The Yorùbá are a finite set of adjacent groups – including the È̩gbá, Òndó, Àwórì, and Ìjè̩bu – who share a mutually intelligible language, myths of origin, religious beliefs, cultural practices, experiences of bondage, and Anglo-Franco colonial heritage. Historians have argued that this ethnic identity coalesced in the nineteenth century, while their historical tendency to settle in large, densely populated cities and towns has pushed them to the forefront of discourse of indigenous urbanism in Africa. In West Africa today, Yorùbá-speaking people can be found split mainly between two countries, with over one million in southern Benin Republic and close to 40 million in southwestern Nigeria. Substantial minor communities are also established in Ghana and Togo.
Established as a confederacy of city-states thriving between the twelfth and the late seventeenth century, historically Yorùbáland maintained its autonomy and power – split between the political capital of Old Ọ̀yọ́ (Ọ̀yọ́-Ilé)...
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Adelusi-Adeluyi, A., Bigon, L. (2014). City Planning: Yorùbá City Planning. In: Selin, H. (eds) Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-3934-5_10203-1
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