Obaluaye- Yoruba GodDeity"Lord of the Earth"
Also known as: Ọbalúyé, Sopona, Ṣọ̀pọ̀nná, Shopona, and Shakpana
Description
When disease ravaged his own body as punishment for breaking divine law, the other orishas recoiled in horror. Only Oya stayed, fanning the flies from his open sores. Now draped in raffia that hides his scarred skin, Obaluaye wields the same pestilence that marked him, and the power to lift it.
Mythology & Lore
The Exile of the Scarred God
Obaluaye was not always the orisha of pestilence. He violated a sacred prohibition and the punishment came in his own flesh. Disease erupted across his body, covering him in the pustules of smallpox until his appearance became unbearable. The other orishas, repulsed, drove him from their company.
He wandered in exile, isolated and suffering, his open sores drawing flies in the heat. No one would shelter him. But Oya, the orisha of storms, refused to abandon him. She walked beside the outcast and used her wind to fan the insects from his wounds.
The Lord Behind the Raffia
Obaluaye's body is forever concealed beneath garments of raffia grass. His primary instrument is the já, a broom of bound palm ribs: he can sweep illness into a community or sweep it away. Popcorn is sacred to him, its burst white kernels recalling the pustules that mark his skin.
The British colonial government in Nigeria banned the worship of Shopona, his Yoruba name meaning "Hot Earth," in 1907, fearing his priests held the power to unleash smallpox deliberately. The ban drove his veneration underground but could not extinguish it.
Relationships
- Family