Is the Orisha Deity Eshu a Trickster? Challenges in Orisha and Yoruba Hermeneutics

[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

Is the Orisha Deity Eshu a Trickster?

Challenges in Orisha and Yoruba Hermeneutics

Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju 

The Complexity of the Image of Eshu

The Orisha spirituality deity Eshu is possibly the most complex image in that cosmology, that view of the nature of the universe.

Eshu is depicted as a trickster, as a hermeneute, a guide to the interpretation of meaning in it's broadest sense, leading to Obododimma Oha's  reference to the term "Esuneutics" to describe principles or methods of inspiration inspired by ideas associated with Eshu, as foundational to the human capacity for self awareness, as privileged embodiment of ase, the creative force pervading existence, enabling individual creativity in all forms of being, as messenger between human beings and spirits, and therefore as represented by the crossroads, standing for intersections of possibilities, of spirit and matter, of creative and negative possibilities, among other depictions of this rich figure which has also shaped the the figure of Papa Legba in Voodoo, demonstrating the profound influence of Yoruba origin Orisha spirituality in the African diaspora represented by the Americas where African slaves recreated their ancestral spiritualities in ways that have endured for centuries till today.

That summation of the scope of Eshu's depictions is a summary, leaving out various titles and identities of Eshu, even in the classical Yoruba context.

Can this Complexity Be Unified?

How may these diverse depictions be unified?

How coherent are they, if at all?

The question of coherence and unity in the image of Eshu  might be  one that each interested person will have to address for themselves, possibly taking account of the efforts of others to engage the question.

Eshu as Trickster and Trouble Maker

   The Two Friends and the Red and White Cap

It's not realistic to avoid the Eshu who tricked the two friends who had sworn undying loyalty to each other as they farmed on plots adjacent to each other, only for Eshu to walk in the space between both plots, wearing a cap red on one side and black on the other, leading the two friends to quarell bitterly about the colour of the cap, not realizing that each of them had seen only one side of the cap.

How is that trick Eshu played to be interpreted? Was it pure mischief, causing trouble for the fun of it?

Was it to demonstrate the complexity of reality, suggesting the need to examine all sides of an issue, keeping in mind that there could be factors beyond one's perception, as each friend was limited in their vision by their physical position in relation to the moving figure of Eshu as he passed between both men?

Whatever interpretation is given is the responsibility of the interpreter, not of the oral artist who composed that Eshu story beacuse the artist, to the best of my knowledge, does not do anything beyond telling his story.

Like most imaginative literature, which Orisha stories are, and which many stories in religion are, although some will try to present imagination as fact, the teller of the story is more interested in creating suspense and uncertainty, generating more excitement than if the story were to conclude with all questions it raises answered, the value of which method is demonstrated by ongoing debate about that story composed at a distant time and place unknown today.

       Orunmila's Theft of the Wife of Death

Orunmila once stole the wife of Death, it is stated in an ese ifa, a literary piece from Ifa, a knowledge system evident in Yoruba land and Benin (Edo) and spreading from those zones, as narrated in Wande Abimbola's collection of translations Ifa Divination Poetry.

Death marched to Orunmila's house to seize back his wife and met Eshu at the door, the story goes.

What's happening to make you angered, Eshu asked.

Death explained his disposession by Orunmila, upon which Eshu suggested he first take some palm wine to refresh himself before proceeding with his task.

Death rose to continue his mission after drinking the palm wine, upon which Eshu informed him that the palm wine be had just drank belonged to Orunmila, making Death both disturbed and confused.

How can you attack a man whose palm wine you just drank? Eshu queried, palm wine, the drink of peace, the sweet liquid bonding heart to heart between people, if I could expand a little the original narration.

In confusion and exasperation, Death stormed out, declaring that Orunmila could keep the woman.

How is such a story to be interpreted? Does it mean that Death does not deserve to have a wife? Does it suggest Orunmila and Eshu working together to cheat death for the benefit of Orunmila so Orunmila can help people defeat death?

Whatever interpretation is given is purely the responsibility of the interpreter because the oral poet gives no interpretation, thereby making the story more interesting and imaginatively stimulating.

Those two stories are the ones I can recall right now, but I expect I can find more online and in such works on Eshu as those by Ayodele Ogundipe, Toyin Falola, Henry Louis Gates Jr, Robert Pelton and more.

Wariness of Eshu

In recognition of Eshu's image as a spoiler, a trickster who can disrupt beautifully laid plans, the Yoruba prayer goes, "Eshu ooo, Eshu ooo, onile onita ooo jo ma yoju soro mi" ," Eshu, owner of the house and of the space beyond it, please do not pay attention to my affairs".

Eshu and Ifa

Yet a face representing the same Eshu is carved on the circumference of each opon ifa, the divination tray of Ifa, on which the babalawo, the adept in the esoteric knowledge of Ifa, casts his divination instruments so that the patterns they make as they fall will reveal the responses of the Ifa oracle to the babalawo's enquiry.

Why is the face of such a potentially disruptive figure, a dangerous trickster, doing on the circumference of every opon ifa? Does it suggest Ifa is an instrument of disruption?

No.

Eshu's depiction so occurs because he is understood as overseeing the divination process, guiding the babalawo in understanding Ifa's messages as well as carrying messages between human beings and spirits, as superbly described in the first chapter of Henry Louis Gates The Signifying Monkey, a role Eshu plays as primary agent of Orunmila, as stated in a personal communication by babalawo Joseph Ohomina.

History of Eshu Hermeneutics, Eshu's Interpretive History

How did such a disruptive, trickster figure come to be understood in such exalted terms?

The answer to that question may perhaps be best answered by exploring the development of Eshu's image as it took on various interpretive possibilities over the centuries, the kind of work done by David Kinsley in exploring the development of the figure of the Hindu Goddess Kali in Kali and Krishna: Dark Images of the Terrible and the Sublime in Hindu Mythology.

But Kinsley worked with generations of printed texts while Yoruba Orisha spirituality is only recently being developed in writing, a situation Akin Ogundiran addresses in trying to work out the history of Orisha spirituality in The Yoruba: A New History, an effort,in my view, representing informed speculation based on an intimate knowledge of other definitive aspects of Yoruba history.

The further history of Eshu theology and philosophy, as it may be called, is open-ended, unfixed, in constant development by those committed to the subject.

Eshu as Embodying the Complexity of Reality

What remains unavoidable, however,is the complexity of Eshu, his depiction in ese ifa and other Orisa literature as trickster, troublemaker and upsetter of plans, causer of mischief, as well as other exalted roles he plays.

Hence, Eshu is sacrificed to for the purpose of averting chaos, failure caused by himself or other factors.

He is sacrificed to to help open the way for an enterprise.

Is that not a wise option?

To recognize that life often embodies an X factor, the unknown, that could upset one's plans and factor that in so as not to be taken by surprise or even eliminate it before hand?

Are the unpredictable, the mysterious, the interpernetration of the predictability of the physical world and the mystery of the spiritual world not co-inherent values that may be seen as represented by Eshu, values indicating Eshu's significance in navigating the liminal spaces, the points of crossing between the known and the unknown, matter and spirit?

Orisha Philosophy and Spirituality as both Realistic and Abstract

Orisha philosophy and spirituality are both realistic and abstract. It recognizes that nothing can be defined in terms of absolute good or absolute evil. The various Orisha or deities are depicted as demonstrating their own failings and limitations.

Even the ajogun, forces of obstruction, as they may be called, are not seen so much as evil forces, but as forces to be negotiated with.

Smallpox is even understood in terms of a deity, Soponna, the suffering inflicted by this disease being associated with the purificatory power of suffering, as described by Susanne Wenger.

The closer spiritualities to Orisha spirituality are Hinduism and Buddhism, particularly Tantric Hinduism and Tantric Buddhism, such as Tibetan Buddhism, which share a related cosmological  complexity in relation to good and evil, imagination and reality.

A good degree of approaches to the  Abrahamic religions of Christianity and Islam, on the other hand, are less sensitive to the complexity of the universe, and to the dynamic between creative imagination and reality in spirituality, insisting on unrealistically rigid binaries between God and the Devil, good and evil, sacred and secular.

An Individual Perspective Developed from Considering Traditional Depictions

My summation here is the view of  one explorer of the subject, myself,amidst other views that may diverge or converge with mine at various points.

Diversity as Opposed to Uniformity, Creativity as Opposed to Dogma

The complexity of Eshu's image opens it to diversity of interpretation, highlighting the variety of perspectives that is a  central value of systems of knowledge, including religious systems, although efforts are at times made to insist on uniformity of opinion, on dogmatic control,  in such  systems,  an ultimately unrealistic effort. 

Suggestions for Further Reading

      On Eshu as Trickster in Relation to his
      Other values

Esu: Yoruba God, Power and the Imaginative Frontiers edited by Toyin Falola.

Ifa and Esu: Iconography of Order and Disorder by Hans Witte

Comparative

The Trickster in West Africa: A Study of Mythic Irony and Sacred Delight  by Robert Pelton.

The Trickster: A Study in American Indian Mythology by Paul Radin is useful for comparison with the Eshu image.