Yoruba History / Ìtàn Yorùbá

About Yoruba History / Ìtàn Yorùbá

(English)

The Yoruba people are a West African ethnic group who mainly inhabit parts of Nigeria, Benin, and Togo. The areas of these countries primarily inhabited by the Yoruba are often collectively referred to as Yorubaland. The Yoruba constitute more than 50 million people in Africa, are over a million outside the continent, and bear further representation among members of the African diaspora. The vast majority of the Yoruba population is today within the country of Nigeria, where they make up 20.7% of the country's population according to Ethnologue estimations, making them one of the largest ethnic groups in Africa. Most Yoruba people speak the Yoruba language, which is the Niger-Congo language with the largest number of native or L1 speakers.

In Africa, the Yoruba are contiguous with the Yoruboid Itsekiri to the south-east in the northwest Niger Delta, Bariba to the northwest in Benin and Nigeria, the Nupe to the north, and the Ebira to the northeast in central Nigeria. To the east are the Edo, Ẹsan, and Afemai groups in mid-western Nigeria. To the northeast and adjacent to the Ebira and northern Edo, groups are the related Igala people on the left bank of the Niger River. To the south are the Gbe-speaking Mahi, Gun, Fon, and Ewe who border Yoruba communities in Benin and Togo, to the west they are bordered by the Kwa-speaking Akebu, Kposo of Togo, and to the northwest, by the Kwa-speaking Anii, and the Gur speaking Kabiye, Yom-Lokpa and Tem people of Togo. Significantly Yoruba populations in other West African countries can also be found in Ghana, Benin, Ivory Coast, and Sierra Leone.

Outside Africa, the Yoruba diaspora consists of two main groupings; the first being that of the Yorubas taken as slaves to the New World between the 16th to 19th centuries, notably to the Caribbean (especially in Cuba) and Brazil, and the second consisting of a wave of relatively recent migrants, the majority of whom began to migrate to the United Kingdom and the United States following some of the major economic and political changes encountered in Africa in the 1960s to 1980s.

(Yorùbá)

Ìran Yorùbá, àwọn ọmọ Yorùbá tàbí Ọmọ káàárọ̀-oòjíire, jé árá ìpinle ẹ̀yà, ní apá ìwọ̀ oòrùn ilẹ̀ Áfríkà. Wọn jé árá ìpin àwọn ìran to pò ju ní orílẹ̀ Áfríkà. Ilẹ̀ Yorùbá ní púpò nínú wọ́n. Ẹ lè ri wọ́n ní ìpínlẹ̀ púpò bíi ìpínlẹ̀ Ẹdó, Ìpínlẹ̀ Èkìtì, ìpínlẹ̀ Èkó, Ìpínlẹ̀ Kwara, ìpínlẹ̀ Kogí, ìpínlẹ̀ Ògùn, Ìpínlẹ̀ Oǹdó, ìpínlẹ̀ Ọ̀ṣun, ìpínlẹ̀ Ọ̀yọ́, àti ní ẹ̀yà ila ọ́wọ́ òsi ti ilè Nàìjíríà. Ẹ tún le rí wọ́n ní ìpínlẹ̀ to wa nínú orílẹ̀-èdè Olómìnira Benin (Dahomey), ní orílẹ̀-èdè Sàró (Sierra Leone), àti ní àwọn orílẹ̀-èdè miiran bíi àwọn tí wọ́n pè ní Togo, Brazil, Cuba, Haiti, Amẹ́ríkà ati Venezuela. Àwọn Yorùbá wà l’árá àwọn to tóbí ju ní orílẹ̀-èdè Nàìjíríà. Ó le jẹ́ pe àwọn lo pọ̀ jù, abí kí wọ́n jẹ́ ìkejì, tàbí ẹ̀yà kẹta tí wọ́n pọ̀ jùlọ ní orílẹ̀-èdè Nàìjíríà.

Àwọn Yorùbá jẹ́ àwọn ènìyàn kan ti èdè wón pín sí orísirísi. Diẹ̀ lára àwọn ìpínsísọ̀rí àwọn èdè wọn ni a ti ri: "Èkìtì"; "Èkó"; "Ìjèbú"; "Ìjẹ̀ṣhà"; "Ìkálẹ̀"; "Ọ̀yọ́"; "Ẹ̀gbá" àti bẹ́ẹ̀ bẹ́ẹ̀ lọ. Àwọn ìpínsísọ̀rí yí ni a ń pe ní ẹ̀ka èdè tàbí èdè àdúgbò. Ìran Yorùbá je ènìyàn kan tí wọ́n fẹ́ràn láti máà se áájò àti àlejò àwọn ẹlẹ́yà míràn, wọ́n sì ma ń nífẹ́ sí ọmọ'làkejì.