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PHENOMENA To Think About

Olorun, having made man and woman, according to the myth, left Obatala to mould their faces. The face, mouth, nose, eyes, ears, and skull. Another myth places “Obatala as the sole creator of the first man and woman whom he formed of clay.” And yet another myth ascribes to him the work of forming the child in utero, and therefore all physical defects are regarded as his mistakes or as sure signs of his desire to punish some guilty persons. Persons having physical defects (e.g. Albinos) are dedicated to him. Another function generally attributed to him in the myths is that of Protector of the town gates. He is, therefore, frequently represented by a horseman with a spear, attended by serpent, fish, tortoise and leopard.

Obatala worshippers must wear white clothes and eat white food using shea butter instead of the usual red palm oil in their cooking. They must forego red meat and must use white bitter kola instead of red ones. In Nigeria large snails are a culinary delicacy. Edible snails are offered to Obatala as his special food. Prayers for the gift of children are made to him. He is also worshipped outside Yorubaland by the Ewes of Porto-Novo. Moreover, the Obatala cult is very big in Brazil., in Bahia, Rio de Janeiro, and throughout Brazil. In Religion of the Yorubas the writer Reverend J. Lucas one of Nigeria’s most esteemed historians, concludes that Obatala meant literally King of the (White) Nile or “Nile God.” He associated Obatala with the Egyptian god Khnum, for reasons which



will become clear in another essay.The one aspect of Yoruba religion which is extremely interesting is that its myths are closely similar to some of the myths of ancient Egypt. This naturally and easily places the Yoruba in Egypt at some stage of their development, or rather clearly accounts for some history of migration south of the Sahara.. This is a subject whose research findings are highly enlightening. It is also of great importance because of the school of particularly American thought which openly accuses (mainly Black) scholars of fraud whenever Egypt is mentioned in connection with Africa south of the Sahara. However, the evidence of Africa’s presence in ancient Egypt cannot possibly be denied. Not when there are surviving photographs of ancient Pharoahs with African faces, and the brown skin tones of Black Africans feature prominently in ancient Egyptian funerary art.

This essay is not however about Africa’s links to Egypt. But inevitably, the links will surface as the lore of Orisha and religion is explained. In Yoruba modern literature there is a fascination with the Greek myth of Orpheus, which in turn is linked to the ancient myth of the Egyptian god Osiris. This is because the characters in these ancient lores become almost interchangeable or are at the least so closely similar to each other. The myth of Osiris and his wife Isis links up to so many of the gods in the Yoruba pantheon, even to those of Obatala and Oduduwa, the primary pair.