IN GAMBIA; A YORUBA KING REIGNS

IN GAMBIA; A YORUBA KING REIGNS

Here is the Palace of the Yoruba King in The Gambia, Oba Moshood. K.B Abolade ( Ariwajoye 1) has been the king of the Yoruba community in the Gambia since 2012.

Oba Abolade was installed according to the yoruba tradition and cultural rites in 2012, three yoruba kings from Nigeria were said to be present as a witness to the coronation.

The Yoruba people in the West African countries of Gambia, Sierra Leone and part of Liberia are called ‘Oku’ or ‘Aku Marabou’. There are about 25,000 of them in the Gambia and Sierra Leone alone. They are descendants of educated, liberated Yoruba from Nigeria, who was released from slave ships and resettled in Sierra Leone as Liberated Africans or came as settlers in the mid-19th century and later spread to the Gambia.

Though sources say 99 % of them are following the Sunni tradition of Islam. They are known for their deeply conservative and distinctly Yoruba traditions.