I am creating this thread to share information about Yoruba ethnic group. There are many things we new generations of Yorubas don't know about themselves. Also to exhibit the Yoruba civilisation even before the arrival of imperialists. Yoruba have had self - government in place pre-colonial rule. I will be posting about Yoruba origination, Isedale Yoruba, lifestyle, customs, norms, culture, values etc . Some of them ,I know are just myths. Anyway, you can just relax on a sofa while I reel them out to you.
Thanks

Nice ..... let's get it started!!

What's the yoruba name for this fruit "Pomegranate"

Really

THE HISTORY OF THE YORUBAS
From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the
British Protectorate
BY
The REV. SAMUEL JOHNSON
Pastor of Oyo
EDITED BY
DR. O. JOHNSON, Lagos

§1. INTRODUCTION
The Yoruba country lies to the immediate West of the River
Niger (below the confluence) and South of the Quorra {i.e., the
Western branch of the same River above the confluence), having
Dahomey on the West, and the Bight of Benin to the South. It
is roughly speaking between latitude 6° and 9° North, and longitude
2° 30' and 6° 30' East.
The country was probably first known to Europe from the
North, through the explorers of Northern and Central Africa, for
in old records the Hausa and Fulani names are used for the country
and its capital ; thus we see in Webster's Gazetteer " Yarriba,"
West Africa, East of Dahomey, area 70,000 sq. miles, population two
millions, capital Katunga. These are the Hausa terms for
Yoruba and for Oyo.
The entire south of the country is a network of lagoons connecting
the deltas of the great River Niger with that of the Volta, and
into this lagoon which is belted with a more or less dense mangrove
swamp, most of the rivers which flow through the country North
to South pour their waters.
It will thus be seen that the country is for the most part a tableland
: it has been compared to half of a pie dish turned upside
down. Rising from the coast in the South gradually to a height
of some 5-600 ft. in more or less dense forest, into a plain diversified
by a few mountain ranges, continuing its gentle rise in some parts
to about 1,000 ft. above sea level, it then slopes down again to the
banks of the Niger, which encloses it in the North and East.
In a valuable letter by the Rev. S. A. Crowther (afterwards
Bishop) to Thomas J. Hutchinson, Esq., Her Britannic Majesty's
consul for the Bight of Biafra and the Island of Fernando Po,
published as Appendix A to the book entitled " Impressions of
Western Africa,"^ we find the following graphic description of
the country :

The principal tribes into which this kingdom is divided are as
follows :

—
The Egbados : This division includes Otta and Lagos near the
sea coast, forming a belt of country on the banks of the lagoon in
the forest, to Ketu on the border of Dahomey on the West ; then
the Jebu on the East on the border of Benin ; then the Egbas of the
forest now known as the Egbas of Abeokuta.
Then comes Yoruba proper northwards in the plain ; Ife, Ijesha,
Ijamo, EfoH, Ondo, Idoko, Igbomina, and Ado near the banks of
the Niger, from which a creek or stream a little below Iddah is
called Do or Iddo River."
. . . " The chief produce of this country is the red palm oil,
oil made from the kernel, shea butter from nuts of the shea trees,
ground nuts, beniseed, and cotton in abundance, and ivory—all
these are readily procured for European markets.
. . . The present seat of the King of Yoruba is Ago otherwise
called Oyo after the name of the old capital visited by Clapperton
and Lander.
A King is acknowledged and his person is held sacred, his wives
and children are highly respected. Any attempt of violence
against a King's person or of the Royal family, or any act of
wantonness with the wives of the King, is punished with death.
There are no written laws, but such laws and customs that have
been handed down from their ancestors, especially those respecting
relative duties, have become established laws.
The right to the throne is hereditary, but exclusively in the male
line or the male issue of the King's daughters.
The Government is absolute, but it has been much modified
since the kingdom has been divided into many independent states
by slave wars, into what may be called a limited monarchy ..."
Physical features.—^The country presents generally two distinct
features, the forest and the plain ; the former comprising the
southern and eastern portions, the latter the northern, central and
western. Yoruba Proper lies chiefly in the plain, and has a
small portion of forest land. The country is fairly well watered,
but the rivers and streams are dependent upon the annual rains ;
an impassable river in the rains may become but a dry water-course
in the dry season.
There are a few high mountains in the north and west, but in
the east the prevailing aspect is high ranges of mountains from
which that part of the country derives its name, Ekiti—a mound —being covered as it were with Nature's Mound.
The soil is particularly rich, and most suitable for agriculture,
in which every man is more or less engaged. The plain is almost
entirely pasture land. Minerals apparently do not exist to any
appreciable extent, expect iron ores which the people work themselves,
and from which they formerly manufactured all their
implements of husbandry and war and articles for domestic use.

—it has been noted—are not unlike the English in many of their
traits and characteristics. It would appear that what the one is
among the whites the other is among the blacks. Love of independence,
a feeling of superiority over all others, a keen commercial
spirit, and of indefatigable enterprise, that quality of being never
able to admit or consent to a defeat as finally settling a question
upon which their mind is bent, are some of those qualities peculiar
to them, and no matter under what circumstances they are placed,
Yorubas will display them. We have even learnt that those of
them who had the misfortune of being carried away to foreign
climes so displayed these characteristics there, and assumed such
airs of superiority and leadership over the men of their race they
met there, in such a matter of fact way that the attention of their
masters was perforce drawn to this type of new arrivals ! And
from them they selected overseers. These traits will be clearly
discerned in the narratives given in this history. But apart from
the general, each of the leading tribes has special characteristics
of its own ; thus dogged perseverance and determination characterise
the Ijebus, love of ease and a quickness to adapt new ideas the
Egbas, the Ijesas and Ekitis are possessed of a marvellous amount
of physical strength, remarkable docility and simplicity of manners,
and love of home.
Among the various families of Yorubas Proper, the Ibarapas
are laborious farmers, the Ibolos are rather docile and weak in
comparison with others, but the Epos are hardy, brave, and rather
turbulent ; whilst the Oyos of the Metropolitan province are
remarkably shrewd, intelligent, very diplomatic, cautious almost
to timidity, provokingly conservative, and withal very masterful.
The whole people are imbued with a deep religious spirit,
reverential in manners, showing deference to superiors and respect
to age, where they have not been corrupted by foreign intercourse ;
ingrained politeness is part and parcel of their nature.
The early history of the Yoruba country is almost exclusively
that of the Oyo division, the others being then too small and too
insignificant to be of any import ; but in later years this state of
things has been somewhat reversed, the centre of interest and sphere
of importance having moved southwards, especially since the
arrival of Europeans on the coast.
Such is the country, and such are the people whose history,
religion, social polity, manners and customs, etc.



Hope you are reading along.

ORIGIN AND EARLY HISTORY

on the face of this tradition. The Yorubas are certainly not of the
Arabian family, and could not have come from Mecca—that is
to say the Mecca universally known in history, and no such
accounts as the above are to be found in the records of Arabian
writers of any kings of Mecca ; an event of such importance
could hardly have passed unnoticed by their historians. But
then it may be taken for granted that all such accounts and
traditions have in them some basis in actual facts, nor is the subject
under review exempted from the general rule, and this will become
apparent on a closer study of the accounts.
That the Yorubas came originally from the East there cannot
be the slightest doubt, as their habits, manners and customs, etc.,
all go to prove. With them the East is Mecca and Mecca is the
East. Having strong affinities with the East, and Mecca in the
East looming so largely in their imagination, everything that comes
from the East, with them, comes from Mecca, and hence it is
natural to represent themselves as having hailed originally from
that city.
The only written record we have on this subject is that of the
Sultan Belo of Sokoto, the founder of that city, the most learned
if not the most powerful of the Fulani sovereigns that ever bore
rule in the Soudan.
Capt. Clapperton {Travels and Discoveries in Northern and Central
Africa, 1822—1824) made the acquaintance of this monarch.
From a large geographical and historical work by him, Capt.
Clapperton made a copious extract, from which the following is
taken :—" Yarba is an extensive province containing rivers,
forests, sands and mountains, as also a great many wonderful
and extraordinary things. In it, the talking green bird called
babaga (parrot) is found."
" By the side of this province there is an anchorage or harbour
for the ships of the Christians, who used to go there and purchase
slaves. These slaves were exported from our country and sold
to the people of Yarba, who resold them to the Christians."
" The inhabitants of this province (Yarba) it is supposed
originated from the remnant of the children of Canaan, who were
of the tribe of Nimrod. The cause of their establishment in the
West of Africa was, as it is stated, in consequence of their being
driven by Yar-rooba, son of Kahtan, out of Arabia to the Western
Coast between Egypt and Abyssinia. From that spot they
advanced into the interior of Africa, till they reach Yarba where
they fixed their residence. On their way they left in every place
they stopped at, a tribe of their own people. Thus it is supposed
that all the tribes of the Soudan who inhabit the mountains are
6 THE HISTORY OF THE YORUBAS
originated from them as also are the inhabitants of Ya-ory. Upon
the whole, the people of Yarba are nearly of the same description
as those of Noofee (Nupe

Westside the best side.