Access the full text.
Sign up today, get DeepDyve free for 14 days.
Loading next page...
/lp/brill/heepa-hail-r-the-r-s-factor-in-the-birth-of-yoruba-identity-wLQZW0nma3
References
References for this paper are not available at this time. We will be adding them shortly, thank you for your patience.
- Publisher
- Brill
- Copyright
- Copyright © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
- ISSN
- 0022-4200
- eISSN
- 1570-0666
- DOI
- 10.1163/157006609x408211
- Publisher site
- See Article on Publisher Site
Abstract
© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2009 DOI: 10.1163/157006609X408211 Journal of Religion in Africa 39 (2009) 30-59 www.brill.nl/jra ‘Heepa’ (Hail) Òrìşà: Th e Òrìsà Factor in the Birth of Yoruba Identity 1 Olatunji Ojo History Department, Brock University, 500 Glenridge Avenue, St Catharines, L2S 3A1, Ontario, Canada oojo@brocku.ca Abstract Th e popularization of Christianity and Islam among Yoruba-speaking slaves in the diaspora is widely seen as the root of Yoruba ethnic consciousness. Returning ex-slaves, Christians, and Brit- ish colonialists starting in the 1830s, in a form of reversing sail, propagated this identity in the homeland among those who did not cross the Atlantic. Th is essay suggests that the focus on world religions off ers only a partial explanation of the evolution of this consciousness in the homeland. Th e essay identifi es what role orisa worship practice and its conductors played in the birth of Yoruba ethnicity. It argues that as in the diaspora, nineteenth-century homeland Yoruba witnessed substantial population mixture, urbanism and interethnic marriage in ways that trans- formed orisa from local to regional symbols. Based on the web of links created among the Yoruba, the prescriptions of diasporic Yoruba and their supporters could be understood and accepted
Journal
Journal of Religion in Africa – Brill
Published: Jan 1, 2009