- Feb 28, 2009
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The demonisation of Esu
By Akintayo Abodunrin
People who bind and denounce Esu- often called Satan or the Devil-in their prayer left the hall with a simple message: They have been barking up the wrong tree.
In a public lecture titled ‘Esu Elegbara: A Source of an Alter/Native Theory of African Literature', he delivered on Thursday, July 23 at the National Theatre, Lagos, Funso Aiyejina, a professor of Literatures at the Department of Liberal Arts, The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago, made some interesting disclosures about the identity and functions of Esu (pronounced ‘Eshu'), one of the gods in Yoruba cosmology.....
....On Esu's place in Yoruba philosophy, Aiyejina said: "Esu emerges as a divine trickster, a disguise-artist, a mischief-maker, a rebel, a challenger of orthodoxy, a shape-shifter, and an enforcer deity.
Esu is the keeper of the divine ase with which Olodumare created the universe; a neutral force who controls both the benevolent and the malevolent supernatural powers; he is the guardian of Orunmila's oracular utterances.
Without Esu to open the portals to the past and the future, Orunmila, the divination deity would be blind. As a neutral force, he straddles all realms and acts as an essential factor in any attempt to resolve the conflicts between contrasting but coterminous forces in the world.
"Although he is sometimes portrayed as whimsical, Esu is actually devoid of all emotions. He supports only those who perform prescribed sacrifices and acts in conformity with the moral laws of the universe as laid down by Olodumare.
As the deity of the ‘orita'-often defined as the crossroads but really a complex term that also refers to the front yard of a house, or the gateway to the various bodily orifices-it is Esu's duty to take sacrifices to target-deities. Without his intervention, the Yoruba people believe, no sacrifice, no matter how sumptuous, will be efficacious.
Philosophically speaking, Esu is the deity of choice and free will. So, while Ogun may be the deity of war and creativity and Orunmila the deity of wisdom, Esu is the deity of prescience, imagination, and criticism-literary or otherwise".
http://234next.com/csp/cms/sites/Next/ArtsandCulture/5438798-147/story.csp
By Akintayo Abodunrin
People who bind and denounce Esu- often called Satan or the Devil-in their prayer left the hall with a simple message: They have been barking up the wrong tree.
In a public lecture titled ‘Esu Elegbara: A Source of an Alter/Native Theory of African Literature', he delivered on Thursday, July 23 at the National Theatre, Lagos, Funso Aiyejina, a professor of Literatures at the Department of Liberal Arts, The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago, made some interesting disclosures about the identity and functions of Esu (pronounced ‘Eshu'), one of the gods in Yoruba cosmology.....
....On Esu's place in Yoruba philosophy, Aiyejina said: "Esu emerges as a divine trickster, a disguise-artist, a mischief-maker, a rebel, a challenger of orthodoxy, a shape-shifter, and an enforcer deity.
Esu is the keeper of the divine ase with which Olodumare created the universe; a neutral force who controls both the benevolent and the malevolent supernatural powers; he is the guardian of Orunmila's oracular utterances.
Without Esu to open the portals to the past and the future, Orunmila, the divination deity would be blind. As a neutral force, he straddles all realms and acts as an essential factor in any attempt to resolve the conflicts between contrasting but coterminous forces in the world.
"Although he is sometimes portrayed as whimsical, Esu is actually devoid of all emotions. He supports only those who perform prescribed sacrifices and acts in conformity with the moral laws of the universe as laid down by Olodumare.
As the deity of the ‘orita'-often defined as the crossroads but really a complex term that also refers to the front yard of a house, or the gateway to the various bodily orifices-it is Esu's duty to take sacrifices to target-deities. Without his intervention, the Yoruba people believe, no sacrifice, no matter how sumptuous, will be efficacious.
Philosophically speaking, Esu is the deity of choice and free will. So, while Ogun may be the deity of war and creativity and Orunmila the deity of wisdom, Esu is the deity of prescience, imagination, and criticism-literary or otherwise".
http://234next.com/csp/cms/sites/Next/ArtsandCulture/5438798-147/story.csp