The Yoruba people (Yorùbá in Yoruba orthography) are an ethnic group of West Africa. The Yoruba constitute close to 40 million people in total, found predominantly in Nigeria, where they make up around 21% of its population or roughly 35 million in 2012, making them one of the largest ethnic groups of Sub-Saharan Africa (alongside the Akan, the Hausa-Fulani and the Igbo). The majority of the Yoruba speak the Yoruba language (Yoruba: èdèe Yorùbá).
The Yoruba share borders with the Borgu (variously called "Baruba" and "Borgawa") in the northwest; the Nupe (whom they often call "Tapa") and Ebira in the north; and the Edo, the Ẹsan, and the Afemai to the southeast. The Igala and other related groups are found in the northeast, and the Egun, Fon, and others in the southwest. The Itsekiri who live in the north-west Niger delta, are closely related to the Yoruba but maintain a distinct cultural identity. While the majority of the Yoruba live in western Nigeria, there are also substantial indigenous Yoruba communities in the Republic of Benin and Togo Comparatively numerous Yoruba diaspora communities are found in the United States and the United Kingdom.
Read more about Yoruba People: Name, Language, History, Society and Culture, Yoruba Diaspora
Famous quotes containing the word people:
“When people put their ballots in the boxes, they are, by that act, inoculated against the feeling that the government is not theirs. They then accept, in some measure, that its errors are their errors, its aberrations their aberrations, that any revolt will be against them. It’s a remarkably shrewed and rather conservative arrangement when one thinks of it.”
—John Kenneth Galbraith (b. 1908)