Yoruba people

The Yoruba are a West African ethnic group with a shared language and diverse cultural traditions, concentrated in southwestern Nigeria and also living in Benin, Togo, and diaspora communities.

Yoruba language: A Niger-Congo language spoken chiefly in Nigeria, Benin, and Togo. It provides a shared means of communication across many Yoruba communities.
Ile-Ife: A historic Yoruba city in southwestern Nigeria, renowned as a major political and artistic center. Yoruba origin traditions identify Ife as a foundational ancestral center.
Wole Soyinka: A Nigerian playwright, poet, and essayist who received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1986. His writing draws on Yoruba stories and thought while addressing modern political life.
Ifá: A Yoruba system of divination and knowledge interpreted through verses and ritual expertise. Ifá preserves and transmits extensive Yoruba ethical, historical, and cosmological knowledge.
Santería: An Afro-Cuban religion combining Yoruba-derived orisha devotion with Catholic elements. It developed through the survival and transformation of Yoruba religious practices in Cuba.
Yorubaland: The homeland of Yoruba-speaking peoples, centered in southwestern Nigeria and extending into neighboring countries. Its regional boundaries help situate Yoruba communities across modern states.
Oduduwa: A figure in Yoruba origin traditions associated with the founding of Ife and Yoruba kingship. Traditions about Oduduwa connect royal lineages across several Yoruba states.
Fela Kuti: A Nigerian musician and political activist who developed Afrobeat. His music combined Yoruba rhythms with sharp critiques of Nigerian state power.
Orisha: A class of divine beings in Yoruba religion, associated with natural forces and human concerns. Orisha devotion remains central in Yoruba religious life and its diasporic forms.
Candomblé: An Afro-Brazilian religion centered on worship of orishas and other African-derived divinities. Yoruba religious traditions helped shape its Ketu lineage and ritual life.

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