Nobody actually knows what the Yoruba spirituality consisted of because the transatlantic slavery and Christian missionaries interrupted the direct transmission of its knowledge from one generation to the next. What we know about Yoruba spirituality today is what the Christian clergy claimed it to be. Although many followers, advocates, and promoters exist, it is absolutely clear that what is described as Yoruba spirituality was redesigned by missionaries in accordance with their own Christian views.
- Christian spirituality was based on the Doctrine of Trinity in which there was one God but existing in 3 co-equal persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. According to the Christian clergy, Yoruba spirituality too had trinity at its core: Olorun, Eleda and Olodumare.
- Christian saints were transformed (sanctified) human beings, who passed from this life to become alive again in heaven, and who because of their closeness to God, were able to intercede for man. According to the Christian clergy, Orisa, irunmole, and Egungun (ancestors) too were transformed human beings able to intercede for man before the Supreme Being.
- The Christian Bible unfolded a divine narrative of creation and prescribed living. According to the Christian clergy, Ifa too unfolded a divine narrative and prescribed living.
- The Christian God resided in heaven. According to the Christian clergy, the Yoruba Supreme Being too resided in an intangible realm called Orun.
There are reasons to believe that this characterisation of the Yoruba spirituality is unlikely. One, Christianity (and also Islam) was developed in a society of oppressed people whereas the ancient Yoruba were not oppressed people. Two, Christianity developed in a society with a central authority whereas the ancient Yoruba were acephalists who acknowledged no central authority.
The ancient Yoruba practiced acephalism at two levels. One, the ancient Yoruba had no emperor at the head of their empire. The myth of a common ancestry was their ‘emperor’. Two, each unit of the empire, regardless of size (city, town or village), was governed the same way, according to a set formula, the ‘Constitutional Oba’, with the Oba as figurehead and a powerful council (Igbimo, Ijoba, Oyomesi) in charge.
There is no reason to believe that the Yoruba spirituality was not acephalous like their politics. Acephalous spirituality is a well-recognised entity. George Bataille, a French philosopher, called it ‘atheology’, some dubbed it ‘anarchist’ spirituality. Evidence abound to suggest that the Yoruba acephalous spirituality was rooted in science.
Language: The Yoruba language had a scientific approach to it. Words were constructed in accordance with a set formula, which Ajayi Crowther has described in detail. This formula provided an endless source of words. Verbs were constructed by adding a vowel to a consonant. For example, the verb ‘da’ meaning ‘to make’, was constructed from the letters ‘d’ and ‘a’; adding a prefix converted ‘da’ to ‘Eda’ meaning ‘the thing that was created’; adding a further prefix generated the word ‘Eleda’ meaning ‘the one who did the creating’. Nouns were not used simply as means of identification. They were constructed to tell a story or to identify a feature or a function. ‘Oriya’, for example, did a similar job as a ‘comb’ but whilst ‘Oriya’ explained exactly what it did, ‘comb’ did not.
Medicine: The ancient Yoruba medicine was founded on scientific discoveries and principles. Yoruba medicine emphasised pathogenesis, the principle that disease was caused by tiny creatures (pathogens) that they called kokoro (land-based pathogen) or tanwiji (water-based pathogen), and that disease was cured by medicines directed at killing the specific causative creature. Furthermore, the Yoruba made the scientific discovery that medicines could be administered successfully through skin wounds (Gbere; transdermal application of medicine), not only through body orifices (nose, mouth and anus). The Yoruba also discovered that an epidemic like Sopona (smallpox) could be controlled by injecting healthy individuals with the causative pathogen (vaccination).
Engineering: The Yoruba of yore constructed drainage systems outside of their homes using fragments of pottery laid onto packed clay (potsherd pavement). These were infrastructures constructed in two aesthetic patterns: herringbone and circular. The herringbone pattern was in the form of ‘fish skeleton’ comprising of angled side channels installed for surface water to run off into a ‘gully’. The circular pattern was in the form of a sump installed to collect surface water as well as to act as gravity sewer.
Metallurgy: The ancient Yoruba had sophisticated iron and metal casting technologies. The Yoruba perfected smelting and forging of iron to make tools for agriculture, household, hunting, and weapons amongst others. The Yoruba perfected the ‘lost wax’ casting techniques, which they used to make intricate and realistic life-like sculptures in bronze, brass and copper. Ordinary folks, not just artisans, practiced some of these skills as part of daily living.
Mathematics: There was a distinctive Yoruba mathematical system comprising of a vigesimal (base-20) counting system and the Ifa (base-2) binary system. Counting in the vigesimal progressed by twenties as key milestones, with capabilities to express large numbers up to 20,000. Counting involved mental calculations, and an understanding of complex numerical patterns in which numbers were expressed as additions (for example, ‘okan le logun’ is 20 + 1), subtractions (for example, ‘adorin’ is 20 x 4 less 10) or multiplications (for example, ‘ogorun’ is 20 x 5). Numbers 1 to 10 had unique names, 11 to 14 had additive names whilst 15 to 20 had subtractive names. The Yoruba taught the skills of vigesimal counting to all their children. It is a skill necessary for playing the Ayo board game.
Ifa involved the use of a computing tablet (Opon) of 8 columns and 4 rows, operated by the means of the casting of 16 4-eyed seeds. Ifa was Binary (base-2) because the casting seed had two sides: one with 4 eyes, the other bare; the eye-side was ‘ookan’ (ie 1) and the bare side was ‘ofo’ (ie 0). Ifa was Octal (8-bit) because the tablet had 8 columns. The maximal number, 256, was derived from 8 castings and 8 columns of 4 rows on the tablet (8 x 8 x 4). Ifa was institutional science. The ancient Yoruba very clearly distinguished it from spirituality: ‘Aigbofa lanwoke, Ifa kan kosi ni para’ by which was meant the absence of oracular interpretation in the skies, Ifa existing only on the Opon tablet, not anywhere else. In other words, the ancient Yoruba did not regard Ifa as genitor of a spirituality.
Earth and space science: The ancient Yoruba perceived earth and sky as two distinct but conjoined halves of a calabash with earth (Ile) at the bottom and sky (Para) at the top. The Yoruba knew the earth to be round at a time when the rest of the world believed the earth to be flat. The Yoruba claimed that the world initially was only water, as confirmed by University of Colorado scientists, and that Obatala descended from the sky to create land. Obatala was Yoruba name for asteroid. Obatala is a compound word made up of ‘oba’ and ‘tala’; ‘ba’ is a verb meaning ‘to bring into physical contact’ making ‘oba’ the actor whilst ‘la’ is the verb ‘to clear’ making ‘tala’ clearance that the contact did. In the Obatala, the Yoruba had a rational, non-religious explanation for the creation of the earth .
What emerges from its pervasiveness is that science was the Yoruba spirituality. The ancient Yoruba derived spirituality from the sheer experience of awe, joy and wonder from scientific endeavours and scientific pursuits. Believe in their science provided the ancient Yoruba with a sense of purpose, and psychological wellbeing. Science was their buffer against existential fear. Science provided the Yoruba with a spiritual experience that sat well outside of the traditional dogmatic religion. The ancient Yoruba pursued science to seek rational explanations, which reduced their dependency on divine explanations.