Introduction

The Yorùbá culture area is very large, and it traverses several political units. Within this area, one can identify layers of identities such as the reference to a Yorùbá nation, a Yorùbá race, and the Yorùbá diaspora. A. I. Asiwaju illustrates this point by using three concentric rings to describe the Yorùbá culture area. The inner-most ring depicts the core area, beginning from southwestern Nigeria stretching through the southern and central parts of the Republic of Benin and terminating at the Ufe and Atakpame areas of central Togo. The middle ring embraces groups that are related to the Yorùbá by language, culture, and traditions of origin such as the Edo, Itsekiri, Borgu, Igala, and the Aja. I. A. Akinjogbin has widened this middle ring to include the Nupe, the Fon of the Republic of Benin, and the Gaa, Krobo, and Adangbe of modern Ghana. The outer ring, as identified by Asiwaju, is formed by the Yorùbá diaspora communities in Sierra Leone, Cuba, Brazil, Haiti, Jamaica, and other places.

Geographically speaking, Yorùbáland lies between parallels 5.86° and 9.22° north and between 2.65° and 5.72° east. The territory is bounded in the south by the Bight of Benin and shares a boundary with Borgu in the north. In width, Yorùbáland starts from the border of Benin, on the east, and stops at the bank of the River Mono in central Togo.