The Yoruba-Speaking Peoples of the Slave Coast

Record summary

A. B. Ellis’s 1894 study records Yoruba and neighboring concepts involving oriṣa, priests, divination, witchcraft, disease, charms, and spirit agency. It is relevant to tracing how nineteenth-century observers translated complex religious systems into categories such as fetishism, sorcery, and demonic practice. The title and author are highly identifiable, and the work remains a frequently cited historical source. Its limitations include colonial vocabulary, dependence on informants and interpreters, uncertain regional coverage, and later scholarly criticism of its simplified treatment of Yoruba religion.