# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Farming used to be the major occupation of the Yoruba people.

# data[].attributes.body
Some fun facts about the Yoruba people and their culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Yoruba people are one of the largest ethnic groups in West Africa, primarily living in Nigeria. Their traditions have developed and matured for thousands of years, leaving a rich cultural history in its path. While many Yoruba people have moved into urban environments like Lagos, a good portion of them still keep their old traditions. Here are 10 things that might surprise you about Yoruba culture.

They have more twins than any people in the world

Due to their genetics, the Yoruba has the highest rate of twins in the world at around 4.4% for all maternities. Some people believe that the amount of twins is due to a chemical found in the cassava plant, which is a high portion of their traditional diet. Others believe it to be due to providence. Whatever the situation is, there hasn't been anything proven by science as to why they have so many twins.

Their homeland is pretty big

Yoruba people aren't just based in Nigeria, you'll also find them in Benin and even a few here and there in Togo, Ghana and Ivory Coast. There are over 60 million Yoruba people and they represent over 20% of Nigeria's entire population. This makes them one of the largest ethnic groups in all of Africa.

Many still practice traditional religions

Almost 20% of the Yoruba people still practice the traditional religion of their ancestors. The Yoruba believe in three gods including Olorun (the sky god), Eshu (the divine messenger) and Ogun (the god of war). There are many more deities as well that are worshipped in different villages. Other Yoruba people primarily practice Christianity and Islam.

Marriages are often arranged

Marriages in traditional Yoruba culture are generally arranged. The man who is courting the bridge must prove that he can make a payment to the family in the form of bride wealth. The elaborate wedding ceremony includes nine days where the bride spends time at both her new husband and parent's house. To see a traditional Yoruba marriage ceremony, check out this video.

Traditional dress isn't worn very often

While traditional dresses are beautiful and full of color, they typically aren't worn much. Many of the Yoruba people have adapted to a modern style of dress which is worn in most cities. However, if you go to rural areas, you'll still see some of the people in their traditional clothing. When it is worn, it's usually for a special event like a wedding.

Their culture is highly based around folktales and philosophy

The traditions of the Yoruba are strongly based on folktales and philosophy. It's also highly based on cosmology and mythological creatures that live in both visible and invisible worlds. There are literally hundreds of folktales used in the Yoruba culture that are designed to help people navigate through life wisely.

They have their own traditional cuisine

Yoruba cuisine has strongly influenced the food of Nigeria, particularly in restaurants in the south of the country. Some of the more popular dishes include moin moin, akara, amala, plantains, ekuru, jollof rice and cassava.

They believe babies have natural birth names

Names are extremely important to Yoruba people, and they believe that people live their life out based on their name. Seeing as such, the Yoruba put lots of thought into coming up with a name, including having naming ceremonies (pictured above). In particular, twins are supposed to have natural birth names and the first of the two twins is often named Taiwo.

They have an interesting concept of life after death

Like many cultures, death isn't believed to be the end of life for the Yoruba people. They believe that the current life and the afterlife are connected and that the afterlife will just be in a new setting. Another belief is that the ancestors are able to watch over their descendants after they are gone. Yoruba used to bury people alive with their monarchs, but that tradition has long since been abolished.

They have lived in Nigeria since prehistoric times

The Yoruba people have lived in Nigeria for thousands of years. There are several archaeological finds that have been found in Yorubaland that show how their culture evolved. They've also been the primary culture in southern Nigeria since the 11th century under many empires such as the Ife and Oyo kingdoms. Both of these kingdoms left hundreds of relics, mostly made up of brass, bronze and copper.
10 Things You Didn't Know About The Fulani People 10 Things You Didn't Know About Traditional Zulu Culture 10 Things You Didn't Know About Swazi Culture Want to discover the finer side of Africa? Sign up for our weekly newsletter.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
10 Things That Might Surprise You About Yoruba Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Yoruba people are one of the largest ethnic groups in West Africa, primarily living in Nigeria. Their traditions have developed and matured for thousands of years, leaving a rich cultural history in

# data[].attributes.body
A brief history and an overview of the Yoruba people.

# data[].attributes.body
An article on environment and social change

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Men playing the Yoruba game 'Ayo Olopon'

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.innertemple.org.uk/celebrating-diversity-at-the-bar/obafemi-awolowo/

"a symbol of Nigeria’s independence from Britain, a modernist university and product of politics, design and climate as well as being a social stage for community and education."

# data[].attributes.headline
Prominent Personality, Activist and a Literature Nobel Laureate 

# data[].attributes.subject
Prominent Personality, Activist and a Literature Nobel Laureate 

# data[].attributes.body
https://theconversation.com/wole-soyinka-at-90-writer-and-activist-for-justice-234489

His dedication to political activism is evident in his vocal criticism of various Nigerian governments. This is particularly highlighted in his work The Open Sore of a Continent, where he condemned the military dictatorship of Sani Abacha. Further demonstrating his commitment, he founded the Democratic Front for a People’s Federation in 2010, emphasizing his ongoing engagement in political activism.

# data[].attributes.body
The Yoruba religion centers on the worship of a supreme deity, Olodumare, and numerous lower gods known as Orisha. The faith emphasizes the importance of one's ori (personal destiny) and aché (divine energy), with divination playing a key role in guiding major life decisions through consultations with Orisha via priests and priestesses. The Yoruba people who were taken from Africa and forced into slavery abroad were forcibly stripped of their identity and removed from their culture.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Yoruba Religion of Southwestern Nigeria | PBS LearningMedia

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Learn about the Yoruba faith, a religion that is among the world's ten largest, in this media gallery from Sacred Journeys with Bruce Feiler. Two American women who are to be initiated into the Yoruba faith as priestesses travel to Nigeria to take part in a ceremony that involves prayer, head shaving, animal sacrifice, music, and dance.

# data[].attributes.body
https://hallmarksoflabour.org/dvteam/senator-abraham-adesanya-hlr/

Pa Abraham Adesanya was a leader and activist. Under the auspices of Afenifere and the Yoruba Council of Elders, he led a congress of Yoruba elder-statesmen through an assembly that rose to pronounce that the gathering of a constitutional conference, where new confederating terms would be determined for the country, was necessary for the good of Nigerians.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Going back into history, one comes across men and women whose commitment to the course of the downtrodden has been unshakeable. These were people who stood against oppressive and corrupt leadership with courage and fortitude. People who became shinning examples and role models in hard work, diligence, commitment, truthfulness and transparency. People like Mahatma Gandhi of India, like Nelson Mandela of South Africa.

In Nigeria, we had the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo and today one of his followers who has deservedly become chairman of AFENIFERE and leader of the Yoruba Nation. He is Senator Abraham Adesanya, a fearless and courageous fighter for any cause he believes in. he has been an active politician for over thirty years crowning it all with the role of human rights activist and pro democracy campaigner.

Senator Adesanya or Pa Adesanya, as he is now popularly known was born in Ijebu - Igbo Ogun State, on the 24th of July, 1922. His father, Pa Isaac Adekoya Adesanya was an herbalist and his mother was Elizabeth Odiya Adesanya. He attended primary schools in Ijebu - Igbo and Oshogbo before entering Ijebu - Igbo Grammar School in 1941. This marked the beginning of the manifestation of Senator Adesanya's special gift and talent, for he literally walked from primary school straight into class IV in the secondary school by passing a special entrance examination. One would think that this could have been a handicap to his studies, but no! He passed his Cambridge examination in 1943 in flying colours.

Senator Adesanya has always wanted to be a lawyer, but as funds were not easy to come by in those days, his only option was to take up appointment in the civil service. He joined the colonial audit department as a clerk in 1945 but his searching, critical nature was soon to manifest itself as he joined the civil service union. Within a short time he soon became the secretary of the Metropolitan Council of Nigeria Civil Service Union and played a leading role in the first civil service strike in 1948.

Not content with pursuing a career with the civil service, Mr. Adesanya had to go into import/ export and petty trading business in order to raise funds to travel to England to read law. He registered at Grays Inn, London but his studies were interrupted mid stream when he was called home to contest election into the Western House of assembly. He had to find another opportunity to complete his law studies.

Abraham Adesanya has had a brilliant law practice. He made history when as a young lawyer in 1964, he assisted Mr. Victor Durang a British lawyer in representing Chief Obafemi Awolowo during his appeal in the celebrated treasonable felony case. It was Adesanya who holding up a copy of the book "12 portraits of power" told the court that the said book could not be regarded as subversive having been written for students preparing for the G.C.E.

In a bold submission young Adesanya also referred too another book "Flashes of Inspiration" which had been tendered as exhibit. He said the book gave insight too Chief Awolowo and that there was no existence to prove the bitterness referred to by the judge against Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa and Alhaji Ahmadu Bello. He described the submission of the prosecution as full of mischief and suspicious moves. He concluded by saying that there was no evidence to show that his client sent people to Ghana for training.

On the political front just as Egbe Omo Oduduwa led by Chief Obafemi Awolowo metamorphorsized into the action Group, 50 did NADECO, and AFENIFERE led by Abraham Adesanya mature into Alliance for Democracy. Both the Action group and the latter Alliance for Democracy have similar programmes and Abraham Adesanya has never deviated fro Awo's policies.

His fervent belief in Awo's ideology prompted him and his Afenifere / Nadeco group to decamp from any party that had bearing with Abacha and his supporters. Afeniferee moved out of the People's Democratic Party joined the All Peoples' Party (APP) before finally forming the Alliance for Democracy (AD)

Abraham Adesanya's commitment to democracy is total and unflinching. His dislike for military regimes cannot be hidden under the table. And that is why he had his own share of attacks and persecution suffered by pro - democracy crusaders. He was nearly killed by assassins of the Abacha regime and after he had been taken into detention for flimsy reasons. He has condemned the transition programme of Abacha as fake, and canvassed for its entire cancellation. To quote from the book by Dr. S.A. Sodimu, "Abraham Adesanya has been known to be consistent in his opposition against the military. He is not bothered by juicy contracts and political appointments from the military boys." It is on record that Abraham Adesanya has never been given any political appointments by any military regime in the country. He is neither a lobbyist nor a sycophant. He is firm, fair and strict.

Senator Abraham is married with four children, one of whom has been appointed a minister by the democratic government under President Olusegun Obasanjo.

Award Category: Hallmarks of Labour Role Model Award July 24, 2000

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Senator Abraham Adesanya, HLR | Hallmarks of Labour Foundation

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Going back into history, one comes across men and women whose commitment to the course of the downtrodden has been unshakeable. These were people who stood against oppressive and corrupt leadership with courage and fortitude. People who became shinning examples and role models in hard work, diligence, commitment, truthfulness and transparency.

# data[].attributes.body
The Yoruba have historically been recognized as some of Africa's most talented and industrious farmers and craftsmen, excelling in trades such as blacksmithing, weaving, leatherworking, glassmaking, and carving ivory and wood. Their industriousness led to the development of more open settlements and increased agricultural output, resulting in a surplus of food and population growth. Consequently, occupational specialization rose, with new professions emerging, many of which relied on the iron technology that facilitated these demographic changes.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Following up on Ancient Yoruba: An Agricultural Economy (c. 10th Century B.C.) , this week we'll discuss Yoruland's expansion from an agricultural economy, to one based on trade along the trans-Saharan trade routes, as wells as ports Novo and Ouidah.

Neither ethnically nor politically homogeneous, the Yoruba people had been, from time immemorial, organized into many states or kingdoms. The total number of these kingdoms is unknown, but the major states include the Yagba, Ekiti, Igbomina, Ijesa, Ile-Ife, and Ondo in the east; the Oyo, Egba, Owu, Egbado, and Ijebu in the center; and the Sabe, Ketu, Anago, Idaisa, Manigri, Isa, and Ana in the west. The ruling elites in most of the states claim descent from the Oduduwa house and/or Ile-Ife.

Yorubaland's, indigenous inhabitants go back at least as far as 9000 B.C. This hypothesizes that as the migrants began to settle in these areas, they came into contact with foreign cultures and peoples but largely assimilated them into the growing Yoruba civilization without much, if any, conflict.

Between 500 B.C. and 500 A.D., these states began to transition from the Stone Age to the Iron Age as iron smelting technology from West Africa spread to the region.

Iron tools provided the opportunity to create more open settlements and increased agricultural output. The surplus in food production and accompanying population growth resulted in greater specialization in occupation. Professional hunters, palm tappers, hairdressers, weavers, sculptors of wood, pottery, and stone, smiths; and healers emerged. Many of whose occupations were dependent on the very iron technology and tools that created the demographic shifts necessary for such specialization.

The surplus of goods helped to facilitate trade with local, and distant markets in exchange for products different to the ones they produced. Local markets emerged, often in four-day rotations, in which those requiring the services of specialists in each settlement could come to trade.

Benin traders brought corals, European cloth, cowrie shells and iron implements, and took away home-spun cloth and camwood as well as beads and potash.

Akure, regarded as one of the sixteen ancient Ekiti kingdoms, was a central trading post. Rock engravings prior to the Mesolithic period, have been discovered on the outskirts of Akure. The oldest Homo sapiens fossil ever found in West Africa thus far was discovered there, dating back to around 11,000 years ago.

One state, Ile-Ife, began to undergo a momentous revolution. Ife possessed an agricultural surplus, deposits of iron ore, and ideal location along trade routes extending north to the trans-Saharan trade and south to the east-west axis of a growing lagoon-based trade of forest and coastal products in southern Yorubaland.

Ifẹ quickly emerged as a major location for the production and distribution of important regional trade items such as kola nuts, iron, beads, brass and bronze work, salt, fish, horses, and cowrie shells. Given all these benefits, Ile-Ife became a natural and attractive meeting point for a wide range of newcomers.

As trade routes began to shift, the city-state of Ọyọ started to eclipse Ile-Ifẹ in terms of prestige and power. Still operating under the same general political schema, Ọyọ established the largest empire in the West African tropical forest and dominated affairs in Yorubaland until the end of the 18th century.

From the 8th century A.D., the Moroccans were successfully breeding camels on a large scale. They created a cross-breed between the dromedary camel and the two-humped Bactrian camel of Asia ( Camelus bactrianus ).

With the availability of the camel, Berbers began crossing the Sahara Desert. From the 8th century onward, annual trade caravans followed routes later described by Arabic authors. Gold, sought from the western and central Sudan, was the main commodity of the trans-Saharan trade. The traffic in gold was spurred by the demand for and supply of coinage.

In a series of wars and invasions between 1726 and 1748, Ọyọ subjugated Dahomey, made it a tributary state, and effectively established control over the important Atlantic ports of Ouidah and Porto Novo.

Situated on an inlet of the Gulf of Guinea, in the southeastern portion of the country, Porto-Novo developed as a port for the trans-Atlantic slave trade led by the Portuguese Empire. Port Ouidah was the port that sent the last recorded shipment of slaves to the United States in 1860.

Unlike many West Africans, the Yoruba did not use metallic currency such as gold and silver coins before colonial rule. The main trade currency was cowrie shells, cypraea moneta . The available evidence indicates that cowries came through two major routes: the northern route connecting Yorubaland with the caravan trade, and the southern route by way of the Atlantic coast.

The Yoruba referred to cowries simply as money, owo . Like all forms of money, the value of cowrie shells was not stable.

Traditional savings, credit, and banking institutions in Africa have not received the kind of attention they deserve. The Yoruba is said to have two basic institutions for saving and credit. The first is esusu , which was more developed and served the people in all the senses of the term "savings." The second is ajo , which was probably devised simply to satisfy the first sense in which savings has been used by economists... the process of accumulating money.

Samuel Johnson's The History of the Yorubas is cited as one of the most robust, thorough, and exhaustive work that formed the bedrock of the subsequent study of Yoruba history.

About the Author: Lawrence Jean-Louis is the founder of , a digital marketing agency offering marketing & consultative services to CPAs and tax professionals. She aspires to start a money management firm by 2030.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Ancient Yorubaland: From an Agricultural Economy to the Trans-Saharan Trade

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Following up on Ancient Yoruba: An Agricultural Economy (c. 10th Century B.

# data[].attributes.body
The book discusses the religions of the Yoruba people and the influence of foreign religions, Islam and Christianity, on social change.

The institution of religion has played a central role in shaping the Yoruba community's social, cultural, and political practices. It influenced various aspects of life and drove social change. The interconnection between traditional Yoruba religion, Christianity, Islam, and modernity has created a dynamic environment. Religious beliefs and practices have continuously evolved, impacting social identities, community unity, and societal values.

The arrival of Christianity and Islam during the colonial period began to challenge and transform traditional religious practices. Missionaries sought to convert the Yoruba people, often dismissing traditional beliefs as "pagan" and promoting Western education and values as part of their evangelizing mission.

The establishment of Christian missions led to the spread of Western education, as schools were often attached to churches. This significantly impacted social mobility, as education became a pathway to new opportunities and the rise of a Western-educated elite.

The adoption of Christianity also brought about changes in social practices and values, such as attitudes towards marriage, gender roles, and community leadership. Christian teachings often clashed with traditional practices, leading to tensions and the gradual integration of Christian ideals into Yoruba culture.

Islam was introduced to the Yoruba region through trade routes and the influence of the neighboring Hausa and Fulani communities. By the 18th century, Islam had established a significant presence, particularly in urban centers such as Ilorin.

The spread of Islam brought new social practices, including Islamic education (through Quranic schools), legal traditions (Sharia law), and the incorporation of Islamic rituals into daily life. This significantly alters the fabric of the Yoruba society.

# data[].attributes.body
Many Yoruba people move away from agricultural practices to the informal economy and entrepreneurship such as trade and small-scale manufacturing. This shift has led to the growth of a vibrant business culture within the community but also exposed the community to the vulnerabilities of global economic fluctuations