Questionable but Unquestioned Beliefs:A Call for a Critical Examination of Yoruba Culture
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Date
2011
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Thought and Practice: A Journal of the Philosophical Association of Kenya (PAK)
Abstract
The fundamental belief in destiny in Yoruba culture is explained within the tradition that for
every individual person who comes to aye (earth), there is a package of destiny containing the
totality of all that such person will be. However, the content of this destiny is not known to
any person except Orunmila, one of the deities. Therefore, it is believed that a person dies if
and when he/she has exhausted the content of his/her ori (package of destiny). Included also
in the Yoruba belief system is that a youthful death is a sorrowful death. This is predicated on
the premise that a young man could not have completed the content of his earthly mission.
His death is therefore sorrowful, and he could therefore not be admitted into Orun(“heaven”)
to join the league of the ancestors. This is the explanation for the belief in reincarnation, and,
more specifically, the belief in akudaaya or abarameji(reincarnated persons).