The Corruption of a People’s Culture

In earlier times and up till the 19th Century, among the Yoruba in western Nigeria, were traditional priests.

Their major responsibilities included the provision of guidance and counseling to the people in the area of religion, medicine, politics and commerce. They took care of the sick, the barren and the distressed.

For spiritual guidance and deliverance, people looked up only to them. And they must be consulted before a King could ascend a throne. The rectitude of an entire community revolved around them.

The traditional priests abhorred lies, deceit and unfairness in all ramifications. It was common then to see them clad in white apparel, apparently to display their individual state of transparent honesty. They were always afraid of the wrath of the gods who, they believed, had placed such enormous responsibilities on their mortal shoulders. And the traditional priests were never rich. It was their belief that material wealth would corrupt their spiritual attainment.

This was the state of affairs until the arrival of the so-called missionaries from England in early 19th Century.

While in the area now known as Nigeria, one of the most difficult assignments faced by these missionaries was in Yoruba land, in the western part of the country. It was here that they met an overwhelming civilization.

The people had a thriving textile industry. They had a monetary system under which cowry served as an instrument of exchange, a measure and store of value. The people knew Arithmetic and had a well-structured grammatical expression of their language in place. And their expertise in poetry, drama and other forms of arts were already legendary.

The Yoruba were spread over cities, towns and villages and under kingdoms where sophisticated social, economic and political dispensations held sway. It was indeed very shocking for the white missionaries to discover that the then Oyo Kingdom, for instance, was absolutely similar to their own United Kingdom in Europe.

This was a monarchical system of government headed by the Alaafin of Oyo just as the English had their Queen. And there was an equivalent to the English House of Lords that the Yoruba called The Oyomesi. Their proceedings and indeed, modus operandi were quite similar in content and practice with the English House of Lords.

The missionaries were aghast.

They had come to impress these Africans with an imported culture and orientation. But they had, only themselves, been impressed by what they met on the ground.

Unknown to the “natives”, the advent of these white strangers was the culmination of the earlier scramble for and the partition of the African continent by Europeans who wanted cheap access to cash crops and mineral deposits.

Through divinations and the benefits of hindsight, it was quite clear to the traditional priests that, in spite of their religious façade, the missionaries had the fundamental mission to prepare the mental ground toward the achievement of the political and economic objectives of their home government and financiers in England.

The traditional priests advised, cautioned and, indeed cried out in alarm against the strangers who, they warned, were emissaries of potential invaders. But the Kings of the respective domains would not listen, more so when many of them had already been dazzled with gifts of specially-crafted crowns, damask and other exotic items by the missionaries.

The greatest challenge faced by the strangers however came from the traditional priests. Their enormous power and influence over the people absolutely compounded the initial obstacles encountered by the missionaries in the accomplishment of their religious mission and political agenda.

Consequently, it took all the enticements, blackmail and divide-and-rule tactics they could muster to defeat these powerful traditional priests. The evil designs and wars of attrition against the traditional priests took quite a while to achieve success. But they finally did. And to consolidate their gains, the missionaries embarked upon a very ruthless campaign of calumny against the Yoruba culture and traditions, as practiced by the people.

Once again, the traditional priests warned their Kings against the activities of these missionaries.

   “Their sermonizing is a mere hypocritical ruse,” they warned.

But this time, they were roundly ignored by the Kings and most of the people who were curious about the stranger’s flamboyance and sweet promises.

And, finally, the traditional priests gave up!

Soon, the contradictions of the strangers began to manifest. The missionaries contemptuously referred to the traditional priests as evil witch doctors while calling themselves Men of God. Every aspect of the golden rules and moral regulations as contained in the Yoruba culture were summarily declared as superstitious even as the missionaries imposed their own brand of superstitions. Their superstitions started with:     

   “Thou shall not…”

The missionaries who had earlier condemned as idolatry, the practice whereby farm produces were offered as sacrifice, now turned around to request for the same items. They however branded their own requests as 

“Tithes” and “Harvest Thanksgivings”.

The missionaries who condemned the custodians of the Yoruba culture as evil cults soon proceeded to invite the potentially great among the new Yoruba converts to join the Lodges of Freemasonry, Odd Fellows, Sheperdson and others that were imported from England.

Yoruba avatars such as Obatala, Obaluaye, Sango and the rest of them were branded as evil principalities while their English counterparts were declared saints.

Medicinal herbs were described as evil concoctions. Yet, the same herbs were subsequently shipped to England and other European nations to be converted into pharmaceutical products.

The mental colonization of the Yoruba people, as it was with the other Nigerians, nay Africans in general, was finalized and cemented upon the arrival of British District Officers, administrators and civil servants.

Through intimidation and the acts of favoritism, they cajoled and persuaded the people to adopt English cultures. For instance, many of the Yoruba who had been converted into Christianity, especially those of them with English education, were strongly “persuaded” to jettison their culturally-rich, well-meaning African names to embrace strange, irrelevant names from England and the Middle East.  

Historically, the colonial lords discarded the names of African heroes and replaced them with names of the same individuals who invaded Africa.

Moral and religious references were no longer encouraged to be made to Yoruba heritage but to the “Galatians”, “Ephesus” and some other lost races and cultures in Europe and the Middle East.