By Dickson Omobola
The Aare Onakakanfo of Yorubaland, Gani Adams, on Tuesday, urged the Yoruba to promote their culture and tradition, saying practitioners of the Yoruba traditional religion must not be condemned.
According to Adams, who spoke at the 2023 Elegbara Festival in Lagos, it is not right for the Yoruba to jettison their traditional practices for alien culture.
He lamented what he described as condemnation of the Yoruba peoples’ language, attire, deities, saying the Yoruba way of life is unique and must be valued always.
His words: “This festival is for the omniscient. Countries that are better than Nigeria don’t condemn their deities. Our colonisers support Manchester United, whose other name is Red Devil. All we are doing here is part of our culture and tradition into which we were born.
“Just like a musician sang, civilization is one reason that we have forgotten our culture and tradition. With civilization, we began to condemn our language, dresses and other things that portray us as Yoruba. The Yoruba should reflect. Anyone who wants to practise traditional religion should be allowed to do so in peace.
“Countries that we borrow from and patronise don’t condemn their culture. The Chinese that we borrow from are promoters of their culture and so are the Indians. It is sad also that today, the Yoruba are confronted by the constraints of ignorance, which has led us to abandon our culture, core values and identity.
“This has really affected the totality of our lives as a race. Therefore, efforts should be made to reinvent the glorious days. There is the need for us to go back to our roots and embrace what is truly important to us as a people.
“As an organisation, we are very determined to liberate our race and we will not relent in our efforts to seek the truth. We shall continue to correct the misconceptions about the spirit of Elegbara and that of other deities in Yorubaland.”
Source: Vanguard