I am more comfortable with Orisa worship – Wole Soyinka
By Steve Ovirih.
Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka has maintained his avowal for traditional worship which he specifically described as the worship of Orisa, describing it as a more unique worship compared to both Christianity and Islam.
The literary guru gave this revelation in an interview on CNN which was monitored from thepolity studio.
Soyinka, an Egba, Abeokuta born playwright and novelist said at his formative stage, he was exposed both to Christianity and Orisa worship which gave him informed knowledge about both medium of worship, adding that he eventually chose Orisa worship beacuse of its uniqueness and its unpretentious connect to both the mystic and mystery of the universe, noting that worship of Orisa portends more originality than Christianity and Islam.
He said his grandfather was an Orisa worshipper, quipping that though he too later got converted. The Professor of Literature, whose works and its reputation precede him world wide noted that there is a sense of uniqueness and originality in the traditional African worship of the god(s) through the medium of Orisa and such uniqueness is alien to both Islam and Christianity, stressing that he understands Christianity so well to be categorical enough to say with conviction that Orisa worship is far better.
He said everyone has their unique aura and this aura is encouraged in the worship of Orisa as it helps each one to journey through self discovery while in the other religions they preach the surrender of individual spiritual inclination to one deity, maintaining that his standpoint makes those of the other religions consider him as an atheist and he is okay with such profiling as long as his belief in the authority of Orisa holds supreme.
It will be recalled that purveyors of African Traditional beliefs have argued that the foreign religions came to Africa to undermine the potency of the gods and discredit the competence of African history by distorting what had existed and re writing African history for Africans. The demands of Pan Africanism have been a Renaissance of the pure African ideals that connect with the essence of the true African identity and a disconnect from the adulteration of African worship of the gods of their forefathers.
Prof.Wole Soyinka noted that African gods are far away from the pro theistic imposition on the consciousness of the children of Africa who are quick to abandon their culture and custom for the sake of civilization that is anti African religious orientation.
