Affiliation: An investigation into the ancient Egyptian cultural influences on the Yorubas of Nigeria (original) (raw)
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This paper examines the myths of origin peculiar to the Yoruba race, opening up several seams into the culture and politics of the modern Yoruba nation in South West Nigeria.
Yoruba Traditions in the Midst of Foreign Influences, A Critical Evaluation
Yoruba Studies Review, 2021
The Yoruba of South west Nigeria pride themselves as a “nation” with a rich cultural heritage. Tis jealously guided heritage believed to have been handed down from ancient times has however suffered greatly from modern influences owing to contacts with foreign cultures. Tis essay highlights the measures to preserve the Yoruba heritage and the militating problems in the light of the unbridled contacts with foreign cultures. The paper also provides evidence to suggest that the Yoruba, just like every other ethnic groups in Nigeria, could have fashioned their own developmental frameworks but for the imposition of foreign ideas/ideals.
History of the yoruba people: culture and tradition
The Yoruba people (Yoruba: Àwọn ọmọ Yorùbá) are an ethnic group of Southwestern and North central Nigeria as well as Southern and Central Benin known as the Yorubaland cultural region of West Africa. The Yoruba constitute over 40 million people in total; the majority of this population is from Nigeria and make up 21% of its population, according to the CIA World Factbook, [1] making them one of the largest ethnic groups in Africa. The majority of the Yoruba speak the Yoruba language, which is tonal, and is the Niger-Congo language with the largest number of native speakers. [7]
Notes on Aspect of Yoruba Cultural Practices Over Time
Published in Toyin Falola and Dipo Olubomehin, eds., The Yoruba Nation and Politics Since the Nineteenth Century: Essays in Honor of Professor J. A. Atanda. Austin, TX: Pan-African University Press., 2020
The Yoruba Identity has become an identity to be reckoned with in the 21 st century, especially in relation to their cultural and societal practises. This has been possible due to several reasons, such as the preservation and innovations in the 19 th century during the slave trade era and the practises of the Yoruba in diaspora, especially in the present globalised world. This has played a role in the spread of Yoruba cultural practises to the most distant parts of the earth. This work therefore aims at examining the changing dynamic over time of Yoruba cultural and societal practises. The paper also explores issues like how the Yoruba spread to the diaspora, followed by how and why peculiarity was given to the preservation of Yoruba culture in a globalised world. The paper will also examine some countries where these cultures are practised, mainly focusing on Brazil and Cuba. The paper also concludes that globalization and popular culture have impacted negatively on Yoruba social cultural practises, and questions if indeed the Yoruba cultural values can stand the test of globalisation and popular culture in a changing world.
African Studies Review, 2022
The Yoruba ethnic group has intrigued scholars of Africa for at least one hundred years. The Reverend Samuel Johnson's History of the Yorubas was first published in 1921. Since then, there have been many treatises on the cultural and societal foundations, political and economic development, identity formation, and diaspora of the Yoruba. Each study offers its own unique addition to the scholarship, and Aribidesi Usman and Toyin Falola's book The Yoruba from Prehistory to the Present is no different in this regard. Their book features a very accessible overview of Yoruba history from prehistoric times to the present, with three main areas of differentiation. First, it centers a narrative of the Yoruba that begins with their prehistoric existence (as few volumes do). Second, it gives considerable attention to other Yoruba polities outside of Ile Ife and Oyo (while most focus on Ife and Oyo primarily). Third, it has a goal of incorporating the rich archaeological evidence that is available from various other sources. The book is divided into six sections with twenty chapters (delineated by precolonial, colonial, and postcolonial independent periods); it begins with a conversation on the origins of the Yoruba using oral tradition, archaeology, and linguistic sources. Evidence is presented in Chapter One that refutes the generally accepted idea of Yoruba origins having been in the Middle East or North Africa (3). There is also an etymology of the name "Yoruba" (4-5), along with a linguistic analysis of some dialects of Yoruba subgroups, showing that they are linked by strong cultural characteristics evidenced in linguistic patterns, regardless of their geographic proximity (13-17). Chapter Two is devoted to a general prehistory of the Yoruba, based heavily on archaeological data from the Early, Middle, and Late Stone Age periods, which aligns with the first and third objectives. It features hammer stones, stone axes, palm kernels, human remains, rock shelters, and iron smelting centers, with a reference to settlement and farming as well. The authors state that widespread agriculture in Africa developed only between 6,000 and 5,000 B.C., and that Mesopotamia is noted as the earliest area with agriculture
Yoruba Studies Review, 2021
Encyclopedia of the Yoruba is a single-volume encyclopedia that is comprised of 285 entries of short essays written by 188 authors who are predominantly scholars and academic researchers from Africa, Europe and North America. The different word-ranges of the essays vary from 1000 words (for 78 entries) to 750 words (for 88 entries) and 500 words (for 119 entries). Across these entries, the encyclopedia gives a complex, yet detailed, presentation of the Yorùbá, a dominant ethnic group in West Africa and the most prominent African cultural population, identity and presence in the African diaspora including North America, the Caribbean and South America. It presents the Yorùbá with respect to their involvements in, and interactions with, different sociocultural experiences, practices and expressions by “emphasizing the peculiarities, features, and commonalities of the people” (xi). Following an alphabetical ordering, each entry in the encyclopedia is complete on its own as it examines ...
IFA: An Epistle to the Indigenous Yoruba Worshippers in Nigeria
Ogunleye, Adetunbi Richard. (2019). IFA: An Epistle to the Indigenous Yoruba Worshippers in Nigeria. Journal of African Interdisciplinary Studies. 3(1), 68 – 77., 2019
Many critics of African Indigenous Religion (AIR) were of the opinion that AIR has no guide through which one can get information about it. This therefore led to their pronouncement of death sentence on the religion. This article aims at presenting Ifa, the principal divinatory system, as one of the sacred oral texts sent to the indigenous Yoruba worshippers. It also sets to disabuse the minds of critics about their wrong impression on this Religion. The article adopts historical and phenomenological approaches to achieve these aims. Findings reveal that messages from the Ifa sacred texts are coded in various odu (chapters) which can be decode by the learned priests of Orunmila-the Yoruba god of wisdom. The message is all inclusive as it contains the existential needs of man. The article concludes on the note that Ifa, been a sacred oral text, is a message on how to tackle the challenges surrounding nations and individual life. It therefore recommends that Ifa, one of the African cultural heritage and common wealth should be jealously guarded and be appreciated as the solutions that Africans are seeking for to address their numerous challenges can be found in this Yoruba spiritual dimension.