Yorùbá - History, Identity and the In-Between

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~19 min episodes

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About Yorùbá - History, Identity and the In-Between

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.

Language: English
Type: podcast

Latest episodes(12)

1Shut Down Lagos for 37 Days
11 Sept 202610m
Ọ̀rọ̀ tó bá dùn l'ẹnu, á dùn l'etí — words that are sweet in the mouth are sweet in the ear. But printed words do something the proverb doesn't mention: they outlive the mouth that spoke them.Lagos,…
2Trained to Curtsy, She Dethroned a King: Britain's Biggest Mistake
30 Aug 202613m
March 1949: ten thousand market women surround the palace of the Aláké of Abeokuta. Within weeks, he abdicates. The woman who organized it — Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti — was trained by British…
3Everything Changed Overnight: How the 1914 Amalgamation Actually Played Out | YHIB S2E1
18 Aug 202615m
Season 2 opens. Same day, January 1st 1914 — three Yorùbá cities lived three completely different realities. A proverb about distance asks whether any of them were really safe.Full episode…
4The Crown Was Hollow: How Britain Ruled Yorubaland Without Ruling It | YHIB S1E7 Finale
5 Aug 202616m
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…
5When Europeans Arrived: How Yorubaland Was Redirected, Not Replaced
16 Jul 202626m
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…
6Ajayi Crowther: He Invented 'Yoruba' — Then Smashed Its Gods
16 Jul 202611m
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…
7The Secret Society That Could Remove a Yoruba King | The Ogboni Explained
16 Jul 20267m
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…
8Trade, Diplomacy, and Rivalry — How Competition Coexisted with Cooperation
30 May 202632m
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…
9The Empire Fell. The Culture Didn't. How the Yoruba Survived Without a Center | YHIB S1E4
14 May 202627m
After the Oyo Empire collapsed, Yoruba kingdoms fought each other for sixty years. There was no center. No empire. No state holding things together. And yet — the culture held. How? Episode 4 of…
10Yoruba - How a Name Became an Identity
30 Apr 202630m
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…

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