Yoruba Of Southwestern Nigeria Research Articles

Oral Historical Traditions and Political Integration in Ijebu

The Ijebu are a subgroup of the Yoruba of southwestern Nigeria. In precolonial times they established a single kingdom under the Awujale (the titular head) whose seat of government was the town of Ijebu-Ode. Structurally, the kingdom was composed of geographical divisions, each of which was identified by a name. Some of them were characterized by close socioeconomic and political ties effected through the joint control of a political association, the Pampa society, which coordinated commercial, communal, and military activities in the area. Three such divisions form the focus of this paper: Ijebu-Igbo, Imusin, and Ago-Iwoye.The British colonial administration engendered a process of political integration in these three areas as they were each brought under a single ruler; the purpose of this paper is to highlight how Ijebu oral historical traditions were employed to give support to this integrative process., but first, an identification of the areas concerned.The Ijebu-Igbo area is composed principally of five distinct settlements or towns: Okesopin, Ojowo, Atikori, Oke-Agbo, and Japara. Okesopin is accorded primacy as the oldest of the settlements. The term Ijebu-Igbo (forest) is an allusion to the forested nature of this area of Ijebu.The Imusin area, made up of about fifty very small settlements, is subdivided into two geographical groups: the northern group, called Ikatun, and the southern group or Ikasi. The term Imusin means the area of the akee apple (Imu: place or area; Isin: akee apple).

She will not be listened to in public: Perceptions among the Yoruba of infertility and childlessness in women

This paper focuses on the social construction of infertility and childlessness in women among the Yoruba of Southwestern Nigeria, based on two empirical studies conducted in Ijero-Ekiti and Ibadan. Childless women have historically been held in great contempt in Yorubaland. Today, as in the past children ensure the status and future of the patrilineage, a wife's infertility remains the concern of the whole group, becoming both a personal and a public issue. Changes in the social construction of infertility include growing awareness that multiple partners and illegal abortion, as well as gynaecological and other infections, are a major source of infertility. There is widespread use of clinics, and demands for premarital proof of fertility are now common. The Charismatic Christian movement teaches that infertility is a misfortune which God can redress. They encourage couples to be patient and seek biomedical help, and shelter women from the harsh accusations of extended family members. Beyond endorsing biomedical treatment, this group draws attention to the need to challenge cultural constructions that impact the social position of both the infertile and women in general.

Home-town linkages and local development in south-western Nigeria: whose agenda? What impact?

This article examines home-town linkages among the Ije§a Yoruba of south-western Nigeria, focusing on their implications for local development activity. The author argues that elite non-residents play an especially important role in determining the agenda of activities and that, despite limitations and constraints, the maintenance of home town linkages by members of the elite provides their community with crucial access to financial and other resources. The motives for the continued maintenance of these ties are discussed. Finally, the article provides a perspective for comparison with research in other parts of the world, where rural-urban linkages primarily connect migrants with family and household; in the case considered here, involvement with the community as a whole is equally important.

The Gelede spectacle: art, gender, and social harmony in an African culture

This remarkable study explores the use of the visual and performing arts to promote nonviolence and social harmony in sub-Saharan Africa. It focuses on Gelede, a popular community festival of masquerade, dance, and song, held several times a year by the Yoruba of Southwestern Nigeria and the Republic of Benin. Babatunde Lawal, an art historian and African scholar who has taught in Nigeria, Brazil, and the United States, is himself a Yoruba and has taken an active part in Gelede. He writes from the perspective of an informed participant/observer of his own culture. Lawal bases his book on extensive field research-observations and interviews-conducted over more than two decades as well as on numerous published and unpublished scholarly sources. He casts significant new light on many previously obscure aspects of Gelede, and he demonstrates a useful methodological approach to the study of non-Western art. The book systematically covers the major aspects of the Gelede spectacle, presenting its cultural background and historical origins as preface to a vivid and detailed description of an actual performance. This is followed by a discussion of the iconography and aesthetics of costume, and an examination of the sculpted images on the masks. The book concludes with a discussion of the moral and aesthetic philosophy of Gelede and its responsiveness to technological and social change. The Gelede Spectacle is illustrated in color and black-and-white with over 100 field and museum photographs, including a rare sequence on the dressing of a masquerader. It offers, in addition, more than 60 Gelede song texts, proverbs, and divination verses, each in the original Yoruba as well as in translation. Lawal's interpretations of these pieces indicate the rich complexities of metaphor and analogy inherent in the Yoruba language and art.

Traditional Fertility Regulation Methods among the Yoruba of Southwestern Nigeria: II. A Prospective Study of Use-Effectiveness

This study investigated the effectiveness of traditional contraceptives commonly used by Yoruba women, and the attitudes of users and non-users towards family planning services and contraceptives in Nigeria. One hundred forty-two married women aged 19 to 40 years were followed for 18 months. Seventy-two of the women were identified as current users of four types of traditional contraceptives (ring, incision, soup, and waistband types), and 70 women did not use any type of contraceptive. The users and non-users were matched on socio-demographic characteristics. Attitudes of the users and non-users towards fertility regulation were investigated using focus group discussions. The study found that 5.6 percent of the users and 34.5 percent of the non-users became pregnant during the follow-up period. Contraceptive failure was experienced by users of the waistband and ring methods. The main barriers to the use of modern contraceptives as described by women were the negative attitudes of men and the fear of side effects.

Traditional Fertility Regulation among the Yoruba of Southwestern Nigeria: I. A Study of Prevalence, Attitudes, Practice and Methods

This study was conducted among Yoruba women and traditional healers with the aim of identifying and describing the practice, preparation, and administration of traditional contraceptives. The data were obtained in 1990 from a random sample of 1,400 women of childbearing age and 42 traditional healers in Nigeria's Oranmiyan area, using questionnaires and in-depth interviews. Findings revealed that knowledge of the traditional contraceptives is nearly universal among the Yoruba population, and the traditional contraceptive prevalence rate is 7.1 percent. The use of traditional contraceptives was significantly more common among uneducated women and among women aged 20 to 29 years old. Findings also revealed the existence of four main varieties of traditional contraceptive devices, the methods of preparation of the traditional contraceptives, varieties of herbal and animal products used, methods of administration, and taboos against usage. The easy accessibility of traditional medical practitioners and the belief that traditional contraceptive devices are devoid of complications, especially among those experienced with modern contraceptive devices, were the main reasons women cited for patronizing the traditional practitioners. The paper concludes with policy implications for family planning programmers in Nigeria.

Attitudes towards women physicians in a Nigerian community.

The extent of discrimination against female physicians by the general public has been sketchily researched upon in Nigeria. Recent programmes that were initiated to improve the lot of women and also encourage females to enter into male-dominated professions call for investigation into sex bias in medical practice. This paper examines the extent of discrimination against female physicians among the Yoruba of South Western Nigeria. Although the findings revealed that the respondents were more favourably disposed towards female physicians than was hitherto reported in earlier studies, the issue of sex bias was made obvious when the respondents were confronted with choosing physicians for specialised procedures. Certain sociocultural beliefs that could be responsible were discussed and suggestions were made on the basis of the observed findings.

Folklore and Health Education: Lessons from the Experience of the Yoruba of South Western Nigeria

(1992). Folklore and Health Education: Lessons from the Experience of the Yoruba of South Western Nigeria. Journal of the Institute of Health Education: Vol. 30, No. 4, pp. 149-155.

"Our Tradition Is a Very Modern Tradition": Popular Music and the Construction of Pan-Yoruba Identity

n Anthropology as Cultural Critique George Marcus and Michael Fischer pose a dilemma for those human sciences which rely upon ethnography as a mode of inquiry and representation, that is: to represent the embedding of richly described local cultural worlds in larger impersonal systems of political economy. This dilemma suggests a repositioning of ethnomusicological cliches about the continuity of change within an analytical framework concerned with global networks, the creation of nation-states and peoples, and the invention of tradition. What makes representation challenging, they continue, is the perception that the 'outside forces' in fact are an integral part of the construction and constitution of the 'inside,' the cultural unit itself, and must so be registered, even at the most intimate levels of cultural process (1986:77). In this article I deal with the role of contemporary popular music in the production of cultural identity among the Yoruba of southwestern Nigeria. My argument rests upon the axiom that all human identities, no matter how deeply felt, are from an historical point-of-view mixed, relational, and conjunctural (Clifford 1988:10-11). Ethnomusicologists concerned to demonstrate the depth and authenticity of the traditions they study have

The world of the Yoruba taxi driver: an interpretive approach to vehicle slogans

Opening ParagraphThe purpose of this paper is to analyse the slogans which are so prominent and ubiquitous on motor vehicles as expressions of social stratification among the Yoruba of southwestern Nigeria. I interpret the slogans in the context of the taxi owners' and drivers' social interactions, not just as disembodied expressions of a total Yoruba world view. In studying the slogans I pay particular attention to processes of accumulation of wealth, status mobility and the way these are affected by cultural values. It is argued that the vehicle owners make different claims at different stages of their careers. Their fears and hopes at each stage must be understood in the light of the contemporary Christian and traditional mix of beliefs about destiny, the world and God.

Obituary and Ancestral Worship: Analysis of A Contemporary Cultural Form in Nigeria

The understanding of the worldviews in obituaries has been approached from various vantage points. Some have focussed the linguistic content, the metaphors most especially (Kachru 1983; Lawuyi 1986a), while others have concentrated attention on the cultural presuppositions about social stratification and prestige (Lawuyi 1986b). It is argued that as a public symbol of image constructions, the obituaries represent the reality of the Nigerian society in that the persisting inequality in the society, and the civil hierarchies that support it, become codified in the types of publications sponsored. Whereas various forms of advertisements exist, the choice of the newspaper and the type of publication adopted indicate that social stratification (whether in terms of status or economic standing) is actively promoted for the purposes of conveying ideas of difference. The age factor in the construction of this difference is yet to be examined. We would in this paper raise the relationship between age and death in the framework of ancestral beliefs. We would specifically examine the Daily Times publications of Nigeria for the manner in which the patrons continue to express ideas of ancestral beliefs. Our data is on the Yoruba of Southwestern Nigeria. In this patrilineal, highly stratified, and exogamous society, the ancestors are old people; they are elders above 60 years of age. Ancestors have offspring (Lucas 1948), one of whom must be a male. And because ancestors are themselves male (Eades 1980), their worship is conducted by the male folk. Indeed, in all matters pertaining to ancestral cult and worship the females are excluded (Westcott and MortonWilliams, 1962). Even the males who become ancestors do so only after proper burial with funeral rites appropriate to the statuses of the deceased is conducted by their eldest sons (Lucas 1948). It has been suggested that the form of spiritual relationship between the eldest son and the father, both of whom are vested with authority and responsibility, indicates that the essential purpose of ancestral worship is the extension of the authority component in the jural relations of successive generations (Fortes 1966). The relationship between the ancestors and their descent groups is, however, one of guidance and protection. Ancestral worship serves as a means of appeasing the ancestors who, actually, never truly depart the world; rather, they visit it from time to time as punitive or

The Brazilian House in Nigeria: The Emergence of a 20th-Century Vernacular House Type

How DOES THE TRADITIONAL CHANGE? How do new traditions begin? These are questions that folklorists and other students of culture often ask and for which no simple answers can be given. We often find that the people and expressions which we study, if we study them well and long enough, are always changing. Yet old forms do persist, often scarcely changed despite their passage through years of use. We all know that traditional societies save as much as they throw away, remember as much as they forget, recreate as often as they create anew. In any society there is the pulling attraction of the modern and the tugging restraint of the past, twin forces never quite at equal strength (Toelken 1979:34-35; Abrahams 1971:27). Knowing that the balance between these two influences is bound to shift should then suggest a research agenda for the folklorist. Beyond the description of what people do and say, we need to understand the circumstances under which they may change their minds. Accordingly, we should seek people encountering cultural quandaries, people engaged in social criticism, people testing their whole scheme of inherited values. We confront in such situations not only a source of unending variation that makes life interesting, but we also may witness the way that inevitable change is slowed to a comprehensible and therefore acceptable human pace. During the 20th century the balance between tradition and change in West Africa has tipped decidedly in the direction of change. One crucial aspect of indigenous culture that has been significantly affected is domestic housing. In this paper I present an analysis of the emergence of a new vernacular dwelling among the Yoruba of southwestern Nigeria (Bascom 1969:1-3). My findings should illustrate a specific strategy employed in traditional societies to make the changes required by changing times more reasonable, a technique for claiming the new as familiar. The Yoruba changed their houses, but they changed them in a way that made an imported design profoundly their own. By seeking change themselves, they were able to gain control of that process and emerge from the experience with homes they understood and accepted instead of new buildings that are but another element of the Third World's burden (Oliver 1971:23).

An Approach to the Study of the Medical Aspects of Culture

Previous articleNext article No AccessAn Approach to the Study of the Medical Aspects of CultureHaydee SeijasHaydee Seijas Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Current Anthropology Volume 14, Number 5Dec., 1973 Sponsored by the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/201383 Views: 4Total views on this site Citations: 18Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 1973 The Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological ResearchPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article: Introduction, (Jan 1997): 1–9.https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822379683-001 Medicinal Plants and Their Traditions, (Jan 1997): 10–34.https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822379683-002 “I’ve Always Got By”, (Jan 1997): 35–52.https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822379683-003 Health Matters in a Changing Community, (Jan 1997): 53–65.https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822379683-004 Self-Treatment in the Community, (Jan 1997): 66–82.https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822379683-005 Acquiring Herbal Knowledge, (Jan 1997): 83–97.https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822379683-006 The Practice, (Jan 1997): 98–121.https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822379683-007 The Practice, (Jan 1997): 122–190.https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822379683-008 Reflections on the Region and Beyond, (Jan 1997): 191–215.https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822379683-009 Notes, (Jan 1997): 217–264.https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822379683-010 Annotated Bibliography, (Jan 1997): 265–323.https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822379683-011Olugbemi Moloye Folklore and Health Education: Lessons from the Experience of the Yoruba of South Western Nigeria, Journal of the Institute of Health Education 30, no.44 (Mar 2014): 149–155.https://doi.org/10.1080/03073289.1992.10805777Ineke M. Lazar Ma'i Aitu : Culture-Bound Illnesses in a Samoan Migrant Community1, Oceania 55, no.33 (Feb 2015): 161–181.https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1834-4461.1985.tb02073.xSusan S. Hunter Historical perspectives on the development of health systems modeling in medical anthropology, Social Science & Medicine 21, no.1212 (Jan 1985): 1297–1307.https://doi.org/10.1016/0277-9536(85)90432-0Claire Monod Cassidy Protein-energy malnutrition as a culture-bound syndrome, Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry 6, no.44 (Dec 1982): 325–345.https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00118881Arthur Kleinman Concepts and a model for the comparison of medical systems as cultural systems, Social Science & Medicine. Part B: Medical Anthropology 12 (Jan 1978): 85–93.https://doi.org/10.1016/0160-7987(78)90014-5Noel J. Chrisman The health seeking process: An approach to the natural history of illness, Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry 1, no.44 (Aug 2013): 351–377.https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00116243Arthur M. Kleinman Depression, somatization and the “new cross-cultural psychiatry”, Social Science & Medicine (1967) 11, no.11 (Jan 1977): 3–9.https://doi.org/10.1016/0037-7856(77)90138-X

The Yoruba of Southwestern Nigeria. By William Bascom. Case Studies in Cultural Anthropology; General Editors: George and Louise Spindler. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1969. Pp. xvii + 118, map, photos. $2.25.

The Yoruba of Southwestern Nigeria. By William Bascom. Case Studies in Cultural Anthropology; General Editors: George and Louise Spindler. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1969. Pp. xvii + 118, map, photos. $2.25. - Volume 41 Issue 1

The Yoruba of Southwestern Nigeria.

The Yoruba of Southwestern Nigeria.

Health and human behavior: areas of interest common to the social and medical sciences.

Health and human behavior: areas of interest common to the social and medical sciences.

The Traditional Political System of the Yoruba

Previous articleNext article No AccessThe Traditional Political System of the YorubaP. C. LloydP. C. Lloyd Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Volume 10, Number 4Winter, 1954 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/soutjanth.10.4.3628833 Views: 31Total views on this site Citations: 22Citations are reported from Crossref Journal History This article was published in the Southwestern Journal of Anthropology (1945-1972), which is continued by the Journal of Anthropological Research (1973-present). PDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:J. Kelechi Ugwuanyi, Edmund I. Itanyi, Uchenna H. Obieluem Heritage Ontologies in Nigeria: An Analysis of How Heritage Connects and Disconnects People, Journal of African Archaeology 19, no.22 (Aug 2021): 131–145.https://doi.org/10.1163/21915784-bja10007Will Rea The Ẹpa Masquerades of Èkìtì: A Structural Approach, African Arts 52, no.33 (Sep 2019): 16–27.https://doi.org/10.1162/afar_a_00478Fausat Motunrayo Ibrahim, Ayodele Samuel Jegede Tradition and Limits: Polemical Construction of Body Size Among the Yoruba of Southwestern Nigeria, Journal of African American Studies 21, no.22 (Jun 2017): 236–255.https://doi.org/10.1007/s12111-017-9360-xAndrew Apter Yoruba Ethnogenesis from Within, Comparative Studies in Society and History 55, no.22 (Apr 2013): 356–387.https://doi.org/10.1017/S0010417513000066EC Ejiogu State Building in the Niger Basin in the Common Era and Beyond, 1000–Mid 1800s: The Case of Yorubaland, Journal of Asian and African Studies 46, no.66 (Jul 2011): 593–614.https://doi.org/10.1177/0021909611405831 Bibliographie, (Feb 2010): 392–405.https://doi.org/10.3917/arco.clava.2010.01.0392Gilles Holder, Anne-Marie Peatrik Cité, centre, capitale, Journal des Africanistes , no.74-1/274-1/2 (Oct 2004): 9–34.https://doi.org/10.4000/africanistes.519Stephen P. Reyna Theory counts, Anthropological Theory 1, no.11 (Jul 2016): 9–29.https://doi.org/10.1177/14634990122228601Jean‐Claude Galey Introduction, History and Anthropology 4, no.11 (Sep 1989): 1–29.https://doi.org/10.1080/02757206.1989.9960791Olatunde Bayo Lawuyi The world of the Yoruba taxi driver: an interpretive approach to vehicle slogans, Africa 58, no.11 (Dec 2011): 1–13.https://doi.org/10.2307/1159867Andrew Apter The Historiography of Yoruba Myth and Ritual, History in Africa 14 (May 2014): 1–25.https://doi.org/10.2307/3171830Paul Francis ‘For the use and common benefit of all Nigerians’: consequences of the 1978 land nationalization, Africa 54, no.33 (Dec 2011): 5–28.https://doi.org/10.2307/1160737Stanley R. Barrett The Politics of Defection from an African Utopia, Africa 49, no.11 (Dec 2011): 1–14.https://doi.org/10.2307/1159501 Stanley R. Barrett The Use of Models in Anthropological Fieldwork, Journal of Anthropological Research 32, no.22 (Sep 2015): 161–181.https://doi.org/10.1086/jar.32.2.3629661Paul Wheatley The Significance of Traditional Yoruba Urbanism, Comparative Studies in Society and History 12, no.44 (Jun 2009): 393–423.https://doi.org/10.1017/S0010417500005971E.C. Ejiogu State building in pre-colonial sub-Saharan Africa: The case of Yorubaland, (): 3–40.https://doi.org/10.1016/S0198-8719(06)18001-1Billy J. Dudley The nomination of parliamentary candidates in Northern Nigeria, Journal of Commonwealth Political Studies 2, no.11 (Jul 1963): 45–58.https://doi.org/10.1080/14662046308446988 William J. McEwen Forms and Problems of Validation in Social Anthropology, Current Anthropology 4, no.22 (Oct 2015): 155–183.https://doi.org/10.1086/200357P. C. Lloyd The Yoruba Town Today, The Sociological Review 7, no.11 (Jul 1959): 45–63.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-954X.1959.tb01018.xS. N. Eisenstadt Primitive Political Systems: A Preliminary Comparative Analysis, American Anthropologist 61, no.22 (Apr 1959): 200–220.https://doi.org/10.1525/aa.1959.61.2.02a00020P. C. Lloyd Some Notes on the Yoruba Rules of Succession and on “Family Property”, Journal of African Law 3, no.11 (Jul 2009): 7–32.https://doi.org/10.1017/S0021855300005696P. C. Lloyd The Yoruba Lineage, Africa 25, no.33 (Aug 2012): 235–251.https://doi.org/10.2307/1157104