We have more Yoruba people in Brazil than even in Nigeria. We have close to 80 million Yoruba people in Brazil,” the Ooni of Ife, His Majesty, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, recently claimed. Oba Ogunwusi made the claim in an interview with Daily Trust on Sunday of September 22, 2019, on the sideline of an exhibition of over 60 Ife artifacts held at the Brazilian Consulate in Lagos.

The monarch, who is the spiritual head of the Yoruba people, said Ife Kingdom had remained in touch with Yoruba people in Brazil to preserve its heritage. He said, “I don’t want them to be a lost tribe; that’s why we have been doing a lot of programmes with them. That’s why we have the Ifa Heritage Mobile Museum set up in Rio de Janeiro in Valongo Wharf.

That’s the biggest port through which human beings were moved and transitioned.” The Yoruba in the Diaspora, including those based in Brazil, believe Ile Ife, in South West Nigeria, is their ancestral homeland. The Yoruba make up a huge diaspora population largely due to the slave trade, and lately, the emigration from Nigeria linked to socio-economic issues.

The New World Encyclopedia states that during the decline of the Oyo Empire, Yorubaland degenerated into series of civil war in which military captives were sold as slaves. Some of the slaves who were exported as a result of the civil wars were sent to Brazil and some other countries outside Nigeria and Africa, hence Yoruba-speaking people can be found in Togo, Benin Republic, Sierra Leone, Liberia and some other African countries.

Verification

Due to the sensitivity of ethnicity in Nigeria, the National Population Commission (NPC) did not collect data analysed based on ethnicity in the last census held in 2006 to avoid the political row the outcome would have created. This posed a challenge in determining the population of Yoruba people in Nigeria. Similarly, the Brazilian government has no official data for the population of the Yoruba living in Brazil.

To get around this challenge, data published by the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) for both Nigeria and Brazil were considered a credible alternative to use. The World Factbook published by the CIA provides regularly updated information on the history, people, population demographics, society, government, economy, energy, geography, communication, transportation, military and transnational issues for 267 world entities. The World Factbook puts the population of Yoruba people in Nigeria at 28.28 million, being 13.9 per cent of Nigeria’s population of 203.5 million as at 2018. This translates to about three times the number of Yoruba people living in Brazil going by the claim being checked.

CIA’s data show that as at 2018, the total population of Brazil was 208.9 million, out of which, by ethnicity, whites made up 47.7 per cent, mulatto (mixed white and black) constituted 43.1 per cent, blacks accounted for 7.6 per cent, Asians for 1.1 per cent while indigenous people for 0.4 per cent. The World Factbook, which details the demographics of the global population, estimates that the Yoruba constitute about 105 million people in total, majority of them from Nigeria, where the Yoruba make up 21 per cent of the country’s population.

However, there is no mention of Yoruba people in the breakdown of the ethnicities in Brazil, and at best, the Yoruba were among the sub-ethnic groups captured under mulatto and black. Further checks from the New World Encyclopedia, which was last updated on September 10, 2019, put the global population of Yoruba at 19.33 million, primarily from Nigeria, Benin and Togo.

Data sourced from the University of Florida’s resource on African Studies indicate that there are 25 million Yoruba globally from Nigeria, Benin, Togo and communities in Brazil, Sierra Leone, northern Ghana and Cuba. Despite different numbers of the population of the Yoruba globally, available data show the numbers are far less than the population of 80 million in the claim being investigated. Supposing all Yoruba people all over the world live in Brazil, numbers show they are far less than the population of 80 million.

More insights

A Brazilian lawyer, Ygor Coelho, wrote that “Yoruba is no longer spoken in Brazil as it is long extinct in the country,” but that it had influenced Brazilian Portuguese (less than Quimbundo and Umbundo – Bantu languages from Angola), and especially the musical lexicon of some regions (particularly Bahia, where Nigeria-Brazil slave trafficking was most prevalent) and the religion/spirituality-related vocabulary of the Afro-Brazilian religion, Candomble (words like axe, ogum, afoxe, xango, Iemanja, olodum, etc.) Coelho further said Yoruba or at least a Yoruba-based dialect was also used as a kind of “fossilised” liturgical language in traditional folksongs related to Candomble religious practices as “People don’t speak or even understand it, but they memorise and sing the lyrics by heart.”

An expert who studied Cultural Anthropology and African Studies at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Oloye Aikulola Gbanwoniyi, debunked popular views that Yoruba is spoken in Brazil. Gbanwoniyi said, “There are no Yoruba language speakers of any level of fluency in Brazil except by recent Yoruba immigrants from Nigeria and Benin Republic.” The expert said Yoruba language as a vernacular among enslaved Yoruba people in Brazil during the era of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and their descendants died early in the last century, leaving behind a lexicon/vocabulary of Yoruba words and words of Yoruba origin used in rituals of the Candomble religion. A Brazilian based in Chapeco, Brazil, Gustavo Pedroso, said majority of Brazilians did not know what Yoruba was.

Pedroso said, “No Afro-Asiatic/Niger-Congo language is spoken in Brazil, maybe in immigrant communities, but only there. If 1,000 Brazilians know Yoruba, it is too much.” Conclusion The claim that more Yoruba people live in Brazil than in Nigeria is misleading as it is not supported by data-based evidence. At best, evidence suggests that most Yoruba people in the world live in Nigeria.

Read more: https://www.dailytrust.com.ng/fact-check-no-evidence-80-million-yoruba-live-in-brazil.html

If it was to be the igbo's i would have agreed with you but the yoruba's? No,they don't travel out coz the are nt business minded.they are only good in oloshoing

Any sane person won't make such claims of 80 million yoruba's in Brazil, same way no sane person should make claims of Ibo people being jews.

The first mistake you will make is to listen to and believe a yoruba oba, especially the so-called first class obas. They always distort facts all in the name of over-hyping themselves. That's why they will even agree that Benin kingdom, which is a far older kingdom according to history, came from them which historical facts also say is younger than the Benin Kingdom.

NaijaTushboy:
.

Space booker, that dot looks exactly the size of your brain.

Nonsense

MASTERCHIEF0847:

Space booker, that dot looks exactly the size of your brain.

A 30naira condom would have save this shame,had it been your parent knew.

NaijaTushboy:

A 30naira condom would have save this shame,had it been your parent knew.

Hahaha! Did i touch a nerve? But on a serious note even you will agree with me the dot you placed there matches the size of your brain. Ewu!

It is typical of underdeveloped economies that they do not (or are not allowed to) concentrate on those sectors of the economy which in turn will generate growth and raise production to a new level altogether, and there are very few ties between one sector and another so that (say) agriculture and industry could react beneficially on each other.
Furthermore, whatever savings are made within the economy are mainly sent abroad or are frittered away in consumption rather than being redirected to productive purposes. Much of the national income which remains within the country goes to pay individuals who are not directly involved in producing wealth but only in rendering auxiliary services-civil servants, merchants, soldiers, entertainers, etc. What aggravates the situation is that more people are employed in those jobs than are really necessary to give efficient service; and to crown it all these people do not reinvest in agriculture or industry. They squander the wealth created by the peasants and workers by purchasing cars, whisky and perfume.

Excerpt: How British Underdeveloped Africa
Get the pdf it’s a must read for every African.

So the yorubas and thier obas have been feeding both the binis and the igbos counterpart lies ....

Intresting nothing is ever hidden in the sun

Where is that popular olu317 guy on culture related news he should come and defend this facts we nigerians have had enough of thier lies and cunny attitude both in political affairs and cultural affairs

gregyboy,

In fairness, you are entitle to your opinion though fact override all non conformity to the well researched case study as it seems. There are fact in Brazil's history that acknowledge the autochthonous Tupi, Guarani and many others but the three main groups who are the actual pioneer settlements in Brazil today's world either through same group or more commonly, in admixture in varying degrees. And these are

1. The Earlier European ,which Portuguese were in large quantity.

2. The Portuguese Christians that's heavily of Sephardic Jew

3. Subsahara group that's heavily made of Yoruba, Ewe,Akan, Bantu and others

If you also look at the arrangement of Brazil's settlement, you will realized that the Ethnic group in Brazil are ranked as

1. Brancos (White Brazilians) 47.73%

2. Pardo (Combined European, Native, and African Ancestry) 43.13%

3.Pretos (African-Brazilians) 7.61%

4.Amarelos (Asian Brazilian) 1.09%


From above analysis, you can see the Ooni has a case, if one considers the admixture of Brazilians groups. Bear in mind, maternal or paternal lineage in Yoruba group is held both in high esteem. Therefore I choose not engage people who compare Ibo against Yoruba people because,they have bias mind toward Yoruba, in the same vein some Edos do and not willing to accept the truth as regard, Yoruba footprint in Nigeria and the rest of the world. It will interesting to read that
Flinders Petrie classified the terra-cotta heads found in IleIfe between 1910-1912 by Leo Frebonius, with similar objects found at Memphis, and posited that the date to the 5th century BC. Kindly make enquiry on Flinders Petrie profile!


It will interest you that almighty God or power behind nature doesn't make mistake,who gave a more light upon Yoruba, which is the reason she has the largest twin birth in the world. Haven't you ponder over this ? And no matter the source of anyone's diet, no group in the whole wide world has match this. So, don't be surprise if you see a Caucasian or Mulatto who is Yoruba because blood is thicker than water. Besides, people are so proud to be associated with Yoruba lineage.


Lastly,I am not popular as you think. Just correcting some anomalies from a just angle.


Cheers

zakim:
We have more Yoruba people in Brazil than even in Nigeria. We have close to 80 million Yoruba people in Brazil,” the Ooni of Ife, His Majesty, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, recently claimed. Oba Ogunwusi made the claim in an interview with Daily Trust on Sunday of September 22, 2019, on the sideline of an exhibition of over 60 Ife artifacts held at the Brazilian Consulate in Lagos.

The monarch, who is the spiritual head of the Yoruba people, said Ife Kingdom had remained in touch with Yoruba people in Brazil to preserve its heritage. He said, “I don’t want them to be a lost tribe; that’s why we have been doing a lot of programmes with them. That’s why we have the Ifa Heritage Mobile Museum set up in Rio de Janeiro in Valongo Wharf.

That’s the biggest port through which human beings were moved and transitioned.” The Yoruba in the Diaspora, including those based in Brazil, believe Ile Ife, in South West Nigeria, is their ancestral homeland. The Yoruba make up a huge diaspora population largely due to the slave trade, and lately, the emigration from Nigeria linked to socio-economic issues.

The New World Encyclopedia states that during the decline of the Oyo Empire, Yorubaland degenerated into series of civil war in which military captives were sold as slaves. Some of the slaves who were exported as a result of the civil wars were sent to Brazil and some other countries outside Nigeria and Africa, hence Yoruba-speaking people can be found in Togo, Benin Republic, Sierra Leone, Liberia and some other African countries.

Verification

Due to the sensitivity of ethnicity in Nigeria, the National Population Commission (NPC) did not collect data analysed based on ethnicity in the last census held in 2006 to avoid the political row the outcome would have created. This posed a challenge in determining the population of Yoruba people in Nigeria. Similarly, the Brazilian government has no official data for the population of the Yoruba living in Brazil.

To get around this challenge, data published by the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) for both Nigeria and Brazil were considered a credible alternative to use. The World Factbook published by the CIA provides regularly updated information on the history, people, population demographics, society, government, economy, energy, geography, communication, transportation, military and transnational issues for 267 world entities. The World Factbook puts the population of Yoruba people in Nigeria at 28.28 million, being 13.9 per cent of Nigeria’s population of 203.5 million as at 2018. This translates to about three times the number of Yoruba people living in Brazil going by the claim being checked.

CIA’s data show that as at 2018, the total population of Brazil was 208.9 million, out of which, by ethnicity, whites made up 47.7 per cent, mulatto (mixed white and black) constituted 43.1 per cent, blacks accounted for 7.6 per cent, Asians for 1.1 per cent while indigenous people for 0.4 per cent. The World Factbook, which details the demographics of the global population, estimates that the Yoruba constitute about 105 million people in total, majority of them from Nigeria, where the Yoruba make up 21 per cent of the country’s population.

However, there is no mention of Yoruba people in the breakdown of the ethnicities in Brazil, and at best, the Yoruba were among the sub-ethnic groups captured under mulatto and black. Further checks from the New World Encyclopedia, which was last updated on September 10, 2019, put the global population of Yoruba at 19.33 million, primarily from Nigeria, Benin and Togo.

Data sourced from the University of Florida’s resource on African Studies indicate that there are 25 million Yoruba globally from Nigeria, Benin, Togo and communities in Brazil, Sierra Leone, northern Ghana and Cuba. Despite different numbers of the population of the Yoruba globally, available data show the numbers are far less than the population of 80 million in the claim being investigated. Supposing all Yoruba people all over the world live in Brazil, numbers show they are far less than the population of 80 million.

More insights

A Brazilian lawyer, Ygor Coelho, wrote that “Yoruba is no longer spoken in Brazil as it is long extinct in the country,” but that it had influenced Brazilian Portuguese (less than Quimbundo and Umbundo – Bantu languages from Angola), and especially the musical lexicon of some regions (particularly Bahia, where Nigeria-Brazil slave trafficking was most prevalent) and the religion/spirituality-related vocabulary of the Afro-Brazilian religion, Candomble (words like axe, ogum, afoxe, xango, Iemanja, olodum, etc.) Coelho further said Yoruba or at least a Yoruba-based dialect was also used as a kind of “fossilised” liturgical language in traditional folksongs related to Candomble religious practices as “People don’t speak or even understand it, but they memorise and sing the lyrics by heart.”

An expert who studied Cultural Anthropology and African Studies at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Oloye Aikulola Gbanwoniyi, debunked popular views that Yoruba is spoken in Brazil. Gbanwoniyi said, “There are no Yoruba language speakers of any level of fluency in Brazil except by recent Yoruba immigrants from Nigeria and Benin Republic.” The expert said Yoruba language as a vernacular among enslaved Yoruba people in Brazil during the era of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and their descendants died early in the last century, leaving behind a lexicon/vocabulary of Yoruba words and words of Yoruba origin used in rituals of the Candomble religion. A Brazilian based in Chapeco, Brazil, Gustavo Pedroso, said majority of Brazilians did not know what Yoruba was.

Pedroso said, “No Afro-Asiatic/Niger-Congo language is spoken in Brazil, maybe in immigrant communities, but only there. If 1,000 Brazilians know Yoruba, it is too much.” Conclusion The claim that more Yoruba people live in Brazil than in Nigeria is misleading as it is not supported by data-based evidence. At best, evidence suggests that most Yoruba people in the world live in Nigeria.

Read more: https://www.dailytrust.com.ng/fact-check-no-evidence-80-million-yoruba-live-in-brazil.html

I've always said this before, that the fact that thousands or millions of people participate in Ifa-based religions in Brazil does not make them genetically Yoruba. The Roman Catholic religion sprung forth from Rome and there are millions of practising Roman Catholics worldwide but they are not Romans. An afro-descended person practising Ifa isn't automatically Yoruba by ancestry. Slave records and numbers on exported slaves to Brazil still exist and Brazil received more Congolese and Angolan slaves overall than Yoruba slaves. A good number of slaves from the Bight of Biafra were also sent to Brazil as well, however, the slave trade did not see the Yorubas participate very well until towards the ending of it (in the early to mid 1800s), which coincided with the Oyo-Dahomeyan wars and most Yoruba slaves were war captives/spoils of war. The Yoruba participation in slavery was more recent compared to other Africans that were traded in heavy numbers in the 1600s and 1700s during the peak of slavery and harsh slave laws. For the last-arriving Yoruba slaves, memories of their religion and traditions were still fresh and intact and they re-introduced acclimatized slaves to mama africa through their religion. Other slaves, long adjusted into their new language and environment, embraced the Ifa religion as a way of reconnecting to mama africa, their african roots. Thus, a fervent adherent or priest of the Candombele religion could genetically be mostly Congolese.

Up until the 2000s and due to the popularity of Ifa-based religions among afro descendants outside Africa, it was commonly believed that the Yorubas must have been the number 1 traded slaves of all African tribes in the transatlantic slave trade until slave records were revisited and it was determined that this was not the case. The Congolese/Angolan region was the major source of African slaves.