Yoruba is a single largest nationality in West Africa sub-region. Primarily, Yoruba people are found in the South western part of Nigeria in: Lagos, Ọyọ,Ogun, Ọsun, Ondo, Ekiti, and Kwara states. Yoruba people account for one-third of Kogi state population, several thousand of Yoruba by descent live in the western part of Edo state (Akoko Edo) and the Itsekiris of Delta State originated from Yoruba land, possibly from Ijebu.
Interestingly, some other groups outside the Western Region have some Yoruba connections, possibly, their present abodes might have been the second, or one of the several settlements, outside Yoruba enclave. Yoruba territory covers a wide range of geographical and ecological zones, these include, but are not limited to: savannah, mangrove rain-forest, and the coastal belt of Atlantic Ocean.
There are Yoruba people in Benin Republic, Togo, Ghana, Cote d’Ivorie , millions by descent in the Caribbean Island and South America, who do not speak Yoruba, but have cultural affinity with the Yoruba of Nigeria.
Yorubas are found in their ancestral home, Nigeria, neighboring West African countries, and Yorubas are descent around the globe.Yoruba belongs to Niger-Congo language category-one of the major language families in Africa and the largest in terms of geographical spread, number of speakers, and number of distinct languages. In fact, Niger-Congo language family is one of the major language categorizations around the globe; A method use by Linguists to categorize noun by referent such as sex: male or female; animate: people, animals, plants, objects, and places; gender: masculine and feminine.
Yoruba as a people, are descendants of legendary Oduduwa, the first king of Ile-Ifẹ. Myths and history have different versions of Oduduwa history. The mythologists believed that Olodunmare created Oduduwa, placed him in Ile-Ifẹ, after five-legged-hen had spread sand on marshy and watery land for habitation. But to historians, Oduduwa migrated from the East probably from Arabia peninsula (Mecca to be precise)
During jihadist movement, traveled thousands of miles west ward through Sudan settled at different places,and settled at Ile-Ifẹ.
Whatever is the story, the fact remains- O’dua lived at Ile-Ifẹ, became father to seven sons or more and daughters, these individuals at different times extended the frontiers Ifẹ to north, south, east and west.
By 18th century Ọyọ Kingdom established by one of O’dua sons, Oranmiyan, had become the most powerful and most successful empire in the savannah and rain forest region. Ọyọ empire covered over 400 miles, extended to Dahomey (Benin Republic) covered the entire Yoruba land. And within this geo-political confine, other smaller kingdoms like Owu, Ketu, Popo, and Ifẹ existed side-by-side with Ọyọ.
