Islam In Yorubaland, Southwest Nigeria: A Historical Review Of Its Advent And Impacts Till Present Time

Abstract

The advent of Islam in Africa and indeed in Nigeria has been well documented for centuries, and, profoundly, among the early converts in the West African sub-region are the Yoruba people of Southwestern Nigeria. The Yoruba people are among the most versatile and urbane tribes in Africa and have had fruitful contact with Islam for over five centuries, even before the advent of colonialism and Christianity. However, accurate historiography of the advent of Islam and the impacts of religion itself on these Yoruba people has been relegated and distorted by non-Muslim historians and ethnographers who believed that the incursion of western education through colonialism was the only vehicle that had brought civilization and literacy into Yorubaland, despite the glaring legacies of Islam, which had benefited all and sundry. Therefore, with the employment of descriptive and analytical methods, this paper unearths the historical background of the advent of Islam in Yorubaland, the genealogical account of the Yoruba people, and enumerates methodically the impacts of Islam on the people, which are still felt to this day. It was discovered that in all facets, Islam has bestowed on the Yoruba people numerous legacies in the areas of culture, language, literacy, and others that cannot be easily obliterated for millennia to come. Additionally, Yoruba Muslim historians, ethnographers, academia, and scholars are urged to use various mediums to publish more works on the impacts of Islam, not only on Muslims alone but on all Yoruba descendants within and outside the shores of Nigeria.