Spirituality or Religion: The concept of Isin/Esin

In Yoruba land and Africa in general, we have for so long allowed others to define our reality from their own sociocultural perspectives. Nowadays, our perception of reality is skewed towards the definer's worldview. Our ancestral ontological and epistemological ways of knowing and defining reality are undermined due to the systemic band of menticide we have jumped on. Our values and belief systems are gradually being relegated to the background.  

This has not only created a misconception and mind control by the colonialists but also eroded the African philosophical and cultural standpoints which had helped to shape the reality of our ancestors. Religion was introduced to us during the sub-Saharan/trans-Atlantic slavery and colonization. 

These foreign religions came with the baggage of a master-god mentality who sits high in the sky and the servant-humans who live down below and are expected to serve and obey him. This was evident in the way and manner the slave masters ill-treated the slaves during different periods of enslavement. 

 

Here in Africa, when you are born into or converted to a religion, you are given certain doctrines and creeds that you must follow and if you default, it is believed that bad things will happen to you and that you cannot be anything in life, or that you will go to hell fire. You were given these false narratives and dogmas to help shape your realities, and for the rest of your life, you will be defending such false realities. 

To follow these creeds is an acceptance of allegiance to the faith, Church, or religious organizations. The master-servant mentality is also evident in various churches where the so-called daddy GOs are being deified and served by the congregation (servants).

It is unfortunate that most of our Ifá and Òrìṣà practitioners deem it pleasurable to tag Ifa/Orisa spirituality as “ẹ̀sìn” which is a conceptual meaning of religion. I can say without any fear of contradiction that there is no such thing as ẹ̀sìn Ifá, ẹ̀sìn Òrìṣà, ẹ̀sìn ìsèṣe, ẹ̀sìn àbáláyé, ẹ̀sìn Olódùmarè, etc. 

To start with, we need to first delve into the meaning of “sin”, “ìsìn”, and “ẹ̀sìn”. In simple translation from the Yoruba language, “sin” in this context is a verb, which means “to serve or perform duties” and we hear words and phrases such as sin ọ̀gá (to serve the master), sin orílẹ̀ Èdè (to serve the nation), sin Ọba (to serve the King), ẹrú sin Olówó ẹ̀ (the servant/slave serves their master), fi ọkàn sìn (to serve conscientiously); “ìsìn” means “service, or worship” while ẹ̀sìn simply means religion.  

In Ifá, ìsìn deals with the concept of a master-servant relationship and more often is secular and profane but not sacred. The use of the word “ìsìn” in Ifá describes a situation of servitude or service whereby an individual renders services to another in exchange for something. Also, the word “ẹ̀sìn” is never part of our ethnographical and spiritual ontology. Ẹ̀sìn is foreign and was recently (about two or three hundred years ago) introduced insidiously to our traditional and spiritual psyche and diction.

  

Because Africans were typically spiritual and when the Abrahamic religions were introduced to Africa, our ancestors were deceived that it was okay to practice (ẹ̀sìn) these religions, while at the same time practicing their spirituality. This explains the reason for this popular song in Yoruba land thus: “Àwa ó ṣorò ilé wa o, ẹ̀sìn kan kò pé káwa má ṣorò, àwa ó ṣorò ilé wa o” means that “ we will perform our ancestral traditional practices, not even religion will debar us, surely, we will practice our spirituality.”

In Ifá and Òríṣà communities, we hear of “Ìbọ” which connotes worship, propitiation, or veneration which is more spiritual in nature. That is why we are conversant with words like ìbọ Ifá/ìbọfá, ìbọ Òrìṣà/ìbọ̀rìṣà, ìbọ Orí/ìbọrí, ìbọ Ògún/ìbọ̀gún, ìbọ Ọṣun/ìbọ̀ṣun, ìbọ Ṣàngó /ìbọṣàngó, ìbọ Ọya/ìbọya, ìbọ Èṣù/ìbèṣù, ìbọ Ẹdan/’boẹdan, ìbọ Ilẹ̀/bọlẹ̀, ìbọ Egúngún /bọeégún, etc. No such thing as “sin Ifá”, “sin Òrìṣà”, “sin Ògún”, “sin Ṣàngó”, “sin Ọṣun”, etc. We also did not hear words like “ìbọ Ọlọ́run ” or “sin Ọlọ́run/Olódùmarè ” in Yoruba or Ifa cosmology. 

In real African settings, there is nothing like an organization of spiritual practices and gatherings whereby people of different sects and Òrìṣà affiliations are made to serve or worship a particular sky deity. In Ifá, ìsìn in an organized form is never associated with spirituality as far as the ontological and epistemological perspectives of Ifá are concerned. Both Ifá and Òrìṣà practitioners perform their respective worships and have never proselytized, evangelized, or gospelized in an attempt to win converts. Your Orí is what determines your Irúnmọlẹ̀/Òrìṣà affiliation and no single individual or temple. 

Spiritual practice right from the ancient times in Yorùbá land is more personal and of family lineage.  

In regard to religion, the origin of the word, ''religion'', can be dated back to the 1200s, when it was first used as a “State” of the word “religion”. It comes from the Latin words, religion- and religio, which hold similar definitions to the current use of ‘’religion’’. It is also potentially connected to the Latin word religare, which is defined as ‘’to restrain.’’  

Regardless of the diversity of faiths worldwide, generally, religion is considered an organized belief system that provides a connection with the divine. Due to its conceptual definition and meaning, it is malapropic to use the word religion to describe African spirituality because they are two distinct constructs. 

 According to Patrick Lumumba “Religion is a form of spirituality packaged in man-made form; it is an organization of spirituality into a formal thing which is controlled by a man claiming to represent god.” The concepts of religion include belief, mythology, practice, and organization. The use of the word “ẹ̀sìn” as a denotation of Ifa spiritually is a misnomer. 

Ẹ̀sìn is a borrowed concept that was infused into the Yoruba spiritual lexicon to denote our traditional spiritual practices. Even though religion and spirituality are similar in some respects, they also differ from each other on functional and contextual dimensions. For example, religion is more directed toward the pursuit of a wider set of destinations than spirituality. 

That is, apart from the attempt to facilitate spirituality, it serves other functions that benefit the leaders or the State more than the followers. Spirituality, on the other hand, focuses more on sacredness and the search for one particular significant destination or goal.

Regarding Ifá spirituality, every human being is a "spirit being" endowed with spiritual intelligence, which makes human beings different from lesser animals and other organisms. Every human being possesses both the physical and divine Orí (head). 

 The divine Orí is the symbol and extension of OLÓDÙMARÈ in every being. The Yorubas believe that "Orí" is a human's personal God. It also embodies spiritualism in any human being and occupies the apical position in the pantheon of divinities. Because of this, Orí is always given due reverence and is propitiated (ìbọrí) from time to time. We also carry out propitiations and worship to the Òrìṣàs for different purposes either personal or collective. We, as human beings, express innate qualities through our thoughts, attitudes, and actions by virtue of the level of our spiritual intelligence.  

Spiritual intelligence enables humans to find meaning and values in life and solve problems through the application of embodying spiritual resources, values, and qualities to enhance daily functioning and wellbeing (Pant & Srivastava, 2017). 

 The process and application of these resources in solving the problem of meaning and values in life are called spirituality. Sometimes we are saddled with problems and questions that are most often difficult to find answers to through the usual conventional approach. Some of these questions include: Why was I born? What is the meaning of my life? Why am I devoting my life to this relationship, this job, or this cause? What am I trying to achieve with this project or with my life? etc.

In pragmatism, certain actions may be expedient at a certain time due to the prevailing circumstances or contextual factors. Our revered fathers and founders of Ìjọ Ọ̀rúnmílà Adúláwò, Olùdásílè Adébánjọ Ọlọ́runfúnmi Ọshiga and Ìjọ Ọ̀rúnmílà Ato, Olùdásílè Adéyẹmí Adéṣìlùú were pragmatic enough during colonization to establish Ifá Temples in 1934 and 1939 where people could gather to worship in their own language and culture. 

Despite their top positions in the Anglican Church, their innate Ọmọlúwàbí characteristics towards the preservation of African traditional and spiritual practices must have ignited their fire of admiration for the establishment of Ifá Temples in Nigeria. 

Perhaps, this explains why Ifa Temple's form and structure were designed in line with the Christian creed and liturgy. It is unfortunate at this present time in history for us in this generation to fold our arms and be complacent and still have Ifá temples rendering service and worship in the Judeo-Christian manner. I am of the opinion that if these, our fathers, were Islamic clerics at that time, the form and structure of Ifá Temples would have had a semblance of an Arabian/Islamic mode of worship. 

These founders of Ìjọ Ọ̀rúnmílà did their best regarding what was expedient under colonial rule. Prior to this period, there wasn’t any Ifá Temple in this form and function. 

Ifá and Òrìṣà worship days were observed regularly at their appointed worship days. It was normative for the Babaláwos and other Ifa practitioners to gather together at “ìtàdógún” to observe collective worship, cross-fertilization of Ifá knowledge and spiritual intelligence to find solutions to life problems. It was also not uncommon to find the “Ọmọ Awos and Apẹtẹbis to render beautiful Ifá songs and ìyẹ̀rẹ̀ to not only honor the ancestors but also entertain the Ifá practitioners present. 

Finally, Ìṣẹ̀ṣe represents our spiritual source and the pinnacle of all rituals, rites, and traditional practices. Ìṣẹ̀ṣe tíí ṣe olórí Orò níwàrun; Ìṣẹ̀ṣe ni bàbá ètùtù. Ìṣẹ̀ṣe includes four cardinal sources such as Ìyá ẹni, Bàbá ẹni, Orí ẹni, and Olódùmarè. The fourth one, Olódùmarè comprises other divinities with which your Orí is affiliated such as Ògún, Ọbàtálá, Ṣángó, Ọṣun, Yemoja, Ọya, Kórì, Osoosi, Èṣù, etc. This is why Ìṣẹ̀ṣe also can never be a religion. Africans practice spirituality with the use of spiritual resources and intelligence to enable them to connect and align with the forces of nature (supernatural and preternatural) and to find purpose and meaning in their daily life. This is why humans engage in ìbọ Orí and ìbọ Òrìṣà to create the necessary alignment for a meaningful life on earth. Spirituality can be practiced in your domain without necessarily being made to converge at a designated edifice to worship a particular sky god who has no bearing on your life. In 

Ọṣẹ Òtúrá, Ifá says:

Ifá ní tí a bá jí, ká ké si Oníre

Kí ìre wa kó lè ba máa fin

Ká ké sí agbùre

Kí ètùtù wa kó lè ba máa gbà 

Ká ké si Àkọ̀lọ̀lọ̀ 

Tó ngbe orí orékè tó nyin ìbọ ṣuruṣuru…

Translation

Ifa says when we wake up

Let us call upon Onire (the controller of all supplications)

So that our supplications can be successful

Let us call upon Agbure ( the acceptor of all supplications)

So that our offerings can be accepted

Let us also call upon Akololo

The one that sits high up and gives praises to our propitiations…

Aboru Aboye.

Fakunle Oyesanya,

Akoda Awo, 2024.