5 - Reviving ‘Yoruba Religion’

Summary

Although Christianity and Islam dominate the religious landscape in Lagos, ‘Yoruba religion’ still plays a vital role. To conceptualize religious pluralism in a setting where ‘Yoruba religion’ does not exist as an ossified tradition but is part and parcel of Islam and Christianity, I use the term ‘Yoruba religion’ enclosed within inverted commas. Chapter 5 shows how the adherents of The Indigenous Faith of Africa (IFA), Ijo Orunmila Ato – a movement that was founded in 1920 by an Anglican Yoruba after he had a vision in which the orisa (deity) Orunmila appeared to him – have revived ‘Yoruba religion’ by appropriating Christian elements. While Ijo Orunmila’s doctrines are based on Ifa – a divination cult – the group’s worship is composed of hymns, prayers, and sermons modelled closely on those of the mission church, and, more recently, the Pentecostal church. Challenging the evolutionary perspective that typifies the study of religion in Africa, this chapter studies ‘traditional’ Yoruba religion and the ‘world’ religions as contemporaries, thereby opening conceptual space for rethinking the anthropological trope of ‘tradition’, as well as the ingrained tradition–modernity schism.