Yoruba people

The Yoruba people are an ethnic group native to southwestern Nigeria, eastern Benin, and northern Togo who share a common language and culture. The Yoruba are of mixed ancestry, the result of centuries of cultural and ethnic intermingling of people from various cultures. They speak the Yoruba tongue, which is a branch of the Niger-Congo language group of central Africa.

The Yoruba make up one of the three largest ethnic groups in Nigeria. They also represent a significant minority in Benin and are found in smaller numbers throughout several West African nations. There are between forty-four and fifty million people who claim Yoruba ancestry. They consider the city of Ile-Ife in Nigeria to be both the center of their homeland and their ancestral birthplace.

History

According to legend, Yoruba people are descended from a single ancestor named Oduduwa (or Odua). Oduduwa is an important Yoruba figure masked in mythological and sociopolitical origins. According to myth, he was a god who descended to Earth and created the city of Ile-Ife. Other legends suggest he was a warrior who arrived from the east. Seeking escape from persecution, he defeated the original founders of Ile-Ife and led its people into a golden age. After his death, his children and grandchildren dispersed across the region to establish their own aligned Yoruba city-states. Yoruba consider themselves to be children of Oduduwa—a symbolic ethnological link that connects Yoruba worldwide.

The genealogical origins of the Yoruba are murkier. Oral tradition suggests historical links to the Middle East; however, genetic studies have indicated that the Yoruba are most closely related to the Igbo and Hausa peoples of Nigeria, the Mandinka and Songhai of Senegal, and the nomadic Tuaregs of the Sahara Desert.

In contrast to structuring themselves in kingdoms as their neighbors did, the early Yoruba formed city-states, of which Ile-Ife was the most important. Beginning around the twelfth century CE, these city-states evolved into highly structured urban centers. Their major population centers were typically the largest in West Africa, and several reached populations of one hundred thousand people in the precolonial era. The cities of Lagos and Ibadan—contemporary Nigeria's largest and third-largest cities, respectively—were founded by the Yoruba.

One of these Yoruba city-states, called Oyo, eventually eclipsed Ile-Ife in importance in the sixteenth century. The Oyo Empire was the dominant political force among the Yoruba by 1700. The city was located in modern-day south Nigeria and Benin.

In the early sixteenth century, the transatlantic slave trade began. By the late 1500s, several European nations were engaged in slavery as a commercial enterprise with the cultures of coastal West Africa. One of their most frequent trading partners in this endeavor was the Benin Empire, which was a fierce rival to the Oyo Empire. As a result, many Yoruba were captured as prisoners of war and transported to North and South America as enslaved people between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries. As a result, twenty-first-century Yoruba descendants are scattered throughout the world in many countries, including Brazil, Cuba, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

In the mid-eighteenth century, the Oyo were engaged in an extended war with the Fulani to their north. This conflict forced them to abandon many of their cities and flee to their southern territories. This heightened existing internal conflicts within the Yoruba, leading to the collapse of the Oyo Empire by the end of the nineteenth century. In 1893, the Yoruba nations became part of the British Protectorate of Nigeria. Nigeria ultimately gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1960 as a conglomeration of several hundred different cultures.

Culture

The family unit is the center of Yoruba culture. By Yoruba standards, the family consists not just of their immediate family members but their entire group. The leader of each extended Yoruba family is called the bale. While the bale has complete authority over his family, he is also responsible for their care. Several groups and their bales may align to form villages. These villages, in turn, belong to a group of village communities that is overseen by a king called an oba.

The Yoruba are known for their diverse and specialized artworks. Although they were historically renowned as gifted woodworkers, they are perhaps most famous for their detailed bronze, copper, ivory, and terracotta statuary and masks.

Biologically, the Yoruba are known to have the highest rate of twin births of any culture in the world. Out of every 1,000 Yoruba pregnancies, forty-five to fifty sets of twins are born. This high prevalence of twin births has been incorporated into Yoruba culture, and twins are regarded as powerful beings to be celebrated. Yoruba people call the older twin Taiwo, meaning “the one who tests the world,” while the second-born twin is Kehinde, meaning “the one who came after.” If one twin dies, an ere ibeji statue is carved in their honor, which is believed to carry the deceased's spirit.

After the first European contact, missionaries, settlers, and colonial rulers began to restrict traditional Yoruba practices. Plural and interfamily marriages were banned, as were many other expressions of their culture and religion.

Religion

Today, the Yoruba's religious affiliations are split between Islam and Christianity, with a smaller remnant still celebrating the traditional Yoruba faith, called Aborisha. However, aspects of Aborisha are often incorporated into modern Muslim and Christian expressions of belief by the Yoruba.

The traditional Aborisha faith is centered upon a vast pantheon of more than four hundred gods. The supreme deity is Olodumare, who is the father of Oduduwa, the founder of the Yoruba people. Olodumare is the leader of hundreds of minor gods called Orisha who each command a single aspect of Yoruba culture, including such elements as ironworking, thunderstorms, and disease.

Reincarnation is an important aspect of the Yoruba religion. It is believed that all Yoruba have the potential to be reborn, usually as a member of the same extended family. Ancestor worship is another significant aspect of the Aborisha faith, and in the precolonial era, it was traditional to bury the dead beneath the homes of their family members.

Bibliography

Adeuyan, Jacob Oluwatayo. Contributions of Yoruba People in the Economic & Political Developments of Nigeria. AuthorHouse, 2011.

Captivating History. West African History: A Captivating Guide to the History of West Africa and the Yoruba People. Captivating History, 2022.

Leroy, Fernand, et al. “Yoruba Customs and Beliefs Pertaining to Twins.” Twin Research and Human Genetics, vol. 5, no. 2, 2002, pp. 132–36, www.randafricanart.com/files/p132.pdf. Accessed 20 Nov. 2024.

"Yoruba." Countries and Their Cultures, Advameg, Inc., www.everyculture.com/wc/Mauritania-to-Nigeria/Yoruba.html. Accessed 20 Nov. 2024.

"The Yoruba Culture." Mythic Journeys, Mythic Imagination Institute, www.mythicjourneys.org/bigmyth/myths/english/eng‗yoruba‗culture.htm. Accessed 20 Nov. 2024.

"Yoruba People." Come to Nigeria, www.cometonigeria.com/about-nigeria/nigerian-people-culture/yoruba-people. Accessed 20 Nov. 2024.