Yoruba Traditional Religion

Yoruba traditional religion, practiced primarily among the Yoruba people of present-day southwestern Nigeria, Benin, and Togo and their global diaspora, is one of the largest and most culturally influential indigenous African religious traditions. Its theological and ritual vocabulary, centered on the Supreme Being Olodumare, the divine Orishas, the ancestors, and the Ifa oracle system, has proven extraordinarily resilient and generative, surviving the Middle Passage to become the spiritual parent of Candomble in Brazil, Lukumi (Santeria) in Cuba, Trinidad Orisha, and numerous other diaspora traditions.

Yoruba traditional religion is a living tradition practiced by millions of people in West Africa and in diaspora communities worldwide, and it is engaged in its own internal conversations about orthodoxy, transmission, and the relationship between its traditional homeland forms and its New World descendants.

History and origins

The Yoruba people of West Africa have a civilization traceable at least to the first millennium CE, with the cities of Ile-Ife and Oyo serving as major cultural and political centers. Ile-Ife, in particular, is regarded in Yoruba mythology as the place where the world was created, where the Orishas descended to establish human civilization, and where Oduduwa, the ancestor of the Yoruba people and of Yoruba kingship, first touched the earth.

Yoruba religious tradition was transmitted orally across generations through the professional priesthoods of individual Orishas and through the Ifa divination system, which preserves an enormous body of sacred literature (the Odu Ifa) in the memories of trained Babalawo. The Portuguese arrived on the West African coast in the fifteenth century, and Arab Islamic influence had already been present in the region for centuries, but Yoruba traditional religion maintained its character through these encounters.

The transatlantic slave trade of the sixteenth through nineteenth centuries forcibly relocated millions of Yoruba people to the Americas. Despite the deliberate destruction of African culture under slavery, Yoruba religious traditions survived and were transformed in the New World into the diaspora traditions that now number millions of practitioners globally.

The cosmology and divine beings

Yoruba cosmology places Olodumare (also called Olorun, “owner of the sky”) as the supreme, transcendent source of all existence. Olodumare created the universe and is the source of the divine force called Ase (pronounced ah-SHAY), the power of existence and creation that permeates all things and through which all things exist and act. Direct worship of Olodumare by human beings is not the primary mode of religious engagement; this is reserved for the Orishas, divine intermediaries who are both more approachable and more interested in human affairs.

The number of Orishas recognized varies by tradition and region, with some accounts listing 201, 401, or 1440, though in practice the major active Orishas number considerably fewer. Each Orisha governs specific domains and has a distinctive character, preferences, and modes of communication.

Eshu (also called Elegba, Elegbara, or Exu in diaspora traditions) is the Orisha of the crossroads, of roads and doorways, of communication and interpretation, and the divine messenger between the human world and the divine. He must be honored first in any ceremony as the gatekeeper who opens the way for all other spiritual communication.

Ogun governs iron, tools, labor, hunting, and warfare. He is the patron of workers, soldiers, and all who use metal tools and weapons, and the Orisha invoked when swearing oaths.

Shango (Xango in Brazil, Chango in Cuba) governs thunder, lightning, justice, and kingship. He is associated with fire, with virility, and with the righteous exercise of power.

Yemoja (Yemanja in Brazil) governs the ocean and all water, and is understood as a cosmic mother whose waters both nourish and can overwhelm.

Oshun governs rivers, fresh water, love, fertility, and beauty. She is associated with gold, honey, and feminine wisdom, and is among the most beloved Orishas in both West Africa and the diaspora.

Obatala is the eldest Orisha, associated with creation, purity, wisdom, and the molding of human bodies. He is the father of many Orishas and is honored with white, his sacred color.

Ancestors and the living dead

Alongside the Orishas, the ancestors (Egungun in collective ceremonial form, or more simply as the “living dead”) play an essential role in Yoruba religious life. The recently deceased are understood to be still present in the world of the living, capable of blessing or afflicting their descendants, and requiring regular propitiation, acknowledgment, and ritual care. The Egungun masquerade tradition, in which costumed figures represent the collective ancestral presence, is one of the most important ritual institutions of Yoruba culture.

The Ifa system

Ifa divination is the central mechanism through which divine guidance is made available to individual humans and communities. A Babalawo, who undergoes years of training to memorize the Odu Ifa and their associated literature, performs divination by casting sixteen palm nuts or a divining chain, producing one of 256 possible configurations (Odu). Each Odu contains a vast oral literature of poems (ese Ifa) describing mythological events, prescriptions for sacrifice, and guidance applicable to the specific situation being divined.

Ifa is not merely a fortune-telling system. It is a complete sacred literature encoding the moral, mythological, medical, and practical knowledge of the tradition, consulted for every major life decision and ceremony.

A closed initiatory tradition

Yoruba traditional religion and its diaspora descendants are initiatory traditions. The relationship with specific Orishas, particularly one’s “head Orisha,” is established through divination, and deeper initiation into Orisha priesthood involves formal ceremony, community, and ongoing obligation to the Orisha and to the tradition. These initiatory traditions are not appropriate for outsiders to claim membership in without genuine initiation within recognized lineages.

Respectful engagement from outside the tradition takes the form of study, attendance at public festival events where these exist, and support for Yoruba and diaspora community cultural and religious activities. The tradition’s sacred literature and mythology is also available in published form for study and appreciation.