ABSTRACT
The Yoruba peoples form one of the largest tribal groups in Nigeria and in the census taken in 1952 they numbered about 5,000,000. Most of them live in the Western Region where the provinces of Abeokuta, Ibadan, Ijebu, Ondo and Oyo are predominantly Yoruba, and in the Federal Territory of Lagos. There are varying degrees of urbanization within Yoruba-land itself. Ibadan and Oyo provinces and Lagos are more highly urbanized than Ijebu and Abeokuta. Today the principal areas of town development coincide with the core area of high population density among the Yoruba in the “Cocoa Belt”, which is the most prosperous part of the Western Region. The accounts of travellers show that in the nineteenth century Yoruba towns were both large and numerous. Study of the influence of historical factors on the present urban pattern suggests that the development of the indigenous Yoruba town took place in four stages.
