Yoruba Slaves: The biggest numbers taken to the Americas By Anago James Akeem Osho

Anago Osho re-enacted an enslaved scene

It is no more news that many enslaved people were stolen away from Africa against their will. The Arabs organized the trans Saharan human chattel trafficking that lasted for about 1,400 years. They were selling enslaved Africans to the Europeans at a time to places like Italy, Spain etc. The Europeans understudied the Arabs and perfected the art of human trafficking that lasted for about 300-400 years. The biggest slave port is not the issue because if the Arabs sold enslaved Africans for about 1,400 years, we should know that it would have been huge. Both East, Central, West and some Southern Africans were devastated by them. Remember the migrations from Egypt, Nubia, etc. to West Africa.

Many of our Ancestors were taken from Congo, Angola, Gabon and other places in that region. I don't know why some scholars in their classification of where the enslaved were taken from also classify these places as one place. Maybe the Belgians should tell us. Why do they call Togo, Republic of Benin, Nigeria and some part of Cameroon, "the Slave Coast"? It was because majority of what the Europeans took from there (apart from the natural resources) were the enslaved African Ancestors. 

Why was it that majority of African returnees from Brazil, Cuba, Sierra Leone, Nova Scottia, etc. of Yoruba origin resettled in Lagos and Abeokuta in the present country known as Nigeria? Why is it that those in the Brazilian quarters or returnees in West African Countries like Republic of Benin (Porto Novo specifically), and Ghana were of Yoruba origin? 

Abeokuta is an historical Yoruba town in South West Nigeria. How come there is a place on McCarthy Island called Abeokuta in Gambia? There used to be a place in Jamaica called Abeokuta. There is a town in Republic of Benin called Abeokouta. Why are these places named Abeokuta after the Abeokuta in South West Nigeria? It is evident that many enslaved Africans were shipped through Whydah (Ouidah) in Republic of Benin, and these were brought from the hinterland. We should remember the last slave ship that arrived in the U.S.A called the Clotilda that departed the shores of Whydah. It carried away many Africans from different ethnic groups and majority of them were Yorubas captured by the king of Dahomey in one of the major raids. Among them was the last known Clotida survivor, Olawale Kasola known as Cudjo Lewis who helped to found and build AfricaTown in Alabama. After Olawale Kasola gained his freedom, he married a Yoruba who was also on the same slave ship, (the Clotilda) when they arrived the United States. Olawale Kasola, called Cudjo Lewis is not a Dahomean, but was captured by the Dahomean raiders from a village in today's Ogun State, South West Nigeria. 

How come there are many Yorubas in the Americas? The wars produced many enslaved Africans. Apart from fighting each other to see who becomes the leader of the ethnic group after the fall of the Oyo empire, there were wars with the Dahomeans, Fulani, Nupe, Bariba etc and the Portuguese that await slave cargo at Epe, Lekki, Lagos, Badagry, Porto Novo, Whydah,  Porto Seguro,  etc. The highest numbers of enslaved Africans taken from a single ethnic group were taken from the Yorubas, followed by the Angola, and Congo area.

The enslaved Yorubas took with them their Culture, language, religion, and memory of their homeland and origin at Ife. They were known by different names like Aku, Lucumi (Ulcami), Anago, Nago, Ife, Oyo, Katunga, Sango, Yarib, Yariba, Ana-Ife, etc. The migrations of the enslaved Yoruba took place at different times. The biggest migration was in the 1800's as a result of the wars that capsuled the land.