-
Ɔbenfo Ọbádélé, NonMwenSe and 5 others12 Comments-
178,198
Abibitumi Points
Bẹ́ẹ̀ ni. Mo mọ̀yẹn.
1-
@Ɔbenfo Ọbádélé I spoke to an elder sister who owns a shop in Harlem and when I asked about this she seemed a little confused/defensive. “Ah not everyone is going to say this, you can say alaafia!” When I brought this up to my Babalawo he actually started using it more. It’s interesting when tapping back into our indigenous culture/languages that you see the hand prints colonization has left in all aspects
1-
178,198
Abibitumi Points
@Zay isft is real
-
-
-
178,198
Abibitumi Points
Yeah, I don’t use that at all intentionally.
2 -
Yup learned about this at the beginning of this journey. Glad I never got a chance to use it lol. On a related note found out a while back that “Yoruba” is not the proper name for the people that are currently identified by that namesake. Been looking for more clarity on that. Haven’t found anything substantial. Not yet at least. This brings up a point though. I think going with “umbrella” terms as per usual paints the wrong picture about history. For instance I think it makes more sense to say something such as The Asante did this and that and then note that they are Akan rather than say The Akan did this or that when there are many subgroups of the Akan and maybe even subgroups within those subgroups that have carved out their own history.
1-
@nonmwense-abibi where you been — it’s been a minute!
1-
@taharka2018 Just seen this. Hope you are doing well. As for me, just been really busy. But I’m here ✊🏿
-
@nonmwense-abibi Understood — we gotta catch up some time!
1
-
-
-
-
@NonMwenSe you’re spot on, what’s even crazier is how defensive native some Yoruba get when you bring that up. Even the term “Yoruba” like you said. From the ones I’ve brought it up to they either scoff and tell me to just use alaafia, or they say you wouldn’t use it in that context. Though they never deny it, just argue. As for the correct terms you were asking about, I briefly heard Obenfo speak on that. Correct me but I believe back then they would just use their respective group names vs the umbrella. Like you & Obenfo have said, we know Yoruba is an exonym, used by outsiders to describe us. But you see all the remnants of colonization throughout our culture. If even learning our indigenous words is difficult or being erased then we can only imagine how much the rest of our culture has been tainted; spiritual systems, food, medicine etc. I’ve seen first hand with trying to adopt Ifa and speaking to the Babalawo( and many others) how corrupted its become. I spoke to another elder who introduced me to the Ifa circle and even speaking on this same subject about language/correct terms, he said to me “ well why does that really matter”.
I replied “well why would you purposefully do the wrong thing even when you know what’s right”. This is how knowledge gets lost. Man this conversation can get deep cousin.
3-
@Zay Yup, the cognitive dissonance is crazy. And yup, corruption everywhere. The red flags be obvious tho which makes navigating rather easy actually. The moment I hear things like, “well why does that really matter”, as you mentioned, I already know what the deal is. It is what it is tho. I make moves regardless.
1 -
@Zay when we visited Oyo Tunji everyone greeted us with alaafia. I don’t think they know it has an arab origin.
-
-
32,455
Abibitumi Points
-
