Togo - West Africa - page 942

Yoruba
The Yoruba, almost 30-million strong, are perhaps the largest ethnic group in West Africa,
with their homeland extending from southwestern Nigeria into neighbouring Benin. It was
here that the powerful Yoruba Kingdom of Ife (12th to 16th centuries) and Oyo Empire
(17th to early 20th centuries) held sway over one of the region's most populous corners.
Yoruba traditionally live in towns, migrating seasonally to their more distant farmlands;
the Nigerian cities of Lagos and Ibadan are considered important centres of Yoruban life.
The urban culture of the Yoruba has facilitated the development of trade and elaborate arts,
including the famous Benin bronzes. Every Yoruba town has an oba (crowned chief). The
traditional head of all Yorubas is the alafin, who lives at Oyo, in Nigeria, while the oni
(chief priest) lives at Ife. Formality, ceremony and hierarchy govern Yoruba social rela-
tions, and ostentation in dress and jewellery is a social requirement for women at tradition-
al functions.
Many Yoruba are now Christian, although traditional practices persist, among them the
belief that ancestor spirits, which reside in an afterworld known as Kutome, hold powers of
protection over the living. During the annual Egungun Festival, these ancestors are
summoned by members of the secret Egungun masking society to return, so as to restore
the cosmic balance upset by human failings, and to advise their descendants.
The Yoruba have the highest ratio of twin births of any group in the world and twins occupy an important
role in Yoruba mythology.