WHO ARE THE YORUBAS? BY SOJI

The Yorubas one of the major tribes in Nigeria enjoy a very rich and cultural history. The multi-fauted fabric of their history is a direct reflection of the various accounts of their origin and interrelation they share with other tribes of Nigeria. The focus of this paper then is to explore the various account of the origins of the Yorubas and how this historical facts relate to their present situation. In order to fulfill the mandate of this paper, the paper will then discuss the following concepts:

I. Origin

II. Marriage

III. Religion

This paper will then explore all the creation stories surrounding the origins of the Yorubas and how it encompasses the previously mentioned topics.

The origin of the Yorubas is said to be involved in many obscurity. Several theories exist as to the origin of the Yoruba people. History of the many nations were either written down or purely legendary, but as for the Yorubas it was the exact opposite. Since their language was unwritten, information about this group of people was carefully handed down. The Yorubas are said to have sprung from Lamurudu one of the kings of Mecca (present-day Saudi Arabia). Lamurudu has a son Oduduwa who was regarded as the ancestor of the Yorubas. During his father’s reign Oduduwa was very influential that he attracted many followers. Oduduwa also relapsed into the religion of idolatry, and had local mosque converted to temples for idol worshiping. His main goal was to turn the state religion into paganism with the help of a priest, Asara. Asara had a son, Braima. Braima who was brought up as a muslim resented the enforced worship of idols.

By the influence of Oduduwa all the men of the city were ordered on a three day hunting expedition in preparation for the festival held in honor of their gods. Briama seized the opportunity of the absent men in the city to wreck havoc on the city. Briama destroyed all of the idols in the city with an axe, leaving the axe in the neck of the chief idol. When the town’s people learned of Briama’s handy-work, he was immediately ordered to be burnt alive. At this time a revolt aroused which sparked a civil war. Lamurud was slain and all of his children were expelled from Mecca. Oduduwa went eastward and the other two went westward. Oduduwa and his followers managed to escaped with two idols to Ile Ife (modern Nigeria).

Many historians do not believe that the Yorubas could have come from Mecca. Mecca’s account of the Yorubas does not seem to exist. But then it may be taken for granted that all such accounts have in them some basis in actual fact. Some do say that the Yorubas did come from the east. This is due to their habits, manners, and customs. With them the East is Mecca and Mecca is the East. Having strong affinities with the east, hence it is natural to represent themselves as having hailed originally from Mecca.

Oduduwa and his sons swore to avenge the Moslems of their country. But Oduduwa died in Ile Ife before he was powerful enough to revolt against the Moslems of his country. His eldest son Okanbi, commonly called Idekoseroke, also died at Ile Ife, leaving behind seven princes and princess. From them the various Yoruba tribe came to existence. The first was a princess who married a priest and become the mother of Olowu, ancestor of the Owus. The second also a princess became mother of Alaketu, progenitor of the Ketu people. The third became the king of the Benin people. The fourth Oranyan, became king of Ila; the fifth Onisabe, became king of the Sabe; the sixth was the king of Popos; the seventh and last born, Oranyan (Odede), was the progenitor of the Yorubas proper or better distinguished Oyos. Oranyan was the youngest, but eventually became the richest. On Oranyan’s way to Mecca to revenge his great-grand-father’s death, he halted and build a city. This town was called Oyo Ajaka. This was the ancient city of Oyo. Oranyan remained in Oyo, but his decedents spread east, west and southwest. Even after the migration they had free communication with Ile Ife.

Another creation myth describes how God let down a chain at Ile Ife by which Oduduwa-the ancestor of the Yoruba, and, indeed, of all men descended, carrying a cock, some earth, and a palm kernel. He threw the earth into the waters, the cock scratched it to become land, the palm grew with sixteen branches-representing the sixteen original kingdom. Thus in several versions of these myths one finds themes of creation and conquest. But every town and lineage and every deity has its own origin myth. Nevertheless, in all of them, Ile Ife is regarded as the center from which all Yorubas dispersed to their present abodes. Ile Ife seems to have become a very important center, with, at this time, perhaps, a highly developed art in terra-cotta and stone. Myths then suggest a later conquest of Ife-possibly in the thirteenth century-by men who established dynasties at Oyo and Benin. By the end of the 15th century Benin’s army conquered as far afield as Idah on the Niger, and Ekiti. Historians believe it is possible that the present dynasties in Lagos, Ijebu, and Ondo derive from the Benin dynasty. In the 17th century Oyo empire quickly expanded when its rules acquired the horse. It grew to control the major slave-trading route from the Niger to the coast at Badagry and Whdah, a route that avoided the dense forests. Oyo and the other kingdoms declined in the late 18th and 19th centuries owing to disputes between minor Yoruba rulers.

Today the Oyo people (found mainly in Ibadan and the large towns to the northeast, and in the Ilorin emirate) number over two million. Between these two empires lay a zone of small kingdoms, many numbering, only a few thousand people. Some of these were of ancient foundation; others seem to have been created by rebels fleeting from the great kingdoms into the regions at their peripheries. At the end of the 18th century civil war broke out, Oyo rebels at Ilorin called on the Fulani for aid but the latter not only took control of Ilorin but steadily picked all of the other Oyo towns, forcing the people southward. Ibadan was founded at this time. The Ibadan armies, protected by the forest, held off further Fulani advance; in turn, they raided eastward for slaves that were absorbed into their own domestic economy. Finally, in the late 1800s, the various Yoruba kingdoms, signed treaties of peace with the British government, and tribal wars were ended.

There is many diversity in social and political organization among the Yorubas, but they share many basic features. Inheritance and succession are based on patrilineal descent; member of the same patrilineage live under the authority of a headman. The Yorubas are a people deeply rooted in customs and traditions. To narrow this paper down two of their customs will be discussed, marriage and religion. In the Yoruba culture a man may not marry any woman of his own lineage, nor of the lineages of any of his great-grandparents. In the past, he could not marry from a lineage bearing the same taboos or appellations as his own, for such implied descent from a common, if forgotten, ancestor. Most men find their wives from their own town, or from neighboring towns within their kingdom.

Parents are deeply involved in a man’s first marriage. Parental views on the suitability of the chosen girl, expressed in terms of the health and moral character of her own family, still tend to outweigh the selection of the young man based, perhaps, on physical attraction. The wedding usually takes place when the girl is from sixteen to eighteen years old, and the man in his middle or late twenties. At this point the man makes a payment, now in cash, to the girl’s parents. There is no fixed amount. Part of this sum is kept by the mother to buy pots and utensils for the new home. The rest is shared among the members of the girl’s lineage.

Marriage gives the man a right to his wife’s domestic labor, to sole sexual access to her (husband can claim damages from an adulterer), and rights to all children born to her during the marriage. Most Yoruba men aspire to have several wives. Today, divorce is frequent, though the Yoruba say it was rare in the past (perhaps because it was easier then than now for a powerful and wealthy polygynist to victimize the seducer of one of his wives). Survey shows that in Ekiti, 3.5 percent of extant marriages seem to be broken in any one year; but many divorce seem to involve young, childless women, a corollary perhaps of extreme stigma to attaching to barrenness. When divorce is imminent, the woman secretly moves to her lover’s home and immediately sues her husband for divorce.

The woman must repay all or portion of the marriage payment, depending on the length of the marriage. A woman is allowed to keep her small children with her after her divorce, but after they are seven years old the father may claim them; at this age a boy begins to accompanto a junior brother or to a son, other than her own, who can maintain her and her children. If she does not like the heir she must divorce him. Upon her death, a woman’s children inherit from her, or if she has no children, the nearest relatives in her own lineage. Husband and wife can never inherit from each other. Many writers noted that the African marriage payment as creating for the wife status of near slavery, and literate Yoruba sometimes adopt the same usage. Yet the over submissiveness of the Yoruba wife to her husband is perhaps the corollary of her great economic independence and her freedom to secure divorce(Lloyd 566).

Traditional Yoruba religion involves worship and respect of Olorun the Creator; of orisa, deities; and of ancestors. The purpose of Yoruba religion is to achieve "divine consciousness." The Yorubas believe to have an earthly consciousness and a heavenly consciousness, and searching and right living can bring the earthly one into alignment with the heavenly one. Yorubas do not worship ancestors, but they respect them highly. Ancestors who had lived a good life are believed to be able to help their living descendants to also live good lives and also to help them through troubles.

The Yorubas are said to have 401 deities. Most of the deities are anthropomorphic, but frequently these mythical figures are also associated with natural features, especially rivers. There are hundreds of major and minor orisa. People pray to them and sacrifice to them according to their needs and situation. There are deities for hunters, expectant mothers, for the home, for farming, etc. Each one has its own rule, rites, and sacrifices. Some are believed to be easily angered and so people seek to appease them; others are seen as benevolent. The Yorubas pray to orisa for divine intervention in their lives. Orisa are considered to be Olorun’s way of intervening in human affairs.

Olorun (owner of sky) is the high god. He is the creator. But no shrine exist to him, no organized priesthood. He is invoked in blessings or in thanks, and one may call on him with prayers or by pouring water on kola nuts on the ground. Orunmila is the prophet and structural originator of the Yoruba religion. He is also worshiped. He was probably a real person around whom many believed has risen. He is now believed to be in heaven with the, odu 16 heavenly prophets who are his disciples. The odu is also the word for the Yoruba scriptures, not all of which is known. Next is the ifa divination; this is believed to have been founded by Orunmila at Ile Ife. The babalawo, the, cast down onto his ifa board two chains of four kernels, cowries, or similar objects, some falling face down, others face up. For each of the 256 possible positions there is a lengthy verse to know the cause of illness or bad luck, put upon the person by the deity whom he has offended or ought to serve.

The Yorubas believe that the dead interfere in the daily events on earth. The egungun, masked dancers, in whom the spirit of a deceased person is thought to reside temporarily, appears at funeral ceremonies. In northern Yoruba towns, festivals are held in which each egungun dances through the town on a certain day, and on a final day all dance to palace to greet the Oba.

One of the many Yoruba cult, the Shango cult was said to have originated from an early mythical Alafin of Oyo who hanged himself; he is the god of thunder. The cult is important in Oyo, but is found in other towns. The shrine in the compound of the hereditary priest contains the "thunderbolt". Lloyd noted a story that was told: When lighting killed a woman and her goat (but not he child on her back) the explanation was immediate: Lighting had killed her mother some years earlier but the daughter had withheld the goat from tun, the god of iron and war throughout Yoruba country, is associated with Ire, and Ekiti town. The shrine of Ogun is a group of phallic-shaped granite monoliths. The annual festival of Ogun is usually one in which most of the townspeople participate; a dog is always sacrificed.

Orisha Oko, the farm deity, is associated with Irawo, a town near shaki; the cult is found in most Oyo towns. Oya, the mythical wife of Shango, is also identified with the Niger River; several other mythical hero-deities are associated with the Oshun River. The myths describing the earthly activities of these gods vary widely from one town to another. Traditional Yoruba religion varies across the Yoruba-land and wherever it is practiced. Let us not for get that their main goal is to find divine interventions in their lives.

As we have already seen the Yorubas are a people of very rich culture. They have been through and overcame a lot of obstacles to reach the point they are today. Their culture and history can be seen throughout the world. They have influenced many other cultures with their religious beliefs. In other words, the Yoruba people are one of the most influential groups in the world.