A HISTORY OF YORUBA MIGRANTS
ABSTRACT
This study attempts to reconstruct the history of Yoruba migrants in Dutsin-ma local government from 1976-2015.
The essence is to interrogate and explain the forms and dynamics of intergroup relations between the Yoruba
migrant group and the host community. The study employed a historical methodology in investigating the forms of
intergroup relations in the study area. It discovered that the relationship between Yoruba migrants and the host
community has been largely cordial. More so, the Yoruba people have impacted positively in spheres such as the
economy, education and infrastructural upliftment of Dutsin-ma town. The study recommends that inter-ethnic
cooperation is a strategic necessity for development. Therefore, inter-ethnic mixture should be encouraged. It is
hoped that policy makers will find this study useful.
CHAPTER ONE
BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
1.1 INTRODUCTION
Yoruba people are seen in every part of the country and in many communities of the world, they are people who
have left their homes in South-western Nigeria and have moved to other places to settle either temporarily or
permanently. The movement of such people mostly from their places of origin to a new place occurs due to
multiple reasons often summed up base on lee Everett “push” and “pull” reasons or factors of migration. Push
factors have tended to drive people out in search of better living conditions while pull factors are believed to be
socio-economic and political reasons that have attracted them to a particular place for better means of livelihood across the world.
Migration is defined by Eisenstadt as the physical transition of individual or group from one society to another.
This transition according to him, normally involves abandoning one social setting and entering
another and different one. His emphasis is mainly on leaving a whole set of social life and of a person’s previous
residential region and establishing a new set of social life in a latter or new region where they migrated,1 such
people are generally referred to as migrants. In most cases, migrants play vital roles towards the development of
the communities which they settle while in some other cases, the impacts of the migrants can also be negatively
felt in the new environments they settled. Because relationship is prone to hiccups due to the fact that sometimes
indigenes feel threatened by migrants usually as a result of land tussle or economic struggle over scarce
resources. Places like Kano, Minna, Kaduna, Benue, Jos and Nasarawa state are examples of where indigenes
have felt threatened and this has led to clash between migrants and host communities. Cases like this have led to
security threats and displacement of people. Udo explains that migrants to rural areas do not require special skills
to function effectively as farmers or petty traders, he further ascertain that migration leads to the development of
rural areas and all exert considerable impact on the economy of the origin of migrant itself.
Among the various ethnic groups that have been active in migration processes across Nigeria for a long period
are the Yoruba people who are highly mobile, town dwelling people, who built kingdoms and empires long before
they came into contact with the European. They are among the oldest surviving groups in the forest of the South
of Nigeria including the Edo speaking people who have successfully established and maintained vast kingdoms
within the forest environments of Nigeria.4
Yoruba people in Nigeria, apart from religion affinity, can be said to be liberal that is why they easily go along and
settle among other language groups as it is seen in Northern Nigeria. The Yoruba–speaking people of Nigeria are
concentrated in Ondo, Oyo, Ogun, Osun, Kwara, Ekiti and Lagos States. While majority of the Yoruba live in
Western Nigeria, there are also substantial Yoruba communities in the Republic of Benin and Togo as well as in
the United States and United Kingdom. The Yoruba share a linguistics homogeneity as well as common
traditions and traced their decent from a common ancestor called Oduduwa, who is believed to have established
the Ife dynasty.6 The Yoruba were never united under a common government rather Yoruba land consisted of
several powerful monarchial states such as Ife, Oyo, Egba and Ijebu etc. However, certain political positions were
recognized throughout the whole of Yoruba land, the most important has been the Oni of Ife, who was regarded
as the spiritual ruler of all Yoruba and the Alaafin of Oyo who was the political leader of the Yoruba people.
A HISTORY OF YORUBA MIGRANTS