Good day everyone, I hope we are all doing well and fine.
Today I want to introduce and let you know some of the gods worshipped in the yoruba tribe of south west Nigeria. There are lots of gods but I will be talking about the top 5 most powerful of them all.
In the olden days before the Europeans came to Africa or Nigeria the people of the Yoruba tribe have their own gods that they worship and pray to, even after the Europeans introduced Christianity and even the Arabs introduced Islam to the Yoruba people there are still a number of people who still worship there gods till today and holds festival every year.
Sango
He is the Yoruba mythological “god of Thunder and Lightning.” I know some of you might be thinking what about Thor?, but one thing I have come to notice about different tribes is that they mostly have the own god of thunder, so in yoruba tribe, Sango is the god of thunder.
He is also called Jakuta, according to history he was the third king of Old Oyo Kingdom. He his well known for wielding a two-edged axe that he uses to control his thunder from the sky. He is also one of the greatest warriors in mythologies. The Bata dance is performed during his festivals and his worshippers wears red attires.
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Picture of Sango worshippers in action
Ogun
Ogun is the Yoruba “god of war and iron.” Yes, he is strong warrior with temper. He is also the first king of ile-Ife, the place where the yoruba believes life started. He is mostly worshipped by warriors, hunters, blacksmiths, technologists and drivers who mostly make use of iron and believe in him. His signatures are metal, dog and palm fonds.
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Statue of Ogun shrine
Orunmila
Orunmila is also an influential Orisha and mostly referred to as the smartest. He is the “god of wisdom, knowledge and divination.” history has it that he was there during the creation of the universe. In the yoruba mythology he once used to take human forms and visit the earth as a priest and teach priests a very highly spiritual religion called Ifa. The Ifa has 256 books as part of the core of worship called Odu. It takes years to master the Odu off hand and it is mostly not written down. The Odu Ifa is full of wise words and this is what he uses to speak to his worshippers priest to pass message to them without saying things blantly so that novice won't understand except the priest. People mostly go for divinition to their life problem and also seek for solutions from the ifa priest who speaks with orunmila.
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A picture of ifa priest divinition board
Obatala
Obatala in the Yoruba history is the oldest god and the creator of the human race. He is the father of all Orishas. He was sent to earth by olodumare and he founded ile-Ife. He also has worshippers in the North America region also brazil too, where he his called Oxala.
He also walked the face of the earth in a mortal body and served as the king of Ife. He was overthrone by oduduwa who only lasted for a little while before Obatala regained the throne back. His signatures is mostly white robes, snail and food with white colors, plus they don't use alcohol to worship him.
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A statue of Obatala or Oxala
Olodumare
who is referred to as the most powerful god according to Yoruba history. He is the “supreme God.” He is above other gods and is the one who breathes life into the creations of Obatala. He is the creator of the other gods and he sent them so that the people can worship him through those orishas, incase the orishas do not answer, the people will have to call upon him directly because there is no imagery representation of him like the other orishas.
I hope you have learnt something's in the yoruba mythology, and also it is not only the greek that have their own mythology.
You can read more on these gods they all have unique and interesting stories. I must say that there are other gods too, like the Osun the Queen of the waters, she is mostly worshipped through the waters.
Thank you for reading.
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