₦airaland Forum

Why did the Yoruba culture survive in the Americas?.

It is largely because the vast majority of the Yorubas that crossed the Atlantic ocean before the nineteenth century did not land in the Americas as slaves. Most were noble men or aristocrats. The Owa Obokun Atakunmosa of Ijesa in the sixteenth century lived in Brazil for years before returning to become King. Chief Oshodi Tapa of Lagos was as at the late nineteenth century going back and forth to Brazil on behalf of the King of Lagos. The main empire that used the slave coast and prospered from the slave trade was the Oyo empire. They dealt in mainly Northern west African Muslims and some other rivals of theirs including Yoruba kingdoms. The Yoruba aristocrats went back and forth to Europe and America. It was when the trade spiked in the late nineteenth century that majority of the cargo was Yoruba and traders also paid highest for Yoruba for many reasons.
Therefore Yoruba culture survived in the Americas, not because it was special but because of the same reason European cultures survived in the Americas which is because the founders were free men.


Olu Atorongboye

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olu_Atorongboye

The vast majority of Yorubas who were landed in the Americas between the 1600s and the 1800s were, in fact, slaves. Atakunmosa never lived in Brazil. There’s no shred of tradition that says he ever left the coast of Nigeria. His name suggests that he was familiar with the lagoon area (which is not strange, given that he was known to be a protege of the Benin State which in that time had some control and influence along the coast). But thats where it ends. He never got on a ship and sailed to Brazil. Calm down. Take it easy with the fabrications.

The survival of Yoruba culture in the Americas is easily explanable.

First, the Yoruba people were one of the few peoples in Tropical Africa to develop religious institutions that were “universalist” and non-parochial, and thus could be exported across cultural lines. In the multicultural atmosphere of the Afro-American world, these institutions could thus outcompete the institutions of groups like the Igbo, Akan, Mende, which were much more parochial.

There are other factors, such as the average age of Yoruba slaves. Many were adults, victims of the 19th century Yoruba wars. Adults are better able to carry and propagate their culture than children.

RedboneSmith:
The vast majority of Yorubas who were landed in the Americas between the 1600s and the 1800s were, in fact, slaves. Atakunmosa never lived in Brazil. There’s no shred of tradition that says he ever left the coast of Nigeria. His name suggests that he was familiar with the lagoon area (which is not strange, given that he was known to be a protege of the Benin State which in that time had some control and influence along the coast). But thats where it ends. He never got on a ship and sailed to Brazil. Calm down. Take it easy with the fabrications.

The survival of Yoruba culture in the Americas is easily explanable.

First, the Yoruba people were one of the few peoples in Tropical Africa to develop religious institutions that were “universalist” and non-parochial, and thus could be exported across cultural lines. In the multicultural atmosphere of the Afro-American world, these institutions could thus outcompete the institutions of groups like the Igbo, Akan, Mende, which were much more parochial.

There are other factors, such as the average age of Yoruba slaves. Many were adults, victims of the 19th century Yoruba wars. Adults are better able to carry and propagate their culture than children.

It is only basic common sense to deduce that many Yorubas settled in the Americas as free men as there are records of Benin and Warri princes that schooled in European universities centuries ago. It does not apply to Yoruba culture alone but also to Angolan culture, only that Yoruba is more.

Whether the majority that landed before the nineteenth century were slaves or not may be up for debate but a large number surely landed as free men. Then the Yoruba did not suffer that much from slavery until the nineteenth century during the wars.
The purpose of the article is to point out the fact that the Yoruba culture did not happen in the Americas because of slavery. If all the Yoruba had landed as slaves there would be no culture to speak of today. The people that established the culture were free men.