Yoruba Diaspora

Abstract

The Yoruba are among the largest and most researched cultural groups in Africa. In the contemporary composition of states, the Yoruba people traditionally occupy the southwestern region of Nigeria. The arbitrary partition of boundaries and classification of peoples by the colonial government saw that some of this population within the Yoruba nation before the colonial period now find themselves outside of this territory in places now known as the North-Central part of Nigeria. These places include Kwara State and part of Kogi State. Further, owing to this history, as well as to the history of slavery, trading relations, and trading engagements, the Yoruba people have never been restricted to their enclave. They are easily spotted in many parts of Nigeria, and they constitute a formidable community in some parts of West Africa, including Togo, Benin, Sierra Leone, Ghana, and Cote d’Ivoire. Outside of Africa, the unfortunate trade in human cargo that dominated the trading relations between African and European merchants from the 16th century until its effective termination in the second half of the 19th century explains the Yoruba people’s substantial presence in parts of the Americas and the Caribbean. Today, when we talk about the transnationality of the Yoruba people and culture, mention is made of the population and the people’s enduring culture in places like Cuba, Trinidad and Tobago, Brazil, Jamaica, the United States, and Haiti. Here, they constitute a formidable cultural entity that brings to life the idea of the Yoruba diaspora. Yoruba culture has existed and survived in these faraway lands across the Atlantic in a way that dwarfs the cultural essence of those migrants in West African countries who are geographically closer to their primordial home. This is not in isolation of the circumstances that led to the migration of both groups, period of migration, and the consequent composition of the people in these places. Due to their geographical location, which protected them from the trans-Saharan slave trade, the Yoruba people were conspicuously absent among the African slaves who were sold to the Arabs and lived in places like Iraq, Turkey, and Syria. This explains the absence of this diasporic population and culture in Asia as compared to the Americas and the Caribbean. In what follows here, an attempt is made to highlight the major source materials that could help scholars and students of the Yoruba diaspora search for notable texts to aid their research and/or study.