Yoruba
/ˈjɒrʊbə
/noun (plural same or Yorubas)
1A member of an African people of SW Nigeria and Benin.The proportion of Yorubas in Nigeria who are Muslim, Catholic, or Protestant or who subscribe to traditional beliefs or animism is not stated....
- The Africans began to see themselves not as Hausas, Igbos, or Yorubas, but as Nigerians in a common struggle against their colonial rulers.
- The Hausas dominate Nigeria's north, the Yorubas the southwest.
2 [mass noun] The language of the Yoruba, which belongs to the Kwa group. It is an official language of Nigeria, with over 16 million speakers.Arabic, Yoruba, Bhojpuri, Urdu and other languages are used in religious contexts, and the traditional Christmas music called parang is sung in Spanish....
- Belonging to the Kwa group of languages, Yoruba is a tonal tongue.
- The point of a talking drum is to make noises which sound like words spoken in a tonal language - like Yoruba.
adjective
Relating to the Yoruba or their language.Hustu de la Madrid, better known as El Negro, chants out something in the Yoruba language as he tosses four pieces of coconut shells onto the floor to talk to the spirits....
- Although ten out of twelve major media institutions are located in Lagos, only two of these, the Punch and the Comet, have Yoruba proprietors.
- Later I was told that 25,000 members of the OPC Youth Wing had descended on the Apapa Port to defend the rights of Yoruba dock workers fired by the new non-Yoruba union boss.
Origin
The name in Yoruba.