What makes you Yoruba?

 What makes you “Yorùbá”?

“Despite differences in Yoruba dialects, the subgroups share essential cultural characteristics.

Tunde Akinwunmi and Asiwaju have suggested eleven features or cultural traits for the core definition of the Yoruba:

i) They claim that their ancestor was Oduduwa.

ii) They regard Ile-Ife as their cradle, or point of first origin.

iii) They all have praise songs, cognomens, or oriki about themselves.

iv) Their greetings commence with “E ku,” “Aku,” or “Okun o.”

v) They were traditionally agrarian.

vi) They form monarchical governments.

vii) They are highly urbanised people.

viii) They believe in Ifa and Ogun deities and the concept of destiny, or órí.

ix) They dress differently from other, non-Yoruba-speaking people.

x) They practice customs specific to the Yoruba people, such as the way they greet elders by prostration and kneeling and the way they conduct weddings and burials.

xi) The lands occupied by the different Yoruba-speaking groups are geographically contiguous.”

Aribidesi Usman & Toyin Falola

“The Yoruba from Prehistory to the Present”

The King’s Messenger, 1959, Shaki, Yorùbá land

Baba Michael