Iṣẹṣe is a word commonly associated with the Yoruba religion. It has been translated to mean ‘the original tradition’. August 20 is the Iṣẹṣe day in parts, but not all, of Yorubaland. Iṣẹṣe they say is closely aligned to Ifa; some even say the two are the same. Iṣẹṣe is not an old Yoruba word, however. Old Yoruba words, particularly important ones, say exactly what they mean. Iṣẹṣe does not say exactly what it means. Consequently, the word is not intelligible to the average Yoruba. The meaning of Iṣẹṣe is concealed. Because Yoruba is a descriptive language, primary words are rarely used. Iṣẹṣe is actually a compound word. Its principal verb is ‘ṣe’ which means ‘to do’. The prefix ‘iṣẹ’ is the noun maker but ‘iṣẹ’ itself is also a compound word made up of ‘i’ and ‘ṣẹ’, where ‘ṣẹ’ is the verb ‘to happen’. The Old Yoruba meaning of the word Iṣẹṣe thus is ‘what could made to happen’.
Olodumare is another word commonly associated with the Yoruba religion. It was the theme of Professor Bolaji Idowu’s 1962 treatise: ‘Olodumare: God in the Yoruba belief’. Apparently, Olodumare was the Supreme Being. Olodumare is not an Old Yoruba word, however. It acquired its meaning through usage not through its Old Yoruba meaning. There is no part of the word that signified a Supreme Being. Olodumare is a compound word that could be cleaved into its component parts. The principal verb is ‘mare’ which means ‘to change’. The noun maker in this instance is ‘Olodu’, itself a noun meaning the owner (‘olo’) of ‘Odu’, the compendium of Yoruba knowledge, which makes Olodumare ‘the knowledged one’ in Old Yoruba.
Oriṣa is yet another word commonly associated with the Yoruba religion. The word has been borrowed from the Yoruba language by other languages, such as, Spanish and Portuguese, which makes Oriṣa Old Yoruba but what it is said to represent does not match the Old Yoruba meaning of the word. Oriṣa is regarded as the generic name for several deities (Irunmọlẹ) numbering up to 400 + 1 or more. The principal verb of Oriṣa is ‘ṣa’ to pick’. The noun maker is the prefix ‘ori’, which itself has ‘ri’, meaning ‘to embed’, as principal verb. The Old Yoruba meaning of the word Oriṣa thus was ‘the embedded choice’, by which was meant that if you belonged to one Oriṣa you could not belong to another. Oriṣa was the necessary rule to prevent ‘deity shopping’ since there was no relevant central authority. Also, the Oriṣa had the characteristic of a good luck charm in being largely occupation-dependent and personalised. For example, Ogun is the ‘god of iron’ so it is for the blacksmiths.
Adhering to their Old Yoruba meaning, the 3 words claiming to represent the Yoruba religion possess no religious attributes at all. This lack of resonance may explain the demise of the Yoruba religion. The use of ‘English equivalent’ is at the root of the problem. For example, the Yoruba word ‘Ẹlẹda’ which means ‘the creator’ has been wrongly religionised to mean God or a Supreme Being. The Yoruba word ‘Ori’, carrier of the vision apparatus in its Old Yoruba meaning, is mistranslated to ‘head’, and a huge industry of false theologising has been developed around the falsity.
Each Abrahamic religion was built around a person – Jesus in the case of Christianity, Mohamed in the case of Islam. Even Buddhism is about a person. There is no such figurehead around which Yoruba religionists could construct their religion. If such a person existed in the Yoruba of yore, he has been lost in the morass of Yoruba chronicling. Yoruba religionists are trying, and failing, to build their religion around 400 + 1 Irunmọlẹ. This expansive religionism had been a trap that the missionaries set for them, and Yoruba religionists continue to fall for it even in 2025. The Old Yoruba philosophy of life is about spirituality not religion. Spirituality should be the focus of the Yoruba religionists.
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