Yoruba herbalists and priests enlist the aid of Osanyin, the spirit of herbal medicines, [1] or Opa Erinle, in their work against mental and physical illness caused by malevolent forces and individuals. The Yoruba believe the power of Osanyin is vested in a wrought iron staff, called an Osanyin staff, that is placed on altars to this Orisha.
The staff is composed of a circle of small birds and a shaft in the middle that elevates a large bird above smaller ones. Babatunde Lawal suggests that the reason for this division could be to suggest the relaying of metaphysical powers from the celestial to the terrestrial realm. Lawal evokes the Yoruba reference to Osanyin as "The one who sees everything, like Olodumare," allowing him a vantage point from which he can protect all of humanity below. [2]
The birds, emissaries of Ogun, refer to the herbalist's understanding of and power over these malevolent people. There are typically sixteen birds, invoking the most sacred number of divination, surrounding and confronting the central bird, which represents the smallpox god. [3]
The birds on Osanyin staffs suggest an iconographic link with the birds on Obas' crowns. [4]
Shango is an Orisha in Yoruba religion. Genealogically speaking, Shango is a royal ancestor of the Yoruba as he was the third Alaafin of the Oyo Kingdom prior to his posthumous deification. Shango has numerous manifestations, including Airá, Agodo, Afonja, Lubé, and Obomin. He is known for his powerful double axe (Oṣè). He is considered to be one of the most powerful rulers that Yorubaland has ever produced.
Oshun is the Yoruba orisha associated with love, sexuality, fertility, femininity, water, destiny, divination, purity, and beauty, and the Osun River, and of wealth and propersity in Voodoo. She is considered the most popular and venerated of the 401 orishas.
Orishas are divine spirits that play a key role in the Yoruba religion of West Africa and several religions of the African diaspora that derive from it, such as Haitian Vaudou, Cuban, Dominican and Puerto Rican Santería and Brazilian Candomblé. The preferred spelling varies depending on the language in question: òrìṣà is the spelling in the Yoruba language, orixá in Portuguese, and orisha, oricha, orichá or orixá in Spanish-speaking countries.
Ifẹ̀ is an ancient Yoruba city in south-western Nigeria, founded approximately between the 1000 BC and 600 BC. The city is located in present-day Osun State. Ifẹ̀ is about 218 kilometers northeast of Lagos with a population of over 500,000 people, which is the highest in Osun State according to population census of 2006.
At least two groups of people in Africa are described as the Yombe people. They reside primarily in Zambia, Republic of the Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Angola. Adept at crafts and art, the men are involved in weaving, carving, and smelting, and the women make clay pots. Popular figures include the Nkisi nkonde and female phemba statues.
The beliefs and practices of African people are highly diverse, including various ethnic religions. Generally, these traditions are oral rather than scriptural and are passed down from one generation to another through folk tales, songs, and festivals, and include beliefs in spirits and higher and lower gods, sometimes including a supreme being, as well as the veneration of the dead, and use of magic and traditional African medicine. Most religions can be described as animistic with various polytheistic and pantheistic aspects. The role of humanity is generally seen as one of harmonizing nature with the supernatural. African traditional religions differ from Abrahamic religions in that they aren't idealisations, and seek to come to terms with reality as is.
Robert Farris Thompson was an American art historian and writer who specialized in Africa and the Afro-Atlantic world. He was a member of the faculty at Yale University from 1965 to his retirement more than fifty years later and served as the Colonel John Trumbull Professor of the History of Art. Thompson coined the term "black Atlantic" in his 1983 book Flash of the Spirit: African and Afro-American Art and Philosophy – the expanded subject of Paul Gilroy's book The Black Atlantic.
The Yoruba of West Africa are responsible for a distinct artistic tradition in Africa, a tradition that remains vital and influential today.
Yorùbá medicine, or egbòogi, is an Yoruba system of herbalism practiced primarily in West Africa and the Caribbean.
Ìyá Nlá is the primordial spirit of all creation in Yoruba cosmology. She is believed to be the source of all existence. Iya Nla literally means “Great Mother” in the Yoruba language. In The Gẹ̀lẹ̀dẹ́ Spectacle: Art, Gender, and Social Harmony in an African Culture, art historian Babatunde Lawal reveals that Ìyá Nlá in Yoruba cosmology is the orisha who is the “Mother of All Things, including the deities.” Lawal also asserts that the female principle in nature has been personified as Ìyá Nlá, whereby human beings can relate to one another as children of the same mother.” Teresa N. Washington’s Our Mothers, Our Powers, Our Texts: Manifestations of Àjẹ́ in Africana Literature, states that Ìyá Nlá — the Mother of All, who is also known as Yewájọbí, Odù, Odùduwà, and Àjẹ́ — is not merely an orisha; Ìyá Nlá is the primordial force of all creation.
The Songye people, sometimes written Songe, are a Bantu ethnic group from the central Democratic Republic of the Congo. They speak the Songe language. They inhabit a vast territory between the Sankuru/Lulibash river in the west and the Lualaba River in the east. Many Songye villages can be found in present-day East Kasai province, parts of Katanga and Kivu Province. The people of Songye are divided into thirty-four conglomerate societies; each society is led by a single chief with a Judiciary Council of elders and nobles (bilolo). Smaller kingdoms east of the Lomami River refer to themselves as Songye, other kingdoms in the west, refer to themselves as Kalebwe, Eki, Ilande, Bala, Chofwe, Sanga and Tempa. As a society, the people of Songye are mainly known as a farming community; they do, however, take part in hunting and trading with other neighboring communities.
Ikegobo, the Edo term for "altars to the Hand," are a type of cylindrical sculpture from the Benin Empire. Used as a cultural marker of an individual's accomplishments, Ikegobo are dedicated to the hand, from which the people of Benin considered the will for wealth and success to originate. These commemorative objects are made of wood or brass with figures carved in relief around their sides.
The Luba Empire or Kingdom of Luba (1585–1889) was a pre-colonial Central African state that arose in the marshy grasslands of the Upemba Depression in what is now southern Democratic Republic of Congo.
An Epa mask is a ceremonial mask worn by the Yoruba people of Nigeria during the Epa masquerade. Carvings representing priests, hunters, farmers, kings, and mothers are usually depicted on the masks. They are used to acknowledge important roles within the community, and to honor those who perform the roles, as well as ancestors who performed those roles in the past.
Agere ifa is a holding receptacle, vessel or container for keeping and raising the sacred palm nuts or ikin used in Yoruba divination. Most Agere are made from a medium of wood, but also ivory and coconut shells.
An Oba's crown represents the highest level of authority vested in Yoruba rulers. Referred to as an Adé, the bead-embroidered crown is the foremost attribute of the ruler and the greatest mark of honour and sanction of divine authority. An Oba's crown may also be referred to as an Adé ńlá, literally: Big Crown. Ade in Yorubaland are elaborate conical head gears that feature a heavily beaded veil and fringes that shields or obscure the face.
An ọpọ́n Ifá is a divination tray used in traditional African and Afro-American religions, notably in the system known as Ifá and in Yoruba tradition more broadly. The etymology of opon, literally meaning "to flatter", explains the artistic and embellished nature of the trays, as they are meant to praise and acknowledge the noble work of the Babalawo (diviners). The etymology of the term Ifá, however, has been a subject of debate. Ifá may be considered an orisha, or a Yoruba god — specifically, the god of divination Orula. Conversely, some scholars have referred to Ifá merely as the "great consulting oracle" as opposed to a god or a deity, without any divine connotations.
The Benin ivory mask is a miniature sculptural portrait in ivory of Idia, the first Iyoba of the 16th century Benin Empire, taking the form of a traditional African mask. The masks were looted by the British from the palace of the Oba of Benin in the Benin Expedition of 1897.
Oko, also known as Ocô in Brazil, was an Orisha. In Nigeria and the Benin Republic, he was a strong hunter and farming deity, as well as a fighter against sorcery. He was associated with the annual new harvest of the white African yam. Among the deities, he was considered a close friend of Oosa, Ogiyan and Shango, as well as a one-time husband of Oya and Yemoja. Bees are said to be the messengers of Oko.
Iyami Aje is a Yoruba term of respect and endearment used to describe a woman of African ancestry who is considered to be an Aje, a woman who wields myriad arcane creative biological, spiritual, and cosmic powers.