Yoruba is one of many tribes located in Africa and is one of the largest ethno- linguistic groups. Majority of the native people of Yoruba are a part of Southwestern Nigeria and Benin. However, a great percentage of Yoruba is populated by modern day Nigeria. Moreover, the Yoruba culture was an oral tradition, and majority of the people were native speakers of the Yoruba language. The native name of the Yoruba language is ‘Ede Yoruba’. The language originated through the Yoruba people because they were believed to be descendants of Oduduwa. Oduduwa, was the son of a powerful God named Oludumare. And the Yoruba people referred to themselves as ‘Omo Oduduwa’ meaning Oduduwa’s children. The Yoruba language is the pride of the Yoruba people and over 22 million people speak it. The Yoruba language had been spoken within other languages in neighboring countries such as Benin and Togo. Other traces of the Yoruba language has been spoken in Sierra Leone, where it’s referred to as “Oku” and Cuba known as “Nago”.
Moreover, like many other African languages, the study of Yoruba language was conducted by missionaries. These missionaries were interested in translating the scriptures for evangelical purposes. As a result, of these studies this led to the emergence of writing and studying of the Yoruba language and culture. The development of written Yoruba language was led by Samuel Crowther, a fluent Yoruba speaker who published the first Yoruba grammar. In 1884, He translated the Holy Bible from the Standard English version into Yoruba dialect. Afterwards, his work was accepted as the standard for Yoruba language among a variety of dialects. His Yoruba-language Bible served as an example of the written Yoruba that was widely adopted by the ma...
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... legendary founder of an ancestral masquerade cult. Iwi illustrates the qualities of past ancestors and their achievements.
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The Yoruba religion was brought to the Hispanic Caribbean approximately four hundred years ago by African slaves during the period of conquest and colonization of the new world. The religion remained traditionally strong among the African community until the Spanish conquerors began to prohibit its practice. When the Spaniards reached the New lands they brought with them the religion of the reigning King. That is Queen Isabella's religion; Catholosism. The conquerors forced the slaves to accept the Catholic faith as their new religion. The African, stripped already of their dignity refuse to give up their religious beliefs, this belief being all they brought with them. Knowing of the negative ramnifications, punishment and sometimes even death if caught "devil worshipping" it meant that in order to continue to worship theri Gods the angry Africans had to find a way to practice thier religion. They astutely hide theri religion behind Catholic religious practices and saints.
The story is set within the Ibo tribe of Umuofia, which is one of the nine villages that combine to make one large clan in Nigeria. These tribes are ones that hold courage, strength, tradition and customs extremely high. The theme of tradition is examined by
Trupin, James E. West Africa - A Background Book from Ancient Kingdoms to Modern Times, Parent's Magazine Press. New York, 1991.
African Yoruba Orisa worship is said to be a widely practiced African religion. The Yoruba religion is prominent in regions such as Brazil, Costa Rica, Columbia, Trinidad, Haiti, Trinidad, and Cuba. This religious practice has a few differences from Christianity. One of the most obvious differences would be that Christianity is a monotheistic religion, and the Yoruba religion is assumed to be polytheistic.
The Yoruba Religion believes in a kind of reincarnation provided by their Gods. These Gods are very sacred to the Yoruba people. They are viewed as representations of the natural forces present in life. In addition, they have strong reverence of their ancestors. These ancestors at times will return in spiritual form in order to aid their descendants. The main problem religion recognizes is the losing of one’s self or in other words not following one’s destiny. The belief of the Yoruba is that this problem arises due to one forgetting themselves and they struggle remember their goals in life and to find themselves once again. The Yoruba are not alone however when trying to find their identities once again they have the aid of their family heads, priests and diviners. The people who fill these roles go through much hard work in order to aid their fellows to find themselves and to once again follow their paths in life. The Yoruba also strongly believe in the idea of three levels of life one devoted to Heaven, another to a habitat for humans and animals, and finally one as the home for the dead. I personally find the most important aspect of this religion to be the idea of the family structure. Many of the occurrences in this religion
The first step to understanding the response of the Benin people to this arrival is to look to their conception of their own identity. The Benin call themselves, their capital, and their language Edo, and some Edo can rightfully claim to have lived in the region for a thousand years. When speaking of Benin, the idea of a "traditional" culture is not wholly erroneous - their ancestry is older and on a more direct line than most Europeans can imagine. But the ancient kingdom of Benin did not encompass all Edo-speaking people and it was also not restricted to them, as it included ethnic groups such as the Yoruba, Igbo, Ijaw, and Itsekiri (Duchateau 9). The amount of racial cohesion in this "traditional culture" should no...
The missionaries’ Christian religion “had only one true god” (Achebe 139) in contrast with the Igbo’s “gods and ancestors.” (Achebe 139) This highly contrasted the differences between the two religions which played a key role in Nwoye’s actions for the rest of the book. Later in the chapter, Nwoye was depicted as “a young lad who had been captivated.” (Achebe 140) “It was not the mad logic of the Trinity that captivated him. He did not understand it.” (Achebe 140) Nwoye neither agree with nor understand the new religion. Instead, “it was the poetry of the new religion, something felt in the marrow,” that attracted him. The “marrow” likely signifies the religion’s origin, Europe. He sought after the new religion because its foreign roots might answer his confusions and “pour into his parched
This chapter is about Yoruba religion. Originating in West Africa, it was transported to the Americas by the slave trade. Yoruba religion teaches that before a person is reincarnated, one of his or her souls goes to Olodumare, the High God, to “receive new breath.” There, the soul chooses its destiny, which includes occupation, personality, measures of good and bad luck, and when the person will die. However, when that person is born the destiny is forgotten. Forgetfulness and disconnection from destiny make up the problem, and the solution is to remember and reconnect. One technique to reach the solution is Ifa divination. Orishas (superhuman beings) help people to live in harmony with their destinies.
...school to teach young Christians to read and write. Their interpreters who the people of Umuofia know as weak people and not very strong, come from the village were they fear the warriors of Umuofia. Those are the people that are now interpreting words to them. "The white spoke through an interpreter who was an Ibo man though his dialect was different and harsh to the ears of Mbanta" (102). The white man humiliated the leaders of Umuodia. When they put them in prison, their hair was shaved and their hands were handcuffed. "At night the messenger came in to taunt them and to knock their shaved heads together" (138).
Religion is meant to be recognized, heard and understood and Yoruba is of that religion. Yoruba is a religion of understanding, growing and seeking. In this paper, the religion Yoruba will be dissected to better understand it. Yoruba originated in West Africa, Nigeria and from there it was well known and practiced by many. Currently, there are 25 million members of this religion in West Africa alone.
middle of paper ... ... ’s depictions of both traditional and modern beliefs in varying degrees illustrate the importance of both in contemporary Nigerian culture, as well as the greater Africa as a whole, and how both are intertwined and cannot exist without the other. In effect, she skillfully subverts stereotypes or single perceptions of Africa as backward and traditional, proving instead, the multifaceted culture of Africa. She further illustrates that neither traditional African nor western culture is necessarily detrimental. It is the stark contrast of the fundamental cultures that inevitably leads to clashes and disagreements.
The "Nigeria" - "Nigeria" Encarta Encyclopedia. 3 July 2001. http://encarta.msn.com/find/concise.asp? mod = 1 & ti = 761557915 & page = 2
Salm, S., & Falola, T. (2002). Culture and Customs of Ghana. Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press
Oti, Adepeju; Ayeni, Oyebola. (2013) Yoruba Culture of Nigeria: Creating Space for an Endangered Species Cross - Cultural Communication9.4 : 23-29
A brief description of the country of Nigeria mainly focused on its population and linguistic indicators follows demonstrating its relevance to the bilingual education issue. Nigeria is a country in West Africa with population of 166.6 million (World Bank, 2012). Being under British dominance since 1800 till 1960, Nigeria adopted English as an official language and Yoruba, Ibo and Hausa remained as major languages.