African Folklore: An Encyclopedia - Marshalls University

African Americans 661
A very large number of African American men and women have been initiated in Oyo
Tunji by Kabiyesi (Yoruba, “royal highness”) Queen Iy Orite and others since 1970.
These priests and priestesses maintain close and continuous ties with the community,
although many have chosen not to remain permanently in Oyo Tunji. They have
dispersed throughout the United States to found small religious satellites of Oyo Tunji in
Chicago, Indiana, Wisconsin, New York, Virginia, Florida, and Los Angeles. The major
deities (orisha) are conceived as embodiments of organic, supernatural, and mortal power
that often calibrate with numerology and astrology. Thus, Orunmila (while equated with
the domain of Ifa divination among the Yoruba in Africa) is associated with the Sun.
Olokun (a deity associated with rulership and wealth in the ancient Nigerian Benin
kingdom) is identified with the planet Neptune and the sign Pisces. In Oyo Tunji, Olokun
is also conceptualized as the] deity representing the souls of all descendants of Africans
transferred from their homeland by ships sailing the Atlantic Ocean and, as such, serves
as the patron deity of all African Americans. Obatala (the creation deity who first molded
humans from earth) is the patron deity of Oyo Tunji and the one with the most initiates.
Obatala is linked with the planet Jupiter and the sign Sagittarius. Sango (whose domain is
thunder and who was a former king of old Oyo, an ancient Yoruba city) is governed by
Uranus and linked to Aquarius. Yemoj (the mother of deities not born by Nanan), seen in
Oyo Tunji as a powerful iyami (enchantress), governs the Gelede society organized by
men to honor elderly women of tremendous spiritual authority. As a moon goddess,
Yemoj is connected with the sign of Cancer and the numbers 4 and 7. Esu-Elegba, the
prankster, is seen as, simultaneously, the youngest and the oldest of all the deities. He is
linked to the planet Mercury, the signs Gemini and Virgo, and the numbers 1, 3, 11, and
21. His domains are the marketplace and the crossroads. He possesses the spiritual force
to open and close roads and place or remove obstacles, all metaphors for positive or
negative opportunities and success or failure.
In Oyo Tunji, a separate temple complex exists for each deity, which includes the
main shrine, a smaller shrine for the Esu-Elegba of the deity, and a building where
initiates are housed during their seclusion. Priests and priestesses function as diviners and
herbalists who provide guidance for the inhabitants of Oyo Tunji, as well as visitors or
local South Carolinians. They combine healing with herbs, fasting, divination, palmistry,
tarot cards, numerology, and astrology.
Known ancestors are honored by paintings, photos, and Egungun cloth ensembles, as
in Africa, while unknown ancestors are determined by roots-reading divinations and
honored by fresh water, flowers, candles, and prayers. An innovation introduced in Oyo
Tunji is the initiation of women into the Egungun society.
Finally, the visual culture of Oyo Tunji exemplifies a deliberate creative project that
departs from the mainstream, exhibition-directed arts created by many African American
artists, who position themselves within the American mainstream. In contrast, Oyo
Tunjians look toward conventional Yoruba art forms still commonplace in the African
homeland and available through African art books, journals, or early ethnographies.
In sum, Oyo Tunji occupies a unique place among African diaspora communities; it is
a uniquely intellectual entity, consciously created by African Americans as a counterpoint
to, and revitalization effort within, mainstream American society and culture. Rooted in
West African Yoruba religious, sociopolitical, and artistic epistemologies, Oyo Tunji
testifies to the agency and activity of African Americans in the diaspora.