List of Yoruba deities

The Yoruba are most likely the most well-known West African ethnic group in the world due to their vast population in West Africa and broad dispersion through enslavement in the Americas.^[1]

The Republic of Benin and Nigeria contain the highest concentrations of Yoruba people and Yoruba faiths in all of Africa. Brazil, Cuba, Haiti, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago are the countries in the Americas where Yoruba cultural influences are the most noticeable, particularly in popular religions like Vodon, Santéria, Camdomblé, and Macumba. (In 1989, it was believed that more than 70 million individuals in Africa and the New World participated in Yoruba religion in one way or another.)^[2] The most prevalent West African religions, both in Africa and the Americas, are likely those of the Yoruba people or those that were influenced by them. These West African faiths may also have the most intricate theologies. For instance, the Yoruba are thought to have a pantheon of up to 6,000 deities.^[3]

The following is a list of Yoruba orisha (òrìṣà), or deities.

List of orisha

Supreme being

The supreme being in Yorùbá culture is known as Olódùmarè/Elédùmarè, Elédùà as well as other names.

Metaphysical personifications or spirits

• Orunmila - spirit of wisdom, divination, destiny, and foresight
• Ori - personification of one's spiritual intuition and destiny

Àwọn òrìṣà ọkùnrin (male orishas)

• Aganjú - orisha that was a warrior king, walked with a sword as a staff, and is associated with fire. He is not associated with volcanoes in Yorùbáland in West Africa, contrary to what is believed in Cuban-style practice of orisa.
• Agemo - the chameleon servant of the supreme god Olorun.
• Ọbalúayé - orisha of the Earth and strongly associated with infectious disease and healing
• Erinlẹ̀ - an elephant hunter and physician to the gods
• Èṣù - Èṣù is the orisha of crossroads, duality, beginnings and balance
• Ibeji - twin orisha of vitality and youth
• Lógunẹ̀dẹ - a warrior and hunter
• Ọbàtálá - creator of human bodies; orisha of light, spiritual purity, and moral uprightness
• Odùduwà - progenitor orisha of the Yorubas
• Ògún - orisha who presides over iron, fire, hunting, agriculture and war
• Okó - a hunter and farmer
• Osanyin - orisha of the forest, herbs and medicine
• Oṣùmàrè - divine rainbow serpent associated with creation and procreation
• Ọ̀ṣọ́ọ̀sì - orisha of the hunt, forest, strategy and of the knowledge
• Ṣàngó - orisha of the thunders and lightnings^[4]
• Akògún - a warrior and hunter, wear straw^[5]

Àwọn òrìṣà Obinrin (Female Orishas)

• Ajé - orisha of wealth
• Yewa - orisha of the Yewa River.
• Nàná Bùkùú - orisha of the river and of the earth
• Ọbà - first wife of Ṣàngó and orisha of domesticity and marriage
• Ọtìn - orisha of the river Otín, she is hunter and wife of Erinlẹ̀
• Olókun - orisha of the ocean
• Ọ̀ṣun - orisha who presides over love, intimacy, beauty, wealth, diplomacy and of the Ọ̀ṣun river
• Ọya - orisha of the Niger River; associated with wind, lightning, fertility, fire, and magic. Oya is thought to be the offspring of the prehistoric god Obatala and his wife Yemoja. Oya is linked to acts of creation and fertility, perhaps in acknowledgment of the vital role that water plays in the survival of plants, animals, and people. In addition to taking the essential herbs indicated by the Babalawo, women who seek to become pregnant could also be instructed to offer food and beverages as sacrifices to Oya on a riverbank.^[6]
• Yemọja - a mother goddess; patron deity of women and of the Ogun river
• Yemowo - wife of Ọbàtálá and of the water. Said to be the original form of most female orishas i.e. Yemoja, Oshun, Yewa, etc.

Difference between Yoruba òrìṣà worship and what is practiced among Afro-Hispanics

As in Yorubaland, Orisha worship in the diaspora is highly varied depending on tradition and spiritual lineage. In Cuba the different versions of the orishas are called "caminos", which means "paths". These paths represent regional variations from different cities in Yorubaland prior to diaspora and slavery, but from a theological perspective also represent individual people who had great aché with the Orisha and were deified after death.

The primary five that practitioners are first initiated in are Eleguá, Obatalá, Changó (Sangó), Ochún (Ọ̀ṣun), and Yemayá (Yemọja), but other individual or groups of Orisha may also be given. ^[7]

Many Orisha have highly regional variations in popularity. Oyá Yansa enjoys particular popularity in Brazil, while Babalú-Ayé (well known abroad from a song named after him by Desi Arnaz in his role as "Ricky Ricardo") is most commonly venerated in the Oriente region of Cuba.

Cuban African worship, sometimes referred to as Santería, is still widely practiced in Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Panama, Venezuela, Colombia, Tobago/Trinidad and Brazil, a number of practitioners are Yoruba descendants to certain degrees. Remnants of the Yoruba language is still used ceremoniously as a ritual language, and is referred to as Lukumí. Due to 200 years of separation from the motherland, Lukumí became a lexicon of words and is not a spoken language. Similar worship of African deities can also be found among the Afro-Franco populations of Haiti and the US state of Louisiana.

References

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