RETHINKING THE ORIGIN AND MEANING OF

THE NAME YORUBA

by

Yinka Kareem

1
 RETHINKING THE ORIGIN AND MEANING OF THE NAME YORUBA

ABSTRACT

The origin and meaning of Yoruba, a name which designates a people and their language,

is shrouded in controversy. Hitherto, there was no accurate knowledge of the origin and meaning

of the name but alternative facts and misinformation which fueled the apparent controversy;

there was also misconception about the name which discouraged conducting any research into its

origin and meaning. Various researches on “Yoruba” were conducted mainly from an historical

perspective; consequently the name Yoruba was erroneously regarded as a meaningless word.

This paper which rethinks the origin and meaning of the name Yoruba embraces history,

onomastics, and archaeology to explain that “Yoruba” is not a meaningless word, and to justify

the tracing of the origin of Yoruba to Yemen, in ancient Arabia, where the personal Arabic name

Ya’rab, with its root in the Hebrew and Aramic word arab, meant a westerner. The meaning of

Yoruba, the name of a people, is elucidated in this paper as the people living where the sun-set or

the people from the west, based on the meaning of arab in Arabic, Hebrew and Aramic

languages.

Keywords: Yoruba, Ya’riba, meaningless word, history, onomastics, archaeology, Yemen,

Arabia, Arabic language, Hebrew language, Aramic language, arab, and westerner.

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 The Name Yoruba

Dictionary.com defines a name as “a word or a combination of words by which a person,

place, or thing, a body or class, or any object of thought is designated, called, or known”. 1 As a

name, Yoruba “…identifies the language, as well as the people who live mainly in Nigeria’s

southwestern States of Lagos, Oyo, Ogun, Osun, Ondo, Ekiti, Kwara and Kogi and in part of

Dahomey (now Republic of Benin)”.2 Those in diaspora are referred to as ‘Diaspora Yorùbá’.3

About a Name

Names aid people’s imagination about where a place is situated; give information about

the named; and also reflect identity. Lamidi and Aboh state that, “If one asks the question “what

is in a name?” the answer is “identity””.4 There are conflicts over names between nations5;

changing of names by individuals6; and the changing of the names of places7; all these are

indications that there is something in a name.

Indeed, there is something in a name and there is also something about a name; if not

Fani-Kayode who believes the name Yoruba was given to his people by the Hausa/Fulani would

not say that “…we must not accept names given to us by our historical adversaries”.8

The Need to Dig into the Past

Fani-Kayode’s assertion that the name Yoruba was given to the children of Oduduwa by

the Hausa/Fulani and his call that the name should be rejected led Olutayo Adesina in Johnson et

al to say that Fani Kayode’s assertion “…was not a product of any connection with deep and

profound research.” 9 Kunle Adebayo in Johnson et al also regards Fani-Kayode’s claim as “…

an unintelligent interpretation of serious matter of history.” 10

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 Adesina and Adebayo’s comments are off-beam because Fani-Kayode’s view echoes that

of Daryll Forde in a well researched ethnographic survey of Africa. 11 This notwithstanding, there

should now be a rethink of the origin and meaning of the name by digging into the past; but the

research would not be restricted to history, “…the study of change over time” 12; it would also

embrace onomastics, “the study of the history and origin of proper names, especially personal

names” 13; and archeology, “…the study of the ancient and recent human past through material

remains”.14

Opposing Views

There are objections against the quest for the origin and meaning of “Yoruba”; Yemi

Farounbi says it is what “…we don’t need at this time”.15 Johnson et al also present thought

provoking views that seeking for the root of some words can be unfruitful; and that research into

the etymology of some modern words may “…yield distorted results…”16

But the truth is that we must dig into the past because in the words of Pearl Buck, in

Quotes NG, “If you want to understand today, you have to search yesterday” .17 On the other

issue, the etymological scrutiny of a modern word may not be unfruitful if the word is not

meaningless. A valid point in onomastics which must be put into consideration is that “Proper

names which originally had meaning may become meaningless through the loss of all oral or

written traces of their meanings”.18 But is “Yoruba” actually meaningless?

The Crux of the Matter

Based on the documentation by Sultan Belo of Sokoto in Samuel Johnson,19 Capt.

Clapperton in Samuel Johnson,20 and Denham21 the Yoruba are regarded as the remaining

members of the Canaanites who came to settle down in Yarba, West Africa, after their expulsion

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from Arabia by Yar-rooba (also Yarab), son of Khatan. Daryll Forde22, Fani-Kayode23

Elebubon24 regard the name, Yoruba, as a nickname which Fulani and the Hausa gave to the

indigenes of Oyo in ancient times. Akintoye 25 and Ọlọbaagun in Akintoye26 identify it as a name

given by foreigners in a foreign land to traders from Oyo and other places in the area that they

referred to as Yorubaland.

Kperogi notes that “Yariba” as an ethnic description is found in many ancient scholastic

works27 and that “…the name “Yariba” had been used to refer to people of the ancient Oyo

Empire at least 200 years before Dan Fodio and his son, Muhammad Bello, used it”.28 He also

says this “…invalidates the claim that it was the “Fulani” who “gave” the name “Yariba” to

people in today’s western Nigeria. In any case, “Yariba” doesn’t mean anything in Fulfulde” 29

“Yoruba” not “Yariba”

According to Kperogi, Yoruba was the original name given to this ethnic group that Arab

scholars referred to as “Yariba”. He explains that “Yoruba” became “Yariba” because Arabic

language “… does not have the vowel “o.” The three dominant vowels in Arabic are “a,” “I,” and

“u.”30 Akintoye points out that the name was in existence in Songhai Empire and some areas of

the Upper Niger in the Western Sudan in the 16th century, “where the Yorùbá had been going in

large numbers since about the 5th century AD as long-distance traders.” 31

Yoruba Oral Tradition

It is part of Yoruba oral tradition that the name was given to Yoruba long-distance traders

who travelled in ancient times to commercial areas in the Upper Niger, now around modern

Mali.32 Yoruba oral tradition also has it that in the dawn of Yoruba history, the name Yoruba “…

was a general name for the whole national or language group.”33 This narrative is contrary to

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another oral narrative that “…Yoruba is the name the Gogobiri (Gambari of the North) called

Oyo people, the name became popular during the era of Alaafin Abiodun Adegolu …”34

The Meanings of “Yoruba” in Early Publications

In the work of John Raban in 1832, The Vocabulary of the Eyo, or Aku, a Dialect of West

Africa; and that of Ajayi Crowther in 1843, A Vocabulary of the Yoruba Language the name

Yorub is used as an ethnic name for the people inhabiting the area where the Yoruba people

presently inhabit in Nigeria.35

However, in Poliglotta Africana by Sigismund Koelle, the stand of some freed slaves

who were Ìjẹ̀bú or Ìyàgbà or Ìjẹ̀ṣà, in the colony of Freetown, that they were not Yoruba, implies

that the name Yoruba was not generally accepted.36 The name of the earliest modern newspaper

in Nigeria, published in 1859; Iwe Irohin fun awon Egba ati Yoruba, (“Newspaper for the Egba

and Yoruba people”) also indicates that the name Yoruba was initially not a general name. 37

The Inadequate Meanings Given to the Name Yoruba

Both the artistic and non- artistic interpretations given to the name Yoruba are inadequate

because they do not give factual meanings or interpretations of the name. Hubert Ogunde’s song,

“Yoruba yoyo, (shining like light in the night)” 38 is an artistic interpretation which is not based

on etymological interpretation; it is highly subjective.

From the non- artistic level, various interpretations are given to the name based on the

meanings of “Yariba” in Hausa language; Both Daryll Forde39 and Fani-Kayode in Dayo et al40

choose “shady and unreliable”; Akindele, in Dayo et al2 uses “shady and unreliable bastards” 41;

and” Aderemi Ajala, in Dayo et al2 chooses “cunning and deceitful”.42 These meanings are

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defective and misleading because Yariba in Hausa language is not connected in any way to the

name Yoruba. Those who rely on the meaning of Yariba in Hausa language to interpret the

meaning of Yoruba have failed to adhere to a warning in onomastics: “Beware folk etymology

(an effort to explain a name by its resemblance, in sound or spelling, or to some other name or

word, or its possible association with a person or event)”.43

Another meaning of the name Yoruba which is based on oral tradition is “people from,

or of, the distant southern forests”. 44 This meaning also appears defective because it is not

backed up with any etymological explanation.

The Arab Connection

The clue to comprehending the origin and the meaning of the name Yoruba lies in the

Arab connection, the hypothesis that Arab traders were the one who gave the name Yoruba to the

long distance traders from Oyo. The Arab hypothesis of origin of the name Yoruba is different

from the Arab theory of origin of the Yoruba as a people, which is rejected by Agai and some

scholars.45

Commenting on inter regional trading in ancient times, Ariyo notes that Arab traders “…

who organized caravans to and from North Africa and established a couple of merchant

settlements”, 46 came to trade in northern commercial cities. These cities should be regarded as

the locations where Arab traders met Oyo traders who they regarded as those “…driven by Yar-

rooba, son of Khatan, out of Arabia to the Western Coast between Egypt and Abyssinia”. 47

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 Yar’ub (Yar-rooba) and the Yoruba

The Arabia of Yar-rooba was Yemen, from where Arab historians say that he expelled

the Yoruba. Yemen is regarded as the homeland of the Qahtanian Arabs (Arabized Arabs) the

progeny of Ya’rub bin Yashjub bin Qahtan.48 The name of Yar’ub is spelt as Ya'rob, Yarrob,

Yarab or Yaarub; 49 It is also spelled as Yar-rooba.50 On Yarab, Lowell Jackson Thomas writes

that “The Word “Arab” comes from “Araba” the name of a small territory in an ancient province

south of the Hedjaz which is said to have been named after Yarab, the son of Kahtan…”51

The Yoruba of Yarab’s Yemen should be regarded as “…descendants of Canaan, a son of

Ham and grandson of Noah” 52; inhabitants of Canaan53; and black people as a result of Noah’s

curse54 because they were members of Canaan from the tribe of Nimrod55 that Ya'rub (also Yar-

rooba) drove away from Yemen.56 The reference to the Yoruba as being “of the tribe of

Nimrod”57 also means the Yoruba of Yarab’s era belonged to the tribe of Adites like Nimrod and

they were also Canaanites because Mindel traces the genealogy of Nimrod to Canaan. 58

Yar’ub (Yar-rooba), the Adites and Yoruba

The Adites were driven from their homeland in Yemen (Diop, in McLeod ,5 9 Wikipedia60;

Ripley and Dana.61 Out of the three sources only Diop does not make reference to Yar’ub as the

one who drove the Adites away from Yemen. It is important to note that “The Cushites, the first

inhabitants of Arabia, are known in the national traditions by the name of Adites, from their

progenitor, who is called Ad, the grandson of Ham”62. The reference to the Adites as Cushites

shows that they were black in complexion because “A Kushite (Kush is a Jewish word meaning

Black) Empire originally existed throughout Arabia”.63

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 The driving away of the Adites and the Yoruba away from Yemen should be seen as the

same historical event because the Yoruba people of Yar’ub’s Yemen were regarded as Cushites

(black people) and members of the tribe of Nimrod, the Adites. To regard the Yoruba as a

separate entity in the Yemen of Arab historian appears awkward.

Ancient Arabia as Part of Africa

The reference to the Adites, who were black people, as the early inhabitants of Arabia

should not be regarded as outlandish because prehistoric Arabia was part of Africa64; and Arabia,

is geologically part of Africa (William H. Worrell, in Wesley Muhammad65 and Encyclopedia

Britanica (sic) in Wesley Muhammad66).

Recently, the outcome of the excavation during the Ceri Shipton Palaeodersert Project in

the Nefud Desert, part of the Arabian Peninsula, shows that “… multiple waves of Homo sapiens

and their relatives have been migrating across the Arabian interior for at least the past 400,000

years”.67 These multiple waves of migration should be seen as the migration of the ancestors of

the blacks (Kushites), Yoruba people inclusive, into the Arabian Peninsula. But this migration is

not enough a validation that the Yoruba people actually lived in Yemen in ancient times before

they were driven from Yemen by Yar’ub (Yar-rooba).

A Case of Mistaken Identity and Misnaming

The perception of the Yoruba as a remnant of the Adites and by implication as members

of the Adites from the perspective of Arab historians and genealogists seems to be a case of

mistaken identity; “a situation in which someone or something is mistakenly thought to be

someone or something else.”68 One of the ways to establish this is through the examination of the

similarities and dissimilarities between the Adites and the Yoruba.

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 The Adites were black in complexion69; they were polytheists and idol worshipers70; they

had “…a deep conviction in the tidings of soothsayer, diviners and astrologers”71; they were

physically imposing72; and they loved grandiose buildings.73 These similarities between them are

evident in the area of complexion and religion; while the dissimilarities are apparent in their

physic and buildings. These dissimilarities indicate that Yoruba are not Adites.

It is also germane to mention that the naming of some Oyo traders as Yoruba by Arab

traders in ancient times74 should be regarded as a misnaming - “to name” incorrectly” 75 This is

because there are no overwhelming facts to substantiate the claim that the Yoruba belonged to

the Adites, the Canaanites, that some Arab historians claim were driven away from Yemen.

A Personal Name Became an Ethnic Name

The mistaken identity and misnaming in connection with the name Yoruba involved a

personal name which became the ethnic name and the language of a people. “Ya'rub (Arabic:

‫ )يعرب‬or Yarrob (Arabic: ‫)يعرب‬, which is also spelt in various ways, is an ancient personal name

among the Arabs according to TheNamesDictionary76 and Encyclo.co.uk. 77 The possibility

cannot be ruled out that in ancient times, these long-distance Arab traders while referring to the

ancestors of those who are now called Yoruba, would have uttered such statements as “Those

displaced by King Yar’ub”; “Those displaced by King Yar-rooba”; and “Those displaced by

King Yarob”.

But through truncation these statements were likely to become “Those displaced by Yar-

rooba” before becoming “Yar-rooba”; “Those displaced by Yarab” before changing to “Yarab”;

and “Those displaced by Yaarub” before being shortened to “Yaarub”. Truncation of words,

sentences and phrases is not a strange phenomenon in naming; the name Abeokuta (Under-

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Stone) was formed through the truncation of the statement, “… [our] lodgings were “under-

stone”” .78

The Meaning of the Name Yoruba from a New Perspective

Just as “Yoruba” which has its root in a foreign language, is regarded in some quarters as

a meaningless word; “Yarab”, with its root in a foreign language, is also considered meaningless.

Namesfolder.com79 and Babynameseasy.com 80 identify it as an Arab personal name without

meaning. This is expected because according to Chapman, a proper name would become

meaningless when the name is no longer seen as a name with its origin in a foreign language in

ancient times. 81

At this juncture, it must be noted that the meaning of the expression “Ya Rabb” in Arabic

is different from the meaning of the Arab personal name; “Ya’rab”. The expression “Ya Rabb”

means “O Lord” in English” 82; and “Dear God why?!”83 On “Ya’rab”, The Penny Cyclopaedia

writes that “We are inclined to trace the word Arab to the same verbal root, from which this

name Ya’rab is evidently derived, namely to the Hebrew verb arab “to set or go down (as the

sun)”.84 William Parkin, also writes that “The most probable is that the word Arab was derived

from the Hebrew verb arab, to set or go down, as the sun”.85

The Penny Cyclopaedia goes further to write, “According to the etymology, the name

Arab implies the nation or country, situated towards sun-set, i.e. westward from the Euphrates,

and from the regions which were probably the earliest seats of the Semitic tribes”.86 William

Parkin also makes a similar explanation on the etymology of the name Arab, he explains that “…

the nation or country, situated towards sun-set, i.e. westward…”87

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 In the bid to shed more light on this issue, it is necessary to look beyond Hebrew

language and focus on Aramic language, the language of the Assyrians which Eden Naby

observes influenced the Hebrew language and some other Semitic languages.88 In connection

with words which sound like “arab” in the Assyrian language, Peter Webb points out these words

“…connoted ‘desert steppe’, ‘outsider’, ‘westerners’ and ‘locusts’…”89 That ‘westerners’ is one

of the meanings of arab” in the Assyrian language, a language which directly influenced Hebrew

language and indirectly influenced Arab language, shows that “arab” in Hebrew language in

ancient times meant westward.

Consequently, the meaning of Ya’rab as a personal name among the Arabs should be seen

as a person living where the sun-set or a person from the west based on the meaning of arab, the

root word of Ya’rab and Arab in Hebrew language. The meaning of Yoruba, a name which is

derived from Yarab (Ya'rob, Yarrob or Yaarub) which has its root in the Hebrew word arab

should also be regarded as “the people living where the sun-set or the people from the west”.

Conclusion

Based upon the rethinking of the origin and meaning of the name Yoruba, the word is not a

meaningless name. The etymology of the word which hitherto has not being thoroughly traced to

“Yarab”, an Arab proper or personal name, which has its root in Hebrew and Aramic language,

reveals that the name means “the people living where the sun-set or the people from the west”;

although the name seems to be given to long –distance Oyo traders by Arab merchants as a result

of mistaken identity and misnaming. Basically, the name informs that the abode of the Yoruba is

in the west just as the name Australia informs that Australia is situated in the south. 90

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