Noah Stommel
After watching the film, Sacred Journeys with Bruce Feiler: “Oṣun-Oṣogbo,” it became apparent that there are many ways in which the religious practices of the Yoruba people of Nigeria have been undergone mixing with non-African culture over the centuries. Of course, mixing of Oriṣa religion began on a grand scale with the slave trade, beginning in the 15th century. With the forced immersion of Yoruba people into European-dominated cultures in the New World, there was the obvious blending with Christianity that faced Oriṣa religion. As was stated in the film, religious practices from Oriṣa religion and Christianity, namely Catholicism, were combined, although the African-originating religion was often obscured by the dominant European religion.
This idea was shown in one of our readings, titled Overture: The Concept “Altar,” in which African practitioners of Oriṣa religions were disallowed by Europeans to continue their rituals. On one occasion, police “confronted four men calmly seated with Panama hats in their hands. Other men were standing. Two European dolls, apparently for children, reclined against a wall. The police could do nothing. There were no ‘pagan instruments’ for them to seize and take away, no signs of a black religion for them to persecute, as they were wont to do in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries” (Overture: The Concept ‘Altar’, page 21). As soon as the police left, the objects seemingly strewn around resumed their purpose in a ritual religious practice. The hats became drums, and the dolls became used again as spiritual icons. This example demonstrates aspects of transculturation experienced by those hanging onto their ancestral traditions, due to the forced acclimation they experienced to make their practices suit a different environment.
It was also mentioned in the film that certain Catholic saints have parallel figures of significance in Yoruba culture. The integration of certain valued religious aspects infused into Oriṣa religion from Christianity clearly shows the syncretization of religion that has taken place over the centuries. As elaborated upon in the film, the slave traders did not destroy the Yoruba religion, but rather transplanted it into other corners of the world, allowing it to grow on its own, which ultimately resulted in hybridized rituals with Christianity especially.
What I found additionally interesting about the film was the fact that there is mixing of Oriṣa religion not just in the New World, but also still in parts of Nigeria, where Islam and Christianity clash with traditional Yoruba culture. The film mentions the fact that the presence of more globalized religion in Nigeria is threatening the traditional Oriṣa practices. The public is inundated with religious propaganda that argues the benefits of converting to Christianity. The youth of Nigeria are even proselytized in school, where mainstream Christianity tries to drown out the reverence for Oriṣa.
Ultimately, this film broadened my insights into how Oriṣa religion continues to be influenced by other religions, chiefly Christianity, on both sides of the Atlantic, and how, despite the fact that Christianity exists in force both in the New World and the Old, the Oriṣa-oriented culture can be affected differently. Perhaps most importantly, this film helped to further my understanding of the resiliency of Yoruba culture throughout the recent centuries, and the lasting significance that preserved practices still have on people of all corners of the world touched by West-African influence.