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5 Remarkable Facts About Yoruba People - Culture - Nairaland

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5 Remarkable Facts About Yoruba People by EMMASON125: 12:00pm On Aug 27, 2014
The Yoruba people of
Western Nigeria are a
nationality of approximately
35 million people occupying
the south-western parts of
Nigeria. While their
primary concentration is in
Nigeria, they are also found
in other West African
countries and throughout
the entire world as well.
They constitute what could
be described as the largest
concentration of Africans
who live and work in the
Diaspora and their
descendants are spread all
over the world. But what
are some of the notable facts
about the Yoruba People?
Well, here is a look at the
top five facts about them.

They are one of the largest ethnic groups in Africa.
Numbering about 35 million
in total, the Yoruba is one of
the largest ethnic groups
south of the Sahara Desert.
They constitute about 21%
of Nigeria’s total population,
making them one of the
largest ethnic groups in
Nigeria. Contrary to what
many people believe, the
Yoruba are, in fact, not a
single ethnic group. In a
sharp contrast, they are a
collection of diverse people
that are bound together by a
common language, culture
and history. According to
the Yoruba Mythology, it is
believed that they
descended from an area
called Odua. Uncounted
numbers of Yorubas were
carried to the Caribbean
and the Americas during
slave trade period. In 1893,
the Yoruba Kingdom
became part of the British
Protectorate.
They still cling to their
culture.

Irrespective of
modernisation, the Yoruba
people still hold their
culture and traditions so
dearly. For instance, the art
of passage of rite is still rife
among the Yorubas and is
still a common practice even
to date. When a new baby is
born, it is sprinkled with
water until he or she cries
failure to which no word is
spoken until he or she does
so. At a birth ceremony, no
one younger than the baby’s
mother is permitted. After a
specified number of days
have elapsed, a naming
ceremony is held where
close relatives are invited.
Both male and female
babies are circumcised
within the first month.
Another notable culture
among the Yorubas is the
burial as a rite of passage.
Adult men who are not
closely related to the
deceased, but who belong to
the deceased’s clan are
allowed to attend the burial.
The grave is dug inside the
deceased’s house. Later,
several rituals are
performed to ensure that
the deceased is reborn
again.

Majority of Yorubas still
practice traditional
religion.

Even though a good number
of Yoruba people practice
Christianity, up to 20% of
the Yoruba population still
practice traditional forms of
religion. However, this
practice varies from one
community to another. For
instance, they claim that
they have more than 400
deities. This complexity has
led westerners to compare
their religion to that of
ancient Greek. Their
tradition holds that there is
only one supreme being or
god called Olorun. In
addition, there are three
gods available to all. Oluron
is the creator and the high
god. The Yoruba call on this
god by prayers or by
pouring water on the
ground using kola nuts.
Eshu is the divine god who
delivers special sacrifices to
the high god, Olorun. Isha,
on the other hand, is the god
of divination. He interprets
Olorun’s wishes to mankind.

The Yoruba have a strong political system.
The Yoruba are one of the
few African people who
have strong, united political
and social systems.
However, their political and
social system varies
significantly, depending
largely on regions. In
addition, allegiance to these
systems is paid uniformly to
a large urban area, as
opposed to a centralised
authority. Each town has a
leader called Oba, who
achieves this position by
being selected by an Oba
who is in power, by
inheritance or by
participating title
associations. There is also a
council of elders which
assists the Oba with
decision-making. Title
associations play an
important role when it
comes to balancing and
assigning power within
different cities.

The Yoruba are gifted
sculptors.


The art of sculpture is not a
new concept among the
Yoruba people . They started
creating sculpture as early
as the 12th century and
continue to do so even now.
In order to honour their
several deities, gods and
ancestors, the Yoruba’s
make magnificent
sculptures. Beautiful
sculptures of wood, brass
and terracotta are common
things among the Yoruba. In
addition to that, they are
also good porters, weavers
and metal smiths.

http://buzznigeria.com/yoruba-people/
Re: 5 Remarkable Facts About Yoruba People by gratiaeo(m): 12:11pm On Aug 27, 2014
We de observe
Re: 5 Remarkable Facts About Yoruba People by Infomizer(m): 12:20pm On Aug 27, 2014
20% ain't majority!
The article is quite revealing but reeks of fallacies of hasty generalization.

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Re: 5 Remarkable Facts About Yoruba People by ketoprofen(m): 2:45pm On Aug 27, 2014
Yorubas r not the largest grp in diaspora. I can't say for UK but elsewhere, we know who
Re: 5 Remarkable Facts About Yoruba People by tonychristopher: 4:56pm On Aug 27, 2014
As a matter of serious conversation, shouldn't your first instinct be to answer to the substantive question about projects that Yorubas have embarked on and succeeded in Nigeria and out of the confidence that you derived from having responded properly to the inquiry at hand you can then proceed to asking any questions that you dim necessary. Your failure toaddress the question at hand before asking your question indicates that you are not a serious interlocutor like Ayo and I say that for the records.Notwithstanding your inability to rescue Ayo from his self-inflicted wound, again typical of a Yoruba man, I will not hesitate to take you to school if you chose to be babysitted for the record, although I will be repeating myself.

Now in respect to your specificquestion, what Igbo built that Yoruba destroyed, in a nutshell almost every institution that the white man handed over to Nigeria after our independence Igbos built but because of your sophomoric question I will endeavor to break down what I mean for you. Nigerian railway was built and managed under Igbo minister Dr. Onyiuke and Igbos ran most of the day to day operations and the railway worked, when Yorubas took over the railway after the war they destroyed it. Igbos ran the military and brought prestige to the Nigerian military because of the caliber of Igbos that joined the military and the military worked then, look at what the military has become. You can mention any ministry before the war that worked and you will see the hands of Igbo in it.During the British/Biafran war Igbos invented one of the most deadly explosives (IEDs-Ogbunigwe)the world have ever known in the 1960s, the Igbos built armored cars, air missiles, assault rifles, gun boats, rocket launcher, rocket propelled grenades and ambulance vehicles. Igbos not only built underground refineries they also built mobile refineries as they lost territories to the federal troops. After the war Awo and his tribal cabal representing the Yoruba conspired and went on a search and destroy mission and methodically combed all the south east and blew up and destroyed all thefactories that Igbo built instead of moving the factories and the Igbo scientists to a federally controlled areaand using their ingenuity to the benefitof the whole nation. For your information ask America and Russia what they did with German engineers after world war 11.

Today Nigeria is importing all these military equipments. That is destruction of what Igbos built. In 1972, Professor A. N. Njoku-Obi produced an anti-cholera vaccine recognized by the world health community, Yoruba elites who were running the Nigeria bureaucracy after the war did not want to hear of it, they undermined that project and today Nigeria is importing those drugs instead of being the manufacturer and exporter. That is destruction my friends. In 1974 two years after an Igbo invented the cholera vaccine, Professor F. A. Udekwu and his colleagues performedthe first ever open-heart surgery in Nigeria and Black Africa, did you think that Yoruba elites wanted to hear that, of course not, if I did not tell you now, would you know? Hell no! Today, forty years later Nigerians are going oversees for their heart surgery payinghard currency. That is destruction of Nigerian economy. In 1999 after Obasanjo took office, he destroyed every Igbo business that was importing Rice and Cement into Nigeria before he came into office by granting an unprecedented and probably the biggest sole monopoly ofthe importation of rice and cement to one man called Dangote who became a billionaire overnight. When Igbos where involved in the importation of these items like cement, the price of cement was around N300, now the price of cement is hovering around N1,500 a bag. Go figure that, that is destruction of not only Igbos businesses but Nigeria in general. After Dangote was grant the sole monopoly of importing cement, he complained to Obasanjo that Ibeto cement industry owned by an Igbo which was mostly a repackaging factory was creating an undue competition for his monopoly and overnight Obasanjo used an executive order to shutdown Ibeto cement factory with its 400 employees.

My friend that is destruction by any standard. Savannah Bank was established by Jim Nwobodo an Igbo man, Obasanjo closed down that bank and rendered all the employees jobless because he had some disagreements with Nwobodo not because the bank went bankrupt, not because the bank was running a fraudulent scheme, not because the bank was being mismanaged but because Obasanjo like most Yorubas have this visceral hate, wickedness, jealousy and the type of indifference that says why did God create an Igbo in the first place. Again Kunle that is destruction of a unique type. Engineer Ezekiel Izuogo created the V600 car and Yoruba press, politicians, lawyers even Yoruba engineers attacked him mercilessly and frustrated his effort to build the factory in Igbo land, that is one, second when he decided to build the factory in South Africa during Obasanjo’s regime, Obasanjo and his co-haters went and stole everything, the design manual, the engine block, everything necessary for him to carry on his work thereby destroying Izuogo motors for good. Kunle do you still need more examples? Wait I told Ayo that I have more than most of you could imagine. Do you remember Niger Dock Apapa, Dr. Nnamdi Ozobia, an Igbo built it, he built yachts for individuals and ferry boats for Lagos State that plied between Apapa to Mile2. He also did repairs for foreign ships that paid Nigeria hard currency, well here we go again, when Obasanjo came into office he removed Dr. Ozobia in the most ignominious way a pattern for Obasanjo and handed over Niger Dock Apapa to Yorubas. Today Niger Dock Apapa is in ruins, a shadow of its old self. That is destruction of what Igbos built. You have Nigerian Ports Authority, NigerianAirways, you have NITEL that Yorubas burnt down after they ruined it throughembezzlement. Lest I forget what about the mother of all destruction, theindigenization decree of 1972. What the decree did was to hand over Nigerian economy to the Yorubas and they destroyed the economy.

The list below is a partial list of mostly British and other foreign owned companies that Igbos were efficiently managing before the war, few of these companies were owned or partial owned by Yoruba. Some Yorubas in the past have quibbled about preciselywho owned what but not on the point of whether Yorubas ruined all the companies that they acquired by the force of the indigenization decree. My response is that the issue has never been about who owned what, the substantive issue was and is that Yorubas ruined, defrauded, liquidated and destroyed all the companies they took over after the war regardless of who owned them before the war even including their own companies that they started but could not manage.

For your information that single act of indigenization decree is largely responsible for our economic state of affair.
“Pharmaceutical Nigeria Plc ,
May and Baker Nigeria Plc,
Vitafoam Nigeria Plc,
Wahum Nigeria Limited ,
CAP Nigeria Plc ,
International Paints of West Africa [IPWA],
Berger Paints Nigeria Plc, Berec Nigeria Limited,
Kabelmetal,
Nigeria Bottling Company Plc,
Leventis Nigeria Plc ,
West African Portland Cement Company,[Lafarge],
Wema Bank Nigeria Plc, Scoa Nigeria Plc ,
CFAO Nigeria Plc, Cadbury Nigeria Plc,
Wemaboard Estates, Odua Group, Livestock Feeds Nigeria Plc ,
Nigerian Breweries Plc,
new nigerian Bank,
Batta, Kingsway Stores, Crittal Hope (Nigeria) Limited,
Mushin, Lagos State.Dunlop (Nig.) Industries Plc,
Ikeja, Lagos State. •
Galvanising Industries Limited, Ikeja, Lagos State. •
Nigeria Construction & Water Resources Development Company Limited, Ibadan, Oyo State •
Nigerian Wire & Cable Plc, Ibadan, Oyo State •
Nigerite PLC, Ikeja, Lagos State •
Nipol Limited, Ibadan, Oyo State •
Odu'a Textile Industries Limited, Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State •
Soleh Boneh Overseas (Nigeria) Limited, Ibadan, Oyo State •
Vono Products Plc, Mushin, Lagos State •
Wema Bank Plc,




lately the killed NITEL,NICOMSAT etc.

1 Like

Re: 5 Remarkable Facts About Yoruba People by Omexonomy: 8:16pm On Aug 27, 2014
Four of the so called facts are nothing but lies.
6. What about Yoruba people loves eating watery food and soup e.g amala ati moimoi to fele with omi obe to sann
Re: 5 Remarkable Facts About Yoruba People by TheWayToZion: 12:33pm On May 14, 2016

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