From the Eagle’s Eyes: A Reminiscence of the 18th Century Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade in the Yorùbá Historical Plays

Abstract

KEYWORDS Trans-Atlantic slave trade; inter-tribal war; Yoruba historical plays; conflict; disintegration ABSTRACT History has always been a primary source for some modern Yoruba plays. This paper therefore examines how Yoruba playwrights skillfully trace the origin of the incessant inter-tribal wars and conflicts in the Yoruba society to the 18 th century trans-Atlantic slave trade. In the main, the paper reveals that the hostility among the Yoruba race is a fall-out of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. It also argues that the aftermath of the slave trade has aggravated disintegration in the contemporary Yoruba society. The paper concludes that many years after the European slave merchants had stopped the heinous act of human trading, slavery still exists in form of human trafficking in the larger Nigerian society. .