Comparison of the Christian and the Yoruba Creation Stories - Essay Example

Comparison of the Christian and the Yoruba Creation Stories Affiliation: Introduction Creations stories vary across the world, every civilization acknowledge the fact that there is a higher power that created the world, and the people. The stories are passed on from one generation to another through word of mouth, journals and books. Although they come from different corners of the world these stories share surprising similarities and differences. In this study we are going to focus on the Yoruba people version compared to the Christian version of creation (Mary, 2009). The Yoruba people come from various parts of West Africa namely, Benin, Nigeria, Togo. According to the Yoruba people, they do believe in a supreme power or being known as Olorun, these Olorun have assisting beings known as Orishas (David, 1991).The Yoruba people believe that before people existed, all manner of life was in the skies where the Olorun and the Orishas lived. The Orishas existed as male and female but the Olorun transformed from male to female and was the most supreme. Olorun and Orishas lived in a baobab tree which provided them with everything that they wanted in their lives including gold and clothing. The Olorun gave them permission to explore over all the skies, but most were happy to stay at the Tree except one Orisha named Obatala. Like the other Orishas, Obatala had powers and when he looked down from the skies, he saw an empty planet covered in water, he wanted to use these powers to create land so that there could be beings that he and his fellow Orishas could help with the powers that they have. Obatala went to Olorun the Supreme Being to ask for permission to be sent to the world below them where he agreed. Obatala went to Orunmila, the future telling orisha to ask what he must do for the task ahead. Orunmila told Obatala to prepare certain items like maize, sand, palm nuts and also a certain egg that had the personalities of all the Orishas. Obatala melted all the gold that he received from his fellow Orishas and with the help of a goldsmith made it into a long chain (David, 1991). He hooked the chain into the skies and climbed down. This journey took him seven days. With the help of a future telling orisha, Orunmila. He poured the sand into the vast waters to his surprise it solidified to make land. As he hangs on his chain, the egg carrying all the spirits of the Orishas cracked, from it flew a bird named Sankofa and as a result the sand blew to make hills, valleys, mountains. After seeing the results, he let go of the chain and fell into the land and later called it “Ife” which means the place that divides waters. As he explored the land he went scattering the seeds which sprouted into trees and the place turned green (Jamie, 1996). As he bent over to drink some water from a pond after his long journey, he saw his image and got really impressed. He took clay from the pond and made it into his own image. He made many more of these forms and after he got really thirsty he made wine from palm trees and got intoxicated which lead him to making some disfigured forms, but he still thought they were beautiful. Olorun, the Supreme Being sent a chameleon to check on the progress, the report was that the forms had no life. Obatala gathered gasses from the skies, sparked them into a fireball and threw them to Ife. The fire dried the still wet parts of the earth and sent it spinning and he also breathed life into the forms and made them come to life (Philip, 1996). The Christian creation stories tell of God as the all powerful creator. In the beginning God created the universe, creation took six days. In the first day God saw that the world was shapeless and covered in darkness and his spirit hovered over the earth’s waters, and he said, “Let there be light”, And it came to be. He divided the darkness from light and named them night and day. On the second day God made the heavens to separate the water from the earth and the third he raised the dry land from the waters below the heavens and commanded the earth to bring forth all plants. The dry ground was to be known as “land”, and waters “seas”. On the fourth day, he created the moon, stars, the sun to serve as signs to mark days, seasons and years (Mary, 2009). On day five God created every living thing in the seas, and also the birds and ordered them to multiply to fill the skies and waters with life, he also created animals to fill the earth. The sixth day is perceived by most Christians as the most important because this is when God made man and woman to his own image. Adam was created by God out of soil and given life by his breath. He named them Adam and Eve and gave them authority over all living things. God looked at everything that he had made and was very pleased. On the seventh day, God rested. Adam named all the animals and birds and the sea creatures, but he lacked a companion. God caused Adam to fall into a deep sleep and created Woman from Adam’s ribs. He blessed them to fill the earth with their offsprings (American Bible Society, 2013). This two creation stories have various similarities for instance the belief in a supreme being, the Yoruba have their main god being Olorun, which is similar to the Christians because they also have a supreme being, God. We also note that both God and Olorun are responsible for giving the lifeless figure’s life. Another similarity that can be pointed out is both God in the case of Christianity and Obatala who was the creator in the Yoruba story is that they were both very amused with their works of creation. Both of them are also perceived to reside in the heavens above. There are many differences between the Yoruba and Christian stories of creation. The Yoruba people creation story depicts Obatala as the creator and he is not the supreme being which is very different to the Christian belief that God who is the supreme being created Adam and Eve to his own image. This shows that the Yoruba’s Supreme Being, Olorun played the role of overseeing creation. Another difference is that the Yoruba believe in various gods, there is the Olorun who is the Supreme Being and he has lesser gods known as Orishas. Christians believe in a single supreme being, God. Another difference is that the Christian story of creation clearly shows the number of days God spent in creation, it also points out the specific sex of his first human Adam it also shows how the days came to be separated from night and henceforth while the Yoruba story does not show the specific details of creation (Mary, 2009). In conclusion, different cultures from different parts of the world have different stories of creation. The Yoruba believe that the world came to be as a result of a curious lesser god who wanted to create other life form whom they would help with their powers while the Christians believe in a supreme God, who created the universe in days and also rested. The Yoruba story also shows their creator as vulnerable like in the instance where he became intoxicated with wine making disfigured forms. It is important to study and learn the creation stories of various communities and accept the diversity around the world. References David A. Anderson. (1991). The Origin Of Life on Earth: An African Creation Myth Jamie Hetfield. (1996). The Yoruba of West Africa Phillip Koslow. (1996). Yoruba land: The Flowering of Genius. Kingdoms of Africa Mary Fairchild. (2009). The Creation Story Web Genesis 1:1-2:3 Retrieved From: http://christianity.about.com/od/biblestorysummaries/p/creationstory American Bible Society. (2013). Good News Translation Retrieved From: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+1&version=GNT Read More