Thursday, July 23, 2009

Ashe' RT4

Mr. Peters is a man after my own Voudun heart:


The Orisha depicted here is named Yemoja (many spellings, Yemaja, Yemalla, Jemoja, many more...). She is the Yoruba Goddess of the oceans and hence the mother of life itself. You could look at her as the mother of the world and her personality traits are indicative of that role...understanding, patient, loving, and nuturing.

One interesting theory on a diaspora manifestation of Yemoja is that Quaker Oats' famous syrup product "Aunt Jemima" actually originated from a slave term for the "motherly figure" or "mammy archetype" on southern plantations.....note the similarities in the names (the Y is actually pronounced with a "Juh" sound....as in "Juh-mo-Jah") and the similar semantic constructs of the two terms. Aunt Jemima may have been Yemoja herself.

Bet you didn't know you were putting Voodoo on your pancakes before you went to church every Sunday.

Western scholars assume Jemima is reference to Job's daughter in the Old Testament....which is a typical scholarly assumption....they just can't stand to think that an archetype could have developed independently from the Western mind, especially if it wasn't written down somewhere.

Once again its important to note that Yoruba Cosmology is an oral tradition, not written, therefore its impossible to "scientifically prove" anything in the religion. That, of course, is by design as the priniciple of Ashe' is infinite and cannot be defined. The recognition of Ashe' is called Itutu and the color which is always associated with it is blue....no coincidence that Yemoja's color is blue as well....her love runs as deep as the ocean itself.

RT4! Be there....and even if you can't...DONATE!!!!

1 comment:

Mina said...

Interesting entry about mama. I'd never heard that before. But it makes perfect sense that Yemoja would have be guardian of the mammy archetype. How else could those women have loved to deeply, so unconditionally, to give the nourishment of their breasts to the children of their enslavers. thanks for this perspective. :-)