Oyo, in southwest Nigeria, was the capital of the Oyo Empire, one of the great Yoruba states. Across the Yoruba towns, facial marks called ila were cut into the cheeks of children to show their lineage, town or family, with named patterns such as pele, abaja, gombo and keke. The practice has declined sharply, but many older Yoruba people carry the marks.

Reading the marks

Each pattern had its own arrangement of lines on the cheeks: short vertical or horizontal strokes, longer lines from the nose to the jaw, or sets of three or four. Marks identified a person's lineage and town, and were cut by specialists called oloola. Some families say they also helped identify relatives during the wars and slave raids of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Change and debate

From the late twentieth century, school, city life and changing views led most families to stop marking children, and some people with marks have spoken of teasing or discrimination. Debates continue between those who value the marks as heritage and those who call for an end to cutting children. Neighbouring Igbo peoples had their own marks, ichi, for titled men.

Guides of Oyo and the Yoruba towns

Yoruba tribal marksYoruba facial marks of lineage and town

African scarificationYoruba ila are a major West African form IchiNeighbouring Igbo facial marks

Oyo and the Yoruba towns

Reading the marks

Change and debate

Guides of Oyo and the Yoruba towns

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