Yorùbá - History, Identity and the In-Between

Zack Shittu
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Yorùbá — History, Identity & the In-Between is a narrative history podcast exploring the Yorùbá people of West Africa: their kingdoms, their wars, their philosophers, and the worlds they built before, during, and after colonialism. Hosted by Dr. Zack Shittu — technologist, photographer, and lifelong student of Yorùbá culture — each episode moves between the archive and the present day. From the rise and fall of the Oyo Empire to the invention of tradition under British rule, this podcast asks not just what happened, but what it means to know it now.

Episodes

  1. 5d ago

    The Crown Was Hollow: How Britain Ruled Yorubaland Without Ruling It | YHIB S1E7 Finale

    In 1906, a British officer told the Aláàfin of Ọ̀yọ́ that his authority was intact — he merely needed to "advise." The Aláàfin's answer became the line that defines this entire episode: the crown was hollow, the throne was borrowed, the ceremonies were theater for someone else's administration.This is the Season 1 finale of Yorùbá — History, Identity & The In-Between. Six episodes have built to this moment. Today we open the robe.In this episode:Frederick Lugard's "Dual Mandate" — the doctrine of ruling through existing chiefs, and the real (cheaper, safer) reasons Britain adopted itWhy Yorùbá political authority never fit Lugard's Northern Nigeria template — and what the British did when reality didn't match the org chartHow chiefs became "clerks with crowns": salaried tax collectors and labor recruiters, bound by British approval, hollowed of the authority that once made them legitimateThe Olubadan of Ìbàdàn — the traditional ruler title invented by the colonial administration in 1936 for a city that had deliberately rejected kingshipHobsbawm & Ranger's "invention of tradition," applied directly to Yorùbá historyResistance from every direction: the 1916 Iseyin tax revolt, the 1918 Abẹ́òkúta/Ẹ̀gbá riots, market women's boycotts, the Aladura churches, and Herbert Macaulay's press campaignsThe 1955 deposition of Aláàfin Adeniran Adeyemi II — removed not by the British, but by Nigerian politicians using the very tools colonialism built00:00 Oyo Under Britain02:03 Facade Of Indirect Rule02:53 Lugard And The Doctrine04:16 Yoruba Politics Clash05:19 Chiefs Rewritten Roles06:17 Economic Leash Trap07:39 Invented Tradition Ibadan08:59 Olubadan Created10:13 Everyday Resistance11:50 Adeyemi II Warning13:39 Legacy And Season TwoThe central question of this episode:The Olubadan title was invented in 1936 and is now treated as ancient. If an institution is believed traditional, functions as traditional, and carries traditional authority in people's lives — does its actual age change what it is? Drop your answer below. I'm reading every one.If you're new here:YHIB is a source-cited documentary series on 19th- and 20th-century Yorùbá history. Start from Episode 1 to walk the full arc this finale closes.Season 1 is complete. Season 2 picks up exactly here — colonialism deepens, nationalism sharpens, and a generation raised between two worlds starts asking what to build next.Go deeper on Patreon:The full "Dual Mandate" walkthrough, the customary-law codification mechanics, the expanded women's resistance material, and the complete legacy segment cut from this episode live at → patreon.com/ZackShittuFollow for Season 2 updates: → @ZackShittu · withzackshittu.comSources for this episode include Lugard's "The Dual Mandate in British Tropical Africa" (1922), Atanda, Hobsbawm & Ranger's "The Invention of Tradition," and James Scott's "Weapons of the Weak." Full bibliography on Patreon.#YorubaHistory #WestAfricanHistory #AfricanHistory #Colonialism #Nigeria #YHIB

  2. Jul 11

    Ajayi Crowther: He Invented 'Yoruba' — Then Smashed Its Gods

    An Ifa oracle told his parents he would serve none of the 400 Yoruba deities. It was right — he served something harder to name. Samuel Ajayi Crowther was enslaved at twelve, freed at sea by the Royal Navy, and rebuilt himself through language. He wrote the first grammar of any African language authored by a native speaker, translated the Bible into Yoruba, and became the first African Anglican bishop — received by Queen Victoria, honored by Oxford. His translation work helped weld the Oyo, Egba, Ijebu, and Ekiti into a single "Yoruba" identity that didn't fully exist before him. He also walked into sacred shrines and destroyed Yoruba carvings with his own hands. This bonus episode holds both truths at once — the man who gave the Yoruba people their written language, and the man who helped an empire that would later strip him of everything. No flattening. Just the paradox. 🔗 Full research brief (30 sources) + companion Visual Guide PDF, free for Patrons: patreon.com/ZackShittu Yoruba — History, Identity & the In-Between (YHIB) | Written & narrated by Zack Shittu

  3. Jun 27

    When Europeans Arrived: How Yorubaland Was Redirected, Not Replaced

    This is the pivot episode of Season 1. Everything YHIB has built — the collapse of Oyo, the rise of Ibadan, the construction of Yoruba identity, the mechanics of trade and civil war — comes to bear on this moment.In this episodeHow European trade was balanced and peripheral to Yorubaland for centuries — and when that changedThe real forces behind Britain's 1807 abolition of the slave trade (it wasn't only morality)Palm oil, industrial capitalism, and how an entire regional economy was reoriented in a generationThe 1851 bombardment of Lagos — a humanitarian intervention or a commercial calculation?Samuel Ajayi Crowther: the first African Anglican bishop, Yoruba linguist, and the most important contradiction in 19th-century West African historyHow Christian missions created the very generation that would later challenge colonialismThe Ijebu War of 1892 — defeated in days, not weeks — and the strategic message it sent to every remaining Yoruba kingdomWhy resistance, collaboration, and adaptation were not fixed identities but situational calculations made by the same people in the same yearWhat Yoruba people preserved underneath colonial compliance — and what it means for understanding this history honestlyTimestamps00:00 Lagos 1851 Shockwave00:41 Redirected Not Replaced02:04 Episode Setup And Thesis04:48 Coastal Trade Balance06:09 Abolition And Palm Oil Pivot08:12 Lagos Coup To Annexation09:31 Missions And New Intermediaries10:34 Crowther And Contradictions14:40 Treaties War And Conquest17:29 Survival Arithmetic Responses20:04 Cultural Continuity Under Rule20:44 Lagos 1900 What Was Gained23:11 Wrap Up And Next EpisodeThe central question of this episodeWas European arrival in Yorubaland transformation or destruction? Redirection or obliteration? And does the answer depend entirely on whose experience you center?Drop your answer in the comments. I'm reading every one.If you're new here:YHIB is a long-form documentary series on 19th-century Yoruba history — told with cinematic visuals, primary sources, and none of the simplifications that usually flatten this story. Start from Episode 1 to follow the full arc of Season 1.If you've been here from Episode 1This is the episode the whole season has been building toward. The season finale — Episode 7: Indirect Rule — is coming next.Go deeper on PatreonMembers get early access to every episode, extended source notes with the full bibliography behind each claim, and the community conversations that happen between releases.→ patreon.com/ZackShittuFollow for season finale updates:→ @ZackShittuSources for this episode include: Law (1991), Hopkins (1973), Ajayi (1965), Peel (1968, 2000), Smith (1979), Atanda (1973), Ayandele (1966), Lovejoy (2012), Ajayi & Smith (1964). Full bibliography available on Patreon.

  4. Jun 13

    The Secret Society That Could Remove a Yoruba King | The Ogboni Explained

    The Ogboni weren't just a secret society. They were a constitutional check on the king — and they could remove him.In this bonus episode of Yoruba History, Identity & the In-Between, we explore the Ogboni (also known as Òsùgbó among the Ijebu and Egba Yoruba) — the earth-veneration society that served as a third organ of Yoruba government alongside the king and the Oyo Mesi.We cover:– The Iledi: the sacred lodge built on the earth they governed– The Edan: paired brass figures that sealed verdicts no king could overturn– How the Ogboni could — and did — compel abdication through ritual sanction– Why women were constitutive members, not peripheral ones– The 1949 Abeokuta Women's revolt: how 10,000 women used this same accountability tradition outside the lodge to remove the Alake of EgbalandThis is not primitive governance. This is constitutional design.🎙️ Series: Yoruba History, Identity & the In-Between (YHIB) — Bonus Supplement📚 Covers Episodes 1–5🔔 Subscribe for documented Yoruba history:  @YorubaHistorych  🎧 Listen on podcast: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3JDmrs5fpaCheUrdaqMC6B?si=486A_8PlTdi9LMRjWkUC4A 📖 Support the research on Patreon: patreon.com/zackshittu 📷 Follow on Instagram: @zackshittu Chapters: 00:00 Hidden Elders of Power 00:57 Ogboni as Third Branch 01:27 Earth as Moral Witness 02:09 Edo Symbols and Oaths 02:40 Women in Ogboni Authority 03:10 The Power to Depose Kings 04:09 Colonial Tax Revolt in Egba 04:41 Abeokuta Women Remove the Alake 05:42 What Was Lost and Why It Matters 06:04 Closing and Call to Action References and Source notes: patreon.com/zackshittu

  5. May 30

    Trade, Diplomacy, and Rivalry — How Competition Coexisted with Cooperation

    In 19th-century Yorubaland, rival kingdoms fought for sixteen years — and traded with each other the entire time. This is the story of how the Kiriji (Ekitiparapo) War reveals a system of rivalry that was brutal, sophisticated, and governed by rules we still haven't fully understood.Episode 5 of Yoruba History, Identity & the In-Between examines the most analytically demanding question of the season: how did a stateless network of competing Yoruba kingdoms manage sustained, high-stakes conflict without collapsing into total war — and what was actually lost when the British froze that system in place in 1893?We get into:— Why Ibadan and the Ekitiparapo coalition arranged trade routes specifically so they could keep fighting— How market women sustained commerce across active battle lines— The diplomatic machinery of envoys, oaths, neutral mediators, and proverbs-as-strategy— Why destroying a rival completely made no economic sense— How British intervention didn't end the rivalry — it froze itThis episode draws on Ajayi & Smith's Yoruba Warfare in the Nineteenth Century, Robert Smith's Kingdoms of the Yoruba and Warfare and Diplomacy in Pre-Colonial West Africa, A.G. Hopkins' An Economic History of West Africa, and Samuel Johnson's The History of the Yorubas — among others. Full source list below.⏱️ CHAPTERS00:00 Trading While at War02:27 Structured Rivalry Explained02:43 Episode Setup and Thesis04:53 Post Oyo Power Struggle05:57 Resistance to Ibadan07:01 War With Limits08:41 Why Trade Never Stops10:17 Border Markets and Women Traders11:41 War Economy and Captives12:50 Diplomacy Rituals and Envoys14:11 Mediators and Saving Face15:17 Proverbs as Negotiation Tools16:44 When Diplomacy Fails18:48 War Camps as Mobile Cities20:54 Firearms and Coastal Leverage21:50 British Entry Changes the Game22:56 The Paradox of Rivalry25:23 Pacification Freezes Competition26:41 1893 Peace Imposed27:56 What Was Lost With Peace29:16 Next Episode and Farewell🔔 SUBSCRIBE for the full Season 1 arc — each episode builds on the last:https://www.youtube.com/@UCXzeoFtjJIzeRgGLlclby5w 🎧 LISTEN on your podcast app — search "Yoruba History, Identity & the In-Between"✊🏾 SUPPORT THE SERIES on Patreon — early access, extended notes, bonus episodes (Samuel Ajayi Crowther, Lugard's The Dual Mandate), and the research conversations behind each episode:https://patreon.com/ZackShittu📩 THE IN-BETWEEN newsletter — companion essays on the gaps between myth and record in Yoruba history:https://withzackshittu.com/newsletter🌐 More work: https://withzackshittu.com💬 Drop a comment: Did British intervention free the Yoruba system, or freeze it before it could finish? I want your read.📌 SOURCESAjayi, J.F.A. & Smith, R. (1964). Yoruba Warfare in the Nineteenth Century. Cambridge University Press.Smith, R.S. (1988). Kingdoms of the Yoruba (3rd ed.). James Currey.Smith, R.S. (1989). Warfare and Diplomacy in Pre-Colonial West Africa (2nd ed.). James Currey.Hopkins, A.G. (1973). An Economic History of West Africa. Longman.Law, R. (1977). The Oyo Empire c.1600–c.1836. Clarendon Press.Johnson, S. (1921). The History of the Yorubas. CMS Bookshops.Sudarkasa, N. (1973). Where Women Work. University of Michigan Museum of Anthropology.Delano, I.O. (1966). Owe L'esin Oro: Yoruba Proverbs. Oxford University Press.#YorubaHistory #AfricanHistory #KirijiWar #Ibadan #PrecolonialAfrica

  6. Apr 30

    Yoruba - How a Name Became an Identity

    The word “Yoruba” is everywhere today — in language, diaspora culture, and political identity across three continents — yet in the early 19th century it barely existed as a shared label. Most people understood themselves through kingdom, lineage, or town, not as members of a single Yorùbá people. This episode asks the question at the heart of the entire series: how does a people become a people? It traces how “Yoruba” shifted from a Hausa external label into an identity consciously claimed, reshaped, and institutionalized by Lagos intellectuals, Christian missionaries, and political actors under the pressure of colonialism. We examine the foundational Ilé-Ifẹ̀ origin narrative, not to test its literal truth, but to understand the work it performs: how it weaves together scattered histories, legitimizes authority, and offers a common beginning for different communities. Using Hobsbawm and Ranger’s idea of “invented tradition” and Benedict Anderson’s concept of “imagined communities,” the episode shows that collective identity is always constructed through stories, institutions, and power. Far from making it fake, that constructed nature is precisely what makes Yorùbá identity powerful, adaptable, and real in the lives of millions who now claim it. Researched & Written by Zack Shittu | Produced by Femi ShittuFull list of sources → patreon.com/zackShittu

  7. Apr 28

    The Fall of Oyo: How West Africa's Greatest Empire Collapsed

    Yorùbá — History, Identity & the In-BetweenEpisode 1Season 1The Fall of OyoThe Oyo Empire was one of West Africa’s most powerful political formations — a cavalry state that dominated the region for over a century, commanding trade routes, vassal kingdoms, and tribute networks stretching across the savanna. But by the early 19th century, it was hollowing from within. This episode traces the structural collapse of Oyo: the constitutional tensions between the Alaafin and the Oyo Mesi council, the unchecked rise of Afonja and the military faction, the Fulani jihad pressure from the north, and the slave trade’s corrosive effect on internal loyalty. This wasn’t a story of defeat by superior enemies. It was a story of a system that stopped maintaining itself — and the catastrophic displacement it unleashed across Yorubaland. The fall of Oyo is the engine that drives all of Season 1. Researched & Written by Zack Shittu  |  Produced by Femi Shittu Full list of sources → patreon.com/zackShittu

  • 7 Episodes

About

Yorùbá — History, Identity & the In-Between is a narrative history podcast exploring the Yorùbá people of West Africa: their kingdoms, their wars, their philosophers, and the worlds they built before, during, and after colonialism. Hosted by Dr. Zack Shittu — technologist, photographer, and lifelong student of Yorùbá culture — each episode moves between the archive and the present day. From the rise and fall of the Oyo Empire to the invention of tradition under British rule, this podcast asks not just what happened, but what it means to know it now.

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