ABSTRACT
Yoruba ‘religions’ in this chapter is conceptualized to comprise of Yoruba Indigenous religion, plus Christianity and Islam as domesticated by the Yoruba people in Africa and the African Diaspora. Yoruba religion is originally the indigenous religion of the Yoruba people of Southwestern Nigeria but now has adherents worldwide. Thus, there are African derived religions in the Diaspora with strong links to Yoruba religion such as Santeria, Candomblé and to some extent, Vodou. Christianity and Islam are religions introduced to the Yoruba but which have been domesticated in practices passed through the prism of Yoruba culture including the use of local languages, symbols and complementary gender construct. Yoruba culture and religion appreciates female principles and these exert influences in practices of Christianity and Islam among the people. As noted elsewhere ‘whatever religious inclination the Yoruba person subscribes to, the influence of Yoruba cosmology continues to be of pervasive influence’. Women play significant roles that promotes the understanding of Yoruba ‘religions’, but these roles are changing just as other roles are being sustained resulting in trends that proffer serious implications for practices in these religions. This chapter examined changes and sustenance of women’s roles in Yoruba ‘religions’ and the implications of these for future practices in these religions in Africa and the African Diaspora. Data was sourced through participant observation and interviews with forty-five women in Osogbo, Osun State, Nigeria, comprised of fifteen women adherents in Yoruba indigenous, Christianity and Islam. Literature and Internet sources were consulted for practices of Yoruba ‘religions’ in the Diaspora. Descriptive and content analysis was utilized for data exposition.
