The documented history of the Yoruba people begins with the Oyo Empire, which
became dominant in the early 17th century. Older traditions of the
formerly dominant Ife kingdom are sparse and unreliable.
Before Oyo The peoples who lived in Yorubaland, at
least by the seventh century BC, were not initially known as the Yoruba,
although they shared a common ethnicity and language group. The historical
Yoruba develop in situ, out of earlier Volta-Niger populations, by the 1st
millennium B.C.E. Oral history recorded under the Oyo
Empire derives the Yoruba as a race from the population of the older kingdom of
Ile-Ife. Archaeologically, the settlement at Ife can be dated to the
4th century BC, with urban structures appearing in the 12th century.
Oyo Empire Ife was surpassed by the Oyo Empire as
the dominant Yoruba military and political power between 1600 CE and 1800
CE. The nearby kingdom of Benin was also a powerful force between 1300 and 1850
CE. Most of the city states were controlled
by Obas, elected priestly monarchs, and councils made up of Oloyes, recognised
leaders of royal, noble and, often, even common descent, who joined them in
ruling over the kingdoms through a series of guilds and cults. Different
states saw differing ratios of power between the kingship and the chiefs'
council. Some, such as Oyo, had powerful, autocratic monarchs with
almost total control, while in others such as the Ijebu city-states, the
senatorial councils were supreme and the Ọba served as something of a figurehead.
In all cases, however, Yoruba monarchs were subject to the continuing approval
of their constituents as a matter of policy, and could be easily compelled to
abdicate for demonstrating dictatorial tendencies or incompetence. The order to
vacate the throne was usually communicated through an aroko or
symbolic message, which usually took the form of parrots' eggs delivered in a
covered calabash bowl by the senators. Modern history
The Yoruba eventually established a federation of city-states under the
political ascendancy of the city state of Oyo, located on the Northern fringes
of Yorubaland in the savanna plains between the forests of present Southwest
Nigeria and the Niger River. Following a Jihad led by Uthman Dan
Fodio and a rapid consolidation of the Hausa city states of contemporary
northern Nigeria, the Fulani Sokoto Caliphate invaded and annexed the buffer
Nupe Kingdom. It then began to advance southwards into Ọyọ lands. Shortly
afterwards, its armies overran the Yoruba military capital of Ilorin, and
then sacked and destroyed Ọyọ-Ile, the royal seat of the Ọyọ Empire.
Following this, Ọyọ-Ile was abandoned, and the Ọyọ retreated south to the
present city of Oyo in a forested region where the cavalry of the Sokoto
Caliphate was less effective. Further attempts by the Sokoto Caliphate to
expand southwards were checked by the Yoruba who had rallied in defence under
the military leadership of the ascendant Ibadan clan, which rose from the old Oyo
Empire, and of the Ijebu city-states. However, the Oyo hegemony had been dealt
a mortal blow. The other Yoruba city-states broke free of Oyo dominance,
and subsequently became embroiled in a series of internecine conflicts that
soon metamorphosed into a full scale civil war. These events weakened the
southern Yorubas in their resistance to British colonial and military invasions.
Maria Lugones observes that among the Yoruba people there was no concept of
gender and no gender system at all before colonialism. She argues that
colonial powers used a gender system as a tool for domination and fundamentally
changing social relations among the indigenous. In 1960, greater Yorubaland
was subsumed into the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The historical records of
the Yoruba, which became more accessible in the nineteenth century with the more
permanent arrival of the Europeans, tell of heavy Jihad raids by the mounted
Fulani warriors of the north as well as of endemic intercity warfare amongst the
Yoruba themselves. Archaeological evidence of the greatness of their
ancient civilization in the form of, amongst other things, impressive
architectural achievements like Sungbo's Eredo that are centuries old,
nevertheless abound. References
Bibliography Adebayo Kayode "After Oduduwa"???
Akintoye, Stephen Adebanji: A History of the Yoruba People, Dakar, 2010.
Idowu, Bolaji E. : "Olodumare: God in Yoruba Belief" Wazobia, New York, NY
1994 ISBN 1-886832-00-5. Idowu, Bolaji: Olodumare: God in Yoruba
Belief, London 1962. Johnson, Samuel: History of the Yorubas,
London 1921. Lucas, Jonathan Olumide "The Religion of
the Yorubas", Lagos 1948. Lange, Dierk: "The dying and the rising
God in the New Year Festival of Ife", in: Lange, Ancient Kingdoms of West
Africa, Dettelbach 2004, pp. 343–376. --: "Origin of the Yoruba and the 'Lost
Tribes of Israel'", Anthropos, 106, 579-596.
Law, Robin: The Oyo Empire, c. 1600 – c. 1836, Oxford 1977.
Smith, Robert: Kingdoms of the Yoruba, 1st ed. 1969, 3rd ed. London 1988.