7 Countries Where Yoruba is Being Majorly Spoken (Pictures)
Yoruba is a language spoken in West Africa, most prominently Southwestern Nigeria. It is spoken by the ethnic Yoruba people. The number of Yoruba speakers is stated as roughly 50 million, plus about 2 million second-language speakers. As a pluricentric language, it is primarily spoken in a dialectal area spanning Nigeria and many countries. Collated is a list of where one of the most popular languages in Africa is being spoken.
1. Nigeria
Nigeria, the most populous African country is home to the Yoruba people numbering at least 50 million people. The heart of the Yoruba culture, Ife and the home of the great Oyo empire is in Nigeria. Yoruba is one of the countries recognised major languages including Igbo and Hausa.
2. Benin Republic
Benin republic shares border with the Western part of Nigeria with a resembling Yoruba culture and tradition still strongly existent there. Estimates of the Yoruba in Benin vary from around 1.1 to 1.5 million people. The Yoruba are the main group in the Benin department of Ouémé, all Subprefectures including Porto Novo (Ajasè), Adjara; Collines Province.
3. Togo
Estimates of the Yoruba in Togo vary from around 500,000 to 600,000 people. There are both immigrant Yoruba communities from Nigeria, and indigenous ancestral Yoruba communities living in Togo. Footballer Emmanuel Adebayor is an example of a Togolese from an immigrant Yoruba background. Indigenous Yoruba communities in Togo, however can be found in the Togolese departments of Plateaux Region, Anie, Ogou and Est-Mono prefectures; Centrale Region and Tchamba Prefecture.
4. Burkina Faso & Cote D’Ivoire
The Yoruba in Burkina Faso are numbered around 70,000 people, and around 60,000 in Niger. In the Ivory Coast, they are concentrated in the cities of Abidjan, Bouake, Korhogo, Grand Bassam and Gagnoa where they are mostly employed in retail at major markets. Otherwise known as “Anago traders”, they dominate certain sectors of the retail economy.
5. Cuba
Spanish is the official language of the Cubans, so Yoruba is a second language and its culture is practiced by practitioners of Santeria. It is believed that during the slave trade, Yoruba slaves from west Africa took their beliefs and culture to Cuba, some believe in Ifa, Sango, Obatala.
6. El – Salvador
El Salvador is a Central America country with lots of Yoruba immigrant roots. This country home a lot of Yoruba culture since the Yoruba slaved were concentrated in the country. This particular country do exactly what is done in Yoruba land. They worship Sango, God of Thunder (Xango), Iyemoja, God of Water (Lemanja) and other Yoruba Traditional practice.
7. Brazil
Brazil happens to be one of the countries that homes alot of ancestral victims of the transatlantic slave trade. The state of Bahia in Brazil,has Yoruba is one of the major languages in the state and it is widely spoken. The Pelourinho building which housed the enslaved Yoruba from West Africa before they departed to other countries with their merchants is located here.
Through the Ooni of Ife, Ooni Ogunwusi Brazil was able to officially make the Yoruba language an official language of the country in 2018. Brazil has the highest number of people who speak and practice Yoruba culture in the Americas.
Pocket Yoruba immigrant communities are also in other countries including Sierra leone, Ghana, Haiti, and Trinidad & Tobago
