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Yoruba - Yoruba mythology

Yoruba - Yoruba mythology: Encyclopedia II - Yoruba - Yoruba mythology

Yoruba mythology is sometimes claimed to be one of the world's oldest widely practised religions. It is a major religion in Africa, chiefly in Nigeria, and it has given origin to several New World religions such as Santería in Cuba and Candomblé in Brazil. Itan is the term for the sum total of all Yoruba myths, songs, histories, and other cultural components. Many ethnic Yoruba were enslaved and taken to Cuba, Brazil, Trinidad and the rest of the New World (chiefly in the 19th century, after the Oyo empire collapsed and the r ...

Yoruba: Encyclopedia II - Yoruba - Yoruba mythology

Yoruba - Yoruba mythology

Itan is the term for the sum total of all Yoruba myths, songs, histories, and other cultural components.

Many ethnic Yoruba were enslaved and taken to Cuba, Brazil, Trinidad and the rest of the New World (chiefly in the 19th century, after the Oyo empire collapsed and the region plunged into civil war), and carried their religious beliefs with them. These concepts were combined with preexisting African-based religions, Christianity, Native American mythology, and Kardecist Spiritism into various New World lineages:

Santería (Cuba)
Oyotunji (USA)
Idigene (Nigeria)
Anago (Nigeria)
Candomblé (Brazil)
Umbanda (Brazil)
Batuque (Brazil)

The popularly known Vodun religion of Haiti combines the religious beliefs of the many different African ethnic nationalities taken to the island with the structure and liturgy from the Fon-Ewe of present-day Benin and the Congo-Angolan culture area, but Yoruba-derived religious ideology and deities also play an important role.

Yoruba deities include "Ọya" (wind goddess), "Ifa" (divination or fate), "Ẹlẹda" (destiny), "Ibeji" (twins), "Ọsanyin" (medicines and healing) and "Ọsun" (goddess of fertility, protector of children and mothers), Sango (God of thunder)

Human beings and other sentient creatures are also assumed to have their own individual deity of destiny, called "Ori", who is venerated through a sculpture symbolically decorated with cowrie shells. The majority of contemporary Yorubas are Christians and Muslims, with indigenous congregations having the largest memberships among Christians. A substantial portion of the population either follows the traditional religion called Ifa or consult with the clergy of traditional diviners known as babalawo, or "Father of secrets."