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Showing posts from July, 2023

“Esu, Yemoja, Oshun, Oya and the 20 Cowries" A Yoruba Tale

Oya and Osun were wives of Sàngó. Yemoja was the wife of Ogun. One day, all three happened to be shopping at the market in Oyo. Esu entered the market, leading s large goat on a rope. Seeing that all was orderly and calm, he decided to create a contention among the female divinities. He approached the orisa and greeted them. “ “My queens, I must leave the city on an important errand. Please sell my goat for me, if you will. The price is 20 cowries. We will split he proceeds among ourselves. My portion will be 10 cowries and you three may divide the 10 among yourselves equally.” They all agreed and Esu left them in charge of the goat. The animal quickly sold and the orisa separated 10 cowries for Esu and began to devide the 10 amongst themselves. They separated the cowries into 3 piles but one cowrie remained. Yemoja said: “I am the eldest among us. As the elder the extra cowrie should go to me.” But Oshun and Oya protested. Oshun said: “As the youngest among us, the extra cowrie should

JUSTICE SYSTEM IN YORUBA LAND

J USTICE SYSTEM IN YORUBA LAND I have said it before, when a man fails to know the value of the WÚRÀ he holds in his hand, some covetous  children of other men will visit him with PÁNDA to give him in exchange of WÚRÀ. Whereas WÚRÀ is GOLD, not very beautiful to behold when in it's crude form but which can become a most glittering, everlasting and very expensive piece of jewelry when processed polished. Whereas PÁNDA is an imitation, an combination of adulterated and inferior metals melted together and made to appear very beautiful to the eyes but they can remain only beautiful for a short time. When you call something CUSTOMARY, it evidently comes from CUSTOM! Our forefathers had CUSTOMS FOR JUDICIARY. People, friends, families, neighbours, villages, even husbands and wives will always have quarrels and disagreements amongst themselves, it is natural, but there was a mechanism available to settle ALL DISPUTES. We had a FAR MORE RELIABLE SYSTEM OF DEMOCRACY in Yoruba land before we