POST2 Religious Belief in Yoruba Culture

                                                    Religious Belief in Yoruba Culture 

        The Yoruba people reside in  Nigeria, West Africa. The name Yoruba appears to have been applied by neighbors to the kingdom of Oyo and adopted by missionaries in the mid nineteenth century to describe a wider language sharing family of people. For many Yoruba, urbanism was a way of life. Europeans learned of one of the cities in Yoruba land-Ijebu Ode-in the sixteenth century, when they exchanged brass bracelets for slaves and ivory. 

         The precolonial economy were primarily based on agriculture and trade, although fishing, hunting, and craft were significant. As recently as 1950, two third of the men were farmers Yoruba women seldomly farm, although  they may assist with harvesting and transporting produce. Depending on the ecological zone, the main food crops included beans, yams, cassava and maize. Farmers have suffered in the late twentieth century from fluctuation world price of cash crops, civil war, and oil boom, all of which have driven many into urban employment in commercial, governmental and service sector.

      The magical power of twins in the religious belief of the Yorubas has been inspired by fear and wonders in the society into which they were born. As other unusual events in primitive societies, the community sought means of dealing with the phenomenon by consulting the oracle to discover what actions should be taken. If the phenomenon deemed to be a bad omen, some means to annihilate it was adopted. But the Oracle, might announce the awe inspiring, incomprehensible thing should be an object of worship, and that the sacrificial ritual should be performed in propitiation and supplication. When the birth of twins was announced, the news was dreaded because it was believed that the event portended evil and in order to avoid the calamity, drastic measures were adopted. The method vary from community to community but the most common forms were  combination of ritual killing and banishment of the mother and her offspring. From the aspect of moral conduct, it was believed that there was a problem of paternity as two infants mean that there had been two fathers. Thus, the mother have committed adultery either with an evil spirit or with another man. In either case, it would mean that she had been defiled and the paternity dispute would disturb the peace and stability of the society. 

Sources:

  Barnes, Sandra T. 2009. “Culture Summary: Yoruba.” New Haven, Conn.: Human Relations Area Files. https://ehrafworldcultures-yale-edu.northernkentuckyuniversity.idm.oclc.org/document?id=ff62-000.

Oruene, Taiwo. “Magical Powers of Twins in the Socio-Religious Beliefs of the Yoruba.” Folklore 96, no. 2 (1985): 208–16. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1259643.