{{Short description|Ethnic group in West Africa}} {{Use British English|date=January 2021}} {{Use dmy dates|date=October 2024}} {{other uses|Yoruba}} {{Infobox ethnic group | flag = Yoruba Oduduwa People Ethnic Flag.svg | group = Yoruba<br />{{big|{{lang|yo|Ìran Yorùbá|italic=no}}}}<br />{{small|{{lang|yo|Ọmọ Oòduà|italic=no}}, {{lang|yo|Ọmọ Káàárọ̀-oòjíire|italic=no}}}} | total = {{circa|≈ 53,224,000}} (2025){{efn|Population figures not inclusive of pre-20th century diasporic communities who trace full or partial Yoruba heritage}}<ref name="Sare 2023">{{Cite web|last=Sare|first=Watimagbo|date=2023|title=Total population of the Yoruba people|url=https://joshuaproject.net/clusters/320|access-date=2023-12-18|website=Joshuaproject.net}}</ref> {{multiple image | total_width = 350 | perrow = 2 | align = center |image1 = Ijakadi Festival 2025 35.jpg |image2 = Ijakadi Festival 2025 27.jpg | footer_align = center | background color = #8dd2fc | footer = Groups of Yoruba men and women from Offa town. | footer_background = #59a158 }} | region1 = {{nbsp}}21px ''Yorubaland'' | region2 = Nigeria | pop2 = 42,600,000 (2020) | ref2 = <ref name="Yoruba, Nigeria">{{Cite web |last1=Simons |first1=Gary F. |first2=Charles D. |last2=Fennig |date=2022 |title=Yoruba, a Language of Nigeria |url=https://www.ethnologue.com/25/ |archive-url=https://www.ethnologue.com/25/language/yor/ |archive-date=7 December 2023 |website=Ethnologue: Languages of the World |edition=25th |access-date=23 December 2023 |language=en}}</ref> | region3 = Benin | pop3 = 1,600,000 | ref3 = <ref>{{cite web |title=Beninese Culture – Yoruba 12.3%|website=Beninembassy.us|url=https://beninembassy.us/culture-beninoise|language=en|access-date=29 October 2021}}</ref> | region4 = Ghana | pop4 = 425,600 | ref4 = <ref name="Yoruba, Ghana">{{cite web |title=Middlesex University Research Repository, Introduction to the Ethno-Geographic origins of modern Ghana (The Yoruba 1.3%) |url=https://eprints.mdx.ac.uk/13376/1/343944_.pdf |publisher=Amoah, Michael (2001) Ethnonationalism versus political nationalism in Ghanaian electoral politics 1996–2000. PhD thesis, Middlesex University. |access-date=13 December 2022 |language=en |date=2001 |archive-date=22 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230222024304/https://eprints.mdx.ac.uk/13376/1/343944_.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref> | langs = {{ubl|Yoruba and Yoruboid languages <br />• English (Nigeria) • French (Benin, Togo)}} | region7 = Togo | pop7 = 105,000 (2014) | ref7 = <ref name="Université Laval">{{cite web |title=République Togolaise (ifè:1.8 %, Yorouba: 1,4 %, Kambole/Nago: 0.7%. Total Yoruba; 3.9%) |url=https://www.axl.cefan.ulaval.ca/afrique/togo.htm |publisher= Université Laval |access-date=13 December 2022 |language=en |date= 2014}}</ref> | region5 = United States | pop5 = 213,732 (2023){{efn|This figure only accounts for people who indicate speaking Yoruba as the primary language of the home and not the total number of people with Yoruba ancestry.}} | ref5 = <ref name="United States Census Bureau"/> | region6 = Ivory Coast | pop6 = 115,000 (2017) | ref6 = <ref name="Yoruba, Cote D'Ivoire">{{Cite web |last1=Simons |first1=Gary F. |first2=Charles D. |last2=Fennig |date=2017 |title=Yoruba, a Language of Cote D'Ivoire (Leclerc 2017c) |url=https://www.ethnologue.com/country/CI/languages |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190526184101/https://www.ethnologue.com/country/CI/languages |archive-date=26 May 2019 |website=Ethnologue, Languages of the World |edition=21st |access-date=28 March 2019 |language=en}}</ref> | region8 = Niger | pop8 = 80,700 (2021) | ref8 = <ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.ethnologue.com/language/yor/|title=Yoruba|publisher=Ethnologue|access-date=13 December 2023}}</ref> | region9 = Canada | pop9 = 42,075 (2021){{efn|Population figures based on those who indicate Yoruba as their ethnic or cultural origin in the Canadian census.}} | ref9 = <ref>{{cite web |title=2021 Canadian Population census, Ethnic or cultural origin by gender and age: Canada, provinces and territories |date = 11 May 2021|url=https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=9810035501&geocode=A000011124|access-date=12 October 2024}}</ref> | region10 = Sierra Leone | pop10 = 16,578 (2022) | ref10 = <ref>{{Cite web|title=Country profile: FGM in Sierra Leone, June 2014. The Krio are estimated to make up 2% of the Sierra Leonian population. Among the Krio, the overwhelmingly muslim Oku/Aku make up 15% and are almost exclusively of Yoruba descent.|url=https://www.28toomany.org/media/uploads/blog/sierra_leone_(june_2014).pdf|website=28toomany.org|access-date=17 May 2023|archive-date=13 March 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230313053325/https://www.28toomany.org/media/uploads/blog/sierra_leone_(june_2014).pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref> | region11 = Ireland | pop11 = 10,100 (2011) | ref11 = <ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cso.ie/en/media/csoie/census/documents/census2011profile6/Profile_6_Migration_and_Diversity_entire_doc.pdf |title=Profile 6 – Migration and Diversity |date=October 2012 |publisher=Central Statistics Office |access-date=4 September 2021}}</ref> | region12 = Gambia | pop12 = 9,224 (2024) | ref12 = <ref>{{Cite web|title=The Gambia 2024 Population and Housing Census, Preliminary Report GBoS– Yoruba as 'Aku Marabou', who are a Muslim Yoruba diaspora in The Gambia|url=https://gambia.unfpa.org/sites/default/files/pub-pdf/2024-09/Preliminary%20Report%20of%20the%202024%20Census%20in%20The%20Gambia_0.pdf|access-date=2025-06-04|archive-date=22 March 2025|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250322190104/https://gambia.unfpa.org/sites/default/files/pub-pdf/2024-09/Preliminary%20Report%20of%20the%202024%20Census%20in%20The%20Gambia_0.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref> | region13 = Australia | pop13 = 4,020 (2021) | ref13 = <ref>{{Cite web|title=SBS Australian Census Explorer: 4,020 Yoruba language speakers |url=https://www.sbs.com.au/census-explorer-2021/index.html?lang=en&languages=yoruba,igbo&topic=cultural-diversity|website=sbs.com.au}}</ref> | region14 = Finland | pop14 = 1,538 (2023) | ref14 = <ref>{{cite web |url=https://statfin.stat.fi/PxWeb/pxweb/en/StatFin/StatFin__vaerak/statfin_vaerak_pxt_11rm.px/table/tableViewLayout1/ |title=11rl – Language according to age and sex by region, 1990–2020. Yoruba; 1,538 speakers |publisher=Statistics Finland |access-date=2 June 2024 }}{{Dead link|date=July 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> | religions = {{hlist | Christianity | Islam | Yoruba religion }}<ref>{{cite web|url=https://academic.oup.com/view-large/35408497 |title=Research note: Exploring survey data for historical and anthropological research: Muslim–Christian relations in south-west Nigeria | Oxford Academic |publisher=Academic.oup.com |access-date=2022-02-14}}</ref><ref name="Research note: Exploring survey dat">{{cite journal |last1=Nolte |first1=Insa |last2=Jones |first2=Rebecca |last3=Taiyari |first3=Khadijeh |last4=Occhiali |first4=Giovanni |title=Research note: Exploring survey data for historical and anthropological research: Muslim–Christian relations in south-west Nigeria |journal=African Affairs |date=July 2016 |volume=115 |issue=460 |pages=541–561 |doi=10.1093/afraf/adw035 |doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://www.grin.com/document/353192|title=GRIN - Identity conflicts among Yoruba Muslim groups in selected states of Nigeria|isbn=978-3-668-39964-8|last1=Moshood|first1=Busari|date=20 February 2017|publisher=GRIN Verlag }}</ref> | related-c = <div style="text-align: center;">(Yoruboid); {{nbsp}}Igala{{·}}Itsekiri{{·}}Olukumi</div> <div style="text-align: center;">(Gbe); {{nbsp}}Aja{{·}}Ewe{{·}}Fon{{·}}Mahi{{·}}Ogu</div> <div style="text-align: center;">(Kwa); {{nbsp}}Adele{{·}}Akebu{{·}}Anii{{·}}Ga{{·}}Kposo</div> <div style="text-align: center;">(Nupoid); {{nbsp}}Ebira{{·}}Nupe</div> <div style="text-align: center;">(Edoid); {{nbsp}}Afemai{{·}}Bini{{·}}Esan{{·}}Urhobo<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.raceandhistory.com/historicalviews/edoofbenin.htm|title=Raceandhistory.com – Nigeria: The Edo of Benin|website=raceandhistory.com}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |jstor=179535 |title=The Itsekiri in the Nineteenth Century; an Outline Social History |last1=Lloyd |first1=P. C. |journal=The Journal of African History |year=1963 |volume=4 |issue=2 |pages=207–231 |doi=10.1017/S0021853700004035|s2cid=162964674 }}</ref></div> <div style="text-align: center;">(Gur); {{nbsp}}Bariba{{·}}Tem<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Oyèláràn |first=Ọlásopé O. |date=May 2018 |title=Oríta Borgu: the Yorùbá and the Bààtonu down the ages|journal=Africa |language=en |volume=88 |issue=2 |pages=238–266 |doi=10.1017/S0001972017000900 |s2cid=150028429 |issn=0001-9720 |doi-access=free}}</ref></div> <div style="text-align: center;">(Diaspora); {{nbsp}}Aku{{·}}African Americans{{·}}Afro-Brazilians{{·}}Afro-Caribbean people{{·}}Nagos{{·}}Tabom.<ref name="Montinaro2014">{{cite journal |author1=Francesco Montinaro |author2=George B.J. Busby |author3=Vincenzo L. Pascali |author4=Simon Myers |author5=Garrett Hellenthal |author6=Cristian Capelli |title=Unravelling the hidden ancestry of American admixed populations|journal=Nature Communications |date=24 March 2015 |doi=10.1038/ncomms7596 |volume=6 |article-number=6596 |pmid=25803618 |pmc=4374169 |bibcode=2015NatCo...6.6596M }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Falola |first=Toyin |title=Encyclopedia of the Yoruba |publisher=Indiana University Press |location=Bloomington |year=2016 |isbn=978-0-253-02144-1 |pages=95–96}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://escholarship.org/content/qt17c6d1sb/qt17c6d1sb.pdf |title=The Vitality of Yoruba Culture in the Americas |date=2020}}</ref></div> | native_name = | native_name_lang = | related_groups = }} {{Infobox ethnonym|person='''Ọmọ Yorùbá'''|people='''Ọmọ Yorùbá'''|language=Èdè Yorùbá|country=Ilẹ̀ Yorùbá}} {{Yoruba people}}
The '''Yoruba people''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|j|ɒr|ʊ|b|ə}} {{respell|YORR|uub|ə}};<ref>Laurie Bauer, 2007, ''The Linguistics Student's Handbook'', Edinburgh</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url= http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Yoruba | access-date=8 December 2022 | title= Yoruba| website= Merriam-Webster}}</ref> {{Langx|yo|Ìran Yorùbá}}, {{lang|yo|Ọmọ Odùduwà}}, {{lang|yo|Ọmọ Káàárọ̀-oòjíire}})<ref>{{cite web |title=The formation of Yoruba Nation and the challenge of leadership since Pre-Colonial Era, Pg 8 |website=research gate.net |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/338843728 |language=en |access-date=30 October 2021}}</ref> are a West African ethnic group who inhabit parts of Nigeria, Benin, and Togo, a region collectively called Yorubaland. The Yoruba constitute more than 50 million people in Africa,<ref name="Sare 2023">{{Cite web|last=Sare|first=Watimagbo|date=2023|title=Total population of the Yoruba people|url=https://joshuaproject.net/clusters/320|access-date=2023-12-18|website=Joshuaproject.net}}</ref> and over a million outside the continent, and bear further representation among the African diaspora. The vast majority of Yoruba live in Nigeria, where they make up 20.7% of the country's population according to ''Ethnologue'' estimates,<ref name="Yoruba, Nigeria"/><ref>{{Cite web|last=Sare|first=Watimagbo|date=2020|title=Population, total – Nigeria (2020)|url=https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.POP.TOTL?end=2020&locations=NG|access-date=2023-12-23|website=world bank.org}}</ref> making them one of the largest ethnic groups in Africa. Most Yoruba people speak the Yoruba language, which is the Niger–Congo language with the largest number of native or L1 speakers.<ref>{{cite web |last=Bendor-Samuel |first=John T. |title=Benue-Congo language |url=http://www.britannica.com/topic/Benue-Congo-languagess |website=Encyclopædia Britannica}}</ref>
==Etymology== The oldest known textual reference to the name Yoruba is found in an essay (titled – ''Mi'rāj al-Ṣu'ūd'') from a manuscript written by the berber<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lorcin |first=Patricia |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LmxQDwAAQBAJ&dq=Ahmad+Baba+al-Timbukti+&pg=PP1 |title=The Southern Shores of the Mediterranean and its Networks: Knowledge, Trade, Culture and People |date=2 October 2017 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-39426-6 |page=42 |language=en}}</ref> jurist Ahmed Baba in the year 1614.<ref>{{cite journal |author=John O. Hunwick |title=Ahmad Bābā on slavery |journal=Sudanic Africa |volume=11 |date=14 October 2021 |pages=131–139 |jstor=25653344}}</ref> The original manuscript is preserved in the Ahmed Baba Institute of the Mamma Haidara Library in Timbuktu, while a digital copy is at the World Digital Library.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.wdl.org/en/item/9661/ |title=The Ladder of Ascent in Obtaining the Procurements of the Sudan: Ahmad Baba Answers a Moroccan's Questions about Slavery |date=14 October 2021}}</ref> ''Mi'rāj al-Ṣu'ūd'' 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:
<blockquote>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 Hombori<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.artsrn.ualberta.ca/amcdouga/Hist347/autumn%202012/additional%20readings/ahmad_baba.pdf |title=Mi'rāj Al-Ṣu'ūd |page=39 |date=14 October 2021 |access-date=14 October 2021 |archive-date=21 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210521235048/https://www.artsrn.ualberta.ca/amcdouga/Hist347/autumn%202012/additional%20readings/ahmad_baba.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref></blockquote>
This early 1600s 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 Caliph Muhammed Bello of Sokoto,<ref>{{cite journal |title=Braima Alias Abraham a Study in Diffusion |date=14 October 2021 |jstor=1258069 |last1=Jeffreys| first1=M. D. W. |journal=Folklore |volume=70 |issue=1 |pages=323–333 |doi=10.1080/0015587X.1959.9717164}}</ref> ''Goru Ba'' by T.J Bowen, or ''Yolla Ba'' (Mande word for the Niger river) etc.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XkM6AQAAMAAJ&dq=bowen+yolla+ba+yoruba&pg=PA264|title=Central Africa: Adventures and Missionary Labors... |date=1857|last1=Bowen|first1=T.J.|publisher=Sheldon, Blakeman |page=264}} Reprint: {{ISBN|978-0-598-72128-0}}.</ref> These guesses suffer a lack of support by many locals for being alien to (and unfounded in) the traditions of the Yorubas themselves.<ref>{{cite journal |author=E.G. Parrinder |author2=M. Wight |author3=John O'Leary |author4=C. M. Botley |title=Letters to the Editor |journal=Folklore |date=June 1959 |volume=70 |issue=2 |pages=423–425 |doi=10.1080/0015587X.1959.9717182 |jstor=1259324}}</ref> In his work, ''Abeokuta and the Camaroons Mountains'' c.1863, the English ethnologist Richard F. Burton reports of an account in 1861, noting that the name "Yoruba" derives from ''Ori Obba'', i.e. -The ''Head King''.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6H3N0L3x2SAC&q=229%2F|title=Abeokuta and the Camaroons Mountains, Pg. 229|date=14 October 2021|last1=Burton|first1=Sir Richard Francis |publisher=Tinsley Brothers |isbn=978-0-598-55097-2 }}</ref>
==Names== The name Yoruba is the most well known ethnonym for the group of people that trace a common origin to Ife, but synonymous terms have been recorded in history such as Nago/Anago, Lucumi/Olukumi and Aku/Oku.<ref name="trinidad20">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d2q5o25NNfcC&pg=PA19-20|title=Trinidad Yoruba: From Mother Tongue to Memory|author=Maureen Warner-Lewis|page=20|isbn=978-976-640-054-5|publisher=University of the West Indies|year=1997}}</ref>
Some Exonyms the Yoruba are known by across West Africa include; Alata in southern Ghana,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Office |first1=Ghana Census |title=1960 Population Census of Ghana: General report |date=1964 |page=7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O-Z7F-ysEFMC&q=Alata+Yoruba+Ghana |access-date=13 October 2024 |language=en}}</ref> Eyagi in Nupe<ref>{{cite book |last1=Crowther |first1=Samuel |title=A Grammar and Vocabulary of the Nupe Language |date=1864 |page=154 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MgPQLe5JikUC&dq=Eyagi+Yoruba+nupe&pg=PA154 |access-date=13 October 2024 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=African Notes: Bulletin of the Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan |date=1982 |publisher=Institute of African Studies |page=27 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rx0OAQAAMAAJ&q=Eyagi+Yoruba+nupe |access-date=13 October 2024 |language=en}}</ref> which produced descendant terms such as Ayagi (the pre-modern Hausa word for the Yoruba people)<ref>{{cite book |last1=Robinson |first1=Charles H. (Charles Henry) |title=Dictionary of the Hausa language |date=1913 |publisher=Cambridge University press |url=https://archive.org/details/dictionaryofhaus01robiuoft/page/20/mode/2up?q=Ayagi |access-date=10 November 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Andah |first1=Bassey W. |title=African Anthropology |date=1988 |publisher=Shaneson C.I. Limited |isbn=978-978-2400-01-7 |page=240 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7O3UAAAAMAAJ&q=Ayagi+Yoruba+nupe |access-date=13 October 2024 |language=en}}</ref> and Iyaji in Igala.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Idakwoji |first1=John |title=An Ígálá-English Lexicon: A Bilingual Dictionary with Notes on Igala Language, History, Culture and Priest-Kings |date=3 December 2014 |publisher=Partridge Publishing Singapore |isbn=978-1-4828-2786-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3U7RrQEACAAJ |access-date=13 October 2024 |language=en}}</ref>
The Yoruba people also refer to themselves by the epithet "Ọmọ Káàárọ̀-oòjíire", literally meaning, "The People who ask 'Good morning, did you wake up well?". This is in reference to the mode of greeting associated with Yoruba culture.<ref>{{cite book |title=Encyclopedia of the Yoruba |date=20 June 2016 |publisher=Indiana University Press |isbn=978-0-253-02156-4 |pages=144–145 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jep3DAAAQBAJ&q=greetings%20for%20virtually%20every%20kind%20of%20%20situation}}</ref> Through parts of coastal West Africa where Yorubas can be found, they have carried the culture of lauding one another with greetings applicable in different situations along with them. Another epithet used is, "Ọmọ Oòduà", meaning "The Children of Oduduwa", referencing the semi-legendary Yoruba king.<ref>{{cite book |title=Encyclopedia of African History 3-Volume Set |date=4 July 2013 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-1-135-45670-2|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=umyHqvAErOAC&q=%22Omo%20oodua%22}}</ref>
==History== {{For timeline|Timeline of Yoruba history}} {{Further|Ifẹ}} {{See also|Yoruba religion}}
The Yoruba people emerged largely in situ, from the earlier Mesolithic Volta-Niger populations, by the 1st millennium BCE.<ref name="Adeyemi 36–45">{{Cite journal|last=Adeyemi|first=A.|date=18 April 2016|title=Migration and the Yorùbá Myth of Origin|journal=European Journal of Arts|pages=36–45|doi=10.20534/eja-16-1-36-45|issn=2310-5666}}</ref> By the 5th century BCE, a powerful city-state existed in Ile-Ife, one of the earliest in what is now Nigeria.<ref>{{cite web |title=Ile-Ife {{!}} Nigeria|url=https://blackpast.org/global-african-history/ile-ife-ca-500-b-c-e/|website=Black Past|language=en|access-date=2026-05-18}}</ref> This city's oral traditions link to figures such as Oduduwa and Obatala, and it would become the heart of the Ife Empire, the first empire in Yoruba History.<ref name="Akintoye" /> The Ife Empire flourished between 1200 and 1420 CE, had influence across much of what is now southwestern Nigeria, eastern Benin and Togo.
[[File:HistoYoruba.jpeg|left|thumb|Some Yoruba cities of the Middle Ages]]
Oral history recorded under the Oyo Empire derives the Yoruba as an ethnic group from the population of the City State of Ile-Ife. Ile-Ife, as the capital of the former empire, held a prominent position in Yoruba history. The Yoruba were the dominant cultural force in southwestern and west-central Nigeria as far back as the 11th century.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=466fAAAAMAAJ&q=Yoruba+civilisation|page=323|title=When We Ruled: The Ancient and Mediœval History of Black Civilisations|author=Robin Walker|publisher=Every Generation Media (Indiana University)|year=2006|isbn=978-0-9551068-0-4}}</ref>
The Yoruba people were historically one of the most urban ethnic groups in Africa.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Brodd |first1=Jeffrey |title=World Religions: A Voyage of Discovery |date=2003 |publisher=Saint Mary's Press |isbn=978-0-88489-725-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hPiv0w6BDSQC&dq=moat+ile+ife&pg=PA27 |access-date=20 February 2025 |language=en}}</ref> They usually settled in a concentric nuclear pattern. Before colonialism, the Yoruba existed as a series of structured large kingdoms and states with an urban capital core (''Olú Ìlú'') sharing filial relations with one another. These urban capitals were built to encapsulate the palace of the Oba (king) and most of the kingdom's central institutions such as the premier market (Ọjà Ọba) and several temples.<ref name=voices>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XKIaBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA150|title=African Voices on Slavery and the Slave Trade: Volume 1, The Sources|author1=Alice Bellagamba|author2=Sandra E. Greene|author3=Martin A. Klein|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2013|isbn=978-0-521-19470-9|pages=150, 151}}</ref> Many of these city-states had extensive defence structures such as moats and trenches (Iyàrà) such as those of the Ife Empire<ref name="Akinwumi">{{cite book |last=akinwumi |first= ogundiran|author-link= Akinwumi Ogundiran |date=2020|title= The Yoruba: A New History|publisher= Indiana University Press|page= |isbn=9780253051509}}</ref> and the better known Eredo Sungbo that completely surrounded the nascent Ijebu Kingdom, while others had tall walls and ramparts such as Oyo ile, capital of the Oyo empire, reportedly had an outer wall over 20 feet high with 10 gates.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Willett |first1=Frank |title=Investigations at Old Oyo, 1956—57: An Interim Report |journal=Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria |date=1960 |volume=2 |issue=1 |pages=59–77 |jstor=41970821 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41970821?read-now=1&refreqid=excelsior%3A4716bcb4b473bd30948c7b13ac671622&seq=9 |access-date=20 February 2025}}</ref><ref name="Falola 29–48">{{Cite book |last=Falola|first=Toyin|editor2-first=Toyin|editor2-last=Falola|editor1-first=Ann|editor1-last=Genova|chapter=The Yorùbá Nation|title=Yorùbá Identity and Power Politics|year=2012|pages=29–48|publisher=Boydell and Brewer Limited|chapter-url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/yoruba-identity-and-power-politics/yoruba-nation/C306461CC9ABF9D5754B6C3D1D10148B|isbn=978-1-58046-662-2}}</ref> These cities were some of the most populated in Africa. Archaeological findings indicate that Òyó-Ilé or ''Katunga'', capital of the Oyo empire (fl. between the 16th and 19th centuries CE), had more than 100,000 inhabitants.<ref name="Adeyemi 36–45" /> For a long time, the largest city Ibadan expanded rapidly in the 1800s. Today, Lagos ({{Langx|yo|Èkó}}) has become the largest Yoruba city and on the continent, displacing Ibadan to second place with a populace of over 20 million.<ref>{{cite thesis|url=https://archive.org/stream/aspectinyorubani00jnti/aspectinyorubani00jnti_djvu.txt|degree=PH.D|title=Aspect in Yoruba and Nigerian English |first=Timothy Temilola|last=Ajayi|publisher=University of Florida|year=2001|website=Internet Archive|access-date=8 July 2015}}</ref> thumb|A traditional King of Porto-Novo, Benin, walking under a umbrella with his entourage Archaeologically, the settlement of Ile-Ife showed features of urbanism in the 12th–14th-century era.<ref name="Falola 29–48" /> This period coincided with the peak of the Ife Empire, when Ile-Ife grew into one of West Africa's largest cities. Around 1300 CE, glass bead production reached industrial scale and floors were paved with potsherds and stones. Artists at Ile-Ife developed a refined and naturalistic sculptural tradition in terracotta, stone, brass and bronze. Many of those traditions appear to have been created under the patronage of King Obalufon II, who today is identified as the Yoruba patron deity of brass casting, weaving and regalia.<ref name="Blier Art and Risk">{{cite book|last=Blier|first=Suzanne Preston|title=Art and Risk in Ancient Yoruba: Ife History, Politics, and Identity c. 1300|date=2015 |publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-107-02166-2}}</ref> The Yoruba regard Ile-Ife as the place of origin of human civilization. Its urban phase represented a peak of political centralization in the 14th century,<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=umyHqvAErOAC&q=yoruba+kingdom+oyo+encyclopedia+african+history&pg=PA672|title=Ife, Oyo, Yoruba, Ancient:Kingdom and Art|encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of African History|author=Kevin Shillington|isbn=978-1-57958-245-6|page=672|publisher=Routledge|date=22 November 2004|access-date=1 May 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Hegemony and culture: politics and religious change among the Yoruba|first=David D.|last=Laitin|page=111|publisher=University of Chicago Press|year=1986|isbn=978-0-226-46790-0|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dHbrDvGQEbUC&pg=PA111}}</ref> and is commonly called a "golden age" of Ife. Ife is still considered the Yoruba spiritual homeland. Its dynasty remains intact today. The ''oba'' or ruler of Ile-Ife is called the Ooni of Ife.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://au.encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_781536070/Ife_(kingdom).html |title=Encarta.msn.com |access-date=1 November 2009 |archive-date=24 May 2024 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20240524181624/https://www.webcitation.org/5kx5Ant2O?url=http://au.encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_781536070/Ife_(kingdom).html }}</ref><ref name=civilisation>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xAyCAAAAMAAJ&q=Yoruba+civilisation|title=A Living Tradition: Studies on Yoruba Civilisation|author=L. J. Munoz|publisher=Bookcraft (the University of Michigan)|year=2003|isbn=978-978-2030-71-9}}</ref>
===Oyo, Ile-Ife and Lagos=== [[File:The Ade-Are crown in Ile Ife.jpg|thumb|The Ade-Are crown in Ile Ife<ref>{{cite web |url=https://access.thebrightcontinent.org/items/show/26|title=Aare Crown Sculpture – Elevating the Office for a Time|website=Bright Continent}}</ref>]]
In the 15th century, the Oyo Empire<ref>{{cite book |last1=MacDonald |first1=Fiona |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=joh5yHfcF-8C&pg=PA385 |title=Peoples of Africa, Volume 1 |last2=Paren |first2=Elizabeth |last3=Shillington |first3=Kevin |last4=Stacey |first4=Gillian |last5=Steele |first5=Philip |publisher=Marshall Cavendish |year=2000 |isbn=978-0-7614-7158-5 |page=385}}</ref> surpassed Ile-Ife as the dominant military and political power in Yoruba land.<ref>[http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/437048/Oyo-empire Oyo Empire] at Britannica.com</ref>
In the 18th century, the Empire under ''oba'' Alaafin of Oyo, indirectly participated in the African slave trade. The Yoruba often raided neighbouring populations and practiced a system locally known as Ìwòfà<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Oroge |first=E. Adeniyi |date=1985 |title=IWOFA: An Historical Survey of the Yoruba Institution of Indenture |url=https://www.africabib.org/rec.php?RID=190562978 |journal=African Economic History |language=en |volume=14 |issue=14 |pages=75–106 |doi=10.2307/3601114 |jstor=3601114 }}</ref>, the Yoruba version of indentured servitude<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Austin |first=Gareth |date=April 2009 |title=Cash Crops and Freedom: Export Agriculture and the Decline of Slavery in Colonial West Africa |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-review-of-social-history/article/cash-crops-and-freedom-export-agriculture-and-the-decline-of-slavery-in-colonial-west-africa/BA61BCCB2402EFD99C2F6C0A935477DB |journal=International Review of Social History |language=en |volume=54 |issue=1 |pages=1–37 |doi=10.1017/S0020859009000017 |issn=1469-512X}}</ref>.
Most of the city states<ref name="The Dispersal of the Yoruba People">{{Cite book |chapter=The Dispersal of the Yoruba People|title=The Development of Yoruba Candomble Communities in Salvador, Bahia, 1835–1986|year=2014|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|doi=10.1057/9781137486431_3 |isbn=978-1-137-48643-1 |last1=Alonso |first1=Miguel C. |pages=33–48 }}</ref> were controlled by ''obas'' (kings with various titles) and councils. The councils were made up of ''oloye'', recognized leaders of royal, noble and, often, even common descent, who joined them through guilds and cults. The power of the king versus the councils differed between states. Oyo's kings had almost total control, but was constantly checked by the OYOMESI and the powerful BASHORUN much like the Ijebu city-states had<ref name="The Dispersal of the Yoruba People"/> senatorial councils with more influence than the ''Ọba'', called the Awujale of Ijebuland.<ref name=civilisation/>
In recent decades, Lagos rose as 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.<ref>{{Cite thesis|last=Alonge|first=Marjorie Moji Dolapo|title=Afro-Brazilian architecture in Lagos State: a case for conservation|date=1994|publisher=Newcastle University|url=http://theses.ncl.ac.uk/jspui/handle/10443/883}}</ref>
Yoruba settlements are often described as primarily one or more of the main social groupings called "generations":<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cAoOAQAAMAAJ|title=Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria (Volume 9, Issues 2–4)|author=Historical Society of Nigeria|publisher=The Society (Indiana University)|year=1978}}</ref>
* The "first generation" includes towns and cities<ref name="The Dispersal of the Yoruba People" /> known as original capitals of founding Yoruba kingdoms or states. * The "second generation" consists of settlements created by conquest.<ref name="The Dispersal of the Yoruba People" /> * The "third generation" consists of villages and municipalities that emerged after the internecine wars of the 19th century.
===Ijebu Kingdom=== {{Main|Ijebu Kingdom}} {{Expand section|date=December 2025}}
==Geography== {{Main|Yorubaland}}
In Africa, the Yoruba are contiguous with the Yoruboid Itsekiri to the southeast in the northwest Niger Delta, Bariba to the northwest in Benin and Nigeria, the Nupe to the north, and the Ebira to the northeast in Central Nigeria. To the east are the Edo, Ẹsan, and Afemai groups in Mid-Western Nigeria. To the northeast and adjacent to the Ebira and Northern Edo, groups are the related Igala people on the left bank of the Niger River. To the south are the Gbe-speaking Mahi, Gun, Fon, and Ewe who border Yoruba communities in Benin and Togo, to the west they are bordered by the Kwa-speaking Akebu, Kposo of Togo, and to the northwest, by the Kwa-speaking Anii, and the Gur speaking Kabiye, Yom-Lokpa and Tem people of Togo.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Principaux-groupes-ethniques-du-Togo_fig1_40035529/|title=Ethno-linguistic map of Togo. The Ana (Ife) Yoruba group occupy the central-east portions of the country}}</ref> Significantly Yoruba populations in other West African countries can also be found in Ghana,<ref name=":0">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eiQHFrA7GUwC&pg=PA72|page=72|isbn=978-1-4670-2480-8|title=Contributions of Yoruba people in the Economic & Political Developments of Nigeria|date=12 October 2011|publisher=Authorhouse|author=Jacob Oluwatayo Adeuyan}}</ref><ref name="rand" /><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IjlzSYnAKdQC|title=Strangers and Traders: Yoruba Migrants, Markets, and the State in Northern Ghana Volume 11 of International African library|issn=0951-1377|author=Jeremy Seymour Eades|via=International African Library|publisher=Africa World Press|year=1994|isbn=978-0-86543-419-6}}</ref> Benin,<ref name=":0" /> Ivory Coast,<ref>{{Cite news|date=15 January 2019|title=Ivory Coast country profile|language=en-GB|work=BBC News|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-13287216|access-date=2020-05-20}}</ref> and Sierra Leone.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nalrc.indiana.edu/brochures/yoruba.pdf|author=National African Language Resource Center|publisher=Indiana University|title=Yoruba|access-date=3 March 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170215064022/http://www.nalrc.indiana.edu/brochures/yoruba.pdf|archive-date=15 February 2017}}</ref>
Outside Africa, the Yoruba diaspora consists of two main groupings; the first being that of the Yorubas taken as slaves to the New World between the 16th and 19th centuries, notably to the Caribbean (especially in Cuba) and Brazil, and the second consisting of a wave of relatively recent migrants, the majority of whom began to migrate to the United Kingdom and the United States following some of the major economic and political changes encountered in Africa in the 1960s till date.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Akinrinade and Ogen|first=Sola and Olukoya|date=2011|title=Historicising the Nigerian Diaspora: Nigerian Migrants and Homeland Relations|url=https://nairametrics.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/historicising-the-Nig-diaspora.pdf|journal=Turkish Journal of Politics|volume=2|issue=2 |page=15 }}</ref>
== Language == {{Main|Yoruba language}} center|650px|thumb|Degree of Presence of The Yoruba and derived ''Ede'' groups<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://www.afrikanistik-aegyptologie-online.de/archiv/2007/1328//|title=A synchronic lexical study of the Ede language continuum of West Africa|journal=Afrikanistik Online|date=April 2008|volume=2007|issue=4|last1=Kluge|first1=Angela}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://international.ipums.org/international-action/variables/group/ethnic//|title=Ethnicity clusters of Benin data set, Yoruba group – IPUMS Census Data}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/334522095|title=Ethnocultural study of agriculture in Northern Benin, Alibori department 12% Mokole Yoruba, INSAE 2013|date=28 September 2021}}</ref> in Nigeria, Benin & Togo at Subnational levels<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.peoplegroups.org/explore/ClusterDetails.aspx?rop2=C0233#topmenu/|title=People groups: Yoruba language cluster|date=1 September 2021}}</ref>
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 was estimated to be about 30 million as of 2010.<ref>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.</ref> 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.<ref>This widely followed classification is based on Adetugbọ'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 {{cite book |last=Adetugbọ |chapter=The Yoruba Language in Yoruba History |title=Sources of Yoruba History |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/sourcesofyorubah0000biob |chapter-url-access=registration |editor-first=Saburi O. |editor-last=Biobaku |location=Oxford |publisher=Clarendon Press |year=1973 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/sourcesofyorubah0000biob/page/183 183–193] |isbn=0-19-821669-6 |url=https://archive.org/details/sourcesofyorubah0000biob/page/183}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Harvnb|Adetugbọ|1973|pp=192–3}}. (See also the section Dialects.)</ref> 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.<ref>{{Harvnb|Adetugbọ|1973|p=185}}</ref> 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 Adetugbọ (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 Ọyọ-Ibadan dialects."
== Group identity == Yoruba people have a sense of group identity based on shared cultural concepts, beliefs and practices. Prominent among these is the tracing of the Yoruba body through dynastic migrations to roots 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, who is considered the 'father' of the Yoruba people. According to Ife's own account, Ife was predated by a confederacy of 13 semi-autonomous communities<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Obayemi |first1=Ade |title=Ancient Ile-Ife: Another Cultural Historical Reinterpretation Pg.167 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41857206 |website=Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria |access-date=30 July 2023 |pages=151–185 |date=1979|jstor=41857206 }}</ref> led by Obatala and based around a swampy depression surrounded by seven hills. Oduduwa was born in the hilltop community of Oke Ora and was an outsider of the politics of the valley. He revolutionized the confederacy, creating Ife west of Oke Ora.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Adebayo |first1=Akanmu |title=Culture, Politics, and Money Among the Yoruba |date=6 February 2018 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-351-52419-3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vPdKDwAAQBAJ&dq=Oduduwa+oke+ora&pg=PT19 |access-date=30 July 2023 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Ogunremi |first1=Deji |last2=Adediran |first2=Biodun |title=Culture and Society in Yorubaland |date=1998 |publisher=Rex Charles Publication |isbn=978-978-2137-73-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Dm8uAQAAIAAJ&q=Oduduwa+oke+ora |access-date=30 July 2023 |language=en}}</ref>
Cultural markers which unite the Yoruba people include their spiritual concepts and chief divinities (Orisha), that 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 well-known divinities such as Obatala, Ogun, Orunmila, Osun, Eshu, Olokun, Yemoja, Osanyin, and 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 communities 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, are a closed group of mutually intelligible dialects which strongly bind their speakers into 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 area, inhabited by geographically contiguous and culturally related subgroups, was divided into 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 the Ife Empire. The Ife Empire between 1200 and the mid-1400s was forest-based and spread its influence through religion, politics, philosophy and commerce. By contrast, Oyo was a highly militaristic grassland state that replaced Ife as the Yoruba power. It and established its influence 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, the whole of Dahomey, southern Borgu, the Mahi states, southern Nupe and the Aja people. From the 16th to the 19th centuries, Oyo had many wars and established a reputation among the neighbouring kingdoms of Ashanti, Dahomey, Borgu, Nupe, Igala and Benin as well as further afield in Songhai, Hausa Kingdoms and others. It solidified its place in the greater region as a powerhouse strategically placed between the forest and the savanna and as representing a cultural unit which it defended. During the 18th century, during the reign of Ajagbo, the rulers of the Yoruba-speaking kingdoms of Oyo, Egba, Ketu, and Ijebu considered each other "brothers" led by Oyo.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ellis |first1=Alfred Burdon |title=Yoruba-Speaking Peoples of the Slave Coast of West Africa: Their Religion, Manners, Customs, Laws, Language, etc. |date=1894 |publisher=Chapman and Hall |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=F6yAVS7gB7QC&dq=In+the+days+of+Ajagbo&pg=PT12}} Reprint: {{ISBN|978-1-4655-1661-9}}.</ref>
At the beginning of the 19th century, the Yoruba community was made up of the following main 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; Ijebu, 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, and Igbessa.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ellis |first1=Alfred Burdon |title=Yoruba-Speaking Peoples of the Slave Coast of West Africa: Their Religion, Manners, Customs, Laws, Language, etc. |date=1894 |publisher=Chapman and Hall |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=F6yAVS7gB7QC&dq=Their+inhabitants+are+Egbados,+or+Southern+Egbas+(Egba-odo&pg=PT5}} Reprint: {{ISBN|978-1-4655-1661-9}}.</ref>
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 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. The same can be observed of certain localized royal titles, e.g. Ajalorun, Owa, and 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 and 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.<ref>{{cite book |title=Encyclopedia of the Yoruba |date=20 June 2016 |isbn=978-0-253-02156-4 |page=5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jep3DAAAQBAJ&dq=%22the+elite+popularized+the+idea+of+%22&pg=PA5|last1=Falola |first1=Toyin |last2=Akinyemi |first2=Akintunde|publisher=Indiana University Press }}</ref>
== Pre-colonial government of Yoruba society == === Government === [[File:Oyoxviii.jpeg|thumb|Oyo Empire and surrounding states]]
Monarchies 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 Ọyọ'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),<ref name=Phillips>{{cite journal|pages=117–131|volume=10|number=1|journal=Journal of African History|title=The Egba at Abeokuta: Acculturation and Political change, 1830–1870|year=1969|author=Earl Phillips|doi=10.1017/s0021853700009312|jstor=180299|s2cid=154430100}}</ref> 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."<ref name=contributions>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eiQHFrA7GUwC&pg=PR18|title=Contributions of Yoruba People in the Economic & Political Developments of Nigeria|author=Jacob Oluwatayo Adeuyan|publisher=AuthorHouse, 2011|isbn=978-1-4670-2480-8|page=18|date=12 October 2011}}</ref> He described Abẹokuta and its system of government as "the most extraordinary republic in the world."<ref name="contributions" />
=== Leadership === Gerontocratic leadership councils that guarded against the monopolization of power by a monarch were a trait of the Ẹgba, according to the eminent Ọyọ 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 Ọyọ, the most centralized of the precolonial kingdoms, the ''Alaafin'' consulted on all political decisions with the prime minister and principal kingmaker (the ''Basọrun'') and the rest of the council of leading nobles known as the ''Ọyọ Mesi''.<ref>{{Cite news |title=Selecting a new Alaafin: Oyo Mesi and the burden of tradition and truth |url=https://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 |access-date=2023-09-18 |newspaper=Premium Times}}</ref>
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.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ellis |first1=Alfred Burdon |title=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, Ew̜e, and Yoruba Languages |date=1894 |publisher=Chapman and Hall |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=x9UKAAAAIAAJ&q=%22Chapter%20X.%20System%20of%20government%22}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vf8VAQAAIAAJ|page=112|title=Africa since 1914: a historical bibliography|volume=17|author=ABC-Clio Information Services|publisher=ABC-Clio Information Services|year=1985|isbn=978-0-87436-395-1}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0VGBAAAAMAAJ|title=Where Women Work: A Study of Yoruba Women in the Marketplace and in the Home, Issues 53-56 of Anthropological papers|author=Niara Sudarkasa|publisher=University of Michigan|year=1973|pages=59–63}}</ref>
=== City-states === {{Main|Yorubaland}} {{See also|Oyo Empire#Political Structure}}
The monarchy of any city-state was usually limited to a number of royal lineages.<ref>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.</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Salawu |first1=Abiodun |title=The Yoruba and Their Language Newspapers: Origin, Nature, Problems and Prospects|journal=Studies of Tribes and Tribals|year=2004 |doi=10.1080/0972639X.2004.11886508 |volume=2|issue=2|pages=97–104|s2cid=194810838}}</ref> 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 Ọyọ, 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 Ìgbómìnà were renowned for their agricultural and hunting prowess, as well as their woodcarving, leather art, and the famous Elewe masquerade.<ref>{{Cite journal |doi=10.1086/203234 |title=The Beginnings of Agriculture in West Africa: Botanical Evidence |year=1985 |last1=Sowunmi |first1=M. A. |journal=Current Anthropology |volume=26 |pages=127–129 |s2cid=145073849}}</ref>
=== Groups, organizations and leagues in Yorubaland === [[File:The belief in the god of thunder sango in the traditional Yoruba society 4.jpg|thumb|right|Depiction of a traditional Sango venerating fraternity]]
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.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v4MYAAAAYAAJ|title=Diversity of Creativity in Nigeria: A Critical Selection from the Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on the Diversity of Creativity in Nigeria|author1=Bolaji Campbell|author2=R. I. Ibigbami|publisher=Department of Fine Arts, Obafemi Awolowo University|year=1993|page=309|isbn=978-978-32078-0-6}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KGGTAAAAIAAJ|title=Indigenous Organizations and Development Higher Education Policy Series (IT studies in indigenous knowledge and development)|author1=Peter Blunt|author2=Dennis M. Warren|author3=Norman Thomas Uphoff|publisher=Intermediate Technology Publications|year=1996|isbn=978-1-85339-321-1}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ju5EAQAAIAAJ|title=Africa, Volume 68, Issues 3-4|author1=Diedrich Westermann|author2=Edwin William Smith|author3=Cyril Daryll Forde|publisher=International African Institute, International Institut|page=364|year=1998}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fLIXAQAAMAAJ|title=Memoirs of the American Anthropological Association, Issues 63–68|author=American Anthropological Association|year=1944}}</ref> 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 and successfully managed to overthrow Ọyọ's ''Ajeles'' (appointed administrators) in the late 18th century. Similarly, covert military resistance leagues like the ''Ekiti Parapọ'' and the ''Ogidi'' alliance were organized during the 19th century wars by often-decentralized communities of the Ekiti, Ijẹsa, Ìgbómìnà and Okun Yoruba to resist various imperial expansionist plans of Ibadan, Nupe, and the Sokoto Caliphate.
== Society and culture == {{Main|Yoruba culture}}
thumb|Yorubaland Cultural Area of West Africa Cities indigenous to the Yoruba people include but are not limited to Ibadan, Lagos, Abeokuta, Ilorin, Ogbomoso, Oyo, Osogbo, Ile Ife, Okitipupa, Ijebu Ode, Akure, Offa, among others. 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.<ref name="Research note: Exploring survey dat"/> 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.<ref name="Aderibigbe, Gbola, editor. Medine, Carolyn M. Jones, editor">{{Cite book|editor1-last=Aderibigbe |editor1-first=Gbola |editor2-last=Medine |editor2-first=Carolyn M. Jones |title=Contemporary perspectives on religions in Africa and the African diaspora|date=12 October 2015|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan US |isbn=978-1-137-50051-9|oclc=1034928481}}</ref>
=== Traditional Yoruba religion === {{Main|Yoruba religion}} {{Further|Ifá|Yoruba medicine}} [[File:Ogunda Meji.jpg|thumb|''Ogunda Meji'', one of the sixteen principals of 256 ''Odus'' (the corpus of Ifa literature) represented on a virtual ''Opon Ifa'' board]]
The Yoruba religion comprises the traditional religious and spiritual concepts and practices of the Yoruba people.<ref>{{cite book|title=Yoruba Hometowns: Community, Identity, and Development in Nigeria|author=Lillian Trager|date=January 2001|publisher=Lynne Rienner Publishers|isbn=978-1-55587-981-5|page=22|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DUznKhxaVxkC|access-date=28 February 2014}}</ref> 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.<ref name="Culture">{{cite book |title=Yoruba Culture: ''A Philosophical Account'' |first=Kola |last=Abimbola |edition=Paperback |publisher=Iroko Academics Publishers |year=2005 |isbn=978-1-905388-00-4}}</ref> 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.<ref name="Culture" />
Next 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, ''Oríta 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.<ref name="Abimbola2006">{{cite book|last=Abimbola|first=Kola|title=Yoruba Culture: A Philosophical Account|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4G7Xv-wapEMC&pg=PA58|access-date=23 May 2015|year=2006|publisher=Iroko Academic Publishers|isbn=978-1-905388-00-4|page=58}}</ref> 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 Òrunn (Heaven) and Ayé (Earth). Oshumare is a god that manifests in the form of a rainbow, also known as Òsùmàrè in Yoruba, while Obatala is the god of clarity and creativity.These gods feature in the Yoruba religion,<ref name="voices" /><ref name="Bascom1969">{{cite book|last=Bascom|first=William Russell|title=Ifa Divination: Communication Between Gods and Men in West Africa|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CS0h4Ye9puUC&pg=PA3|access-date=23 May 2015|year=1969|publisher=Indiana University Press|isbn=978-0-253-20638-1|page=3}}</ref> 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.<ref>Kevin Baxter (on De La Torre), [http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07182/798519-63.stm "Ozzie Guillen secure in his faith"], ''Los Angeles Times'', 2007</ref>
===List of Orisha and Ajogun=== {| class="wikitable" style="line-height:20px;text-align:center;" ! style="width:20%; color:#fff; background:black;" |Name ! style="width:60%; color:#fff; background:navy;" |Deity of ! style="width:20%; color:#fff; background:navy;" |Member of |- | Agẹmọ | Chameleon, Service | Orisha |- | Aganju | Volcanoes, Wilderness, Desert, Fire | Orisha |- | Ajaka | Peace, Love, Equality | Orisha |- | Akọgun | Warrior, Hunter, Wearers of straw | Orisha |- |Ayangalu | Drummer, Muse, Percussion | Orisha |- | Arira (Aara, Aira, Ara) | Weather, Storm, Thunder | Orisha |- | Ayelala | Crime and punishment, Retribution | Orisha |- | Arọni | Nature, Forest spirits, Herbs, Plants | Orisha |- | Arun | Diseases, Affliction | Ajogun |- | Aje | Wealth, Property, Good Fortune, Success | Orisha |- | Aye | Passion, Environmentalism, Nature | Orisha |- | Ajija (Aaja, Aija, Aja) | Whirlwind, Wilderness, Herbs, Plants, Leaf | Orisha |- | Biri | Darkness, Night, Midnight | Orisha |- | Babalu Aye | Earth, Epidemics (Smallpox), Healing | Orisha |- | Bayanni | Children, Dread Heads, Prosperity | Orisha |- | Dada | Youthfulness, Mischief, Playfulness | Orisha |- | Ẹla | Illumination, Knowledge, Charity and Giving | Orisha |- | Edi | Confusion, Undoing, Corruption | Ajogun |- | Ẹgba | Paralysis, Ineptitude, Laziness | Ajogun |- | Egungun (Eegun) | Sainted dead, Ancestors | Orisha |- | Epe | Curses, Imprecation | Ajogun |- | Erinlẹ | Hunter, Earth, Natural Force, Universe | Orisha |- | Eṣe | Affliction, Scourge | Ajogun |- | Eshu | Trickery, Crossroads, Chance, Travel, Emissary, Chaos, Order | Intermediary |- | Ẹwọn | Imprisonment, Bondage | Ajogun |- | Ibeji | Twins | Orisha |- | Iroko | Trees, Wilderness | Orisha |- | Iya Nla | Primordial Spirit | Orisha |- | Iku | Death | Ajogun |- | Imọlẹ | Sunlight, Soothsayer | Orisha |- | Logunede | War, Hunting | Orisha |- | Moremi | Saviour | Orisha |- | Ọba | River, Passion, Homemaking, Domesticity | Orisha |- | Ọbatala | Creation, Purity | Orisha |- | Oduduwa | Progenitor, Warrior | Orisha |- | Ofo | Loss, Depletion, Deprivation, Forfeiture, Defeat | Ajogun |- | Ogun | Warriors, Soldiers, Blacksmiths, Metal Workers, Craftsmen | Orisha |- | Oke | Mountain, Hills and Hillocks | Orisha |- | Orisha Oko | Agriculture, Farming, Fertility, Rurality, Harvest | Orisha |- | Olokun | Water, Health, Wealth | Orisha |- | Ọran | Trouble, Problems, Difficulty | Ajogun |- | Ọranyan | Progenitor, Bravery, Heroism | Orisha |- | Orò | Justice, Bullroarers | Orisha |- | Ọrọnṣẹn | Progenitor | Orisha |- | Ọrunmila | Wisdom, Knowledge, Divination, philosophy, Destiny, Prophecy | Orisha |- | Ori | Prelife, Afterlife, Destiny, Personal Identity | Orisha |- | Ọsanyin | Herbs, Plants, Nature, Herbalists, Magicians | Orisha |- | Ọshọsi | Hunt, Forest, Warrior, Justice | Orisha |- | Ọshun | Water, Purity, Fertility, Love, Femininity | Orisha |- | Oshunmare | Rainbow, Serpent, Regeneration, Rebirth | Orisha |- | Ọtin | River, Fighter | Orisha |- | Ọya | Storms, Wind, Thunder, Lightning, Dead | Orisha |- | Shango | Thunder, Lightning, Fire, Justice, Dance, Virility | Orisha |- | Shigidi | Home guardian, Environment guardian, Defender | Orisha |- | Yemoja | Creation, Water, Moon, Motherhood, Protection | Orisha |- | Yewa | River, Dreams, Clarity | Orisha |}
==== Mythology ==== {{Main|Oduduwa}} [[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 Ifa'' or divination board. Traditionally made from ivory, but also brass and wood.<ref name="Imo Dara">{{cite book|last=Imo|first=Dara|title=Connecting African art collectors with dealers, based on a foundation of knowledge about the origin, use & distinguishing features of listed pieces|date=7 March 2015|url=http://www.imodara.com/discover/nigeria-yoruba-iroke-ifa-divination-tapper}}/</ref>]]
Oral 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.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.yorubaalliance.org/Newsletter/newsletter74.htm|title=Who are the Yoruba!|access-date=6 February 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110702194235/http://www.yorubaalliance.org/Newsletter/newsletter74.htm|archive-date=2 July 2011}}</ref> }}
==== Philosophy ==== Yoruba culture consists of cultural philosophy, religion and folktales. They are embodied in Ifá divination, and are known as the tripartite Book of Enlightenment in Yorubaland and in its diaspora.{{citation needed|date=April 2025}}
Yoruba cultural thought is a witness of two epochs. The first epoch is a history of cosmogony and cosmology.{{citation needed|date=April 2025}} 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.{{citation needed|date=April 2025}} 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.{{citation needed|date=April 2025}} 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.{{citation needed|date=April 2025}} Societies that are considered secret societies often strictly guard and encourage the observance of moral values.{{citation needed|date=April 2025}} 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.{{citation needed|date=April 2025}}
=== Christianity and Islam === [[File:Church of the Pater Noster Mount of Olives, Jerusalem 11.jpg|thumb|upright|The Lord's prayer in the Yoruba language, Church of the Pater Noster Mount of Olives, Jerusalem]]
The Yoruba are traditionally very religious people, and are today pluralistic in their religious convictions.<ref name=integration>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nkbYlltTi4sC&pg=PA103 |title=Religion and National Integration in Africa: Islam, Christianity, and Politics in the Sudan and Nigeria |series=Islam and society in Africa |author=John O. Hunwick |page=103 |publisher=Northwestern University Press |year=1992 |isbn=978-0-8101-1037-3}}</ref> The Yoruba are one of the more religiously diverse ethnic groups in Africa. Many Yoruba people practice Christianity in denominations such as Anglicanism<ref name="Mathews 2002 p. 136">{{cite book | last=Mathews | first=M.P. | title=Nigeria: Current Issues and Historical Background | publisher=Nova Science Publishers | year=2002 | isbn=978-1-59033-316-7 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hTs6GpM4zDMC&pg=PA136 | access-date=2023-08-05 | page=136}}</ref> 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.<ref name="Aderibigbe, Gbola, editor. Medine, Carolyn M. Jones, editor" />
==== Christianity ==== [[File:Anna hinderer church and mission house at ibadan pic2.jpg|thumb|left|Anna Hinderer church and mission house at Ibadan, 1850s<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WZg3AQAAMAAJ&dq=anna+hinderer&pg=PA99|title=Seventeen Years in the Yoruba Country Memorials of Anna Hinderer, Wife of the Rev. David Hinderer, C.M.S. Missionary in Western Africa|author=Anna Hinderer|publisher=Seeley, Jackson, and Halliday|year=1872}}</ref>]]
The Yorubas were one of the first groups in West Africa to be introduced to Christianity on a very large scale.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DdFvbW5tWpYC&q=christianity+in+yorubaland&pg=PA77|title=Pre-Colonial Africa in Colonial African Narratives: From Ethiopia Unbound to Things Fall Apart, 1911–1958|author=Dr Donald R Wehrs|publisher=Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.|year=2013|isbn=978-1-4094-7495-1}}</ref> Christianity (along with western civilization) came into Yorubaland in the mid-19th century through the Europeans, whose original mission was commerce.<ref name="integration" /><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OdbBBwAAQBAJ&pg=PT74 |title=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 |author=Ádébáyò Ádésóyè |publisher=AuthorHouse |year=2015 |isbn=978-1-5049-3785-6}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m2V1AAAAMAAJ |title=Western Yorubaland under European rule, 1889–1945: A Comparative Analysis of French and British Colonialism. European Philosophy and the Human Sciences |author=A. I. Asiwaju |publisher=Humanities Press (Ibadan history series, the University of Michigan) |year=1976 |isbn=978-0-391-00605-8}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fUqcAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA1162 |title=The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church |author1=Frank Leslie Cross |author2=Elizabeth A. Livingstone |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2005 |page=1162 |isbn=978-0-19-280290-3}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Adebanwi|first=Wale|chapter=Seizing the Heritage: Playing Proper Yorùbá in an Age of Uncertainty|title=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}}</ref>
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.<ref>{{cite web|website=Yorupedia|url=http://yorupedia.com/subjects/yoruba-religion/christianity-and-islam/|title=Christianity and Islam Introduction|access-date=14 September 2015|archive-date=21 July 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150721043138/http://yorupedia.com/subjects/yoruba-religion/christianity-and-islam/}}</ref>
==== Islam ==== The Yorubas knew of Islam from around the 14th century, as a result of trade with Wangara (also called Wankore) merchants,<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_nKXOThUEpcC&dq=wangara+yoruba&pg=PA440|title=Arabic Literature of Africa: The writings of central Sudanic Africa|date=1994|publisher=E.J. Brill|author1=John O. Hunwick|author2=Rex S. O'Fahey|page=440|isbn=978-978-2347-29-9}}</ref> 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,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://nigerianfinder.com/islamic-education-in-nigeria-how-it-all-began/|title=Islamic Education in Nigeria: How It All Began|date=10 August 2019 |publisher=Nigerian Finder}}</ref> during the reign of Mansa Musa.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1ha_bmASvRIC&pg=PA168 |title=Mission Et Progrès Humain (Mission and Human Progress) Studia missionalia |page=168 |language=fr |publisher=Gregorian Biblical BookShop |year=1998 |isbn=978-8-876-5278-76}}</ref> Due to this, Islam is traditionally known to the Yoruba as Esin Male or simply Imale i.e. religion of the Malians.
At Oyo-Ile, a mosque had been erected dating back as far as 1550 C.E. The mosque served the spiritual needs of, largely foreign, Muslim traders living in Ọyọ with widespread conversions among native Yorubas remaining limited for centuries.<ref>{{Cite web |last=NG |first=Barometer |date=2017-05-28 |title=Yorùbáland Initial Contact with Islam 1 |url=https://medium.com/@barometerng/yor%C3%B9b%C3%A1land-initial-contact-with-islam-1-d912a601d397 |access-date=2026-05-07 |website=Medium |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Editor |first=Oyoinsight |date=2020-07-17 |title=How Islam Entered Yoruba Land {{!}} Alabi Quadri |url=https://oyoinsight.com/how-islam-entered-yoruba-land-alabi-quadri/ |access-date=2026-05-07 |website=Oyoinsight |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Folami |first1=Olakunle |last2=Akande |first2=Omobolaji Omolola |last3=University) |first3=Oluwafemi Imisioluwa Olatunde (Adekunle Ajasin |date=2024-09-15 |title=Identity and Culture of Naming Among the Yoruba of West-Africa |url=https://almamaterjics.com/makale/5012 |journal=Alma Mater – Zeitschrift für interdisziplinäre Kulturforschungen |language=tr |volume=1 |issue=1 |pages=86–100 |doi=10.29329/almamater.2024.1053.7|doi-access=free }}</ref>
Although Islam had initially entered Yorubaland via the aforementioned Malian traders, the main wave of Islamic influence and conversions among the Yoruba stemmed from the 19th century Fula jihad.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Gbadamosi |first=T. G. O. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5XB1AAAAMAAJ |title=The Growth of Islam Among the Yoruba, 1841-1908 |date=1978 |publisher=Humanities Press |isbn=978-0-391-00834-2 |language=en}}</ref> Yoruba military forces effectively halted the southward expansion of the Fula jihad, which had previously conquered Hausaland and founded the Sokoto Caliphate. Following the jihad led by Dan Fodio, the Fulas took control of Ilorin (a former Oyo outpost) and attempted to extend their influence deeper into Yorubaland. Yoruba warriors, particularly the rising strength of Ibadan headed by commanders such as Balogun Oderinlo, decisively repelled the jihadis at the Battle of Osogbo around 1840, bringing an end to their jihad and maintaining the independence of core southern Yoruba territories.<ref>{{Cite book |last=SMITH |first=J. F. ADE AJAYI, ROBERT |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1tJfcFYIIM4C |title=YORUBA WARFARE IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY |date=1964 |language=en}}</ref>
A relatively small number of Yoruba people that were enslaved and trafficked to the Americas during the 19th century were Muslim. Most of these enslaved Muslims were likely recent converts and practiced a syncretized form of Islam, still adhering to traditional Orisha practices.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Lovejoy |first=Paul E. |date=August 1994 |title=Background to rebellion: The origins of Muslim slaves in Bahia |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01440399408575130 |journal=Slavery & Abolition |volume=15 |issue=2 |pages=151–180 |doi=10.1080/01440399408575130 |issn=0144-039X|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NQwcAlYxP7sC&pg=PA157 |title=Unfree Labour in the Development of the Atlantic World |author1=Paul E. Lovejoy |author2=Nicholas Rogers |publisher=Routledge |year=2012 |page=157 |isbn=978-1-136-30059-2}}</ref>
=== Traditional art and architecture === {{Main|Yoruba art|Yoruba architecture}} [[File:Yoruba peoples armlet (16th century).jpg|thumb|right|Intricately carved ivory bracelet from the Yoruba people of Owo]]
Medieval Yoruba settlements were surrounded with massive mud walls.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pMjHpEyDqJMC&q=Yoruba+adobe+mud+houses&pg=PA168|title=Traditional Buildings: A Global Survey of Structural Forms and Cultural Functions Volume 11 of International Library of Human Geography|author=Allen G. Noble|publisher=I.B.Tauris|year=2007|isbn=978-1-84511-305-6}}</ref> Yoruba buildings had similar plans to the Ashanti shrines, but with verandahs around the court. The wall materials comprised puddled mud and palm oil<ref name=today>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fwc5AAAAIAAJ&q=Yoruba+roofs&pg=PA40 |title=The Yoruba Today) |author=Jeremy Seymour Eades (Changing cultures) |publisher=Cambridge Latin Texts (CUP Archive) |year=1980 |isbn=978-0-521-22656-1}}</ref> while roofing materials ranged from thatches to corrugated iron sheets.<ref name="today" /> 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.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZPnDBAAAQBAJ&q=Sungbo%27s+Eredo+Yoruba+structure&pg=PA144|title=The History of Africa: The Quest for Eternal Harmony|author-link=Molefi Kete Asante|first=Molefi Kete|last=Asante|publisher=Routledge|year=2014|isbn=978-1-135-01349-3}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_dRnaZS9L3wC&q=Sungbo%27s+Eredo+Africa%27s+largest+monument&pg=PA158|title=Cultural Heritage, Ethics and the Military |volume=4 |issn=1756-4832|author=Peter G. Stone|series=The 'Heritage Matters' Series|publisher=Boydell Press|year=2011|isbn=978-1-84383-538-7|page=158}}</ref>
thumb|left|Yoruba door, wood carvings; used to record events {{Circa|1910}} [[File:Anna Hinderer building.jpg|thumb|left|Early 19th century Yoruba architecture showing their unique inner courtyard layout used as a safe space for storing livestock and a space where children could play<ref>{{cite book |title=Seventeen Years in the Yoruba Country. Memorials of Anna Hinderer |author1=Anna Hinderer |author2=D Hone |author3=C A Hone |publisher=Wentworth Press |date=27 August 2016 |isbn=978-1-371-18436-0}}</ref>]]
The 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.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/beni_2/hd_beni_2.htm|title=Origins and Empire: The Benin, Owo, and Ijebu Kingdoms|website=The Metropolitan Museum of Art (Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History)|date=October 2003 |access-date=9 July 2015}}</ref>
A lot of Yoruba artwork, including staffs, court dress, and beadwork for crowns, are associated with palaces and the royal courts.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UQ1QAAAAMAAJ&q=Yoruba+palace+architecture|title=Yoruba palaces: a study of Afins of Yorubaland|author1=G. J. Afolabi Ojo|publisher=University of Michigan|year=1966}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|title=Risawe's Palace, Ilesa Nigeria: Traditional Yoruba Architecture as Socio-Cultural and Religious Symbols|journal=African Research Review|volume=4|issue=3|author=N Umoru-Oke|doi=10.4314/afrrev.v4i3.60187|year=2010|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6bW41qkth0EC&q=Yoruba+architecture&pg=PA742 |title=The Sustainable World |volume=142 |issn=1746-448X |author=C. A. Brebbia |series=Wit Transactions on Ecology and the Environment |publisher=Wessex Institute of Technology (WIT Press) |year=2011 |isbn=978-1-84564-504-5}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9NcVAQAAIAAJ&q=Yoruba+palace+architecture |title=Ornamentation in Yoruba folk architecture: a catalogue of architectural features, ornamental motifs and techniques |author=Cordelia Olatokunbo Osasona |publisher=Bookbuilders Editions Africa |year=2005| isbn=978-978-8088-28-8}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fZwVAQAAIAAJ&q=Yoruba+art+and+architecture|title=Yoruba: nine centuries of African art and thought|author1=Henry John Drewal|author2=John Pemberton|author3=Rowland Abiodun|author4=Allen Wardwell|publisher=Center for African Art in Association with H.N. Abrams|year=1989|isbn=978-0-8109-1794-1}}</ref> 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 have also found their way into the New World in the form of shotgun houses.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zBumTdxwcMAC&pg=PA16|title=The Houses of Buxton: A Legacy of African Influences in Architecture|author=Patricia Lorraine Neely|publisher=P Designs Publishing|page=16|year=2005|isbn=978-0-9738754-1-6}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=G7kzQMytrMoC&q=Yoruba+architecture&pg=PA76|title=Common Places: Readings in American Vernacular Architecture|author1=Dell Upton|author2=John Michael Vlach|publisher=University of Georgia Press, 1986|isbn=978-0-8203-0750-3|year=1986}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zPgsAQAAIAAJ&q=Yoruba+architecture|title=Architectures of Nigeria: Architectures of the Hausa and Yoruba Peoples and of the Many Peoples Between--tradition and Modernization|author=Kevin Carroll|publisher=Society of African Missions|year=1992|isbn=978-0-905788-37-1}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Uk1Tbdsq99gC&q=shotgun+houses+yoruba&pg=PA299|title=The Yoruba Diaspora in the Atlantic World (Blacks in the Diaspora)|author1=Toyin Falola|author2=Matt D. Childs|publisher=Indiana University Press, 2005|isbn=978-0-253-00301-0|date=2 May 2005}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nps.gov/ethnography/aah/aaheritage/FrenchAm_pop11.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100830161834/http://www.nps.gov/ethnography/aah/aaheritage/FrenchAm_pop11.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=30 August 2010|website=National Park Service: African American Heritage & Ethnography|title=Shotgun Houses|access-date=3 December 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nyzjBAAAQBAJ&q=Reading+the+Architecture+of+the+Underprivileged+Classes|title=Reading the Architecture of the Underprivileged Classes|author=Nnamdi Elleh|publisher=Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.|year=2014|isbn=978-1-4094-6786-1|pages=86–88}}</ref> 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 Ife, 12th to 16th century|250x250px]] Masquerades 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.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IIqc3pizziAC&q=Yoruba+gelede+masquerades |title=Gẹlẹdẹ: Art and Female Power Among the Yoruba |series=Indiana University Turkish Studies, Midland books (Traditional arts of Africa) |volume=565 |author1=Henry John Drewal |author2=Margaret Thompson Drewal |publisher=Indiana University Press |year=1983 |isbn=978-0-253-32569-3}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=o3o_-JwBwW4C&q=Yoruba+gelede+masquerades&pg=PA15|page=51|title=Playful Performers: African Children's Masquerades|author1=Simon Ottenberg|author2=David Aaron Binkley|publisher=Transaction Publishers|isbn=978-1-4128-3092-8}}</ref> 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 Ifá 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.<ref name=understand />
The Gelede spectacle and the Ifá 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|Eyo Olokun|177x177px]]
One 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.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://tribes.tribe.net/africanspirituality/thread/92f4fde8-0ddf-491a-aa47-47f0c0af0d6e|access-date=10 June 2015|title=Yoruba Culture|website=Tribes|date=18 September 2007|archive-date=10 June 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150610090351/http://tribes.tribe.net/africanspirituality/thread/92f4fde8-0ddf-491a-aa47-47f0c0af0d6e}}</ref> 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 grove|252x252px]] The Yoruba are a very expressive people who celebrate major events with colorful festivals and celebrations (Ayeye). Some of these festivals (about thirteen principal ones)<ref name=mapping>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cfftg4o77QIC&q=Yoruba+festivals+America&pg=PA60|title=Mapping Yorùbá Networks: Power and Agency in the Making of Transnational Communities|author=Kamari Maxine Clarke|publisher=Duke University Press|isbn=978-0-8223-3342-5|pages=59, 60|date=12 July 2004}}</ref> are secular and only mark achievements and milestones in the achievement of mankind. These include wedding ceremonies (''Ìgbéyàwó''), naming ceremonies (''Ìsomolórúko''), funerals (''Ìsìnkú''), housewarming (''Ìsílé''), New-Yam festival (''Ìjesu''), Harvest ceremonies (''Ìkórè''), birth (''Ìbí''), chieftaincy (''Ìjòyè'') and so on.<ref name=understand>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2c4VAQAAIAAJ&q=Yoruba+igbeyawo|title=Understanding Yoruba life and culture|author1=Nike Lawal|author2=Matthew N. O. Sadiku|author3=Ade Dopamu|publisher=Africa World Press (the University of California)|date=22 July 2009|isbn=978-1-59221-025-1}}</ref> Others have a more spiritual connotation, such as the various days and celebrations dedicated to specific ''Orisha'' like the Ogun day (''Ojó Ògún'') 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.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IKqOUfqt4cIC&q=Yoruba+festivals&pg=PA346|title=Traditional Festivals, Vol. 2 [M – Z]|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1-57607-089-5|page=346|year=2005}}</ref> The festival is dedicated to the river goddess ''Osun'', which is usually celebrated in the month of August (''Osù Ògùn'') 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.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.mynewswatchtimesng.com/behold-new-arugba-osun-wants-doctor/|work=Newswatch Times|title=Behold, new Arugba Osun, who wants to be doctor|date=31 August 2013|access-date=10 June 2015|archive-date=4 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304060156/http://www.mynewswatchtimesng.com/behold-new-arugba-osun-wants-doctor/}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://allafrica.com/stories/201408221221.html|title=Nigeria: Osun Osogbo 2014 – Arugba's Berth Tastes Green With Goldberg Touch|author=Gregory Austin Nwakunor|date=22 August 2014|publisher=AllAfrica|access-date=10 June 2015}}</ref> A similar event holds in the New World as Odunde Festival.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6p2aLo2kafMC&q=Odunde+Festival+Yoruba+United+States+America&pg=PA32|title=The United States and West Africa: Interactions and Relations |volume=34 |issn=1092-5228|author1=Alusine Jalloh|author2=Toyin Falola|series=Rochester Studies in African History and the Diaspora|publisher=University Rochester Press|year=2008|isbn=978-1-58046-308-9|page=32}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mK147fnLIrAC&q=Odunde+Festival+Yoruba+United+States+America&pg=PA44|title=Art in the Lives of Immigrant Communities in the United States Rutgers Series: The Public Life of the Arts|author1=Paul DiMaggio|author2=Patricia Fernandez-Kelly|author3=Gilberto Cârdenas|author4=Yen Espiritu|author5=Amaney Jamal|author6=Sunaina Maira|author7=Douglas Massey|author8=Cecilia Menjivar|author9=Clifford Murphy|author10=Terry Rey|author11=Susan Seifert|author12=Alex Stepick|author13=Mark Stern|author14=Domenic Vitiello|author15=Deborah Wong|page=44|publisher=Rutgers University Press, 2010|isbn=978-0-8135-5041-1|date=13 October 2010}}</ref>
[[File:Gèlèdé divinités vodou.jpg|thumb|right|''Gèlèdé'' costumes from a ''Yoruba-Nago'' community in Benin|173px]] Another 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''.<ref name=mapping/> 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.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.spyghana.com/celebrating-eyo-festival-in-the-modern-way/|title=Celebrating Eyo the Modern Way|website=SpyGhana|date=21 March 2015 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.kingdomsofnigeria.com/eyolagosagog.php|title=Royalty in the news: Lagos agog for Eyo Festival today.|website=Kingdoms of Nigeria|access-date=10 June 2015|archive-date=29 December 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161229113727/http://www.kingdomsofnigeria.com/eyolagosagog.php|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.aboutlagos.com/?p=654|title=Eyo Festival|website=About Lagos|access-date=10 June 2015|archive-date=27 June 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150627090332/http://www.aboutlagos.com/?p=654}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IKqOUfqt4cIC&q=Yoruba+festivals+America&pg=PA346|page=346|title=Traditional Festivals, Vol. 2 [M – Z]|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1-57607-089-5|access-date=10 June 2015|year=2005}}</ref>
=== Music === {{See also|Yoruba music|Batá drum}} [[File:Drummers of traditional Gbedu drum in Yoruba land of Nigeria.jpg|thumb|Gbedu drummers]] [[File:Bata drums.jpg|thumb|The Batá drum – from left: ''Okónkolo'', ''Iyá'', ''Itótele''|172px]] [[File:Yoruba slit drum.jpg|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,<ref>{{cite book|title=Yorùbá Music in the Twentieth Century Identity, Agency, and Performance Practice|author=Bode Omojola|date=4 December 2012|publisher=University of Rochester Press|access-date=28 February 2014|url=http://www.urpress.com/store/viewItem.asp?idProduct=14012|isbn=978-1-58046-409-3|archive-date=19 December 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141219013716/http://www.urpress.com/store/viewItem.asp?idProduct=14012|url-status=dead}}</ref> especially using the dundun<ref name="Turino pg. 43">Turino, 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</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite thesis |author=Tamara De Silva |title=Symbols and Ritual: the Socio-Religious Role of the Ìgbìn Drum Family |others=Professor Renée Ater, faculty advisor |degree=Master of Arts |year=2006 |publisher=Department of Art History and Archaeology, University of Maryland |url=http://drum.lib.umd.edu/bitstream/1903/3919/1/umi-umd-3770.pdf |access-date=8 July 2015}}</ref> 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,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.scribd.com/doc/85753/Bata-Drumming-Notations-Discographies-Glossary |title=Bata Drumming Notations Discographies Glossary (''Bata Drumming & the Lucumi Santeria BembeCeremony'') |website=Scribd Online |access-date=14 September 2015}}</ref> Capoeira practice in Brazil and the music of Cuba.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.descarga.com/cgi-bin/db/archives/Article17|website=Conunto Folkorico Nacional De Cuba Música Yoruba, Soul Force 101|title=Yoruba Sacred Music, Old World and New by John Gray|access-date=14 September 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923213854/http://www.descarga.com/cgi-bin/db/archives/Article17|archive-date=23 September 2015}}</ref>
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 Oríkì 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.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.lagbaja.com/drums/ogido.php|website=Lagbaja|title=Ogido|access-date=14 September 2015|archive-date=11 December 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091211201443/http://www.lagbaja.com/drums/ogido.php|url-status=dead}}</ref>
[[File:Benin, yoruba, campanaccio per invocare gli spiriti o le divinità,.JPG|thumb|right|Traditional Agogo metal gongs|100px]] Today, 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 Bàtá 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.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://rateyourmusic.com/genre/Yoruba+Music/|title=Yoruba music|access-date=14 September 2015}}</ref>{{deprecated inline|certain=y|date=November 2024}} Ensembles using the dundun play a type of music that is also called ''dundun''.<ref name="Turino pg. 43"/> 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 ''Ìyá'' or ''Ìyá Ìlù'', 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.
=== Twins in Yoruba society === {{Main|Ibeji}}
[[File:Yoruba Ibeji figures, representing twins Wellcome L0035694.jpg|thumb|right|120x120px|Wooden ''Ere Ibeji'' figures representing twins. Yorubas have the highest twinning rate in the world.]] The Yoruba present the highest dizygotic twinning rate in the world (4.4% of all maternities).<ref name=rand>{{cite journal|url=http://www.randafricanart.com/Yoruba_Customs_and_Beliefs_Pertaining_to_Twins.html|title=Yoruba Customs and Beliefs Pertaining to Twins|volume=5|issue=2|pages=132–136|author=Leroy Fernand |author2=Olaleye-Oruene Taiwo |author3=Koeppen-Schomerus Gesina |author4=Bryan Elizabeth|journal=Twin Research |year=2002|doi=10.1375/1369052023009|pmid=11931691|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UT5iQgAACAAJ&q=Yoruba+twin+art|title=Ibeji: The Cult of Yoruba Twins Volume 2 of Hic sunt leones|author1=George Chemeche|author2=John Pemberton|author3=John Picton|publisher=5 Continents|year=2003|isbn=978-88-7439-060-1}}</ref> 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.<ref name="Knox">{{cite journal|url=http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/119755283/abstract |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130105100018/http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/119755283/abstract |archive-date=2013-01-05 |title=Twinning in Yoruba Women|journal=BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics & Gynaecology|volume=67|issue=6|pages=981–984|date=December 1960|author=Knox George|author2=Morley David |doi=10.1111/j.1471-0528.1960.tb09255.x|pmid=13757217|s2cid=28909380 |url-access=subscription}}</ref> 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''.<ref>{{cite web |title=The J. Richard Simon Collection of Yoruba Twin Figures – Art & Life in Africa – The University of Iowa Museum of Art|url=https://africa.uima.uiowa.edu/topic-essays/show/45?start=2|access-date=2021-01-24|website=africa.uima.uiowa.edu|language=en-US}}</ref> ''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'.<ref>{{cite web |title=Land of Ibeji |url=https://www.noorimages.com/land-of-ibeji-english |website=NOOR |language=en-US |access-date=2021-01-24 }}</ref>
Twins are perceived as having spiritual advantages or as possessing magical powers.<ref name=":1">{{cite news |url=https://www.cnn.com/style/article/stephen-tayo-ibeji-nigeria-twins/index.html|title=Stephen Tayo captures the sacred kinship of Nigerian twins|last=Seymour|first=Tom|date=31 January 2019|website=CNN Style|language=en|access-date=2019-11-05}}</ref> This is different from some other cultures, which interpret twins as dangerous or unwanted.<ref name=":1" />
=== Calendar === {{Main|Yoruba calendar}}
Time is measured in "ọgán" or "ìṣẹ́jú-àáyá" (seconds), ''ìṣẹ́jú'' (minutes), ''wákàtí'' (hours), ''ọjọ́'' (days), ''ọ̀sẹ̀'' (weeks), ''oṣù'' (months) and ''ọdún'' (years). There are 60 (ọgọta) ''ìṣẹ́jú'' in 1 (okan) ''wákàtí''; 24 (merinleogun) ''wákàtí'' in 1 (okan) ''ọjọ́''; 7 (meje) ''ọjọ́'' in 1 (okan) ''ọ̀sẹ̀''; 4 (merin) ''ọ̀sẹ̀'' in 1 (okan) ''oṣù'' and 52 (mejilelaadota) ''ọ̀sẹ̀'' in 1 (okan)''ọdún''. There are 12 (mejila) ''oṣù'' in 1 ''ọdún''.<ref>[http://www.jolome.com/yoruba/calendar/ ''Yorùbá Language: Research and Development'']; {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101207061015/http://www.jolome.com/yoruba/calendar/ |date=7 December 2010}}, 2010 Yorùbá Calendar (Kojoda 10052)#2,3,4,5,6,7</ref> {| class="wikitable" |+ Approximate relation between Yoruba months and Gregorian months |- !Months in Yoruba calendar: || Months in Gregorian calendar:<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ralaran.com|title=Ralaran Uléìmȯkiri Institute}}</ref> |- |''Ṣẹrẹ'' || January |- |''Erélé'' || February |- |''Erénà'' || March |- |''Igbe'' || April |- |''Èbìbí'' || May |- |''Okúdù'' || June |- |''Agẹmọ'' || July |- |''Ògún'' || August |- |''Owérè (Owéwè)'' || September |- |''Ọwàrà (Owawa)'' || October |- |''Belu'' || November |- |''Ọ̀pẹ'' || December |}
The Yoruba week consists of four days. Traditionally, the Yoruba count their week starting from the Ojó Ògún, this day is dedicated to Ògún. The second day is Ojó Jákúta, the day is dedicated to Sàngó. The third day is known as the Ojó Òsè – this day is dedicated to Òrìshà ńlá (Obàtálá), while the fourth day is the Ojó Awo, in honour of Òrúnmìlà. {| class="wikitable" |- !Yoruba calendar traditional days |- !Days: |- |''Ojó Ògún'' (''Ògún'') |- | ''Ojó Jákúta'' (''Shàngó'') |- |''Ojó Òsè'' (''Òrìshà ńlá'' / ''Obàtálá'') |- |''Ojó Awo'' (''Òrúnmìlà'' / ''Ifá'') |}
The Yoruba calendar (Kojoda) year starts from 3 to 2 June of the following year.<ref>[http://www.jolome.com/yoruba/calendar/ Yorùbá Language: Research and Development]; {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101207061015/http://www.jolome.com/yoruba/calendar/ |date=7 December 2010}}, 2010 Yorùbá Calendar (Kojoda 10052) No. 1</ref> According to this calendar, the Gregorian year 2021 is the 10,063th year of Yoruba culture, which starts with the creation of Ìfẹ̀ in 8042 B.C.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.jolome.com/yoruba/calendar/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101207061015/http://www.jolome.com/yoruba/calendar/|title=Yorùbá Kalenda|archive-date=7 December 2010}}</ref> To reconcile with the Gregorian calendar, Yoruba people also often measure time in seven days a week and four weeks a month:
{| class="wikitable" |- !Modified days in Yoruba calendar || Days in Gregorian calendar |- |''Ọjọ́-Àìkú'' || Sunday |- |''Ọjọ́-Ajé'' || Monday |- |''Ọjọ́-Ìṣẹ́gun'' || Tuesday |- |''Ọjọ́-'Rú'' || Wednesday |- |''Ọjọ́-Bọ̀'' || Thursday |- |''Ọjọ́-Ẹtì'' || Friday |- |''Ọjọ́-Àbámẹ́ta'' || Saturday<ref>[http://yourtemple.net/spirit/2008.03/yoruba_calendar.jsp Yourtemple.net]; {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090116185921/http://yourtemple.net/spirit/2008.03/yoruba_calendar.jsp |date=16 January 2009 }}</ref> |}
=== Cuisine === {{main|Yoruba cuisine}}
Yoruba food involve a variety of crops and methods, including boiling, steaming, frying and roasting and barbecue. Okele, a group of solid food, pounded or prepared with hot water, are basic staple foods of the Yoruba eaten with soups and stews. These foods are all by-products of crops like cassava, yams, cocoyam. Others like Plantain, corn also feature. Rice and yam are also staple and eaten with stews. In Yoruba cuisine, rice, beans, vegetables, meat, and fish are also chief ingredients in cooking.<ref name="Yoruba Cuisine">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IIIOAQAAIAAJ|title=The Kudeti Book of Yoruba Cookery|last1=Mars|first1=J.A.|last2=Tooleyo|first2=E.M.|publisher=CSS|year=2003|isbn=978-978-2951-93-9}}</ref>
Some common Yoruba foods are iyan (pounded yam), amala, eba, semo, fufu,(Generally called"Okele"), moin moin (bean cake) and akara.<ref name="understand" /> 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.<ref name="Yoruba Cuisine"/>
<gallery class="center" mode="packed" heights="150" classes="center" caption="Yoruba cultural dishes"> File:Amala ati Ewedu and Ogunfe.png|Amala is a Yoruba food.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oXxBAAAAYAAJ&q=amala|title=A Vocabulary of the Yoruba Language|author=Owen Emeric Vidal|publisher=Seeleys|date=1852}} Reprint: {{ISBN|978-1-9765-8921-8}}.</ref> File:Beans Ball-Akara.jpg|Akara is a Yoruba bean fritter.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oXxBAAAAYAAJ&q=akara|title=A Vocabulary of the Yoruba Language|author=Owen Emeric Vidal|publisher=Seeleys|date=1852}} Reprint: {{ISBN|978-1-9765-8921-8}}.</ref> File:Nigeria ofada.jpg|Ofada rice is a Yoruba dish.<ref name="Olusegun Obasanjo 1983">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JdrSAAAAMAAJ&q=%22ofada%20rice%22|title=Management in Agriculture & Rural Development: A Practitioner's View|author=Olusegun Obasanjo|date=1983|publisher=ARMTI |isbn=978-978-2399-24-3}}</ref> File:OfadaRice with assorted meat and egg.png|Ofada rice is traditionally in a leaf.<ref name="Olusegun Obasanjo 1983"/> File:Moin Moin.jpg|Moin moin is a Yoruba steamed bean pudding.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w3r4Xx2059AC&q=%22moin+moin%22|title=Adimú: Gbogbó Tén'unjé Lukumí|author=Miguel Willie Ramos|publisher=Eleda.Org Publications|date=July 2012|isbn=978-1-877845-10-9}}</ref> File:Delicacies in Yoruba land, Nigeria.jpg|A collection of foods eaten by Yorubas in general </gallery>
== Dress and body ornamentation== {{Further|Yoruba women's clothing}} {{Further|Yoruba tribal marks}} <gallery class="center" mode="packed" heights="180" classes="center" caption="Some common Yoruba cultural wear"> File:African Lace VLM 31.jpg|Simple ''Iro'' and ''Buba'' with Gele<ref name="Esogwa C. Osuala 1988">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JfbTAAAAMAAJ&q=%22iro+and+buba%22|title=Fundamentals of Nigerian Marketing|author=Esogwa C. Osuala|date=1988|publisher=Pacific Publishers|isbn=978-978-2347-29-9}}</ref> File:A Yoruba man garbed in traditional clothing (2).png|''Agbádá àti Fìlà''<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CzAqd4vGphoC&q=agbada+and+fila|title=Yoruba Dress: A Systematic Case Study of Five Generations of a Lagos Family|author=Betty Marguerite Wass|date=1975|publisher=Michigan State University. Department of Family Ecology|isbn=978-978-2347-29-9|pages=143–183}}</ref> File:A Yoruba woman garbed in traditional clothing.png|''Iro and Bùbá'', with ''Gele'' and ''Ipele''. Blouse, wrapper and headgear<ref name="Esogwa C. Osuala 1988"/> File:A Yoruba man garbed in traditional clothing.png|''Bùbá àti Kèmbè''. Agbada top with short baggy pants<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=n1AuAQAAIAAJ&q=kembe|title=A Handbook of Nigerian Culture|author1=Frank Aig-Imoukhuede|author2=Nigeria. Federal Ministry of Information and Culture|date=1992|publisher=Department of Culture, Federal Ministry of Information and Culture|isbn=978-978-31316-1-3|page=134}}</ref> File:A Yoruba woman garbed in traditional clothing (2).png|''Iro and Bùbá'', with ''Gele'' and ''Ipele'' made from Òfì<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bH5djwEACAAJ|title=Aso Oke Yoruba: A Tapestry of Love & Color, a Journey of Personal Discovery|author=Tola Adenle|date=February 2, 2016|publisher=CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform|isbn=978-1-5234-9522-1}}</ref> 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|''Ìró'' and ''Bùbá'' with gele<ref name="Esogwa C. Osuala 1988"/> </gallery>
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.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://artsandculture.google.com/exhibit/a-close-up-on-aso-oke-of-the-yoruba/KgKC6Y0ZViQKJw|title=A close-up on Aso-Oke of the Yoruba – The Centenary Project|website=Google Arts & Culture}}</ref> 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|An older traditional ''Agbada'' clothing historically worn by Yoruba men.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oXxBAAAAYAAJ&dq=agbada&pg=PA12|title=A Vocabulary of the Yoruba Language|author=Owen Emeric Vidal|publisher=Seeleys|date=1852}} Reprint: {{ISBN|978-1-9765-8921-8}}.</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jCE7AQAAIAAJ&dq=agbada&pg=PA266|title=The Journal of the Manchester Geographical Society|author=Manchester Geographical Society|page=266|date=1889}}</ref> This exhibit was obtained in the town of Òkukù.]] thumb|An Àkẹtè, outdoor cap that tapers off at angles.|145px thumb|Yoruba ladies, wearing aso oke, 1961, Nigeria Typically, the Yoruba have a very wide range of materials used to make clothing,<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NA8LAAAAIAAJ&q=yoruba|title=Official Descriptive and Illustrated Catalogue|author=Robert Ellis (F.L.S.)|publisher=Spicer Brothers|page=953|date=1851}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Ajila|first1=K.O|title=An Appraisal of Traditional Woven Fabric Production in Southwestern Nigeria|journal=European Journal of Sustainable Development|volume=5|pages=63–76|date=2016|doi=10.14207/EJSD.2016.V5N1P63|s2cid=55621472|doi-access=free}}</ref> the most basic being the ''Aṣo-Oke'', which is a hand loomed cloth of different patterns and colors sewn into various styles.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Makinde|first1=D. Olajide|last2=Ajiboye|first2=Olusegun Jide|last3=Ajayi|first3=Babatunde Joseph|title=Aso-Oke Production and Use Among the Yoruba of Southwestern Nigeria|journal=The Journal of Pan African Studies|volume=3|number=3|date=6 September 2009|url=http://www.jpanafrican.com/docs/vol3no3/3.3AsoOke.pdf|access-date=1 May 2014}}</ref> 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 Aṣọ-Oke, * ''Sanyan'' – a brown and usual light brown Aṣọ-Oke, and * ''Ẹtu'' – a dark blue Aṣọ-Oke.
[[File:Benin, yoruba, braccialetti, anelli e altri monili.JPG|thumb|upright|Yoruba metal bracelets and jewellery of old. Collection of The Afro-Brazilian museum of Salvador, Bahia]]
Other clothing materials include but are not limited to:
* ''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). Clothing in Yoruba culture is gender sensitive, despite a tradition of non-gender conforming families. For menswear, they have ''Bùbá, Esiki'' and ''Sapara'', which are regarded as ''Èwù Àwòtélè'' or underwear, while they also have ''Dandogo, Agbádá, Gbariye, Sulia'' and ''Oyala'', which are also known as ''Èwù Àwòlékè'' / ''Àwòsókè'' or overwear. Some fashionable men may add an accessory to the Agbádá outfit in the form of a wraparound (Ìbora).<ref>{{cite news|url=http://fashion-history.lovetoknow.com/clothing-types-styles/agbada-clothing|title=Agbada Clothing|author=Babatunde Lawa|work=Beauty and Fashion|publisher=Lovetoknow|access-date=10 June 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zqkYAAAAIAAJ&q=Agbada+Yoruba+men%27s+fashion+clothing|via=Scribner library of daily life (Gale Virtual Reference Library)|title=Encyclopedia of Clothing and Fashion (Vol. 1: Academic Dress to Eyeglasses)|author=Valerie Steele|publisher=Charles Scribner's Sons (University of Michigan)|pages=31–32|date=29 December 2006|isbn=978-0-684-31395-5}}</ref>
They also have various types of ''Sòkòtò'' or native trousers that are sewn alongside the above-mentioned dresses. Some of these are ''Kèmbè'' (Three-Quarter baggy pants), ''Gbáanu'', ''Sóóró'' (Long slim / streamlined pants), ''Káamu'' and ''Sòkòtò Elemu''. A man's dressing is considered incomplete without a cap (''Fìlà''). Some of these caps include, but are not limited to, ''Gobi'' (Cylindrical, which when worn may be compressed and shaped forward, sideways, or backward), ''Tinko'', ''Abetí-ajá'' (Crest-like shape that derives its name from its hanging flaps that resembles a dog's hanging ears. The flaps can be lowered to cover the ears in cold weather, otherwise, they are upwardly turned in normal weather), ''Alagbaa, Oribi, Bentigoo, Onide'', and ''Labankada'' (a bigger version of the Abetí-ajá, and is worn in such a way as to reveal the contrasting color of the cloth used as underlay for the flaps).
[[File:Kwarastatedrummers.jpg|thumb|right|Yoruba drummers, wearing very basic traditional clothing<ref>{{cite web |title=Melvin "Buddy" Baker|url=https://www.flickr.com/people/58034970@N00}}</ref>|200x200px]] Women also have different types of dresses. The most commonly worn are ''Ìró'' (wrapper) and ''Bùbá'' (blouse-like loose top). Women also have matching ''Gèlè'' (headgear) that must be put on whenever the Ìró and Bùbá is on. Just as the cap (Fìlà) is important to men, women's dressing is considered incomplete without Gèlè. It may be of plain cloth or costly as the women can afford. Apart from this, they also have ''ìborùn'' (Shawl) and ''Ìpèlé'' (which are long pieces of fabric that usually hang on the left shoulder and stretch from the hind of the body to the fore). At times, it is tied round their waists over the original one piece wrapper. Unlike men, women have two types of underwear (Èwù Àwòtélè), called; ''Tòbi'' and ''Sinmí''. Tòbi is like the modern day apron with strings and spaces in which women can keep their valuables. They tie the tòbi around the waists before putting on the Ìró (wrapper). Sinmí is like a sleeveless T-shirt that is worn under before wearing any other dress on the upper body.
[[File:Aso Oniko.jpg|thumb|Finished ''Adire'' clothing material]]
There are many types of beads (''Ìlèkè''), hand laces, necklaces (Egba orùn), anklets (Egba esè) and bangles (Egba owó) that are used in Yorubaland. These are used by both males and females, and are put on for bodily adornment. Chiefs, priests, kings or people of royal descent, especially use some of these beads as a signifier of rank. Some of these beads include ''Iyun, Lagidigba, Àkún'' etc. An accessory especially popular among royalty and titled Babalawos / Babalorishas is the ''Ìrùkèrè'', which is an artistically processed animal tail, a type of Fly-whisk. The horsetail whiskers are symbols of authority and stateliness. It can be used in a shrine for decoration but most often is used by chief priests and priestesses as a symbol of their authority or Ashe.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.templeoduduwa.org/the-orisha/orisha|title=Orisha|website=Oduduwa|access-date=10 June 2015}}</ref> As most men go about with their hair lowly cut or neatly shaven, the reverse is the case for women. Hair is considered the ' ''Glory of the woman'' '. They usually take care of their hair in two major ways; plaiting and weaving. There are many types of plaiting styles, and women readily pick any type they want. Some of these include ''kòlésè, Ìpàkó-elédè, Sùkú, Kojúsóko, Alágogo, Konkoso'', etc. Traditionally, the Yoruba consider tribal marks ways of adding beauty to the face of individuals. This is apart from the fact that they show clearly from which part of Yorubaland an individual comes from, since different areas are associated with different marks. Different types of tribal marks are made with local blades or knives on the cheeks. These are usually done at infancy, when children are not pain conscious.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Lefèber|first1=Yvonne|author2=Henk W. A. Voorhoeve|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7Y0bCWpg-U8C&pg=PA53|page=53|title=Indigenous Customs in Childbirth and Child Care|publisher=Guinevere Van Gorcum|year=1998|isbn=90-232-3366-2}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Pqn2oJC5GXEC&dq=%22tribal+marks%22+yoruba+blade&pg=PA177|title=Intermediate Yoruba: Language, Culture, Literature, and Religious Beliefs, Part Ii|author=Abraham Ajibade Adeleke|date=3 February 2011|publisher=Trafford Publishing|isbn=978-1-4269-4908-1|page=177}}</ref> Some of these tribal marks include ''Pélé, Abàjà-Ègbá, Abàjà-Òwu, Abàjà-mérin, Kéké, Gòmbò, Ture, Pélé Ifè, Kéké Òwu, Pélé Ìjèbú'' etc. Not everyone back in the past had tribal marks and sometimes it was given to first borns of a household or for some reason or the other. So, many did not have one. This practice is near extinct today.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.africa.uga.edu/Yoruba/unit_06/cultureunit.html|website=Africa UGA|title=Traditional Clothes: Clothing and Fashion|access-date=10 June 2015|archive-date=2 March 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170302045240/http://www.africa.uga.edu/Yoruba/unit_06/cultureunit.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>
The Yoruba believe that development of a nation is akin to the development of a man or woman. Therefore, the personality of an individual has to be developed to fulfil his or her responsibilities. Clothing among the Yoruba people is a crucial factor upon which the personality of an individual is anchored. This belief is anchored in Yoruba proverbs. Different occasions also require different outfits among the Yoruba{{citation needed|date=April 2025}}.
== 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.<ref name="Akintoye">{{Cite book|last=Akintoye |first=S. A. |title=A history of the Yoruba people |date=2010 |publisher=Amalion Publishing |isbn=978-2-35926-005-2 |oclc=800208826}}</ref>
;Places The chief Yoruba cities or towns in Benin are: Porto-Novo (Ajase), Ouèssè (Wese), Ketu, Savé (Tchabe), Tchaourou (Shaworo), Bantè-Akpassi, Bassila, Adjarra, Adja-Ouèrè (Aja Were), Sakété (Itchakete), Ifangni (Ifonyi), Pobè, Dassa (Idatcha), Glazoue (Gbomina), Ipinle, Aledjo-Koura, Aworo etc.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ekimogundescendant.org/yoruba-people-towns-and-cities/|title=Yoruba People Towns and Cities|last=Descendant|first=Ekimogun|access-date=25 January 2020}}</ref>
===Ghana=== There exists an old and thriving Yoruba community in Ghana tracing back to more than three centuries of establishment.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.graphic.com.gh/news/general-news/celebrate-200-years-in-ghana.html/ |location=Accra, Ghana|title=Yorubas to celebrate 200 years in Ghana |newspaper=Daily Graphic|date=9 November 2013}}</ref> 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,<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6ZB2CgAAQBAJ&dq=Ngleshie+fort+Yoruba&pg=PA82|title=Gold Coast Diasporas: Identity, Culture, and Power|author=Walter C. Rucker|publisher=Indiana University Press|page=82|year=2015|isbn=978-0-253-01694-2}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TrpZAAAAYAAJ&q=salaga+oyo+yoruba |title=Yoruba in Ghana – The Nigerian Journal of Economic and Social Studies|date=1975|publisher=Nigerian Economic Society}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=T_sHRCc3QNwC&pg=PA125|title=Tabom. The Afro-Brazilian Community in Ghana|author=Marco Aurelio Schaumloeffel|publisher=Lulu.com|page=125|year=2014|isbn=978-1-847-9901-36}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://beegeagle.wordpress.com/2010/04/28/ghanathe-tabonyoruba-descendantsof-accra/ | title=Ghana:The Tabon (Yoruba descendants)of Accra| date=28 April 2010}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Eades |first=J. S. |date=1945 |title=Yoruba Migrants, Markets and the State in Northern Ghana |publisher=Africa World Press}} Reprint: {{ISBN|0-86543-419-0}}.</ref> They were usually referred to in southern Ghana as Yoruba, ''Lagosian'', ''Alata'', or ''Anago''.<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1525/ae.1977.4.4.02a00020/ |title=cognitive maps of the ethnic domain in urban Ghana: reflections on variability and change|date=1977|doi=10.1525/ae.1977.4.4.02a00020|last1=Sanjek|first1=Roger|journal=American Ethnologist|volume=4|issue=4|pages=603–622|url-access=subscription}}</ref> 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).<ref>{{cite web | url=https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED059936.pdf| title=Area Handbook for Ghana| date=1971}}</ref> This represented 1.6% of the Ghanaian population.
===Nigeria=== The Yorubas are the main ethnic group in the Nigerian states of Ekiti, Ogun, Ondo, Osun, Kwara, Oyo, Lagos, and in the Western Third of Kogi State, and can be found as a minority population to varying proportions in Delta<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.fao.org/3/an071e/an071e.pdf |title=FAO Ethnic study of the Benin river Estuary Area 1991, Pg.V, 57.6% Itsekiri, 23.6% Ilaje |date=9 October 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://allafrica.com/stories/201003250371.html/ |title=Ilajes in Delta Seek More Projects |date=12 March 2014 }}{{Dead link|date=October 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |url=https://punchng.com/ilaje-communities-seek-inclusion-in-fg-dredging-of-escravos-warri-river/ |title=Ilaje communities seek inclusion in FG dredging of Escravos –Warri River |date=9 June 2018|newspaper=The Punch}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.pulse.ng/news/local/dogara-reps-move-to-address-ocean-surge-threat-to-delta-communities/xlv6d40/ |title=Reps move to address ocean surge threat to Delta communities |date=11 October 2021 |access-date=14 October 2021 |archive-date=3 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211103181458/https://www.pulse.ng/news/local/dogara-reps-move-to-address-ocean-surge-threat-to-delta-communities/xlv6d40 |url-status=dead |newspaper=Pulse Nigeria}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://dailypost.ng/2020/07/15/dont-politicize-divert-epz-other-projects-from-our-land-ilaje-communities-tell-fg// |location=Lagos, Nigeria|title=Don't politicize, divert EPZ, other projects from our land- Ilaje Communities tell FG |date=11 October 2021|newspaper=Daily Post}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://omojuwa.com/2014/03/a-plea-for-the-creation-of-okun-state-olukoya-obafemi/|title=A Plea For the Creation of OKUN State - Olukoya Obafemi - OMOJUWA.COM|date=11 October 2021}}</ref> and Edo.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.udfchicago.net/charity-organization-the-people-of-ode-awure-usen|title=About the people of Ode Awure (Usen)|date=11 October 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/40012591.pdf|title=Edo South also comprises mainly the Bini ethnic group. There are however some Ijaw, Itsekiri, Urhobo and Yoruba communities in this senatorial district.|date=11 October 2021}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/415354-election-30-notable-things-you-need-to-know-about-edo.html|title=Ethnography of Edo South.|date=11 October 2021|newspaper=Premium Times}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.edoworld.net/Edotourismlanguage.html|title=Yoruba- speaking minority communities in Ovia North East and South West Local Government Area.|date=11 October 2021}}</ref>
===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.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Adesina |first1=Y. R. |last2=Adebayo |first2=P. F. |date=2009 |title=Yoruba Traders in Cote D'Ivoire: A Study of the Role Migrant Settlers in the Process of Economic Relations in West Africa |url=https://www.ajol.info/index.php/afrrev/article/view/43614 |journal=African Research Review |language=en |volume=3 |issue=2 |doi=10.4314/afrrev.v3i2.43614 |issn=2070-0083|doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://blogdesproductions.wordpress.com/2016/05/23/cote-divoire-commerce-les-secrets-de-la-reussite-des-femmes-yoruba/|title=Côte d'ivoire: Commerce, les secrets de la réussite des femmes yoruba|first=Flamme|last=d'Afrique|date=23 May 2016}}</ref> Otherwise known as "Anago traders", they dominate certain sectors of the retail economy and number at least 135,000 people.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.peoplegroups.org/explore/ClusterDetails.aspx?rop2=C0233#topmenu/|title=People Name: Yoruba of Cote D'Ivoire}}</ref>
=== The Yoruba diaspora === {{See also|Yoruba American|Nigerian American|Nigerian diaspora|British Nigerian|Nigerians in Ireland|Nigerian Australian}}
thumb|350px|right|African Languages Spoken in American Households (2019)<ref name="United States Census Bureau">{{cite web |url=https://data.census.gov/mdat/#/search?ds=ACSPUMS1Y2022&rv=LANP&wt=PWGTP|title=African languages spoken in American Households, 2023.|publisher= United States Census Bureau}}</ref> 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).<ref name="gender">{{cite book|author1=Judith Ann-Marie Byfield|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C6_aWWN5aoUC&q=Yoruba+slaves+Brazil&pg=PA145|title=Gendering the African Diaspora: Women, Culture, and Historical Change in the Caribbean and Nigerian Hinterland (Blacks in the diaspora): Slavery in Yorubaland|author2=LaRay Denzer|author3=Anthea Morrison|publisher=Indiana University Press|year=2010|isbn=978-0-253-35416-7|page=145}}</ref><ref name="history">{{cite book|author=Andrew Apter|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LxIaBwAAQBAJ&q=Yoruba+people+Brazil+Cuba&pg=PA101|title=Activating the Past: History and Memory in the Black Atlantic World|author2=Lauren Derby|publisher=Cambridge Scholars Publishing|year=2009|isbn=978-1-4438-1790-5|page=101}}</ref><ref name=pedia>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pY8YAAAAIAAJ&q=Nago+Lucumi+Yoruba+United+States|title=Encyclopedia of Black studies|page=481|author=Molefi K. Asante|author2=Ama Mazama|date=26 December 2006|publisher=Sage Publications; University of Michigan|isbn=978-0-7619-2762-4}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |work=Penn Language center |title=Yoruba |url=https://plc.sas.upenn.edu/yoruba |publisher=University of Pennsylvania |access-date=28 February 2014 |archive-date=25 February 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140225050401/https://plc.sas.upenn.edu/yoruba |url-status=dead }}</ref>
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.<ref name="United States Census Bureau"/>
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 trade<ref name="saunders">{{cite book|author=Nicholas J. Saunders|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XNbqUR_IoOMC&pg=PA209|title=The Peoples of the Caribbean: An Encyclopedia of Archeology and Traditional Culture|publisher=ABC-CLIO|year=2005|isbn=978-1-57607-701-6|page=209}}</ref><ref name=cabrera>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5i5ZBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA43 |title=Lydia Cabrera and the Construction of an Afro-Cuban Cultural Identity Envisioning Cuba |author=Edna M. Rodríguez-Plate |publisher=University of North Carolina Press |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-8078-7628-2 |page=43}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TFpiCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA250 |title=African Traditional Religion in the Modern World |page=258 |author=Douglas E. Thomas |publisher=McFarland |year=2015 |isbn=978-0-7864-9607-5}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TJ3vI7ryh8cC&pg=PA134 |title=Yoruba Creativity: Fiction, Language, Life and Songs |author1=Toyin Falola |author2=Ann Genova |publisher=Africa World Press |year=2005 |isbn=978-1-59221-336-8 |page=134}}</ref> and voluntary self migration.<ref name="nicholas">{{Cite book |author=Nicholas J. Saunders |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XNbqUR_IoOMC&pg=PA209 |title=The Peoples of the Caribbean: An Encyclopedia of Archeology and Traditional Culture |publisher=ABC-CLIO |year=2005 |isbn=978-1-57607-701-6 |page=209}}</ref> Their exact population outside Africa is unknown. 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,<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HwcdAQAAMAAJ |title=Orient Occident. News of Unesco's Major Project on Mutual Appreciation of Eastern and Western Cultural Values, Volumes 5–8|page=9|publisher=UNESCO (University of Michigan)|year=1962}}</ref> particularly in Havana and Bahia.<ref name=urban>{{cite book |url =https://books.google.com/books?id=Vxx0F6zZUfwC&pg=PA50 |title=Black Urban Atlantic in the Age of the Slave Trade (The Early Modern Americas) |author1=Jorge Canizares-Esguerra |author2=Matt D. Childs|author3=James Sidbury |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |year=2013 |isbn=978-0-8122-0813-9 |page=50}}</ref> According to a 19th-century report, "the Yoruba are, still today, the most numerous and influential in this state of Bahia.<ref name="diaspora">{{cite book|author1=Melvin Ember|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7QEjPVyd9YMC&pg=PA318|title=Encyclopedia of Diasporas: Immigrant and Refugee Cultures Around the World|author2=Carol R. Ember|author3=Ian Skoggard|publisher=Springer Science & Business Media|year=2004|isbn=978-0-306-4832-19|page=318}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dg1yAAAAMAAJ&q=yoruba+people+diaspora+demographics+population+in+south+america|title=African Studies for the 21st Century|author=Jacob U. Gordon|publisher=Nova Science Publishers (University of Michigan)|year=2004|isbn=978-1-594-5410-32|page=111}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=owVmcTlC-oIC&q=Yoruba+slaves+Brazil&pg=PA24|page=24|isbn=978-0-8263-4051-1|title=From Slavery to Freedom in Brazil: Bahia, 1835–1900 (Dialogos Series)|author=Dale Torston Graden|year=2006|publisher=The University of New Mexico}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JsCYBgAAQBAJ&q=Yoruba+in+Bahia|title=The Development of Yoruba Candomble Communities in Salvador, Bahia, 1835–1986 Afro-Latin@ Diasporas|author=Miguel C. Alonso|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|year=2014|isbn=978-1-137-48643-1}}</ref> The most numerous are those from Oyo, capital of the Yoruba kingdom".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://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=Presence of the Yoruba African influences in Brazil |language=pt |website=Nova Era |access-date=1 May 2014 |archive-date=8 November 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141108013848/http://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 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|title=The diaspora of speakers of Yoruba, 1650–1865: Dimensions and implications|journal=Topoi|url=http://www.revistatopoi.org/numeros_anteriores/topoi13/Topoi%2013_artigo%201.pdf|year=2006|volume=7|number=13|author=David Eltis|language=pt|access-date=1 May 2014|archive-date=16 January 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140116143350/http://www.revistatopoi.org/numeros_anteriores/topoi13/Topoi%2013_artigo%201.pdf}}</ref> 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%.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Uk1Tbdsq99gC|title=The Yoruba Diaspora in the Atlantic World (Blacks in the Diaspora)|author1=Toyin Falola|author2=Matt D. Childs|publisher=Indiana University Press, 2005|isbn=978-0-253-00301-0|date=2 May 2005}}</ref>
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, Jamaica<ref name="Jamaica">{{cite book|author=Olive Senior|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=URx7AAAAMAAJ&q=yoruba+slaves+in+jamaica|title=Encyclopedia of Jamaican Heritage|publisher=University of Michigan (Twin Guinep Publishers)|year=2003 |isbn=978-976-8007-14-8|page=343}}</ref> (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),<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=e3mdhCNLo9cC&pg=PA105|page=105|title=Jamaica in Slavery and Freedom: History, Heritage and Culture|author1=Kathleen E. A. Monteith|author2=Glen Richards|publisher=University of the West Indies Press|year=2001|isbn=978-976-640-108-5}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9M4Wtsh8di4C&pg=PT18|title=A Comparative Analysis of Jamaican Creole and Nigerian Pidgin English|author=Pamela Odimegwu |year=2012 |publisher=Pamela Odimegwu |isbn=978-1-4781-5890-5}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qXavxrsgZ2AC&pg=PA59|title=The Language, Ethnicity and Race Reader|author1=Roxy Harris|author2-link=Ben Rampton|author2=Ben Rampton|publisher=Psychology Press|page=59|year=2003|isbn=978-0-415-27601-6}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-r1qAAAAMAAJ|title=Freedom to be: The Abolition of Slavery in Jamaica and Its Aftermath|author=Urban Development Corporation (Jamaica)|publisher=University of Texas (National Library of Jamaica)|year=1984|isbn=978-976-8020-00-0}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r0gYAAAAYAAJ |page=91 |title=Jamaica Journal |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220407162251/https://books.google.com/books?id=r0gYAAAAYAAJ |archive-date=7 April 2022 |journal=Jamaica Journal |volume=27–28 |publisher=Institute of Jamaica (the University of Virginia) |year=2000 |quote=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. <!-- that's the damn quote, but Google won't give the page, volume, issue, date, or article title. -->}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tF0YAAAAYAAJ |title=Roots of Jamaican culture |author=Mervyn C. Alleyne |publisher=Pluto Press (the University of Virginia) |year=1988 |isbn=978-0-7453-0245-4}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.geocities.ws/shandycan/Africanretentions_Jamaica.html|title=Africanretentions_Jamaica-_ettu_nago|first=Hazel|last=Campbell|website=CaribbeanWriter |via=geocities.ws}}</ref> Barbados, Montserrat, etc.
On 31 July 2020, the Yoruba World Congress joined the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO).<ref name=unpowelcomes5newmembers>{{cite web |title=UNPO Welcomes 5 New Members! |work=unpo.org|date=3 August 2020 |url=https://unpo.org/article/22010 |access-date=7 August 2020}}</ref><ref name=guam>{{cite web |title=Guam: Territory to be Inducted into UNPO |work=unpo.org |date=31 July 2020 |url=https://unpo.org/article/22015 |access-date=7 August 2020}}</ref>
== Genetics == Genetic studies have shown the Yoruba to cluster most closely with other West African peoples, followed by Central and Eastern African groups speaking Niger-Congo languages.<ref>{{cite journal|author1=Michael C. Campbell|author2=Sarah A. Tishkoff |title=African Genetic Diversity: Implications for Human Demographic History, Modern Human Origins, and Complex Disease Mapping, Annual Review of Genomics and Human Genetics |volume=9 |website=sciencemag|date=September 2008|url=http://www.sciencemag.org/content/suppl/2009/04/30/1172257.DC1/Tishkoff.SOM.pdf|access-date=22 December 2013}}</ref> [[File:Distribution of haplogroup e1b1a in Rosa 2007.jpg|thumb|right|Map showing the average distribution and concentration of the haplogroup E1b1a (E-M2), the most common Sub-Saharan African-associated clade.|142px]]Yoruba 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 extremely minute Neanderthal admixture in Yoruba populations at very low frequencies, estimated at 0.18% ±0.06% among modern samples. This occurrence is largely assumed to be derived via indirect gene flow from West Eurasian ancestry component among Yorubas which amounts to about 8.6% ±3%.<ref>{{Cite journal|title=Insights into human genetic variation and population history from 929 diverse genomes|first1=Anders|last1=Bergström|first2=Shane A.|last2=McCarthy|first3=Ruoyun|last3=Hui|first4=Mohamed A.|last4=Almarri|first5=Qasim|last5=Ayub|first6=Petr|last6=Danecek|first7=Yuan|last7=Chen|first8=Sabine|last8=Felkel|first9=Pille|last9=Hallast|first10=Jack|last10=Kamm|first11=Hélène|last11=Blanché|first12=Jean-François|last12=Deleuze|first13=Howard|last13=Cann|first14=Swapan|last14=Mallick|first15=David|last15=Reich|first16=Manjinder S.|last16=Sandhu|first17=Pontus|last17=Skoglund|first18=Aylwyn|last18=Scally|first19=Yali|last19=Xue|first20=Richard|last20=Durbin|first21=Chris|last21=Tyler-Smith|date=20 March 2020|journal=Science|volume=367|issue=6484|article-number=eaay5012 |doi=10.1126/science.aay5012|pmid=32193295|pmc=7115999 |bibcode=2020Sci...367y5012B }}</ref> This admixture may have been introduced 7,500–10,500 years ago from North Africa during the Green Saharan period.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Gurdasani|first1=Deepti|last2=Carstensen|first2=Tommy|display-authors=1|date=3 December 2014|title=The African Genome Variation Project shapes medical genetics in Africa|url=https://www.nature.com/articles/nature13997.pdf|url-status=live|journal=Nature|volume=517|issue=7534|pages=327–332|bibcode=2015Natur.517..327G|doi=10.1038/nature13997|pmid=25470054|pmc=4297536|archive-url=https://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|archive-date=16 May 2021|doi-access=free}}</ref> Another full genome study on African populations found that the Yoruba (Yoruba/Esan cluster of West Africa) received varying degrees of West-Eurasian admixture, although generally at low frequency, indirectly through contact with Northern African pastoralists.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Serra-Vidal |first1=Gerard |last2=Lucas-Sanchez |first2=Marcel |last3=Fadhlaoui-Zid |first3=Karima |last4=Bekada |first4=Asmahan |last5=Zalloua |first5=Pierre |last6=Comas |first6=David |date=18 November 2019 |title=Heterogeneity in Palaeolithic Population Continuity and Neolithic Expansion in North Africa |journal=Current Biology |language=en |volume=29 |issue=22 |pages=3953–3959.e4 |doi=10.1016/j.cub.2019.09.050 |pmid=31679935 |s2cid=204972040 |issn=0960-9822|doi-access=free |bibcode=2019CBio...29E3953S }}</ref>{{clear left}}
E1b1a1-M2 is the predominant paternal haplogroup in West Africa (70-97%).<ref name="Your DNA Guide">{{Cite web|url= https://www.yourdnaguide.com/ydgblog/ydna-haplogroup-e/|title=Y-DNA Haplogroup E: E1b1b and E1b1a - Your DNA Guide - November 2021 |date=10 November 2021 }}</ref><ref name="Shriner">{{cite journal |last1=Shriner |first1=Daniel |last2=Rotimi |first2=Charles N. |title=Whole-Genome-Sequence-Based Haplotypes Reveal Single Origin of the Sickle Allele during the Holocene Wet Phase |journal=American Journal of Human Genetics |volume=102 |issue=4 |pages=547–556 |date=April 2018 |pmid=29526279 |pmc=5985360 |issn=0002-9297 |oclc=7353789016 |doi=10.1016/j.ajhg.2018.02.003}}</ref> The gradual movement of the Proto Yoruboid within West-Central Africa may have been associated with the expansion of Sahel agriculture in the African Neolithic period, following the desiccation of the Sahara in c. 3500 BCE.<ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.1016/j.quascirev.2014.07.003|title=The demographic response to Holocene climate change in the Sahara|journal=Quaternary Science Reviews|volume=101|pages=28–35|year=2014|last1=Manning|first1=Katie|last2=Timpson|first2=Adrian|bibcode=2014QSRv..101...28M|doi-access=free}}</ref>
== 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.<ref name =folklore>{{cite book |date= 2004 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=SmmUAgAAQBAJ&q=Yoruba+families+Oyotunji+African+village&pg=PA660 |title= African Folklore: An Encyclopedia |first1=Philip M. |last1=Peek |first2=Kwesi |last2=Yankah |publisher=Routledge |page=660 |isbn=978-1-135-94873-3 |oclc=7385565477}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=6p2aLo2kafMC&pg=PA32 |title= The United States and West Africa: Interactions and Relations (Rochester studies in African history and the diaspora) |volume=34 |first1=Alusine |last1=Jalloh |first2=Toyin |last2=Falola |publisher=University Rochester Press |year=2008 |isbn=978-1-58046-308-9 |page=32 |oclc=166379802}}</ref>
More recent diplomatic efforts centered around Yoruba cross-cultural celebration include the voyage of the Ooni (King) of Ife to the city of Salvador in Bahia, Brazil, home to a large number of Yoruba descendants, to celebrate the city as the cultural capital of the Yoruba people in the Western Hemisphere.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Akinwale |first1=Funsho |title=Ooni of Ife's day of glory in Brazil |url=https://guardian.ng/saturday-magazine/high-society/ooni-of-ifes-day-of-glory-in-brazil/ |location=Lagos, Nigeria|agency=The Guardian |date=16 June 2018|newspaper=The Guardian}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Travae |first1=Marques |title=In historic visit of King Ooni Adeyeye Enitan Babatunde Ogunwusi of Ile-Ife, Nigeria, Bahia is declared the Yoruba Capital of the Americas |url=https://blackbraziltoday.com/bahia-is-declared-the-yoruba-capital/ |agency=BLACK BRAZIL TODAY |date=19 June 2018}}</ref>
== Notable people of Yoruba origin == {{Main|List of Yoruba people}}
== Yoruba organizations == * Afenifere<ref>{{cite web |url=http://nigeriaworld.com/articles/2007/aug/145.html |title=Afenifere and Yoruba Council of Elders: Who and Where Are They? |author=Dr. Lanre Tytler |date=14 August 2007 |publisher=NigeriaWorld |access-date=2009-11-08 |archive-date=27 September 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927173112/http://nigeriaworld.com/articles/2007/aug/145.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> * Amotekun<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.pmnewsnigeria.com/2020/01/09/operation-amotekun-western-nigeria-governors-launch-security-outfit|location=Lagos, Nigeria |title=Operation Amotekun: Western Nigeria governors launch security outfit |date=9 January 2020
|access-date=15 January 2020|newspaper=P.M. News}}</ref> * 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 Nigeria, 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.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.pulse.ng/news/local/south-west-governors-explain-why-operation-amotekun-was-established/f5rxgk2|title=South West governors explain why operation Amotekun was established|date=9 January 2020 |access-date=15 January 2020|newspaper=Pulse Nigeria}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://tribuneonlineng.com/the-real-significance-of-amotekun|title=The Real Significance Of Amotekun|last=Rasheed|first=Olawale|date=15 January 2020|access-date=15 January 2020|newspaper=Nigerian Tribune}}</ref>
== Prominent chiefs == {{See also|Royal titles of Yoruba monarchs}} * Aare Baasofin * Aare Ona Kakanfo * Akoni Oodua * Alaafin * Alake * Alaketu * Awujale * Eleko * Olubadan * Ooni
== See also == * Beninois Yoruba * Ebira * Igala people * Itsekiri people * Nupe * Timeline of Yoruba history
== Notes == {{Notelist}}
== References == {{reflist|colwidth=30em}}
== Bibliography == *{{cite book|last=Akintoye|first=Stephen|year=2010|title=A History of the Yoruba People|publisher=Amalion|isbn=978-2-35926-005-2}} *{{cite book|last=Bascom|first=William|year=1984|title=The Yoruba of Southwestern Nigeria|publisher=Waveland Pr Inc|isbn=978-0-88133-038-0}} *{{cite book|last=Blier|first=Suzanne Preston|year=2015|title=Art and Risk in Ancient Yoruba: Ife History, Power, and Identity, c.1300|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-107-02166-2}} *{{cite book|last=Falola|first=Toyin|author2=Childs, Matt D |title=The Yoruba Diaspora in the Atlantic World|year=2005|publisher=Indiana University Press|isbn=978-0-253-21716-5}} *{{cite book|last=Johnson|first=Samuel|title=The History of the Yorubas|year=1997|publisher=Paperpack|isbn=978-978-32292-9-7}} *{{cite book|last=Law|first=Robin|title=The Oyo Empire, c. 1600 – c. 1836: A West African Imperialism in the Era of the Atlantic Slave Trade|year=1977|publisher=Clarendon Press|isbn=978-0-19-822709-0}} *{{cite book|last=Lucas|first=Jonathan Olumide|year=1996|title=The Religion of the Yorubas|publisher=Athelia Henrietta Press|isbn=978-0-9638787-8-6}} *{{cite book|last=Ogunyemi|first=Yemi D.|title=The Oral Traditions in Ile-Ife|publisher=Academica Press|isbn=978-1-933146-65-2|year=2010}} * Olumola, Isola; et al. ''Prominent Traditional Rulers of Yorubaland'', Ibadan 2003. *{{cite book|last=Smith|first=Robert|title=Kingdoms of the Yoruba|publisher=Paperpack|year=1988|isbn=978-0-299-11604-0}}
== External links == {{Scholia|topic}} {{Commons category}}
=== Books and research === * [https://books.google.com/books?id=4O8CAAAAQAAJ Oshielle, Or, Village Life in the Yoruba Country book] * [https://books.google.com/books?id=WZg3AQAAMAAJ Seventeen Years in the Yoruba Country book] * [https://books.google.com/books?id=x9UKAAAAIAAJ&dq=%22The+Yoruba-speaking+Peoples+of+the%22&pg=PP19 The Yoruba-speaking Peoples book] * [http://yorubadiaspora.org/ Yoruba Research] * [https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007%2F978-94-007-3934-5_10203-1 The Yoruba City]
=== Discussion === * [http://rwm.macba.cat/en/sonia/john-mason/capsula Yoruba priest Baba John Mason talks about the Yoruba diaspora and culture and the Orisha religion (2017)]; {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170325024531/http://rwm.macba.cat/en/sonia/john-mason/capsula |date=25 March 2017 }} * [http://www.yorubablog.org/ Yoruba Blog]; {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210212233924/https://yorubablog.org/ |date=12 February 2021 }}
=== Representation === * [https://ilanauk.org/ Ilana Omo Oodua UK] * {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20200605094446/https://yorubaworldcongress.org/ Yoruba World Congress]}}
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