Are you an EPFL student looking for a semester project?
Work with us on data science and visualisation projects, and deploy your project as an app on top of Graph Search.
Concept
Okun people
Summary
Okun people is the term generally used to describe groups of Yoruba communities in Kogi state, North-central Nigeria. Their dialects are generally classified in the Northeast Yoruba language (NEY) grouping. They are collectively called "Okun", which in the Yoruba language means 'vitality' or 'strength', and is the word commonly used in greeting among the people, although this form of greeting is also found among the Ekiti and Igbomina groups of Yoruba people. This identity, which was probably first suggested by Eva Kraft-Askari during a 1965 field expedition, has gained wide acceptance among the indigenous Yoruba people and scholars. The individual Okun subgroups share some historical and linguistic affinity but still maintain individual peculiarities. "Okun" therefore refers to the distinct, but culturally related Owé, Ìyàgbà, Ìjùmú, Gbẹdẹ, Bùnú or Abunu, Ikiri , Kabba and Òwòrò peoples, who together are said to make up 20% of the Kogi State population, according to the highly controversial 2006 National population census. It is also said that their indigenous food is Pounded yam, of which they share with Ekiti people.
The individual historical accounts that state that the Okun people migrated from Ile-Ife is very popular and highly accepted among the people. In the version of Yagba oral tradition for instance, the man who led a group of people to their present location was sent from Ile-Ife to establish the settlement but did not return over a long period of time to give an account of his expenditure. When he eventually returned and explained that he lost larger part of his acquired land to some other migrants, he was blamed for the loss. He responded thus in Yoruba, Ìyà àgbà ló jemí, the clause from which the name Iyagba or Yagba was coined.
Ade Obayemi however opined that the Okun people are aboriginals in the Niger-Benue confluence and may not have migrated to their present location from Ile-Ife. The turn of events that followed the Nupe military incursion of the 19th century left the Okun people as minorities in the Northern Region of Nigeria, separated from their relatives in the southwest.
Official source
About this result
This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.