What Are Your Thoughts on the Practice of African Traditional Religion? Watch the Documentary by Matthew Ojoduma

The issue of religion and our practice of it as Nigerians has always been fascinating to me. This was brought to the fore recently as I read the divergent opinions on the history of Halloween and how it was a construct of the ‘West’ and something that we were quick to imbibe. Then, I thought about the origin of Christianity and Islam in Nigeria and I wondered if those were also not ‘bestowed’ upon us.  So why are we so eager to embrace these religions? Someone said ‘they have better packaging’. Imagine if an Ogun shrine/temple had a nice building and a well-paved parking lot; with air conditioning and nice seats. Would people be more open to accepting it as their own?

It is interesting how we think dressing up as Thor, Loki or other Marvel comic super heroes is cool but it is abhorrent to consider dressing up as a Dibia because it is ‘simply evil’. How did our traditional gods get such bad PR? A friend of mine attributed it to the first translation of the Bible into Yoruba.  He said that Bishop Ajayi Crowther did a loose translation of the word ‘Satan’ into ‘Esu’ and from there, the deity called ‘Esu’ got stuck with a negative vibe.

Ever so often, we find that when people find themselves in extremely difficult situations, they run back to where they believe they can get help. Last year, I wrote a  piece titled ‘Are You the New Age Traditional Nigerian?’ {Please find the link here} and a number of people admitted to having adopted western religion but they duly acknowledged the role of the native deities when they were in dire straits.

Then, I watched  a short film by Matthew Ojoduma, about the worship of Ayelala in certain parts of Nigeria. Ayelala is said to be the goddess of truth and justice. People brought their issues for dispute before the chief and the priests of Ayelala. It was quite intriguing to note that this documentary was shot in modern day Nigeria, where a lot of people would not openly admit to resorting to such means for conflict.

One of the guys being interviewed had this to say:
“Our forefathers, without knowing that there was a God in heaven, served our traditional African gods. But when religion came, when God was introduced, we were supposed to do away with it… because it’s not helping us“

So, this man was saying that prior to the advent of the Europeans and the Arabs who gave us mirrors, education and nice buildings to worship in, we were waddling in the dark.
There were some other people who were interviewed who acknowledged the current practice of traditional religions and some noted that perhaps if more people practiced openly, we’d be more receptive to the idea that this is who we truly are intrinsically. The question of whether the African deities are being used to perpetuate evil begs the question of whether bad things don’t also happen under the watch of the deities handed down to us by the West and the Arabs.

Please watch the video of this documentary and share your thoughts. I would like us to look at this objectively and not emotionally. Let us try not to descend to the level of bashing other people’s religions. We should look at it from the point of what is traditional and what we have adapted.

Watch the video of Matthew’s documentary on Ayelala and the practice of African Traditional religion.

Please share your thoughts on the different issues raised in the short documentary above.