Water in Yorùbá (Southwest Nigeria) religious belief and practices

Abstract

Among the Yorùbá, one of the three largest ethnic groups primarily based in southwest Nigeria, water holds several meanings which are usually demonstrated in its capacity as a regenerating and degenerating power. To draw upon its affirming quality and elude its caustic powers, the Yorùbá exhibit strong reverence for water and, therefore, give critical attention to it. This reverence manifests through various ritual observances and religious rites that may include the presentation of non-human life or blood or any other acceptable ritual material. In the literature, water is presented ordinarily in its fluid state or as a ‘staple’ consumed to sustain human, animal and plant life as well as satisfy all kinds of human needs. Among the Yorùbá, however, water is approached in a different light and beyond its mere physical state. Drawing on Yorùbá verbal texts such as odù ifá (divinatory poems or texts) and òwe (proverbs), oral interviews and secondary sources, I present a hermeneutic approach to the intrinsic capacity of water within the context of Yorùbá religious belief and practices. I also examine water as a numinous power in Yorùbá culture and myths. I argue that the Yorùbá people’s reverence for water informs the diverse religious and cultural practices that manifest across sites where sacred water bodies are situated and why verbal formulations have been developed to explain water’s ‘extraordinary’ powers.