Abstract

The Yoruba believe that our past and present histories are being preserved for future generation Hence the Yoruba genres can be used to trace the history of a set of people and one occurrence or the other Various genres of the Yoruba are embodiment of their history In essence Yoruba poets are seen as historians or repertoire of knowledge All the stories which are embedded in Yoruba oral literature are seen in form of allusion Yoruba orature helps to remember important cultural information and history of the Yoruba people It is pertinent to note that the role of orature in the construction and reconstruction of history is remarkable as seen in the following genres of Yoruba oral literature such as al m j l s and orin This paper concludes that in the above mentioned genres like other Yoruba genres poets play the roles of historians and that our past and present histories are preserved for future generation