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The 'Yoruba' (''Yorùbá'' in Yoruba orthography) are a large ethno-linguistic group or ethnic nation in Africa; the majority of them speak the Yoruba language (èdèe Yorùbá; èdè = language). The Yoruba constitute approximately 21 percent of Nigeria's total population,^[1] and around 30 million individuals throughout the region of West Africa.^[2] They share borders with the Borgu (variously called Bariba and Borgawa) in the northwest, the Nupe and Ebira in the north, the Ẹsan Afemai and Edo to the southeast, the Igala and other related groups to the northeast, and the Egun, Fon, and other Gbe-speaking peoples in the southwest. While the majority of the Yoruba live in southwestern Nigeria, there are also substantial indigenous Yoruba communities in Benin, Ghana and Togo.
The Yoruba are the main ethnic group in the states of Ekiti, Lagos, Ogun, Ondo, Osun, and Oyo, which are subdivisions of Nigeria; they also constitute a sizable proportion of Kwara and Kogi states as well as of the Benin.
Many people of African descent in the Americas have claim to Yoruba ancestry (along with several other ethnic groups) to some degree. A significant percentage of Africans enslaved during the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade in the Americas were Yoruba.

Contents

History

General history

Different names

Yoruba origin mythology

Cosmogonic Origin Mythology

After Oduduwa

Precolonial social organization

Yoruba religion and mythology

Yoruba towns

Yoruba Diaspora

See also

References

External links

History

General history

Main articles: Oyo Empire

It is thought that the Yoruba slowly began to move southwest from the Nok Region of present Central Nigeria, possibly due to a combination of drought and the expansion of the Hausa, around 900 CE. The mythical leader Oduduwa appears to have found fame by subjugating the native occupants and founding the small kingdom of Ile Ife around 1100 CE.
Further expansion led to the establishment of the Yoruba in what are now Southwest Nigeria, Benin, and Togo, with Yoruba city-states acknowledging the primacy of the ancient city of Ile Ife. The southeastern Benin Empire, ruled by a dynasty that traced its ancestry to Ifẹ and Oduduwa but largely populated by the Igbo and other related ethnicities, also held considerable sway in the election of nobles and kings in eastern Yorubaland.
Between 1100 CE and 1700 CE, the Yoruba Kingdom of Ife experienced a golden age. Between 1700 CE and 1900 CE, Oyo was the dominant Yoruba power. The nearby Kingdom of Benin was also a powerful force between 1300 and 1850 CE.
Most of the city states were controlled by monarchs (''Obas'') and councils made up of nobles, guild leaders, and merchants. Different states saw differing ratios of power between the two. Some had powerful, autocratic monarchs with almost total control, while in others, the senatorial councils were supreme and the ''Ọba'' served as a figurehead.
In all cases, Yoruba monarchs were subject to the continuing approval of their constituents, and could be easily compelled to abdicate for demonstrating dictatorial tendencies or incompetence. The order to vacate the throne was usually communicated through a symbolic message or ''aroko'', of parrots' eggs delivered by the senators.
The Yoruba had come under the political leadership of the city state of Oyo located on the Northern fringes of Yorubaland in the savanna plains between the forests of present Southwest Nigeria and the Niger River. Following a Jihad led by Uthman Dan Fodio and a rapid consolidation of the Hausa city states of present northern Nigeria, the Fulani Sokoto Caliphate annexed the buffer Nupe Kingdom and began to press southwards towards the Oyo Empire. Shortly after, they overran the Yoruba city of Ilorin and sacked Ọyọ-Ile, the capital city of the Ọyọ Empire.
Following this, Ọyọ-Ile was abandoned and the Ọyọ retreated south to the present city of Oyo (Oyo Atiba) in a forested region where the calvary of the Sokoto Caliphate was less effective. However, the Oyo Empire had been dealt a mortal blow of from which it would never recover and the Yoruba fragmented into squabbling city states.
Neverthless, further attempts by the Sokoto Caliphate to expand southwards were checked by the Yoruba who had rallied to resist under the military leadership of the City State of Ibadan. This was the situation into which the British entered and imposed a peace ... the Pax Brittanica.

Different names

Aside from "Yoruba" and its variant "Yariba", this ethnic group was in different times and places known by a variety of other names, including "Akú", "Okun", "Nago", "Anago" and "Ana" and "Lucumi".
Before the abolition of the slave trade, some Yoruba groups were known among Europeans as ''Akú'', a name derived from the first words of Yoruba greetings such as ''Ẹ kú àárọ?'' ‘good morning’ and ''Ẹ kú alẹ?'' ‘good evening.’ A variant of this group is also known as the "Okun", Okun being also a form of "A ku". These are Yorubas found in parts of the states of Kogi - the "Yagba", Ekiti and Kabba.
The terms "Nago", "Anago" and "Ana" derived from the name of a coastal Yoruba sub-group in the present-day Republic of Benin, were also widely used in Spanish and Portuguese documents to describe all speakers of the language. Yoruba in Francophone West Africa are still sometimes known by this ethnonym today.
In Cuba and Spanish-speaking America, the Yoruba were called "Lucumi" after the phrase "O luku mi", meaning "my friend" in some dialects. This term is at present used mainly to refer to an Afro-Caribbean religion derived from the traditional Yoruba religion, more often known as Santería. During the 19th century, the term ''Yariba'' or ''Yoruba '' came into wider use, first confined to the Ọyọ. The term is often believed to be derived from a Hausa ethnonym for the populous people to their south, but this has not been substantiated by historians.
As an ethnic description, the word first appeared in a treatise written by the Songhai scholar Ahmed Baba (1500s) and is likely to derive from the indigenous ethnonyms Ọyọ (Oyo) or Yagba, two Yoruba-speaking groups along the northern borders of their terrority. However, it is likely that the ethnonym was popularized by Hausa usage and ethnography written in Arabic and Ajami. Under the influence of Bishop Samuel Ajayi Crowther, a Yoruba clergyman, subsequent missionaries extended the term to include all speakers of related dialects.

Yoruba origin mythology

The mythology of the origin of the Yoruba, who refer to themselves as "Omo O'odua" (Children of Oduduwa), revolves around a mythical figure called Oduduwa or Odudua . The meaning of the name is not clear but has been translated to mean "the one ("O/Ohun") who created the knowledge ("odu") of character ("iwa")."
There are two variants of the myth of how Oduduwa became the legendary progenitor of the Yoruba.

Cosmogonic Origin Mythology

"Orisa'nla" (The Great Divinity) also known as Ọbatala was the arch-divinity chosen by Olodumare, the supreme deity, to create solid land out of the primordial water that constituted the earth and populating the land with human beings. Ọbatala descended from heaven on a chain, carrying a small snail shell full of earth, palm kernels and a five-toed chicken. He was to empty the content of the snail shell on the water after placing some pieces of iron on it, and then to place the chicken on the earth to spread it over the primordial water.
According to the first variant of the cosmogonic myth, Ọbatala completed this task to the satisfaction of Olodumare and he was then given the task of making the physical body of human beings after which Olodumare would give them the breath of life. He also completed this task and this is why he has the title of "Obarisa" (King of all Deities).
The other variant of the cosmogonic myth does not credit Ọbatala with the completion of the task. While it concedes he was given the task, it claims that he got drunk before he got to the earth and was thus unable to do the job. Olodumare got worried when he did not return on time and sent Oduduwa to investigate. When Oduduwa found Ọbatala in a drunken state, he took over the task and completed it.
The spot on which he landed and which he redeemed from water to become land is called Ilė-Ifę and is considered the sacred and spiritual home of the Yoruba. Olodumare later forgave Ọbatala and gave him the responsibility of molding the physical bodies of human beings.
According to Idowu, 1962, the making of land is a symbolic reference to the founding
of the Yoruba kingdoms and this is why Oduduwa is credited with that achievement.
According to this version, there was a pre-existing civilization at Ilė-Ifę prior to its invasion by a group from the east led by Oduduwa. Oduduwa and his group had been persecuted on the basis of religious differences and forced out of their homeland. They came to Ilė-Ifę where they subjugated the pre-existing Igbo inhabitants (unrelated to the present Igbo of Eastern Nigeria) led by Oreluere (Ọbatala).

After Oduduwa

Upon the death of Oduduwa, there was a dispersal of his children from Ilė-Ifę to found other kingdoms (Owu, Ketu, Benin, Ila, Sabe, Popo, and Oyo). Each making a mark in the subsequent urbanization and consolidation of Yoruba confederacy of kingdoms, with each kingdom tracing its origin to Ile-Ife.

Precolonial social organization

See also Oyo Empire#Political structures
Though monarchies were fairly common throughout the Yoruba-speaking region, they were not the only approach to government and social organization. The numerous Ẹgba communities, found in the forests below Ọyọ's savannah region, were a notable example. These independent polities often elected an ''Ọba'', though real political, legislative, and judicial powers resided with the ''Ogboni'', a council of notable elders.
When citizens of more than 150 Ẹgba and Owu communities migrated to the fortified city-state of Abeokuta during the internecine wars of the 19th century, 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 then 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 an 1853 edition of the ''Church Military Intelligencer'', 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." He described Abẹokuta and its system of government as "the most extraordinary republic in the world."
Gerontocratic leadership councils that guarded against the monopolization of power by a monarch were a proverbial trait of the Ẹgba, according to the eminent Ọyọ historian Reverend Samuel Johnson, but such councils were also well-developed among the northern Okun groups, the eastern Ekiti, and other groups falling under the Yoruba ethnic umbrella.
Even in Ọyọ, the most centralized of the precolonial kingdoms, the ''Alaafin'' consulted on all political decisions with a prime minister (the ''Basọrun'') and the council of leading nobles known as the ''Ọyọ Mesi''.
Ibadan, a city-state and proto-empire founded in the 19th century by a polyglot group of refugees, soldiers, and itinerant traders from Ọyọ and the other Yoruba sub-groups, 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 powers 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.
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. When the Ẹgba resisted the imperial domination of the Ọyọ 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 to overthrow Ọyọ's ''Ajeles'' (appointed administrators) in the late 1700s.
Similarly, covert military resistance leagues like the ''Ekitiparapọ'' and the ''Ogidi'' alliance were organized during the 19th century wars by often-decentralized communities of the Ekiti, Ijẹṣa, Ìgbómìnà and Okun Yoruba in order to resist various imperial expansionist plans of Ibadan, Nupe, and the Sokoto Caliphate.
The monarchy of any city state was usually limited to a number of royal lineages. A family could be excluded from kingship and chieftancy 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. There are also, in Ileṣa, Ondo, and other Yoruba communities, several traditions of female ''Ọbas'', though these were comparatively rare.
The kings were almost always polygamous and many had as many as 20 wives and often married royal family members from other towns/city states.

Yoruba religion and mythology

Main articles: Yoruba mythology

Yoruba religion and mythology is a major influence in West Africa, chiefly in Nigeria, and it has given origin to several New World religions such as Santería in Cuba, Puerto Rico and Candomblé in Brazil.
Itan is the term for the sum total of all Yoruba myths, songs, histories, and other cultural components.
Many ethnic Yoruba were enslaved and taken to Haiti,Cuba, Puerto Rico, Brazil, Trinidad and the rest of the New World (chiefly in the 19th century, after the Ọyọ empire collapsed and the region plunged into civil war), and carried their religious beliefs with them. These concepts were combined with preexisting African-based religions, Christianity, Native American mythology, and Kardecist Spiritism into various New World lineages:

★ Santería (Cuba) (Puerto Rico)

★ Oyotunji (USA)

★ Idigene (Nigeria)

★ Anago (Nigeria)

★ Candomblé (Brazil)

★ Umbanda (Brazil)

★ Batuque (Brazil)
The popularly known Vodun religion of Haiti combines the religious beliefs of the many different African ethnic nationalities taken to the island with the structure and liturgy from the Fon-Ewe of present-day Benin and the Congo-Angolan culture area, but Yoruba-derived religious ideology and deities also play an important role.
Yoruba deities include "Ọya" (wind goddess), "Ifá" (divination or fate), "Ẹlẹda" (destiny), "Ibeji" (twins), "Ọsanyin" (medicines and healing) and "Ọsun" (goddess of fertility, protector of children and mothers), Ṣango (God of thunder)
Human beings and other sentient creatures are also assumed to have their own individual deity of destiny, called "Ori", who is venerated through a sculpture symbolically decorated with cowrie shells. Traditionally, dead parents and other ancestors are also believed to possess powers of protection over their descendants. This belief is expressed in worship and sacrifice on the grave or symbol of the ancestor, or as a community in the observance of the Egungun festival where the ancestors are represented as colorfully masquerade of costumed and masked men who represent the ancestral spirits. Dead parents and ancestors are also commonly venerated by pouring libations to the earth and the breaking of kolanuts in their honor at special occasions.
The majority of contemporary Yoruba are Christians and Muslims.

Yoruba towns

The chief Yoruba cities are Ibadan, Lagos, Abeokuta (Abẹokuta), Akure (Akurẹ), Ilorin (Ilọrin), Ijebu Ode (Ijẹbu Ode), Ijebu-Igbo (Ijẹbu-Igbo), Ogbomoso (Ogbomọṣọ), Ondo, Ota (Ọta),Ìlá Ọràngún, Ado-Ekiti, Shagamu (Sagamu), Ikenne (Ikẹnnẹ), Osogbo (Osogbo), Ilesa (Ilesa), Oyo (Ọyọ), Ife (Ilé-Ifẹ), Saki,and Ago-Iwoye
Traditionally the Yoruba organized themselves into networks of related villages, towns, and kingdoms, with most of them headed by an ''Ọba'' [King] or ''Baale'' [a nobleman or mayor]. Kingship is not determined by simple primogeniture, as in most monarchic systems of government. An electoral college of lineage heads is usually charged with selecting a member of one of the royal families, and the selection is usually confirmed by an Ifa divination request. The Ọbas live in palaces usually in the center of the town. Opposite to the king's palace is the ''Ọja Ọba'', the king's market. These markets form an inherent part of Yoruba life. Traditionally the market traders are well organized, have various guilds, and an elected speaker.

Yoruba Diaspora

There are large Yoruba communities around the world including the United States. Of such Diasporic communities include the "Egbe Omo Yoruba" society. ^[3]

See also

★ Yoruba language

★ Yoruba mythology

★ Oyo Empire

★ Samuel Johnson (Nigerian historian)

★ Dr. Obadiah Johnson

★ Bishop Samuel Ajayi Crowther

★ Egba

References

1. CIA World Factbook
2. Joshua Project,. (2007)
3. "Egbe Omo Yoruba, National Association Of Yoruba descendants in North America", ''yorubanation.org'', 19 May 2007.

External links

★ Egbe Isokan Yoruba - promotes the cultural, social, economic and political welfare of Yoruba.

★ Radio Abeokuta - promoting the Yoruba culture of Togo, Republic of Benin, and Nigeria, West Africa

★ Egbe Omo Yoruba, Greater New York - Egbe Omo Yoruba Association of Yoruba Descendants, Greater New York Chapter

★ Yoruba Information - includes brief summary of language, religion, history, and art

★ World of the Yoruba - ritual and performance in Yorubaland

★ Talking About "Tribe" - looks at Yoruba identity

★ Yoruba Overview - includes information on colonialism, religion, and myth

★ Yoruba: Exploring an African Culture - interactive exhibit about the art and culture of the Yoruba

★ Oduduwa Heritage Organization- preserve and promote Yoruba culture among the Yorubas who live in the San Francisco/Oakland Bay Area.

★ Oro ede Yorùbá - a searchable English to Yorùbá dictionary