More handpicked essays just for you.
Family influences on human development
Culture and tradition of the yoruba people
Culture and tradition of the yoruba people
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Timothy Castillo
Rels 100
T 6:30-9:40
Mr. Colace
Chapter 2 Questions
Question 1: The Yoruba Religion believes in a kind of reincarnation provided by their Gods. These Gods are very sacred to the Yoruba people. They are viewed as representations of the natural forces present in life. In addition, they have strong reverence of their ancestors. These ancestors at times will return in spiritual form in order to aid their descendants. The main problem religion recognizes is the losing of one’s self or in other words not following one’s destiny. The belief of the Yoruba is that this problem arises due to one forgetting themselves and they struggle remember their goals in life and to find themselves once again. The Yoruba are not alone however when trying to find their identities once again they have the aid of their family heads, priests and diviners. The people who fill these roles go through much hard work in order to aid their fellows to find themselves and to once again follow their paths in life. The Yoruba also strongly believe in the idea of three levels of life one devoted to Heaven, another to a habitat for humans and animals, and finally one as the home for the dead. I personally find the most important aspect of this religion to be the idea of the family structure. Many of the occurrences in this religion
…show more content…
I find this to be valuable as it places emphasis on the idea of community and bonds with those of your blood something that is sometimes forgotten about when one
Specific Purpose Statement: To persuade my audience to donate blood through the American Red Cross.
The first way traditional spirituality is shown is through Legba. Legba is an Igbo American visiting his grandparents in Lagos. He spends his time in a Cyber Café with his cousins participating in Nigerian Internet Fraud, 419. He gave himself the code name “Legba” because Legba is the “Yoruba trickster god of language, communication, and the crossroads” (194). He didn’t think he would be caught because “who would suspect an Igbo guy who was American using the name of a Yoruba god?” (195). He thought he was in the clear from being caught since he was an American man with religious names. However that was soon going to be the least of his worries. The room suddenly shook and everything came tumbling down. As Legba was pinned under rubbish he noticed something massive coming through the hole in the wall where the door used to be. Legba suddenly realized it was Ijele, the Chief of all Masquerades, Igbo royalty. Legba said, “One of the greatest spirits of Nigeria had come. While the alien was speaking, we were focused on our own things, on getting what we could get” (199). Legba is saying there were too caught up in their own world to realize everything that was going on in Lagos. But by the Ijele coming, he was woken up. He said, “I will never practice fraud again. Never. I swear” (199). The traditional spirituality of Legba and the Igbo people came to
Firstly, the church disproves many of the Igbo superstitions ,which encourages the Igbo to break the traditions that they had followed for many years. Therefore, slowly destroying their society. For instance, when the white men who brought Christianity to the people of Umuofia speak to the clan of the village about their new religion. They request a piece of land to build their church on. The clan decides to give them a piece of land of the Evil forest and let them stay. To the clans surprise this happens ”At last the day came by which all the missionaries should have died. But they were still alive, building a new red-earth and thatch house for their teacher, Mr. Kiaga. That week they won a handful more converts.(151)”. The Evil Forest was known as a forest where people go to die, and the clan members thought that by allowing the missionaries to build their church in the evil Forest they could easily get rid of them. Since, the white men didn’t die but lived, this made the Ibo people question their own beliefs. When some of the villagers noticed that they were mislead by their gods they decide to convert to Christianity. Either because Christianity seemed stronger than the ...
1.) b) Describe the basic philosophy of the Tao Tê Ching and discuss how this text developed over centuries.
The story is set within the Ibo tribe of Umuofia, which is one of the nine villages that combine to make one large clan in Nigeria. These tribes are ones that hold courage, strength, tradition and customs extremely high. The theme of tradition is examined by
Yoruba is located in lower part of Nigeria. They are known for the twin pieces in their art. This particular culture believes that twins have a connection with the spirit world. They convey this idea through the design of their at work. The first that I am going to speak about is the Cracked Vessel art piece. This particular was made in 13th-14th century. The piece is supposed to represent duality in an individual. The two heads that is seen in the piece represents the two mental states of an individual. The “outer head” which is called Ori Inu and the “inner heard” which is known as “Ori Ode”. The Ori Inu is meant to represents a person’s physical self what others see when they look at them. The Ori Ode is the person’s spiritual persona. This are very two different personalities that are portrayed between one
Many indigenous religions of Africa view both birth and death as transitions between this world and the spirit world, which are heavily connected with each other. Although they are commonly referred to as ancestral spirits, this is inaccurate because...
Religion in the general aspect is best described as a cultural system of beliefs and practices that people look to spiritually in order explain and understand the nature of human existence. For many people religion holds great value to the meaning of life. Religion provides people with moral guidelines, beliefs, and practices of worship in order to help them through their daily life. Individuals vary on their level of commitment or devotion to their religious faith, however the basic meaning and purpose of having religion in a person’s life remains true to all who choose to believe in a higher power. There are many different religions and groups which each hold very different sets of beliefs and values in order to aid their followers on
Which leads humans to a new birth, but with birth comes forgetting your old self. A main belief in yoruba is that when one is reborn that are given a new destiny and as one grows up they have to attempt to discover what destiny you chose at birth. When reborn one of your many souls is given to Olodumare the god that is known as the “ Owner of the Sky” gives you a new breath of life, where he allows you to choose a your destiny in life. Then we are put on earth and set off on a quest to “find ourselves”. While we are trying to find ourselves we receive help from Orishas “ special human beings” known as babalawo “men of secret and iyawos “women of secrets. Despite the meaning of their names they are not given the power to dispense any secrets of wisdom themselves. Theses people are a form of priests and diviners, who are place on earth to lead human beings in the way of harmony while on their journey. Orishas are believed to be very well connected to the gods and their religion. As Orishas they are required to know a variety of many different scriptures by memory in order to divine to the believers issues or communicate with the
It is a holy practice where in one focuses on a single God and tries to liberate oneself from the birth and death cycle (ref. Gita chapter 6 verse 10).
In the religion, Hinduism, reincarnation plays a big role for Hindus. Reincarnation is the belief that the soul lives on for many lifetimes. The soul is constantly reborn into different beings such as human and animal. Another major belief in Hinduism is Karma.
Yoruba is one of many tribes located in Africa and is one of the largest ethno- linguistic groups. Majority of the native people of Yoruba are a part of Southwestern Nigeria and Benin. However, a great percentage of Yoruba is populated by modern day Nigeria. Moreover, the Yoruba culture was an oral tradition, and majority of the people were native speakers of the Yoruba language. The native name of the Yoruba language is ‘Ede Yoruba’. The language originated through the Yoruba people because they were believed to be descendants of Oduduwa. Oduduwa, was the son of a powerful God named Oludumare. And the Yoruba people referred to themselves as ‘Omo Oduduwa’ meaning Oduduwa’s children. The Yoruba language is the pride of the Yoruba people and over 22 million people speak it. The Yoruba language had been spoken within other languages in neighboring countries such as Benin and Togo. Other traces of the Yoruba language has been spoken in Sierra Leone, where it’s referred to as “Oku” and Cuba known as “Nago”.
The religious aspect of the Ibo culture is that of both pre colonial and post colonial aspects. The pre colonial ibo worshiped many gods and above all the other gods are Chukwu were the gods below him are just messengers such as the earth goddess ala. They as well worship their ancestors that give them better harvest and luck. Then when the white men came from england and other areas bringing christianity they changed the culture of ibo and if some towns and villages did not comply to them they would wipe out most villages, an example from Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe in chapter twenty it talks about how the people of this village of Abame. Another example of this is at the end of the book in chapter twenty five the District Commissioner
As the English began to colonize the Igbo society, there were few natives who opposed it, they others just felt that the English would come and go, but they were wrong. Soon, the English began to introduce "white man's religion." This new religion was completely the opposite from what the natives were accustomed to. Christianity was rather intriguing to many of the natives and many of them turned away from their families and everything they were to become a member of this new religion. Before this, they natives had been very superstious, but as they new religion flooded over the peoples, their superstiousocity began to lessen and their belief in the many gods they had previously believed in.
Due to the depth of religious tradition it is difficult to dedicate a specific role and function. Rather religious tradition fulfills several roles and functions, all playing a crucial part in both an individual’s life and society as a whole. Amid the bountiful roles and functions of religion tradition are the most important being explanation, comfort, and governing.