Orisha--Triumphing Territorial Challenges

Source: fineartamerica.com

"Currently, new religious movements active in Ile-Ife are engaging in a second wave of missionary efforts (begun in the 1970s and 1980s) to achieve the people's radical and total conversion to Christianity (or Islam), to create a new worldview based on Euro-American conservative Christian values (or conservative Islamic values), and to sow intolerance of indigenous cultures and traditions.

These efforts threaten the destruction of indigenous culture, values, and even language. Indeed, in a number of churches it is forbidden to speak the Yoruba language! There is also an attempt to creat a new space in which these new religions will increasingly challenge the authority and privilege of orisa indigenous culture at the center of Ile-Ife city life.

Although there is ample evidence that orisa traditions are in retreat, there is also significant evidence of their renewal. Throughout the world, Yoruba diaspora communities of the Caribbean and the Americas are repositioning Yoruba-derived traditions--Santeria in Cuba and the United States, Candomble in Brazil, and new orisa traditions among african americans in the United States and Trinidad--as global religious traditions whose influence and consistency extend far beyond the home base in Ile-Ife."

Jacob K. Olupona  (2011: 17)
City of 201 Gods: Ile-Ife in Time, Space, and the Imagination