Egba

Egba (Ebba), a large negro nation of Yorubalond, who occupy the middle Ogun basin due N. of Lagos, and whose capital is the great city of Abeokuta. The Egbas are perhaps the most cultured of all the Yoruba peoples [Yoruba], and then language, spoken with considerable dialectic diversity, is current all over the Yoruba country. The form that prevails along the right bank of the Lower Niger has been adopted by the Protestant missionaries as the general literary standard for their grammars, dictionaries, and translations of the Bible. Many of the Egbas have become Christians, and in recent years the Mohammedans from Soudan have also acquired considerable influence amongst these industrial and agricultural populations. The trading caravans organised by the Egbas of Abeokuta have already penetrated as far north as Timbuctoo and beyond the Niger westwards to Lake Chad.