The Many Gods of Yoruba Lore 

To the people of this illustrious channel, as a Yoruba/Igbo man. Thank you. Thank you so much for this. You've no idea how long I've waited for my country's mythology to be brought to the forefront. When my late father told me about our gods, it began my deep interest in world mythology. Fun fact, my great grand mother was the high priestess for Shango, my dad would tell me stories of how he'd follow her to the shrine and eat all the food offerings when she left. In my mother's words, "Your father was a rascal"

my favorite story is that Oshun questioned why the woman orisha couldn't participate in the meetings about how manage humanity if they were so powerful, they told her that it was simply none of their business. So, as the orisha of child bearing, she made impossible for women to continue their pregnancies. Seeing the chaos that ensued, the male orisha allowed her and the others to participate in the meetings

My favorite story is about Eshu's hat. One day Eshu passed by a village with a new hat. After he passes the people started a fight, because some people said that he was wearing a white hat and some people said that he was wearing a red hat. The fight was vicious and after some time they asked Eshu wich was the real color of the hat and in fact it was half red, half white. Eshu did it on purpose just to have fun about how people can fight over something as stupid as a color of a hat without ever considering that they can't see every point of view simultaneously.

As a disabled person, it’s very refreshing to see a religion with such a positive view of disability and visible deformities. Wish more faiths were like that.

Brazilian culture is deeply linked with West African religions and folklore, and is nice to see an episode on that! Umbanda and Candomblé are still very present in our culture, even though sometimes less aparently.

It's good to learn about the cultures of west and central Africa. Because they're often times neglected by the larger world.

I’m Ghanaian, so I don’t know much about Yoruba traditions, but this was a nice little video about the culture and the mythology of the Yoruba people! Thank you Storied!

1. The Yoruba aren’t a tribe. Just say ethnic-group. Not everything in Africa is tribal. Yorubas built cities, kingdoms, queendoms & a few empires (like Oyo) for thousands of years. 2. Olodumare is most commonly called “Olodumare”, not as often called Olofi. 3. The Orishas are not gods, but god-like. Only Olodumare is truly GOD. 4. Yemoja is a primordial Orisha, one of the 16 sent from Orun to help create earth & humanity. 5. There is more than one traditional creation-myth in Yoruba indigenous religion. 6. Both the Orisha Olokun & Obatala are traditionally gender fluid. 7. In some creation-myths Oduduwa isn’t helping Obatala. 8. In some creation-myths Yemoja “gives Obatala water”. According to Baale Olukunmi Egbelade-“Yemoja is the Orisa (deity) that brought water for Obatala-the creator, god, during the time man was moulded with clay by Obatala”. 9. Yemoja isn’t only the mother of Shango. Yemoja is “the metaphysical mother of ALL the Orishas”. And like Oduduwa is a Yoruba forefather, Yemoja is “the mother of humankind”, the Yoruba foremother. 10. There are hundreds of Orisha but only a few of them are core, irreplaceable, aspects of the religion. 11. Oshun is also responsible for the existence of traditional Iyalawos or “Mamalawos” (female-priests of Odu-Ifa). 12. Reincarnation doesn’t always happen, sometimes ancestors & loved-ones stay in the Afterlife or Orun. But, African reincarnation isn’t just different from Eastern concepts, because of “reincarnating in one’s blood line”. But many scholars point to that fact, that in African thought, ancestors can live in the Afterlife & simultaneously live or “partial-reincarnate” within their descendants. Peace.

Yemoja, or Iemanjá, is extremely popular here in Brazil. There are countless celebrations to her in New Year eve.

I'm omo Oshun and still learning, there is so much to learn. One of my favorite stories is actually about Ochoosi. Someone stole a bird he had hunted. He shot an arrow and commanded it to strike the thief and end their life. The one who took the bird was his mother. The moral is to be less quick to out of pure emotion and anger. It's a lesson I'm still working on. and yes, we always thank Eshu.

It's a shame that bearly anyone talks about african mythologies. They are all so intreasting and they deserve to get some of the spotlight.

Love this. I’m from Brazil and the Yoruba mythology has shaped candomblé. This video does a good job explaining the basis of the stories 👏🏼 👏🏼

I love yall for making this video. It's wonderful that more people can learn about Yoruba dieties. However, I wish you had enlisted one of the MANY Yoruba-speaking descendants who are historians here in the USA to help with this because the pronunciations of the names are killing, me! LOL.

I was introduced to Papa Legba as a child and found enormous love, appreciation and admiration for the other Orishas since. Whenever I see sunflowers, peacock feathers, vultures or bees I have a burst of love for Oshun. Oya has been a positive influence this last year and I am so grateful for the very real presence of Orishas in the world.

As a Nigerian whose maternal family originate and live in the ancient Yorùbá kingdom of Ilé Ìfẹ with the family being dedicated priests of Ifá (Ifaniyi) for generations but have now mass converted to Christianity in the last century, it warms my heart to see how far reaching Yoruba culture and her deities have gotten in the diaspora. It's great to see mainstream positive coverage of the culture after centuries of negatives. I hope this extends to the whole of Sub Saharan Africa as a whole culturally. Right now Nigeria is dominating worldwide with a cultural renaissance but I hope for a time when Black Africa as a whole is as dominant in world cultural output as Europe and North America is. Side note, please we're not a "tribe". I'm so sick of hearing that word used to describe ethnic groups, nations and peoples on the continent. The closest group that could fall into that classification of tribal are the pygmy people of the Congo or the San bushmen. Continuing to refer to complex nations of people as tribes is demeaning and patronising as well as a relic of the colonial age. It needs to be deleted from peoples' vocabularies

I love that PBS did this But I think next time get someone whom practices IFA to help with the pronunciations. Asè 🙏🏾📿

I’d love a video on the Lwa of Haitian Vodou mythology. I’m even writing a book about it based on my culture and stories I was told by elders growing up.

as a son of Oshun herself (Oxum in Brazil, OṢÙN in Yoruba), her stories always move me to tears. She taught me the power of compassion and inner beauty, as well as the importance of self love and appreciation for the beauty in the world. Since I started worshipping mother Oshun, she made sure I never went through financial struggles. I feel her blessings every day. Ora Yeye O, Osun 💛

I love the fact that African creation myths tend to have the only reference to people with imperfections and this culture's religion literally says that's why we should look out for them even more

So many diaspora cultures in latina America are influenced by the stories of the Yoruba, I'm a Puerto Rican who grew up with these tales and love seeing the rise in literature!

As a Yoruba man I'm happy that our stories are told. Hopefully all yoruba descendants in Africa and the Americas will unite one day to take their rightful place in the world.

My favorite Orisha is Obba. While there is only one story about her that survives, I love how it shows a capable woman who's love was used as a weapon against her, yet discovers love for herself. Obba being the Orisha of the home and defender of those mistreated by those they love is both powerful and comforting.

This series is amazing and love when West African mythology gets a chance in the spotlight. I hope for a future episode you can cover some of the Papuan mythology from New Guinea. They have some incredible stories that have unfortunately been overshadowed by sensationalist accounts and the difficulty of traversing the mountainous interior of the island to do field research.

As a Believer in this faith system, I truly appreciate this effort to explain the lore about the Yoruba pantheon of deities. However, the MISPRONUNCIATION of names is quite uncomfortable to hear...PLEASE TRY HARDER on this point. This is particularly important for this faith, as the concept of 'ofo ase' (or, "the power of utterance") is central to respectful descriptions. Thanks so much!

There is a pataki (story) within Ifa that says that hurricane season is the result of Yemaya's remembrance of the slaves lost during the trans Atlantic slave period. Her rage boils over as massive storms and she grieves.

Thank you for doing a video on Yoruba spirituality. I just have one little squick here: the pronunciation. It would be a good idea to actually talk to practitioners and Yoruba people, and listen to how they pronounce the names and terms. It's hard to listen to and I don't know if y'all are aware but even some of us mortals have a particular sensitivity about people mispronouncing our names when they're not actually difficult to pronounce properly. It's just kind of minimal respect to try.

Wonderful! As a Yoruba from Nigeria, I've been waiting for the time when Yoruba mythology would receive the attention that other prominent mythologies get aka Greek and Roman mythologies. Looks like that time has finally come. As you can see, Yoruba mythology is just as sophisticated as any of its peers. Thanks

Having grown up in Brasil I have been Blessed to know and worship these wonderful Orixas! Here Candomblé and Umbanda are widely practiced religious traditions built around the Orixás. This is beautiful!! Axé my friends!

I remember learning some of these names, especially Chango, while learning about Voodoo in New Orleans last year. It's cool to hear about their origin stories, so thank you for telling them.

As a West African, I am so proud to hear these stories finally being told.

I think this is my favorite episode of Fate and Fabled yet! The stories and presentation are terrific. Thanks for teaching me more about a culture I knew next to nothing about before today.

My boss is Yoruba, and he has twins! Thank you for helping me learn more about his rich culture ❤️

I really like that fact that Obatala watches over human with physical differences. So it's kind of built into the culture to care for such persons, like the very creator of humanity, rather than ostracize them. I also see it in the spirit of atunwaye that a parent who drinks is responsible for their children's condition, congenital or otherwise, and that it would be right to not do that in the first place, or at least care for them instead of abandoning them. Great example of mythology being a vehicle for social ethics.

Said politely: Your pronunciation of the names of the Orisha is in need of improvement. Obatala+ OH bah T lah, Oya: oi - yah, Olofin: OH low fin, Achè'= AH tchAY. Olokun: OH low koon. Eshu=AY shoe. 27 years initiated to Eshu Laroye.

Oya is my Orisha 💜🙏🏽 happy to see this being showcased 🥰

We need more like this. West African Folklore and History is VERY Neglected. The only thing I learned in this episode is the Oshun as a peacock story. That's interesting and I wonder how old it is since Peacocks aren't native to Africa or Yorubaland. Maybe they saw one through trade which shows we weren't isolated from the rest of the world. We as a People really need to know this stuff because they tell us our history begins with slavery and our ancestors didn't have a history in West and Central Africa before a European or Arab showed up.

I literally asked Storied to do a video like this one a while ago! I'm SO happy it did end up coming out! 🤩 I don't worship the orisha myself, but have been PASSIONATELY reading stories about them ever since I was a little kid. Also, a good friend of mine is a child of Oya, and told me she was possessed by Oya herself a few times! 😍 The cult of the orisha (called Candomblé where I live) is one of the main reasons I fell in love with West African traditions, alongside the existence of jeliw (people specialized in music, storytelling and/or the art of making speeches that were key figures in the Mali Empire, and remain important til this day). I've read about many of them helping the WHO as interpreters and communicators!

My ancestors were west African so seeing the yoruba tribe get covered makes me supper happy

The Orisha have heavenly orgins (Orun) but were believed to have lived on earth in a tropical paradise (Aye) of the Pacific Ocean, where they bring the chicken and sand from. Gold and Palm nuts come from the north. Olofin & Olokun, Obatala, Orunmila and Oshun all wear pacific symbols of spiritual protection. Thank you for sharing. Much love and Respect ❤

THANK YOU for this! Hoping to see MORE African and black inspired fantasy and medieval fantasy stories!

“Weird pronunciations” I thought, until I realized I know the syncretic Caribbean pronunciations of the African terms. Touché … self touché

Thank you so much for this video. Just a helpful pronunciation tip @ 2:25 it’s oh-bah-tah-LAH (Obatala) and oh-RUNE-mee-lah (Orunmila). Asé

This is amazing! I love all of the stories from around the world. Definitely going to be looking for more Yoruba lore 😍

Im so glad that this subject matter is getting more attention, however I really wish she could have done better with pronunciation or made a disclaimer in the beginning about poor pronunciation being excused

These pronunciations got me dying on my way home from work man

I am from Brazil. We also praticte Candomblé there. I learned a little bit of it. Your video is just stunning! Really thanks! i loved seeing all the stories I heard about. Laroyê Eshù! Ele é mojoba!

As a pantheist I love learning about deities I haven't heard of yet! Thank Eshu.

This is fantastic. I just finished the Raybearer books so I love the idea that more and more of this mythology is being recognized and shared. Please do more of these!!

Yorubá mythology is simply beautiful and full of teachings that still today are really useful :)

In Brazil the Youruba orishas are very important and well known here. It's good to see those stories spreading in the world.

Nobody understands how happy it made me to see my culture represented on my favorite channel! Pronunciation and spelling aside, this video was awesome.

I’ve just started reading Tomi Adoyemi’s second book in that series. I really enjoyed the first one & now I can understand it better with this knowledge! Thanks!

I love discovering new stories and myths from around the world. Thank you and more knowledge please!

Well done. Please make this a series. I would love to hear your team explore the variations of this cosmology throughout the continent as well as the diaspora and the ways that it has shaped history (such as during the Haitian revolution), popular culture and contemporary movements in literature.

this is probably one of the most concise explanation videos of Yoruba folklore i've found seen yet. many thanks!

There you have it, the chicken came before the egg. 3:58

Thank you Thank You Thank you Eshu for being our teacher, historian, and guide that sits between the mortal and immortal realms. This was an amazing video and I need to reorder my book on Yoruba mythology.

In Puerto Rico and Cuba this is also our lore and in a lot of our music😍 aché para todos

Finally, my people get their story told. Thank you ❤️

Love the channel, love this episode! I just finished a class where we went over goddesses and their place in culture and society which focused heavily on the goddesses of Yoruba culture! Glad to learn more outside of class.

Thank you so much for making this video, as a Nigerian American man it puts a smile to see the age-old beliefs of my tribe being talked about with respect and professionalism is just wonderful to see keep it up.

Love the subject matter, "yaruba" do be making the anime head-vein pop up ever so slightly tho 😆 💢

The illustrations for this episode are especially wonderful!

As a Brazilian man, and a workshiper of the Orixás, it's very interesting to hear the names of these deities like these. I'm a son of Xango and Iemanjá, and today i'll be offering some coins and candles to Exu. Exu is the one to call when you're distressed about finances, clients and more things of "material value". Great video, by the way. Love your content!

Thank you so much for this! The world needed this, and so did the diaspora.

This was fantastic! Very engaging narration with beautiful visuals and the ART! 😍😍 Really, this was awesome.

I'm a fantasy enthusiast and just learning more about my biological heritage. There's so very little information about West African mythology and yet its so rich and diverse. Please, I'd love more on the Yoruba myths!

The Yoruba are an ethnic group, not a tribe. The Yorubas have been one of the most urbanised culture and civilizations in Africa. Yorubas are not hunter gatherers. Great video though. The use of "tribe" is a misclassification, there are over 45 million Yoruba people in Nigeria alone.

my professor of African Drama, Dr. Femi Euba, wrote a whole book about Esu if anyone's interested in learning more about him :) In fact, he's written numerous books about ritual and Yoruba culture and African drama. He's pretty incredible, I've been very fortunate to learn from him here at LSU.

As a Yoruba man, I love how influential our culture is around the world even though some may not realize it. Especially love seeing it given spotlight such as this.

It’s always fascinating how the same themes are part of so many stories… floods and drought, thunder and lightning, constantly playing the most vital role in all the people of history!

I would love to see this channel cover the varied of Slavic gods and how it was intertwined with the diverse Slavic relation with nature and how it changed as Christianity came along Eastern Europe.

I need more of this alternative mythology!! OMG THIS IS SO GOOD

Never heard these before! They were fascinating, hope you can cover more like this in the future. :)

The eloquence with which you say the stories are excellent

She’s saying all of their names incorrectly… I wish they put in effort to respect their proper pronunciation. It would be a bit more respectful to take the time & get that right. These are not English names therefore not pronounced with English phonetics…

I'm so happy Yaruba mythology is getting more hype around the world! I love Yaruba mythology!!!

I'm Brazilian, and was basically raised into the religion since a very young age. I felt a bit sad that my Orixá (as we write around here) was not mentioned: Omolu, god of Earth, Diseases (and it's cures) and also deeply related to Life, Death and Reincarnation cycles. There are several stories about him, but the one I first heard was that he was born to a queen (the Orixá Naná) and that he had an apparently incurable disease. Naná, afraid, sent the child to the beach - either to die or to be raised by Yemanjá (depending on the version) - though I think the first one makes more sense, since he was left there for so long, crabs started to eat him alive. Yemanjá did eventually find him and use her power to heal him, nurturing him into a strong yet shy young man. This story goes on and on to explain how he got his clothing from Ogun (god of war and metallurgy) and how Oya figured out the shy Omolu was the god of Earth. I have a really deep fascination for this culture and it is really great to see it being talked about outside the place I was born in.

This was beautiful PBS we need more of this type of content. ❤

This was a super good vid,i love learning about cultures and taking inspiration from them in my stories and i had never heard of this mythology before so thanks for the inpiration ~eshu be thanked~

I would love to hear more about Oya- thought I’m still learning much about the stories in the region- i am just eager to listen and absorb

I like it that the Creator In this religion is both male and female or neither. And I think the idea that catastrophes can happen because your Gods and Goddesses have angered their own Deities, is great food for thought. Thank you🐝🤗❤️

Como to Salvador, Bahia, Brazil and see this folclore literally everywhere!!! Even within the Catholic church ❤ Axé 🙏🏽

It is great to see African and African-descendant religions represented here, but I would recommend paying a little more attention to the pronunciation of the names.

I’m BEGGING you to bring more! I love the Orisha and I am EAGER to learn more!

ENJOYED YOUR VIDEO. PLZ WORK ON THE PRONUNCIATIONS. IT MATTERS.

I’m a mythology and folklore addict. I started out with Norse and greek like most Americans. And spread out to my celtic heritage and then Slavic and native American. And I have been obsessed with pre-Christian mythologies all over the world. And I can’t get enough good pre-christian content at the moment. And African mythology is the one I really hope gets a massive renaissance. Note: nothing against Christianity in that comment. Just fascinated with the world before Christianity or Christian influence. And my interest at the moment is subsaharan Africa and the various regional variations. So I really hope you can give more content.

Greetings it is wonderful to see you telling the stories. I do have a serious ask. The pronunciations are quite different than how the words are spoken in Yoruba or Lucumi here in the Americas. There are many Babalawos and other practitioners who can assist and help you to pronounce. It would be wonderful to hear the names of our language be pronounced accurately because our languages are tonal. Thank You again for your wonderful contribution.

Thank you for sharing that. I found it engaging and loved the opportunity to learn.

I first discovered Yoruba mythology from the game Smite, (Olorun and Ymoja are playable deities in the game amongst gods and heroes of other pantheons). As I learn more, I'm seeing the influences in a lot of stuff today and it is absolutely fascinating.

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE INSIGHFUL PRESENTATION OF YORUBA. AS A NUYORICAN WITH SOME SANTERIA INFLUENCED BY MY AUNT i AM DEEPLY GRATEFUL. QUE VIVA CHANGO!!!!

Africa is rich with myths that barely been discussed with. I'm glad these are not yet lost

I've heard about most of them because of african religions such as Candomblé and Umbanda here in Brazil, very interesting video! I've always loved this aspect of our culture, even though it's very sad that we only have these cultures here because they were taken from their countries and their continent to be slaves here. Thank you for sharing about this rich and lovely mithology!

the pronunciation is killing me

It’s great to see this (at the time of this writing) new video find a significant number of viewers. Since its audience is way larger than most Ifá-related videos I watch on RU-vid-that are often made for & by Orisha practitioners- I wanted to let people who read this know that SO MANY names of Orisha are being mispronounced in this video. Lol, I hadn’t even heard some of the names spoken in this video, *ever spoken like they are here,* until now. Including the word Yoruba. No shade, all love 🤍

Nice piece.....thou d way u were butchering the names 😂😂😂

This channel just keeps getting better. Thank you for this.

Ase. Thank you for sharing about this often overlooked and rich tradition. May I suggest if you follow up on the topic, maybe have a Yoruba speaker so we can hear proper pronunciation of the names and Yoruba words.

i get so happy seeing stuff from my religion although umbanda isn't specifically mentioned, it's so lovely to see the mythology being spread

Olofin (under the name Olorun) and Yemoja are playable characters in the moba Smite.