Hostname: page-component-68945f75b7-6cjkg Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-09-04T02:10:40.564Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The pastor and the babalawo: the interaction of religions in nineteenth-century Yorubaland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 December 2011

J. D. Y. Peel
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The system of divination called Ifa is among the most elaborate of African systems of divination and occupies a unique position in what is often called ‘Yoruba traditional religion’. That it is inappropriate simply to regard it as part of Yoruba traditional religion indicates the nature of our problem. For its saliency in Yoruba religion, as that has been conceived by commentators both Yoruba and non-Yoruba since the early nineteenth century, has precisely been because of its capacity to ‘ride’ social change, to detach itself from much of what Muslims and Christians call paganism, and to impose itself on the respectful attention of the modern educated.

Résumé

Le pasteur et le Babalawo: rencontres religieuses dans le XIXe siècle du pays Yoruba

La littérature sur la religion traditionnelle Yoruba, quoique marquée par un parti pris chrétien, accorde une place centrale au culte oraculaire d'Ifa. Cet article explore le contexte religieux dans leque ce phénomène se développa.

Ifa émergeait déjà comme culte hégémonique dans la religion Yoruba lorsque les missionnaires rencontrèrent cette religion au cours des années 1800. Des dialogues d'une teneur importante eurent lieu entre eux et les Babalawo (prêtres d'Ifa). Les stratégies intellectuelles opposées des deux religions et le processus qui aboutit à la conversion au Christianisme de trois Babalawo sont examinés en détail. Vers 1880, les pasteurs africains en particulier considéraient la conversion comme un idéal pour les indigènes et Ifa comme un précurseur du Christ. De tels développements ne peuvent pas s'expliquer en terme d'une simple correspondance entre des formes sociales et religieuses. Mais plutôt, du fait de son degré d'autonomie important, la religion Yoruba intervient concrètement comme médiateur du processus de changement culturel.

Type
The reciprocity of religious change
Information
Africa , Volume 60 , Issue 3 , July 1990 , pp. 338 - 369
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 1990

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Abimbola, W. 1973. ‘The literature of the Ifa cult’, in Biobaku, S. O. (ed.), Sources of Yoruba History, pp. 41–62. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Abimbola, W. 1976. Ifa: an expontion of Ifa literary corpus. Ibadan: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Adegbola, E. A. A. 1976. ‘Ifa and Christianity among the Yoruba: a study in symbiosis and the development of Yoruba Christology 1890–1940’, unpublished PhD thesis, Department of Theology, University of Bristol.Google Scholar
Ariès, P. 1981 (1977). The Hour of our Death. Harmondsworth: Penguin.Google Scholar
Augé, M. 1982. Génie du paganisme. Paris: Gallimard.Google Scholar
Awolalu, J. O. 1979. Yoruba Beliefs and Sacrificial Rites. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Ayandele, E. A. 1966. The Missionary Impact on Modem Nigeria. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Barber, K. 1981. ‘How Man makes God in West Africa’, Africa 51 (3), 724–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barber, K. Forthcoming. I Could Speak Until Tomorrow: oríkì, women and the past in a Yoruba town. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press for the International African Institute.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bascom, W. R. 1969. Ifa Divination. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Bascom, W. R. 1980. Sixteen Cowries. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Beidelman, T. O. 1982. Colonial Evangelism. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Bloch, M. 1986. From Blessing to Violence. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crowther, S. A. 1843. Vocabulary of the Yoruba Language. London: Church Missionary Society.Google Scholar
Devisch, R. 1985. ‘Perspectives on divination in sub-Saharan Africa’, in Binsbergen, W. Van and Schoffeleers, J. M. (eds.), Theoretical Explorations in African Religion, pp. 56–83. London: Kegan Paul International.Google Scholar
Dodds, E. R. 1965. Christian and Pagan in an Age of Anxiety. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dosumu, G. 1949. Yoruba Religion. Ibadan: Dosumu.Google Scholar
Epega, D. O. N.d. (c.1932). Ifa amona Baba wa, Jesu Kristi amona wa. Ode Remo: Imole Oluwa Institute.Google Scholar
Farias, P. F. de M. 1988. ‘Yoruba Origins Revisited by Muslims’, paper presented to the Conference on Cultural Nationalism in West Africa, 18–19 June 1988, Centre of West African Studies, University of Birmingham.Google Scholar
Fisher, H. J. 1973. ‘Conversion reconsidered: some historical aspects of religious conversion in Black Africa’, Africa 43 (1), 27–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fisher, H. J. 1985. ‘The juggernaut's apologia’, Africa 55 (2), 153–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gbadamosi, G. 1977. ‘Odu Imale: the case of the predestinated Muslims’, Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria 8 (4), 77–93.Google Scholar
Gluckman, M. 1947. ‘Malinowski's “functional” analysis of social change’, Africa 17 (2), 102–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Griaule, M. 1965. Conversations with Ogotemmeli. London: Oxford University Press for the International African Institute.Google Scholar
Horton, R. 1971. ‘African conversion’, Africa 41 (2), 85–108.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Horton, R. 1975. ‘On the rationality of conversion’, Africa 45 (3–4), 219–35, 373–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Horton, R. 1979. ‘Ancient Ife: a reassessment’, Journal of Historical Society of Nigeria 9 (4), 69–149.Google Scholar
Horton, R. and Peel, J. D. Y. 1976. ‘Conversion and confusion: a rejoinder on Christianity in Eastern Nigeria’, Canadian Journal of African Studies 10 (3), 481–98.Google Scholar
Idowu, E. G. 1962. Olodumare: God in Yoruba belief. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Ifeka-Moller, C. 1974. ‘White power: social-structural factors in conversion to Christianity in Eastern Nigeria’, Canadian Journal of African Studies 8 (1), 55–72.Google Scholar
Iliffe, J. 1984. ‘Persecution and toleration … in nineteenth century Yorubaland’, Studies in Church History 21, 357–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnson, James. 1899. Yoruba Heathenism. Exeter: Townsend.Google Scholar
Johnson, Samuel. 1921. The History of the Yorubas. Lagos: CMS.Google Scholar
Jones, A. 1983. German Sources for West African History. Wiesbaden: Steiner.Google Scholar
Journal of Cultures and Ideas. 1983. Ife: Alada Study Circle, University of Ife.Google Scholar
La Pin, D. 1977. ‘Story, Medium and Masque: the idea and art of Yoruba story telling’, unpublished PhD thesis, University of Wisconsin, Madison.Google Scholar
Law, R. C. C. 1984. ‘How truly traditional is our traditional history?’ History in Africa 11, 195–221.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lijadu, E. M. 1897. Ifa: Imole re ti se isin ni Ile Yoruba. London: Religious Tract Society.Google Scholar
Lijadu, E. M. 1908. Orunmla (reprinted 1972), Ado Ekiti: Omolayo Standard Press.Google Scholar
MacGaffey, W. 1970. ‘Religious commissions of the BaKongo’, Man 5 (1), 27–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MacGaffey, W. 1983. Modern Kongo Prophets. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
MacGaffey, W. 1985. Religion and Society in Central Africa: the Bakango of Lower Zaire. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
MacGaffey, W. 1986. ‘Ethnography and the closing of the frontier in Lower Congo, 1885–1921’, Africa 56 (3), 263–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mann, M. 1986. The Sources of Social Power, vol. I. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martin, D. 1967. A Sociology of English Religion. London: SCM Press.Google Scholar
Maupoil, B. 1943. La géomancie à l'ancienne Côte des Esclaves. Paris: Institut d'Ethnologie.Google Scholar
Montejo, E. 1970. Autobiography of a Runaway Slave. Harmondsworth: Penguin.Google Scholar
Morton-Williams, P. 1960. ‘Yoruba responses to the fear of death’, Africa 30 (1), 34–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nadel, S. F. 1954. Nupe Religion. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Ogunsola, A. M. O. 1986. ‘Religious Change and the Reconstruction of Idoani, a Yoruba Community’, unpublished PhD thesis, Department of Sociology, University of Liverpool.Google Scholar
Oke, S. A. 1923. The Ethiopian National Church: a necessity. Lagos.Google Scholar
Omoyajowo, J. A. 1982. Cherubim and Seraphim. New York and Lagos: Nok Publishers.Google Scholar
Parrinder, E. G. S. 1963. ‘An African saviour god’, in The Saviour God: essays presented to E. O. James. London.Google Scholar
Peel, J. D. Y. 1968a. Atadura. London: Oxford University Press for die International African Institute.Google Scholar
Peel, J. D. Y. 1968b. ‘Syncretism and religious change’, Comparative Studies in Society and History 10 (2), 121–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peel, J. D. Y. 1977. ‘Conversion and tradition in two African societies’, Past and Present 77, 108–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peel, J. D. Y. 1983. Ijeshas and Nigerians. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Peel, J. D. Y. 1984. ‘Making history: the past in the Ijesha present’, Man 19 (2), 111–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peel, J. D. Y. Forthcoming. ‘Between Crowther and Ajayi: the religious origins of the modern Yoruba intelligentsia’, in Falola, Toyin (ed.), Essays in Honour of J. F. Ade Ajayi. Lagos and London: Longman.Google Scholar
Ryan, P. J. N.d.Imale: Yoruba participation in the Muslim tradition. Missoula: Scholars Press.Google Scholar
Shaw, R. 1985. ‘Gender and the structuring of reality in Temne divination’, Africa 55 (3), 286–303.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Southon, A. E. N.d. (c. 1939) Ilesha—and Beyond! London: Cargate Press.Google Scholar
Sowande, F. N.d. (c. 1962). Ifa. Yaba: Forward Press.Google Scholar
Turner, V. W. 1967. The Forest of Symbols. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Weber, M. 1968. Economy and Society, Vol. 1. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Werbner, R. P. 1977. ‘Continuity and policy in Southern Africa's High God Cult’, in Werbner, R. P. (ed.), Regional Cults. London: Academic Press.Google Scholar