Affinity Bloc: Sub-Saharan African

Overview: The Yoruba are a large ethnolinguistic group numbering more than twenty million people in Sierra Leone, Ghana, Benin, Togo, Niger, and Nigeria. The largest concentration is in Nigeria, where the Yoruba constitute the entire populations of the states of Ogun, Ondo, and Oyo. Numerous sub-groups of Yoruba are classified as distinct people groups within the Registry of Peoples. The Yoruba are believed to be a Sudanic people who migrated west and conquered the indigenous groups of Nigeria's forested southwestern coast. The Yoruba religion is a mixture of traditional religious practices that are thriving in West Africa today.

  -- James S. Olson, The Peoples of Africa. London: Greenwood Press (1996), pp. 606-607.

Peoples within this cluster: Aguna; Akpes; Cabe; Egba; Ica; Idaca; Idon; Ife; Igala; Ije; Isekiri; Kambole; Monkole; Nago; Northern Akoko; Ulukwumi; Yoruba

Countries where they are found: Benin; Burkina Faso; Cote d’Ivoire; Equatorial Guinea; Ghana; Niger; Nigeria; Sierra Leone; Togo; United States