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Yoruban
Monotheism
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The Yoruba religion, West African
Orisa, or Isese, comprises the traditional religious and spiritual concepts and
practice of the Yoruba people. Its homeland is in present-day South-western
Nigeria and Southern Benin. It has become the largest indigenous African
tradition or belief system in the world with several million adherents
worldwide.
It shares some parallels with the Vodun practised by the neighbouring Fon and
Ewe peoples to its west and with the religion of the Edo people to its east.
Yoruba religion is the basis for several religions in the New World, notably
Santería, Umbanda, Trinidad Orisha, and Candomblé. Yoruba religious beliefs are
part of Itŕn; history, the total complex of songs, histories, stories, and other
cultural concepts which make up the Yoruba society.
According to Kola Abimbola, the Yorubas have evolved a robust cosmology.
Central for the Yoruba religion, and which all beings possess, is known as "Ase",
which is "the empowered word that must come to pass," the "life force" and
"energy" that "regulates all movement and activity in the universe".
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.
The Yoruba religion can be described as a form of diffused monotheism, with a
Supreme but distant creator force, encompassing the whole universe.
My Icon: A statue of Shango. |