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martedì 15 marzo 2011

Oduduwa - The father of the Yorubas.

ODUDUWA - the father of the Yoruba
There are two oral traditions among the Yoruba about the identity of Oduduwa. 

First Story:

The first oral tradition states that he descended from heaven and he was specifically sent to the world by God to rule mankind. He was said to have no earthly parents.
According to this story, the creator of the world was Olodumare (The only almighty God).
Before the world was created, there was only a watery, marshy waste.
Olodumare live in heaven. In order to create the earth, Olodumare sent his son Oduduwa down from heaven.
First, Olodumare let his son down with a chain carrying a handful of earth, a cockerel and a palmnut.
From these things, plants and animals grew.
Oduduwa spread the earth over the marshes, the cockerel scratched it and the palm tree grew up in it from which all people came.

The Religion and Beliefs of the Yoruba people

Diviniation bowl
Babalawo
The Religion & Beliefs of the yoruba people
(source: professor Bolaji Idowu Ph.D.)

ILE-IFE "Our Ancestral Home"- The first of the creation here below; the original home of all things; the place from which the day dawns; the enchanted, holy city; the home of divinities and mysterious spirits!
That was the multifarious picture of Ile-Ife which use to form part of our childhood knowledge. Even today, in spite of several years of Western sophistication, the city still has a certain enchantment for the Yoruba people, if only because it is the heart which sets the religious blood coursing through their national veins.