The demonisation of Esu

People who bind and denounce Esu- often called Satan or the Devil-in their prayer left the hall with a simple message: They have been barking up the wrong tree.

In a public lecture titled ‘Esu Elegbara: A Source of an Alter/Native Theory of African Literature', he delivered on Thursday, July 23 at the National Theatre, Lagos, Funso Aiyejina, a professor of Literatures at the Department of Liberal Arts, The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago, made some interesting disclosures about the identity and functions of Esu (pronounced ‘Eshu'), one of the gods in Yoruba cosmology.

During the lecture organised by the Centre for Black and African Arts and Civilization (CBAAC), Aiyejina cleared the air about some misconceptions about the deity, and highlighted how African writers have used the Esu motif to tell African stories in a bid to bring us back to our roots.

‘Let not your heart be troubled'

Aiyejina sought permission from traditionalists including Sango, Ifa and Yemoja (Mammy Water) priests in the audience who promptly consented before the compelling lecture. ‘The Apostle of Esu' also reassured non-traditionalists that he was not seeking to swell the ranks of Esu disciples.

"Let not your heart be troubled," he said. "There shall be no proselytizing. Actually, as many of you must know, the Yoruba tradition under which I shelter to deliver this lecture does not approve of proselytizing. It scorns the arrogance of those who insist that their deity is better than [another]. ‘Ona kan o wo ‘ja' (There are many routes to the market) is the retort with which the Yoruba mind responds to any such supremacist arrogance.

If the Yoruba tradition had not entrenched the principle of multiple options, a concept that is underscored in the re-tonalisation of Esu's praise name of Elegbara, as Elegba ara, that is, the one with many manifestations. Can you imagine how many religious wars we would have had to fight as devotees of four hundred and one deities go at one other's throats, each claiming that their deity is the only way to salvation?"

The lecturer said that he could not remember when his fascination with Esu began but that his relocation to the Caribbean from the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University) sharpened his intellectual engagement with the god.

On Esu's place in Yoruba philosophy, Aiyejina said: "Esu emerges as a divine trickster, a disguise-artist, a mischief-maker, a rebel, a challenger of orthodoxy, a shape-shifter, and an enforcer deity.

Esu is the keeper of the divine ase with which Olodumare created the universe; a neutral force who controls both the benevolent and the malevolent supernatural powers; he is the guardian of Orunmila's oracular utterances.

Without Esu to open the portals to the past and the future, Orunmila, the divination deity would be blind. As a neutral force, he straddles all realms and acts as an essential factor in any attempt to resolve the conflicts between contrasting but coterminous forces in the world.

"Although he is sometimes portrayed as whimsical, Esu is actually devoid of all emotions. He supports only those who perform prescribed sacrifices and acts in conformity with the moral laws of the universe as laid down by Olodumare.

As the deity of the ‘orita'-often defined as the crossroads but really a complex term that also refers to the front yard of a house, or the gateway to the various bodily orifices-it is Esu's duty to take sacrifices to target-deities. Without his intervention, the Yoruba people believe, no sacrifice, no matter how sumptuous, will be efficacious.

Philosophically speaking, Esu is the deity of choice and free will. So, while Ogun may be the deity of war and creativity and Orunmila the deity of wisdom, Esu is the deity of prescience, imagination, and criticism-literary or otherwise".

Lost in translation

The author of ‘I, The Supreme and Other Poems', condemned the popular definition of Esu as the devil/satan among some people, especially those who hold the Euro-Christian view.

He blamed, among others, the late Bishop Ajayi Crowther, who chose Satan as the Christian meaning of Esu in his translation of the Bible into Yoruba and bodies like the Church Missionary Society Bookshop and the University of London whose dictionary of Yoruba language reinforced Crowther's definition.

Aiyejina also blamed Africans for allowing Crowther and others get away with the manipulation. "If Africans had been less trusting and more cynical and suspicious, they would have wondered why the same translators of the Bible who saw nothing wrong with equating Satan with Esu did not find a near-equivalent Yoruba deity for Jesus Christ, instead of Yorubanising his name into Jesu Kristi.

If Satan translates into Esu because of some perceived incidental similarities between the two, how come Jesus does not translate into Orunmila, given the fact that Orunmila is as proverbial, wise, calm, peaceful and forbearing as Jesus?" he asked.

Writers to the rescue

The works of the pioneer Yoruba writer, Daniel Olorunfemi Fagunwa especially his ‘Ogboju Ode Ninu Igbo Irunmole' and ‘Irinkerindo Ninu Igbo Elegbeje', Aiyejina observed, re-echo the Euro-Christian demonization of Esu and African culture.

However, he noted that a crop of writers, including Wole Soyinka, who were influenced by Fagunwa's works were the first to reject his portrayal of Esu "in consonance with the interrogative nature of the Esu principle" and his constant challenge to orthodoxy and authority.

Painstakingly, Aiyejina identified what he called ‘Esu Moments' (when the trickster god tempts human beings and displays his other qualities) in ‘A Dance of the Forest' and ‘Death and the King's Horseman' by Soyinka and in ‘Esu and His Vagabond Minstrels' by Femi Osofisan.

Chinua Achebe in ‘Arrow of God', Ayi Kwei Armah in ‘Two Thousand Seasons' and Ama Ata Aidoo in ‘The Dilemma of a Ghost', the lecturer argued, queried slavery (one of the Esu moments of African leaders who chose to sell their people) and the conflicts arising there from, and European templates of African literature in their works.

Their kinsmen in the West Indies/ Caribbean, including George Lamming and Earl Lovelace, he added, have also not been found wanting in rejecting European paradigm of African literature and criticism.

Aiyejina commended writers' efforts at mining African cultures for paradigms to return us to the centre of our stories and urged critics to join the effort. "Have our critics embraced the need to match our writers with interpretations that are equally bold and native to our persons?

If our writers write of, and for us, do our critics practise their art of criticism in our interest? It would, of course, require another lecture to answer these questions.

Suffice it, then, to say that the challenge for our aspiring literary critics today is how (while mastering the plethora of imported cosmopolitan literary theories) they can generate their own theories that can speak to us as a people with a unique history and experience", Aiyejina concluded with a sustained applause from the audience.

The frills

Ceremonials including drama and speeches preceded Aiyejina's riveting lecture attended by adherents of various traditional religions, students, academics and heads of some culture agencies.

Hafiz Oyetoro and Gbenga Windapo presented a drama sketch that somewhat pre-empted the poet's thesis of Esu as an agent of mischief rather than the devil while the National Association of Nigerian Theatre Arts Practitioners (NANTAP)also did a cultural performance highlighting Esu's roles in the Yoruba cosmology.

Director General of CBAAC, Tunde Babawale, subsequently gave his welcome address. He said the success of a lecture held in May encouraged the parastatal to organise Thursday's Lecture.

"The content and reception of that lecture and the positive post-event discourse generated, point to the encouraging fact that the CBAAC Public Lecture Series is a step in the direction," he said, adding that "it is also important to emphasise that the essence of this series is not just to gather people for an ordinary feast of rhetorics, it is indeed a demonstration of our commitment to the good of public life, particularly to issues that border on Black African Affairs".

Chairman of the occasion, Olu Obafemi; chairman, board of CBAAC, Adesina Bakinson and chairman, Senate committee on Culture and Tourism, Bako Gassol all spoke in the same vein. They decried the demonisation of Esu and acknowledged CBAAC's role in projecting cultural heritage.

The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Tourism, Culture and National Orientation, Goke Adegoroye also commended the initiative of CBAAC, just as he agreed that there was a need for a paradigm shift in the theory and criticism of African literature.