Written Yorùbá: Print, Novel, Theatre, Film, and the Language Now

Yorùbá get printed literature wey go back to 1850 and continuous tradition of Yorùbá-language novels, newspaper dem, theatre, and film. E dey important make person talk this thing clearly because reader wey dem teach say Yorùbá culture na oral-only, and say because of dat e no develop reach, na lie dem teach am. Di first book wey dem print for Yorùbá come out for 1850, di first newspaper for 1859, and di first Yorùbá novel for 1938 123.

Wetin be di truth, and wey dey more interesting, na say this written tradition grow directly from missionary encounter, since di press dem, di orthography, and di first generation of literate Yorùbá na all products of am, and say di greatest Yorùbá-language writer use those tools take write books wey full ground with di oral and spiritual material wey di missions bin dey try replace.

Di press

Ìwé Ìròhìn, wey CMS missionary Henry Townsend start for Abẹ́òkúta, first come out on 3 December 1859 and e run till 1867 2. Im full title na Ìwé Ìròhìn fún àwọn ará Ẹ̀gbá àti Yorùbá, di newspaper for di Ẹ̀gbá people and di Yorùbá 2. Dem dey publish am every fourteen days, e reach about eight pages, and dem sell am for 120 cowries 2. Na Nigeria first newspaper and di first indigenous-language newspaper for West Africa, and by 1866 e dey come out for both Yorùbá and English, wey make am di first bilingual newspaper for Africa 2.

Di purpose for di beginning na religious, to make am easy to teach Christianity, and Townsend na missionary 2. E sharp-sharp become more pass dat, as e dey carry commercial notices, local news, and reporting wey feed growing Ẹ̀gbá public sphere.

Yorùbá-language press don continue since dat time, including titles like Ìròhìn Yorùbá and Àlàáròyè, alongside Yorùbá radio and television broadcasting, wey be one of di reasons why Ethnologue classify di language vitality as institutional. Even so, Yorùbá-language print don reduce when compare to English-language media over di last few decades.

D. O. Fágúnwà and di Yorùbá novel

Daniel Olorunfẹmi Fágúnwà (1903-1963) na di main figure of written Yorùbá literature. Im first novel, Ògbójú Ọdẹ nínú Igbó Irúnmalẹ̀, Church Missionary Society Bookshop publish am for Lagos for 1938 and na di first novel wey dem write for Yorùbá 3. E follow di hunter Àkàrà-Ògùn pass through forest of spirits and divinities.

Fágúnwà novel dem take di form of loosely constructed picaresque story dem wey full of folklore material: spirits, monsters, divinities, magic 3. E write for Yorùbá, for Yorùbá readers, using di missionary orthography and missionary press, and im books get moral frame wey match im own Christianity while e build almost everything from di Yorùbá spirit world. Dat combination na wetin person suppose notice: di medium come from mission and di content na indigenous.

Wọlé Ṣóyinká translate di novel into English for 1968 as Forest of a Thousand Daemons: A Hunter's Saga 3. Ṣóyinká's translator note explain say "a thousand" for English carry di sound and sense wey four hundred carry for Yorùbá, wey be clear example of wetin di three-layer translation rule for this corpus dey do: irúnmalẹ̀ refer to di four hundred divinities, and literal "four hundred" go dey numerically correct but rhetorically wrong 3.

Fágúnwà other major works include Igbó Olódùmarè (The Forest of Olódùmarè), Ìrèké Oníbùdó, Ìrìnkèrindò nínú Igbó Elégbèje, and Àdììtú Olódùmarè. People still dey read am well-well for Yorùbá-medium schools.

Because im work dey for Yorùbá and nobody translate am until after e die, Fágúnwà international reputation dey behind dat of writers wey write for English, and this na general pattern for African-language literature instead of something about im quality 3.

Amos Tutuola and di argument about am

Amos Tutuola (1920-1997) publish The Palm-Wine Drinkard for London for 1952, for English, and e make am famous internationally and bring controversy for home 4.

Di book narrate journey go land of di dead with special non-standard English wey follow Yorùbá sentence structure and idiom. Western critics, wey early praise-review from Dylan Thomas lead, praise im unconventional English, how e close to oral tradition, and im creativity 4.

Nigerian critics mostly no like am, for two reasons wey good make person separate 4.

Di first one na about language and reputation. Tutuola English no follow grammar rule by school standard, and as independence dey come near, educated Nigerians argue say people go take im work as wetin represent Nigerian literary capacity, and say im world of spirits na exactly di kind image of di country wey dem wan clear commot from global perception 4.

Di second one na blame say e no original: say Tutuola material come from Yorùbá oral tradition and resemble Fágúnwà too much, wey bin don do di same thing earlier, for Yorùbá, and pass am 4.

Di critical judgment don change since dat time. Dem now generally credit Tutuola say e found distinct African literary form, and how e mix Yorùbá syntax with English vocabulary, people dey see am as original style instead of failed English 4. How dem compare am with Fágúnwà na mostly as difference of position instead of quality: Tutuola story dem dey read like say dem catch dem at di moment wey dem dey form out of oral tradition, while Fágúnwà don already pass dat point enter self-conscious literary structure 3.

For this corpus, di useful point na wetin di Tutuola argument really be about. Na dispute among Yorùbá and Nigerian intellectuals about whether di oral and spiritual inheritance na shame wey person suppose grow pass, or na resource wey person suppose use. Dat argument na di same one wey reader of this corpus likely dey reason inside im mind, and e bin dey active for Lagos for 1952.

Theatre

Yorùbá theatre get deep root inside the aláàrìnjó masquerade performance tradition, and im modern form come out for the twentieth century as the Yorùbá travelling theatre, wey im golden age run from early 1950s reach early 1980s 5.

Hubert Ogunde (1916-1990) na person wey people generally dey call the father of contemporary Yorùbá theatre and Nigerian theatre in general 5. Im start with wetin dem dey call operas, as im stage The Garden of Eden and the Throne of God well well for 1944, and im continue to write pass fifty plays wey combine dramatic action, dance, and music, with stories wey touch the political and social conditions of that time 5. Im companies tour, and im work get clear political message reach wetin attract colonial and later government attention.

Duro Ládipọ̀ (1931-1978) enter theatre from church music composition and write historical and cultural plays wey im plan to take preserve traditional art 5. Im most popular work na Ọba Kò So (The King Did Not Hang), wey be music drama about the death and deification of Ṣàngó, together with Ọba Mọ́rò and Ẹdá, wey be Yorùbá reworking of the morality play Everyman 5. Ọba Kò So tour internationally and na the single stage work for Yorùbá language wey get influence pass.

The scholarly literature no plenty but e dey: Biodun Jeyifo im The Yoruba Popular Travelling Theatre of Nigeria (1984) na the standard study, and Karin Barber don write well well about the tradition 5.

The travelling theatre companies move enter film and later video as the economy change, and na this one be the direct root of the Yorùbá-language film industry.

Film

Yorùbá-language cinema na one of the biggest film industries for Africa by output. Ogunde and other people for travelling theatre change enter celluloid from the 1970s, and the collapse of cinema exhibition for 1980s push production go video, wey be the origin of the industry wey people dey call Nollywood today, wey im Yorùbá-language side still remain distinct and big sector.

For practice, Yorùbá film don become the most important vehicle to carry Yorùbá-language content based on audience size, as e dey reach people far pass wetin Yorùbá print dey do. E also don turn linguistic resource on im own: researchers don build the first Yorùbá sentiment corpus from Nollywood movie reviews, and the NollySenti parallel corpus cover Yorùbá among five Nigerian languages 6.

The language inside these films make sense to note as evidence about how Yorùbá dey stand: heavy code-switching with English na normal thing for contemporary production, and this one dey reflect how people dey talk everyday for city, no be say production standard drop.

Where the language stand now

Education, and one change wey just happen

Na this one be the development wey matter pass now, and e just happen recently reach say many sources never catch up.

Nigeria adopt one National Language Policy in 2022 wey talk say make indigenous languages be the language dem dey use teach for the first six years of school, with curriculum development, materials, and teacher training wey follow am 7.

For 12 November 2025, the Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa, announce for the 2025 Language in Education Conference for Abuja say dem don reverse the policy, so English go be the only language to take dey teach for all levels 7. Dem bin don adopt the reversal for the 69th National Council of Education for Akure on 3-7 November 2025 7. The minister point to high failure rates and students' difficulties to understand English, and im state say to use mother tongue take teach over the past fifteen years don, inside im own words, destroy education for some regions 7.

Linguists and cultural bodies oppose the decision. Andrew Haruna, president of the Nigerian Academy of Letters, argue say to cut learners commot from their mother tongue na to reduce their intellectual potential, and the Linguistic Association of Nigeria launch petition against the decision, as dem raise concerns about educational equity for rural and indigenous communities 7.

This one follow one pattern wey don dey since. The British colonial Education Ordinance of 1882 restrict government funding to only schools wey dey teach for English, and na this one start to push Nigerian languages commot from formal education 7. The 2025 decision continue this line wey go back reach that time.

Dem still dey teach Yorùbá as subject for primary, secondary, and tertiary levels, and dem dey study and examine am as discipline for Nigerian universities. The change concern the language dem dey use teach, no be whether Yorùbá teaching dey exist.

Yorùbá online and inside language technology

Dem classify Yorùbá as low-resource language inside natural language processing even though e get tens of millions of speakers, wetin be statement about annotated data wey dey available, no be about the language itself 8.

One systematic review of 105 primary studies wey publish between 2014 and 2024 show say the main obstacles na say annotated corpora dey scarce, pre-trained language models limited, and linguistic challenges dey wey specific to Yorùbá, namely tonal complexity and diacritic dependency 8. The review still mention socio-cultural constraints, including code-switching and wetin e describe as desertion of the language for digital usage 8.

The diacritic problem na the practical bottleneck and dem treat am for yoruba-orthography: most Yorùbá text for online dey written in plain ASCII without tone marks or subdots, wey dey make am confuse machines just as e dey confuse human readers 9.

Even with that, work dey go on and na Africans dey lead plenti of am. Masakhane na grassroots NLP community for Africa, by Africans, and their MasakhaNER dataset na the first big high-quality named-entity dataset for African languages wey get substantial Yorùbá coverage 6. Automatic diacritic restoration for Yorùbá dey achieve error rates below five percent now, with models and datasets wey dem release openly 9. Yorùbá dey inside more and more multilingual models.

Di plain summary

Yorùbá na big language wey get support from institutions, 175 years of history for printing, big film industry, university departments, and work wey dey go on well well for language technology. E no dey face extinction.

For di same time, di role wey e dey play for school education just drop because of government decision, di way urban middle-class people dey pass am go dia children dey weak, and plenti people wey sabi speak am well no fit read or write am easily because nobody ever teach dem di spelling with tone marks. Dis problems dey different from language extinction, and na different solutions dem need, mostly from individual and family level pass government. learning-yoruba-resources talk about wetin individual fit actually do.