The Yoruba Peoples

The Yoruba, a people of around 2.5 million individuals, live mainly in the southwest of Nigeria and the south of Benin. Moreover Yoruba traditions live on as far afield as Brazil, Cuba, Haiti and the Americas in the descendants of Yoruba slaves. The term "Yoruba" is said to derive from "Yarbanci, " a nickname given by the Hausa or the Fulani to the inhabitants of the Oyo Kingdom. This name was in turn introduced by missionaries from the middle of the nineteenth century, who were the first to study the Yoruba language. Prior to that, the Yoruba-speaking peoples referred to itself by the names of their different sub-groups. Earlier the Yoruba organized themselves into a large number of city-states, traditionally administered by kings (oba), who held political as well as religious power Among the various autonomous city-states, the leading place was primarily occupied by Ileff and Old Oyo.

The city of Ife, probably founded around 800, expanded between the eleventh and fifteenth centur into a blossoming metropolis and is described as the cradle of the Yoruba culture. According to oral tradition, the city is the center of the world, the place where the deity Odudua descended to earth from the supernatural world, to impart civilization. The creation myth tells that Odudua was the first sacred king (oba) of Ife, and that his descendants established the different dynasties of the other Yoruba kingdoms. Although the spiritual power Position of Ife was maintained, the city's political power began to wane from the start of the fifteenth century, under pressure from the northwards lying Oyo Kingdom, the mightiest kingdom in Yoruba history.

The Yoruba conceive the cosmos as constructed 'In two realms, symbolized in the upper and lower halves of a spherical gourd: Orun, the supernatural, invisible world inhabited by spirits, ancestors and deities, and Aye, the visible, tangible world that is tantamount to the orderly administrated city-states lands surrounding the city included. The Yoruba have an elaborate pantheon of orisa (gods, exalted powers which human beings call upon for protection and blessing) whose hierarchical structure dffiers from region to region.

Yoruba economy is based on sedentary agriculture (maize, beans, yams, cassava, peanuts, coffee and bananas). Their craft specialties-making use textiles, leather beads, gourds, metal and clay-have led to the development of intensive commerce and the creation of an extensive market economy.