Yoruba ritual

A Case of Transformation Occasioned by Ethno-Nationalism

Bibliographic Data

ID2103992
AuthorsMorufu Bukola Omigbule (0009-0000-8777-4401, Obafemi Awolowo University, corresponding author)
Year2025
Volume95
Issue1
Pages62-79
Publication date2025-02-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAfrica (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0001-9720 • E-ISSN: 1750-0184
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0001972025000154
OpenAlexW4410759683
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited6

A Yoruba ritual - the Oodua ritual festival in Ile-Ife - has been sustained over a long period, but has been adjusted under the pressure of modernity. Its relevance as a cultural practice is being asserted in multiple ways in today's Nigeria. Ethno-nationalism is a key factor in the ritual in contemporary Ile-Ife in the sense that the Olokun Festival Foundation (OFF) is the agency through which the ethno-nationalism of the Oodua People's Congress (OPC) is inscribed on the ritual. Although it professes to be a culture-promoting affiliate of the OPC, the OFF's involvement in the ritual facilitates the presence of the OPC - a popular Yoruba ethno-nationalist movement - and thereby results in significant modifications to the ritual. Hence, the ritual has become an embodiment of new significations through which understandings of the contemporary face of Yoruba ethno-nationalism in Nigeria can be expanded. In sum, a combination of symbolic anthropological and sociological approaches reveal that the ritual in its modified form is culturally restrictive and socially integrative

Art · Linguistics · Nationalism · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Transformation (genetics · Yoruba · Anthropology · Gender Studies · Law · Media, Religion, Digital Communication · Philosophy