African Traditional Religion : Esu/Elegbara

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
 
''Aiyejina also blamed Africans for allowing Crowther and others get away with the manipulation. "If Africans had been less trusting and more cynical and suspicious, they would have wondered why the same translators of the Bible who saw nothing wrong with equating Satan with Esu did not find a near-equivalent Yoruba deity for Jesus Christ, instead of Yorubanising his name into Jesu Kristi.

If Satan translates into Esu because of some perceived incidental similarities between the two, how come Jesus does not translate into Orunmila, given the fact that Orunmila is as proverbial, wise, calm, peaceful and forbearing as Jesus?" he asked.''
http://234next.com/csp/cms/sites/Next/ArtsandCulture/5438798-147/story.csp

''


:court:

Critical thinkers turn me:em2200:
 
there are not 8 messengers of esu. there is esu odara the divine messenger and the father of all the other esus. each odu has an esu and each orisa of course also. so 256 esus. 8 ire and ibis? what the? i dont know why people dont study odu and learn the real deal and stop inventing stuff. Ire is good fortune, ibi is bad fortune. if a person comes for dafa - divination - there are two possibilities: they understand the message and are open to carrying it out, or they are not understanding or in resistance to doing what needs to be done. thats it. i think what you are getting to is that we consider certain things to be manifestations of good fortune. good health, long life, money, children. you can see that one leads to another. Ifa says when we are practicing good character, and in alignment with our destiny, we will recieve good fortune. bad fortune is death, illness, loss, etc.

this is not "ibo" orientation. Ibo is a different thing all together.
 
question about ibo orientation

can someone please tell me what the 8 messengers of Esu are? in english and yoruba? and are there also 8 ires to inquire of or only 8 ibis...
thanks in advance

Peace fam.

It is spelled Igbo, and indeed it is another thing entirely. Igbo's practice different things based on what region they live in, ancestral lineage and so forth. The religion or faith of Igbo's has been termed Odinani (various spellings).

Also, does anybody know where Brother Awo Dino might have migrated to since he was banned?

One,

- Ikoro
 

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