I found fascinating book extract, on Guardian Unlimited, written by the marvellous writer Wole Soyinka.
The piece examines how the Ifa/Orisa tradition and other traditional religions in Nigeria have found a way to coexist with Christianity and Islam. It also examines the theocratic nature of societies that practice both these religions and how their intolerance of other religions has led to thousands of deaths in Nigeria alone.
He made this interesting point about how the maintstream world wide media declares Nigeria as either Christian North or Muslim South, but somehow the the traditional religions of the place somehow vanish into the ehter of their consciousness.
Soyinka is suggesting a return to ‘secular’ gods, and made some very interesting observations about how adaptable Orisa/Ifa is to the modern world.
I loved it. I’m going to find this book.
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