Yoruba people

===Oyo, Ile-Ife and Lagos===
Ife continues to be seen as the "[[Holy city|spiritual homeland]]" of the Yoruba. The city was surpassed by the Oyo Empire<ref>{{cite book |title=Peoples of Africa, Volume 1| first1=Fiona |last1=MacDonald |first2=Elizabeth |last2=Paren |first3=Kevin |last3=Shillington |first4=Gillian |last4=Stacey |first5=Philip |last5=Steele |page=385 |publisher=Marshall Cavendish |year=2000 |isbn=978-0-7614-7158-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=joh5yHfcF-8C&pg=PA385}}</ref> as the dominant Yoruba military and political power in the 11th century.<ref>[http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/437048/Oyo-empire Oyo Empire] at Britannica.com</ref>

[[File:The Ade-Are crown in Ile Ife.jpg|thumb|left|The Ade-Are crown in [[Ifẹ|Ile Ife]]<ref>{{cite web |url=https://access.thebrightcontinent.org/items/show/26|title=Aare Crown Sculpture - Elevating the Office for a Time|website=Bright Continent}}</ref>|220x220px]]
The Oyo Empire under its oba, known as the [[Alaafin|Alaafin of Oyo]], was active in the [[African slave trade]] during the 18th century. The Yoruba often demanded slaves as a form of tribute of subject populations,<ref>{{Citation|last1=Domingues da Silva|first1=Daniel B.|title=Atlantic Slavery and the Slave Trade: History and Historiography|date=2018-11-20|encyclopedia=Oxford Research Encyclopedia of African History|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-027773-4|last2=Misevich|first2=Philip|doi=10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.013.371}}</ref> who in turn sometimes made war on other peoples to capture the required slaves. Part of the slaves sold by the Oyo Empire entered the [[Atlantic slave trade]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Thornton |first=John |year=1998 |title=Africa and Africans in the Making of the Atlantic World, 1400–1800 |edition=2nd |publisher=Cambridge University Press |pages=122, 304–311 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Alpern |first=Stanley B. |year=1998 |title=Amazons of Black Sparta: The Women Warriors of Dahomey |publisher=New York University Press |page=34}}</ref>

Most of the city states<ref name="The Dispersal of the Yoruba People">{{Citation|title=The Dispersal of the Yoruba People|work=The Development of Yoruba Candomble Communities in Salvador, Bahia, 1835-1986|year=2014|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|doi=10.1057/9781137486431.0006|isbn=978-1-137-48643-1}}</ref> were controlled by [[Oba (ruler)|Obas]] (or royal sovereigns with various individual titles) and councils made up of [[Oba (ruler)#Aristocratic titles among the Yoruba|Oloye]], recognized leaders of royal, noble and, often, even common descent, who joined them in ruling over the kingdoms through a series of guilds and cults. Different states saw differing ratios of power between the kingships and the chiefs' councils. Some, such as Oyo, had powerful, autocratic monarchs with almost total control, while in others such as the [[Ijebu Kingdom|Ijebu]] city-states,<ref name="The Dispersal of the Yoruba People"/> the [[Congress|senatorial councils]] held more influence and the power of the ruler or ''Ọba'', referred to as the [[Awujale of Ijebuland]], was more limited.<ref name=civilisation/>

In more recent decades, [[Lagos]] has risen to be the most prominent city of the Yoruba people and Yoruba cultural and economic influence. Noteworthy among the developments of Lagos were uniquely styled [[Yoruba architecture|architecture]] introduced by returning Yoruba communities from Brazil and Cuba known as [[Brazilians in Nigeria|Amaros/Agudas]].<ref>{{Cite thesis|last=Alonge|first=Marjorie Moji Dolapo|title=Afro-Brazilian architecture in Lagos State: a case for conservation|date=1994|publisher=Newcastle University|url=http://theses.ncl.ac.uk/jspui/handle/10443/883}}</ref>

Yoruba settlements are often described as primarily one or more of the main social groupings called "generations":<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cAoOAQAAMAAJ|title=Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria (Volume 9, Issues 2–4)|author=Historical Society of Nigeria|publisher=The Society (Indiana University)|year=1978}}</ref>
* The "first generation" includes towns and cities<ref name="The Dispersal of the Yoruba People" /> known as original capitals of founding Yoruba kingdoms or states.
* The "second generation" consists of settlements created by conquest.<ref name="The Dispersal of the Yoruba People" />
* The "third generation" consists of villages and municipalities that emerged following the [[Yoruba Revolutionary Wars|internecine wars]] of the 19th century.