SOURCES of Yoruba history.
Date
1973
Authors
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Publisher
London: Oxford University Press, Ely House, London W.i
Abstract
Contemporary Written Sources; Traditional History; The Literature of the Ifa cult; Oriki; Proverbs, Songs, and Poems; Ceremonies; Archaeology; Art in Metal; Art in Wood; The Yoruba Language in Yoruba History; Political and Social Structure; Yoruba Warfare and Weapons.
Description
The name ‘Yoruba’ is applied to a linguistic group, numbering several millions, which occupies a large area extending through the Kwara, Lagos, and Western States of the Federation of Nigeria and the Republics of Dahomey and Togo. Besides their common language, the Yoruba are united, to a large extent, by a common culture, and by traditions of a common origin in the town of Ile-Ife in the Western State of Nigeria. It does not seem, however, that they have ever constituted a single political entity, and it is even more doubtful whether, before the nineteenth century, they referred to each other by a common name. Before the imposition of European rule and the establishment of the present political boundaries, the Yoruba were divided into numerous independent kingdoms. To a great degree, the history of the Yoruba has to be studied as the history of these various kingdoms. The Yoruba language was not reduced to writing until the nineteenth century, mainly through the efforts of Christian missionaries. Before this, it is possible, even probable, that the kingdom of Oyo, the most northerly of the Yoruba states, had adopted the practice of writing in Arabic from its islamized neighbours to the north. But the Arabic records of Oyo, if they existed, have not survived. For practical purposes the history of the Yoruba up to the nineteenth century is the history of a wholly non-literate.