The Demonization: How Yorùbá Religion Came to Be Called Devil Worship
A documented history of the process by which Yorùbá religion was reframed as satanic, from the missionary encounter through colonial vocabulary, Nigerian Pentecostalism and Nollywood, followed by what the tradition actually holds.
Boku Yorùbá people learn say the religion of their ancestors na devil worship. That teaching get history, and the history dey documentable: person fit trace am go specific decisions wey specific people make for specific dates, for reasons wey make sense to them, with consequences wey them mostly no plan for. This file dey document the process. E no dey argue say Christianity na lie or say Yorùbá tradition na true, e no dey attack the churches or the people inside them, and e no dey present the pre-colonial past like paradise wey don lost. E just explain wetin happen, with sources, and leave the conclusions for the reader.
The short version na this. European Christianity reach West Africa with one theology wey see say the non-Christian religions for the world no just make mistake, but na active work of Satan. E reach with vocabulary, wey build inside the Atlantic trade over three centuries, where them call African religious objects fetishes and African religious practice superstition. When them translate the Bible go Yorùbá for the middle of nineteenth century, the translators had to choose Yorùbá words for Christian concepts, and one of those choices, to translate Satan as Èṣù, carry Christian dualism enter the Yorùbá language itself. Colonial administration come get their own reasons to treat certain Yorùbá religious institutions like obstacles. For twentieth century, Nigerian Christianity, and from 1970s Nigerian Pentecostalism especially, carry this demonic framing go further pass wetin the missionaries do, enter theology of active spiritual warfare against ancestral religion. And from the early 1990s, the Nigerian video film industry turn that theology to mass entertainment, with standard plot where traditional religious practice clearly be satanic and Christian prayer dey defeat am. Each stage strengthen the one before am. The result na one picture of Yorùbá tradition wey boku Yorùbá people hold with full sincerity and wey no match wetin dey inside the tradition at all.
The missionary encounter and its theology
Wetin the missionaries bring
Church Missionary Society enter Yorubaland for Badagry for 1842 and reach Abẹ́òkúta for 1846, mostly because of requests from Sàró returnees, Yorùbá people wey them free from slave ships for Freetown wey dey travel go back home since 1830s . Them no force the mission on people wey no want am; from the beginning, na people ask for am.
Wetin e bring theologically matter pass wetin e bring institutionally. Nineteenth-century evangelical Protestantism no see the religions of the non-Christian world as something close to truth or as early stage of common development. E see them as domain of the enemy. This one no be slur wey them invent for Africa. Na the standard evangelical reading of Paul statement for 1 Corinthians 10:20 say wetin the Gentiles dey sacrifice them dey sacrifice am to demons, wey them apply consistently across the mission field from India to the Pacific. Missionary wey describe òrìṣà shrine as place of devil worship no just dey abuse anyhow; e dey make wetin e take as precise theological identification.
J. D. Y. Peel reading of the CMS archive, wey be the largest and most detailed collection of nineteenth-century writing on Yorùbá life and wey Yorùbá agents of the mission mostly keep, show a second feature. Early missionaries "saw heathenism as an absence or vacuum, rather than as something with durability, style, and an ethos of its own" Na this error get bigger consequence, because religion wey person understand as absence, person no fit describe am, na only to clear am away. Reason no dey to ask wetin ìwà mean, or how ẹbọ work, or wetin babaláwo dey do across ten-year training, if the whole thing na empty space where Christianity never reach.
Peel journals also record wetin this one produce for practice: the missionaries "casually disclosed their own responsibility for some of those responses," including their harsh denunciation of òrìṣà direct to their devotees face . The record of Yorùbá hostility, indifference and mockery towards mission preaching dey preserved inside the same documents wey show wetin the preaching contain.
The one thing wey the missionaries take seriously
Important qualification dey here. The CMS agents rely well well on babaláwo as informants, because the babaláwo na the specialists for interpretation and na the people for any town wey fit really explain wetin things mean . Plenty of wetin people know about nineteenth-century Yorùbá religion come from Ifá priests wey explain their system to men wey dey there to abolish am. The missionaries also do the linguistic work: the first Yorùbá grammar and vocabulary for 1843, translation of New Testament books from 1852, the complete Yorùbá Bible for 1884, wey na mostly the work of Samuel Àjàyí Crowther and his colleagues . The written Yorùbá language dey exist because of the mission. Nothing inside this file reduce that one.
The vocabulary wey translation create
Four words do most of the work. None of them na Yorùbá.
Fetish
Na the oldest and the most structurally important. "Fetish" come through Portuguese feitiço, from Latin facticius, wey mean made by art, artificial or manufactured . Portuguese traders for West African coast for fifteenth and sixteenth centuries use feitiço for objects wey them dey use for African religious practice. The word enter coastal trade pidgin as fetisso, show inside Dutch and English travel accounts of the West African coast from seventeenth century, and Charles de Brosses formalise am as general category of religion when e coin fétichisme for eighteenth century .
Di study wey William Pietz do about di term show di main point: fetish no be African category wey Europeans discover, na category wey come out from di contact itself, for di special business arrangement of Afro-European trade, and e dey tell person more about di Europeans wey need am pass di Africans wey dem apply am to . Travellers for di coastal records plenty times no know say di word come from Portuguese, and dem treat fetish like say na purely African religion .
Wetin di word dey do dey inside where e originate from. Facticius mean sometin wey dem make, wey be artificial or wey dem invent. To call object fetish na to talk beforehand say di religious meaning wey e get na fake, and say di person wey dey take am as serious sometin don make category mistake about wetin objects really be. No neutral way dey to use di word. E dey come with di judgement already inside am, and dem use am carelessly for shrine sculpture, for protective charms, for medicine, for ritual objects, and for art.
Idol and idolatry
E straight from Bible vocabulary, and dem apply am to òrìṣà images with all di weight of Hebrew prophets behind am. Di theological meaning of di term na say di worshipper dey mistake sometin wey human hand make for god. Whether dat one describe wetin Yorùbá devotee dey do for shrine na question wey di word no allow person ask, because di answer already dey inside di term. Dis corpus handle dis question for di file on wetin Yorùbá tradition no be.
Juju
E come later and e shallow pass. Di first time e appear for English na around 1860, with di standard etymology wey say e come from French joujou, wey mean toy or plaything, even though where e really come from no clear and etymological dictionaries mark am like dat . People dey claim say e come from Hausa, Yorùbá or Igbo, but evidence no dey to back dem up . Wetin dey very clear na di level and tone of di word. Na coastal word from colonial time, wey outsiders use, and if di joujou origin correct, di direct meaning na say African religious objects na ordinary toys. For modern Nigerian English today, e dey carry di meaning of bad occult power, wey be where di demonization carry am reach.
Witchcraft
Na dis one cause di biggest practical damage. Yorùbá get concept, àjẹ́, wey get deep and complex place for di culture, wey dem connect especially to di spiritual power of certain women, wey get two sides instead of just being purely bad, and wey join together with ideas about mothers, market authority, and social control. To translate àjẹ́ as "witchcraft" bring enter all di European witch-hunt system: category of person wey don make covenant with devil, wey person fit identify, and wey dem get right to attack. Dis importation don cause clear modern harm wey dey discussed below.
Èṣù and Satan
Na di single translation decision wey bring di biggest consequences for Yorùbá religious history.
Crowther, as e dey translate Bible into Yorùbá, translate God as Ọlọ́run and Ọlọ́dùmarè and translate Satan as Èṣù . Di first choice make sense and e close to normal translation practice; Ọlọ́dùmarè na di supreme being for Yorùbá thought, and to map di biblical God on top dat figure get genuine ground, even though e carry cost for gender matter and for forcing strict monotheism on top word wey bin dey work differently before .
Di second choice na completely different thing. Èṣù for Yorùbá thought no be enemy to di supreme being and no be principle of evil. Èṣù na di messenger and enforcer, di one wey dey carry ẹbọ go meet ọ̀run, wey dey stand for crossroad and doorstep, wey dey test, dey scatter things and enforce reciprocity, and whose participation dey structurally necessary for Ifá divination: no òrìṣà dey receive anything unless Èṣù carry am. Èṣù dey unpredictable and Èṣù no be evil, and for Yorùbá thought, dose two things na completely different categories. Di comparison wey scholars dey use, if dem even use Bible comparison at all, no be di Satan of Revelation, but di figure for Book of Job wey God give work to test man faith .
To equate Èṣù with Satan do three things at di same time. E bring di dualism of God against devil enter system wey dem no arrange dat way before. E put a figure for di center of Yorùbá Christian imagination wey bin already dey inside every compound, for every crossroad, and for di beginning of every Ifá consultation, so dat di devil no be far enemy but familiar neighbour. And because dis identification dey inside di Yorùbá Bible itself instead of to dey beside am, people no come see am as choice again. To Yorùbá reader of di Yorùbá Bible, Èṣù just be Satan naturally as fact of di language, and every òrìṣà shrine come turn place where dem dey serve Satan.
Na dis be di exact textual origin of di framing wey make plenty Yorùbá Christians learn say their heritage na demonic. To point am out no mean say person dey attack Crowther, wey achieve extraordinary things and whose condition bin almost impossible: na Yorùbá man wey dem enslave as pikin around thirteen years old when dem raid him town during di wars, wey British patrol free for 1822, wey go school for Freetown and London, ordained for 1843 and consecrated for 1864 as di first African bishop for Anglican Church, and wey produce Bible for language wey nobody bin write before . Na statement of wetin di Yorùbá text talk versus wetin di Yorùbá word mean, wey be exactly wetin translation rule dey exist to show clearly.
Wetin colonial administration want from am
Colonial state no bin primarily get interest for theology, and na mistake to see di demonization as colonial project. Mission come before colonial state for Yorubaland by roughly half century, and di biggest conversion movements happen after conquest instead of during di conquest . No colonial law ban òrìṣà practice, no programme to destroy shrines by decree dey, and conversion for Yorubaland na mostly voluntary, wey be di exact problem wey Peel book set out to explain .
Di place where colonial government get interest na for matter of authority and power to judge case. Yorùbá religious institutions na political and judicial institutions too, and dat one make some of dem become rivals to colonial authority.
Ògbóni na di clearest example. Ògbóni hold judicial and religious power, administer oaths, and get power to punish rulers; under indirect rule, dis one make am become rival authority, and both colonial administration and mission Christianity treat am as obstacle, so dem put pressure on Christians make dem leave am . Wetin come out from dis na di Reformed Ogboni Fraternity, wey di Anglican clergyman T. A. J. Ogunbiyi start for 1914 as Christian version wey match church membership. Dis one self show di kind heavy pressure wey di original institution face and how people still want keep am .
Indirect rule cause structural damage of another kind. E make di ọba get more power and at di same time make dem no dey answer to anybody, because ruler wey District Officer dey back no fit get removed by im own chiefs, and Toyin Fálọlá's assessment na say Yorùbá ọba use power as dem like under indirect rule and many of dem abuse dia office . E weaken di councils, move judicial work enter Native Courts wey colonial law set up, and e scatter di hierarchy of women chieftaincy title as e only recognize male chiefs and dey deal with dem . Di religious institutions wey dey inside dose political structures no just continue as normal when dem rebuild di structures round another center.
So therefore, wetin really happen narrow pass di anti-colonial version and wide pass di apologetic one. Colonial administration no make policy to demonize Yorùbá religion. But e scatter di institutional foundation wey make dat religion work as public authority, leave am as private practice, and e use state respect support education and government system wey be Christian. Dat one alone do.
Nigerian Christianity in the twentieth century
Di demonization no remain as somtin wey dem import from abroad. Nigerian Christians take am up, expand am, and make am dey far more intense, and person no fit give honest account of wetin happen if person only treat Nigerian people as victims wey no do anything.
Di African church movement of di late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, wey people like Mọ́jọlá Agbébí dey linked to, fight back against European control of mission churches and against how dem just reject Yorùbá cultural practices patapata, and di Aládùrà churches wey come out from di 1920s build Christianity for recognizable Yorùbá way: prayer, prophecy, dreams, healing, water, and di strong belief say spiritual powers dey affect everyday life. Dis last point matter pass as e dey appear. Aládùrà churches no follow di missionaries position say di spirit world for Yorùbá cosmology na empty superstition. Dem gree say di spirits full ground and dem real, but dem reclassify everyone inside am as demonic. Dis claim strong pass wetin di missionaries talk, e no weak at all, and e make di traditional world look more dangerous instead of less.
From di 1970s, Nigerian Pentecostal and charismatic Christianity grow quickly and carry dat logic reach di end. Di main theology wey dey define dem na spiritual warfare: dem understand Christian life as real fight against demonic powers, and dem locate dose powers inside specific places, objects, family lines, and ancestral practices. For dis framework, ancestral religion no be dead superstition wey person suppose grow pass; na live enemy wey get real power, and di proper answer no be education but deliverance. Na Evangelical and Pentecostal movements mostly lead for di demonizing of indigenous religious and cultural practice .
Two features of dis matter deserve make dem state am plain, because na dem make di process continue to run on im own.
Di first one na say di framework dey explain things well for people wey dey use am. E dey give explanation for misfortune, poverty, sickness, and failure to prosper, and e point cause to somewhere wey action fit take place. Dis kind thing no be small thing to offer at all, and na why di framework dey spread.
Di second one na say di cost dey fall on identifiable people. Di idea of ancestral curse make person own family line become where demons attach demsef to, which mean say di practice of person grandparents na spiritual liability today. Di idea of witch, for di imported European sense, make am possible to accuse people, and accusation dey bring consequences. Di documented cases for Nigeria gather well for di southeast instead of Yorubaland, and honesty require make person talk am like dat: for Akwa Ibom and Cross River states, dem don accuse thousands of children say dem be witches, and dem face abandonment, physical abuse and violence; dis whole matter get connection to di activities of some churches wey dia leaders dey label children as witches and dey act as exorcists for parents . Akwa Ibom pass law for 2008 wey make to brand person as witch carry punishment up to ten years for prison . Dose things wey happen na Nigerian matter rather than Yorùbá matter, and di mechanism, an imported witchcraft category plus deliverance theology plus mass medium wey dey dramatize both of dem, na di same mechanism wey dey operate across di whole country.
Nothing for dis section suppose be read as claim about Nigerian Christianity as a whole, which big well well, get different types, and include plenty people and institutions wey no hold any of dis positions. Na description of one particular theological trend and wetin record show say e cause.
Nollywood and the feedback loop
Di Nigerian video film industry make dis demonic interpretation of traditional religion become di default story furniture for mass entertainment medium, and e do am for di exact time wey di medium reach mass scale.
Di place wey people normally agree say e start from na Living in Bondage, wey come out for 1992 and get part two for 1993, wey Kenneth Nnebue and Okechukwu Ogunjiofor write and Chris Obi Rapu direct . Di tori na about one man wey go join secret cult, kill im wife for ritual sacrifice, come get plenty money well-well, before di ghost of di wife come destroy am . Na Igbo language film wey dey set for Igbo land, no be Yorùbá, and e pick from real mata wey happen, di Otokoto ritual killing case for Owerri . Na dis film start di money-ritual genre and open di market for Nigerian video film, and after dat, local market come full with films wey borrow di same theme . Di moral message wey dey inside mix Igbo social values with Pentecostalism .
Di Yorùbá-language film tradition get different and older root, wey start from Aláàrìnjó travelling theatre pass through professional travelling companies of Hubert Ògúndé, Duro Ládípọ̀ and Kọ́lá Ògúnmọlá, reach celluloid from 1976 with Àjàní Ògún and Ògúndé own film Aiyé for 1979 . Dat tradition carry Yorùbá cosmological material direct instead of to treat am like foreign tin, and how e relate to demonic framing dey more complex pass Nollywood formula. But e still land for di same commercial space, and di tori of spiritual warfare come turn standard across Nigerian video film for both languages.
Di formula dey clear to anybody wey don watch dis films. Traditional religious practice dey show as pure wicked, transactional and violent tin. Di babaláwo na sinister person wey dey deal with blood. Di shrine get red light with human skull full ground. Di masquerade na demon. And di solution dey come through Christian prayer, where pastor go land go rebuke di spirit in di name of Jesus, and di spirit go begin shake come run comot . Di films wey people dey mention for dis genre across three decades include Àgbára Ńlá (1992), Karishika (1996), End of the Wicked (1999), Thunderbolt: Magun (2001) and oda ones wey enter reach 2020s .
Three tins about dis matter dey structurally important.
No be say church be just di subject, dem be di producer sef. Church provide money, distribution through parish networks and ready audience, and Mount Zion Film Productions, wey im founder Mike Bamiloye take filmmaking as spiritual warfare against traditional religion, na di clearest example of dis combination . Di word wey Birgit Meyer use describe di aesthetic wey come out from am na Pentecostalite spectacle, and wetin she talk na say video film and Pentecostal church na part of di same process where religion and mass entertainment come dey mix together pass before . Asonzeh Ukah work also talk similar tin say Pentecostal-charismatic Christianity dey use film as way to spread religious ideas and pictures .
Di dramatic requirements dey favor di demonic version. Even if person put theology aside, film need antagonist wey get visible power. Ritual wey dey work and dey evil dey good for screen. Divination consultation where elderly man dey recite verse and discuss di client character no dey dramatic for camera. Di commercial logic and di theological logic dey point di same direction, na why di genre dey strongly balance like dat.
E dey run in circles. Di films dey act out theology wey audience already believe, dat one go confirm di theology, and e go make dem want watch more of di films. And because film medium dey reach far more people pass any church or any book, di film version don turn di main source of information for most Nigerians about wetin traditional religious practice be like. Audiences dey come watch dis films when colonial education and Pentecostal theology don already prepare dem to accept say di depiction correct . Dis depiction no be report about di tradition. Na film genre convention, and di details, di skulls, di red light, di blood, di incantation wey dey kill, na filmmaking style and no be true description of anything.
Wetin e do to Yorùbá people
Di effects no fall equal on everybody, and no be all of dem dey point di same way.
Loss of transmission. Ifá training na long apprenticeship, and na oral transmission dem take dey pass di Ifá corpus from teacher to student. Wetin UNESCO evaluate during inscription na say Ifá priests, wey most of dem na elderly people, get only small resources to maintain di tradition, pass their complex knowledge and train future practitioners . Tradition wey dey pass from person to person over many years no fit survive if one generation refuse to enter am.
Cultural forms detached from their content. Oríkì, drumming, festival, masquerade, naming practices, proverb and di calendar don survive far better pass di religious system wey carry dem, because people fit classify dem as culture instead of religion, make Christians and Muslims fit practice dem without wahala. Dis na di most common Yorùbá position today, and na real accommodation, no be hypocrisy. E also mean say plenty practices dey now circulate without di conceptual system wey give dem meaning before, so dat person fit recite oríkì smoothly without knowing wetin half of di words mean.
Shame wey attach to specific words. For many Yorùbá people wey grow up as Christian, how dem dey react to words like Ifá, babaláwo, òrìṣà and especially Èṣù no be say dem disagree, na fear, wey enter their body early before dem reach level to reason am. Dat reaction na direct result of di process wey dis file dey describe, and to know where e come from no mean say e go just disappear.
Lack of ability to read person own inheritance. Na dis effect dis corpus dey try to address. Person wey dem don teach say everything about pre-Christian Yorùbá world na satanic no go get way to see Ifá as information system, or Yorùbá ethics as ethics, or Ifẹ̀ sculpture as art, or di conceptual vocabulary of ìwà and orí and àṣẹ as philosophy, because di bad label wey dem put on di whole domain don close door for person to examine any part of am.
Plus movement to push back. From di middle of di twentieth century dey go, correct Yorùbá work don dey happen to reclaim di culture and scholarly knowledge: di Ìbàdàn school of history, di Ọ̀ṣogbo art movement, di academic work of Wándé Abímbọ́lá, Bọ́lájí Ìdòwú, J. Ọmọ́ṣadé Awólàlú, Rowland Abíọ́dún, Babátúndé Lawal and odas, di UNESCO recognition of Ifá for 2005 and 2008, and how interest dey grow well well among people for diaspora . Dis no be small side mata. Na di reason why person fit even write dis kind big scholarly work from book dem don publish at all.
Wetin di tradition really hold
Di rest of dis work dey treat dis matas properly. Wetin follow na di difference between di tradition and di demonic account wey people dey talk, with guide to show where full explanation dey.
Supreme being dey, and di òrìṣà no be rival gods. Ọlọ́dùmarè, wey people still dey call Ọlọ́run, na di source of existence and of àṣẹ. Dem no dey draw or carve am, e no get temple or special priest, and e no dey receive sacrifice, because dem no understand divine will as sometin wey person dey negotiate . Di òrìṣà dey operate under am and na from am dem get power. Whedas monotheism na di best word to describe di relationship na sometin wey scholars really dey argue: Ìdòwú argue for 1962 for wetin e call diffused monotheism, where di òrìṣà na ways to understand di different attributes of Ọlọ́dùmarè, and people don criticize dat reading say e bring Christian frame inside . Wetin people no dey argue na say supreme being dey inside di system, and dis one clear di talk say Yorùbá religion no know God until missionaries bring am come. Di cosmology section treat dis mata in full.
Devil no dey. Figure no dey inside Yorùbá cosmology wey be God enemy, wey dey rule place of punishment, wey dey find how souls go perish, or wey stand as di source of evil. Dat kind dualism no dey at all. Èṣù, as dem don explain above, na messenger, person wey dey enforce say wetin person do na wetin e go get, and person wey dey test people; e dey very important to how di system dey work and e no dey fight di system . If you remove di foreign label wey dem put on top am, e no mean say Yorùbá devil go remain; no devil dey at all.
Ethics dey central and e no come from divine command. Di main concept na ìwà, character, and di ideal person na di ọmọlúàbí, word for person wey get full moral standing . Di good character traits wey dem name for di literature include ọ̀rọ̀ sísọ, to talk beta speech wey make sense and wey be truth, ìtẹríba, respect, òtító, truth, ìwà rere, good character, ìwà ìrẹ̀lẹ̀, humility, akínkanjú, courage, iṣẹ́ àṣekára, hard work, and ọpọlọ pípé, correct sense and sound mind . Wetin make dis one be moral philosophy instead of just list of taboos na say ìwà na di standard: dem dey judge person moral worth by how di quality of di person character show for how e dey behave to oda people, to community, and to di environment, and di virtues face cooperation, solidarity, and to support one anoda . Di Ifá corpus dey talk am clear say ìwà rere pass sacrifice, pass wealth, and pass good destiny, and beta part of ẹsẹ dey stand on top dat exact point.
Sacrifice na to balance relationship, no be to cool evil spirit mind, and e no dey involve human being at all for almost all cases. Ẹbọ mean offering. Wetin dem dey usually use na kola nut, palm oil, water, cooked food, cloth, money, and for bigger cases, fowl or goat, wey dem dey give according to wetin divination talk. Di logic na exchange and to keep relationship, and na di same logic dey guide how person dey relate with elders, with lineage, and with visitor. On di historical question about human sacrifice, dis work no hide am: di practice happen for specific documented situations for nineteenth-century Yorubaland, mainly for royal burial and when big wahala dey, di victims na mainly slaves and war captives, e mix with slave trade business and chief privilege, and e stop for late nineteenth century through internal opposition, Christian pressure, and colonial law wey ban am . E still dey documented say European observers from fifteenth century dey go lay heavy emphasis and exaggerate human sacrifice for West African societies so dat dem go fit label Africans as bush people and get reason to conquer dem . Di two statement na true and one no cancel di oda. Di history section and di FAQ treat am well well.
E no be one single uniform religion. Òrìṣà practice dey depend on place. Di òrìṣà wey popular dey vary by town and by family lineage, festivals dey different, di ìtàn dey different, and no central authority dey, no creed dey, no holy book dey for di sense of fixed closed text, and no body get power to declare say one practice na di correct one. Di Ifá corpus na di closest tin to common text reference, and e dey open on im own, as di number of ẹsẹ dey always increase .
E get intellectual structure, and Ifá na im clearest expression. Dem arrange di Ifá corpus into 256 Odù, and each one get group of verses, roughly eight hundred ẹsẹ per Odù according to UNESCO estimate, and nobody know di total finish as e dey keep increasing . Di 256 come out from formal binary structure, and UNESCO own description talk say di system get "extensive corpus of texts and mathematical formulas" Di system no depend on diviner to get special spiritual vision; e depend on system of signs wey trained diviner dey interpret . Di onboarding section explain di way e dey work clearly, including where di popular talk say Ifá na ancient computer correct and where e overreach.
E get philosophy about wetin person be. Orí, wey mean head directly, na di inner head, di personal destiny and wetin dey carry person fate, wey dem choose before dem born person and wey character and behavior fit make beta or spoil. Àyànmọ́ na wetin dem allot like dat. Àṣẹ na di power wey dey make tins happen. Dis na di working concepts of philosophical anthropology, and di cosmology section treat dem properly.
Closing note on how to hold dis mata
To document how dem take frame am as something demonic no dey establish say Yorùbá tradition na true, and e no dey establish say Christianity or Islam na lie. Na different questions be dat, and dis corpus no dey answer dem. Person fit read dis full file, accept every claim inside, and still remain committed Christian, wey be di position of plenty scholars wey dem cite dia work here.
Wetin di history establish narrow pass dat but e still solid: di picture say Yorùbá religion na devil worship no be report on Yorùbá religion. Na product of one specific theology wey meet one specific commercial vocabulary, wey dem formalise for one specific translation decision, wey one specific twentieth-century religious movement extend, and wey one specific entertainment industry amplify. Dem fit trace am. Anything wey reader choose to do about am, to decide based on wetin dey inside di tradition instead of dat picture na better position to take decide.