HISTORY OF THE YORUBA PEOPLE
The Yoruba people, of whom there are now more than 25 million, occupy the southwestern corner of Nigeria, along the entire border of Dahomey and extending into Dahomey itself. To the east and north, Yoruba culture reaches its limits at the Niger River. However, ancestral cultures directly related to the Yoruba flourished north of the Niger (Map). Archaeological discoveries and genetic studies indicate that the ancestors of the Yoruba may have lived in this territory since prehistory. Archaeological evidence indicates that a proto-Yoruba society with high technological and artistic levels was living north of the Niger in the first millennium AD, and already had knowledge of iron.
Ifa theology states that the creation of humanity occurred in the sacred city of Ile-Ife, where Oduduwa created solid ground from water. Much later, an unknown number migrated to Ile Ife. At this point, East and West Africans synergized. Some hypotheses, based on the similarity of Egyptian sculptures and those found in the city-state of Ife, indicate that the Yoruba may be descended from the Oduduwa who came from Egypt and that these founded the first kingdoms. The Yoruba still call themselves "The children of Oduduwa".
These Yoruba city-states were part of more than 25 kingdoms, all of them centralized. Of all of them, Ile-Ife is universally recognized as the most important. Its founding is believed to date from the year 850. Its eternal rival, the kingdom of Oyo, northwest of Ife, was founded approximately around 1350 AD. The Oni (king) of Ife and the Alafin of Oyo are still considered the Yoruba kings and are respected as such in Nigeria. Other important kingdoms were Itsekiri, Ondo and Owo in the southeast, Ekiti and Ijesha in the northwest and Egbado, Shabe, Ketu, Ijebu, and Awori in the southwest.
Portuguese explorers "discovered" the Yoruba cities and their kingdoms in the 15th century, but cities such as Ife and Benin, among others, had been in the same place for hundreds of years before the Europeans arrived.
The kingdom of Oyo was founded with the help of Portuguese weapons. At the end of the 18th century, a civil war took place in which one of the factions gained the support of the Fulani, who in 1830 took control of the entire Oyo empire. The Fulani invasion pushed many Yoruba south where the towns of Ibadan and Abeokuta were founded. In 1888, with the help of a British mediator, Yoruba and Fulani signed an agreement by which the former regained control over their land. In 1901 Yorubaland was officially colonized by the British Empire, who established an administrative system that maintained much of the Yoruba government structure.
Throughout all these years, Ife maintained its vital importance as a sacred city-state, cradle of the Yoruba and the basis of their religious thought. Until recently, the Yoruba did not consider themselves a single nation. Rather, they considered themselves citizens of Oyo, Benin, Yagba, among other cities. These cities considered the inhabitants of Lagos and Owo, for example, as foreign neighbors. The Yoruba kingdoms not only warred against the Dahomeans, but also among themselves. The name Yoruba was applied to all these linguistically and culturally related people by their northern neighbors, the Hausa.
Typical ancient Yoruba cities were urban centers with farms around them that stretched for dozens of miles or more. Oyo and Benin were founded by kings of Ife or their descendants. Benin obtained its ritual knowledge directly from Ife, and the religious system of Ifa divination spread from Ife not only throughout the Yoruba territory, but reached the entire world. A common Yoruba belief system dominated the region from the Niger, moving east to the Gulf of Guinea in the south.
It was no accident that Yoruba culture expanded across the Atlantic to America. European slave hunters violently captured millions of Africans and sent them to their fate on overcrowded slave ships to America. Wars of enslavement initiated from the kingdom of Dahomey against some of the Yoruba kingdoms, and similar wars among the Yoruba themselves, made these prisoners of war, slaves available for transportation to America. Yoruba slaves were sent to English, French, Spanish and Portuguese colonies in the new world, and in a large part of these places, Yoruba traditions survived with great force. In Cuba, Brazil, Haiti and Trinidad, Yoruba religious rites, beliefs, music and myths are enshrined to this day. In Haiti the Yoruba were called Anagos. Afro-Haitian religious activities gave a place of honor to Yoruba rites and beliefs, their pantheon includes numerous deities of Yoruba origin.
Slavery in the United States was very different from other colonized regions. The language and culture of these captives was cruelly eliminated, where Africans generally received the death penalty for practicing their customs.
In Cuba, a process of syncretism occurred between the Yoruba religion and Catholicism, giving rise to a new system, known as Regla de Osha or Santería, which has spread with more force to Latin America, the United States and Europe. This resurgence in popularity and interest in the adaptation of Yoruba and Ifa with Catholicism, reached the United States through Puerto Ricans in the 40s and 50s (who had previously received it from Cuba) and then in the 60s with the flow of Cuban refugees.
In Cuba, the pantheon of Yoruba deities has survived intact, along with a complex of rites, beliefs, music, dances and myths of Yoruba origin.
Ifa theology states that the creation of humanity occurred in the sacred city of Ile-Ife, where Oduduwa created solid ground from water. Much later, an unknown number migrated to Ile Ife. At this point, East and West Africans synergized. Some hypotheses, based on the similarity of Egyptian sculptures and those found in the city-state of Ife, indicate that the Yoruba may be descended from the Oduduwa who came from Egypt and that these founded the first kingdoms. The Yoruba still call themselves "The children of Oduduwa".
These Yoruba city-states were part of more than 25 kingdoms, all of them centralized. Of all of them, Ile-Ife is universally recognized as the most important. Its founding is believed to date from the year 850. Its eternal rival, the kingdom of Oyo, northwest of Ife, was founded approximately around 1350 AD. The Oni (king) of Ife and the Alafin of Oyo are still considered the Yoruba kings and are respected as such in Nigeria. Other important kingdoms were Itsekiri, Ondo and Owo in the southeast, Ekiti and Ijesha in the northwest and Egbado, Shabe, Ketu, Ijebu, and Awori in the southwest.
Portuguese explorers "discovered" the Yoruba cities and their kingdoms in the 15th century, but cities such as Ife and Benin, among others, had been in the same place for hundreds of years before the Europeans arrived.
The kingdom of Oyo was founded with the help of Portuguese weapons. At the end of the 18th century, a civil war took place in which one of the factions gained the support of the Fulani, who in 1830 took control of the entire Oyo empire. The Fulani invasion pushed many Yoruba south where the towns of Ibadan and Abeokuta were founded. In 1888, with the help of a British mediator, Yoruba and Fulani signed an agreement by which the former regained control over their land. In 1901 Yorubaland was officially colonized by the British Empire, who established an administrative system that maintained much of the Yoruba government structure.
Throughout all these years, Ife maintained its vital importance as a sacred city-state, cradle of the Yoruba and the basis of their religious thought. Until recently, the Yoruba did not consider themselves a single nation. Rather, they considered themselves citizens of Oyo, Benin, Yagba, among other cities. These cities considered the inhabitants of Lagos and Owo, for example, as foreign neighbors. The Yoruba kingdoms not only warred against the Dahomeans, but also among themselves. The name Yoruba was applied to all these linguistically and culturally related people by their northern neighbors, the Hausa.
Typical ancient Yoruba cities were urban centers with farms around them that stretched for dozens of miles or more. Oyo and Benin were founded by kings of Ife or their descendants. Benin obtained its ritual knowledge directly from Ife, and the religious system of Ifa divination spread from Ife not only throughout the Yoruba territory, but reached the entire world. A common Yoruba belief system dominated the region from the Niger, moving east to the Gulf of Guinea in the south.
It was no accident that Yoruba culture expanded across the Atlantic to America. European slave hunters violently captured millions of Africans and sent them to their fate on overcrowded slave ships to America. Wars of enslavement initiated from the kingdom of Dahomey against some of the Yoruba kingdoms, and similar wars among the Yoruba themselves, made these prisoners of war, slaves available for transportation to America. Yoruba slaves were sent to English, French, Spanish and Portuguese colonies in the new world, and in a large part of these places, Yoruba traditions survived with great force. In Cuba, Brazil, Haiti and Trinidad, Yoruba religious rites, beliefs, music and myths are enshrined to this day. In Haiti the Yoruba were called Anagos. Afro-Haitian religious activities gave a place of honor to Yoruba rites and beliefs, their pantheon includes numerous deities of Yoruba origin.
Slavery in the United States was very different from other colonized regions. The language and culture of these captives was cruelly eliminated, where Africans generally received the death penalty for practicing their customs.
In Cuba, a process of syncretism occurred between the Yoruba religion and Catholicism, giving rise to a new system, known as Regla de Osha or Santería, which has spread with more force to Latin America, the United States and Europe. This resurgence in popularity and interest in the adaptation of Yoruba and Ifa with Catholicism, reached the United States through Puerto Ricans in the 40s and 50s (who had previously received it from Cuba) and then in the 60s with the flow of Cuban refugees.
In Cuba, the pantheon of Yoruba deities has survived intact, along with a complex of rites, beliefs, music, dances and myths of Yoruba origin.
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