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Pre-Colonial Yoruba History

Both creation myths of the Yoruba culture articulate the same basic idea: newcomers (personified by Oduduwa) settled in Yoruba land had a significant effect on the pre-existing populations of the area. Archaeological evidence has demonstrated that Yorubaland was already populated by the time of these newcomers, and had probably been populated since the Stone Age. Evidence for early inhabitants in the area rests with metalwork and fine art techniques on baked clay that are possibly related to Nok Culture.
The question still remains, however, regarding the identity of the newcomers into Yorubaland. Linguistic history has proven pivotal in unraveling the mystery, and many Yoruba language experts have agreed that there were in fact two main movements of newcomers. The first movement brought a population boom to Ekiti, Ife, and Ijebu soon after 700 C.E.. This movement was followed by a similar increase of population in Oyo to the north. Yoruba legends claim that the newcomers hailed from Arabia, an idea substantiated by the high percentage of Yoruba customs that echoes those found along the Middle Nile, particularly in the ancient kingdom of Kush.
The two waves of newcomers brought a flood of new political ideas and methods into Yorubaland, which began to take root almost immediately. By 1000 C.E., the Yoruba had developed a political system dominated by town governments. Towns themselves were a product of new ways of thinking, as they grew out of increased interdependence among the Yoruba and a rising need to rely on one's neighbors. Where once Yorubaland had been primarily a forest farming area, under the influence of the newcomers it became a highly urbanized society, known throughout West Africa for the glory of their capital, or crowned, towns.

Yoruba area within Nigeria (Yorubaland).

The capital towns of Yorubaland were linked together in ancient times, forming a loose confederacy under the senior Yoruba leader, the oni of Ife. Primarily serving as a mechanism for peace keeping, the confederacy that united Yorubaland left the states to govern themselves and served to minimize conflict among confederacy members. Political thought at this time focused on the idea of a kingdom as a large family, the oni as the head and mutual respect among the sibling nations. Each city state, left to govern itself in most matters, was controlled by monarchs (Obas) and councils of nobles, guildleaders, and merchants, commonly known as Ẹgbẹ in Yoruba.
Often the throne was hereditary, passed through generations. Royal bloodlines alone, however, were not enough to secure a position of power, as an eligible contender for the throne would not be allowed to ascend to power if any family member, servant, or slave belonging to the family committed a serious crime such as theft, fraud, murder, or rape. Some city states abolished the use of royal lineages altogether, preferring to keep the monarchy open to the election of any free-born male citizen. The kings were almost alwayspolygamous, some boasting up to 20 wives. Political power was often increased throughmarriage, and kings often sought women of royal families as their wives. A few female Obasrose to power in Ilesa and Ondo, but these were comparatively rare.
There was no set power balance between the monarch and the council throughout the confederacy, and cities were left to decide for themselves whether to weigh the two opinions equally or to cast more weight to one. For the Egba of Yorubaland, the the leadership council exercised extreme control over the monarch and carefully guarded against any excesses of royal authority. While the extreme level of control that the council could exercise over the king was not the mode across all of Yorubaland, many other cities fostered a political sense of unity between the monarch and the council. For example, even in Ọyọ, the most centralized of the precolonial kingdoms, the Alaafin consulted on all political decisions with a prime minister (the Basọrun) and the council of leading nobles known as the Ọyọ Mesi.
When not exercising a political voice in the council of nobles, Yoruba could join in many of the other peer organizations in the region. One of these organizations was Ẹgbẹ Aro, a militia group formed in the eighteenth century by Lisbi in opposition to Oyo's Ajeles(appointed administrators) . Other covert military resistance leagues such as theEkitiparapọ and the Ogidi alliance were organized in the nineteenth century for the diametrically opposite reasons; these groups wanted to secure the dominance of the Yoruba and resist advances from Ibadan, Nupe, and the Sokoto Caliphate.
The political and urban developments in Ife reached their height around 1300 C.E.. By this time the Yoruba language had spread across an extensive portion of West Africa and the amount of Yoruba settlements had dramatically increased. The most notable among the new settlements was Oyo, a town in the Northern part of Yoruba territory. Oyo would become a kingdom in its own right following the decline of Yoruba hegemony in sixteenth century.
The power of the Yoruba confederacy began a slow decline in the sixteenth century, primarily caused by conflicts with the Sokoto Caliphate in the savanna region between theNiger River and the forest. The Sokoto Caliphate was a militant Muslim empire founded by the Fulani Koranic scholar Uthman Dan Fodio who seized control of the northern Yoruba town of Ilorin and ravaged the Yoruba capital Oyo-Ile. The early victories of the Caliphate caused the Yoruba to retreat to the northern latitudes, a move which dramatically harmed the remaining Yoruba population as tsetse flies in the area killed many of the remaininghorses. The Caliphate continued to pursue the Yoruba, however, an advance that only stopped when they were decisively defeated by the armies of Ibadan in 1840. For pushing back the advances of the Sokoto Caliphate Ibadan was named the "Saviour of Yorubaland."