Foundations: Section Index
Guide to the six files in the foundations section, what each covers, and the order to read them in.
Dis section na di orientation wey reader need before di rest of di corpus go land properly. E dey establish who di Yorùbá be, how dis corpus dey decide wetin count as wetin dem know, why di picture say Yorùbá religion na devil worship dey exist and where e come from, wetin di tradition be and wetin e no be, how Yorùbá people actually dey live with Christianity and Islam, and wetin di core concepts be.
Read file 01 first. Readers wey dey examine historical claims say Yorùbá religion na demonic suppose read 03 second, wey document di development and history of dose accounts before di substantive files wey follow .
Di files
01. Start Here. Wetin dis corpus be and wetin e refuse to do; who di Yorùbá be, with population figures and dia limits, di homeland and di peoples wey dey inside am, and di diaspora; di six commitments wey dey govern every file; and reading routes for four kinds of reader.
02. How This Corpus Handles Evidence. Di three registers wey dem never mix together, wetin di tradition talk about itself, wetin historians and archaeologists document, and wetin colonial and missionary sources claim, with di failure mode wey each mixing dey produce. Wetin di confidence markers mean, why knowledge wey initiates hold dey marked as gap instead make dem fill am, and di three-layer translation rule and why e dey.
03. The Demonization. Di longest file wey dem source pass with care for dis section. Di missionary encounter and di theology wey e bring; di vocabulary wey translation create, fetish, idol, juju, witchcraft, and di equation of Èṣù to Satan with di origin and consequences wey dem document; wetin colonial administration actually want, wey narrow pass di anti-colonial version and wide pass di apologetic one; twentieth-century Nigerian Christianity and di Pentecostal theology of spiritual warfare; Nollywood and di feedback loop between film and belief; di effects on how Yorùbá people dey see dia inheritance; and, in contrast and with equal rigour, wetin di tradition actually hold.
04. What Yorùbá Tradition Is Not. Twelve misconceptions wey dem answer with evidence, dey correct distortion for di two directions: devil worship, òrìṣà as demons, animism and primitivism, absence of ethics, absence of supreme being, uniformity, human sacrifice, stasis, illiteracy and unintellectuality, identity with Vodou, uniformity across di diaspora, and di Afrocentric overclaims about Egyptian origins, di invention of computing, and inflated antiquity.
05. Being Yorùbá and Christian or Muslim. Di unusual copresence of three religious traditions and why e start; di three different things wey people mean by traditional religion; wetin people actually dey do, including mixed households and festival participation; di genuine tensions, including funerals, chieftaincy, Ògbóni and di asymmetry of di demonic accusation; and di full range of positions wey Yorùbá people hold, wey dem describe without advocacy.
06. A Conceptual Map. Twenty core concepts, each one with literal gloss where dem document am, two-sentence definition and pointer go where dem treat am fully: orí, àyànmọ́, ìwà, ọmọlúàbí, àṣẹ, ọ̀run, ayé, Ọlọ́dùmarè, òrìṣà, Èṣù, Ifá, Odù, ẹsẹ, babaláwo, ẹbọ, oríkì, ìtàn, òwe, egúngún, ilé and ọba, with closing sketch of how dem fit together.
Reading paths
If you be new person to all dis things: 01, then 06, then di fifteen-minute explainers for di onboarding section.
If you dey examine accounts of demonization: 01, then 03, then 04, then 05.
If you wan know how much you go trust wetin you read here: 02, on its own, for fifteen minutes.
If you dey go write or argue about dis material: 02 and 04 before you talk anything for public. Between di two of dem, dem go stop most of di errors wey dey circulate for di two directions.
Wetin dis section no cover
Everything substantive. History belong to di history section, di conceptual system to cosmology, divination to Ifá, di deities to di òrìṣà section, and so on. Dis section dey establish di frame and hand off. Di onboarding section hold di plain-language explainers, di glossary, di pronunciation guide, di learning paths and di FAQ.