Forms of Worship: How Orisa Worship Became Religion in Nigeria and Brazil
Forms of Worship: How Orisa Worship Became Religion in Nigeria and Brazil
by Ayodeji Ogunnaike
Duke University Press, 2026
ISBNs
Cloth: 978-1-4780-3344-8
Paper: 978-1-4780-3902-0
eISBN: 978-1-4780-9483-8 (OA)
eISBN: 978-1-4780-6265-3 (standard)
About the Book
The worship of Yoruba deities known as oriṣa is commonly understood as an indigenous African religion, but Ayodeji Ogunnaike argues that these traditions initially differed from the modern Western concept of religion. In Forms of Worship, Ogunnaike analyzes how the configuration of oriṣa worship has changed across the Yoruba diaspora and homeland. As the meaning of the Yoruba word ẹsin, usually translated as “religion,” is closer to “form of worship,” he examines how reorienting understandings of oriṣa traditions as multiple forms of worship changes how religious identity, practice, and dynamics can be understood in contemporary and historical perspectives. By developing indigenous models for religious phenomena, Ogunnaike accounts for Yoruba cultural dynamics, including the high degree of religious harmony, syncretism, and interaction prevalent both in Nigeria and Brazil. Furthermore, he tracks the subtle and largely unperceived shift in oriṣa worship toward a more modern, closed, and rigid conception of religion and its resulting complications. Forms of Worship demonstrates how the advent of Western religious rigidity regarding practice and identity has led to rising religious tensions and fragmentation.
About the Author
Ayodeji Ogunnaike is Assistant Professor of African Religions and Canada Research Chair (Tier 2) in the Globalization of African Religion and Yoruba Mythology at McGill University.
Reviews
-- Elias K. Bongmba, Harry & Hazel Chavanne Chair in Christian Theology, Rice University
“Every once in a while, a text like Forms of Worship emerges and offers new perspectives on some of the great historic faith traditions of the world. Ayodeji Ogunnaike expands the critical dialogue on the Orisa tradition with depth and nuance that students, devotees, and scholars will appreciate. An astute excavation and interpretation of Yorùbá presence and practice on both sides of the Atlantic.”
-- Elias K. Bongmba, Harry & Hazel Chavanne Chair in Christian Theology, Rice University
"Forms of Worship illustrates the evolution of Africa's most celebrated indigenous religious tradition into a modern religion in the Western sense, in the process retheorizing what "religion" can be. Ayodeji Ogunnaike models how spirituality should be studied, bringing together ethnographic and archival examples from Ede, Nigeria, and Salvador, Brazil to center ancestrality, living, doing, ethics, and practices rather than doctrine and creed. A major contribution."
-- Jacob K. Olupona, Hugh K. Foster Professor of African and African American Studies, Harvard University
-- Jacob K. Olupona, Hugh K. Foster Professor of African and African American Studies, Harvard University
Tags
Religious Cultures of African and African Diaspora People, African diaspora, Cults, Forms, African influences, Yoruba (African people), Worship, African Diaspora Religion Spirituality & Theology, Orisha religion, Afro-Brazilian religions, Brazil, Black Studies (Global), Cultural & Ethnic Studies, Religion, Social Science, History
Open Access Information
License: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
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