Precolonial Yoruba States
Precolonial Yoruba States
- Ayodeji OgunnaikeAyodeji OgunnaikeBowdoin College
Summary
The Yoruba people, mostly found in modern-day southwestern Nigeria, created one of the most effective, stable, and celebrated civilizations and political structures in sub-Saharan Africa, with the city of Ile-Ifẹ considered its original source. The city’s founder and first sacred king, Oduduwa, was later deified as a mythic ancestor of all Yoruba people. He established a robust system of limited monarchy that was re-created in city-states all over contemporary Yorubaland and beyond. From about 1000 to 1500 ce, Ile-Ifẹ enjoyed a position as the political, economic, and religious center of the entire region, cultivating one of the most famous artistic traditions in African history and exporting its political structure to new city-states that formed their own kingdoms.
As trade routes began to shift, the city-state of Ọyọ started to eclipse Ile-Ifẹ in terms of prestige and power. Still operating under the same general political schema, Ọyọ established the largest empire in the West African tropical forest and dominated affairs in Yorubaland until the end of the 18th century. Internal power struggles crippled the Ọyọ Empire, and its rapid collapse set off shock waves that destabilized the entire region. A century of almost perpetual warfare ensued in which cities and states were created, abandoned, and destroyed. No resolution could be found until British military power and intervention brokered peace and established a protectorate over most of Yorubaland, beginning the colonial era in 1893.
Speaking of “Yoruba” states in precolonial history is a bit anachronistic in that the term Yoruba previously only referred to the Ọyọ subgroup. Although all people known today as Yoruba were mostly united by similar linguistic dialects, sacred history, and religious and political traditions, the broader term Yoruba came into usage in the 19th century as a result of experiences in diaspora and missionary activity.
Subjects
- West Africa