The Post-Colonial Resurgence of Traditional Yoruba Practices

Please join us on Thursday 27^th October, 16:30pm (BST) for an online research seminar about:

'The Post-Colonial Resurgence of Yoruba Traditional Religious Practices and Herbal Medicine'

The seminar is jointly hosted by the Leeds University Centre for African Studies and the Leeds Centre for Religion and Public Life.

Please join the seminar via Zoom.

In this seminar, Professor Olukoya Ogen (Osun State University, Nigeria) will share the findings of research he conducted under the LUCAS/LAHRI fellowship scheme. He will be joined by two co-investigators, Olayinka Akintayo, and Adeyemi Balogun from Osun State University, who worked with him on the project.

Abstract

This study situates the resilience of Yoruba religious system within its social, historical and global contexts. It contends that contrary to the widespread belief that Yoruba indigenous religions are in danger of extinction because of the influence of Christianity and Islam, there appears to be a global resurgence of Yoruba traditional religious practices.

Sponsored under the auspices of the University of Leeds’ LUCAS-LAHRI Visiting Research Fellowship Scheme, the research relies on the analysis of its online survey of 370 participants drawn from Yorubaland and the Yoruba Diaspora, ethnographic qualitative interviews of carefully selected respondents, review of related literature, pictorial and video evidences as well as personal observations to arrive at its findings.

The findings from the research suggest that Yoruba traditional religious practices are not only resilient but have also been attracting re-converts from Islam and Christianity and that social contact between monotheists and traditionalists across Yorubaland and beyond is very close. The study submits that Yoruba traditional religious practices and its closely associated indigenous herbal knowledge system are gradually being globalised.