SOAS Research Online

Abstract

While there is uncertainty about the exact date that Islam was introduced into Yorubaland, there is some historical claim that Islam had been known in Yorubaland by the mid-16th century, with Al-Ilūrī chronicling, by reference to Crowder, that Nupe Muslim preachers lived and built a mosque in old Oyo around 1550 during the reign of King Ajiboyede. It is acknowledged, however, that Islam was well established next only to the indigenous traditional beliefs in Yorubaland before the advent of colonial rule in the Sub Saharan Africa, and that by the second half of the 19th century, Islam had become a significant factor that could not be dissociated from the social, political and educational life of the Yoruba people. Today, Islam continues to play an important role in the general social order of Southwestern Nigeria and its influence, particularly on the life of Muslims in Yorubaland, is very obvious. Apart from a few areas such as Ekiti and Ondo States, a significant percentage of the population in Oyo, Osun, Ogun, Lagos and Kwara States are predominantly Muslims whose lives are substantially influenced by Islam. Over these past centuries, there has evidently been significant social changes in Yorubaland in the context of modernity and its challenges, with particular reference to Islam and its growth in the area. Obviously, Islam has been part of the social changes either by way of contributing, challenging or adapting to the different forms of modernity in Yorubaland over this long period. This chapter examines the role of Islam as a form of social order, from both a retrospective and prospective point of view, with regard to the role it has played over the years and the role it could or should still play in relation to modernity in Yorubaland.