African Religions

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African Religions
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YORUBA CULTURE
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WHO ARE YORUBA PEOPLE?

• There are over 10 million Yoruba-speaking people
  in Nigeria and over 10 million Yoruba and
  Yoruba-descended people who have migrated
  throughout the worldabout
• 25 million Yoruba people in 2006.
• The term Yoruba refers to 1) a language 2) an
  ethnicity and 3) a culture
• Millions of Yoruba slaves were captured and held
  as slaves between 1400-1800 and thus have
  descendents throughout the Caribbean, South
  America, and North America.

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YORUBA CREATION STORY

• OLODUMARE is the supreme deity
• Before there was life on earth, Olodumare called
  OBATALA, one of 12 arch deities

Bronze Statue of Ooni of Ife in full regalia at
Ife Museum
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OBATALA IMAGES
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• Olodumare decided he wanted to create dry land on
  the waters of the Earth, Ile Aye
• Olodumare gave Obatala ase (power) to make land
• 1) snail filled with earth
• 2) 5-toed chicken
• 3) palm nuts

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• How do I make the journey?
• Gather all the gold in the sky and take it to
  OGUN. Ogun forged a gold chain to link the sky
  with the earth.

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• Then Ogun flung the chain towards Earth and
  Obatala began to descend, BUT the last rung was
  still far from waters of earth!
• Obatala removed the snail shell from pouch and
  sprinkled earth soil on waters
• He dropped the 5-toed chicken on the land, and it
  started to scratch and spread the dirt across the
  surface of the waters

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• When Obatala saw firm ground, he dropped a palm
  nut on the land, which sprouted into a palm tree.
  
• The palm tree grew to reach the last rung of the
  gold chain, so Obatala climbed into the palm tree.

• Palm Trees in Abeokuta, NI

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• Then, Obatala started to mold humans from the
  earth clay, but he became tired and made palm
  wine from the fruit of the tree and got drunk!
  So, he accidentally created humans with some
  abnormalitieslike blindness or skin conditions.
  But he kept drinking until he fell asleep!
• Olodumare gave the task of finishing Creation to
  Oduduwa, who told Obatala that it was taboo to
  drink palm wine again. Obatala then agreed to
  protect all children and humans born with
  physical challenges.

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• Oduduwa then went on to finish creating the human
  species!
• Or(another version) When Obatala woke up, he was
  embarrassed and apologetic. Olodumare forgave him
  and then gave him the responsibility of molding
  the physical bodies of human beings.

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Ile-IfeThe Cradle of Yoruba Civilization
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African Religions

• African Traditional Religions indigenous
  religions
• Islam introduced to sub-Saharan AF in 11th c.
• Christianity introduced to West AF in 15th c.
• Syncretic indigenous Christian
• movements since early 1900s

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African religious cosmos

• Variety of gods, goddesses, spirits
• 3 domains
• Social world (human)
• Natural world
• Supernatural world
• Supreme Being
• Greatness, transcendence, superiority,
  all-knowing, omnipotence, father-like, BUT no
  temples, priests, annual festivals, images

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African religious cosmos

• Pantheon of lesser deities
• abilities of supreme being (creation), aspects
  of nature (water), historical humans (leaders),
  human activities (agriculture)
• celebrate through myth, song, prayer, sacrifice,
  possession, gendered, character, food, color,
  altars, images, priests, rituals, daily
  relationships

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African religious cosmos

• Ancestors
• living dead influence the living
• Senior community members (respect gifts)
• Maintain moral social order
• Humans
• Body soul/s (emispirit, oridestiny)
• Integral parts of religious cosmos

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Ritual

• Organized group activity
• Relationships among humans, super-humans nature
  give meaning to ritual
• Rites of passage define social, religious,
  physical identity (birth, puberty, marriage,
  death)

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Rites of Passage (van Gennep)

1. Separation breaking ties w/old identity (i.e.
   cutting hair, fasting, purification)
2. Liminality state of in-between transition,
   non-status, non-identity, radical potential,
   opportunity for rebirth, transformation
3. Incorporation new mode of existence, cause for
   celebrations

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Important Rituals

• Prayer using power of speech to
• deliver messages, express concerns, ask
  questions, receive health, wealth, children,
  declare gratitude
• Ritual technique to solve problems
• Sacrifice destroy something valuable for
  religious reason
• Influence state of religious cosmos
• Superhuman agent receives offering
• Ritual means for humans to sustain network of
  meaningful relationships among humans,
  super-humans, and nature

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Traditional religious specialists

• Spirit mediums/priests speak for possessing
  super-human agents
• --mediums are called, inspired, or forced to
  serve
• --ability to tell future, divine, heal
• Priests ritual leaders with body of knowledge
  and skills
• --learned profession, can be inherited
• --represent humans
• Sacred King Ensure well-being of kingdom

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• Healers posit cause of dis-ease diagnose
  prescribe treatment to remove cause of illness
• Sorcerers malicious humans who employ magic to
  harm enemies
• Witches cause physical harm
• Inherited or acquired

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Healing

• Causes natural supernatural human-human,
  human-divine, human-natural relationships are
  messed up
• Divination ritual process, humans obtain
  inaccessible, obscure info. about a clients
  place in religious cosmos
• Priests handle neutral objects
• Priests interpret meaning of results
• (i.e. Yoruba Ifa diviners Orunmila Odu,
• 16 palm nuts, x8 times, 256 chapters)

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What is life?

• Creating, maintaining, modifying the
• quality of your relationships
• with 3 dimensions of the religious cosmos
• super-human, human, and natural forces
• If these relationships are flawed,
• you experience illness, suffering, misfortune