The article is a quantitative analysis of Iorubá ethnicity as expressed in the Diaspora. Initially, the Iorubá did not exist as a distinct people, ethnic group or cultural consciousness. The analysis intends to explore to what degree conditions created by the traffic of east African slaves to the New World accelerated the development of a permanent Iorubás' identity. It is intended to present a more systematic estimate of Iorubá involvement in the dynamics of slave trafficing, to explore the implications of these discoveries, and to illuminate broader questions concerning the re-peopling of the Americas.
slavery; Iorubá; etnicity; quantitative analysis.