History

A lecture by Prof Idowu Odeyemi. With due respect to the practitioners of “African Religion”, I wish to state that, until now, writers and even thinkers have tended to overlook a fundamentally important aspect of the religion, that is, the existence of a strand which threads and knits together all …

There lived a drummer whose name was Ayanda alias Minimini. He was called so as his drumming was nice to the ears. He was marvellous at drumming, he was good looking and was the choice of many ladies, he therefore, was a womanizer. He was prosperous and popular, all these …

In some parts of the Yoruba lands the word for fungus or mushroom is Olu [anything that is more prominent or which rises higher than any other thing in its environment], because mushrooms are easily distinguished from the surrounding plants. In other regions the word osun is used. This is …

Agbe alahun alahun aro, Aluko alahun alahun osun, Lekeleke alahun alahun efun. B’omo o lahun won a pe baba. From time immemorial, the Yoruba language has taken in a lot of nature into the building bricks of her linguistic structures. In the same vein, The Yoruba have remarkable love for …

The culture that teaches that a king could become a slave and a slave could become a king in their midst and that the way a child is born is the same way a slave is born put the Yoruba culture up front amongst world cultures, East, West, North and …

Some people are so wrong by condemning other’s people religions, we all knows that most of us claiming to be Christians are just church attendant. We claim to be Christ follower but non can act like Him, so what is the benefit of acting what you are not. Those practising …

The Odun Aje in Ondo kingdom is literally referred to as a festival of the goddess of wealth and fertility. The festival is one of the over 50 traditional festivals annually celebrated with pomp and pageantry in Ondo. The festival is dedicated to Aje, the Yoruba goddess of wealth and fertility, it …

WHAT IS ORÍKÌ? Oriki is an important and cultural, but unwritten (oral) genre of Yoruba literature that is usually used in praise singing. The Yoruba people have very rich cultural oral literature, oriki is on of them. Oríkì is used during individual or communal ceremonies, for individuals or the community. …

Yoruba people have developed a variety of different artistic forms including pottery, weaving, beadwork, metalwork, and mask making. Most artwork is made to honour the gods and ancestors and since there are more than 401 known gods to the Yorubas, there is much sculpture and artwork mad. Yoruba people are …

Those who founded Ondo were no commonplace wayfarers with a prosaic, pedestrian pedigree. They were men and women enveloped in royal garments straight from the palace of the Alaafin of Oyo, the then powerful leader of the Yoruba race. Among the cities, towns and villages that make up the Yoruba …