p c lloyd - the yoruba lineage

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International frican Institute

The Yoruba LineageAuthor(s): P. C. LloydSource: Africa: Journal of the International African Institute, Vol. 25, No. 3 (Jul., 1955), pp.235-251Published by: Cambridge University Presson behalf of the International African Institute

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[235]

THE YORUBA LINEAGEP. C. LLOYD

T HE Yoruba, peoplenumberingver5?million, iving n south-westNigeria,need little introduction.They arealmostuniqueamong Africanpeoples in thatthey live in largesettlements,manyof which werecapitalsof chiefdoms;42 percent.of themlive in towns of over 20,000 peopleand there areninetowns with more than5o,oooinhabitants.'Ibadan,now the capitalof the WesternRegion of Nigeria, hasa populationof nearlyhalf a million. Those towns which were capitalswere, in thepast, governed by kings (oba)and councils of chiefs (oloyeor ijoye)who exercisedsovereign powersthroughoutthe town and its territory; he titles of thesekings andchiefswereusuallyvestedin lineages,so thata chief held a dualpositionasan electedrepresentativeof his lineageand as a memberof the council of chiefs in the town.Othertowns were governedin a similarmanner, heir rulersbeing subordinateo aking. The largest owns, especially hosein IbadanProvince,owe their sizeto the in-fluxof refugees romthe crumblingOyo kingdom n the earlyandmid-I9thcentury;but it would appear hatlong beforethis the capitalsof importantrulerswere townsof Io,ooo or more inhabitants.The origin of Yorubakingshipis obscure;the firstrulers may have come as conquerers,but their arrivalcannot be less than sevencenturiesago and mayhave been muchearlier.The Yorubaaretodayanhomogeneouspopulationandtheirrulersare not an alienaristocracy.The importanceof the lineagestructureamong the peoplesof the WestAfricankingdomshaslong beenknown,but little detailedstudyhas been devotedtoit. I propose here to examine the Yoruba lineage structureand then to show therelation betweenlineageand town.The Yorubaare dividedinto manytribalgroups and, althougha basic culture-displayedin language,names of deities, titles of chiefs and their installationcere-monies, &c.-seems commonto all, the politicalstructureof the variousgroupsismost diverse.I shalldescribethe lineage structure n Oyo and Ekiti towns. Thesetowns areformed of a largenumberof lineages,whose elders cangive the originoftheirown founders;in them most chieftaincy itles arehereditaryn lineages.In theIjebutowns the lineage s basically imilar,but here the councilsof chiefsincludethetitled heads of associationssuch as the OfugboOgboni) nd the age-set system orIpampa.These associationsencroachon the functions of the lineagestructuren thegovernmentof the town. In KabbaDivision, the most north-easterly artof Yorubacountry,andin Oye,an Ekiti town, allthe inhabitants f thetown claimdescentfromone man, whose sons founded the modern quartersof the town. These people,although unmistakablyYoruba, have a lineage structurewhich shows markeddifferences rom that which is common to other tribalgroups. SinceI was able tostudy it but slightly I will omit referenceto it here. A descriptionof the lineagestructureof the Oyo and most Ekiti peoplewill applyto the basic structureof the

I The figures are taken from the Bulletins of the Oyo Provinces and the Colony (which includesPopulationCensusof the Weesternegionof Nigeria I192, Lagos).1953-4, for Abeokuta, Ibadan, Ijebu, Ondo, and

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236 THE YORUBA LINEAGElineages of almost all Yoruba tribal groups, while the features peculiar to those ofOyo and Ekiti will indicate the range of difference which is found.

THE YORUBACOMPOUNDAlmost a century ago the Rev. T. J. Bowen, an American missionary, gave adescription of Yoruba towns' (probably in Oyo):In consequenceof frequentwars, all the towns, large and small, are surroundedby claywalls about five feet high and sufficiently hick to be a good defence.... At various con-venient distances he wall is perforatedwith gates eight or ten feet wide which areclosed atnight with heavy shutters....The streetsof the best andlargestcitiesaregenerallyvery narrow,crooked andintricate.You pass on with rough solid clay walls close by on each side, and the eaves of the lowthatchedroofs almostbrushingyou in the face; till at last, wearyof monotony and filthyouturnabout to retraceyour steps and discoverthat you are ost in a network of interminablealleys...Africantowns have no public buildingsexcept shabby ittle temples,and oboni ouses, sorudein appearance s to attractno attention.... The house of the king differs rom othersonly in size, and in the high sharpgablescalledkobbi,which are weatherboardedwith grassthatch. The houses of governorsandothernobles, arein the sameunimposingstyleas thoseof the common people.

Stone, another missionary, later described the Yoruba compound :2A ' compound ' is an enclosedspace(generally n the form of a square)boundedby a wallabout seven feet high. There is but one entranceto this enclosed space. At night and intimesof dangerthis is closed by strong double doors well barred.Inside, against this wall,the rooms of the house are built. These roomsaresquareandarecoveredbya thatchedroof,which rests on the wall on the outside and on posts on the insideso as to give a coveringfora piazzaextending all around the enclosed space on the inside. In this piazza the inmatesmostly live, the roomsbeing chieflyused for dormitoriesor for storage.... the courtof thecompound ... is thereforevery secureagainstthieves and beasts of preyprowling about atnight. It is for this reasonlittle better than a barnyard....The compoundsof the chiefs arevery large sometimescovering severalacresof ground.In such cases they are a perfect labyrinthof dwellings. . . . Away back in these recesses,surroundedbythe most trustyof theirwives andretainers, he chiefspasstheirleisure hours.

Today one would have to go to the savanna country of the north of Oyo country tofind towns almost completely composed of traditional compounds. In the cocoa beltthe old compounds are vanishing and being replaced by modern one- and two-storied, cement-faced residences. Corrugated iron has replaced most of the thatch;the old walls and their gateways have gone, roads now cut through the towns. Yet,away from the new roads, relics of the old compounds remain, and here the descrip-tions of Bowen and Stone seem quite appropriate even today.There is little difference in the style of the compounds (agbo le) in different Yorubatowns. In Ekiti the courtyards are small, often only io ft. square, and the verandaI T. J. Bowen, Adventures ndMissionaryLabours 2 R. H. Stone, In Afric's Forestand Jungleor Sixin SeveralCountriesn theInterior f Africafrom 1849 to Yearsamong he Yorubans,900, pp. 25-27.i8r6, 1857, pp. 294-6.



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THE YORUBA LINEAGE 237(ode) is open to the courtyard, the roof on its outer side being supported by posts. InShaki and the surrounding towns, one of the few areas where the traditional com-pounds are still being built, the courtyards may extend to Ioo ft. square; here theveranda is completely enclosed by an outer wall giving entrance to the courtyardthrough a few small doorways. But these large courtyards may be a moderninnovation.The compounds always lie close together. There may be a few vacant plots be-tween buildings, where maize or tobacco is cultivated, but the farms are far fromthe town. The boundary of the land of each compound is clearly defined, for thefounder of the compound is said to have been given this land by the king when hefirst arrived in the town. On this land, which would belong to his descendants inperpetuity, he was to build his compound.The head of the compound usually lives opposite the main gate. His quartersconsistof an open parlour (in Ekiti, arowa)off the veranda, flanked by his own sleeping-rooms. In this parlour he and the other old men sit while visitors sit on the verandato talk with him. The remaining inhabitants of the compound are close kin of thecompound head. A simple example will illustrate this point (see Fig. i). Popoola is thepresent Onishaki of Shaki in the north of Oyo Province; he built his present com-pound only four years ago. In it reside not only his own children but also the childrenof his late elder brother and some more distant kinsmen. It will be seen that eachadult man and woman has a separate room; young children sleep with their parents.The children of Popoola and those of his brother live on opposite sides of the com-pound; those people who are more distantly related live near the entrance. If thepopulation of the compound were to increase the two groups of children wouldprobably establish their own courtyards. Thus all the inhabitants of a compoundtrace their descent from a common ancestor. No ideal pattern of the residence ofkinsmen within a compound exists. The compound is a rigid structure built to last acentury, and when it falls it is rebuilt on its old site. The compound head must allocatespace to his kinsmen according to the possibilities offered by the building.This is the compound as one meets it when entering a Yoruba town for the firsttime. The Yoruba is highly conscious of his history and the visitor is soon taken tomeet the elders in the compound, who will relate the legends of the migration of theirancestor to the present site of the compound and explain the particular customsobserved by the descendants of this ancestor. Yoruba constantly refer to the historyof their forebears and in this way construct for themselves a picture of the structureand segmentation of the lineage.

THE FOUNDINGOF A LINEAGEThe history (itan) of a lineage, the patrilineal descent group whose residence is thecompound, must always be related by the lineage head-the oldest man of the lineage(in Oyo, bale,in Ekiti, oloriebi)-or by some other elder acting on his instructions. Itis usually given in the presence of younger men, who, together with the old women,may prompt the elders and ensure that the history of their own segments is given

accurately and without prejudice. The lineage head will be able to tell from what townhis forebears migrated and the reason for their move; he will explain the origin oftheir deities and their totemic names, and the tabus they observed; he will tell of the



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THE YORUBA LINEAGEFIG. I. The Genealogynd Compoundf Popoola,the Onishakiof Shaki

I

AI I IA5 06 A7 08 A9

I I I IA A 0 0 A A20 21 22 23 24 25

IAIO OIIIA O

Popoola I0 A 0 zi

OIz AI3 OI4 AI IL/ I/ I / II I IA 0 0z6 27 28 29 30

A *A 0A 0I J/

Deceased males and femalesLiving ,, ,, ,,Divorce

03 0 A A 04

I15 OI6 Ai7 Ai8 OI9T

'I IIi 1

A 0 A 0 A31 32 33 34 35

2 I Chief's parlour 3Veranda

Courtyard

rs' rooms 4 19, 34,IEntrance

The genealogy and plan are diagrammatic only, being designed to show the distribution of kinsmenwithin the compound. Some young children are living with relatives in other compounds.The outer dimensions of the compound are approximately Ioo ft. square.

238

StoreI3,28, 29I3I3ParlourI6,

32, 33I5IO

II,26, 27

Strange:I

Store

97, 21

78,

24, 2556

I7

1835

I

I I



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THE YORUBA LINEAGEcircumstances attending the arrival of these legendary men in the town and how theywere given land for their compound and for their farm and perhaps a title by the rulerof the town. Where the ancestors settled in uninhabited forest this too will be ex-plained, for the founder of a Yoruba town becomes its ruler, and the descendants ofthe founder are the royal lineage. These legends have a dual function: they are theofficial history of the lineage members but they also serve as a charter which sanctionstheir present behaviour, their ceremonies, their rights to land and titles.In some cases the legends related clearly cannot be accurate records; some refer tosituations which are hardly credible while others conflict with versions of the samestory told in neighbouring towns. Among these are claims that the lineage foundercame from Ile-Ife. Such stories picture Ile-Ife, the mythical cradle of the Yorubapeople, where the first man, Oduduwa, came to earth, as a huge city crowded withroyal princes. One day the Oni, or ruler of Ife, told his princes that they shoulddisperse and found their own kingdoms, which they did. These legends are usuallytold by the members of a royal lineage in a town, for it is important that they shouldbe able to trace their descent direct from Ile-Ife. Embellishments usually describe theposition of the lineage founder when he was a prince at Ile-Ife and include an explana-tion of the origin of his title. Thus the Ewi of Ado Ekiti claims that the first Ewi heldthe title of Ewi in Ile-Ife because he ' spoke truly '. The original Ewi travelled withhis brother, the Oba of Benin, to Benin country but later returned, stopping atseveral towns before reaching Ado.' At Ado he met some men already settled butthey agreed to recognize his sovereignty over them, or, as other versions say, theywere conquered.

Other legends appear to contain more historical fact. The lineage elders maydescribe how their ancestor fought for his own father's title but was unsuccessful inwinning it; so, together with his kinsmen, this ancestor left the town rather than facethe reprisals of the successful candidate. (The successful man is often described as ayounger brother to whom the elder could not submit.) In other cases the elders maytell how their original home was destroyed by war, this being common during thenineteenth century. Some lineage founders are described as men with special powers,particularly in magic or medicine, who were invited by a ruler to come and live inhis town. Others are said to have moved to the country of the green parrot (i.e. theforest) to become cured of impotence. In some cases the lineage founder is said tohave followed the king to the town. Such a claim bestows a certain prestige on thelineage and one strongly suspects that it is often substituted for a more credible originwhich has been forgotten.The date of the arrival of a lineage founder in the town is almost impossible toascertain unless it occurred recently as a result of the Oyo civil wars or Fulani inva-sions. Lineage elders tend to claim that the event took place ' in the time of the firstking '-this establishes the lineage as one of the older ones in the town-or else in thetime of one or another of the more famous rulers, to whose reigns most notableevents seem to be ascribed.In most legends it is implied that the lineage founder came with his kinsmen. Yet

When compared with similar legends current in Ewi came from the royal lineage of Idoani, itself anthe towns through which the first Ewi is supposed offshoot of the royal lineage of Benin.to have passed, this version suggests that the original

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only the name of the one man is remembered and all lineage members trace theirdescent from him; the remaining men apparently had no issue and have passed intooblivionIt is significant, too, that with the exception of royal lineages, where it is importantto trace the route by which the founder came from Ile-Ife, lineage elders only recallthe history of their most recent move. They do not know how their ancestor and hiskin came to the town from which he was driven by war, or fled to avoid punishment,or migrated at the invitation of another ruler, unless, of course, such information iscontained in the tribal legends known to all Yoruba. Earlier history would appear tobe irrelevant since it does nothing to explain the position of the lineage in the towntoday.In every town of Oyo and Ekiti it is possible to ascertain the legendary origin ofthe founder of each lineage in the town. In Iwo the founders of the lineages came

from the towns of the old kingdom of Owu, from Ife, and from the destroyed townsof the Oyo kingdom. Some Shaki lineages claim origin from Shabe (now Save, inFrench Dahomey), from Owu, and from Ekiti. While the first Ewi of Ado Ekiti is saidto have come from Ile-Ife via Benin, other lineages in the town trace their origins totowns in Akoko District. In many cases the distances covered by these legendaryfounders of lineages exceed one hundred miles. These migrations seem to have beendeliberately undertaken by men bent on conquest or gain, or else fleeing from de-struction, not the slow drift of men seeking new farmland nor yet a small-scalemovement caused by incompatibilities of temperament within groups of kinsmen.Movement resulting from succession disputes seems to be inherent in the traditionalpolitical system.

MEMBERSHIP OF THE LINEAGEThe Yoruba lineage consists of all persons who claim to trace patrilineal descentfrom the lineage founder (orisun= spring, source). Marriage is patrilocal. Thus theliving male members of the lineage reside in the compound originally built by thelineage founder, perhaps several centuries earlier. With them live their wives andchildren. A woman of the lineage moves to her husband's compound on marriage,butretains her lineage affiliation; her children, of course, belong to the husband's

lineage. The lineage is an exogamous unit; a man may not marry into the lineages ofhis sixteen great-great-grandparents,but maternallinks are rarelytraced back beyondfour generations.The concept of the lineage appearsto be the same in Oyo and in Ekiti, but differencesin the terminology used often cause misunderstanding. Oyo use the word idile (rootof the house) to indicate the patrilineage. ?bi, to the Oyo man, means one's cognatickin and is usually used loosely to indicate kinsmen. In Ekiti the word idile is knownbut seems to be used relatively infrequently: a man will define the patrilineage asidile and immediately start using the word ebi to mean the same thing. The lineagehead, or oldest living member, is in Ekiti the olori ebi. Yet ebi is also used to includecognatic kin. A further term, ibatan,commonly used in the phrase o ba mzi an (he isrelated to me), is used to denote any form of relationship. Whatever the terminologyused, however, there is never any confusion over the two ways in which a man

THE YORUBA LINEAGE40



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THE YORUBA LINEAGE 241regards his position in the social structure: firstly, as a lineage member descended inthe male line from the lineage founder and entitled to inherit movable property,land, and titles belonging to the lineage members as a group; secondly, as an indivi-dual descended from parents and grandparents belonging to other lineages, forminga corporate group only in relation to himself and from whom he has no rights toinheritance (except in so far as they are members of his own lineage) but whose aid hemay ultimately seek in certain situations.When a child is born its umbilical cord is carried to the compound of its legal fatherand buried in the gutter. The father later feasts the child's various relatives and namesit, and finally arranges to have his own facial mark cut on its cheeks. These ceremoniesconstitute the recognition of the lineage membership of the child. An illegitimatechild belongs to the lineage of its mother, and the ceremonies are performed by thewoman's father.

There seems to be no ceremony by which an adult-either a stranger or a freedslave-was admitted to the lineage. A stranger who came alone from another townmight lodge with an influential man and perhaps marry a woman from the lineage.If the stranger became wealthy he would found his own lineage. There areindications,however, that strangers and freed slaves often became absorbed into the lineages oftheir benefactors or former masters. No man will, however, admit that he is a lineagemember by adoption, and after three or four generations the descendants of such aman seem to become accepted as lineage members. One can only discover this processwhen a certain group of people are included in a genealogy as descendants of thelineage founder, yet are tacitly debarred from holding titles belonging to the lineage.'In such cases the adoption is incomplete. When adoption is complete it is impossibleto discover it. Thus the immigrant to the Yoruba town either came with a number ofkinsmen to establish his rights to land and, perhaps, to a title, or, if he came alone, helodged with a powerful friend. In the latter case, he might either become powerfulhimself and leave numerous children who could in time beg the ruler for land, orremain unimportant and eventually become absorbed in his protector's lineage.But in the traditional political system a man could deal with the government ofthe town only through the elders and chiefs of his lineage and never as an in-dividual.A brief mention of the laws of inheritance is necessary here since it provides thekey to the segmentation of the lineage.2 A man's estate, if it was acquired by his owneffort, passed on his death to his sons. It was divided equally, not among the sons, butamong all the wives with sons. Each wife was given a portion to divide among herown male offspring. Property inherited by a man, and this included cleared farm-land, and titles belonging to the lineage, passed not to the sons but to the juniorclassificatory brothers of the deceased. No man older than, and thus senior to, thedeceased might inherit. Property which was not divisible, such as a title, passed from

I See the examplein Olukotun lineage, cited below. those of the grandparentalgeneration are babaagba2 Yoruba kinship terminology has already been and iya agba;all children are omo.Superimposed onadequatelydescribedin D. Forde, TheYoruba-speaking this is the principle of seniority by age. Persons ofPeoples of South-Western Nigeria, I95I. The basic one's own generation are, irrespective of sex, egbonfprinciples are that, firstly, one uses the same term for older, aburo f younger. Similarlyone may distinguishpersons of the same generation. Thus males of one's between the elder brother of one's father, egbonbabaparents'generation arebaba, emales are iya.Similarly mi, and his younger brother, aburobabami.



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the children of one wife of the original holder to the children of another wife, it beingwrong for children of one wife to hold it successively to the exclusion of the childrenof other wives.Membership of a lineage carries with it certain attributes which distinguish mem-bers of one lineage from those of another. Most obvious of these is a facial mark (ila)cut on the cheeks; hardly less obvious are the names (oriki, orile) sometimes used ingreetings or in praise-songs. Less obvious but no less important are food tabus (ewo)and the possession of a common deity (orifa), whose shrine is usually within thecompound. The Yoruba always claim that a child should possess the same facialmarks, lineage names, tabus, and deities as his father, and this would seem to happenin most cases. One would expect to find the marks, names, tabus, and deities groupedtogether in sets, but one does not. Two lineages may have the same marks but differentnames, and so on. The reason for this overlapping is obscure; it has almost certainlytaken place over a long period.In Shaki the totemic lineage names mentioned by Johnson' are found. Examplesare: opo(a post), agbo a ram), ogun iron), ji (monkey), ado(a small calabash). In some

lineages which have iii as a lineage name the members do not eat monkey, but thefood tabu is not always the same as the lineage name even where this is an ediblecommodity. Myths are usually cited which ' explain ' the origin of the lineage name.Thus the possessors of the name adosay that their founder wore a calabashof this typeround his neck. In Shaki most people had facial marks known asgomboand it was notsuggested that these should be correlated with lineage names or tabus. Here eachlineage possessed a deity which, its elders said, was brought by the lineage founderfrom their original town and they alone served it.In Iwo the possession of lineage names is much less marked than in Shaki. Worshipof the major Yoruba deities was common and many lineages appeared to possessnone peculiar to themselves. Some food tabus were associated with lineage member-ship, their origin being explained by a myth relating to the history of the lineageancestors in their former town, while others were associated with major deities.Facial marks were more varied and appear to be correlated with the town of origin ofthe lineage founder. Members of the royal lineage possess a type of mark not seenelsewhere.Facial marks in Ado Ekiti are now found on only the oldest of men and were saidto be town marks and not lineage marks. Every lineage has a pair of names, one formen and the other for women, which are used when addressing people. The meaningof some of these is unknown, but others refer to the town from which the lineagefounder is believed to have migrated. Similarly some lineage deities are named afterthe town from which the lineage founder brought them. Most lineages have foodtabus-usually articles of everyday diet.The rules of exogamy were generally interpreted as meaning that one could notmarry any person with the same lineage names, tabus, or deities (according tothe degree to which these were believed, in different towns, to be correlated withlineage), as one's great-great-grandparents. Such an interpretation is now rarelyobserved, the ability to trace actual relationship being considered a sufficient barto marriage.

S. Johnson, A History of theYorubas,1937, pp. 85-87.




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THE YORUBA LINEAGETHE SEGMENTATION OF THE LINEAGE

So far I have described the founding of a lineage in a Yoruba town, its membershipand the attributes of its members, by which the individuality of each group of lineagemembers is preserved within the town. Within the lineage there is a division intosmaller segments.In a segmentary lineage system new segments may, in theory, be formed with eachnew generation and one can classify such segments according to their depth; thesegmentary lineage systems of the Nuer, Tallensi, and Tiv' are the classic examples.Among the Yoruba, lineages tend to segment thus as a result of disputes concerningmarriage, petty theft, or fights. The smallest unit of the polygynous family is the wifeand her children. These children are known as omoiya children of one mother). Theyare to be distinguished from children of another wife. No father should bestow morefavours on the children of one wife than on those of another. The children of oneman are known as obakan(born of one father). The same terms are used of the childrenof common grandparents. Always the children of one man will be divided intogroups as the children of each of his wives. When disputes occur between fullbrothers they will be submitted to the arbitration of the mother; in disputes betweenhalf-brothers the respective mothers and the common father will arbitrate. Disputesbetween descendants of a common grandfather will be settled by the elders of the twosegments concerned and the grandfather, if alive, and so on.2 The Yoruba have noword for this type of segmentation, which is completely overshadowed by another,of a different pattern. When a chieftaincy title is vested in a lineage its memberspossess corporately some property-the title-which is indivisible. Since everylineage member has an equal right to the title some method is needed to prevent thetitle from becoming hereditary in one narrow line within the lineage. The lineage isaccordingly divided into two, three, or four segments through which the title shouldpass in rotation. These are known as igunor origun a courtyard) in Oyo, and as idi(a root) in Ekiti. They become apparent whenever the chieftaincy title in the lineagefalls vacant for they then come into violent opposition.When, in reciting genealogies, it is mentioned that a lineage founder had three sonswho founded new lineages, or segments within the original lineage, it is always pre-sumed that these were sons of different wives, for children born of the same motherwould not have acted in opposition to one another.In almost every genealogy the lineage founder is placed from three to five genera-tions earlier than the elders now living, from which one might assume that he livedin the beginning or early part of the nineteenth century. It is said that this man hadtwo, three or, more rarely, four sons, who are the founders of the segments nowrecognized within the lineage. This is the most simple form of segmentation possible.Where it seems probable that the lineage founder did in fact migrate between acentury and a century and a half ago, there seems to be little reason to doubt theaccuracy of the genealogy. But in many cases the history of a lineage in the town must

E. E. Evans-Pritchard, TheNuer, 1940, pp. I92- 2 This process often breaks down in practice248 et passim; M. Fortes, The Dynamics of Clanship because people appeal directly to the head of theamong he Tallensi, 1945, pp. 30-38, 39-65, 191-230; compound; living in the compound and usuallyLaura and Paul Bohannan, The Tiv of Central being at home, he is so easily accessible.Nigeria, 1953, pp. 15-25.

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be much older. The king-lists give an indication of the age of a town, and the locationof a compound within the town is some evidence of the date when the lineage firstoccupied it-compounds nearer the centre of the town being presumed to be older.In the Ekiti towns of Otun and Ado, and also in Ijebu Ode, king-lists are given inwhich all the kings who reigned before the end of the eighteenth century (in IjebuOde there were 40, in Otun 1, and in Ado I6) are shown as coming from a unitaryand unsegmented royal lineage. Then suddenly, according to the genealogy, thelineage divided into segments (four in the case of Ijebu Ode and Otun, two in Ado)founded by sons of the previous ruler, and the title has rotated between these eversince. A similar phenomenon occurs in non-royal lineages, but in these the names ofthe more important ancestors, often chieftaincy title-holders, have been forgotten,with the exception of the lineage founder and the men recognized as segmentfounders.

The two, three, or four segments are not always of equal generation depth; it iscommon to find that a lineage is recorded as having divided into two segments andthat one of these has subdivided again. It is more important that the segments, as theynow exist, should be of approximately equal membership. A chiefly title should notonly rotate between these segments but also should be given to a man who is thepopular choice of the majority in the lineage as a whole, and for this reason one seg-ment may retain the title for two successive turns. But chiefs and their sons arewealthymen with many wives, and hence a segment which retains the title in this way becomeslarge in comparison with the others. At this point rivalry develops within the seg-ment and it divides into two. Conversely, smaller segments, whose members see thaton this account their several chances of gaining the title are slight, will fuse into onelarge segment.There is probably a tendency for the genealogical position of the founders of twosegments formed by fission to be raised a generation; for example, in Fig. 2, nos. IIand 12, the segment founders, may in later years be cited as sons of no. 8, thus makingthe three segments of equal generation depth and giving the genealogical table aregular pattern. But, since fission and fusion are taking place with almost every majordispute, this regularity is rarely achieved. The pattern definitely exists, however, forall genealogies are of approximately equal depth and all the lineage members tracedescent from one of the segment founders and hence from the lineage founder. Onedoes not find individuals claiming descent by tortuous lines from other than thesefew persons.'So far it has been assumed that lineage members continue to live within a singlecompound. A compound may, however, become overcrowded and the lineage headmay advise a number of members to build in another place, preferably near theparent compound, but, if the town is already large, perhaps as much as a mile away.The members of the new compound will have their own compound head-the oldestman among them-and will perhaps erect their own shrine to the lineage deity. Theextent to which the members of the new compound participate in the affairs ofthe parent compound will depend partly on distance and partly on the degree of

I Many of the points made by LauraBohannan in genealogies, particularly her main thesis that theher article ' A Genealogical Charter', Africa, xxii, genealogy is the charter for present social relation-I952, pp. 30I-I5, would seem applicable to Yoruba ships.




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harmony with which the separation took place. It frequently happens that such adetached group of lineage members is recognized as a separate segment (see Fig. 2,

FIG. 2. The Segmentationf the YorubaLineage(diagrammatic)L -AI Lineagefounder

.- ....----*-*----. ..Lineage founder AzA3Semi-independent ineage A4

60I[t~~~~~ ~~Detached segment 57 AMaternallyrelatedsegment A8 4II

A9 Segment founder AIOlIA ? *I 30 A A Segment Segment I z4 4.I4 4. founder founder .

f I I*Au *1* Lj* X h

(A A)(AA) A^ ^AA At^/ / Jomoiya / akan

Key. Time scaleforeshortened;namesforgotten.- Founder moved to a new town.Founder moved to another part of same town.

The numbers are referred o in the text.no. 5). Sometimes such a detached segment becomes estranged from its parentlineage. As in the case of Olukotun lineage (cited below) there may be rivalry overa title. In Ekiti towns the number of detached segments which become so clearlyseparated from the parent lineage as to be considered semi-independent is much

THE YORUBA LINEAGE 245



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THE YORUBA LINEAGEgreater than in Oyo towns. This is perhaps because the towns are small and the num-ber of chieftaincy titles relative to the number of lineages is high; a lineage segmentwhich can claim its independence may obtain a newly created title equal in rank tothat of the parent lineage to which it no longer has a right.A further modification of the structure is made when a chieftaincy title passesnot to a male lineage member but to the son (Fig. 2, no. 7) of a female lineage member(Fig. 2, no. 6), often the daughter of a deceased chief. This occurs rather morefrequently in Ekiti than in Iwo and is resorted to when the lineage cannot produce asuitable candidate for its title from among its own members. The new chief retainshis own lineage affiliation but he must perform all the ceremonies of the lineage whosechief he has become. His children will live in the compound to which their father hasmoved on taking office, but they will retain the lineage name, tabus, marks, and thedeity of their father. Thus there grows within the lineage a segment which is mater-nally related to it, which lives in the lineage compound, is entitled to its chieftaincytitle yet retains its own distinctive attributes. In Shaki the lineage of the Okere ofShaki has two such maternally related segments and a third within one of the originaltwo. The title now rotates, in theory, between the parent lineage and its two originalmaternally related segments.Where a lineage includes a detached segment or a maternally related segment orboth, the tendency will be for the parent lineage to act as a single segment. A lineageonly occasionally forms four segments and still less often five segments.One example must suffice to illustrate some of these points (see Fig. 3). Olukotunlineage is one of the largest in Iwo and possesses a high-ranking title. Its compoundis in the centre of the town and this, as well as its legends, would suggest thatSunmolofa came to the town before the late eighteenth century-the date suggestedby the genealogy. Yet all the living members of the lineage (more than 500 persons)trace their descent to Akinlusi, Ogundolu, or Agboye. Agboye built a compound onthe edge of the town, nearly two miles from the parent compound. There has beenlittle intercourse between the two and some members of Agboye's segment denyrelationship with the Olukotun lineage. They are now considered to have no rights tothe title. Soleye, founder of the detached segment, built a compound near another oldtown gate, but closer to the parent compound, and the members of both these havekept in close contact, the former regularly visiting the parent compound for religiousand secular ceremonies. The descendants of Omogbegbe and Ogundolu live in theparent compound. Although Osokunbi was described as a son of Akinlusi, somemystery surrounds him and he may have been a slave; his descendants have neverheld the title. The detached segment of Soleye now has more members than theremainder of the parent lineage and it is said in the compound that in future the titlewill rotate between the lineage members of the parent compound and those of thedetached segment.This is a good example of a situation where the descendants of one man have be-come sufficiently numerous to be established as a separate segment, causing the re-maining members of the lineage, although rather distantly related, to combine toform the opposing segment. Whether the genealogies will in time change so thatSoleye and Akinwumi are described as half-brothers is a matter for speculation.The segmentation of the Yoruba lineage does not, therefore, take place in a regular

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THE YORUBA LINEAGE 247fashion. Rather is it determined by a series of events such as the detachment of seg-ments and the attachment of maternally related segments, or the growth in size of onesegment of the lineage at the expense of the others. As these events take place, andparticularly when a chieftaincy title is contested, groups of lineage members maymove from one segment to another, two segments may coalesce while anotherdivides. The pattern of segmentation is the same while segment membership maychange.

LINEAGE AND CLANSHIPThe term 'lineage' has been used for the Yoruba idile (or ebi), for each memberclaims to trace his descent from the lineage founder. There exists a wider social

grouping, relationship between the members of which might be termed ' clanshipties '.FIG. 3. Olukotunlineage, wo

ASunmolofa II

iOmogbegbeAOpadele 6AOyeymi 9

AAkinwumi 2

I lIAAkinlusi 3 AOgundoluI "'.. ..........................

i Osok i Iu5 ASoleye 8 Osokunbi Akdowu7I I I nAOpayele 8 *Opatebo AAkinmoye

Detachedegment 4, 4,

... .................... ,i II

AAgboye 41I ?0

Semi-independentlineage ...~~~~~~~~~.~~~~~~~~~

The genealogyhasbeen simplifiedby the authorbut all living lineagemembers racetheirdescent from Akinlusi, Ogundolu, or Agboye. The numbersreferto the men who held thechieftaincytitle vested in the lineageand the order of their successionas rememberedoday.Within the town a lineage may have divided, producing a semi-independent lineagethe members of which can, if they are willing, trace their descent from the founder ofthe parent lineage, though they may wish to obscure their common origin (Fig. 2,no. 3).The lineage elders name in their legends the town and the lineage within that townfrom which their own lineage founder came. Their lineage is thus an offshoot of thisolder lineage. They can rarely tell how this older lineage itself came to be founded,nor can they name the location of other lineages which have, like their own, brokenaway from it. Within their own town they may know of other lineages with the same

attributes as theirs, suggesting similar origin, or claiming to have come from the samelineage. Very little corporate activity unites the members of these related lineages,and what does take place might be termed activity between clansmen (denoting



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THE YORUBA LINEAGEthe recognition of relationship but the inability, in most cases, to trace a definiteconnexion), although the Yoruba have no specific word for clan.Lineage elders may send gifts to the elders of the lineage from which their ownfounder came, when the latter are performing their annual ceremonies, but only ifthe two towns are in the same kingdom. Such exchanges were thus, in the past, mostfrequent in the large Oyo kingdom. Travellers may lodge in the compounds ofclansmen. There seemed to be no rules against fighting a clansman, although in-formants were uncertain what one should do with a captive whom one discoveredto be of this relationship. Within a town, if a prominent elder of a lineage dies, theelders of other lineages having clanship ties will send a cloth as a token of theirrelationship. These lineages rarely co-operate in serving a common deity and eachpossesses its own land and titles.There are today no names by which clans are known; men can only say that theyare descended from the same line of rulers or possess the same deities, lineage names,tabus, or facial marks. There are no clans ranked in hierarchical order. To claimdescent from the Alafin of Oyo gives prestige only when the claimant has as manykinsmen and followers as would befit a prince from such a powerful kingdom. AllYoruba claim descent from Oduduwa, but some legends say that Oduduwa hadseven sons, others say sixteen, and all give them different names. Kings must tracetheir descent from Oduduwa, but the elders of the non-royal lineages in any townare concerned solely with their history in relation to their town. What happenedbefore is irrelevant to them and is unknown.

THE LINEAGE IN THE YORUBA TOWNThe lineage is a feature of social structure; the town is one of territorial structure.The lineage may be divided into segments; it is itself part of a larger unit, held to-gether by clanship ties. The town may be divided into quarters and compounds; itmay be part of a kingdom (now usually called a district for administrative purposes).The living male members of a lineage or of its segments live together in a compoundor series of compounds which areusually adjacentbut may be scattered. The membersof related lineages are scattered through many towns and kingdoms. Conversely, theinhabitants of a town come from many lineages of diverse origin.The Ekiti towns are mostly small. Ado, one of the largest, with a population of

25,ooo, is in fact a union of three towns each having its own council of chiefs, butacknowledging the Ewi as its king. Oke Ewi, the largest of these three, has apopulation of I4,000 people. The royal lineage, numbering over i,ooo persons, hasits compounds scattered throughout the town. There are fifteen other lineages,' eachwith its own compound or adjacent compounds. Five of these are large and havegiven their name to the quarter which comprises, in addition, two or three smallercompounds of smaller lineages. The larger lineages are those of the senior chiefs-though whether the lineage gained the title because of its size or has grown as a resultof its possession of the title one cannot tell. The other towns of the Ado district aresmaller, none having a population of more than 6, oo, and the average for the seven-teen towns is 2,070 inhabitants. Some of these have no more than five lineages, thecompounds of each forming a quarter. From the air the quarters in these towns are

It was difficultto tell whether some were separatelineages or detached segments claiming independence.

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THE YORUBA LINEAGEclearly distinguishable, the compounds of each lying close together and separatedslightly from those of the next quarter.At the other extreme, Iwo is a town of 1oo,ooo inhabitants. The tax-rolls list over500 compounds, several of which number I,ooo persons. The mean size of a com-pound is approximately 200 persons. There areover 200 lineages in the town, of whichthe largest is the royal lineage numbering more than Io,ooo persons. The densityof the population in the built-up area of the town is high, averaging eighty personsper acre. The compounds of many detached segments are at some distance from theparent compound. The town is divided into four quarters but the boundaries areimpossible to recognize from the air. The subordinate towns in the Iwo district aresmaller; one such town, Agagase, has a population of 534 and is composed of onelineage only, the five segments living in five adjacent compounds. Another smalltown, Asa, has one lineage in four compounds, with a smaller lineage of more recentfoundation in the fifth compound, a total of I,083 persons.In all these towns the majority, if not all, of the living male members of the lineagelive together in the lineage compound. The head of the lineage is also head of thecompound. This old man is responsible for discipline within the lineage and withinthe compound; his authority in the former case extends over scattered persons, sincethe adult women of the lineage live in their husband's compounds but return to theirown for lineage meetings; within the compound the lineage head exercises authoritynot only over the members of his own lineage but also over their wives and possiblystrangers. All minor disputes are taken before him for settlement; certain moreserious offences, such as manslaughter or witchcraft, are dealt with by the chiefs fromthe beginning. Appeals against a lineage head or cases involving members of twolineages are heard by the ruler and his chiefs.The lineage is the land-holding unit and most traditional craft industries werepractised by members of one or two lineages.' Cases involving land or the craft werethus discussed in lineage meetings.The government of the towns was based largely on the lineage system. The politicalsystem was highly complex and varied from town to town.2 The original founder ofthe town became its first ruler (a king if he owed no allegiance to any other ruler andif he possessed a beaded crown, otherwise, in Oyo, a bale).The title became hereditaryin the lineage founded by him. Titles were bestowed on the leaders of later immigrantswhen they arrived or when they could demonstrate the solidarity of their group, andthese titles became hereditary within the lineage, subsequent holders being elected bythe lineage members. In most towns the titles are ranked in several grades; especiallyis this true of Ekiti. Even in the Ekiti towns it is not possible for more than sixlineages to hold senior titles, and in Oyo towns, such as Iwo, only a minority of thelineages can hold titles. Yet an examination of the disposition of the titles in Ekititowns shows that they are shared among the lineages with a remarkable degree ofequality. In another Oyo town, Shaki, the senior chiefs have junior chiefs under themin their own quarters, again giving almost every lineage the ability to hold a title.

I p. C. Lloyd, 'Some Problems of Tenancy in 2 P. C.Lloyd, 'The Traditional Political System ofYoruba Land Tenure', African Studies,xii, 3, 1953, the Yoruba', South-westernournal of Anthropology,pp. 93-103; 'Craft Organisation in some Yoruba x, 4, 1954, pp. 366-384.Towns ', Africa, xxiii, 1953, pp. 30-44.

S

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THE YORUBA LINEAGEIt would be wrong to view the government of the Yoruba town as a mere com-mittee of elders chosen by each lineage. The ruler is not primus interpares among hischiefs but is in some respects a divine king, a personification of the whole town. The

lineages hold their titles not as of right but as a gift from the ruler on the advice ofhis chiefs. Some titles (in Ibadan town all titles) are bestowed by the king and chiefsaccording to merit alone; in some towns there are associations, such as the Ogbonisociety, and the age-grade system, members of which belong to almost all the lineagesin the town.

Within the town lineages are not ranked in order of seniority.I In towns with apowerful ruler, who uses his authority to advance the claims of his own lineagemembers, people will occasionally divide the town into commoners and royalty. Theprestige of an important chief is reflected on to the other members of his lineage, butthis earns them no special privileges. Lineages are equal in the sight of the ruler.There is little corporate activity between members of different lineages exceptingceremonies involving the whole town or a tribal deity. Lineage elders will tell thelegends of their own lineage and those of the ruling lineage but will disclaim know-ledge of those of other lineages. The aim of every lineage is to preserve its individual-ity, to recall continually in praise-songs its own legends and the deeds of its ancestors,to retain the deities and customs peculiar to itself. The head of each lineage stresseshis political relationship to the ruler and, by inference, the absence of such relation-ship with other lineage heads.2The Yoruba say that without a king there could be notown; in many towns it is noticeable that, in the temporary absence of a ruler, thechiefs cannot act together effectively and that chiefs seem incapable of uniting againstthe autocracy of a ruler.

CONCLUSIONIn a society where the people live in large towns, members of kingdoms with acomplex political structure, the lineage system will certainly show some peculiarities.The Yoruba lineage structure is simple, consisting of patrilineal descent-groups livingin a common residence. The foreshortening of the genealogies has been described byother writers and little can be said of the Yoruba which would elaborate these

descriptions. But whereas in some of these societies it is possible to construct agenealogy with the tribal ancestor at the apex and the living members of the tribe atthe base, the Yoruba are unable to do this. When a Yoruba migrates from one townto another almost all his ties with his original lineage are cut, to be replaced bypolitical ties with the ruler in the town where he founds his own lineage. The politicalsystem of the growing town antedates the growth of the town, for the government ofthe growing town would assume forms copied from neighbouring towns and familiarto most of the immigrating groups. The immigrant receives from the ruler not onlyland but also a place in this political system (denoted by a chieftaincy title) which hislineage holds in perpetuity so long as it retains its individuality as a separate lineage.I W. R. Bascom in ' Social Status among the the larger Oyo towns a lineage founder received hisYoruba ', AmericanAnthropologist,iii, 195 , p. 498, land not from the king but from a senior chief. Hisranks lineages, but I could not obtain evidence of relationshipwith the king is then through this seniorsuch ranking in any town in which I worked. chief.2 This oversimplifies the position, for in some of

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Hence the political system of the town does not render the lineage insignificant butrather enhances its importance. The lineage remains a compact unit by the processof genealogical adjustment which, by placing the lineage founder only five genera-tions back, reduces the genealogical distance between members, and also by theprocess of segmentation which seems to ensure that such lineage property as titlesare available to all members and are not retained by one group alone.

ResumeLA LIGNITE CHEZ LES YORUBA

LESYoruba de la region sud-ouest de la Nigeria, a l'encontre de la plupart des peuplesafricains,habitentdans des villes d'une importanceconsiderable,dont la plus grandeest laville d'Ibadan,qui a une populationde presque5oo.ooo habitants.Un grandnombrede cesvilles etaientdes chefs-lieuxde domainesadministrespardes rois et des conseils de chefs.Lastructurepolitique des Yoruba varie sensiblement de groupe en groupe. Cet articlea traitaux villes oyo et ekiti qui sont constituees d'un grand nombre de lignees (groupes dedescendanceparla ligne paternelle).Les lignees jouentun role importantdansl'administra-tion de la ville. Chaquelignee habite un 'compound' ou une seriede 'compounds', si lalignee est devenueimportanteou s'est divisee en segments.La segmentationpeut avoir lieusi des diff6rendsse produisent, mais elle opere egalementcomme moyen d'assurerque letitre devolu a la lignee n'est pas retenupar un seul groupe de descendanceau sein de lalignee. Ainsi, la lignee se divisera,generalementsuivant les enfantsde femmes differentes,en deux, trois ou quatresegments,parlesquelsle titredoit passersuccessivement.L'hommele plus age d'unelignee est le chef de la lignee et du ' compound'. I1exerceune autoritesurla ligneeetsur e 'compound' et statue sur les delits de moindre mportance. 1estameme defairele recit des legendes de sa lignee, de donnerle nom de son fondateuret de la lignee etla ville qu'ila quitteepour venira la ville ou la lignee habiteactuellement.Certainessuppres-sions sont evidentes dans les genealogies des lignees actuelles,car des ancetressans impor-tance, ainsi que les parentset les ancetres du fondateur,ont apparemment te oublies. Leslegendes formentl'histoireofficielle de la lignee et, en meme temps, constituent la sanctionpour son comportementactuel, ainsi que pour ses cultes et ses droits aux terrainset auxtitres. Chaquelignee a des attributsqui lui sont propres marques aciales, noms, tabous,ainsi que sa propredeite, dont l'autelse trouvedans le 'compound'. On n'attachepasbeau-coup d'importanceaux liens avec des lignees apparentees,mais il existe un rapportplusetenduqui s'assimilea celui d'un clan,bien qu'il ne soit pas designeainsi,et il s'exprimepardes activites qui ont lieu de temps a autre, en commun, entre les membres de ligneesapparentees.L'administrationdes villes est basee sur le systemedes lignees. Le fondateurprimitifde la ville devint son premierdirigeantet son autoriteest devenue hereditaireparmisa lignee. Des titres ont ete conferes, et des terres ont ete octroyeespar les dirigeantsauximmigrantsulterieurs,et ces titressont egalementdevenus hereditairesau sein de la lignee.L'immigrant yoruba n'a pas maintenu de liens avec sa lignee d'origine, mais il les a rem-places par des attachespolitiques avec le dirigeantde la ville ou il a fonde sapropre ignee.Le dirigeantde la ville, en octroyantun titre de chef a l'immigrant ondateurd'une lignee,lui a confere a tout jamaisune place dans le systemepolitique de la ville.

THE YORUBA LINEAGE 25I

p c lloyd - the yoruba lineage

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