Pánsá ò fura pánsá já’nà; àjà ò fura àjà jìn; b’ónílé ò bá fura olè ni ó ko.
(The dried calabash was careless hence it was plucked! The attic was careless hence it caved in! The head of the household that is not careful will be cleaned out by thieves.)
ÈṢÙ Ọlá Ìlú
Young Ṣemílóre had become so acquainted with and attached to his ancestral Yorùbá customs and belief system that he proudly exhibits its symbols by adorning himself with beads on his wrist and neck. One day, Ṣadé, his course mate at the faculty of law at the Lagos University, asked him why he loved and preferred beads as wrist-bands and necklaces when most young men go for ornaments like gold or silver. He quickly quipped that they represent the Òrìṣà (deified ancestors) and Irúnmọlẹ̀ (primordial beings).
“What!” exclaimed Ṣadé. “God forbid”, she added with disdain. “So, you don’t believe in God?” she queried.
“Which God? That of Abraham and Isaac?”
“Yes,” Ṣadé answered with veiled delight.
“Certainly not!” Ṣemílóre objected.
“So, who do you worship?” Ṣadé enquired.
“My ancestors who intercede for me.” the confident young man affirmed.
“Can you turn one into a snake?”
“Don’t be silly! Have you ever witnessed any such feat?”
“But you people use humans for money-making rituals.” Ṣadé suggested.
Shaking his head in disgust, Ṣemílóre said. “Why do you display such ignorance?”
This line of dialogue is typical between a Yoruba Christian and an adherent of the Yoruba traditional belief system. A typical Christian like Ṣadé cannot comprehend why anyone should be aligned with any African belief system. Her understanding of anything within the African spiritual belief system has to be evil or malevolent. She sees the likes of Ṣemílóre as bound for hell for not accepting what she has come to believe in her religious consciousness. Assertions like anything without the Christian Jesus she has come to accept means salvation would elude you! John 3:16 is one beaten verse Ṣemílóre must have heard for the umpteenth time. “For God so loved the world that he gave his begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life.” Statements like this have become so sacrosanct in the minds of Christians that, for them, it has become absolute and has assumed universal application.
The question is: Can a single belief system claim absolute and exclusive access to the Divine? Did the God created by religion intend that access to Him can only be through one tradition – the one that emanated from the middle eastern area known as Nazareth, Judea, Jerusalem or whichever? If that is true, one begins to wonder why this God in His wisdom allow humanity to create many views of his creation through their various cultural perspectives. If one looks at spirituality as opposed to religion, it becomes clear that the coloration of the various religious systems are simply the interpretations each culture gives to their understanding of creation. Every culture has its creation myth which they attempt to impose as the only one valid for universal application.
IGBÓDÙ: The Sacred Ifá Grove Ọdẹ́wálé Community Dálémọ Akúkọ
So, why is the African belief system looked upon with such disdain? Maybe we can hazard a guess from the antecedents of our colonial past. When the colonial warlords appeared on our continent, they marveled at what they saw as pristine, purity, in our ancestors’ way of life. They saw that the communal living of the African was guided by very high ethical standards. They confessed to comprehending a society bereft of the usual vices in their own world. It brought them to the realization that the African had a spiritual system so close to Nature that formed the backbone of their moral fabric. As the invaders began to create an understanding of the African spirituality, it dawned on them that, simple as the way of life of the African may be, penetrating them might not be an easy task. They knew it was not immediately possible to ride roughshod over the African peoples. They had to carefully study the customs and cultural nuances of the peoples they found on the continent. It took them centuries of re-strategizing before they finally deciphered that the spiritual system of the African had to be vilified; that their backbone – their strong spirituality – had to be crushed.
To be continued. Next on our series on African Spirituality is the Juju Dread: Notion or Reality?