, 31 August 2013, 10 June 2015, 4 March 2016,www.mynewswatchtimesng.com/behold-new-arugba-osun-wants-doctor/," title="web.archive.org/web/20160304060156www.mynewswatchtimesng.com/behold-new-arugba-osun-wants-doctor/,">web.archive.org/web/20160304060156www.mynewswatchtimesng.com/behold-new-arugba-osun-wants-doctor/, NEWS,allafrica.com/stories/201408221221.html, Nigeria: Osun Osogbo 2014 – Arugba’s Berth Tastes Green With Goldberg Touch, Gregory Austin Nwakunor, 22 August 2014, AllAfrica, 10 June 2015, A similar event holds in the New World as Odunde Festival.BOOK,books.google.com/books?id=6p2aLo2kafMC&q=Odunde+Festival+Yoruba+United+States+America&pg=PA32, The United States and West Africa: Interactions and Relations Volume 34 of Rochester studies in African history and the diaspora, 1092-5228, Alusine Jalloh, Toyin Falola, Rochester Studies in African History and the Diaspora, University Rochester Press, 2008, 978-1-58046-308-9, 32, BOOK,books.google.com/books?id=mK147fnLIrAC&q=Odunde+Festival+Yoruba+United+States+America&pg=PA44, Art in the Lives of Immigrant Communities in the United States Rutgers Series: The Public Life of the Arts, Paul DiMaggio, Patricia Fernandez-Kelly, Gilberto Cârdenas, Yen Espiritu, Amaney Jamal, Sunaina Maira, Douglas Massey, Cecilia Menjivar, Clifford Murphy, Terry Rey, Susan Seifert, Alex Stepick, Mark Stern, Domenic Vitiello, Deborah Wong, 44, Rutgers University Press, 2010, 978-0-8135-5041-1, 13 October 2010, File:Gèlèdé divinités vodou.jpg|thumb|right|GèlèdéGèlèdéAnother very popular festival with spiritual connotations is the Eyo Olokun festival or Adamu Orisha play, celebrated by the people of Lagos. The Eyo festival is a dedication to the god of the Sea Olokun, who is an Orisha, and whose name literally mean Owner of the Seas. Generally, there is no customarily defined time for the staging of the Eyo Festival. This leads to a building anticipation as to what date would be decided upon. Once a date for its performance is selected and announced, the festival preparations begin. It encompasses a week-long series of activities, and culminates in a striking procession of thousands of men clothed in white and wearing a variety of coloured hats, called Aga. The procession moves through Lagos Island Isale Eko, which is the historical centre of the Lagos metropolis. On the streets, they move through various crucial locations and landmarks in the city, including the palace of the traditional ruler of Lagos, the Oba, known as the Iga Idunganran. The festival starts from dusk to dawn, and has been held on Saturdays (Ojó Àbáméta) from time immemorial. A full week before the festival (always a Sunday), the ‘senior’ Eyo group, the Adimu (identified by a black, broad-rimmed hat), goes public with a staff. When this happens, it means the event will take place on the following Saturday. Each of the four other ‘important’ groups – Laba (red), Oniko (yellow), Ologede (green) and Agere (purple) — take their turns in that order from Monday to Thursday.The Eyo masquerade essentially admits tall people, which is why it is described as Agogoro Eyo (literally meaning the tall Eyo masquerade). In the manner of a spirit (An Orisha) visiting the earth on a purpose, the Eyo masquerade speaks in a ventriloquial voice, suggestive of its otherworldliness; and when greeted, it replies: Mo yo fun e, mo yo fun ara mi, which in Yoruba means: I rejoice for you, and I rejoice for myself. This response connotes the masquerades as rejoicing with the person greeting it for the witnessing of the day, and its own joy at taking the hallowed responsibility of cleansing. During the festival, Sandals and foot wear, as well as Suku, a hairstyle that is popular among the Yorubas – one that has the hair converge at the middle, then shoot upward, before tipping downward – are prohibited. The festival has also taken a more touristic dimension in recent times, which like the Osun Osogbo festival, attracts visitors from all across Nigeria, as well as Yoruba diaspora populations. In fact, it is widely believed that the play is one of the manifestations of the customary African revelry that serves as the forerunner of the modern carnival in Brazil and other parts of the New World, which may have been started by the Yoruba slaves transplanted in that part of the world due to the Atlantic slave trade.WEB,www.spyghana.com/celebrating-eyo-festival-in-the-modern-way/, Celebrating Eyo the Modern Way, SpyGhana, 21 March 2015, WEB,www.kingdomsofnigeria.com/eyolagosagog.php, Royalty in the news: Lagos agog for Eyo Festival today., Kingdoms of Nigeria, 10 June 2015, 29 December 2016,www.kingdomsofnigeria.com/eyolagosagog.php," title="web.archive.org/web/20161229113727www.kingdomsofnigeria.com/eyolagosagog.php,">web.archive.org/web/20161229113727www.kingdomsofnigeria.com/eyolagosagog.php, dead, WEB,www.aboutlagos.com/?p=654, Eyo Festival, About Lagos, 10 June 2015, 27 June 2015,www.aboutlagos.com/?p=654," title="web.archive.org/web/20150627090332www.aboutlagos.com/?p=654,">web.archive.org/web/20150627090332www.aboutlagos.com/?p=654, BOOK,books.google.com/books?id=IKqOUfqt4cIC&q=Yoruba+festivals+America&pg=PA346, 346, Traditional Festivals, Vol. 2 [M – Z], ABC-CLIO, 978-1-57607-089-5, 10 June 2015, 2005,Music
{{See also|Yoruba music|Batá drum}}File:Drummers of traditional Gbedu drum in Yoruba land of Nigeria.jpg|thumb|left|GbeduGbeduFile:Bata drums.jpg|thumb|right|The (Batá drum]] – from left: Okónkolo, Iyá, Itótele|172px)(File:Yoruba slit drum.jpg|left|thumb|A Yoruba slit drum (on the left) together with a traditional membrane drum (on the right)|150px)The music of the Yoruba people is perhaps best known for an extremely advanced drumming tradition,BOOK, Yorùbá Music in the Twentieth Century Identity, Agency, and Performance Practice, Bode Omojola, 4 December 2012, University of Rochester Press, 28 February 2014,www.urpress.com/store/viewItem.asp?idProduct=14012, 978-1-58046-409-3, especially using the dundunTurino, pp. 181–182; Bensignor, François with Eric Audra, and Ronnie Graham, “Afro-Funksters” and “From Hausa Music to Highlife” in the Rough Guide to World Music, pp. 432–436 and pp. 588–600; Karolyi, pg. 43 hourglass tension drums. The representation of musical instruments on sculptural works from Ile-Ife, indicates, in general terms a substantial accord with oral traditions. A lot of these musical instruments date back to the classical period of Ile-Ife, which began at around the tenth century A.D. Some were already present prior to this period, while others were created later. The hourglass tension drum (Dùndún) for example, may have been introduced around the 15th century (1400s), the Benin bronze plaques of the middle period depicts them. Others like the double and single iron clapper-less bells are examples of instruments that preceded classical Ife.THESIS, Tamara De Silva, Symbols and Ritual: the Socio-Religious Role of the ÃŒgbìn Drum Family, Professor Renée Ater, faculty advisor, Master of Arts, 2006, Department of Art History and Archaeology, University of Maryland,drum.lib.umd.edu/bitstream/1903/3919/1/umi-umd-3770.pdf, 8 July 2015, Yoruba folk music became perhaps the most prominent kind of West African music in Afro-Latin and Caribbean musical styles. Yoruba music left an especially important influence on the music of Trinidad, the Lukumi religious traditions,WEB,www.scribd.com/doc/85753/Bata-Drumming-Notations-Discographies-Glossary, Bata Drumming Notations Discographies Glossary (Bata Drumming & the Lucumi Santeria BembeCeremony), Scribd Online, 14 September 2015, Capoeira practice in Brazil and the music of Cuba.WEB,www.descarga.com/cgi-bin/db/archives/Article17, Conunto Folkorico Nacional De Cuba Música Yoruba, Soul Force 101, Yoruba Sacred Music, Old World and New by John Gray, 14 September 2015,www.descarga.com/cgi-bin/db/archives/Article17," title="web.archive.org/web/20150923213854www.descarga.com/cgi-bin/db/archives/Article17,">web.archive.org/web/20150923213854www.descarga.com/cgi-bin/db/archives/Article17, 23 September 2015, Yoruba drums typically belong to four major families, which are used depending on the context or genre where they are played. The Dùndún / Gángan family, is the class of hourglass shaped talking drums, which imitate the sound of Yoruba speech. This is possible because the Yoruba language is tonal in nature. It is the most common and is present in many Yoruba traditions, such as Apala, Jùjú, Sekere and Afrobeat. The second is the Sakara family. Typically, they played a ceremonial role in royal settings, weddings and OrÃkì recitation; it is predominantly found in traditions such as Sakara music, Were and Fuji music. The Gbedu family (literally, “large drum“) is used by secret fraternities such as the Ogboni and royal courts. Historically, only the Oba might dance to the music of the drum. If anyone else used the drum they were arrested for sedition of royal authority. The Gbèdu are conga shaped drums played while they sit on the ground. Akuba drums (a trio of smaller conga-like drums related to the gbèdu) are typically used in afrobeat. The Ogido is a cousin of the gbedu. It is also shaped like a conga but with a wider array of sounds and a bigger body. It also has a much deeper sound than the conga. It is sometimes referred to as the “bass drum”. Both hands play directly on the Ogido drum.WEB,www.lagbaja.com/drums/ogido.php, Lagbaja, Ogido, 14 September 2015, File:Benin, yoruba, campanaccio per invocare gli spiriti o le divinità ,.JPG|thumb|right|Traditional AgogoAgogoToday, the word Gbedu has also come to be used to describe forms of Nigerian Afrobeat and Hip Hop music. The fourth major family of Yoruba drums is the Bà tá family, which are well-decorated double-faced drums, with various tones. They were historically played in sacred rituals. They are believed to have been introduced by Shango, an Orisha, during his earthly incarnation as a warrior king.Traditional Yoruba drummers are known as Àyán. The Yoruba believe that Àyángalú was the first drummer, one who became the patron Orisha of drumming following his demise. As a result, he is believed to be the spirit or muse that inspires contemporary drummers during renditions. This is why some Yoruba family names contain the prefix ‘Ayan-’ such as Ayangbade, Ayantunde, Ayanwande.WEB,rateyourmusic.com/genre/Yoruba+Music/, Yoruba music, 14 September 2015, Ensembles using the dundun play a type of music that is also called dundun. The Ashiko (Cone shaped drums), Igbin, Gudugudu (Kettledrums in the Dùndún family), Agidigbo and Bèmbé are other drums of importance. The leader of a dundun ensemble is the oniyalu meaning; ‘ Owner of the mother drum ‘, who uses the drum to “talk” by imitating the tonality of Yoruba. Much of this music is spiritual in nature, and is often devoted to the Orisas.Within each drum family there are different sizes and roles; the lead drum in each family is called ÃŒyá or ÃŒyá ÃŒlù, which means “Mother drum”, while the supporting drums are termed Omele. Yoruba drumming exemplifies West-African cross-rhythms and is considered to be one of the most advanced drumming traditions in the world. Generally, improvisation is restricted to master drummers. Some other instruments found in Yoruba music include, but are not limited to; The Gòjé (violin), Shèkèrè (gourd rattle), Agidigbo (thumb piano that takes the shape of a plucked Lamellophone), Saworo (metal rattles for the arm and ankles, also used on the rim of the bata drum), Fèrè (whistles), Aro (Cymbal)s, Agogô (bell), different types of flutes include the Ekutu, Okinkin and Igba.Oriki (or praise singing), a genre of sung poetry that contains a series of proverbial phrases, praising or characterizing the respective person and which is of Egba and Ekiti origin, is often considered the oldest Yoruba musical tradition. Yoruba music is typically Polyrhythmic, which can be described as interlocking sets of rhythms that fit together somewhat like the pieces in a jigsaw puzzle. There is a basic timeline and each instrument plays a pattern in relation to that timeline. The resulting ensemble provides the typical sound of West African Yoruba drumming. Yoruba music is a component of the modern Nigerian popular music scene. Although traditional Yoruba music was not influenced by foreign music, the same cannot be said of modern-day Yoruba music, which has evolved and adapted itself through contact with foreign instruments, talent, and creativity.{{clear}}Twins in Yoruba society
File:Yoruba Ibeji figures, representing twins Wellcome L0035694.jpg|thumb|right|120x120px|Wooden Ere IbejiIbejiThe Yoruba present the highest dizygotic twinning rate in the world (4.4% of all maternities).JOURNAL,www.randafricanart.com/Yoruba_Customs_and_Beliefs_Pertaining_to_Twins.html, Yoruba Customs and Beliefs Pertaining to Twins, 5, 2, 132–136, Leroy Fernand, Olaleye-Oruene Taiwo, Koeppen-Schomerus Gesina, Bryan Elizabeth, Twin Research, 2002, 10.1375/1369052023009, 11931691, free, BOOK,books.google.com/books?id=UT5iQgAACAAJ&q=Yoruba+twin+art, Ibeji: The Cult of Yoruba Twins Volume 2 of Hic sunt leones, George Chemeche, John Pemberton, John Picton, 5 Continents, 2003, 978-88-7439-060-1, They manifest at 45–50 twin sets (or 90–100 twins) per 1,000 live births, possibly because of high consumption of a specific type of yam containing a natural phytoestrogen that may stimulate the ovaries to release an egg from each side.Twins are very important for the Yoruba and they usually tend to give special names to each twin.JOURNAL,www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/119755283/abstract,www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/119755283/abstract," title="archive.today/20130105100018www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/119755283/abstract,">archive.today/20130105100018www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/119755283/abstract, 2013-01-05, Twinning in Yoruba Women, BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, 67, 6, 981–984, December 1960, Knox George, Morley David, 10.1111/j.1471-0528.1960.tb09255.x, 13757217, 28909380, The first of the twins to be born is traditionally named Taiyewo or Tayewo, which means ‘the first to taste the world’, or the ‘slave to the second twin’, this is often shortened to Taiwo, Taiye or Taye.WEB, The J. Richard Simon Collection of Yoruba Twin Figures – Art & Life in Africa – The University of Iowa Museum of Art,africa.uima.uiowa.edu/topic-essays/show/45?start=2, 2021-01-24, africa.uima.uiowa.edu, en-US, Kehinde is the name of the last born twin. Kehinde is sometimes also referred to as Kehindegbegbon, which is short for; Omo kehin de gba egbon and means, ‘the child that came behind gets the rights of the elder’.WEB, Land of Ibeji,www.noorimages.com/land-of-ibeji-english, NOOR, en-US, 2021-01-24, Twins are perceived as having spiritual advantages or as possessing magical powers.NEWS,www.cnn.com/style/article/stephen-tayo-ibeji-nigeria-twins/index.html, Stephen Tayo captures the sacred kinship of Nigerian twins, Seymour, Tom, 2019-01-31, CNN Style, en, 2019-11-05, This is different from some other cultures, which interpret twins as dangerous or unwanted.Calendar
Time is measured in “á»gán” or “ìṣẹÌjú-à áyá” (seconds), ìṣẹÌjú (minutes), wákà tà (hours), á»já»Ì (days), á»Ì€sẹ̀ (weeks), oṣù (months) and á»dún (years). There are 60 (á»gá»ta) ìṣẹÌjú in 1 (okan) wákà tÃ; 24 (merinleogun) wákà tà in 1 (okan) á»já»Ì; 7 (meje) á»já»Ì in 1 (okan) á»Ì€sẹ̀; 4 (merin) á»Ì€sẹ̀ in 1 (okan) oṣù and 52 (mejilelaadota) á»Ì€sẹ̀ in 1 (okan)á»dún. There are 12 (mejila) oṣù in 1 á»dún.Yorùbá Language: Research and Development {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101207061015www.jolome.com/yoruba/calendar/ |date=7 December 2010}}, 2010 Yorùbá Calendar (Kojoda 10052)#2,3,4,5,6,7{| class=“wikitable“|+ Approximate relation between Yoruba months and Gregorian monthsCuisine
Solid food, mostly cooked, pounded or prepared with hot water, are basic staple foods of the Yoruba. These foods are all by-products of crops like cassava, yams, cocoyam and forms a huge chunk of it all. Others like Plantain, corn, beans, meat, and fish are also chief choices.BOOK,books.google.com/books?id=IIIOAQAAIAAJ, The Kudeti Book of Yoruba Cookery, Mars, J.A., Tooleyo, E.M., CSS, 2003, 978-978-2951-93-9, Some common Yoruba foods are iyan (pounded yam), amala, eba, semo, fufu,(Generally called.“Okele“), moin moin (bean cake) and akara. Soups include egusi, ewedu, Efo, okra, vegetables are also very common as part of the Yoruba diet. Items like rice and beans (locally called ewa) are also featured. Some dishes are prepared for festivities and ceremonies, such as jollof rice and fried rice. Other popular dishes are ekuru, stews, corn, cassava and flours – e.g. maize, yam, plantain and beans, eggs, chicken, beef and assorted forms of meat (ponmo is made from cow skin). Some less well known meals and many miscellaneous staples are arrowroot gruel, sweetmeats, fritters and coconut concoctions; and some breads – yeast bread, rock buns, and palm wine bread to name a few.File:Amala ati Ewedu and Ogunfe.png|Amala is a Yoruba food.BOOK,books.google.com/books?id=oXxBAAAAYAAJ&q=amala, A Vocabulary of the Yoruba Language, Owen Emeric Vidal, Seeleys, 1852, 978-1-9765-8921-8, File:Beans Ball-Akara.jpg|Akara is a Yoruba bean fritter.BOOK,books.google.com/books?id=oXxBAAAAYAAJ&q=akara, A Vocabulary of the Yoruba Language, Owen Emeric Vidal, Seeleys, 1852, 978-1-9765-8921-8, File:Nigeria ofada.jpg|Ofada rice is a Yoruba dish.BOOK,books.google.com/books?id=JdrSAAAAMAAJ&q=%22ofada%20rice%22, Management in Agriculture & Rural Development: A Practicioner’s View, Olusegun Obasanjo, 1983, ARMTI, 978-978-2399-24-3, File:OfadaRice with assorted meat and egg.png|Ofada rice is traditionally in a leaf.File:Moin Moin.jpg|Moin moin is a Yoruba steamed bean pudding.BOOK,books.google.com/books?id=w3r4Xx2059AC&q=%22moin+moin%22, Adimú: Gbogbó Tén’unjé LukumÃ, Miguel Willie Ramos, Eleda.Org Publications, July 2012, 978-1-877845-10-9, File:Delicacies in Yoruba land, Nigeria.jpg|A collection of foods eaten by Yorubas in generalDress
{{Further|Yoruba women’s clothing}} File:African Lace VLM 31.jpg|Simple Iro and Buba with GeleBOOK,books.google.com/books?id=JfbTAAAAMAAJ&q=%22iro+and+buba%22, Fundamentals of Nigerian Marketing, Esogwa C. Osuala, 1988, Pacific Publishers, 978-978-2347-29-9, File:A Yoruba man garbed in traditional clothing (2).png|Agbádá à ti Fìlà BOOK,books.google.com/books?id=CzAqd4vGphoC&q=agbada+and+fila, Yoruba Dress: A Systematic Case Study of Five Generations of a Lagos Family, Betty Marguerite Wass, 1975, Michigan State University. Department of Family Ecology, 978-978-2347-29-9, 143–183, File:A Yoruba woman garbed in traditional clothing.png|Iro and Bùbá, with Gele and Ipele. Blouse, wrapper and headgearFile:A Yoruba man garbed in traditional clothing.png|Bùbá à ti Kèmbè. Agbada top with short baggy pantsBOOK,books.google.com/books?id=n1AuAQAAIAAJ&q=kembe, A Handbook of Nigerian Culture, Frank Aig-Imoukhuede, Nigeria. Federal Ministry of Information and Culture, 1992, Department of Culture, Federal Ministry of Information and Culture, 978-978-31316-1-3, 134, File:A Yoruba woman garbed in traditional clothing (2).png|Iro and Bùbá, with Gele and Ipele made from Ã’fìBOOK,books.google.com/books?id=bH5djwEACAAJ, Aso Oke Yoruba: A Tapestry of Love & Color, a Journey of Personal Discovery, Tola Adenle, February 2, 2016, CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 978-1-5234-9522-1, File:A Nigerian man from the Yoruba ethnicity dressed in typical outdoor event attire.png|Kájà and Kẹmbẹ, A toga-like style. Kájà is thrown over the body as Pakájà File:A Yoruba woman garbed in traditional clothing.jpg|ÃŒró and Bùbá with gele The Yoruba take immense pride in their attire, for which they are well known.{{citation needed|date=June 2022}} Clothing materials traditionally come from processed cotton by traditional weavers.WEB,artsandculture.google.com/exhibit/a-close-up-on-aso-oke-of-the-yoruba/KgKC6Y0ZViQKJw, A close-up on Aso-Oke of the Yoruba – The Centenary Project, Google Arts & Culture, They also believe that the type of clothes worn by a man depicts his personality and social status, and that different occasions require different clothing outfits.File:Nigeria, yoruba, tunica, da okuku, 1916-34 ca.jpg|thumb|right|An older traditional AgbadaAgbada(File:Nigeria, yoruba, copricapo, da okuku, 1916-34 ca.jpg|thumb|left|An Àkẹtè, outdoor cap that tapers off at angles.|145px)Typically, the Yoruba have a very wide range of materials used to make clothing,BOOK,books.google.com/books?id=NA8LAAAAIAAJ&q=yoruba, Official Descriptive and Illustrated Catalogue, Great Britain. Commissioners for the Exhibition of 1851, Robert Ellis (F.L.S.), Spicer Brothers, 953, 1851, JOURNAL, Ajila, K.O, An Appraisal of Traditional Woven Fabric Production in Southwestern Nigeria, European Journal of Sustainable Development, 5, 63–76, 2016, 10.14207/EJSD.2016.V5N1P63, 55621472, free, the most basic being the Aá¹£o-Oke, which is a hand loomed cloth of different patterns and colors sewn into various styles.JOURNAL, Makinde, D. Olajide, Ajiboye, Olusegun Jide, Ajayi, Babatunde Joseph, Aso-Oke Production and Use Among the Yoruba of Southwestern Nigeria, The Journal of Pan African Studies, 3, 3, 6 September 2009,www.jpanafrican.com/docs/vol3no3/3.3AsoOke.pdf, 1 May 2014, This comes in very many different colors and patterns. Aso Oke comes in three major styles based on pattern and coloration;- Alaari – a rich red Aá¹£á»-Oke,
- Sanyan – a brown and usual light brown Aá¹£á»-Oke, and
- Ẹtu – a dark blue Aá¹£á»-Oke.
- Ofi – pure white yarned cloths, used as cover cloth, it can be sewn and worn.
- Aran – a velvet clothing material of silky texture sewn into Danṣiki and Kẹmbẹ, worn by the rich.
- Adirẹ – cloth with various patterns and designs, dye in indigo ink (Ẹlu or Aro).
Demographics
Benin
Estimates of the Yoruba in Benin vary from around 1.1 to 1.5 million people. The Yoruba are the main group in the Benin department of Ouémé, all Subprefectures including Porto Novo (Ajasè), Adjara; Collines Province, all subprefectures including Savè, Dassa-Zoume, Bante, Tchetti, Gouka; Plateau Province, all Subprefectures including Kétou, Sakété, Pobè; Borgou Province, Tchaourou Subprefecture including Tchaourou; Donga Province, Bassila Subprefecture.BOOK, Akintoye, S. A., A history of the Yoruba people, 2010, Amalion Publishing, 978-2-35926-005-2, 800208826,- Places
Ghana
There exists an old and thriving Yoruba community in Ghana tracing back to more than three centuries of establishment.NEWS,www.graphic.com.gh/news/general-news/celebrate-200-years-in-ghana.html/, Yorubas to celebrate 200 years in Ghana, Graphic Online, 9 Nov 2013, The presence of Yoruba people in Ghana traces back to before the concept of the modern Ghanaian nation and are therefore Ghanaian citizens by law. The Yoruba communities became established through various waves and layers for centuries before the colonial era. The earliest wave were long distance merchants, artisans, labourers and explorers who settled in both southern and northern Ghanaian locales such as Salaga, Sekondi-Takoradi, Kumasi, Accra (Jamestown, Ngleshie Alata, Tudu), Yendi, Tamale, Kintampo, Nandom. In Ngleshie Alata (A corruption of English ‘ Alata ‘, the Fante and Ga word for Yoruba people based on the region where the majority came from) and the area around the James Fort, the Yoruba presence dates back to 1673 when they were employed to build the fort and settled in large numbers on the eastern coastal region. It is on record that the first ’Alata Akutso Mantse ‘ or Alata division head, a Yoruba speaker named Ojo employed by the Royal African Company ascended an Accra royal stool becoming head of the Alata quarter of James Town in 1748.BOOK,books.google.com/books?id=6ZB2CgAAQBAJ&dq=Ngleshie+fort+Yoruba&pg=PA82, Gold Coast Diasporas: Identity, Culture, and Power, Walter C. Rucker, Indiana University Press, 82, 2015, 978-0-253-01694-2, - A position his descendants continue to hold to this very day.In the popular 18th century Gonja Salaga Slave Market, the Yoruba residents of the town would not allow their fellow countrymen captured and brought to the markets to be sold to the Ashantis who would march them to the coast. Rather, they would barter for the release of the Yoruba captives who would in turn work for their benefactors as tradesmen until they earned their release.BOOK,books.google.com/books?id=TrpZAAAAYAAJ&q=salaga+oyo+yoruba, Yoruba in Ghana – The Nigerian Journal of Economic and Social Studies, 1975, Nigerian Economic Society, This earliest wave was followed by an intermediate wave of slave returnees who were predominantly of Yoruba descent like the Taboms/Agudas who settled along the Ghanaian coast.BOOK,books.google.com/books?id=T_sHRCc3QNwC&pg=PA125, Tabom. The Afro-Brazilian Community in Ghana, Marco Aurelio Schaumloeffel, Lulu.com, 125, 2014, 978-1-847-9901-36, WEB,beegeagle.wordpress.com/2010/04/28/ghanathe-tabonyoruba-descendantsof-accra/, Ghana:The Tabon (Yoruba descendants)of Accra, 2010-04-28, Then came the third wave who came during the Gold Coast colonial period. By this period, they had firmly entrenched themselves in the country’s commerce and distribution systems and constituted a substantial percentage of merchants and traders in the country’s large markets as proprietors of wholesale enterprises. They were the largest group of immigrants established in the pre-independence Gold Coast. In 1950 they constituted 15% of traders in Accra, 23% in Kumasi, and over a third in Tamale.BOOK, Eades, J.S., Yoruba migrants, markets and the state in Northern Ghana, 1945, Africa World Press Inc, 0-86543-419-0, They were usually referred to in southern Ghana as; Yoruba, Lagosian, Alata, or Anago.JOURNAL,anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1525/ae.1977.4.4.02a00020/, cognitive maps of the ethnic domain in urban Ghana: reflections on variability and change, 1977, 10.1525/ae.1977.4.4.02a00020, Sanjek, Roger, American Ethnologist, 4, 4, 603–622, It was the early stream of this wave in the 1830s that established places like Accra New Town which was previously known as Lagos town and before then as Araromi.There is no codification for the Yoruba ethnicity in the most recent Ghanaian censuses but in previous ones, they were considered an indigenous Ghanaian group with origins outside modern Ghana. In the 1960 Ghanaian population census, there were 109,090 Yorubas. Of this figure; 100,560 were Yoruba ’proper ‘ while 8,530 were Atakpame (Ana).WEB,files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED059936.pdf, Area Handbook for Ghana, 1971, This represented 1.6% of the Ghanaian population.Nigeria
The Yorubas are the main ethnic groups in the Nigerian states of Ekiti, Ogun, Ondo, Osun, Kwara {{·}} Oyo, Lagos, and the Western Third of Kogi State, and can be found as a minority population to varying proportions in; Delta State,WEB,www.fao.org/3/an071e/an071e.pdf, FAO Ethnic study of the Benin river Estuary Area 1991, Pg.V, 57.6% Itsekiri, 23.6% Ilaje, 9 October 2021, WEB,allafrica.com/stories/201003250371.html/, Ilajes in Delta Seek More Projects, 12 March 2014, {{Dead link|date=October 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}WEB,punchng.com/ilaje-communities-seek-inclusion-in-fg-dredging-of-escravos-warri-river/, Ilaje communities seek inclusion in FG dredging of Escravos –Warri River, 9 June 2018, WEB,www.pulse.ng/news/local/dogara-reps-move-to-address-ocean-surge-threat-to-delta-communities/xlv6d40/, Reps move to address ocean surge threat to Delta communities, 11 October 2021, NEWS,dailypost.ng/2020/07/15/dont-politicize-divert-epz-other-projects-from-our-land-ilaje-communities-tell-f, Don’t politicize, divert EPZ, other projects from our land- Ilaje Communities tell FG, 11 October 2021, WEB, http:omojuwa.com/2014/03/a-plea-for-the-creation-of-okun-state-olukoya-obafemi/, A Plea For the Creation of OKUN State - Olukoya Obafemi - OMOJUWA.COM, 11 October 2021, and Edo.WEB,www.udfchicago.net/charity-organization-the-people-of-ode-awure-usen, About the people of Ode Awure (Usen), 11 October 2021, WEB,core.ac.uk/download/pdf/40012591.pdf, Edo South also comprises mainly the Bini ethnic group. There are however some Ijaw, Itsekiri, Urhobo and Yoruba communities in this senatorial district., 11 October 2021, WEB,www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/415354-election-30-notable-things-you-need-to-know-about-edo.html, Ethnography of Edo South., 11 October 2021, WEB,www.edoworld.net/Edotourismlanguage.html, Yoruba- speaking minority communities in Ovia North East and South West Local Government Area., 11 October 2021,- Places
Togo
Estimates of the Yoruba in Togo vary from around 500,000 to 600,000 people. There are both immigrant Yoruba communities from Nigeria, and indigenous ancestral Yoruba communities living in Togo. Footballer Emmanuel Adebayor is an example of a Togolese from an immigrant Yoruba background. Indigenous Yoruba communities in Togo, however can be found in the Togolese departments of Plateaux Region, Anie, Ogou and Est-Mono prefectures; Centrale Region (Tchamba Prefecture). The chief Yoruba cities or towns in Togo are: Atakpame, Anié, Morita (Moretan), Ofe, Elavagnon, Goubi, Kambole, Akpare, Kamina.West Africa (other)
The Yoruba in Burkina Faso are numbered around 77,000 people, and around 80,000 in Niger. In the Ivory Coast, they are concentrated in the cities of Abidjan (Treichville, Adjamé), Bouake, Korhogo, Grand Bassam and Gagnoa where they are mostly employed in retail at major markets.JOURNAL, Adesina, Y. R., Adebayo, P. F., 2009, Yoruba Traders in Cote D’Ivoire: A Study of the Role Migrant Settlers in the Process of Economic Relations in West Africa,www.ajol.info/index.php/afrrev/article/view/43614, African Research Review, en, 3, 2, 10.4314/afrrev.v3i2.43614, 2070-0083, free, WEB,blogdesproductions.wordpress.com/2016/05/23/cote-divoire-commerce-les-secrets-de-la-reussite-des-femmes-yoruba/, Côte d’ivoire: Commerce, les secrets de la réussite des femmes yoruba, Flamme, d’Afrique, 23 May 2016, Otherwise known as “Anago traders”, they dominate certain sectors of the retail economy and number at least 135,000 people.WEB,www.peoplegroups.org/explore/ClusterDetails.aspx?rop2=C0233#topmenu/, People Name: Yoruba of Cote D’Ivoire,The Yoruba diaspora
{{See also|Yoruba American|Nigerian American|Nigerian diaspora|British Nigerian|Nigerians in Ireland|Nigerian Australian}}(File:African Languages Spoken in American Households.jpg|thumb|350px|right|African Languages Spoken in American Households (2019)WEB,data.census.gov/mdat/#/search?ds=ACSPUMS1Y2022&rv=LANP&wt=PWGTP, African languages spoken in American Households, 2020., United States Census Bureau, )Yoruba people or descendants can be found all over the world especially in the United Kingdom, Canada, the United States, Brazil, Latin America, and the Caribbean (especially in Cuba).BOOK, Judith Ann-Marie Byfield,books.google.com/books?id=C6_aWWN5aoUC&q=Yoruba+slaves+Brazil&pg=PA145, Gendering the African Diaspora: Women, Culture, and Historical Change in the Caribbean and Nigerian Hinterland (Blacks in the diaspora): Slavery in Yorubaland, LaRay Denzer, Anthea Morrison, Indiana University Press, 2010, 978-0-253-35416-7, 145, BOOK, Andrew Apter,books.google.com/books?id=LxIaBwAAQBAJ&q=Yoruba+people+Brazil+Cuba&pg=PA101, Activating the Past: History and Memory in the Black Atlantic World, Lauren Derby, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2009, 978-1-4438-1790-5, 101, BOOK,books.google.com/books?id=pY8YAAAAIAAJ&q=Nago+Lucumi+Yoruba+United+States, Encyclopedia of Black studies, 481, Molefi K. Asante, Ama Mazama, 26 December 2006, Sage Publications; University of Michigan, 978-0-7619-2762-4, WEB, Penn Language center, Yoruba,plc.sas.upenn.edu/yoruba, University of Pennsylvania, 28 February 2014, Significant Yoruba communities can be found in South America and Australia.(File:Comemoração ao Dia da Consciência Negra (37656419255).jpg|thumb|left|180px|Commemoration of Black consciousness, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)In the United States, similar to its status on the African continent, the Yoruba language is the most spoken African Niger-Congo language by native speakers. It is the most spoken African language in; Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Mississippi, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas and West Virginia. It constitutes the second largest African linguistic community in; Georgia, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Mississippi, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and Washington, D.C. with over 207,000 speakers in 2022.The migration of Yoruba people all over the world has led to a spread of the Yoruba culture across the globe. Yoruba people have historically been spread around the globe by the combined forces of the Atlantic slave tradeBOOK, Nicholas J. Saunders,books.google.com/books?id=XNbqUR_IoOMC&pg=PA209, The Peoples of the Caribbean: An Encyclopedia of Archeology and Traditional Culture, ABC-CLIO, 2005, 978-1-57607-701-6, 209, BOOK,books.google.com/books?id=5i5ZBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA43, Lydia Cabrera and the Construction of an Afro-Cuban Cultural Identity Envisioning Cuba, Edna M. RodrÃguez-Plate, University of North Carolina Press, 2005, 978-0-8078-7628-2, 43, BOOK,books.google.com/books?id=TFpiCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA250, African Traditional Religion in the Modern World, 258, Douglas E. Thomas, McFarland, 2015, 978-0-7864-9607-5, BOOK,books.google.com/books?id=TJ3vI7ryh8cC&pg=PA134, Yoruba Creativity: Fiction, Language, Life and Songs, Toyin Falola, Ann Genova, Africa World Press, 2005, 978-1-59221-336-8, 134, and voluntary self migration.BOOK, Nicholas J. Saunders,books.google.com/books?id=XNbqUR_IoOMC&pg=PA209, The Peoples of the Caribbean: An Encyclopedia of Archeology and Traditional Culture, ABC-CLIO, 2005, 978-1-57607-701-6, 209, Their exact population outside Africa is unknown. Yorubas are overrepresented in the genetic studies of African Americans and are not the largest contributors of African American DNA by any means.JOURNAL, Jackson, Fatimah, 2021, So many Nigerians: why is Nigeria overrepresented as the ancestral genetic homeland of Legacy African North Americans?, American Journal of Human Genetics, 108, 1, 202–208, 10.1016/j.ajhg.2020.10.010, 33321100, 7820629, In their Atlantic world domains, the Yorubas were known by the designations: “Nagos/Anago”, “Terranova”, “Lucumi” and “Aku”, or by the names of their various clans.The Yoruba left an important presence in Cuba and Brazil,BOOK,books.google.com/books?id=HwcdAQAAMAAJ, Orient Occident. News of Unesco’s Major Project on Mutual Appreciation of Eastern and Western Cultural Values, Volumes 5–8, 9, UNESCO (University of Michigan), 1962, particularly in Havana and Bahia.BOOK,books.google.com/books?id=Vxx0F6zZUfwC&pg=PA50, Black Urban Atlantic in the Age of the Slave Trade (The Early Modern Americas), Jorge Canizares-Esguerra, Matt D. Childs, James Sidbury, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013, 978-0-8122-0813-9, 50, According to a 19th-century report, “the Yoruba are, still today, the most numerous and influential in this state of Bahia.BOOK, Melvin Ember,books.google.com/books?id=7QEjPVyd9YMC&pg=PA318, Encyclopedia of Diasporas: Immigrant and Refugee Cultures Around the World, Carol R. Ember, Ian Skoggard, Springer Science & Business Media, 2004, 978-0-306-4832-19, 318, BOOK,books.google.com/books?id=dg1yAAAAMAAJ&q=yoruba+people+diaspora+demographics+population+in+south+america, African Studies for the 21st Century, Jacob U. Gordon, Nova Science Publishers (University of Michigan), 2004, 978-1-594-5410-32, 111, BOOK,books.google.com/books?id=owVmcTlC-oIC&q=Yoruba+slaves+Brazil&pg=PA24, 24, 978-0-8263-4051-1, From Slavery to Freedom in Brazil: Bahia, 1835–1900 (Dialogos Series), Dale Torston Graden, 2006, The University of New Mexico, BOOK,books.google.com/books?id=JsCYBgAAQBAJ&q=Yoruba+in+Bahia, The Development of Yoruba Candomble Communities in Salvador, Bahia, 1835–1986 Afro-Latin@ Diasporas, Miguel C. Alonso, Palgrave Macmillan, 2014, 978-1-137-48643-1, The most numerous are those from Oyo, capital of the Yoruba kingdom”.WEB,www.novaera.blog.br/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&catid=6:candomble&id=17:presenca-dos-iorubas-no-conjunto-de-influencias-africanas-no-brasil&Itemid=2, Presence of the Yoruba African influences in Brazil, pt, Nova Era, 1 May 2014, 8 November 2014,www.novaera.blog.br/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&catid=6:candomble&id=17:presenca-dos-iorubas-no-conjunto-de-influencias-africanas-no-brasil&Itemid=2," title="web.archive.org/web/20141108013848www.novaera.blog.br/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&catid=6:candomble&id=17:presenca-dos-iorubas-no-conjunto-de-influencias-africanas-no-brasil&Itemid=2,">web.archive.org/web/20141108013848www.novaera.blog.br/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&catid=6:candomble&id=17:presenca-dos-iorubas-no-conjunto-de-influencias-africanas-no-brasil&Itemid=2, dead, JOURNAL, The diaspora of speakers of Yoruba, 1650–1865: Dimensions and implications, Topoi,www.revistatopoi.org/numeros_anteriores/topoi13/Topoi%2013_artigo%201.pdf, 2006, 7, 13, David Eltis, pt, 1 May 2014, 16 January 2014,www.revistatopoi.org/numeros_anteriores/topoi13/Topoi%2013_artigo%201.pdf," title="web.archive.org/web/20140116143350www.revistatopoi.org/numeros_anteriores/topoi13/Topoi%2013_artigo%201.pdf,">web.archive.org/web/20140116143350www.revistatopoi.org/numeros_anteriores/topoi13/Topoi%2013_artigo%201.pdf, Others included Ijexa (Ijesha), Lucumi, Ota (Aworis), Ketus, Ekitis, Jebus (Ijebu), Egba, Lucumi Ecumacho (Ogbomosho), and Anagos. In the documents dating from 1816 to 1850, Yorubas constituted 69.1% of all slaves whose ethnic origins were known, constituting 82.3% of all slaves from the Bight of Benin. The proportion of slaves from West-Central Africa (Angola – Congo) dropped drastically to just 14.7%.BOOK,books.google.com/books?id=Uk1Tbdsq99gC, The Yoruba Diaspora in the Atlantic World (Blacks in the Diaspora), Toyin Falola, Matt D. Childs, Indiana University Press, 2005, 978-0-253-00301-0, 2 May 2005, Between 1831 and 1852, the African-born slave and free population of Salvador, Bahia surpassed that of free Brazil born Creoles. Meanwhile, between 1808 and 1842 an average of 31.3% of African-born freed persons had been Nagos (Yoruba). Between 1851 and 1884, the number had risen to a dramatic 73.9%.Other areas that received a significant number of Yoruba people and are sites of Yoruba influence are: The Bahamas, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Saint Lucia, Grenada, Santa Margarita, Trinidad and Tobago, Belize, Guyana, Haiti, JamaicaBOOK, Olive Senior,books.google.com/books?id=URx7AAAAMAAJ&q=yoruba+slaves+in+jamaica, Encyclopedia of Jamaican Heritage, University of Michigan (Twin Guinep Publishers), 2003, 978-976-8007-14-8, 343, (where they settled and established such places as Abeokuta, Naggo head in Portmore, and by their hundreds in other parishes like Hanover and Westmoreland, both in western Jamaica- leaving behind practices such as Ettu from Etutu, the Yoruba ceremony of atonement among other customs of people bearing the same name, and certain aspects of Kumina such as Sango veneration),BOOK,books.google.com/books?id=e3mdhCNLo9cC&pg=PA105, 105, Jamaica in Slavery and Freedom: History, Heritage and Culture, Kathleen E. A. Monteith, Glen Richards, University of the West Indies Press, 2001, 978-976-640-108-5, BOOK,books.google.com/books?id=9M4Wtsh8di4C&pg=PT18, A Comparative Analysis of Jamaican Creole and Nigerian Pidgin English, Pamela Odimegwu, 2012, Pamela Odimegwu, 978-1-4781-5890-5, BOOK,books.google.com/books?id=qXavxrsgZ2AC&pg=PA59, The Language, Ethnicity and Race Reader, Roxy Harris, Ben Rampton, Ben Rampton, Psychology Press, 59, 2003, 978-0-415-27601-6, BOOK,books.google.com/books?id=-r1qAAAAMAAJ, Freedom to be: The Abolition of Slavery in Jamaica and Its Aftermath, Urban Development Corporation (Jamaica), University of Texas (National Library of Jamaica), 1984, 978-976-8020-00-0, JOURNAL,books.google.com/books?id=r0gYAAAAYAAJ, 91, Jamaica Journal, live,web.archive.org/web/20220407162251/https://books.google.com/books?id=r0gYAAAAYAAJ, 7 April 2022, Jamaica Journal, 27–28, Institute of Jamaica (the University of Virginia), 2000, the settlement of Central Africans, Notably in St. Thomas parish in the east, and of Nago or Yoruba in Westmoreland and Hanover parishes in the west., BOOK,books.google.com/books?id=tF0YAAAAYAAJ, Roots of Jamaican culture, Mervyn C. Alleyne, Pluto Press (the University of Virginia), 1988, 978-0-7453-0245-4, WEB,www.geocities.ws/shandycan/Africanretentions_Jamaica.html, Africanretentions_Jamaica-_ettu_nago, Hazel, Campbell, CaribbeanWriter, geocities.ws, Barbados, Montserrat, etc.On 31 July 2020, the Yoruba World Congress joined the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO).WEB, UNPO Welcomes 5 New Members!, unpo.org, 3 August 2020,unpo.org/article/22010, 7 August 2020, WEB, Guam: Territory to be Inducted into UNPO, unpo.org, 31 July 2020,unpo.org/article/22015, 7 August 2020,Genetics
Genetic studies have shown the Yoruba to cluster most closely with West African peoples, followed by Central and Eastern African groups speaking Niger-Congo languages.JOURNAL, Michael C. Campbell, Sarah A. Tishkoff, African Genetic Diversity: Implications for Human Demographic History, Modern Human Origins, and Complex Disease Mapping, Annual Review of Genomics and Human Genetics, 9, sciencemag, September 2008,www.sciencemag.org/content/suppl/2009/04/30/1172257.DC1/Tishkoff.SOM.pdf, 22 December 2013, File:Distribution of haplogroup e1b1a in Rosa 2007.jpg|thumb|right|Map showing the average distribution and concentration of the haplogroup E1b1a (E-M2E-M2Yoruba people belong largely to the E1b1a1 subclade of the E-M2 haplogroup along with the Ewe, Ga, and Bamileke peoples of West Africa and Cameroon. Genetic studies have also found evidence of West-Eurasian admixture in Yoruba populations, with up to 8.6% West-Eurasian ancestry being found among modern Yoruba samples.JOURNAL, Insights into human genetic variation and population history from 929 diverse genomes, Anders, Bergström, Shane A., McCarthy, Ruoyun, Hui, Mohamed A., Almarri, Qasim, Ayub, Petr, Danecek, Yuan, Chen, Sabine, Felkel, Pille, Hallast, Jack, Kamm, Hélène, Blanché, Jean-François, Deleuze, Howard, Cann, Swapan, Mallick, David, Reich, Manjinder S., Sandhu, Pontus, Skoglund, Aylwyn, Scally, Yali, Xue, Richard, Durbin, Chris, Tyler-Smith, 20 March 2020, Science, 367, 6484, 10.1126/science.aay5012, 32193295, 7115999, This admixture may have been introduced 7,500–10,500 years ago from North Africa during the Green Saharan period.JOURNAL, Gurdasani, Deepti, Carstensen, Tommy, 1, 3 December 2014, The African Genome Variation Project shapes medical genetics in Africa,www.nature.com/articles/nature13997.pdf, live, Nature (journal), Nature, 517, 7534, 327–332, 2015Natur.517..327G, 10.1038/nature13997, 25470054, 4297536,web.archive.org/web/20210516190950/https://www.well.ox.ac.uk/~gav/GEIA/Durban_2015/Journal%20Club/African%20Genome%20Variation%20Project/2014_Gurdasani_et_al_AGVP_Nature_517_327.pdf, 16 May 2021, free, Another full genome study on African populations found that the Yoruba (Yoruba/Esen cluster of West Africa) received varying degrees of West-Eurasian admixture, although generally at low frequency, indirectly through contact with Northern African pastoralists.JOURNAL, Serra-Vidal, Gerard, Lucas-Sanchez, Marcel, Fadhlaoui-Zid, Karima, Bekada, Asmahan, Zalloua, Pierre, Comas, David, 2019-11-18, Heterogeneity in Palaeolithic Population Continuity and Neolithic Expansion in North Africa, Current Biology, en, 29, 22, 3953–3959.e4, 10.1016/j.cub.2019.09.050, 31679935, 204972040, 0960-9822, free, 2019CBio...29E3953S, {{clearleft}}Foreign representation
The Yoruba people have participated in more recent cultural exchange programs with members of the African diaspora to preserve shared cultural and identity relationships between the two parties. One of these programs is a cultural site, the Oyotunji African Village in Sheldon County, South Carolina, founded by Oba Efuntola Oseijeman Adelabu and established in 1970.BOOK, 2004,books.google.com/books?id=SmmUAgAAQBAJ&q=Yoruba+families+Oyotunji+African+village&pg=PA660, African Folklore: An Encyclopedia, Philip M., Peek, Kwesi, Yankah, Routledge, 660, 978-1-135-94873-3, 7385565477, BOOK,books.google.com/books?id=6p2aLo2kafMC&pg=PA32, The United States and West Africa: Interactions and Relations (Rochester studies in African history and the diaspora), 34, Alusine, Jalloh, Toyin, Falola, University Rochester Press, 2008, 978-1-58046-308-9, 32, 166379802, More recent diplomatic efforts centered around Yoruba cross-cultural celebration include the voyage of the Ooni (King) of Ife to the city of Bahia in Salvador, Brazil, home of a large number of Yoruba descendants, to celebrate the city as the cultural capital of the Yoruba people in the Western Hemisphere.NEWS, Akinwale, Funsho, Ooni of Ife’s day of glory in Brazil,guardian.ng/saturday-magazine/high-society/ooni-of-ifes-day-of-glory-in-brazil/, The Guardian, 16 June 2018, NEWS, Travae, Marques, In historic visit of King Ooni Adeyeye Enitan Babatunde Ogunwusi of Ile-Ife, Nigeria, Bahia is declared the Yoruba Capital of the Americas,blackbraziltoday.com/bahia-is-declared-the-yoruba-capital/, BLACK BRAZIL TODAY, 19 June 2018,Notable people of Yoruba origin
Yoruba organizations
- AfenifereWEB
,nigeriaworld.com/articles/2007/aug/145.html
, Afenifere and Yoruba Council of Elders: Who and Where Are They?
, Dr. Lanre Tytler
, August 14, 2007
, NigeriaWorld
, 2009-11-08,
, Afenifere and Yoruba Council of Elders: Who and Where Are They?
, Dr. Lanre Tytler
, August 14, 2007
, NigeriaWorld
, 2009-11-08,
- AmotekunWEB,www.pmnewsnigeria.com/2020/01/09/operation-amotekun-western-nigeria-governors-launch-security-outfit, Operation Amotekun: Western Nigeria governors launch security outfit, 9 January 2020, P.M. News, 15 January 2020,
- Oodua Peoples Congress
Issues
{{Wikinews|Yorubas in New York Protest at UN Headquarters|Wikimania 2012 tackles diversity issues}}Along with people of other regions that are largely representative of ethnic enclaves within the country, Yorubas have faced growing concerns over increased insecurity and instability within the country. On 9 January 2020, the governors of 6 of the country’s western states became associated with the formation of state security networks which would operate in each state. This security network is called Amotekun and is managed by the office of each state governor with full co-operation of the legal protocols of Nigeria.WEB,www.pulse.ng/news/local/south-west-governors-explain-why-operation-amotekun-was-established/f5rxgk2, South West governors explain why operation Amotekun was established, 9 January 2020, Pulse NG, 15 January 2020, NEWS,tribuneonlineng.com/the-real-significance-of-amotekun, The Real Significance Of Amotekun, Nigerian Tribune, Rasheed, Olawale, 15 January 2020, 15 January 2020,Prominent chiefs
{{See also|Royal titles of Yoruba monarchs}}See also
Notes
{{Notelist}}References
{{reflist|colwidth=30em}}Bibliography
- BOOK, Stephen, Akintoye, 2010, A History of the Yoruba People, Amalion, 978-2-35926-005-2,
- BOOK, Bascom, William, 1984, The Yoruba of Southwestern Nigeria, Waveland Pr Inc, 978-0-88133-038-0,
- BOOK, Blier, Suzanne Preston, 2015, Art and Risk in Ancient Yoruba: Ife History, Power, and Identity, c.1300, Cambridge University Press, 978-1-107-02166-2,
- BOOK, Johnson, Samuel, The History of the Yorubas, 1997, Paperpack, 978-978-32292-9-7,
- BOOK, The Religion of the Yorubas, Lucas, Jonathan Olumide, 1996, Athelia Henrietta Press, 978-0-9638787-8-6,
- BOOK, Law, Robin, The Oyo Empire, c. 1600 – c. 1836: A West African Imperialism in the Era of the Atlantic Slave Trade, 1977, Clarendon Press, 978-0-19-822709-0,
- BOOK, Ogunyemi, Yemi D., The Oral Traditions in Ile-Ife, Academica Press, 978-1-933146-65-2, 2010,
- BOOK, Smith, Robert, Kingdoms of the Yoruba, Paperpack, 1988, 978-0-299-11604-0,
- BOOK, Falola, Toyin, Childs, Matt D, The Yoruba Diaspora in the Atlantic World, 2005, Indiana University Press, 978-0-253-21716-5,
- Olumola, Isola; et al. Prominent Traditional Rulers of Yorubaland, Ibadan 2003.
External links
{{Scholia|topic}}- {{Commons category-inline}}
Books and Research
- Oshielle, Or, Village Life in the Yoruba Country book
- Seventeen Years in the Yoruba Country book
- The Yoruba-speaking Peoples book
- Yoruba Research
- The Yoruba City
Discussion
- Yoruba priest Baba John Mason talks about the Yoruba diaspora and culture and the Orisha religion (2017)
- Yoruba Blog
Representation
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