Obatala- Yoruba GodDeity"King of the White Cloth"

The Creator's Hands

Olodumare, the Supreme Being, entrusted Obatala alone with sculpting human bodies from clay. No other orisha received this task. Obatala would shape each form, and then Olodumare would breathe the divine breath, emi, into it.

In the beginning, Obatala worked with meticulous care. But one day he drank too much palm wine before sitting down to his clay. His hands grew unsteady. The bodies he molded came out with missing limbs and sightless eyes. When he sobered and saw what he had done, Obatala swore a permanent oath: he would never touch palm wine again. He declared himself the eternal protector of those his drunkenness had shaped.

People with physical differences were called eni orisha, "people of the orisha," and were often dedicated to his service. Albinos were considered his special children, their whiteness a visible mark of his hand.

The Golden Chain

Olodumare assigned Obatala to create the earth itself. He was given a golden chain to descend on and a snail shell filled with sand. A white hen would scratch the sand into solid ground.

During his descent, Obatala stopped at a feast and drank palm wine again. While he slept, Oduduwa seized the divine implements and completed the mission. He descended on the golden chain, poured the sand upon the waters, and set the white hen upon it. The hen scratched and spread the sand outward. The earth formed, with Ile-Ife at its center.

Oduduwa became creator of the earth and progenitor of the Yoruba people. Obatala kept the shaping of human bodies and moral authority over the divine community. The elder orisha's failure through palm wine, the same substance that marred his sculpting, divided the world between two creators.

The Imprisonment at Oyo

Obatala set out on a journey. Despite receiving warnings through divination, he refused to make the prescribed sacrifices before traveling. On the road, he encountered Eshu, who had been offended by this neglect. Eshu arranged for Obatala to be falsely accused of stealing a horse belonging to the king of Oyo.

Obatala was seized and thrown into a dungeon, where he remained for seven years. He never revealed his true identity. He never cried out in anger. Meanwhile, Oyo suffered: drought withered the crops, women became barren, disease spread through the kingdom.

Finally, a diviner revealed that the kingdom's misfortune stemmed from the wrongful imprisonment of a great orisha. The king ordered the prisoner brought before him, recognized Obatala, and begged forgiveness. Obatala was released with elaborate ceremony. The rains returned.

The Chains of the Deep

When the primordial ocean threatened to engulf the newly created earth, Olodumare sent Obatala to restrain it. Olokun, orisha of the ocean, had allowed the waters to rise unchecked. The land that Oduduwa had created was in danger of being swallowed.

Obatala descended to the ocean floor carrying great chains and bound Olokun to the sea bottom. The chains held. The waters retreated to their boundaries. The earth was preserved.

In many traditions, only those who have received Obatala can approach Olokun in worship. The chain-bearer must stand between the devotee and the unchained deep.