The Yoruba Concept of Ola in African Society: A Historical Overview

This paper examines the concept of wealth among the Yoruba people in southwestern Nigeria. There is yet to be a historical appraisal of the understanding of the phenomenon of growth in wealth in African cultures. This paper therefore fills these obvious gap with an explanation of how Africans construe wealth within the domain of Yoruba society: the significance of wealth, the sources of acquiring wealth in Africa and how wealth has been used by the people throughout the ages from the pre-colonial to the post- colonial period of the Yoruba history in Nigeria. The paper concludes that the historical experience of slave trade, palm oil production, trading, land ownership, agricultural production and competition for power are the symbolic and characteristic features of wealth as an important component of livelihood of the Yoruba people of Africa. Finally, some directions for future research are suggested.