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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Contradictions in Yoruba folk beliefs concerning post-life existence: the Ado example
Author:Olomola, Isola
Year:1988
Periodical:Journal des africanistes
Volume:58
Issue:1
Pages:107-118
Language:English
Geographic term:Nigeria
Subjects:African religions
death
reincarnation
Yoruba
Abstract:In describing the beliefs of the Ado, an Ekiti-Yoruba people of Nigeria, concerning death and the afterlife, the author also brings out the dualism and contradictions inherent in these beliefs. The first major contradiction involves the actual location of ghostland: in spite of evidence, including burial, pointing to the under-earth-world as the abode of the dead, many of the popular folktales give the impression that the ancestors (living-dead and spirits) live in the sky. Another principal contradiction concerns the cult of the ancestors and the 'egungun' masks made to represent certain prominent deceased persons: the folk belief that the dead continue to live in ghostland and interest themselves in the affairs of their earthly relatives through the 'egungun' is a clever device invented by the priest and devotees to deceive and overawe the young, women and other categories of the profane. Furthermore, although the Yoruba generally believe in posthumous existence, they often express great doubts about its certainty, and the replication of life-type pursuits and pleasures in ghostland. Bibliogr., notes, ref.
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