Yoruba

Yoruba, indigenous Nigerian people inhabiting south-west Nigeria and parts of neighbouring Benin in Africa. Although there are hundreds of different ethnic groups in Nigeria, the Yorubas are one of three main indigenous peoples with the Hausa and Igbo people. The Yoruba are predominantly town dwellers who practise small-scale, domestic agriculture and are well known as traders and craftspeople. Since the 13th century, Yoruba artists have been producing masterpieces of woodcarving and bronze casting. The Yoruba religion is animistic and numerous gods are worshipped.

The Yoruba language is spoken by around 22 million people, mainly in Nigeria and Benin, but also in Togo, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Yoruba, a member of the Niger-Congo family of African languages and belonging to the Benue-Congo sub-group, has around 20 different dialects including Oyo, Ijebu, and Ekiti. Standard Yoruba is based on the dialect from Oyo state. Yoruba is a tonal language (unlike English which is a stress language), which means that the meaning of certain words is distinguished by the pitch alone. For example, the word “ogun” has at least eight different meanings according to the tone used. With a low to rising pitch, “ogun” means “war”. An intermediate pitch denotes the meaning “medicine”, while a high to low pitch means “he/she stabbed”.

By the 17th century the Yoruba had succeeded in establishing a strong and flourishing state, the kingdom of Oyo, in the region between what was then Dahomey (present-day Benin) and the Niger River. Oyo disintegrated into numerous petty kingdoms during the first half of the 19th century. Towards the end of the 19th century the Yoruba came under British control. They now make up about 21 per cent of the population of Nigeria, living chiefly in the city of Ibadan. Many of Nigeria’s best-known artists, musicians, and writers are Yoruba and are renowned worldwide, including Wole Soyinka, Amos Tutuola, Fela Kuti, and King Sunny Ade, innovator of juju music.