My Favorite Yoruba Deities

Hello guys how have you been? Hope it's still Christmas lights and bliss with you?

Today, I'll tell you about my favorite Yoruba deity. His name was Sango. I'm yoruba by origin and we rever Sango as the god of lightning.

As with many myths, the origin of the protagonist is controversial. One myth says that he's the son of Yemaja. In this myth, he burst out of his mother's body and he came with a few others. This happened when she was going to be raped by her son Orugun the second time.

It so happened that some people didn't accept this as his true origin story. Some others believed that he was the son of the white clothed god Obatala and Aganju. Obatala was taking a walk when he got to Aganju's river. Aganju refused him passage, so Obatala went back, changed into a woman, and traded her body for passage.

The king of Oyo then - Ajaka - was at war with his cousin Olowu of Owu. The king of Owu ordered for the capture of the Alaafin of oyo. In a bid to save the king, Sango was sent for, and after the rescue, Ajaka was exiled, and Sango was crowned king. Sango was so powerful that prior to now, he had gone to look for Aganju and walked in a lake of fire to prove his heritage!

When he became king, he had two people that were next in hierarchy. The first was Timi Agbale Olofa-ina who was said to be able to shoot arrows of fire. The second was Gbonka who was just as powerful.

Now, the king's wife -oya- trying to prevent the king from being overthrown by his two generals asked that he got rid of them. He told them to go and rule surrounding towns he had conquered, and Timi went to a place called Ede. Gbonka stayed back. The king then sent Gbonka to capture Timi. When they came back, Sango -the Alaafin of Oyo-trying to get rid of them asked them to fight again as he believed the match in Ede was staged. They did, and Gbonka defeated Timi.

The king ordered Gbonka burnt and he was. But after three days, Gbonka appeared again and asked that the king vacate the throne. Sango then asked his wife Oya for his "Edun Ara" (one of his charms). But he found menstrual blood on it and he was infuriated. In his anger, he decided to go out and reaffirm the potency of his lightning powers. He went to the top of a rock facing the palace and summoned so much lightning that he burnt down the whole palace.

He was remorseful and decided to leave Oyo. His royal cult followed him trying to convince him to stay, but he didn't listen. After a lot of persuasion, some of the cult left him at a place called koso. They ended up spreading the rumor that he hung himself. The ones who stayed with him one the truth. Gbonka appeared but Sango was too sad for confrontation and decided to disappear into think air. As soon as he disappeared, he was seen in the sky in flaming fire, striking at Gbonka, destroying him with lightning. Also, he visited everyone saying he hung himself. He didn't stop until his heart was content. So to appease him, he became known as "Oba Olukoso" or "Obakoso". This means the god that didn't hang.

When a true yoruba man sees lightning in the sky, he shudders in reverential fear of Sango.

Other gods worthy of mention are Obatala (very associated with creation), Esu (the god of mischief), Ogun (the god of iron) Osun, Oba, and Oya (the goddess wives of Sango).

I believe that Sango is still one of the most worshipped deities ever. He isn't associated with omniscience or so those other crazy things associated with the Abrahamic religions'God, but he was at least near omnipotent. There wasn't really why defined limit to what he could or couldn't do.

I'll probably talk about another yoruba good tomorrow.

I hope you guys enjoyed reading this story as much as I loved telling it.

I dedicate this writing to @Theblackdoll .I hope you liked the story.

Cheers.