THE YORUBA NATION! The Yoruba are the builders of the greatest urban civilization in the whole of Black Africa. By the time the first Portuguese explorers came to the coast of West Africa in about 1480, Yorubaland was already the home of tens of large towns, most of them walled. As of that date, no country of Europe could boast of as many towns and cities as Yorubaland. This growth of urbanism enormously advanced Yoruba civilization in general. The first Europeans to enter into the Yoruba interior came in 1825. They described the towns as heavily populated, and as generally “clean habitations” in which public places like palaces and shrines were richly decorated with beautiful works of art. After seeing many Yoruba towns, they concluded that the Yoruba people had “a genius for the art of sculpture”. They described the entry to most towns as through “a spacious avenue of noble trees”, and the Yoruba countryside as a country filled with “fields of Indian corn”, “plantations of cotton”, “extensive plantations of corn and plantains”, “rich plantations of yams”, “acres of indigo”. And they described Yoruba people as “an industrious race”. It was also a land of great productions in crafts, artisanship, and manufactures of various kinds. Cloth and mats woven by the Yoruba were highly sought in most parts of West Africa. So were Yoruba beads and garments. Yorubaland also owned the greatest artistic tradition, and the only naturalistic art tradition, in Black Africa. Yoruba naturalistic art is universally acclaimed today as among the greatest products of the artistic heritage of the human race. A leading modern art historian, Frank Willet, says of Yoruba naturalistic art productions that they “stand comparison with anything which ancient Egypt, classical Greece and Rome, or Renaissance Europe, had to offer”. The 1825 explorers described Yoruba people as very hospitable people. In every town or village, the explorers were thronged by inquisitive crowds, and the people in the crowds were “generally speaking, neatly dressed - - - and very clean in their personal appearance”,“pleasing in their manners”, self-respecting, well-fed and happy. Every king or village ruler whom they met was dignified and professional as ruler – and very helpful. In one town, the Oba was holding a meeting with his chiefs when the explorers arrived. The explorers described that meeting as “the most venerable-looking group of human beings” they had ever seen. Yorubaland was also a land of great trade and great traders. Trade routes interconnected the whole country. Usually, Yoruba traders and their porters travelled together in large groups, orcaravans. An American missionary, William H. Clarke, who travelled extensively in Yorubaland in the 1850s, reported that he met caravans of traders everywhere, and described Yorubaland as “a land of caravans”. He gave some details as follows: “The trade in native produce and art keeps up continual intercommunication between the several adjacent towns, the one interchanging its abundance of one article for that of another. Thus on those smaller routes (between towns) may be seen caravans - - - passing almost daily from one town to another - - -” Then he added that on the long-distance routes across the country,“a network of trade is carried to a distance of hundreds of miles. - - - Hundreds and thousands of people are thus engaged in the carrying trade.- - -.” Each Yoruba town had large marketplaces that were crowded on their market days. When one approached a town where a market was on, one could hear from many miles away the huge humming of voices as if one were approaching the sea. Some marketplaces specialized in night-time trading. Clarke wrote that in all Yoruba marketplaces, one could buy “the articles from the Mediterraneanand Western (European)coasts - - - and the productions of the four corners ofthe globe”. I love telling these stories of our nations. I am thinking of writing simple little book of these stories for the benefit of our children. It will tell our children how our nations used to be stronger and more prosperous than they now are. It will show them that we are innately better and stronger peoples than we now look. And it will urge them to dedicate their lives to making us, someday, stronger, better and prosperous again.-APATA
Posted on: Mon, 25 Nov 2013 23:29:21 +0000
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