Yoruba people

=== Christianity and Islam ===
[[File:Church of the Pater Noster Mount of Olives, Jerusalem 11.jpg|thumb|right|The Lord's prayer in [[Yoruba language]], [[Church of the Pater Noster]] Mount of Olives, Jerusalem|300x300px]]
The Yoruba are traditionally very religious people, and are today pluralistic in their religious convictions.<ref name=integration>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nkbYlltTi4sC&pg=PA103 |title=Religion and National Integration in Africa: Islam, Christianity, and Politics in the Sudan and Nigeria |series=Islam and society in Africa |author=John O. Hunwick |page=103 |publisher=Northwestern University Press |year=1992 |isbn=978-0-8101-1037-3}}</ref> The Yoruba are one of the more religiously diverse ethnic groups in Africa. Many Yoruba people practice Christianity in denominations such as Anglicanism<ref name="Mathews 2002 p. 136">{{cite book | last=Mathews | first=M.P. | title=Nigeria: Current Issues and Historical Background | publisher=Nova Science Publishers | year=2002 | isbn=978-1-59033-316-7 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hTs6GpM4zDMC&pg=PA136 | access-date=2023-08-05 | page=136}}</ref> while others are Muslims practicing mostly under Sunni Islam of the Maliki school of law. In addition to Christianity and Islam, a large number of Yoruba people continue to practice their traditional religion. Yoruba religious practices such as the [[Eyo festival|Eyo]] and [[Osun-Osogbo]] festivals are witnessing a resurgence in popularity in contemporary Yorubaland. They are largely seen by the adherents of the modern faiths as cultural, rather than religious, events. They participate in them as a means to celebrate their people's history, and boost tourism in their local economies.<ref name="Aderibigbe, Gbola, editor. Medine, Carolyn M. Jones, editor" />

[[File:Anna hinderer church and mission house at ibadan pic2.jpg|thumb|left|[[Anna Hinderer]] church and mission house at [[Ibadan]], 1850s<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WZg3AQAAMAAJ&dq=anna+hinderer&pg=PA99|title=Seventeen Years in the Yoruba Country Memorials of Anna Hinderer, Wife of the Rev. David Hinderer, C.M.S. Missionary in Western Africa|author=Anna Hinderer|publisher=Seeley, Jackson, and Halliday|year=1872}}</ref>]]

==== Christianity ====
The Yorubas were one of the first groups in West Africa to be introduced to Christianity on a very large scale.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DdFvbW5tWpYC&q=christianity+in+yorubaland&pg=PA77|title=Pre-Colonial Africa in Colonial African Narratives: From Ethiopia Unbound to Things Fall Apart, 1911–1958|author=Dr Donald R Wehrs|publisher=Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.|year=2013|isbn=978-1-4094-7495-1}}</ref> Christianity (along with western civilization) came into Yorubaland in the mid-19th century through the [[Ethnic groups in Europe|Europeans]], whose original mission was commerce.<ref name="integration" /><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OdbBBwAAQBAJ&pg=PT74 |title=Scientific Pilgrimage: 'The Life and times of Emeritus Professor V.A Oyenuga'. D.Sc, FAS, CFR Nigeria's first Emeritus Professor and Africa's first Agriculture Professor |author=Ádébáyò Ádésóyè |publisher=AuthorHouse |year=2015 |isbn=978-1-5049-3785-6}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m2V1AAAAMAAJ |title=Western Yorubaland under European rule, 1889–1945: A Comparative Analysis of French and British Colonialism. European Philosophy and the Human Sciences |author=A. I. Asiwaju |publisher=Humanities Press (Ibadan history series, the University of Michigan) |year=1976 |isbn=978-0-391-00605-8}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fUqcAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA1162 |title=The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church |author1=Frank Leslie Cross |author2=Elizabeth A. Livingstone |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2005 |page=1162 |isbn=978-0-19-280290-3}}</ref> The first European visitors were the Portuguese, they visited the neighboring [[Kingdom of Benin|Bini kingdom]] in the late 16th century. As time progressed, other Europeans – such as the French, the British, the Dutch, and the Germans, followed suit. The British and the French were the most successful in their quest for colonies (these Europeans actually split Yorubaland, with the larger part being in British Nigeria, and the minor parts in French Dahomey, now Benin, and German [[Togoland]]). Home governments encouraged religious organizations to come. Roman Catholics (known to the Yorubas as Ijo Aguda, so named after returning former Yoruba slaves from Latin America, who were mostly Catholic, and were also known as the [[Aguda people|Agudas]] or [[Amaro people|Amaros]]) started the race, followed by Protestants, whose prominent member – [[Church Mission Society]] (CMS) based in England made the most significant in-roads into the hinterland regions for evangelism and became the largest of the Christian missions. [[Methodism|Methodists]] (known as Ijo-Eleto, so named after the Yoruba word for "method or process") started missions in [[Badagry|Agbadarigi / Gbegle]] by [[Thomas Birch Freeman]] in 1842. Agbadarigi was further served by [[Eugene Celadon Van Cooten|E. C. Van Cooten]], E. G. Irving, and A. A. Harrison. [[Henry Townsend (missionary)|Henry Townsend]], C. C. Gollmer, and [[Ajayi Crowther]] of the CMS worked in [[Abeokuta]], then under the Egba division of Southern Nigeria in 1846.<ref>{{Citation|last=Adebanwi|first=Wale|title=Seizing the Heritage: Playing Proper Yorùbá in an Age of Uncertainty|work=Yorùbá Elites and Ethnic Politics in Nigeria|year=2014|pages=224–243|publisher=Cambridge University Press|doi=10.1017/cbo9781107286252.011|isbn=978-1-107-28625-2}}</ref>

[[Anna Hinderer|Hinderer]] and Mann of CMS started missions in Ibadan / [[Ibarapa people|Ibarapa]] and [[Ijaye of Kurunmi|Ijaye]] divisions of the present Oyo state in 1853. [[Baptists|Baptist]] missionaries – Bowen and Clarke – concentrated on the northern Yoruba axis – (Ogbomoso and environs). With their success, other religious groups – the [[Salvation Army]] and the [[Evangelical Church of West Africa|Evangelists Commission of West Africa]] – became popular among the [[Igbomina]], and other non-denominational Christian groups joined. The increased tempo of Christianity led to the appointment of [[Saro (Nigeria)|Saros]] (returning slaves from Sierra Leone) and indigenes as missionaries. This move was initiated by Venn, the CMS Secretary. Nevertheless, the impact of Christianity in Yorubaland was not felt until the fourth decade of the 19th century, when a Yoruba slave boy, Samuel Ajayi Crowther, became a Christian convert, linguist and minister whose knowledge in languages would become a major tool and instrument to propagate Christianity in Yorubaland and beyond.<ref>{{cite web|website=Yorupedia|url=http://yorupedia.com/subjects/yoruba-religion/christianity-and-islam/|title=Christianity and Islam Introduction|access-date=14 September 2015|archive-date=21 July 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150721043138/http://yorupedia.com/subjects/yoruba-religion/christianity-and-islam/}}</ref>

==== Islam ====
Islam came into Yorubaland around the 14th century, as a result of trade with  [[Soninke Wangara|Wangara]] (also Wankore) merchants,<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_nKXOThUEpcC&dq=wangara+yoruba&pg=PA440|title=Arabic Literature of Africa: The writings of central Sudanic Africa|date=1994|publisher=E.J. Brill|author1=John O. Hunwick|author2=Rex S. O'Fahey|page=440|isbn=978-978-2347-29-9}}</ref> a mobile caste of the Soninkes from the then [[Mali Empire]] who entered Yorubaland (Oyo) from the northwestern flank through the Bariba or Borgu corridor,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://nigerianfinder.com/islamic-education-in-nigeria-how-it-all-began/|title=Islamic Education in Nigeria: How It All Began|date=10 August 2019 |publisher=Nigerian Finder}}</ref> during the reign of [[Musa I of Mali|Mansa Kankan Musa]].<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1ha_bmASvRIC&pg=PA168 |title=Mission Et Progrès Humain (Mission and Human Progress) Studia missionalia |page=168 |language=fr |publisher=Gregorian Biblical BookShop |year=1998 |isbn=978-8-876-5278-76}}</ref> Due to this, Islam is traditionally known to the Yoruba as Esin Male or simply Imale i.e. religion of the Malians. The adherents of the Islamic faith are called Musulumi in Yoruba to correspond to Muslim, the Arabic word for an adherent of Islam having as the active participle of the same verb form, and means "submitter (to Allah)" or a nominal and active participle of Islam derivative of "Salaam" i.e. (Religion of) Peace. Islam was practiced in Yorubaland so early on in history, that a sizable proportion of Yoruba slaves taken to the Americas were already Muslim.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NQwcAlYxP7sC&pg=PA157 |title=Unfree Labour in the Development of the Atlantic World |author1=Paul E. Lovejoy |author2=Nicholas Rogers |publisher=Routledge |year=2012 |page=157 |isbn=978-1-136-30059-2}}</ref>

The mosque served the spiritual needs of Muslims living in Ọyọ. Progressively, Islam started to gain a foothold in Yorubaland, and Muslims started building mosques. [[Iwo, Osun|Iwo]] led, its first mosque built in 1655,<ref name="White 2015 97–110">{{Citation|last=White|first=Julie|title=Learning in 'No Man's Land'|date=2015|work=Interrogating Conceptions of 'Vulnerable Youth' in Theory, Policy and Practice|pages=97–110|publisher=SensePublishers|doi=10.1007/978-94-6300-121-2_7|isbn=978-94-6300-121-2}}</ref> followed by [[Iseyin]] in 1760,<ref name="White 2015 97–110"/> [[Lagos|Eko/Lagos]] in 1774,<ref name="White 2015 97–110"/> [[Shaki, Nigeria|Shaki]] in 1790,<ref name="White 2015 97–110"/> and [[Osogbo]] in 1889. In time, Islam spread to other towns like [[Oyo, Nigeria|Oyo]] (the first Oyo convert was Solagberu), Ibadan, [[Abẹokuta]], [[Ijebu Ode]], [[Ikirun]], and [[Ede, Nigeria|Ede]]. All of these cities already had sizable Muslim communities before the 19th century Sokoto jihad.<ref>{{Citation|last=Beek|first=Walter E. A. van|editor1-first=W. E. van|editor1-last=Beek|title=Purity and statecraft: the Fulani jihad and its empire|date=1988-12-31|work=The Quest for Purity|pages=149–182|publisher=De Gruyter|doi=10.1515/9783110860924-008|isbn=978-3-11-086092-4|hdl=1887/9002|hdl-access=free}}</ref>