Where it lives, when it began.
Yoruba culture stretches across southwestern Nigeria, the Republic of Benin, and Togo, with a vast diaspora across the Black Atlantic. The festival calendar is ancient — and still being written.
The Yoruba homeland in West Africa
The Yoruba-speaking world covers roughly 142,000 km² — a region of forest, savanna, and lagoon. Major ritual centers are marked.
The Atlantic diaspora of Yoruba ritual
Following enslavement in the 17th–19th centuries, Yoruba religious and performance traditions took root across the Americas — Candomblé in Brazil, Santería / Lucumí in Cuba, Vodou in Haiti, and Orisha worship in Trinidad.
Seven centuries of performance
Ilé-Ifẹ̀ emerges as the spiritual and political center of the Yoruba world.
Earliest known Egúngún masquerade lineages established in the Ọ̀yọ́ region.
Gẹ̀lẹ̀dẹ́ society documented in the Kétu (modern Republic of Benin) area.
Bàtá drum repertoire formalised within the cult of Ṣàngó in the Ọ̀yọ́ Empire.
Trans-Atlantic slave trade carries Yoruba ritual to Bahia, Cuba, Saint-Domingue.
Christian missionaries in Abeokuta and Lagos begin formal campaigns against masquerade.
Brazilian abolition. Public Candomblé houses begin to emerge openly in Salvador.
Colonial administrations in Nigeria, Benin, and Togo regulate festival timing.
Nigerian independence. State sponsorship of cultural festivals begins.
FESTAC '77 in Lagos — global festival of Black & African Arts & Culture.
UNESCO inscribes the Oral Heritage of Gẹ̀lẹ̀dẹ́ on the Intangible Heritage list.
Annual Egúngún festivals continue in Ọ̀yọ́, Ọṣogbo, Abẹ́òkúta, and across the diaspora.