Tope Alabi is being pilloried for using words in Yoruba traditional religion liturgy (aboru boye. etc) to push home her gospel music message. Majolagbe Abebi, in this piece, contributes to the debate
Majolagbe Abebi
I will continually be appalled by Christians and Nigerians who decide that everything Yoruba is fetish solely based on their ignorance of the Yoruba language. Most people don’t understand the language beyond conversational words.
The problem with not understanding the depths and uses of your own language is why we spiritualize everything rather than appreciate the beauty of the language.
Yoruba have tradition, culture, history none of which is paganism. We keep mixing spirituality and religion with culture.
I love Tope Alabi for her use of language, her depths and dexterity in Yoruba language just makes me so proud. And you all need to stop worrying about her salvation, God will not ask you about her on judgement day. Worry about yourself.
In fact I have seen a Pentecostal pastor said to not call God Eledumare. He said the word Eledumare is not biblical and that was a Yoruba person speaking.
How many of us can truly strew beautiful words in Yoruba language to eulogize Eledumare beyond just basic kindergarten level words that we will exhaust in few minutes. But we criticize someone talented with that gift
I don’t care about Tope Alabi s holiness- an she and God get that one. Do I stand totally in awe of God when she sings, yes I do. Do I appreciate the beauty of my language when she sings ? Yes I do. Colonization you do this one o.
Mo ru ebo ope fun Eledumare, aboru aboye. May all our sacrifices be acceptable in God’s presence.
With the way we despise our own indigenous language and our very limited Yoruba vocabulary nowadays . People who predicted the extinction of the language are not lying after all, I can’t even begin to imagine the lack of identity the next generation will have to deal with.
Many black people around the world have a deep rooted feeling of loss , they crave to know where they come from , the culture, their history they subscribe to ancestry research.
But here we are in our own space throwing away what’s ours because Pentecostalism is like pop culture and we are all woke. O ti da!
Our values are eroded because we don’t use Yoruba proverbs, idioms, storytelling to instill them any longer, our Yoruba names are now anglicized why will everything not be sounding fetish in our ears. In fact some class of people consider you ratchet for speaking Yoruba.
*Majolagbe Abebi, a former Admin Staffer of TheNEWS/PMNEWS, writes from the United States