Historicising "Yorùbá Indigenous Religion" in Oxford Research Encyclopedia of African History by Akin Ogundiran

[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

"Yorùbá Indigenous Religion" in Oxford Research Encyclopedia of African History.

Akin Ogundiran

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"Yorùbá Indigenous Religion." Oxford Research Encyclopedia of African History.

Akin Ogundiran

In this recently published article, I observed that the deep-time history of Yorùbá indigenous religion (Òrìṣà or Ìṣẹ̀ṣe) as a dynamic system of beliefs, thoughts, practices, and symbols about the divine and human-divine relationships has not been a subject that professional historians take seriously with attentiveness to temporality, context, change, and continuity. I explore this uncharted path by using myths and iconography (Orisa archives) and archaeology as historical sources. I follow John Pemberton and others in arguing that the Yorùbá religion is a product of the experience of time. Focusing on the Yorùbá ideas of divinity, ancestor veneration, emergent qualities of the pantheon, and the intellectual project of Yoruba religion as a civic spiritual practice, I show how several ideas and practices constituting this religion originated from specific experiences, times, places, and intellectuals over the past two millennia, especially 300 BCE-1800 CE.

Ogundiran, A. (2024, October 23). Yorùbá Indigenous Religion. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of African History. https://oxfordre.com/.../acrefore-9780190277734-e-1556.