Mokole language (Benin)
Yoruboid language spoken in Benin
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mokole (or Mokollé, Mokwale, Monkole, Féri) is a Yoruboid language spoken in the villages surrounding the town of Kandi in northern Benin. Its speakers constitute a sub-group of Yoruba originated people that are often attached to the Bariba people of Benin.[4]
They represent the northernmost group of Yoruba speaking people in West Africa and are an 'island' completely surrounded by the Bariba. Their dialect is most closely related to that of the Shabe lect of Yoruba even though the closest Shabe speaking villages of Alafia and Tchaourou are situated more than 270kms south.[5]
History
The Mokole people established themselves in northern Benin on the land strip between Kandi and Malanville in the current-day department of Alibori from the Oyo Empire of Yorubaland to the south around the sixteenth century.[6]
