Oyo Empire tsetse fly. Cavalry was the long arm of the Oyo Empire. Late 16th and 17th century expeditions were composed entirely of cavalry. There were drawbacks to this. Oyo could not maintain its cavalry army in the south but could raid at will. Cavalry in highly developed societies such as Oyo was divided into light and heavy. Heavy cavalry on larger imported horses was armed with heavy thrusting lances or spears and also with swords. Light cavalry on smaller indigenous ponies was armed with throwing spears or bows. Infantry in the region around the Oyo Empire was uniform in both armor
Yoruba people Venezuela, Saint Lucia, Jamaica, Brazil, Grenada, and Trinidad and Tobago, and other countries. As an ethnic description, the word "Yoruba" (or more correctly, "Ya raba") was originally in reference to the Oyo Empire and is the usual Hausa name for Oyo people as noted by Hugh Clapperton and Richard Lander. It was therefore popularized by Hausa usage and ethnography written in Ajami during the 19th century by Sultan Muhammad Bello. The extension of the term to all speakers of dialects related to the language of the Oyo (in modern terminology North-West Yoruba) dates to the second half of the 19th