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Yoruba Studies Review, 2021
The Yoruba of South west Nigeria pride themselves as a “nation” with a rich cultural heritage. Tis jealously guided heritage believed to have been handed down from ancient times has however suffered greatly from modern influences owing to contacts with foreign cultures. Tis essay highlights the measures to preserve the Yoruba heritage and the militating problems in the light of the unbridled contacts with foreign cultures. The paper also provides evidence to suggest that the Yoruba, just like every other ethnic groups in Nigeria, could have fashioned their own developmental frameworks but for the imposition of foreign ideas/ideals.
Published in Toyin Falola and Dipo Olubomehin, eds., The Yoruba Nation and Politics Since the Nineteenth Century: Essays in Honor of Professor J. A. Atanda. Austin, TX: Pan-African University Press., 2020
The Yoruba Identity has become an identity to be reckoned with in the 21 st century, especially in relation to their cultural and societal practises. This has been possible due to several reasons, such as the preservation and innovations in the 19 th century during the slave trade era and the practises of the Yoruba in diaspora, especially in the present globalised world. This has played a role in the spread of Yoruba cultural practises to the most distant parts of the earth. This work therefore aims at examining the changing dynamic over time of Yoruba cultural and societal practises. The paper also explores issues like how the Yoruba spread to the diaspora, followed by how and why peculiarity was given to the preservation of Yoruba culture in a globalised world. The paper will also examine some countries where these cultures are practised, mainly focusing on Brazil and Cuba. The paper also concludes that globalization and popular culture have impacted negatively on Yoruba social cultural practises, and questions if indeed the Yoruba cultural values can stand the test of globalisation and popular culture in a changing world.
The Nigerian Field, 2018
No comprehensive appraisal of the precolonial nature of plant use by the Binis (Edos) of the famed Benin Kingdom is available. Using the recent catalogue of botanical and ethnobotanical narratives and commentaries, extracts from the 1937 Melzian's Bini Dictionary, this study aims to define the structure of Bini ethnobotany in relation to the Africa-wide, primary plant use criteria of the Plant Resources of Tropical Africa (PROTA). Relative plant use from three sampling approaches: comprehensive sample (COMPS), abridged sample (ABRS) and congruent sample (CONGS) were assessed based on their status in Bini ethnobotany and PROTA criteria. COMPS comprised all the 295 catalogued plants, while ABRS contained 129 plants with attributes on Bini ethnobotany selected from COMPS. CONGS contained 136 plants whose Bini and PROTA's statuses were determined as congruent. Use distribution profiles in COMPS and ABRS using both Bini and PROTA criteria showed marked dissimilarities, the most divergent demonstrated mainly in the fuel and auxiliary plants categories. Except for stimulants which ranked high in both COMPS and ABRS, marked differences in Bini/PROTA congruency ratios were apparent. In COMPS, high congruence ratios were observed in spices and condiments, carbohydrates and cereals and pulses, while in ABRS, vegetable oils, medicinal plants and vegetables. Correlation between percent relative frequencies of Bini ethnobotany and PROTA was +0.83 in COMPS and +0.69 in ABRS while for Bini/PROTA congruence ratios between COMP vs ABRS was +0.37. Profile distributions from COMPS and ABRS showed high estimates for timber plants than historically justified by local Bini practice. The profile from CONGS appeared more representative with the following distributions: carbohydrates (18.25%), timbers (17.52%), fruits (13.14%), medicinal plants (11.68%), vegetables (7.30%), spices and condiments (6.57%), auxiliary plants (4.38%), cereals and pulses (4.38%), fibres (3.65%), stimulants (3.65%), essential oils (2.19%), forage plants (2.19%), dyes and tannins (1.46%), fuel plants (1.46%), vegetable oils (1.46%) and ornamental plants (0.73%). The prominence attributed to carbohydrates (primarily yams), appear to reflect the traditional Bini preference and hence proposed as the precolonial template of Bini ethnobotany. The low congruence between Bini ethnobotany and PROTA makes tenuous the utility of the latter for interpreting or predicting Bini ethnobotany.The preeminence of carbohydrate appropriately identifies Benin Kingdom among the so-called "Yam Zone" forest civilizations of West Africa, while the undue emphasis on timbers, suggest recent reclassification probably influenced by the British economic interests in colonial Nigeria. Nigerian Field 84 (x): xx-xxx. 2018. (in press). 2
The Yoruba people (Yoruba: Àwọn ọmọ Yorùbá) are an ethnic group of Southwestern and North central Nigeria as well as Southern and Central Benin known as the Yorubaland cultural region of West Africa. The Yoruba constitute over 40 million people in total; the majority of this population is from Nigeria and make up 21% of its population, according to the CIA World Factbook,  making them one of the largest ethnic groups in Africa. The majority of the Yoruba speak the Yoruba language, which is tonal, and is the Niger-Congo language with the largest number of native speakers. 
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