This mysterious, poetic and often amusing collection of myths illustrates the religion and thought of the West African Yoruba People.

This collection of myths - some of them simple, strong pieces of narrative, others mysterious, poetic and often amusing - illustrate the religion and thought of the West African Yoruba People. Interspersed with drawings by Georgina Beier of Yoruba motifs and collected and translated by authors and artists long-familiar with Yoruba culture, the myths are compiled and introduced here by Ulli Beier, who himself holds two Yoruba chieftaincy titles. Some are creation myths: these explain the division of the original God into the many orisha, or gods, and the development of their various functions. In the folk- or trickster-tales the orisha often assume different personalities whose actions and their consequences reveal the Yoruba wisdom and customs. This book makes the myths of an orally transmitted religion available as literature to Nigerian school children, who are often unfamiliar with their traditional mythology. It will also strengthen English interest in original African literature.

NOTE: This book has been illustrated and published by the students of Edgbarrow School in Berkshire, England as a special project to raise funds for their Ghana Sponsorship campaign. DESCRIPTION: The Yoruba people are descendants from a variety of West African communities. They are united by Geography, History, Religion and most importantly their Language. In this volume you will find 31 stories and tales like: AKITI THE HUNTER, SONS OF STICKS, WHY WOMEN HAVE LONG HAIR THE LEOPARD-MAN, THE COOKING POT and many more. You also will find a further nine stories of the adventures of Tortoise and the many mischievous things he gets up to. Many years ago, before the advent of the West African slave trade, the Yoruba people inhabited an area which stretched, along the coast of West Africa, all the way inward and down to Angola in South West Africa. Today this is not the case. The legends and fairy stories in this book belong to the Yoruba. They relate the adventures of men and animals, and try to explain the mysteries of Nature-Why Women have Long Hair, How the Leopard got his Spots, the Three Magicians, the Boa-Constrictor, How the Elephant got his Trunk and more. These stories grew from the imagination of the people. We read these folk-tales for their quaintness and humour, for their sympathy with Nature, and because we find in them the ideas and ideals, not just of one man, but of a race of people. In modern times we have begun paying close attention to folklore - old tales, not invented by one man, but belonging to the whole people; not written down, but told by parents to their children, and so handed on for hundreds of years. The legends express primitive notions of right and wrong. As a rule, the wicked are punished and the good rewarded; and that, we feel, is as it should be. We may weep at the death of rascally Tortoise, but we may also feel that he somehow has deserved his fate!

Divining the Self weaves elements of personal narrative, myth, history, and interpretive analysis into a vibrant tapestry that reflects the textured, embodied, and performative nature of scripture and scripturalizing practices. Velma Love examines the Odu—the Yoruba sacred scriptures—along with the accompanying mythology, philosophy, and ritual technologies engaged by African Americans. Drawing from the personal narratives of African American Ifa practitioners along with additional ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Oyotunji African Village, South Carolina, and New York City, Love’s work explores the ways in which an ancient worldview survives in modern times. Divining the Self also takes up the challenge of determining what it means for the scholar of religion to study scripture as both text and performance. This work provides an excellent case study of the sociocultural phenomenon of scripturalizing practices.

This short book is a translation of some of the myths of the Yoruba people of Nigeria. It is a history of the creation of the world, the gods, and humanity, and the early days of the sacred city of Ífè, the traditional center of Yoruba culture. The text was recited to the author/translator by the high priests of Ífè, and the book is still cited in some books on traditional Yoruba religion and thought today. It has undeservedly become quite rare, as it can be considered a minor classic in the field.

When the daughter of the river goddess Yemoya goes to the Land of Shining Day to marry a handsome earth chief, her longing for the cool darkness of her former home causes Night to be brought to the world.

"Myths, legends and heroic tales of the Yoruba people of West Africa"--Cover subtitle.