Yoruba people Yoruba people ( Yoruba: Ìran Yorùbá, literally: dates to the second half of the 19th century. It is due to Yoruba lineage, also known as Àwon omo Yorùbá, lit- the influence of Samuel Ajayi Crowther, the first Angli- erally: Children of Yoruba, or simply as Yoruba) are an can bishop in Nigeria. Crowther was himself a Yoruba ethnic group of Southwestern and North Central Nigeria and compiled the first Yoruba dictionary as well as intro- as well as Southern and Central Benin, together known as ducing a standard for Yoruba orthography.[25][26] The al- Yorubaland. The Yoruba constitute over 40 million peo- ternative name Akú, apparently an exonym derived from ple in total. The majority of this population is from Nige- the first words of Yoruba greetings (such as Ẹ kú àárọ? ria and make up 21% of its population, according to the “good morning”, Ẹ kú alẹ? “good evening”) has survived CIA World Factbook,[1] making them one of the largest in certain parts of their diaspora as a self-descriptive, es- ethnic groups in Africa. The majority of the Yoruba pecially in Sierra Leone[24][27][28] speak the Yoruba language, which is tonal, and is the Niger-Congo language with the largest number of native speakers.[9] The Yoruba share borders with the Bariba to the north- west in Benin; the Nupe to the north, and the Ebira to the northeast in central Nigeria. To the east are the Edo, Ẹsan, and the Afemai groups in mid-western Nigeria. Adjacent the Ebira and Edo groups are the related Igala people found in the northeast to the left bank of the Niger river. To the southwest are the Gbe speaking Mahi, Egun, Fon and Ewe who border Yoruba communities in Benin and Togo. To the southeast are Itsekiri who live in the north-west end of the Niger delta. They are ancestrally Map of the Yoruba Cultural Area of West Africa., showing some related to the Yoruba but chose to maintain a distinct cul- settlements. tural identity. Significant Yoruba populations in other West African countries can be found in Ghana,[10][11][12] Ivory Coast,[13] Liberia and Sierra Leone.[14] 2 Language The Yoruba diaspora consists of two main groupings; one of them includes relatively recent migrants, the ma- Main article: Yoruba language jority of which moved to the United Kingdom and the United States after major economic and political changes The Yoruba culture was originally an oral tradition, and in the 1960s to 1980s; the other is a much older pop- the majority of Yoruba people are native speakers of the ulation dating back to the Atlantic slave trade. This Yoruba language. The number of speakers is roughly esti- older group has communities in such countries as Cuba, mated at about 30 million in 2010.[29] Yoruba is classified [15] Dominican Republic, Saint Lucia, Jamaica, Brazil, within the Edekiri languages, which together with the iso- [16] [17][18][19][20][21][22][23] Grenada, Trinidad and Tobago, late Igala, form the Yoruboid group of languages within among others. the Volta-Niger branch of the Niger-Congo family. Igala and Yoruba have important historical and cultural rela- tionships. The languages of the two ethnic groups bear 1 Etymology such a close resemblance that researchers such as Forde (1951) and Westermann and Bryan (1952) regarded Igala As an ethnic description, the word “Yoruba” was first as a dialect of Yoruba. recorded in reference to the Oyo Empire in a treatise writ- The Yoruboid languages are assumed to have developed ten by the 16th-century Songhai scholar Ahmed Baba. out of an undifferentiated Volta-Niger group by the 1st It was popularized by Hausa usage[24] and ethnography millennium BCE. There are three major dialect areas: written in Arabic and Ajami during the 19th century, in Northwest, Central, and Southeast.[30] As the North-West origin referring to the Oyo exclusively. The extension of Yoruba dialects show more linguistic innovation, com- the term to all speakers of dialects related to the language bined with the fact that Southeast and Central Yoruba ar- of the Oyo (in modern terminology North-West Yoruba) eas generally have older settlements, suggests a later date 1 2 3 HISTORY of immigration for Northwest Yoruba.[31] The area where high walls and gates. Yoruba cities have always been North-West Yoruba (NWY) is spoken corresponds to the among the most populous in Africa. Archaeological find- historical Oyo Empire. South-East Yoruba (SEY) was ings indicate that Òyó-Ilé or Katunga, capital of the probably associated with the expansion of the Benin Em- Yoruba empire of Oyo (fl. between the 11th and 19th pire after c. 1450.[32] Central Yoruba forms a transitional centuries CE), had a population of over 100,000 people area in that the lexicon has much in common with NWY, (the largest single population of any African settlement at whereas it shares many ethnographical features with SEY. that time in history). For a long time also, Ibadan, one of Literary Yoruba, the standard variety taught in schools the major Yoruba cities, was the largest city in the whole of Sub Saharan Africa. Today, Lagos (Yorùbá: Èkó), an- and spoken by newsreaders on the radio, has its origin in the Yoruba grammar compiled in the 1850s by Bishop other major Yoruba city, with a population of over twenty million, remains the largest on the African continent.[36] Samuel Ajayi Crowther, who himself was a creole from Sierra Leone. Though for a large part based on the Oyo Archaeologically, the settlement of Ile-Ife showed fea- and Ibadan dialects, it incorporates several features from tures of urbanism in the 12th–14th century era. In the other dialects.[33] 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 3 History of which appear to have been created under the patron- age of King Obalufon II, the man who today is identi- fied as the Yoruba patron deity of brass casting, weav- Main article: History of the Yoruba people ing and regalia.[37] The dynasty of kings at Ile-Ife, which Further information: Ife is regarded by the Yoruba as the place of origin of hu- Further information: Yoruba religion man civilization, remains intact to this day. The urban As of the 7th century BCE the African peoples who lived phase of Ile-Ife before the rise of Oyo, c. 1100–1600, a significant peak of political centralization in the 12th century)[38][39] 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.[40][41] 3.1 Oyo and Ile-Ife Ife continues to be seen as the "Spiritual Homeland" of the Yoruba. The city was surpassed by the Oyo Em- pire[42] as the dominant Yoruba military and political power in the 17th century.[43] The 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 Some Yoruba cities of the Middle Ages of tribute of subject populations, who in turn sometimes made war on other peoples to capture the required slaves. in Yorubaland were not initially known as the Yoruba, Part of the slaves sold by the Oyo Empire entered the although they shared a common ethnicity and language Atlantic slave trade.[44][45] group. By the 8th century, a powerful Yoruba kingdom Most of the city states were controlled by Obas (or royal already existed in Ile-Ife, one of the earliest in Africa. sovereigns with various individual titles) and councils The historical Yoruba develop in situ, out of earlier made up of Oloyes, recognised leaders of royal, noble Mesolithic Volta-Niger populations, by the 1st millen- and, often, even common descent, who joined them in nium BCE. Oral history recorded under the Oyo Empire ruling over the kingdoms through a series of guilds and derives the Yoruba as an ethnic group from the popula- cults. Different states saw differing ratios of power be- tion of the older kingdom of Ile-Ife. The Yoruba were the tween the kingships and the chiefs’ councils. Some, such dominant cultural force in southern Nigeria as far back as as Oyo, had powerful, autocratic monarchs with almost the 11th century.[34] total control, while in others such as the Ijebu city-states, The Yoruba are among the most urbanized people in the senatorial councils held more influence and the power of the ruler or Ọba, referred to as the Awujale of Ijebu- Africa. For centuries before the arrival of the British [41] colonial administration most Yoruba already lived in well land, was more limited. structured urban centers organized around powerful city- Yoruba settlements are often described as primar- states (Ìlú) centered around the residence of the Oba.[35] ily one or more of the main social groupings called In ancient times, most of these cities were fortresses, with “generations":[46] 4.1 Government 3 Oyo Empire and surrounding states. 4.1 Government Monarchies were a common form of government in Yorubaland, but they were not the only approach to gov- ernment and social organization. The numerous Ijebu city-states to the west of Oyo and the Ẹgba communi- ties, found in the forests below Ọyọ's savanna region, were notable exceptions. These independent polities of- ten elected an Ọba, though real political, legislative, and judicial powers resided with the Ogboni, a council of no- table elders.