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This is a topic very dear to my heart because the Yoruba race is yet to recover from the huge assault dealt on it by the combined forces of transatlantic and transcontinental slave trade, the British colonisation, the invasion of Islam and Christianity, the mental colonisation of our cherished world view, the forced amalgamation and the dysfuntionality of the Nigerian contraption.


We also have as a quick fall-out of the above, the serious encroachment of our rich traditions, cultures and cultural values, the loss of our history, the near-loss of our language, the obvious loss of our identity, the aping of eccentric values of the United State of America, arrant inferiority complex, and loss of both our political and hitherto buoyant economic structures.

But let us begin by exploring what in fact constitutes a people's culture. This will be the first leg of our discourse today. Thereafter, we shall examine our identity and follow it up with the role culture and identity play in a society's emancipation. We will then cap it up with the erosion of cherished values which the Yoruba have suffered as a race and a clarion call to awaken ourselves and reposition for survival, emancipation and permanent preservation. In all of these, I am going to quote profusely from scholars and leading authorities whose researches, thoughts and opinions have guided our own efforts in this submission.

Continue Reading article here. . . . http://nigeriaworld.com/articles/2011/nov/091.html

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REFERENCES AND NOTES

N.A. Fadipe, The Sociology of the Yoruba, Ibadan University Press. 1970
W. Bascom, The Yoruba of Southwestern Nigeria, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York, 1969
The largely disputed Nigerian National Census 1963. The population now according to World Bank sources is over 40 million.
H.Clapperton and D. Denham, Narrative of travels and Discoveries in Northern and Central Africa John Murray, London, 1826
B. Idowu, The religion of the Yoruba, Gangan, 1977 pp4-7
R.Smith, Kingdoms of the Yoruba, Methuen, London, 1969
J.A, Adedeji, The Alarinjo Theatre: The study of Yoruba theatrical art form, PhD Thesis, Ibadan, 1969
M.Crowder, The Story of Nigeria, Longmans, London, 1966
C.L. Adeoye, Igbagbo ati Esin Yoruba
Adetola Adeniyi, The Untapped Potentials of Nigerian Women, Owerri Lecture 1991
Adetola Adeniyi: Theatre On Wheels: The Yoruba Theatre; Its Origins, Structure and Organization. MA Thesis, 1978, Published by Impact Communications, Canada, 1997
Adetola Adeniyi, United Yoruba Kingdom, pamphlet, Canada 1997[/b]