Isese has been claimed as the name of the ancient traditional Yoruba religion, centred around the worship of Olodumare (Supreme Creator) and a motley of associated deities and divine forces including Ifa. The origin of the word Isese is obscure. Isese is another one of those alleged Yoruba traditions not corroborated with any factual evidence. The word Isese, for example, does not appear in Ajayi Crowther’s dictionary (1852), or in the major works of authors like RF Burton (1865) and AB Ellis (1894). The evidence available suggest that Isese had no attributes of a religion.
Religion is something that is most difficult to define but there are 3 principal features, namely: defined membership, authoritative text (oral or written scriptures), and sacred buildings (temple). Isese does not have a defined membership, or an authoritative text directly accessible to adherents, or temples for congregation and worship. In addition, Isese does not have the character of a major religion, that is, no central character (such as, Jesus, Mohamed or Bhudda), no central theme (such as, the Christian’s ‘to follow’ or Islam’s ’to surrender’), and no visual icon (such as, the Christian’s cross or Islam’s crescent moon/star). Isese lacked all these attributes because it is a religious cloak recently invented by the Babalawo, Ifaologists and others, to fit the ancient Yoruba who were themselves areligious (irreligious) people. What these religionists failed to appreciate or understand was that the Yoruba had evolved beyond religion hundreds of years before the Abrahamic religions were being conceived in West Asia.
Areligiousness represents the highest state of human consciousness; an advanced stage of human evolution; an enlightened state of understanding the universe. Freedom from dogma represents intellectual maturity. The ancient Yoruba had replaced supernatural beliefs with reason, science and human agency. They had become indifferent and had no meaningful relation toward religion. Breaking free from religious dogmas enabled the ancient Yoruba to achieve intellectual freedom and define their own values in proverbs (Owe) which they used liberally to pepper their conversations.
On this, Burton in his book of proverbs (1895) quoted the learned Bishop Vidal as writing: ‘Surely these are indications of no ordinary perception of moral truths, and sufficient to warrant the inference that in closeness of observation, in depth of thought, and in shrewd intelligence, the Yoruban is…no ordinary man. The existence of proverbs such as these, amongst a people situated as the Yorubans are, is a fact pregnant with many thoughts, on which the theologian and the moralist may dwell with advantage…’
Baasegun (Dr) Olusola Oni, Leader of the Yoruba Party in the UK (YPUK, www.yorubapartyuk.org