Sexual Attitudes in Traditional and Modern Yoruba Society

This article examines sexual attitudes and beliefs in Nigeria, from the traditional society to the modern one; focusing specificially on Yoruba culture describing sexual attitudes and sex education in the traditional Yoruba Society and examining its evolution under the influence of the British Colonial rules. It concludes that the sexual attitude was much healthier and sexual life more disciplined in the traditional society before the colonizers broke down the community structure causing children to turn against their parents. The children were presented a confused system of values, which combined sexual permissiveness with the idea of sin-confusion became more pronounced in the aftermath of the Civil War-with the young people unable to identify or understand either the old traditional or the new western system of values. In conclusion, the paper examines the efforts made by the Nigerian government to introduce sex education in schools by encouraging the students to rediscover their own traditional values and place them in perspective in the modern context.