By OLUWANBEPELUMI A. Pelumi-Folarin
Many civilizations of the world can comfortably claim a distinction between culture and spirituality. They may speak of tradition on one hand and faith on the other, separating social customs from metaphysical belief. But Africans, particularly the Yoruba, cannot honestly make such a claim. In the African worldview, culture and spirituality are not parallel systems; they are inseparable strands of a single fabric.
African culture and spirituality are like two colors of wool woven into one elegant cloth: distinct in shade yet impossible to unravel without destroying the whole. Among the Yoruba of West Africa, whose major population is concentrated in present-day Western Nigeria, this unity is especially pronounced. Yoruba spirituality is the salt of Yoruba culture: it is what gives meaning, flavor, and coherence to every cultural expression. Remove spirituality from Yoruba culture, and what remains may still appear beautiful, but it becomes fundamentally tasteless: ritual without essence, form without spirit.
From naming ceremonies to marriage rites, from burial practices to kingship institutions, from artistic motifs to moral codes, Yoruba culture is not merely influenced by spirituality; it is structured by it. The concepts of Aṣẹ (cosmic authority), Iwa (character), Ori (inner destiny), and the living presence of the Orisa are not religious accessories added onto social life: they are the philosophical foundations upon which Yoruba civilization was built. Culture, in this sense, is not performance; it is metaphysics made visible.
“Yoruba spirituality is the salt of Yoruba culture: it is what gives meaning, flavor, and coherence to every cultural expression. Remove spirituality from Yoruba culture, and what remains may still appear beautiful, but it becomes fundamentally tasteless—ritual without essence, form without spirit.“
Pelumi-Folarin
Yet, it is precisely this organic unity that modernity, colonial ideology, and imported religious absolutism have attempted to fracture. In the name of “progress,” Yoruba spirituality has often been reduced to folklore, demonized as superstition, or relegated to the margins of public life. What remains is a culture increasingly stripped of its inner logic: celebrated in festivals, attire, and proverbs, yet disconnected from the spiritual consciousness that once animated them.
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This is the crisis steering contemporary Yoruba civilization: a people practicing the outer symbols of identity while being estranged from the inner principles that give those symbols meaning. A culture without its spiritual core becomes a museum artifact: preserved, admired, but no longer alive.
It is for this reason that the role of the Ìṣẹ̀ṣe community cannot be overstated. Those who have remained faithful to indigenous Yoruba spirituality are not merely custodians of ritual; they are guardians of a complete epistemology: a way of knowing, being, and organizing life. They preserve not only ceremonies but also cosmology, ethics, and metaphysical orientation. In safeguarding the spiritual foundations of Yoruba life, they safeguard Yoruba culture itself.
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Every person who identifies as Yoruba owes a profound debt of gratitude to this community. Their persistence ensures that Yoruba identity remains more than a costume worn for cultural display. It remains a living civilization: rooted in ancestral wisdom, governed by cosmic order, and guided by an understanding of existence that predates colonial borders and imported absolutes.
To reclaim Yoruba culture, therefore, is not merely to revive language, fashion, or festivals. It is to return to the spiritual grammar that structures Yoruba reality. For in truth, Yoruba spirituality is not separate from Yoruba culture. It is its essence. It is its salt.
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My next focus is on: What Happens When Yoruba Culture Loses Its Spiritual Core?
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