Yoruba people

== Group identity ==
Yoruba people have a sense of group identity around a number of cultural concepts, beliefs and practices recognizable by all members of the ethnic group. Prominent among these, is the tracing of the entire Yoruba body through dynastic migrations to roots formed in Ile-Ife, an ancient city in the forested heart of central [[Yorubaland]] and its acceptance as the spiritual nucleus of Yoruba existence. Following this linkage to the ancient city of Ife is the acknowledgement of an historic crowned king, Oduduwa, a personage nominally considered the 'father' of the Yoruba people. According to Ife's own account, Oduduwa 'descended' into the originally thirteen semi-autonomous proto-Ife communities which existed in a state of confederacy<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Obayemi |first1=Ade |title=Ancient Ile-Ife: Another Cultural Historical Reinterpretation Pg.167 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41857206 |website=Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria |access-date=30 July 2023 |pages=151–185 |date=1979|jstor=41857206 }}</ref> based around a swampy depression surrounded by seven hills that would later on become [[Ife]] from the community of '''[[Oke Ora]]''', an elevated abode located at the summit of a hill to Ife's East.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Adebayo |first1=Akanmu |title=Culture, Politics, and Money Among the Yoruba |date=6 February 2018 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-351-52419-3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vPdKDwAAQBAJ&dq=Oduduwa+oke+ora&pg=PT19 |access-date=30 July 2023 |language=en}}</ref> The intervention of Oduduwa, a native of [[Oke Ora]] and considered an outsider in the politics of the Ife valley is widely acknowledged in Ife to be the turning point that revolutionized the politics of the confederacy which was at the time, led by [[Obatala]]<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ogunremi |first1=Deji |last2=Adediran |first2=Biodun |title=Culture and Society in Yorubaland |date=1998 |publisher=Rex Charles Publication |isbn=978-978-2137-73-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Dm8uAQAAIAAJ&q=Oduduwa+oke+ora |access-date=30 July 2023 |language=en}}</ref>

Beyond the historical accounts surrounding [[Ife]] and its ancient rulership, more cultural markers which unite the Yoruba people as members of the same ethnicity include the universal recognition of a number of spiritual concepts and chief divinities ([[Orisha]]), who have achieved pan-Yoruba statuses. These divinities are venerated as embodiments of natural forces and divine power. They are also the mediators between the common people and [[Olodumare]], God. They include some now such well-known divinities as; [[Obatala]], [[Ogun]], [[Orunmila]], [[Oshun|Osun]], [[Eshu]], [[Olokun]], [[Yemoja]], [[Osanyin]], [[Shango]], [[Yoruba religion#Orisha Pantheon|Among others]]. These are now recognizable in the [[New World]] as divinities brought across the Atlantic by people of Yoruba descent. There in their new ex-situ environment, they serve as a mechanism of maintaining group identity, as well as a powerful connection to the Yoruba homeland amongst people of Yoruba descent and others. Examples of such new world practices are: [[Santeria]], [[Candomble]], [[Umbanda]], [[Kélé]] and [[Trinidad Orisha]], which are not only religious societies, but also actual ethnic societies for those who sought to maintain their unique heritages over time, although anyone could join as long as they became immersed in the Yoruba worldview.

Linguistically, the Yoruboid languages, and in particular the [[Edekiri languages|Edekiri]] subgroup, form a closed group of mutually intelligible dialects which strongly bound the people who speak them together as members of the same linguistic community. This dialectal area spans from the lands of the [[Ana people|Ana-Ife]] people in central [[Togo]] and eastern Ghana eastwards to the lands of the Itsekiri people in the western [[Niger Delta]] around the [[Benin River|Formosa (Benin)]] and [[Escravos River|Escravos]] river estuaries. This span of land, inhabited by geographically contiguous and culturally related subgroups, were divided into separate national and subnational units under the control of different European powers as a result of the [[Berlin Conference]] in 19th century Europe and the resultant administration. The Yoruba also notably developed a common identity under the influence of Oyo, a regional empire that developed in the northwestern savanna section of yorubaland as a result of a kingdom founding migration from Ife. As opposed to Oyo which was a highly militaristic grassland polity, the [[Ife Empire]] was forest based and spread its influence rather through religion, politics, philosophical Ideology and commerce between 1200 and the mid 1400s. With the decline of Ife, Oyo expanded as the new Yoruba power and established its own influences over Kingdoms stretching from central Togo in the west to central Yorubaland in the east, and from the Niger river in the north to the Atlantic coast in the south, taking in the whole of [[Dahomey]], southern [[Borgu]], the [[Mahi people|Mahi states]], southern Nupe and the [[Aja people]]. Between the 16th and 19th centuries, Oyo had numerous campaigns in the region and established a reputation among the neighbouring kingdoms of; Ashanti, Dahomey, Borgu, Nupe, Igala and Benin as well as further afield in the lands of the Songhai, [[Hausa Kingdoms]] and others, solidifying its place in the greater region as a powerhouse strategically placed between the forest and the Savanna and representative of a cultural unit it powerfully defended and stood in association with. During the 18th century, in the days of [[Ajagbo]], an Oba of Oyo, the rulers of the Yoruba-speaking kingdoms of Oyo, [[Egba people|Egba]], [[Ketu (Benin)|Ketu]], and [[Ijebu Kingdom|Jebu]] styled each other "brothers" while recognizing the leadership role Oyo plays amongst them.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ellis |first1=Alfred Burdon |title=Yoruba-Speaking Peoples of the Slave Coast of West Africa: Their Religion, Manners, Customs, Laws, Language, etc. |date=1894 |publisher=Chapman and Hall |isbn=978-1-4655-1661-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=F6yAVS7gB7QC&dq="In+the+days+of+Ajagbo"&pg=PT12}}</ref>

At the beginning of the 19th century, the Yoruba community was made up of the following principal units; The British colony of Lagos, traditionally called Eko; Ketu, a western Yoruba state bordering the kingdom of Dahomey; Egba, with its capital at Abeokuta; Jebu, a southern Yoruba kingdom in the immediate vicinity of an inland lagoon; A confederation of Ekiti sub-tribes in the hilly country to the northeast; Ibadan, a successor republican state to Oyo; Ijesha; The historic kingdom of Ife which continued to maintain its sacred primacy; Ondo, on the east; The littoral Mahin/Ilaje on the southeastern maritime coast, and several other smaller states such as the Egbado, Akoko groups, Yagba, Awori as well as independent townships, consisting of a town and its outlying dependent villages such as Oke odan, Ado, Igbessa.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ellis |first1=Alfred Burdon |title=Yoruba-Speaking Peoples of the Slave Coast of West Africa: Their Religion, Manners, Customs, Laws, Language, etc. |date=1894 |publisher=Chapman and Hall |isbn=978-1-4655-1661-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=F6yAVS7gB7QC&dq="Their+inhabitants+are+Egbados,+or+Southern+Egbas+(Egba-odo"&pg=PT5}}</ref> 

Various other cultural factors which bind the Yoruba people include historic dynastic migrations of royals and the micro migrations of people within the Yoruba cultural space which has led to the mixing of people evidenced by the duplication and multiplication of place names and royal titles across Yoruba country. Today, places with names containing; '''Owu''', '''Ifon''', '''Ife''', '''Ado''' Etc, can be found scattered across Yorubaland regardless of subgroup. Same can be observed of certain localized royal titles e.g; '''Ajalorun''', '''Owa''', '''Olu'''. '''Olofin''', the original title of Oduduwa in Ife is remembered in the lore of most places in Yorubaland.
Occupational engagements like farming, hunting, crafting, blacksmithing, trading as well as fishing for the coastal or riparian groups are commonplace. Joint customs in greeting, birth, marriage and death, a strong sense of community, urbanism, festivities and a respect for the elderly are also all universal Yoruba concepts.<ref>{{cite book |title=Encyclopedia of the Yoruba |date=June 20, 2016 |isbn=978-0-253-02156-4 |page=5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jep3DAAAQBAJ&dq=%22the+elite+popularized+the+idea+of+%22&pg=PA5|last1=Falola |first1=Toyin |last2=Akinyemi |first2=Akintunde|publisher=Indiana University Press }}</ref>