African Roots

“I’m training to be a Yoruba priestess,” she said with her face scrunched in utmost sincerity. The confession from the young African-American student disgusted the Nigerian students, at the Georgia State University forum, including me. But the lady was not swayed. She stood up and said that in a few years, she will be a full fledged practitioner of the Yoruba traditional religion.

That was about 5 years ago. I still remember it. Growing up, I’d always considered African-American “afrocentrics” as extreme wannabes. I mean, they really, really want to connect with their African roots and in doing so, they often explore mysticism and spirituality, areas that many Africans are cautious of if it doesn’t pertain to Islam or Christianity. They cut off their permed hair and wear their kinky tresses saying things like “nappiness is happiness.” They love India Arie.

Growing up as a Nigerian-American “afrocentric” individual, I came across a number of black Americans whose introduction into African culture led them to the study of the Yoruba people. “Are you Yoruba?” They would ask me, though I physically look nothing like a Yoruba person. The study of Yoruba culture remains fiercely popular among African-Americans seeking to “find their roots.” Knowledge of it makes you a bona fide “afrocentric.” It is the mysticism, the drumming (brought to the mainstream American audience by the late Babatunde Olatunji), the dancing, and the customs of the people (for example, the elaborate baby naming ceremonies) that fascinate many. The traditional Yoruba religion, Ifa, has spread throughout the African diaspora. You can find it wholly and partially practiced in the Caribbeans, Latin America, North America as the tradition was brought to the New World from captured African slaves transported through Trans-Atlantic route.

There’s even a traditional Yoruba village in the United States called the Oyotunji African Village located in northern Beaufort County, S.C. Organized in the 1970s by the late Efuntola Oseijeman Adefunmi in an attempt to reclaim ancestral Yoruba customs and tradition, the Oyotunji village serves as a tourist attraction and a mecca for African-American followers of orisha-centered religions. Most of the people who live in this village are African-Americans, many of which have never seen Africa. They simply desire to get closer to their African roots.

It could be perceived as a noble gesture, giving up what you’ve known your whole life, for example the Christian faith, to take on a completely foreign spiritual system, like the student who boldly declared that she is studying to be a Yoruba priestess. While this is happening, I find many Yoruba people who shun the traditional spiritual beliefs of their ancestors, which of course they have a right to do – it’s a free world. After referring to a woman at my church as Yewande for many years, I suddenly had to learn the new name she had chosen for herself: Kemi. She and her entire family had changed their surnames as well to reflect their maturation in the Christian faith.

Within the last four years, I, myself have taken an interest in traditional African spirituality and the Yoruba religious system of orishas has stood out in its complexity. I researched the practice of the religion among the African-American community and was truly amazed by how passionate these people were about it…”
~ Chika Oduah

“I often wonder if I am the only person who readily admits, when I got initiated, I had absolutely no idea what I was getting myself into. My experience with YORUBA culture had been through the dance and music. It seemed only natural that I would embrace the spiritual and religious philosophy. So I did, not because I understood it, but because it was “the thing to do.” I also admit, that my lack of understanding,information and reverence for the intangible energy of ORISA, cost me dearly.

As I think back, what I knew about the priesthood was that once I was initiated,  people would bow down to me (salute); when the white sheet went up, I would be on the inside rather than the outside; I would be able to eat at the table with the priests before everyone else ate; I would have my own godchildren; and that ORISA would speak to me. As I was initiated in the Santeria tradition, I was also primed and ready to be possessed, since that seemed to be a prerequisite to being a good priest.

Further retarding my understanding of initiation was the fact that I was one of  those people who “had to be made.” I was told if I was not initiated, “something  horrible” would happen to me. No one ever told me what it was, but they, and  I were convinced that it would happen. Frantically, I borrowed, begged and  gathered up the thousands of dollars required. I went into the room frightened, confused, desperate, totally unprepared and economically devastated.

My year as IYAWO was equally frantic to my initiation. By the end of my year, I was no longer affiliated with my godparents. (That’s another article for another time). Suffice it to say that I was left lost and unprepared. I remember the first time I ventured to peer into my ORISA pots. I had been forbidden by my Godmother to ever touch, much less open the beautiful ceramic dishes. On my first birthday, with her gone, somebody had to do the propers.

Cautiously, with my eyes squeezed shut,  I took off the lids. When I finally mustered up the courage to look, I was  horrified! I couldn’t believe what I was looking at. Call the police! I’ve been  ripped off! There’s nothing in this pot that can speak to me! There’s nothing in  these pots but... If you’ve got pots, you know what I saw. I did what any ill-prepared, confused person would do; I cried. 

There’s an old saying, “If you want to know the end, look at the beginning.” My first three years as a priest brought into manifestation all of the confusion, misunderstanding and hysteria which had surrounded my initiation. I had no idea of what I was doing. I watched and mimicked other priests with no idea or understanding of the metaphysical principles they obviously knew. As an ORISA orphan, bouncing around from place to place, picking up a little here and a little there, my methods were scattered. My understanding eclectic at best. Then I made the ultimate mistake for a confused priest, I initiated someone else. I thought I had finally made it into the big time. I was on my way, I thought, up. I found out, I was on my way down and out of the darkness.

There’s a basic principle about motherhood, even in ORISA. Mothers want to give their children the best. They do not want their children to suffer or experience the trials and hard times in life. I wanted the best for my IYAWO. I wanted to be the best mother I could be. I wanted to give her the best, do the best by her. Unfortunately, I did not know how to give it to her. I was unprepared. I was confused. I was lost.

But because ORISA is merciful, just and in control, they have a way of coming in and making sure your prayers are answered. My prayer was:

“Dear OBATALA:  Please help me do the right thing.  Please show me how to be a priest.  Please make me worthy to wear your  crown and raise your daughter. Please  put the right thoughts in my mind and  point my feet in the right direction.

Because I had so little understanding, I did not know that OBATALA really heard me and would really answer. My answer came in the form of my goddaughter leaving my house and taking nearly all my godchildren with her. It came in the form of scandal and disgrace. It came in the form of everything I thought I knew about ORISA being proved to be wrong. It came in the form of isolation. It was the best thing to ever happened to me. It brought me to a place I call “ORISA Consciousness,” the place I live today.

“ORISA do not come to make life better for you. They exist to make you better for life.” Life is a gift from OLODUMARE. At any point in time, there are 14 million souls waiting for a body. They want to come to earth to manifest the glory of life. Those of us who are fortunate enough to receive a body, have a responsibility to life. We must live it to the fullest, in alignment with the Divine Will, sharing and giving the gifts we have been given, for the betterment of humankind. Few of us  have that understanding. That includes those of us who are priests. Somewhere along the path, we get the idea that life owes us; that we are in control and that  the world and everybody in it should be the way we want it to be.

Our early life is so wrought with power struggles, self-denial, debasement and fear, we rarely consider life beyond what we need and/or want to survive in our  limited environment.  We are not taught universal law and principles. We are not taught that we are divine manifestations of the Most High Creator and that we have the divine right to love, peace, happiness and abundance. We are taught that we must struggle, fight and keep others from getting what we think we want.

We are taught to think of life and ourselves as limited. We are not taught metaphysical principles such as the power of thought and word. We are not taught that we create our own experiences as learning tools in accordance with the lesson we have come to life to learn. We grow up believing that someone is out to get us;  that God is too busy to hear us and that if we don’t follow a prescribe way of  thinking, we are doomed. Then we become priests, bringing the same misguided notions into the sacred order.

My prayer to Obatala led me to the understanding, in order to build up you must tear down. I had brought so much garbage into my priesthood, it had to be discarded. It was necessary for that process to begin in my own consciousness. I had to take a long hard look at me, not my parents or godparents; not the ORISA community. Not even what I had been told was right or wrong. I had to tell the truth to myself about myself. That was a long, hard, ugly process but I knew it was the only way to get rid of the garbage and create an evolution of consciousness.

Next, I had to come to the understanding of who or what OBATALA was not what was in the pot; but the nature, the energy, the divinity. I had to understand how that force manifested throughout nature. What was the duty and responsibility of the OBATALA nature with regards to the rest of the universe. Everything OLODUMARE makes is purposeful.

What was OBATALA’s purpose? And, how could I bring myself into alignment with that purpose? This took a great deal of observation; surrender of judgment or criticism and a great deal of faith. I had not been taught to trust myself or my thoughts.  What I did not understand was that my thoughts could no longer be my own; I was a limited human. OBATALA was a divine force. I had to move out of the way and let the  nature, force and purpose of OBATALA manifest through me. That was my purpose in the priesthood; to bring for the divine energy of ORISA to the earth plane.

ORISA consciousness meant that every move I made, I made by asking the question, “What would OBATALA do in this situation?” Each time I opened my mouth to speak, I had to consider the same. OBATALA had to become the foundation of every aspect of my life; not just on weekends at bembes or initiations. I had no idea at the onset that the priesthood would totally encompass my life. I had not been taught that. It all seemed so easy. I came to realize that the only way through was to surrender everything I had ever been taught as a human. And, the only way to surrender was to commit every aspect of my life to the nature of OBATALA -- order, discipline, humility, silence, patience and service. As I began to do that, as my consciousness began to expand, my entire life changed, as did I.

Eventually, I came to the understanding that coming to the priesthood unprepared was the way I chose (spiritually) to get to where I needed to be. There was not fault or blame. By giving power (ASE) to my human garbage, my godparents blessed me. They placed me in a position where I was forced to choose between the potential destruction of myself or the elimination of garbage. I do not however take the credit for my evolution. I know it is only through the nature, grace and consciousness of OBATALA that I survive.

Today, I am not one of the “guys.” I no longer have the desire to do the things which were at one time so very important to me. There are times when that is hard. I no longer have opinions or fears or the need to struggle to survive. As long as ORISA is, I am. Very often I ask myself, “Is it worth it?” I am not at the end yet so I really don’t know. I have moved away from family, friends and the “normal” people I know, to live almost in seclusion. That can be lonely. I choose to see it as purposeful. The greatest benefit I receive is that each morning when I wake up and go to my temple and pour libation and say, “OBATALA, how can I serve you  today?” something happens in my mind.

I know that everything I do and say will be an ordered sequence of events which will have an effect on the universe. “I am because ORISA is! All that ORISA is, I am!” Can you imagine? That blows my mind and gives purpose to my life. It’s a matter of choice. It’s a matter of consciousness.  ADUPE! ADUPE! ADUPE! BABA MI.” ~ found on Oya N'Soro.com

“The Yoruba religion, comprising the traditional religious concepts and practices of the Yoruba people, is found primarily in southwestern Nigeria and the adjoining parts of Benin, and Togo, commonly known as Yorubaland. Yoruba religion is ancestral or partially ancestral to the Afro-American religions Santería, Trinidad Orisha, Umbanda, Brujería, Hoodoo, Candomblé, Quimbanda, Orisha, Xangô de Recife, Xangô do Nordeste, Comfa, Espiritismo, Santo Daime, Candomblé, Abakuá, Kumina, Winti, Sanse, Cuban Vodú, Dominican Vudú, Louisiana Voodoo, Haitian Vodou, and Vodun. Yoruba religious beliefs are part of itan, the complex cultural concepts which make up the Yoruba society.

According to Kola Abimbola, the Yoruba have evolved a robust cosmology. In brief, it holds that all human beings possess what is known as "Ayanmo" (destiny, fate) and are expected to eventually become one in spirit with Olodumare (Olorun, the divine creator and source of all energy). Olorun is thought to remote from people's everyday lives, but the Yoruba see parallels between Olorun, the King of the Heavens, and their traditional ruler, the king of the world. Furthermore, the thoughts and actions of each person in Ayé (the physical realm/Life) interact with all other living things, including the Earth itself.

Each person attempts to achieve transcendence and find their destiny in Orun-Rere (the spiritual realm of those who do good and beneficial things). One's ori-inu (spiritual consciousness in the physical realm) must grow in order to consummate union with one's "Iponri" (Ori Orun, spiritual self).

Those who stop growing spiritually, in any of their given lives, are destined for "Orun-Apadi" (the invisible realm of potsherds). Life and death are said to be cycles of existence in a series of physical bodies while one's spirit evolves toward transcendence. This evolution is said to be most evident amongst the Orishas, the divine viziers of Olorun.

Iwapẹlẹ (or well-balanced) meditative recitation and sincere veneration is sufficient to strengthen the ori-inu of most people. Well-balanced people, it is believed, are able to make positive use of the simplest form of connection between their Oris and the omnipotent Olu-Orun: an adura (petition or prayer) for divine support.

Prayer to one's Ori Orun produces an immediate sensation of joy. Elegbara (Eshu, not the divine messenger but accuser of the righteous) initiates contact with spiritual realm on behalf of the petitioner, and transmits the prayer to Ayé; the deliverer of ase or the spark of life. He transmits this prayer without distorting it in any way. Thereafter, the petitioner may be satisfied with a personal answer. In the event that he or she is not, the Ifá oracle of the Orisha Orunmila may also be consulted. All communication with Orun, whether simplistic in the form of a personal prayer or complicated in the form of that done by an initiated Babalawo (priest of divination), however, is energized by invoking ase.
In the Yoruba belief system, Olodumare has ase over all that is, and hence Is considered supreme.

Unlike many Western religions, which conceive of good and evil as pertaining to and deriving from separate entities (i.e.-God and Satan, respectively) Yoruba cosmology holds that good and evil derive from the same source.” ~ Wikipedia

Photos:
~ Priestess or “Mae” Susana Andrade on the “Day of Yemanja”, goddess of water, in Montevideo, Uruguay
~ Chika Oduah
~ Praying Obatala priests in their temple in Ile-Ife in southwestern Nigeria
~ A Yemoja devotee in Nigeria
~ Yoruba divination board Opon Ifá