The Yoruba from Prehistory to the Present

The Yoruba are one of the largest ethnic groups in West Africa, with significant populations in Nigeria, Benin and Togo, as well as a sizeable diasporic community around the world. By considering the art, religion, economics and political systems of the Yoruba, Aribidesi Usman and Toyin Falola chart the history of the Yoruba through the lens of the group's diverse and dynamic cultural and social practices. Using archaeological data, oral, and archival sources alongside rarely-discussed local histories Usman and Falola form a rich and detailed picture of the Yoruba from a period of early occupation and agriculture, the growth of complex societies and empires, the turbulent colonial period to the present day, constructing a comprehensive account of Yoruba history brought together in a single volume.

List of figures; Preface; Acknowledgments; 1. Geography and society; Part I. Long Historical Formations: 2. Prehistory and protohistory; 3. The growth of complex societies; 4. States and small-scale polities, AD 1400–1600; Part II. Yoruba Polities and Entry into the Atlantic World: 5. The seventeenth century: the age of empire building; 6. The eighteenth century; Part III. The Nineteenth Century: Wars and Transformations: 7. Yorubaland in the nineteenth century: the height of trouble; 8. The nineteenth century: the internecine wars and consequences; 9. The nineteenth century: slave trade and slavery; 10. The nineteenth century: new agencies of transformation; Part IV. Economic, Social, and Cultural Practices over Time: 11. Precolonial economy; 12. Religion and world view; 13. Creativity: arts, body adornment, and music; Part V. Colonial Yoruba: 14. Colonial rule, economy, education, and identity; 15. Politics and identity in the late colonial era; Part VI. Postcolonial Yoruba: 16. Politics and identity: the post independence era; 17. Politics and identity at the close of the twentieth century; 18. Contemporary politics and identity; 19. Contemporary sociopolitical, economic, and cultural transformation; 20. Summary and conclusion; References; Index.

Aribidesi Usman is Associate Professor of Anthropology in the School of Social Transformation at Arizona State University. He is co-editor of Movements, Borders, and Identities in Africa (2009) and the author of The Yoruba Frontier (2012).
Toyin Falola is University Distinguished Teaching Professor and Jacob and Frances Sanger Mossiker Chair in the Humanities at the University of Texas, Austin. A Yoruba chief, he has received numerous awards and twelve honorary doctorates. His most recent edited volumes include Yoruba Culture and Customs (2001), The Yoruba Diaspora in the Atlantic World (2005) and The Encyclopaedia of the Yoruba (2016).