Joking relationships and humor among the Yorùbá of southwestern Nigeria in the twenty-first century

I argue that compromises are reached, and interpersonal relationships are negotiated and maintained among the Yorùbá people through joking relationships. I raise questions on how and when joking relationships can lead to interpersonal, interethnic or intra-ethnic conflict, inclusion or exclusion and the socio-cultural and legal consequences that these could generate. I use the hermeneutic and phenomenological methods to determine the impact of joking relationships on the violent crises that have characterized the twenty-first century Nigerian society. I conclude that whereas joking relationships are still socially acceptable Yoruba patterns of behaviour which have served the people well, the freedom that this practice enjoyed in the ancient times may now be coming under social and legal pressure in the socially and religiously sensitive modern Yorùbá and pan-Nigerian societies. However, the vacuum that may be created if joking relationship were to disappear may be filled by socially dysfunctional outcomes including depression and suicide.