Esin o Faja: Celebrating and Nurturing a Culture of Tolerance
The concept of religion as expressed in western thinking may be best expressed among the Yoruba of West Africa in the multitude of Orisa devotions that define Yoruba communities. These devotions are easily traceable to professions as in the case of Ogun devotion, art as in the case of Ayan devotion, trade and commerce as in the case of Aje devotion and health as in the case of Sanponna devotion. The diversity of these pheanmena and their vitality in the lives of the people can be said to have made "religion" situational for the Yoruba person. A person's profession may dictate a certain devotion while the health situation may demand yet another devotion. Hence, a professional Yoruba smith with acumen for music and seeking for good health may be devoted to Ogun, Ayan and Sanponna, all at the same time. This reality has produced for the Yoruba a certain level of religious multiplicity in which a single Yoruba person when viewed from a European point of view might be said to belong to several religions
The Yoruba first encountered Islam as early as the 14th century through trade with various peoples of West Africa particularly people of Mali. This Mali connection has been used to explain why the Yoruba refer to Islam as Esin imale derived from Esin (1) Malé; the religion of Mali. Islam was propagated in Yoruba land by itinerant Yoruba traders and adopted by many members of their home communities. Later on, in the 19th century the Yoruba also encountered Christianity and it was propagated by returnee Yoruba slaves, heavily supported by the efforts of European missionaries, Primed by their indigenous attitude towards religious devotions, some Yoruba families deliberatively assigned certain branches of their families to go for the Islamic faith while some other branches went for the Christian faith The result of this rather unusual cohabitation of two proselytizing faiths has produced contemporary Yorubia communities in which Moslems attend Church on festive occasions and are formally invited to offer thanks giving Yoruba Christians too happily join their Moslem family members and friends to participate in Moslem festivals The Ojude Oba ceremony of ijebu Ode is an example of a celebration of a Moslem feast in which both Moslems and Christians gather mainly as ljebu and their friends in a Durbar style march past before the Awujale
scholars such as S.D. Y Peel note that the Yoruba are exceptional for the strong corpresence among them of islam and Christianity. This Yoruba phenomenon presents a lesson to the world in peaceful coexistance between Moslems and Christians. Unfortunately, however, this unique character of the Yoruba seems to be giving in to pressures of Nigerian politics. In contemporary Nigerian politics, there is a tendency for the predominantly Moslem section of Nigers to put pressure on Yoruba Moslems and the predominantly Christian section of Nigeria to put pressure on Yoruba Christians encouraging them to interpret purely politics issues form a religious point of view. The effects of such pressures on praceful coexistence between Yoruba Moslems and Christians needs to be anticipated
Esin o Faja Celebrating and Nurturing a Culture of Tolerance is an attempt at rediscovering and reinforcing this Yoruba uniqueness an intervention in unhealthy political environment that is emerging in Nigeria of today,
DR TUNDE ADEGBOLA
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