On Yoruba in Brasil

One can't but chuckle at an assertion that the Yoruba in Brazil could date their presence here to pre-historic times. In this age when knowledge on issues such as this is a mere touch of a button away, for an intellectual to come to such conclusions is indeed very funny.

There are facts that make in very clear that there was no Yoruba here before the 1540s. The Afro-Brazilian museum here is a must-visit for any African in Sao Paulo in my opinion. And one of the artifacts that got to me most was a letter from a freed slave who had gone back to Lagos, informing those here of the situation he met back at home and urging them to hold firmly to their tradtional faith. Candomble does have several roots including those from the Ewe, Fon, Congo-Bantu and (especially) Angola. The Orixas are however largely drawn from Yoruba mythology, and as well strong currents within its practice.

I would however want to say, to the best of my knowledge (and I daresay, I have made quite a few 'journeys' of seeking here), there are no 'Obas' or 'Otunbas' here. To the extent that there are 'cheiftaincy titles' this are tied to the mystical, the religion of Candomble (and Umbanda) and the worship of Olorum and the Orixas, as they call them here. These include the Iyalorixa, Babalorixa, for the Orixas in general, the Babalawo for the worship of Orunmila, the Orixa-Ifa and the Babaoje for the Egungun. So strictly speaking these are priesthoods and not chieftancy titles...

Regards,

Baba Aye



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On Fri, 4/10/09,


IBK:
No need for name-calling.
I have tried patiently to explain to ARJP in another posting, why
the Yoruba can very well be - and was - among the notable EXCEPTIONS.
Just because "slaves in other regions of the Americans failed to
stick together and therefore maintain their cultures, it is impossible
that the Yorubas of Brazil should come off successful."
And why not?
Are there never any exceptions to anything?
1. You have to have the necessary critical number to maintain your
culture (which most Yoruba I know are still doing today - even here in
the Diaspora! Vist any Yoruba that you know in the Yoruba at his or
her house.).
2. The culture must have been very strong before you can transplant
it. And the Yoruba culture is, to the point of even having been
adopted by many African Americans who have never set foot in Africa,
in the US! African American women around New York, Delaware, and
Pennsylvania practice "esusu", a method whereby women contribute to a
common pool which is then carried away in rotation by the
participants. This is how Yoruba women raise capitals for their
projects, a form of "savings/banking" until it comes to your own turn
to take the "pot".)
And very widespread and established in the New York and Delaware is
a religions practiced by sizable numbers of African Americans, called
'Yoruba'. Many African Americans who have never been to Africa are
'babalawos' and 'iya olorisa' - both concepts form the Yoruba culture.
There is a smalltown/village near Belfort in South Carolina called
Oyotunji - Oyo Re-Awakened, or New Oyo.
It is EXACTLY a replica of typical Yoruba town or village of the
18th Century! They have an Oba, and his retinue of chiefs, and most in
the town practice one form of Yoruba profession or another, including
a retinue of babalawo, blacksmiths, and drummers!
The 'Oba' of Oyotunji sends his sword of office to Nigeria to be
blessed by the Ooni at Ile-Ife whenever a new Oba is being enthroned.
And other Yoruba obas have now started the practice of sending their
represenatives to such 'coronations' and othe events (egungun festival
for example) held at Oyotunji.
I have visited the place too! I attended one such coronation
ceremony too! You could have been back at Ijebu-Ijesa, Owena or
Gbongan! And all conducted in Yoruba too, the Yoruba that must have
been spoken in the 17th/18th century, being a dialect I could barely
understand, but unmistakably Yoruba!
Please don't tell me all these were from when the land-masses were
still connected!
3. Why were the British more successful than all the other Europeans
in maintaining their culture after they migrated, and forcing same on
the peoples they conquered, followed closely by the French, the
Spanish and the Portuguese?
All the other European peoples took part too, including the German
and the Scandinavians and:
The Germans for example left little or no traces in their former
colonies, not even in Namibia where they still constitute the distinct
majority among the European settlers in that country.
There is no logic to ARJP's position here which is based on mere
emotion - and not on the facts on the ground, provable by available
documents too!
Dr. Valentine Ojo
Tall Timbers, MD

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On Fri 04/10/09 3:30 AM , "Ibukunolu Alao Babajide"

Dumb ARJP,
The Yorubas are an exception. Slavery did not and could not kill
their culture.
IBK

Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone provided by Celtel Tanzania
------------ --------- ----
From: Africare- NewPublications
Date: Fri, 10 Apr 2009 00:19:22 -0700 (PDT)
To:
Subject: [Voice-Of-Uganda] Re: [Africare-newpublic ations] Dr.
Asagwara ON: Prof. Aluko LAUGHING AT IGBO COUNCIL of CHIEFS ??
The Yorubas in Brazil are most definitely in their original home. It
cannot be that they were merely transplanted - in the enslavement -
considering that in that same Brazil, there are still indigenous
populations that haven't been discovered. Maybe the question should
be, out of the 70+ million Blacks in Brazil, how many are Yorubas? If
slaves in other regions of the Americans failed to stick together and
therefore maintain their cultures, it is impossible that the Yorubas
of Brazil should come off successful, afterall slave owners really did
not trust slaves forming any kind of unity amongst themselves.
Yorubas in Brazil couldn't have been the exception.
ARJP
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--- On Fri, 4/10/09, Dr. Valentine Ojo wrote:
Date: Friday, April 10, 2009, 12:05 AM
"If there are Yoruba Obas, Otunbas and Chiefs in Brazil , why would
that of the Igbo in America cause you to “belly-laugh”, whatever
that means? "
Lord have mercy!
KC prince Asagwara, are you really this IGNORANT, or simply so
blinded by your IGBONESS?
The " Yoruba Obas, Otunbas and Chiefs in Brazil" are DIRECT
DESCENDANTS of African slaves - an overwhelming majority possibly
Yoruba that settled in Bahia, Brazil, a 90% black state in Brazil, and
one of the largest.
They not Yoruba people who recently migrated to Brazila and then
started awarding themselves basically worthless titles.
These Descendants of African slaves have retained a lot of their
Yoruba practices, including even frying "akara" beans on the roadside
like the Yoruba do in Nigeria and Togo, or the "Ibeji cult", the God
of Iron, Ogun, the Yoruba God of Thunder, Sango.
A distinct religion called 'Candomble', a syncretism between
orthodox Christianity and traditional Yoruba modes of worships and
Yoruba deities (Oya, Yemonja, Sango, Ogun, Esu, etc.) evolved from
this admixture.
A sim,ilar thing also happened in Cuba, though to some extent
surpressed by Castro's socialist revolution that attempted to
suppress all religious excesses..
Some these former slaves even returned to Nigeria, and helped impact
Lagos with their Brazilian lifestyles - the DaCosta, the Johnsons, the
Da Silvas, etc., of Lagos all stem from this time.
On then contrary, your "that of the Igbo in America" is a recently
introduced mal-practice (another variant of the 419 scam) among a
bunch of pompous and self-opinionated Igbo people that have NOTHING
going for them, but who would like to make themselves sound like
something.
Mere empty barrels, making a lot of cacophonous and discordant
noises to even descent Igbo people.
If you are unable to see the DIFFERENCE, then KC Prince Asagwara,
you have very SERIOUS ISSUES!
Lord have mercy!
So much IGNORANCE!
Dr. Valentine Ojo
Tall Timbers, MD