Yoruba, one of the three largest ethnic groups of Nigeria, concentrated in the southwestern part of that country. There are more over 50 million Yoruba in Africa and over a million outside of the continent. Some Yoruba are in the Edo and Delta states, as well as other West African countries, such as the Republic of Benin, Togo, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. Outside Africa, Yoruba are present in Cuba, Brazil, Haiti, Peru, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, and the United States of America.
The Yoruba subgroups are the Oyo, Awori, Owo, Ijebu, Ekiti, Ijesa, Ifẹ, Ondo, and Akoko. Others are Egbado, Ibarapa, Egba, Itsekiri, Ilaje, Ketu, Sabe, Idaisa, Ife (or Ana, found today in the Republic of Togo), Mahi, Igbomina, Ibolo, Okun, and others. Each Yoruba subgroup inhabits a particular region. Each Yoruba subgroup speaks its dialect of the common Yoruba language.
Books, periodicals, and pamphlets are all part of the extensive corpus of literature written in Yoruba. Amos Tutuola is a well-known Yoruba author whose writings have been translated into other languages. Yoruba is taught at the elementary, secondary, and tertiary levels and is utilized in radio and television transmission.
According to Yoruba mythology, Odua or Oduduwa is the hero from whom all Yoruba people are derived. Irrespective of the polity’s structure, the ọba, baalẹ, olu, ọlọja, and other political functionaries exercised power and enjoyed privileges. The ọba is the highest rank in the traditional Yoruba political structure, and the ọba lived in the capital or head town with his chiefs, where they carried out the executive, legislative, and judicial functions of the kingdom. The Yoruba rank among the leaders in economics, government, religion, and artistic achievement in West Africa. The Yoruba people have specific dressing patterns attributed to them.
The Yoruba are one of the largest cultural groups in Africa, and the Yoruba philosophy is best understood as a folk philosophy, a collection of stories and cultural practices that try to explain the causes and nature of things affecting the physical and spiritual universe. This is supported by its scholarly discourses and extends from the oral culture of its distant past to its vibrant present. Myths, allegories, poetry, and the love and knowledge of the Ifa divination system are all part of the Yoruba people’s universe. These are but a handful of the elements that make up Yoruba culture, which has its origins in the Yoruba’s holy city of Ile-Ife.
Although many Yoruba are now Muslims or Christians, elements of the ancient religion are still practiced. A “supreme” creator and some 400 lesser gods and spirits, the most of whom are connected to their own cults and priests, make up the complex hierarchy of deities in the traditional Yoruba religion.
During the years of the slave trade, the Yoruba people were frequently traded for slaves, and their territory was referred to as the Slave Coast. The Yoruba were transported to the Americas where Yoruba customs have been passed on by their descendants. Christianity and the Yoruba faith have been blended in a number of Caribbean and South American locations.
The Yoruba people are among the most versatile and urbane tribes in Africa and have had fruitful contact with Islam for over five centuries, even before the advent of colonialism and Christianity. Islam in Ancient Yoruba is referred to as Esin Imale, which folk etymology states it comes from the word “Mali.” The earliest introduction of the religion to that region was through Malian itinerant traders (Wangara Traders) around the 14th century. Large-scale conversion to Islam happened in the 18th-19th centuries.
The Islamic jihad in Ilorin threatened pagan rulers across Yorubaland, prompting some of them to intensify their oppression against Muslims in their territory over the following decades. During the reign of Bashorun Oluyole (1836–1850), Islam was harshly suppressed in Ibadan, the leading city of the anti-Ilorin coalition. Every mosque in the city was demolished. Many Muslims fled to Ilorin, as well as a second Yoruba Muslim state established in this period, the Ado-Ekiti kingdom, ruled by King Ali Atewogboye (1836–1886). He transformed his kingdom a safe haven for Muslim refugees fleeing religious persecution.
Apart from the Hausa/Fulani of Northern Nigeria, Yoruba land has the largest population of Islam adherents in Nigeria. Many of the towns and cities have reputation as centres of Islamic learning. The Arabic language had had a lasting impact on the linguistic life of Yoruba people. As Islam grew in many Yoruba towns, written and oral communication in Arabic became essential for the practice of Islamic culture. Islamic spread and development in Ede and its environs was the establishment of Islamic centres, Arabic schools and Muslim associations. Ilorin, the capital of Kwara State, Nigeria, has played a significant role in the history of the spread and growth of Islam in Yoruba land in general and in Igbomina land in particular.
In 1550, the first mosque in Oyo-Ile, capital of the Oyo Empire, was established by Shaykh Muhammad al-Nufawi, who became notorious for his uncompromising commitment to justice and public criticism of the king’s cruelty. In 1700, a Muslim commune known as Okesuna (“the hill of Sunna” in Yoruba) was founded outside Ilorin. Over the following century, dozens of shaykhs and pious merchants, both natives and foreigners, carried the message of Islam across Yorubaland, quietly weaving the faith into the fabric of Yoruba society in every major city. By 1775, Friday Prayers were held in Lagos, which has since grown to become the largest city in Africa.
