Health and environment: the perspective of the Yoruba Tribe, Nigeria.

Cultural Practices of the Yoruba people towards healthy and environmental living.

The Yoruba People are an ethnic group of Southwestern and North central Nigeria as well as Southern and Central  in West Africa. The Yorùbá constitute over 40 million people in total the majority of this population is from Nigeria and make up 21% of its population, according to the CIA factbook, making them one of the largest ethnic groups in Africa. The majority of the Yoruba speak the Yoruba Language which is tonal and is the Niger-Congo language with the largest number of native speakers (Wikipedia.com)

The Yoruba people are majorly in the southwestern part of Nigeria with a very rich cultural heritage. The communal existence and economic activities before the industrial revolution has greatly shown that the forefathers were conscious of the need for a healthy living as well as environmental protection. Personally, these activities and their unique way of life can be incorporated in our modern world and will suffice to giving us the same health benefit they enjoyed those times.

According to history, both in written literature and oral folklore, it is evident that the people of Yoruba rise up as early as 4am to prepare for the day?s activities. They walk several kilometers to their farmland, work rigorously in clearing and ridging and also carry out some harvesting activities. After all these, they walk the same distance back to their homes, this time with extra load of harvested farm produce, firewood and bush meat gathered on the farm. Little wonder, they are known to have a longer life expectancy than our present age. To adapt these practice in our present world, we might not trek to our offices or school, of course it might look absurd. But, we can take a time out as early as possible to carry out thirty-minute drill at either the gym or a make shift gym in our respective homes. We can walk round the compound for a number of times or stretch the biceps and triceps with some jumping every morning. A period of thirty to forty minutes should be enough for this. In the end, we can adopt and tap into one of the safe living measures: exercise, from our fore fathers.

Furthermore, our immediate parents have also narrated our they eat fresh foods and fruits at the times when canned and processed food has not been introduced into our society. We know of the games, fresh vegetables from the farm, fresh daily palm wine from the tappers, and waters taken from the giant clay pot in the living room which has been known to be cool and refreshing. In our days, they have replaced with canned drinks, frozen foods, fast foods, brewed beers, bottled waters, synthesized juice and other foods we see as ? latest? or we think are ?better?. As a matter of fact, this is one of the major secrets our fathers live on for a safe and healthy living. There was little or no record of the diseases that are rampant today like, cancer, tumors and other emerging diseases around the globe. I strongly believe we can tap into this lifestyle in our modern world in various ways. Our compounds have all been sealed with interlocks and cemented floors, Vegetable gardens can be put in place for fresh vegetables of various kinds for subsistence purpose. More so, the consumption of fast food and confectionaries can be drastically reduced and consumption of staple crops and cooked food should be of high priority in our daily meals.

In addition, relaxation was very important in the daily living of the Yoruba nation. Both the old and the young had large trees in their compounds for relaxation. At night, the children were known to gather and tap from the wisdom and wealth of experience of the elders through tales and stories of wars, hunting, farming, narration of history and genealogies of their ancestors. The children will have a strong sense of knowledge of who they truly are. There were times set aside for Various games and activities by the king and chiefs of different communities. These activities were richly participated by both young and the old. they knew the essence and importance of cultural heritage and traditions by creating adequate time to ensure it is rightly passed down to the coming generation. They understood the need for a reputable posterity. It is pitiable and sardonic that these practices are no longer in our generation. White collar jobs, tight schedules, traffic jams and other economic activities has prevented parents from having time for their children. Trees in the houses have been hewed down for other activities. 

The environment and society has really degraded due to our failure to see some cogent views of life from the perspective of the men of old.

In conclusion, Despite the poor health facility then, they still record a longer life span and years of fruitful existence than ours. They had more peace, rest of mind and even brighter hopes for the future. The sense of responsibility was high as the quality of food, fruits and drinks was fresh and direct as nature had given them. even though we have cars for locomotion, machines to carry out most of our daily chores, restaurants and eateries to cater for our feeding, the adverse effect of these practices on our health and environment cannot be over emphasized. They increase the carbon emission in the atmosphere, increase our body fats and calories, promote litters of cellophane bags and cans in the society and also increase the occurrence of diseases such as hypertension, obesity, cancer and tumors. We can collectively tap into the great minds of our fathers and the rich provisions of nature to improve our daily living practices and earn more fruitful and longer life span for ourselves.