International records / OpenAlex research

The Traditional Political Organization of Yoruba Town

The Yoruba of Southwestern Nigeria have been known as an ‘urban people’ because of their unique settlement pattern. They have traditionally lived in large, dense, permanent settlements, some of which had populations more than 50, 000 in pre-colonial period. These traditional towns (ilu) were independent political units comparable to Greek city-states. The towns were enclosed by a high wall and ditch, with the palace of a sacred ruler at the center. Yoruba kingdoms such as Ife, Oyo, Ijesha, Ijebu, Ondo were the confederation of these towns. The aim of this paper is to reconsider the political o…