Welcome to the second week of York St John Geography’s Black History Month blog posts, celebrating black landscapes, people, and histories in geography and the environment! This week, we are focusing on black landscapes…
Looking over Tanguieta. Rudi Verspoor, Flickr, CC BY-NC 2.0.
Rivers in Yoruba belief: The Yoruba people predominantly found in southwestern Nigeria (but also in Benin and Togo) were among the most heavily targeted during the Atlantic slave trade. Today, there is a large concentration of people in Latin America (e.g. Brazil) and the Caribbean (e.g. Cuba) with strong connections with their Yoruba ancestry.
Traditionally, among the Yorubas, rivers hold important natural, cultural and spiritual values. They play a key role in different forms of divine worship and ceremonies. An important fact is the female gendering of the spiritual custodian of river landscapes in Yoruba belief. Oya, goddess of the River Niger, Oshun found east of Ibadan and Ovia at Benin. Susanne Wenger an Austrian-born Nigerian has contributed immensely to protecting the Osun river landscape.
One of the most popular river spirits is Yemoja, regarded as the mother of all deities and has significance in many Yoruba communities in Africa and South America. Yemoja is celebrated by millions of Afro-Brazilians every New Year’s Eve. The Olokun is the ‘owner of the sea’ and the Olosa the Lagoon goddess. Some notable personalities of Yoruba descent/ancestry include David Olusoga, Glenda A. Hatchett and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.