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Seeing through a Woman's Eye: Yoruba Religious Tradition and Gender Relations
Author(s): Oyeronke Olajubu
Reviewed work(s):
Source: Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, Vol. 20, No. 1 (Spring, 2004), pp. 41-60
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SEEING THROUGH AWOMAN'S EYE


YorubaReligious Tradition andGender Relations
OyeronkeOlajubu
The study of Yoruba religion has enjoyed a significantboost lately,espe
cially since the discoveryof the strong influenceof this traditionin theAtlantic
world. Also, the issue of gender and the dynamism that attends its existence in
relation to power structures in religionhave been the focus of scholarlyworks
in recent years.'Notable among previousworks onwomen's roles in religion in
Africa are the significantworks ofMercy Amba Oduyoye on the roleof women
in Christianity in Africa.2 In this article I too will examine some aspects of
women's roles in religion, based on my own research among theYorubapeo
ple andwill discusswhat I regardas the state of gender relations inYoruba re
ligious traditions.This attempt is alignedwith one importantcomponent of any
feministenterprise,which is tobring to the fore otherwise subsumed traditions
regarding women's

roles in society.3

In this article Iwill argue contrary toOyer6nke Oyewumf's submission, in


her book The InventionofWomen:Making anAfrican Sense ofWestern Gen
Some of the contents of thisarticleare explained indetail inmy book, reprintedby permission from
Women in the YorubaReligious Sphere by Oyeronke Olajubu, the State University of New York
Press02003 StateUniversity of New York.All rightsreserved.
1For thiswork,
gender refers to defined capacities and attributesassigned topersons on the
basis of theiralleged sexualcharacteristics.Gender, then, isa constructwithin a people's livingexpe
rience, embedded in the base of theirphilosophy andmanifested at the theoreticaland pragmatic
levelsof theirpolity.Because gender isnever independentof other social systems, itwould be futile
to consider ita fixedand immutableconstruct; rather,it isa process.
2 See AminaMama, "Women'sStudies and Studies ofWomen inAfrica
during the 1990s,"
FeministKnowledge:ReviewEssays,GWS Africa,http://www.gwsafrica.orgmowledge/codesriabook.
htm (accessedJanuary29,2004); andNiara Sudarkasa,"TheStatusofWomen in IndigenousAfrican
Societies," inWomen inAfrica and theAfricanDiaspora, ed. RosalynTerborg-Penn,SharonHarley,
andAndrea Benton Rushing (Washington,DC: Howard University Press, 1987). See alsoMercy
AmbaOduyoye,Daughters ofAnowa:AfricanWomen and Patriarchy (Maryknoll,NY:Orbis, 1995).
3 See
Jane Flax, "PostmodernismandGender Relations in Feminist Theory," in Feminist
in
Practice
and Process, ed.Micheline R.Malson, JeanF. O'Barr,SarahWestphal-Wihl, and
Theory
MaryWyer (Chicago:University of Chicago Press, 1989), 71.

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42

Journalof Feminist Studies inReligion

der Discourses, thatgenderwas aWestern paradigm introducedto theYoruba


and that theYoruba previouslyhad no notion of gender.4Her argumentpred
icateson the absence of gender-specific terms in theYoruba language,among
other factors. Iwill argue that gender existed and played a significant role in
Yoruba religious traditionbut inways quite different from its conception in
Western cultures.The difference stems from the fact that, among theYoruba,
gender conceptions are not limited to sexual anatomy and are configured in a
complex and fluidmanner, as is explicated in the oral traditionsIwill consider
in this article.Not only is gender an important social category in traditional
Yoruba society,but it is also flexible.Consequently, amajor contributionof this
articlewill be to explicate the variabilityand complexityof Yorubagender con
structs from four significantareasof Yoruba religious traditions:cosmology, the
goddess tradition, ancestral performance, and divination. In addition, I will
demonstrate the presence of an alternative traditionof female leadershipand
participationpreserved in the oral sourcesof Yoruba religion, a factwhich has
hitherto been subsumedunder male-centered portrayalsof Yoruba religion. I
will supportmy argumentswith examples from the people's religious, social,
and culturalexperiences as recorded in oral sources.
Gender among the Yoruba
Gender is a concept imbuedwith notions of difference-hierarchy, oppo
sition, and, inevitably,power relations.Gender is informedby assumed capa
bilities for individualsbased primarilyon their sexual anatomy.A connection
between sex and gender seems crucial to a people's conception of gender clas
sification.Hence, whereas sex is regarded as natural, gender is regarded as a
cultural construct that isvariable and fluid, not rigid.
Conceptions of gender in Africa are often culture- and context-bound.
Oyewium's work exemplifies the contextualizationof gender among the Yor
uba. Biological anatomy is not a limitation to social status such as that of hus
bands,wives, mothers, or fathers among the Yoruba. In addition, the Yoruba
language,unlikeWestern discourse, provides no pronoun for sexual distinc
tion. The notion of gender among the Yoruba is complex and multidimen
sional;hence, Oyewiumi states that theYorubaworld is not dichotomized into
male and female.5
The existence of gender constructs among the Yorubamay be discerned
from theirmythology,which presents expectations for the female andmale in
the society at both themythical and practical levels.These expectationsare de
Oyeronk Oyewiimf, The InventionofWomen:Making anAfrican SenseofWestern Gender
Discourses (Minneapolis:University ofMinnesota Press, 1997).
5 Ibid.

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Olajubu: Seeing throughaWoman's Eye

43

termined by the people's living experiences. For example, female principles


are generally regarded as symbols of coolness (ero),whereas male principles
are construed as representing toughness (lile). This underlines the people's
conception of female (abo) andmale (ako).Hence, the people say,K'odun yi
y'aboffunwa o, "May this year be female for us" or "Bringus all that the fe
male principle stands for."The converse implicationof this expression is the
avoidance of a "maleyear,"which might be tough and unpleasant.This per
ception is also reflected in the people's socialexpectations formale and female
as recorded inwise sayingsand proverbs.An example of this is the expectation
thatmales will succeed their fathers as heirs and the need to offer an explana
tionwhen this is impracticable.The heir isknown as arole, and the explanation
for exceptions to the rule is recorded in sayings such as, Bi o ni di obirin kije
kumolu, "If there isno special reason,awoman would not be namedKumolu."
InYoruba cultural idiom and practice, Kumolu is a name signifying that the
familyof the female so named has no male heir apparent,because all themale
children have died. Moreover, awoman who performs feats, especially physi
cal ones, isdescribed as obinrin bi okunrin, "awoman likeaman."My point is
thatgender classificationshave always existed among theYoruba but may be
transverselymanipulated, as is the case in social structuresand the ritualspace
in

religion.

However, thisgender constructdoes not translateto notions of oppression


and the domination ofwomen bymen as happens in some cultures, because it
ismediated by the philosophy of complementary gender relations,which is
rooted in the people's cosmic experience.A complementarygender relation is
entrenched at every level of theYoruba socioreligious consciousness, as both
male and female principles are crucial to a smooth livingexperience. Social,
political, and religious structuresreflect thisperception inboth theirmember
ship and theirmodes of operation. Further, neither of the genders can lay
claim to amonopoly of the "private"or "public"domain as theymay be able to
do in other cultures.
Complementarity and duality in Yoruba parlance are notions different
from theWestern conception of these terms. It is therefore pertinent that a
reconceptualizationof paradigms for analyzinggender relationsbe obtained,
because notions of equality and parity could be misleading in theYoruba con
text.As Niara Sudarkasanotes, neutral complementaritydescribesmore accu
rately than subordination the relationshipbetween male and female roles in
various precolonial African societies.6This neutral complementarity is here
taken to refer not to equality or parity but to cooperation and specified areas
of control for the female aswell as themale. The religious setting is an arena
in which the dynamics attending these concepts are displayed extensively.
6

Sudarkasa,

"Status ofWomen."

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Journalof Feminist Studies inReligion

Therefore, among theYoruba, the question to ask about the state of the sexes
is not which sex is dominant but, rather,overwhich areas does each sex enjoy
prominence. Further, the prominence that one sex enjoys in a particulararea
of human activitydoes not make the people in that sexualcategory independ
ent of people in the other.
Previous Work on Yoruba Religion and Gender
Major pioneering works on Yoruba religionwere not concerned about
gender, because gender was not an importanttheoreticaland conceptual par
adigm for examining culture (at least inAfrica) at the time theywere written.7
These works, as a result,were male-centered. Nevertheless, some authorswho
have constructed suchmale-centered interpretationsof Yoruba religion often
emphasize the variabilityof Yoruba traditions and indeed show how certain
deities assumedifferent gender orientations invariousparts of Yoruba religion.
An example is J.LorandMatorywriting on the deity Sango among theYoruba.8
Another intriguingexample is E. Bolaji Idowu,who mentions that the deity
Oduduwa (who is an ancestor aswell as a divinity) in the easternYoruba region
is seen as female but assumes amale persona in thewestern and centralYor
uba regions.9Such a discovery,atminimum, indicates the possibilityof gender
flexibilityinYoruba religious traditions.In some recentworks, especially some
by female scholars, there has been a significant focus on the role of women in
Yoruba traditions. Interestingly,theseworks have also raised questions about
not onlywhat the nature of gender is but indeedwhether gender constitutes
an importantanalyticalcategory inYoruba culture and society.Efforts to fos
ter this conversationmay be discerned from an arrayof recent publications, to
which I now turn.
One recent major work is Diedre Badejo's Osun Seegesi: The Elegant
Deity ofWealth, Power,and Femininity,which focuses on the ritualdrama and
oratoryof the goddess Osun inOshogbo, Nigeria, the center of herworship.'1
Badejo brings into the core of Yoruba religious life the role of the goddess,
whose various capacities as diviner,medicine woman, ruler,aje (awoman of
deep spiritualpower), and entrepreneur dominatedOshogbo city life. Badejo
focuseson the enormous power and resources that traditionalandmodern Yor
uba cosmology and ritualperformance play in locatingOsun squarely in the
7 See E.

Bolaji Idowu,Olodiumare:God inYorubaBelief (London:Longmans, 1962); and


Olumide
Lucas, TheReligion of theYorubas (Lagos,Nigeria:C. M. S. Bookshop, 1948).
Jonathan
RJ.LorandMatory, Sex and theEmpire That IsNo More: Gender and the Politics ofMeta
phor inOyo YorubaReligion (Minneapolis:University ofMinnesota Press, 1994).
9 Idowu,Oloduimare.
10Diedre
Badejo,Osun Seegesi:TheElegant Deity ofWealth, Power, and Femininity (Tren
ton,NJ:AfricaWorld Press, 1996).

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Olajubu: Seeing throughaWoman's Eye

45

center of African feminist theoreticaldiscourse. The legend of Osun and her


power elevate African womanhood as a source of empowerment forwomen
globally. Iwill discuss the legend of Osun inmore detail later in this article.
In The Invention of Women, Oyer6nk6 Oywuimi challenges previous
studies of gender relations inAfrica. She argues for anAfrican-centered epis
temology that privilegesAfrican sensibilities overWestern gender paradigms.
Oygwiimi calls intoquestionWestern feministnotions thatgender isa basic or
ganizing principle and thatwomen are universally subordinate tomen in all
human societies. Based on her field researchamong theOyo Yorubapeople of
Nigeria, Oywiumi argues thatwoman, as an organizing social category,did not
exist in precolonial traditionalYoruba society, because Yoruba society placed
more emphasis on categoriesof seniorityand age.Though she isnot concerned
with religion, her work has implications for the study of Yoruba religion and
gender.Oywiumi rightlyargues that theWestern constructionof gender may
not be applicable toYoruba society,but her thesis that gender was not an or
ganizingprinciple prior to the colonial era inYoruba lands is not correct.
J.D. Y. Peel published the essay "Gender inYorubaReligious Change" in
2002 as a corrective to his recentmajor work, Religious Encounter and the
Making of theYoruba, and as a response toOywiimfs InventionofWomen.'1
Peel argues that the categoryof genderwas indeedpertinent to traditionalYor
uba religious life and, contrary to Oywuimi, that nineteenth-centuryYoruba
conversion toChristianity caused no major shifts inYoruba society.Peel main
tains that traditionalYoruba gender structures significantlyaffected the shape
of YorubaChristian beliefs and practices.His stance assumes thatgender con
structionexisted among theYoruba.
In a criticalcontribution to the debate on gender and the statusofwomen
inYoruba religious life, JacobOlupona'swell-publicized Princeton University
lecture "Imaginingthe Power of theGoddess" argues thatgender is definitely
central to traditionalYoruba religious culture and society.'2However, Yoruba
gendering is complex, ambitious, and very flexible.Based on his analysisof the
oratory and ritualperformance of Ifa-the practice of divination among the
Yoruba-Olupona is convinced that female aesthetics feature prominently in
all domains of Yoruba religious life. Ifa poetics, symbolism, iconography,and
indeed theOdu (the oral texts that constitute the Ifa corpus,which is thewis
dom storehouse of theYoruba and the core of the divination focus) are sym
bolized as female, often as the essentialwives of Ifa.Olupona argues that al
though there are distinctmasculine and feminine deities, their functions and
" See D. Y. Peel's "Gender inYoruba
J.
Religious Change," Journalof Religion inAfrica 32
(2002):136-66; andReligiousEncounter and theMaking ofthe Yoruba (Bloomington:IndianaUni
versityPress, 2000).
12Jacob
Olupona, "Imaginingthe Power of theGoddess: Gender inYorubaReligious Tradi
tionsandModernity" (lecture,PrincetonUniversity,Princeton,NJ, 2002).

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Journalof Feminist Studies inReligion

cultural practices are not always expressed in gender-specific language.


Olupona claims that, having power similar to the goddess Osun, the female
deity Aje, the goddess ofwealth and fertility,dominatedYorubapolitical econ
omy based on her inventionof trade, commerce,money, and the banking sys
tem.Aje, likeOsun, constitutes an imposing figure and rolemodel forYoruba
women, who dominate theYorubamarket economy. Finally,Olupona observes
that in Yoruba societywomen's activities relate to both private and public
spheres, contrary to the dominant scholarship that separates the two spheres,
making the female private and domestic sphere subordinate to themale pub
lic sphere. The market sphere of women's activities is a public sphere par ex
cellence. Clearly, the complexities that characterizeYoruba gender construc
tion play out in a fluid rather than a fixedway.
Yoruba Theoretical Constructions of Gender
Next I will examine four significant areas of Yoruba religious tradition,
highlighting the important roles thatwomen play in their societies and how
these are attended by gender dynamics among the people. Iwill examine some
of the materials, especially oral texts,with which many scholars have con
structed amale-centered analysisof Yoruba religion. I chose these fourareas
cosmology, the goddess tradition,ancestralperformance, and divination-be
cause they are usually construed as the core elements of Yoruba tradition.My
analysis reflectsmy own perspective as awoman and a feminist historian of
Yoruba religious tradition.In addition, in examining these four categories I am
guided by certain conceptual paradigms that are intricately linked to gender
dynamics inAfrican societies, namely,power, identity,and culture.
The notion of power (agbara) as I use it here assumes that power is not
limited to coercive force alone but extends also to the ability to affect and ef
fect change. Power ishere construed as being both visible and invisible,formal
and informal.Power among the Yoruba confers privileges aswell as responsi
bilities. Power is not the exclusive preserve of any sex, age, or profession.
Hence, theYoruba say,Owo omode o to pepe, ti agbalagba o wo keregbe, "A
child'shand cannot reach the high platform, but the hand of the elder cannot
enter the gourd either."This shows the need formutual cooperation in all en
deavors.
Identity construction among theYoruba comprises diverse elements, cen
tral towhich is seniority.This is informedby the constant shifts of a person's
socialposition in the society.Consequently, the social identityof the individual
is relational in the society.Females andmales are perceived as belonging to
different strata,as is explicated inYoruba sayings such as Egbe eye l'eyenwo
to, "Birdsof the same feather flock together."
Culture, in general, refers to the totalityof a people'sway of life and isusu

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47

allymanifested in norms and practices. The Yoruba adage Bi a se nse nibiyi


eewo ibomi, "Ourconduct here is anathema to practices elsewhere," suggests
the dynamic nature of culture aswell as itsvariableness.Culture is thatwhich
bonds a people, and this affects gender construction significantly.
Embedded within the categoryof gender are notions of difference, oppo
sition, and, inevitably,power relations.The assumption that all societies con
struct gender one way or another is often informedby the biological features
of men andwomen, which are not only different but essential to procreation
and, consequently, the preservationof humanity.Sex has been a frameworkfor
gender construction inWestern cultures through somany centuries that on
some occasion it has been asserted that sex and gender are the same;but this
cannot be saidof theYoruba.The Yoruba concept of gender, as in some other
cultures, is not unitary,monolithic, or rigid.13
Further, the perception of sex seems crucial to a people's conception of
gender; for example, a different gender construct is to be expected of societies
inwhich sex isperceived as a culturalconstruct, as opposed to one inwhich sex
is perceived as natural.Nicole-Claude Mathieu argues that threemain posi
tions can be identified toward the relationshipbetween sex and gender.'4The
firstposition regards sex and gender as the same.The secondposition assumes
that sex isnaturaland gender is a culturalconstruct;gender isconstructed and
may be changed or varied, according to thisposition.The thirdposition asserts
thatneither sex nor gender is natural.This position posits that sex and gender
are both culturallyconstructed; it rejects the use of biology as a tool for con
structinggender in anyway. This position is further reinforcedby considera
tions of the different types of genes and chromosomes in the human body,
which do not necessarily follow societalprescriptions of gender.
Some scholarshave opined thatperceiving a separationbetween sex and
gender is futile, given thatwe are first known, seen, and recognized as beings
with biological components;how dowe knowwhether a baby ismale or female
at birth if not through the sex as expressed by biological components of the
body, particularlythe sexualanatomy?Gender neutrality is thusnot an option.
Others postulate that sex and gender are sociallyconstructed each in relation
to the other and that, far from being a given, sex is a category, the product of
specificdiscursivepractices.-5In thisvein, gender constructionamong theYor
ubawould suggest a negotiation thathas been described as a "patriarchalbar
:1See R. R.Warne, "Gender,"inGuide to the Study ofReligion, ed.Willi Braun andRussell T.
McCutcheon (London:Cassell, 2000), 140-54.
14Nicole-Claude Mathieu, "Sexual,Sexed, and Sex-Class Identities:ThreeWays of Concep
tualizingthe Relationship between Sex andGender," in Sex inQuestion: FrenchMaterialist Femi
nism, ed.Diana Leonard andLisaAdkins (London:Taylor& Francis, 1996).
'5SeeMichel Foucault, TheHistory of Sexuality,vol. 1,An Introduction,trans.RobertHurley
(Harmondsworth,UK: Penguin, 1984).

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48

Journalof Feminist Studies inReligion

gain,"a "setof rules and scriptsregulatinggender relations towhom both gen


ders accommodate and acquiesce, yetwhich may nonetheless be contested, re
defined, and renegotiated."'6Thus, gender is complex among theYoruba both
in conception and inpractical terms.
My position is thatgender is culturallyconstructed,whereas sex is biolog
ical. I take thisposition because of the dynamics ingender constructionamong
theYoruba, of which I am one. Specifically, I am awife in some contexts, but
at other times I am a husband to otherwomen. Whereas my position as awife
isbased on my biological anatomy (in relationshipto one male) andmarital af
filiation (my relationship to male and femalemembers of my husband's ex
tended family),my role as a husband is informedbymy natal affiliation (my re
lationshiptowives of male members of my natal family),which is independent
of class or status.
Having examined gender discourses generally, Iwill now underscore the
implicationof this debate for the understandingof gender relations inYoruba
society.A basic implicationof gender constructs inYoruba religion is that they
have a pervasive influence on all sectors of the people's lives.This is under
scoredby the intrinsicreligiosityof theYorubaworldview.
Gender in Yoruba Sacred Oral Literature
The importanceof sacred oral literature to theYorubaworldview ismo
mentous. Historical and socialexperiences are all recorded in sacred literature.
Sacred textscast these experiences intonarratives,which are continuouslyper
formed in rituals.Oral sacred texts therefore constitute the startingpoint of
any investigation into the Yoruba thought system. Cosmological accounts in
these texts serve as a paradigm for social categorization,which makes them
germane to gender construction among theYoruba.Thus, in this section Iwill
begin with a considerationof textson cosmology. Iwill then examine some sa
cred texts on goddess traditionsamong the Yoruba and their implication for
women's roles and gender relations in the society.'7

Cosmology
The Yoruba narrativeof the origin of theworld ispresented inmany ver
sions, but the core of them all is the delegation of divine power and authority
16
Sexand theEmpire, 76.
17Matory, the
largestportion of Yoruba sacred textsexist only inoral form, some have been
Although
written down, beginning around 1975.Wande Abimbola has done substantialwork in this area; see
her "ImagesofWomen in the IfaLiteraryCorpus," inQueens, Queen Mothers, Priestesses, and
Power:Case Studies inAfrican Gender, ed. Flora Edouwaye S.Kaplan (NewYork:New YorkAcad
emy of Sciences, 1997). See other references cited in these notes for further informationonYoruba
culture.

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Olajubu: Seeing throughaWoman's Eye

49

todeities to control and rule theworld. These accountsof the origin of the uni
verse enumerate the composition of nature aswell as humans at the instance
of Olodumare (God,who is androgynous),who delegated some powers to the
Irunmole (primordialdivinities) in the process of making the earth habitable.
Two of these accountsmerit furtherattention.
One of the accounts states thatOlodumare delegated the power to create
the landscapeand the physical figures of humans toOrisanla, themost senior
divinity in the Yoruba pantheon. Olodumare gave Orisanla three elements to
achieve these objectives:earthenmud in a snail shell, a bird, and a hen.18Odu
duwawas asked to accompanyOrisanla on this importantmission. Oduduwa is
a figure in theYoruba thought systemwith dual classificationsas divinity and
ancestor.On theway to the earth,Orisanla got drunk andwas thus incapable
of carryingout the mission; Oduduwa then took the items and created the
earth. Sometime later,Orisanla came to himself and proceeded to create the
physical figuresof humans.The significanceof the story forour analysis is that
Oduduwa ispresented inmany versions as female (althoughthe central Ile-Ife
story seesOduduwa asmale).19 IfOduduwa was a female, how does this affect
the analysisof Yoruba cosmological accounts?First, itmeans that the progen
itorof theYoruba people is female. Further, it points to the creation exercise
as a joint venture between a male (Orisanla)and a female (Oduduwa):Odu
duwa created the land,valleys, andmountains with the itemsOlodumare had
supplied;Orisanla, after recoveringfromhis drunken stupor,created the phys
ical figuresof humans.Orisanla is said to have created some of them beautiful
and others ugly, some as albinos, and otherswith hunchbacks.Hence, disabled
people are regarded as special and sacred among theworshippers of Orisanla
inYoruba landeven today.That a female founded the earth and amale molded
the physical figureof humanswould tallywith theYorubaprescription forgen
der balance in all endeavors.This crucial principle is required at all levels of
interaction inYorubapolity and ethos. Hence, aYorubaproverb says,F'osiwe
otun,fotun we osi l'owofiimo, "Washingthe left and righthand eachwith the
other ensures clean hands."Another proverb says,Ajeje owo kan o gbe'rud'ori,
ohun a bajo wo gigun ni gun, "It is impossible to place a heavy load on your
headwith one hand;whatever we consider together isbound to be successful."
The cooperation of themale and female in theYoruba thought system thus re
inforces notions thatOduduwa, a female, and Orisanla, a male, carried out
Olodumare's injunctionstomake the earth habitable and tomold human phys
ical figures.
The second cosmological narrative relevant tomy analysis is found in the
18 Omosade Awolalu and P.Adelumo
J.
Dopamu, West African TraditionalReligion (Ibadan,
Nigeria:Onibonoje, 1979), 132.
19See IsolaOlomola, "Ifebefore Oduduwa," inThe Cradle of a Race: Ifefrom the
Beginning
to 1980, ed. I.A. Akinjogbin (PortHarcourt,Nigeria: Sunray,1992), 51-78.

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oral Ifa divination corpus called Odu Ose tura,which states thatOlodumare,
the Supreme Being, sent seventeen primordialdeities to occupy the earth, and
only one of them,Osun, was female.When they arrivedon earth, the sixteen
male deities operated as a teambut neglected the only female in all their func
tions;Osun was excluded from sacred knowledge, from covenants, and from
decision making.When Osun could bear it no longer, she congregated the
women on earth and formed the IyaMi group, a society of powerfulwomen.
With their hitherto unusual ase (life force), they interferedwith the plans of
the male deities. Consequently, there was chaos with humans and nature.
Nothing functioned as expected; famine, pestilence, and extreme discomfort
characterized thewhole earth.The sixteenmale deities rushed toOlodumare
for a solution to thisproblem.After they explained their situation,Olodumare
inquiredabout the seventeenth deity.They replied that,because shewas only
a female, they had excluded her from all proceedings. Olodumare charged
them to go back andmake peace with Osun, because itwas only then thatnor
malcy could return.The sixteen deities went back to plead forOsun's forgive
ness, which she granted after receiving the promise that no longerwould she
be excluded from all functions and proceedings on earth. Thereafter, peace
and normalcy returned to the earth.
This account brings to the fore two importantmotifs. First, Olodumare
recognizedand, by implication,endorsed the complementary rolesof male and
female humans, commanding that the male deities go back andmake peace
with Osun, even thoughOlodumare could have intervened and helped the
male deities without any reference to the authorityof the IyaMi group. This
suggestsOlodumare's strong preference formutual respect between the fe
male and themale. Second, Osun possesses the ability to affect and effect the
power that activates the life force, as is trueof the IyaMi group inYoruba land
today.
The central reason for discussing these narratives is that they are part of
an alternative traditionquite distinct from the normative narratives inYoruba
religious life,which is often not taken seriouslyor is even totally ignored.This
isusuallydue to subjective reasons that servepurelymale interestsand seek to
subsume the fact thatwomen played positive and importantroles in these ac
counts.There is no doubt that the cosmologicalmyth that is regarded as the
normative account falls short of thewhole truth.This normativemyth as pre
sented bymale scholarsclearly asserts that themale deities Orisanla andOdu
duwa carried out creation, but this is contrary to what obtains

in Yoruba com

munities where Oduduwa is portrayed as female. This normative account


exhibits a latentpatriarchalcoloring thatdoes not tallywith theYoruba cosmic
experience,which envisionsmales and females living side by side and some
times vyingwith each other for power.
Our role as scholarsof religion, both male and female, is to interrogate

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51

these traditionsand to highlight alternative traditionsfromwhich we can de


rivemeanings that aremore balanced and true to theYoruba reality. I suggest
that theYoruba religiousworldview implicitlyespouses a dual, complementary
structure.Aye (the cosmic and physicalworld) is repletewith events, issues,
and problems that reflect precisely this complementary structure.Ultimately,
a key place is accordedwomen in the resolutionof difficult issues in the Yor
uba world, be they political, economic, or social.Hence, at the beginning of
every New Year, a prayerfulwish expressed by the Yoruba states,Odun a ya
abo, "May this year be female for us," referring to femaleness as a symbolof
coolness and peace (ero).
The Goddess Tradition
Each goddess and herworship are the product of a given culture.Among
theYoruba, the personhood andworship of a goddess are ultimately linked to
the cosmological account of the people. Further, goddesses manifest two, or
sometimes three, personalities at once. Goddesses have a human personality
and a spiritualpersonality and sometimes are further personified in natural
phenomena, especially rivers. The manifestation of goddesses in rivers is
linked to theYoruba notion about the therapeuticqualities of water. Though
godsmay manifest these tripartitequalities aswell, they are seldom associated
with healing qualities. Healing and physicalwell-being are of utmost impor
tance to aYorubaperson. This isencapsulated in the people's sayingIlera l'oo
gun oro, "Goodhealth is the guarantee of wealth." However, wellness among
the people goes beyond the physical, asmoney, children, and peace (owo,omo,
alafia) are also considered components of a good life.Goddesses in Yoruba
land supply all these benefits. Iwill now very briefly discuss twoYoruba god
desses, with emphasis on their roles as sovereign rulers,warriors, and healers,
and their gender implicationsforYoruba polity.
Osun. Osun is the goddess of theOsun River inYoruba land,and hermost
prominentworship is atOshogbo, a townwhose origin account attributesa sig
nificant position to the goddess. Osun, themost popular of theYoruba god
desses, is regarded as the sovereign ruler of Oshogbo. She was the one who
made itpossible for the inhabitantsto settle on the riverbankand promised to
protect the city.The ataoja (ruler)of Oshogbo rules the city for and on behalf
of Osun. The annual festivalofOsun provides the occasion for the ataoja to ac
knowledgeOsun's sovereigntyand control overOshogbo's space.
Osun as a goddess represents also the sacreddimension of waters; she is
thus essential to the daily livingof both humans and the deities. Just aswater
isnecessary for sustaininghuman life, it is rare to find any shrine of a divinity
inYoruba landwhere there is no water. Suchwater representsOsun because
Omi gbogbo l'osun,"Allwaters representOsun," as aYoruba adage goes.Osun

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Journalof Feminist Studies inReligion

is the creative spirit and the spiritualdimension of pregnancy, childbirth, and


child rearing.Her fertilityqualities aremanifested in her ability to guarantee
people's continuity throughprocreation; hence, she is known as olomo yoyo
(onewith lots of children).The importanceof this singularquality cannot be
overemphasized in a culture inwhich the utmost significance is accorded to
procreation.

Osun possesses sacred knowledge throughher leadershipof the IyaMi


group and throughher access to the eerindinlogundivination system (both of
which Iwill address later in the article). She utilizes these qualities to protect,
defend, and bless her adherents,who are both males and females.One Osun
oriki (praisepoem) tells how, once upon a time, both Osun andOsanyin (god
ofmedicinal plants)were pluckingmedicinal leaves,but before Osanyin could
turn aroundOsun had removedOsanyin'smedicinal leaves from the grinding
stone (olota).The implicationof this tale is thatOsun's coolwater ismedicinal
andmore efficacious for healing purposes thanherbs and roots. In addition to
possessing these qualities,Osun is also awarrior, described thus:
Obinrin gbadamu gbadamu
Ti o see gba legbee mu
Obinrin gbona, okunrin n sa
[A strong and powerful woman with a heart of steel
One who is indefatigable (cannot be captured)
A woman whose rage causes men to flee in panic]

Oya. My second example isOya, the goddess ofwind and storms,who pos
sesses a human personality aswell as a spiritualexistence.As a human her full
name isOya Akanbi, and she is an indigeneof Ira,a town inKwara state,Nige
ria.As a goddess she can be benevolent ormalevolent, for she ishighly unpre
dictable. Oya gives children and wealth to her adherents and also protects
them from danger.Her qualities and attributes are contrary to those assumed
for females. She is a fierce fighter,who ismanifested in strongwinds and
storms.She fightswith thunderbolts,just likeher earthlyhusband, Sango.Rit
uals for her worship occur at a sacredbush (igboOya), unlike theworship of
other goddesses,which takesplace in the townships.Oya's characteristicspoint
to the fluidityof theYoruba gender construct and confirm thatmultiplicity is a
feature of Yoruba gender relations, reflected here in religion but permeating
every other sector of the people's lives aswell.
The two goddesses discussed here demonstrate that theYoruba traditions
show the prevalence and significantfunctionsof the female as being crucial to
anymeaningful enterprise among the people; and, further, that gender classi
ficationamong theYoruba is attended by constant reconfigurationsand fluid
ity.There is no clear-cut and unitary gender categorizationamong the people;
rather,the gender construct is culture- and, to some extent, context-bound.

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53

Gender and Ritual inYoruba Land


Ritual in a broad sense is interlockedwith knowledge acquisition and use
among theYoruba. Indeed, the performance of rituals inYoruba religion is in
formedby knowledge.However, knowledge and its acquisition are not limited
to cognitive functions among the Yoruba. Consequently, there are different
types of knowledge. Some are available to everyone,whereas others are re
strictedand availableonly to certainpeople. Usually access to restrictedknowl
edge translates to power.Hence, theYoruba classify some people as awo and
others as ogberi.The awo are the initiates into the sacredknowledge of a deity
or a religious society; the ogberi are the novices and uninitiated people. It is
importantto state,however, that this classification isnot rigid,as an awo in one
settingmay be an ogberi in another setting.
The restrictedknowledge of the awo is,more often thannot, esoteric and
associatedwith the darkness of the night. Indeed, the Yoruba cosmic percep
tion regardsdaytime as the time for humans and nighttime as belonging to the
spiritsand the awo. Powerfulwomen rule the night because of their access to
restrictedknowledge and thuspower.The importanceof the awo as a group is
best appreciatedwithin the frameworkof the underlying principle of Yoruba
philosophy,which is that the seen reflects and rests on the unseen. The Yor
uba, according toWande Abimbola, divide the universe (aye) into two broad
domains, inhabitedby twogroups of people and forces.These domains are the
invisible (airi) and the visible (riri), the spiritual (emi) and the physical (ara),
the good (daradara)and the bad (buburu),heaven (orun)and earth (aye), and
Each group in this classi
negative forces (ajogun)and positive forces (orisa).20
fication is alwaysdependent on the other and sometimes confrontationalto the
other, depending on the setting.The need for accommodationand diplomacy
between the groups iswhat guarantees peace in the universe. The Yoruba
worldview is rooted in holistic harmony;hence, the principle of relatedness is
the sine qua non of the people's social and religious reality.This principle is
manifested in the human community and between the human and spirit com
munities. Members of the awo, both male and female, are privileged to sacred
knowledge,which they utilize to regulate the socialwell-being of the people.
A major preoccupation of their secret societies is to police and regulate peo
ple's conduct aswell as to adjudicatedisputes.
Ancestral Performance
A clear expression of this principle of relatedness is seen in the linkbe
tween the ancestors and the humans among the Yoruba. Ancestors are de
ceased elderswho afterdeath relocate from theworld of the livingto the space
of the deceased but stillmaintain close relationshipwith the living.According
20

Abimbola,

"Images

ofWomen."

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54

Journalof Feminist Studies inReligion

to theYorubabelief system, ancestorsusuallyvisit the realmof humans asmas


queraders, especially during the annual ancestral ceremonies referred to as
odun egungun. During this festival, the masqueraders visit people in their
homes and pray for them in order to ensure a prosperousyear ahead.The fes
tival is usuallymarked by feasting and richmusic.
The Ifa corpus provides us with information to the effect that, at some
point in the ancient past,women were in controlof the ancestralegungun cult.
I argue that, just aswomen are the custodiansof the IyaMi group and the dje
power inYoruba land (as Iwill discuss presently), the egungun ancestralprac
tice derives its origin andmeaning fromwomen's religious experience. Fur
thermore,for a long timewomen sustained the egungunpractice.According to
Odu Irantegbe, a chapter in the Ifa corpus,2'women were custodians of the
egungun practice but were trickedbymen who took the powers from them:
Ha! An elder who misbehaves has to be disgraced
Ifawas divined forOdu
When she arrived on earth
She was advised to control her passion
Odu did not heed the advice
She was asked to sacrifice she refused
She sacrificed to appeal toOlodumare to grant
Her power instead
She wished to use the power for a long time
But did not sacrifice to prevent people from
Knowing her secret
She entered the sacred grove of eegun one day and
Came out as a masquerader
Ha! So it is toOdu thatOlodumare gave the power
Over all the world said Obarisa [the archdivinity]
Obarisa went to Orunmila [Osun's husband, the god of divina
tion] to consult Ifa
Orunmila asked him to sacrifice and he obeyed
Orunmila gave the necessary remedy
But warned that he had to be patient
To become the ruler of the world
One day Odu invited Obarisa to a discussion
She said, as colleagues, they should be more
Familiar with each other
Odu and Obarisa then moved closer, living together
Obarisa gave Odu the snail fluid thatwas
Part of his diet
And Odu liked it and promised to always drink it
21
Chapter, in the context of my work, refersnot towritten documents but to divisionsof oral
texts towhich theYorubaascribe different names.

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Olajubu: Seeing throughaWoman's Eye

55

Odu then invited Obarisa to come along


And he followed her to the sacred grove of eegun
She put on her eku [costume] and came out amasquerader

They cameout fromthegrovetogether


When theyreturnedto thegrove

And Odu removed the eku


Obarisa moved closer and inspected the eku
He renovated it by putting on a net to cover his face
Any masquerader's outfit without a net is an ordinary costume

After reachinghome

Obarisa entered the eegun shrine and turned


Into amasquerader
He held awhip
He changed his voice to that of an eegun

To disguisehimself

When Odu saw the eegun in the new guise she was afraid

Thiswas howmen cunninglyoverpowered


women.22

The gender-complementary roles implicit inYoruba life notwithstanding,


a tension is apparent here between the female andmale in a power struggle.
As a liberatingnarrative, the story challenges men's desire to tamewomen's
powers. In the face of this female power, men felt threatened and advised
submission,which Odu refused to give. Another important issue arising in
thisnarrative is the power of concealment, symbolized in the net thatObarisa
introduced into the egungun custom to hide the identity of the men wear
ing it.
The basic assumption has alwaysbeen that egungun belongs tomen, but
this Ifa chapter indicatesotherwise.The submission thategungun ispredomi
nantly a concern formales may thereforebe misleading, aswomen originally
had custody of the society and still play some roles in the egungun society
today.Again, thatOlodumare bestowed onwomen the control of this society at
the beginning of time shows thatOlodumare set no rules of discrimination in
the Yoruba cosmic perception concerning the female or themale. Moreover,
thatwomen were the custodiansof the ancestral society tallieswith their role
as people who maintain continuity, especially throughprocreation.Ancestors
are reincarnated throughwomen into lineages, bearing names such as Ba
batunde (Father returns) and Iyabode (Mother returns).The fact that the
egungun society is today amale society should not obliterate the fact that the
egungun belonged towomen originally,a strong indicationof the significance
of the female principle inYoruba cosmic perception.
22Biodun
Adediran, ed., Cultural Studies in Ife:Selectionsfrom the 1993-94 SeminarPapers
the
Instituteof Cultural Studies,Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife,Nigeria (Ile-Ife,Nigeria:
of
Instituteof Cultural Studies,Obafemi AwolowoUniversity, 1995), 123.

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Journalof Feminist Studies inReligion

The IyaMi Group


Another groupwith significant roles inYoruba ritual is the society of pow
erfulwomen, the IyaMi group.Out of frustrationat being excluded from the
business of regulating the affairsof the createdworld, Osun gatheredwomen
together and formed the IyaMi group. The same power thatOsun used to
destabilize everything on earth at the beginning of time is the power still uti
lizedby the IyaMi group.The Yoruba believe that the IyaMi group comprises
powerfulwomen who use their innatepower to favortheirown agenda.Let me
state here thatwhatever is submitted concerning the IyaMi and theirpractices
ispurely theory,for the group operates at the level of the spiritual,as opposed
to the physical;yet their existence is indisputable,at least to the Yoruba per
son. It isassumed thatmembers attendmeetings as birds, cats, or bats and that
the meetings occur on treetops, at crossroads, and in groves. The group ex
hibits a close affinitywith motherhood and fertility,as reflected in the very title
IyaMi (MyMother). Members are therefore regardedasmothers to children
and to the community as awhole.
The name IyaMi, often expressed as dje (witchesor the art ofwitchcraft),
suggests a power thatmay be dangerous, destructive, and antisocial aswell as
extraordinary,developmentally focused, and employed for good purposes.As a
consequence, dje cannot be equated with notions of witchcraft as it is con
ceived in some other culturalmilieus, where it is completelymalevolent, evil,
and destructive.Aje is an art of thewise, utilized bywomen endowedwith in
herent psychic powers thatmay be employed forpositive or negative purposes.
These women wield tremendous power inYoruba communities, because the
political, social, and economic sectors of each community rest on the religious
sector.Moreover, aje power is fromOlodumare, the Creator; its efficacy is
therefore beyond challenge. It is doubtfulwhether any ruler inYoruba land
could succeedwithout the supportof the IyaMi. Diviners andmedicine men
andwomen pay homage to the IyaMi to appease and placate them in order
that ritualsperformed by these individualsmay be efficacious.The influence
of the IyaMi is also reflected at the level of individualsin the community.
I am of the opinion that thisbelief in the IyaMi has a strongmoral impli
cation for theYorubapeople. Not only does it explain the presence of evil, es
pecially in difficult circumstances,but also it introducesan attitude of balance
intoYoruba life. People are enjoined to display their good fortuneswith dis
cretion, because excessive displaymay attract the illwill of the IyaMi group.
Hence, the Yoruba say,Bi isu eni ba jina, a afowo bo je ni, "Ifyour yam is
cooked and ready for eating, you should eat itwith coveredmouth [i.e.,with
discretion]." It seems clear in the Yoruba community that these powerful
women constitute the final court of appeal on any issue;neither the ruled nor
the ruler could succeed in any venture exceptwith the supportof the IyaMi.
The society of powerfulwomen provides a significantparadigm for social

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57

categorization inYoruba land.Their roles also confirm the unrestrictive ten


dencies of Yoruba gender construction, especially in regard to power relations.
Such a negotiation is perceivable between the rulers of Yoruba communities
and the IyaMi group.Although the rulersneed the supportof the IyaMi to
govern successfully, the IyaMi cannot rule the communityphysically,because
theiroperation ismainly mystical. Yet, again, thisgroup illustratesthatwomen
are not excluded frompositions of power in the various sectors of the people's
lives.
IfaDivination
Scholarshave done tremendouswork on Ifa divination among theYoruba
over the years. Examples include theworks ofWande Abimbola,William Bas
com, FatunbiVerger, and IfayemiElebuibon, tomention just a few.3My con
cern here is specifically the roleofwomen in Ifadivination.Females who prac
tice Ifa divination are known as Iyanifa (motherswho own Ifa), as opposed to
male practitioners,who are called Babalawo (fathersof the secret).
The mythical basis of women's involvement in Ifa divination is located in
another
yet
chapter of the oral Ifa corpus, the Eji-Ogbe text:
It isAgbagiwo who is the chief priest of divination
In the heavenly abode
Ifa said, "look" at Orunmila
The day he was coming to the earth from heaven
They told him he would marry awoman
They said the woman would deliver children
Two children in a day
Just as the Ifa predicted
Orunmila had a wife
She was pregnant and delivered twins
One was male while the other was female
From the tender age, they both
Watched their father in the act of divination
Just as the male could divine
So could the female
When human beings go to the earth
To livewith the diviners
One individual said, you Awawonlaseri [a human character]
Your child does not practice Ifa
Awawonlaseri answered, she is female
They told him that is not taboo
23SeeWande
Abimbola, SixteenGreat Poems oflfd (UNESCO, 1975);William Bascom, The
Yoruba of SouthwesternNigeria (ProspectHeights, IL:Waveland, 1969); Fatunbi Verger, "The
YorubaHigh God,"Odu (Universityof Ife Press, Ile-Ife,Nigeria) 2, no. 2 (1966);and IfayemiEle
buibon,Apetebi: TheWife ofOrunmila (NewYork:AtheliaHenrietta Press, 1994).

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Journalof Feminist Studies inReligion


So long as Orunmila's firstborn child
Who is female studied Ifa.

From thenon,women
Have studied Ifa

Women alsoprescribesacrifice
And women are initiated into Ifa tradition.24

According to these Ifa verses, the first of the Iyanifawas Orunmila's


daughter. Iyanifaare not as numerous as Babalawo, for fewwomen could af
ford to combine theirdomestic dutieswith the rigoroustrainingrequiredof Ifa
practitioners.This explainswhy a large number of Iyanifa are wives and/or
daughters of Babalawo. They often practice in conjunctionwith their hus
bands, given that adult females are usuallymarried inYoruba land. It is rare to
find one of the Iyanifamarried to anyone but one of the Babalawo.The expla
nation proffered for this is that the Iyanifaare custodiansof traditionand that
only men with an equal knowledge and the power that such knowledge be
stows couldmarry them (oloogunni se oko abikuor aje).Today there are Iyan
ifa in the cities of Ile-Ife,Oyo, Ogbomoso, Abeokuta, Ijebu-Ode, Iwo, Sagamu,
and Egbado.
Some Ifaparaphernaliasymbolizeand are described as females; for exam
ple, each of the 264 chapters (Odu) of the Ifa corpus is female.When one of
the Babalawo is initiated into Ifadivinationpractice, he graduates into the final
and ultimate stageof owning and seeingOdu, as ifhe becomes married toOdu
and, by implication,the corpus.
Eerindinlogun
A second typeof divinationpractice is the eerindinlogun,which was given
toOsun by Orunmila, her husband and the god of divination. It is themost
popular formof divination among orisa devotees today inYoruba land, the use
of sixteen cowrie shells being itsmain feature.Eerindinlogun is practiced in
another form in theAmericas and Brazil,where it isknown as dilogun ifa.The
eerindinlogundivination system isbased on an oral corpus composed of sixteen
main chapters, like the Ifa corpus, but practitioners are encouraged to limit
their consultationprocess to the first twelve chapters except in extreme situa
tions,when theymay proceed to the sixteenth chapter.Female adherents of
Osun, Sango, andObatala (anothername forObarisa, theYoruba archdivinity)
are adept in the use of eerindinlogun.These females are,more often thannot,
seniormembers of their cults; they are referred to as IyaOosa. (Malemem
bers are called Baba Oosa.)

Because

Osun

is assumed

to be the owner of the

divination system and provides for themmaterially and spiritually,practition


24Interviewwith Mrs.
Doyin Faniyi of Ibokun Street, Oshogbo, Osun State, Nigeria, on
March 16, 2000.

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Olajubu: Seeing through aWoman's Eye

59

ers ofeerindinlogun, bothmale and female, are consideredwives of Osun. This


assumption is not peculiar toOsun worshippers, as priests and priestesses of
other deities, such as Sango andOtin, are also regardedaswives of the deities.
This privileged position provides them easy access to curativeherbs and the as
suranceof the supportof the IyaMi group, of which Osun is the leader.Each
Baba or IyaOosa regularlycares for his or her cowries ritually.IyaOosa are
often available for consultationson health issues, especially those concerning
children and gynecologicalmatters. They prescribe herbalmixtures (agbo) for
mothers, to alleviate illnesses, as well as sacrifices (ebo)when occasion de
mands. Their prescriptionsmay also include ritualbaths takenwith Osun water
at designated spots and at specified hours of the day.A recommendationmay
include a bath at a crossroadsatmidnight, for example.
Embedded within the divinationpractices I have just reviewed is the no
tion of gender-complementary roles, rather than competition between the
male and the female.Divination is one of the links to the supersensibleworld
available to theYoruba person and should thus conform to the prevailingphi
losophyof the people, which is complementarity in gender roles. Seniority is
also extolled, because age among the people assumes experience and, conse
quently,wisdom.Women's membership in these groups,which provides them
with sacredknowledge, is of great importance for any considerationof power
and gender relationsamong theYoruba.Methods of operation in these groups
reinforceprinciples of complementarygender and power relations.Coopera
tion and harmony are elevated above competition, oppression, and domina
tion, because the individual'swelfare is dependent on and embedded within
the communalwell-being.
Conclusion
In this article I have attempted to present an alternativeperspective and
interpretation,informedby feminist concerns, of the role of women and gen
der dynamics inYoruba religious tradition.I submit thatgender as a socialcat
egory exists among theYorubabut is informedby flexibilityand complex con
figurations. I have illustrated this in a consideration of four areas of Yoruba
tradition:cosmology, the goddess tradition,ancestralperformance, and divina
tion.Embedded within Yorubagender constructs are certain assumed features
for themale and female, such as the assumption thatmales exhibit aggressive
tendencies (lile)while femalesmanifest coolness and a malleable disposition
(ero). In spite of these assumptions,however, gender construction among the
Yoruba ismarked by fluidity.My investigationreveals thatwomen play impor
tant roles in the Yoruba religious tradition,but this fact has often been sub
sumed undermale-focused interpretations.There is, in addition, an emphasis
in the society on the interdependence of male and female, a recognition of

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60

Journalof Feminist Studies inReligion

which is necessary for anymeaningful evaluationof Yoruba religious tradition.


As a panacea for the gap in scholarship,I propose thatwomen scholarsbe en
couraged to interrogatereceivednormative claims of any religious tradition.To
see African religious traditions through awoman's eye is a crucial step in re
covering the role and place of women inAfrican religious experience.More
over, the need to acknowledge and appreciatewomen's religiousexperiences is
pertinent to a balanced perspective of religion in general.

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