Yorùbá Thought in Fifteen Minutes
Destiny, character, the inner head, what a person is, and how Yorùbá ethics works, in plain language.
intromedium·
Loading…
Destiny, character, the inner head, what a person is, and how Yorùbá ethics works, in plain language.
The Yorùbá wey dem quote, the proverbs, oríkì, ẹsẹ Ifá, word list headwords, Odù names and citations dey exactly as the corpus record dem, for every language.
Yorùbá thought na working philosophical system wey get theory about wetin person be, theory about destiny wey avoid both fatalism and pure self-invention, and ethics wey arrange around character instead of rules. Dis file bring out di main point for ordinary language. Na philosophy inside di sense say di concepts dey do argumentative work, dem dey debate am inside di tradition, and e dey produce positions wey person fit state and disagree with. E still be religion, and two of dem no fit separate here.
Yorùbá thought dey answer with three factors wey dem hold together instead of reducing am to only one.
Wetin dem share give you. Your destiny, wey you choose or receive before dem born you.
Your character. Your ìwà, wey be your own and wey you dey responsible for.
Wetin you do about am. Divination, ẹbọ, effort, and how you maintain your relationships, all of dem fit change di outcome.
Di interesting philosophical work dey inside how dis three dey interact, because if to say di first one decide everything, di other two no go make sense, and di tradition insist say no be so.
Orí mean head. Di tradition distinguish orí òde, di physical head for outside, from orí inú, di inner head, wey be person individual destiny and di spiritual principle wey carry am .
Di formulation wey near wetin orí be pass inside di system na say person orí na dem own personal divinity. Dis one no be decoration. E carry serious consequence wey di tradition talk straight: no òrìṣà fit help person against dem orí. Whatever relationship wey person get with any power, dem own orí get first claim. ẹsẹ Ifá dey wey dem whole point na say person go meet every òrìṣà for help, and dem tell am every time make e go back go attend to dem orí.
Two things follow wey Western readers dey often miss. Orí no be di soul inside di Christian sense; e no be di thing wey dey survive death and wey dem dey judge. And orí no be personality; e closer to wetin dem apportion give person to become, wey dem conduct come realize, damage or forfeit.
Orí still be object of ritual attention for im own right. Ìbọrí, to feed di head, na practice wey dey directed to person own orí instead of any external power, wey make sense to pause and look well: di tradition get ritual wey person dey attend to themselves as di thing wey deserve attention pass.
Before birth, inside di account wey di tradition give, person dey come front of Ọlọ́dùmarè and receive dem portion. Ọ̀rúnmìlà dey present as witness, na why dem dey call am Elérìí ìpín, di witness to destiny, and why person fit consult Ifá about wetin dem choose .
Di tradition distinguish three ways to receive am, and di distinction na di whole argument :
Àkúnlẹ̀yàn, wetin person kneel down choose. Di person choose.
Àkúnlẹ̀gbà, wetin person kneel down receive. Di person receive wetin dem give am.
Àyànmọ́, wetin dem apportion or fix put. Wetin dey fixed and no be something to negotiate.
Different sources weigh dis ones differently and some treat dem as three aspects of one single event instead of three different routes . Inside one common reading, àyànmọ́ dey name wetin person no fit change at all, like di family wey dem born person into, sex, di day of death, while di rest remain open to choice and effort .
Di famous complicating story na about Àjàlá di potter, wey dey mould di orí wey people dey choose from, and wey dem describe say e dey careless, sometimes e dey produce heads wey get defect or wey no bake well . Person wey dey choose blind fit choose bad one. Na dis one be di tradition explanation for why human lives vary so drastically for fortune when di people wey dey live di life no different like dat for merit, and e be serious answer to serious problem. E still clearly no be theodicy of di Christian kind: di unevenness no be punishment and e no be test, na manufacturing defect inside system wey include such defects.
Wetin make dis one no be fatalism na say person fit work on orí wey dem choose badly or wey damage. Divination dey identify di problem, ẹbọ dey address am, effort matter, and character above all matter. Di position of di tradition na say destiny dey set di terms and e no dey settle di outcome, wey be position wey genuinely different from both hard determinism and im opposite, and na position wey many philosophical traditions don reach through other routes.
Ìwà na character, and na di centre of Yorùbá ethics. Dem dey evaluate moral worth by di quality of person character as e dey show for conduct towards others, towards di community and towards di environment . Di compound ìwà pẹ̀lẹ́, gentle or good character, na im name di ethical ideal, and e constitutively relational: person dey cultivate character make dem fit maintain dem standing inside community, lineage, ancestors and di wider order, instead of just private self-perfection .
Di claim wey di Ifá corpus make about ìwà strong and dem repeat am well: ìwà matter pass wealth, pass sacrifice, and pass destiny wey good. Person with good destiny and bad character go lose di destiny. Person wey do every prescribed offering and get bad ìwà dey inside worse position pass person wey do di opposite. Na dis one be di single most important thing to know about Yorùbá ethics, because e clear di assumption say di tradition na transactional thing, say na to buy outcomes from powers by correct performance. Di corpus wey suppose talk dat kind thing dey talk di opposite.
Di best-known proverb on top dis matter short.
Ìwà l'ẹwà.
Ìwà (character) l' (is-the) ẹwà (beauty).
Translator: Ìpilẹ̀ṣẹ̀ editorial rendering, unreviewed
"Character na beauty." Na so the corpus translate am from standard transcription; the proverb dey inside plenty Yorùbá proverb collection and academic book dem on Yorùbá aesthetics don treat am, especially Rowland Abíọ́dún, wey argue say Yorùbá aesthetic judgment and moral judgment waka together . Confidence: high on the proverb, medium on any single English translation.
"Beauty" small pass ẹwà, wey cover wetin fine to look, wetin fit, and wetin dem do well, so the proverb dey make aesthetic claim and moral claim together at once and e no see dem as two different things. English no fit do this one without making the aesthetics moral or making the morals aesthetic. Dem also dey extend the proverb many times as ìwà l'ẹwà ọmọ ènìyàn, say character na the beauty of human being, wey make wetin e dey talk clear.
Ọmọlúàbí na the name for person wey get full moral standing. The etymology wey dem dey usually give explain am as ọmọ tí Olú-ìwà bí, the pikin wey the chief of character born, though na wetin people just dey repeat pass say e dey solidly proved, so make person treat am as something wey people dey debate .
The virtues wey academic literature link with am include ọ̀rọ̀ sísọ, to know how to talk well and talk truth, ìtẹríba, respect, òtító, truth, ìwà rere, good character, ìwà ìrẹ̀lẹ̀, humility, akínkanjú, courage, iṣẹ́ àṣekára, hard work wey person do well, and ọpọlọ pípé, sound mind . The whole setup dey point toward cooperation, standing together, and depending on each other, and scholars don describe the framework say e close pass to virtue ethics than morality wey rely on rules or command .
Two things separate am from wetin reader wey grow up on divine-command ethics dey expect.
E no come from divine command. Nothing inside ọmọlúàbí framework dey require instruction from Ọlọ́dùmarè before person know say truthfulness good. The standard na ìwà, and the reason why those virtues dey valid na wetin dem dey do for people and communities. Whether this one mean say Yorùbá ethics stand on im own without Yorùbá religion na wetin African philosophers still dey debate, and the matter never settle.
Speech na virtue category. Ọ̀rọ̀ sísọ, to talk the word, dey inside the list alongside truth and respect as part of wetin make up good character, wey show a system where spoken word carry àṣẹ and where wetin person talk dey bring result. Inside culture wey get proverb tradition, oríkì tradition, and oral legal system, to know how to talk well no be just social manner, na moral capacity.
Àṣẹ na the power wey dey make things happen. E dey inside speech, inside person, inside object, inside òrìṣà, and na from Ọlọ́dùmarè e finally come from.
The concept hard to translate, and every English word for am get where e fall short. "Power" dey too physical, "authority" dey too institutional, "life force" dey too vitalist and e close too much to 19th-century European ideas about African religion wey dem design to discard. Wetin stay consistent across how dem dey use am na efficacy: the power wey thing get to make wetin e talk happen.
Where e dey show pass for everyday life na the end of prayer, where àṣẹ mean make e be so, and this one no be different meaning. Word wey dem talk with àṣẹ na word wey dey work, so to end prayer with àṣẹ na to apply the concept to wetin dem just talk. The same understanding dey run through oríkì, through incantation, and through the weight wey dey inside blessing and curse wey elders and parents talk.
When person join all the parts together, e dey give explanation of person wey get plenty parts and no fit reduce to just one thing.
Ara dey, wey be the body. ẹ̀mí dey, wey dem dey usually translate as breath or spirit, wey connect to life itself and to Ọlọ́dùmarè as im source. orí dey, the inner head wey carry destiny. And ìwà dey, character, wey be the person own responsibility and na wetin carry the moral weight.
Two things follow from this one.
Personhood na wetin person dey work reach, no be just wetin dem get. Person fit fail to reach the status of ọmọlúàbí. To be biologically human and to be person for the full evaluative sense no be the same thing inside this system, and the ethical words dey focus on the second one. Na position wey plenty African philosophical traditions share, and dem don discuss am well inside that comparative context.
Personhood depend on relationship. Person dey exist inside lineage, compound, town, and plenty obligations wey reach the living, the ancestors, and the òrìṣà. Person wey cut off from all these things no just dey lonely, the person reduce for way wey the system take say na real thing. Na why displacement, especially the one from 19th-century wars and Atlantic trade, register inside this tradition as religious disaster and no be just social one.
E no be fatalism. The tradition believe say destiny real and at the same time say effort, character, and ẹbọ fit change wetin happen, and e develop words specifically to hold the two together.
E no be system without ethics. The talk say African traditional religions no get ethics come from missionary and colonial ethnography wey believe say morality must need revealed law. Ìwà na ethical concept, ọmọlúàbí na ethical ideal, and the Ifá corpus get serious ethical argument inside.
E no primarily be about belief. The question say "you believe in orí" no be the question wey the system dey set up to answer. Orí na wetin person get and dey take care of, and the ethical claims about ìwà na claims about how person suppose live, no be ideas wey person just dey agree with. Na part of why conversation across different traditions about Yorùbá thought dey often fail: one side dey ask about abstract ideas, while the other side dey describe practice.
E no dey uniform. Di way dem explain am dey differ based on source, region, and scholar. Di three-way distinction between àkúnlẹ̀yàn, àkúnlẹ̀gbà and àyànmọ́ dey different across different accounts, and di relationship between ẹ̀mí, orí and di person get different analysis from Ìdòwú, Gbadegesin, Hallen and Abíọ́dún . Where dis file give one formulation, di cosmology section give di disagreement.
What Ifá is, how the divination actually works step by step, how the binary structure produces 256 addresses into a memorised corpus, and what is true and false in the claim that it is an ancient computer.
What an òrìṣà is, how the pantheon is organised, who the major figures are, how devotion actually works, and why the demon framing does not describe any of it.
The twenty core Yorùbá concepts in brief, each defined in two sentences with a pointer to where the corpus treats it fully.
Alphabetical glossary of Yorùbá terms used across the corpus, each with diacritics, a literal gloss where one is documented, a plain definition, and the section that treats it fully.
Direct answers to the questions readers actually ask, including the uncomfortable ones about human sacrifice, the slave trade, initiation, appropriation and faith.
A clarification of the distinct constituents of personhood, destiny, and moral agency in Yoruba thought that are routinely conflated in English translations.