Robert Sidney Smith (31 January 1919 – 29 November 2009 in

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) was an expert on the history of the

Yoruba people The Yoruba people ( ; , , ) are a West African ethnic group who inhabit parts of Nigeria, Benin, and Togo, which are collectively referred to as Yorubaland. The Yoruba constitute more than 50 million people in Africa, are over a million outsid ...

Nigeria Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...

and was a senior lecturer and then professor of history at the universities of Lagos, Ife and Ibadan. He was born on 31 January 1919. For many years, he lived near

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and died in London on 29 November 2009. Smith studied and taught at the Institute of African Studies in the

University of Ibadan The University of Ibadan (UI) is a public university located in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria. Initially founded as the University College Ibadan in 1948, it maintained its affiliation with the University of London. In 1962, it became an independe ...

in Nigeria from its foundation in 1962. Smith authored the following books: * ''Kingdoms of the Yoruba'' (published by Methuen 1969)Peel, J. D. Y., (1 January 1970). Kingdoms of the Yoruba. Africa: Journal of the International African Institute, 40, 1.) * ''The Lagos Consulate'' (published by Macmillan) * ''Warfare and Diplomacy in Pre-colonial West Africa '' (published by University of Wisconsin Press) A

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was published in his honour Falola, Toyin & Law, Robin (eds.) (1992) ''Warfare and diplomacy in precolonial Nigeria: Essays in honor of Robert Smith'', Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin.

References

1919 births 2009 deaths Historians of Africa Historians of Yoruba 20th-century Nigerian historians Academic staff of the University of Lagos Academic staff of the University of Ibadan Academic staff of Obafemi Awolowo University British expatriates in Nigeria Historians of Nigeria English Africanists {{UK-academic-bio-stub