A colleague inspired this question a few days ago. He is someone with whom I regularly discuss headline/grammar matters. We had looked at the difference between ‘the Yoruba’ and ‘t to establish which is correct between ‘The Yoruba are a large ethnic group’ and ‘The Yorubas are a large ethnic group’.
Well, my perspective was/is that the answer depends on context. ‘The Yoruba’ is used as a collective noun phrase, representing all Yoruba people. Hence, we say ‘The Yoruba are a large ethnic group’. The same thing applies to the Igbo, the Fulani, the Hausa, the Efik, etc. We do not need to pluralise the head words (Yoruba, Fulani, etc.) in this context, as the structure is comparable to adjectival collective phrases like the rich, the poor, and the underprivileged:
The rich also cry.
The poor deserve attention.
The Yoruba love their language.
To pluralise ‘Yoruba’ in the context, it
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