Indigenous Culture, a Bridge to the Soul of Christianity
A QUESTION was once asked this writer and others at a social function; words to the effect; Indigenous cultures are mostly incompatible with religion. How does one extricate oneself from the Yoruba culture to embrace Christianity?
This question kindled a deep reflection and thus elicited the following write-up on culture and recognition of God Almighty.
To piggy-back on my last essay; Men Prostrate, Women Kneel, Culture Does Instruct!, the Yorubas have their motherland in the Western part of Nigeria, part of the Republic Benin and Togo. Here they live with a unique culture which never ceases to amaze all.
Here in New York City, we in diaspora, from different cultures found ourselves submerged in the cultures of others, their religious beliefs, and the dominant religions of the land. Does one need to extricate oneself from one’s cultural belief to embrace any of the dominant religions here? Are the various cultures in their pure essence discordant with the pure doctrines of these religions?
No doubt the high point of the pure teaching of Jesus Christ is the recognition of the Almighty God and His Natural Laws. Does one really have to extricate oneself from one’s indigenous culture to come to this highest of all recognition?
Culture! Any culture that swings in the Will of the Almighty Father cannot but lead to the recognition of He, Who is the Creator of All.
Speaking from an intimate experience of the Yoruba culture. It is a particularly deep and fulfilling culture when one understands it in the light of its essence. Consideration and respect for others run deep in the Yoruba culture. Every action, the Yorubas are convinced, has its consequence; good begets goods, evil begets evil. No doubt these are pillars of Christian doctrines.
Prominently radiating in the pure culture of the Yorubas is the fear of the One they called, Olodumare, Olorun, Eleda, Aseda Aiye, Aseda Orun; meaning, the One Supreme God, the Lord of heaven, the Creator, the One Who Created Heaven and Earth, respectively. This has been unshakably interwoven into the cultural belief before the coming of the missionaries. The kings are seen as second to none but Olodumare by all and sundry. That notwithstanding, they themselves rule with the fear and veneration of Olodumare on their forethought.
Thus, in their cultural development, the Yorubas were indeed close to that high recognition of God brought, broadened and deepened by the pure Teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Developing within their unique culture, the Yoruba have come to recognize the existence of the lords of the nature beings and the lower nature beings which indeed is a fundamental step towards understanding creation and the Creator. They have experienced the activities of Sango who was able to tap into the radiation of one of the lords of the nature beings and vividly brought these radiations into manifestation. They called him the god of thunder. They stand in awe experiencing the activities of Ogun who was also able to tap into the radiation of another lord of the nature beings. They called him the god of iron.
Some, especially in the riverine areas were familiar with a female being whose activities lies in the maintenance of rivers, sea and water in general. They called her Osun.
Obatala was real to them as they experienced him accurately foretelling the future, vividly describing the past and revealing hitherto unknown facts and attributes of creation and life, through an uncanny wisdom embodied in Ifa.
Naturally, everyone in a community cannot be at the same level of spiritual development. So it is with the Yorubas. Some saw these lords of the nature beings as lower gods and thus, as objects to worship while many saw them as intermediaries between themselves and Olodumare, so they call and worship Him through them.
The existence of the lower nature beings; gnomes, water sprites, salamanders, etc. was a foregone conclusion for the Yorubas; for some among them can vividly see these beings and indeed, communicate with them through uniquely selected and arranged spoken words, commonly called incantations.
The unpardonable mistakes made by the missionaries upon arriving in Yoruba-land was their outright condemnation of the knowledge of the lords of the elementals and the nature beings, dismissing them as fake, fictitious, etc., even classifying some as thoughts and ideas evoked by the darkness, thus evil.
How can one condemn what one has never experienced nor taken time to examine? This remains an error on the part of the early missionaries. Had the early missionaries taken the time to examine and experience the Yoruba’s cultural beliefs in those days, they would have come to a realization that the ones, called the lower gods and the nature beings are in reality working in the Service of the Most High, the Almighty Father of All.
In the Infinite Wisdom of the Almighty, man has to be gradually lead from the recognition of that which is closest to him to that which lies far away from him in Creation and beyond It. No one is capable of higher recognition without this stepwise guidance and development except the One who came consciously from On High.
The missionaries should have confirmed the existence of the nature beings and their lords and used this as a bridge towards the pure Teaching of Christ and thus strengthened the recognition of the One Supreme God, already maturing among the Yorubas.
The outright condemnation stands as a barrier to the acceptance of Christianity for some in Yoruba-land till today. More so when the existence of these beings and the experiences with regards to them were so real to the Yorubas, It has become a conviction for many. Even then, the culture has loosened the soil for a wide acceptance of Christianity in Yoruba-land; for with those who are well grounded in the Yoruba culture, who embraced it for its lofty essence, they could not but sense the Truth in the pure Teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ and readily embrace It when brought to them.
Thus, notwithstanding the errors committed by the early missionaries, many Yorubas have come to a firm recognition of the Almighty. They stand firmly rooted in the culture, rooted in the knowledge of the existence of the lords of the nature beings and the nature beings, but have seen beyond them to the Almighty God Who remains their Lord.
It’s wrong to say that the culture of a group of people is a barrier to their recognition of God Almighty; for all pure teachings which most often precipitate cultural orientation was willed by the Almighty and passed on through His most faithful servants, the true teachers and ideal leaders. If these pure teachings had not been distorted and twisted by man to suit himself, they would have been faithful forerunners to an unhindered recognition of the Almighty, as brought by Jesus Christ.
©Leo
