Origin & Beliefs
Dating back to before the beginning of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade in the 16th Century, the Yoruba faith and its people constituted a large portion of Africa’s population. Located primarily in Nigeria and its neighboring countries of Benin and Togo, they established their culture along the West African coast.
Ile-Ife, an ancient city located in southwest Nigeria, is known in Yoruba tradition to be the birthplace of its people and culture. It is dictated by tradition that this is where the gods saw fit to create a mass of solid land from watery wasteland.
Cosmology: Olodumare, or Olorun, is known in Yoruba religion as the supreme creator of the universe. Viewed as a transcendent and gender neutral deity, Olodumare is rather inactive in myth post-creation and is rarely worshipped directly; rather there are lower level gods who act as intermediaries between people on Earth and the creator.
The universe contains the spiritual power of ashe, an energy that exists and can be transferred between all things such as living beings, spirits, and inanimate objects. Ashe can be seen to have real effects in the world.
Lower level gods, known as orishas, are the deities that most people worship or make sacrifices to. They are depicted as more human-like and represent the divine force that makes things happen between spirits, people and objects.
Types of Orishas: There are typically three categories of orishas.
Divinities Present During Creation:
Obatala - orisha of human creation, shaping babies while still in the womb; symbolized mainly by a white dove.
Eshu (Elegba) - often perceived as a trickster of sorts, mainly known as the messenger between humans and orishas, requiring a sacrifice of things such as tobacco; also known as the guardian of the crossroads, assisting with life transitions.
Orunmila - orisha of wisdom, knowledgeable of destinies of people and other orishas; worshipped through St. Francis in American settings.
Defied Ancestors:
Shango - known in Yoruba tradition as a former king of the kingdom of Oyo. Orisha of thunder and lightning (or nowadays electricity), while also representing male sexuality and virility; worshipped through Catholic Saint Barbara in some areas of the world.
Personifications of Natural Forces:
Oshun - orisha of waters and rivers; in West Africa, also represents fertility and child-bearing. In America, known as the orisha of love; always represented as a powerful female.
Yemoja - orisha representing the ocean, essence of motherhood and protector of children; emerged from African slaves in the Americas.
These are just some examples of orishas. Variations of tradition say that there could be anywhere from a dozen to 3,200, depending on the text being read.
Orishas have emotions and preferences just like humans, and can be helpful or harmful depending on the situation at hand. Many times they help human beings navigate their destiny.
They have the power to enter into a human being, and are present in the earth and are believed to be present during certain ceremonies and dictate who is to become a priest of priestess; it is believed to be unwise to resist a calling from the orisha.
Destiny: Believing in the concept of rebirth, Yoruba religion teaches that before being reborn, Olodumare allows humans to choose aspects of their destiny: personality, occupation, date of death, etc. Unfortunately many forget after they are born what they were created to do, and can wander aimlessly without purpose until recovering their destiny through memory or aid from an orisha.
Through Ifa Divination, priests (called babalawos for males and iyalawos for females) can help people by acting as mediums to the orishas, and thus recovering the person’s destiny. Yoruba religion speaks of two different souls: emi (associated with breath) and ori (associated with destiny).
Ori is meant to represent the ashe, or spiritual energy, within all things. By performing the ritual of divination and connecting with one’s ori, they can reconnect with their true self and remember their destiny.
Many times the divination ceremony calls on Orunmila, the orisha of wisdom.
Past & Present
Due to the African Slave Trade, Yoruba spread to all areas of the globe including the United States, the Caribbean and South America. As a result, Yoruba became the foundation for many variations such as Santeria and Vodou, as well as combinations of more prominent religions such as Christianity and Yoruba (Aladura Christianity).
As African religions were banned due to the “barbaric” nature by many slave owners, many slaves (particularly in the Caribbean and South America) worshipped their African roots through Catholic saints. In the U.S., slaves would have to limit and hide their religious traditions, as Protestants were rarely very accommodating. This resulted in hybrids of religions that took Christian, Catholic and Yoruba elements and formed a “melting pot” of religion.
Today, Yoruba is one of the largest ethnic groups in African, encompassing a population of around 40 million people; 25 million African residents still practice Yoruba as a religion.
Worldwide, Yoruba and its various inspired religions are practiced by over 100 million people.
Readings/Resources
Adekson, Mary Olufunmilayo. "Similarities and Differences Between Yoruba Traditional Healers (YTH) and Native American and Canadian Healers (NACH)." Journal of Religion and Health 55, no. 5 (2016): 1717-1728. www.jstor.org/stable/24735455.
Olajubu, Oyeronke. "Seeing through a Woman's Eye: Yoruba Religious Tradition and Gender Relations." Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion 20, no. 1 (2004): 41-60. www.jstor.org/stable/25002489.
Ray, Benjamin C. "Aladura Christianity: A Yoruba Religion." Journal of Religion in Africa 23, no. 3 (1993): 266-91. doi:10.2307/1581109.
