Yoruba

Culture, food, literature, and more

Èkuru (also known as ófúlójú) is a traditional Yorùbá food. A recipe can be found below:

Ingredients 

• 3 cups brown or black eyed beans
• 3 cooking spoons palm oil
• 1 cup dried pepper (Ata Ìjọ̀sì; you can substitute 3 red bell peppers if you can’t find any)
• 1 scotch bonnet pepper
• 1.5 medium onion
• 1 cup fried assorted meats
• 1 tablespoon locust beans (Irù)
• 1 smoked fish or Ẹja Ṣáwa (Optional)
• 1/2 cup smoked rawns (Optional)
• 2 tablespoons ground crayfish
  
• 1 Knorr chicken cube
• salt to taste

Watch the preparation on YouTube here

Pronunciation of èkuru:

Other Yorùbá foods include:

Àmàlà, a popular food in Oyo, Kwara, and Osun states

Iyán: boiled and pounded yam

 Major literary works 

Awon oju odu mereerindinlogun by Abimbola, Wande 

• • Title means “Sixteen Main Verses of Ifa” 

Ògbójú Ọdẹ Nínú Ogbó Irúnmọlẹ̀ by D.O. Fágúnwà 

• • Title means “A Brave Hunter in the Forest of the Deities” 

Ìrèké Oníbùdó by D.O. Fágúnwà 

• • Title means “Sugarcane of the settlement owner”
  • The tone mark of the title is based on a recent publication
    • The original work was not tone marked
  • Present title could be a mistranslation or an artistic rendition of the popular phrase Ìrèké Òníbùdó “Sugarcane has no settlement”
    • The main character constantly moves from place to place

Igbó Olódùmarè by D.O. Fágúnwà 

• • Title means “The Forest of Olódùmarè
  • Olódùmarè is the supreme being in Yoruba cosmology
    • The gender of Olódùmarè is unknown, and the people do not dedicate an altar to the being
    • The deity Èṣù is the intermediary between Olódùmarè, humans and other deities

Àwon Oríkì Orílẹ̀ Mẹ́tàdínlọ́gbọ̀n by Solomon Babalọlá 

• • Title means “Twenty Seven National Poems” 

Ó le kú by Akinwumi Iṣola

• • Watch the movie here
  • Title means “This is Serious” 

Koseegbe by Akinwumi Iṣola

• • Watch the movie here
  • Title means “Unbearable” 

Alápatà Àpáta by Akínwándé Olúwọlé Babátúndé Ṣóyíinká

• • Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature
  • Title translation/ explanation: “The Butcher of the Rocky Place” or “Someone who breaks and sells stones”
    • Intentionally made ambiguous by the writer

Palm Wine Drinkard by Amos Tutuola 

Igba Ewe by Kola Tubosun

• • A Yoruba-translated collection of poems written originally in English as Childhood (2014) by Emily R. Grosholz

Traditional vocal music and verbal arts  

• The people have various genres of music and oral poetry called ewì
  
  • Poetry is only a fragment of the verbal art called ewì
• Genres of ewì are mostly distinguished based on vocal expression, rather than text.  
  
  • e.g., pitch raising, vibrato and vowel epenthesis

Talking drum: The culture communicates through music instruments by imitating tones of Yoruba words in music melody (Akinbo 2021) 

Recording of a child playing talking drum

Picture of Dùndún, a kind of talking drum

Pronunciation of Dùndún:

Ṣẹ̀kẹ̀rẹ̀: It is one of the major musical instruments in Yorùbá culture. It’s believed to symbolize joy and happiness. The instrument is only played at joyous occasions.

• Jùjú; Sákárà, Àwúrèbe, Bọ̀lọ̀jọ̀, Àpàlà (associated with the people of Ẹ̀gbádò and Ìbarà), etc (see Water 2000) 

• Sample songs in the language:

Sango by Asabioje Afenapa

• • Ṣàngó is the Yoruba deity of thunder and lightning 

Osun by Asabioje Afenapa

• • Òṣun is the deity of love, fertility and beauty
  • Her domain is the Òṣun river
  • In the Afro-Caribean religions based on Yoruba belief system, she is considered the deity of fresh waters

Orin Ìbejì (Yorùbá Folksong for twins)

• • See info about twins in Nigeria under “More interesting facts”!
  • Title means “twin song”

Ayo Ni O:

• • Part 1
  • Part 2
  • Title means “it is joyous”

Elewue Wole Medley by Fatai Olowonyo

• • Title means “Send the goat to its den”

Awa Ki Se Olodi Won by  Ayinla Omowura

• • Title means “We are not their rival”

Islamic Songs Mix (in Yorùbá)

lfa divination system 

• Involves associating an extensive corpus of texts to mathematical formulae 
• On UNESCO’s list of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity 
• Afro-Caribbean religions are mostly based on the system 
• The traditional Yorùbá belief system is called ìṣẹ̀ṣe 

 Twin Birth Rate 

• Nigeria has one of the highest twin birthrates in the world 
• The deity in charge of twin worship is Òrìsà ìbejì (deity might not accurately describe the concept of Òrìsà) 
• The first of the twins is considered the younger one and second of the twins is older. 
• Read more here (NPR Story)
• Watch a short documentary here (YouTube)
  

Egungun performance at the sacred grove: watch here (YouTube)

Masquerade Dancers Sing Oríkì and Dance Bàtá: watch here (YouTube)

Oriki Olorun by Oluwafemi Samuel: watch here (YouTube)

Oriki Olodumare by Remmychanter Asatainment: watch here (YouTube)

Zeynab – Bolojo “Medley” by Zeynab Abib: watch here (YouTube)

News Outlets: 

Alaroye (Newspaper)

Iroyin Owuro (Newspaper)

BBC News Yorùbá 

olongo africa (collection of translated literary work, in Yorùbá and other languages) 

There is an emergence of various radio and television channels that only broadcast in Yorùbá. Some of them are:

• Africa Magic Yoruba (Satellite TV)
• Igbomina FM (Radio)
• Orisun (Satellite TV)
• Start Time Yoruba (Satellite TV)
• while Wakaati TV (Satellite TV)
• PBO TV (Satellite TV)