Yoruba religion
Its homeland is in present-day Southwestern Nigeria and Southern Benin, which comprises the majority of the states of; Oyo, Ogun, Osun, Ondo, Ekiti, Kwara, Lagos and parts of Kogi in Nigeria, the Departments of; Collines, Oueme, Plateau in Benin, and the adjoining parts of central Togo, commonly known as Yorubaland (Yoruba: Ilẹ̀ Káàárọ̀-Oòjíire).
[5][6][7] Every thought and action of each person or being in Aiyé (the physical realm) interact with the Supreme force, all other living things, including the Earth itself, as well as with Orun (the otherworld), in which gods, spirits and ancestors exist.
[3][6][7] The Yoruba religion can be described as a complex form of polytheism, with a Supreme but distant creator force, encompassing the whole universe.
[7] The anthropologist Robert Voeks described Yoruba religion as being animistic, noting that it was "firmly attached to place".
[8] Each person living on earth attempts to achieve perfection and find their destiny in Orun-Rere (the spiritual realm of those who do good and beneficial things).
[3][5] Well-balanced people, it is believed, can make positive use of the simplest form of connection between their Ori and the omnipotent Olu-Orun: an Àwúre (petition or prayer) for divine support.
[3] The Yoruba scriptures are called the Odu Ifá, which is a collection of revealed oracular texts originally passed down through oral tradition among babalawos.
[10] Perhaps one of the most important human endeavours extolled within the Yoruba literary corpus is the quest to improve one's "Ìwà" (character, behaviour).
In this way the teachings transcend religious doctrine, advising as they do that a person must also improve their civic, social and intellectual spheres of being; every stanza of the sacred Ifá oracular poetry (Odu Ifa) has a portion covering the importance of "Ìwà".
[13] After a successful period of time, a number of divinities led by Obatala were sent to accomplish the task of helping the earth develop its crust.
On one of their visits to the realm, the arch-divinity Obatala took to the stage equipped with a mollusc that concealed some form of soil, winged beasts, and some cloth-like material.
It was at this point that Olodumare released the "breath of life" to blow across the land, and the figurines slowly came into "being" as the first people of Ife.
In Yoruba religion and culture, Oku is a complex and multifaceted concept that encompasses various aspects of death, the afterlife, and the relationship between the living and the dead.
However, it is worth noting that Egungun traditions are not simply a representation of Oku, but rather have their own unique characteristics and significance, depending on the context.
Also known for his phallic powers and exploits, Eshu is said to lurk at gateways, on the highways and at the crossroads, where he introduces chance and accident into the lives of humans.
(Site) [40] Shoponna priests prevented the spread of contagious diseases by being responsible for the removal of corpses and belongings of those who died from them.
At the end of that life they return to their identical spirit self and merge into one, taking the additional knowledge gained from their experience with the individual as a form of payment.
[62] According to Professor Adams Abdullahi Suberu, the Yoruba were exquisite statesmen who spread across the globe in an unprecedented fashion;[63] the reach of their culture is largely due to migration—the most recent migration occurred with the Atlantic slave trade, and with Nigerian and Beninoise Yorùbá emigrating to the United States, the UK, Brazil, and other countries of the Americas and Europe.
During the pre-colonial period, many Yoruba were captured and sold into the slave trade and transported to Argentina, Brazil, Cuba, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Trinidad and Tobago, St. Vincent & The Grenadines, Uruguay, Venezuela, and other parts of the Americas.
The school-of-thought integrated into what now constitutes the core of the "New World lineages" which are a variety of Yorùbá-derived contemporary African religions:[63][64][65][66] The Vodun faith, which originated amongst a different ethnic group (the Gbe speaking peoples of present-day Benin, Togo, and Ghana), holds influential aspects on the African diaspora in countries such as Haiti and Cuba, also New Orleans, Louisiana in the United States.
Followers of Umbanda typically consider themselves Monotheistic, but honor Catholic Saints and Orisha as manifestations from god or as Tutelary deities.
[68] In the 1949 documentary Fiestas de Santiago Apóstol en Loíza Aldea, anthropologist Ricardo Alegría noted a similar tendency at Loíza, Puerto Rico, arguing that the affinity between the black population in the municipality and the Catholic saint Santiago Apóstol may derive from the way in which he is depicted as a warrior; a similar theme to some depictions of Shango and Adams.
[70] Koshikawa Yoshiaki [ja], professor of literature at Meiji University, became the first Japanese person to be initiated as a babalawo in 2013.
