Abstract
Literatures concerning the history of West African peoples published from 1900 to 1970 debate�the possible migrations of the Egyptians into West Africa. Writers like Samuel Johnson and�Lucas Olumide believe that the ancient Egyptians penetrated through ancient Nigeria but Leo�Frobenius and Geoffrey Parrinder frowned at this opinion. Using the works of these early�20th century writers of West African history together with a Yoruba legend which teaches�about the origin of their earliest ancestor(s), this researcher investigates the theories that the�ancient Egyptians had contact with the ancient Nigerians and particularly with the Yorubas.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: There is an existing ideology�amongst the Yorubas and other writers of Yoruba history that the original ancestors of�the Yorubas originated in ancient Egypt hence there was migration between Egypt and�Yorubaland. This researcher contends that even if there was migration between Egypt and�Nigeria, such migration did not take place during the predynastic and dynastic period as�speculated by some scholars. The subject is open for further research.
Highlights
The debate on whether the ancient Egyptians1 influenced or migrated to West Africa has been studied by various scholars for a long period of time
Writers of West African history, who have an interest in the Yorubas of Nigeria, are of the opinion that there were migrations between Egypt and Yorubaland, yet others refute this theory
The Yorubas have a high regard for the Oduduwa legend and many of them see the legend as the most preferred means with regard to understanding their origins, their main influencers and their earliest system of monarchical governance
Summary
The debate on whether the ancient Egyptians1 influenced or migrated to West Africa has been studied by various scholars for a long period of time (cf. Parrinder 1951:198). One of the implications for the writings of these early 20th century writers of West African history is that the minds of many contemporary Yorubas have been influenced to think that their ancestors originate in Egypt or Arabia.4 Folorunso (2003:83) for example, thinks that Yoruba ancestors came from Egypt, in other words, Folorunso believes that the Egyptians migrated to Yorubaland.
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