Yoruba
Yoruba beliefs center on orishas and Ifá divination in West African and diaspora traditions. Scholarly guides to deities, cosmology, and spiritual practice.
Children of Blood and Bone Film Adaptation: The Yoruba Craft Behind Orïsha
The first studio-released look behind the scenes on Children of Blood and Bone spends a surprising amount of its short running time on fabric.
Eshu: The Yoruba Orisha of the Crossroads, Explained
The first time I went looking for Eshu, I did it the lazy way — typed the name into a search box after hearing it in a song, the way most people arrive.
Who Is Oshun? The Yoruba Orisha of Rivers and Sweetness
The most famous thing about Oshun is the least useful thing about her. Say the name in a room and someone will hand you the short version: goddess of love, goddess of beauty, the one with the mirror…
Shango: The Yoruba Orisha of Thunder, Justice, and Kingship
A boy on a school register in Ibadan is called Ṣàngóbùnmi — "Ṣàngó gave me this one." A record crate somewhere holds a Santana album from 1982 with the name across the sleeve.
Electronic Music Production and the Orisha: Three Ways a Sacred Sound Ends Up in a Track
You have met the word already, probably without being told what it was. Orisha, or Orixá, or Òrìs̀à with the tone marks left in, sitting in an artist name, a track title, a label's catalogue.
Àbíkú and Ọgbanje: Reading African Folklore in Contemporary Storytelling
The advice always arrives at the same moment. You have just finished The Famished Road, or Freshwater, or the chapter of Things Fall Apart where a stone comes out of the ground, and someone tells you…