Yoruba cosmovision in Nagô Candomblé

Abstract

This article aims to understand part of the rich Yoruba cosmology and its manifestation in Nagô Candomblé in Brazil. The Yoruba nation was one of the main African ethnic groups that was forcibly dispersed in the diaspora due to the slave trade. With this dispersion throughout the world, mainly in Latin America, the Yoruba culture, including its complex worldview and belief system, underwent several adaptations due to its social and geographic context, giving rise to the Candomblé religion, a religion born in Brazil with roots in the African continent. Yoruba culture is transmitted mainly through oral teaching, valuing the role of griots within the community. For this reason, the myths may present variations, but their essential core remains, such as the myth of the creation of the world, which in some narratives does not mention the figure of the five-fingered chicken. To understand the Yoruba nation and much of West Africa, scholars need to return to this mythology.

Keywords: Yoruba mythology. Nagô Candomblé. Nagô Candomblé worldview.