APPRAISING EXTERNAL INFLUENCES ON IJESA CULTURE IN SOUTHWESTERN NIGERIA BEFORE 1990

The major thrust of this paper is to appraise how external contact influences culture of Ijesa people in Southwestern Nigeria before 1990. To a very large extent, Ijesaland has a long history of existence, notwithstanding, Ijesa people had under gone several political, cultural and social transformations over the centuries which no doubt, had affected its history. On the whole, the paper argues that at different times, Ijesa was under the suzerainty of Ọyọ and Bini; at a time, it was an independent nation. However, the most significant era in Ijesa history was the 19th century-when several contending powers came onto the political scene in Yorubaland. The spread of Christianity and Islam in Ijesaland was like burning grassland during harmattan. Some factors responsible for these were the humanitarian gestures and spiritual assistance being rendered by the early Muslim clerics to their new converts. The paper adopts the descriptive and analytical method of historical reconstruction as the framework of analysis by expressing that most researchers and historians of Yoruba/West African cultures agree on the overall that slavery, colonialism and missionary activities changed the cultural life of the peoples inhabiting the Western shores of Africa. The impact continues to be felt over a period of time in many different ways. Arguably not all of it is negative. It concludes that when viewed from the point of view of cultural practices, tradition, virtues, societal values and ethos, gender differentiation, marriage and marriage customs, European culture has negatively impacted Ijesa culture