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)...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
References
Aderibigbe, A. B. (Ed.). (1975). Lagos: The development of an African city. London: Longman.
Adelusi-Adeluyi. (2015). dissertation title: Lagoon City: Lagos in the Nineteenth Century Bight of Benin.
Akinsemoyin, K., & Vaughan-Richards, A. (1976). Building Lagos. Lagos: F. & A. Services.
Aradeon, D. (2012). Nigerian architecture: Tradition and change. In Udechukwu, O., Okeke-Agulu, C. and Soyinka W. (Eds.), Ezumeezu: Essays on Nigerian Art & Architecture: a Festschrift in Honour of Demas Nwoko. 23–28. Glassboro, NJ, Goldline & Jacobs Pub.
Bascom, W. (1955). Urbanization among the Yorùbá. The American Journal of Sociology, 60, 446–454.
Bascom, W. (1969). The Yorùbá of southwestern Nigeria. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
Bigon, L. (2008). Between local and colonial perceptions: The history of slum clearances in Lagos (Nigeria), 1924–1960. The Journal of Asian and African Studies, 7, 49–76.
Bigon, L. (2009). A history of urban planning in two West African colonial capitals: Residential segregation in British Lagos and French Dakar (1850–1930). London: Edwin Mellen Press.
Coquery-Vidrovitch, C. (2005). The history of African cities south of the Sahara: From the origins to colonization (M. Baker, Trans.). Princeton: Markus Wiener.
Izomoh, S. O. (1994). Nigerian traditional architecture. Benin: Aka & Brothers Press.
Johnson, S. (1921). The history of the Yorubas: From the earliest times to the beginning of the British Protectorate. London: George Routledge & Sons.
King, A. D. (1995). The bungalow: The production of a global culture. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Kostof, S. (1999). The city shaped: Urban patterns and meanings through history. London: Thames & Hudson.
Krapf-Askari, E. (1969). Yoruba towns and cities: An enquiry into the nature of urban social phenomena. Oxford: Clarendon.
Law, R. (1984). How truly traditional is our traditional history? the case of Samuel Johnson and the recording of Yoruba oral tradition. History in Africa, 11, 195–221.
Lloyd, P. C. (1973). The Yorùbá, an urban people? In A. W. Southall (Ed.), Urban anthropology: Cross-cultural studies of urbanization. New York: Oxford University Press.
Mabogunje, A. L. (1967). The morphology of Ibadan. In P. C. Lloyd, A. L. Mabogunge, & B. Awe (Eds.), The city of Ibadan (pp. 35–58). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Mabogunje, A. L. (1968). Urbanization in Nigeria. New York: Africana Publishing Corporation.
Mabogunje, A. L. (1969). Urbanization in Nigeria. New York: Africana.
Mann, K. (2007). Slavery and the birth of an African city: Lagos, 1760–1900. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Marris, P. (1961). Family and social change in an African city: A study of rehousing in Lagos. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
McIntosh, M. K. (2009). Yorùbá women, work, and social change. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Moughtin, J. C. (1985). Hausa architecture. London: Ethnographica & Nottingham University.
Njoh, A. (2007). Planning power: Social control and planning in colonial Africa. London/New York: UCL Press.
Oguntomisin, G. O. (1999). The transformation of a Nigerian lagoon town: Epe 1852–1942. Ibadan: John Archers.
Ojo, G. A. (1966). Yoruba Culture: A geographical analysis. Ife: University of Ife Press.
Ojo, A. (1967). Royal palaces: An index of Yoruba traditional culture. Nigeria Magazine, 94, 194–210.
Peel, J. D. Y. (1980). Urbanization and urban history in West Africa. The Journal of African History, 21, 269–277.
Peel, J. D. Y. (2000). Religious encounter and the making of the Yorùbá. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Sjoberg, G. (1960). The preindustrial city: Past and present. Glencoe: The Free Press.
Smith, R. S. (1988). Kingdoms of the Yorùbá. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
UN-Habitat. (2014). The state of African cities, 2014: Re-imagining sustainable urban transitions. Nairobi: UN-Habitat. Also available online: http://mirror.unhabitat.org/pmss/listItemDetails.aspx?publicationID=3528
Usman, A. (2000). A view from the periphery: Northern Yoruba villages during the Old Oyo Empire, Nigeria. Journal of Field Archaeology, 27, 43–61.
Vlach, J. M. (1984). The Brazilian house in Nigeria: The emergence of a 20th century vernacular house type. Journal of American Folklore, 97(383), 3–22.
Watson, R. (2003). “Civil disorder is the disease of Ibadan”: Chieftaincy and civic culture in a Yorùbá city. Athens: Ohio University Press; Oxford UK: J. Curry; Ibadan: Heinemann.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this entry
Cite this entry
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
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-3934-5_10203-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Online ISBN: 978-94-007-3934-5
eBook Packages: Springer Reference Religion and PhilosophyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Humanities