Tag Archives: yemaja

Aganju and Yemaja

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This week’s reading on Aganju and Yemaja was of course an interesting one, as they all are. We are first introduced to both Aganju and Yemaja, “Mother of Fish,” who gives birth to Orungan. In the story, Orungan develops a lustful relationship with his mother and decides to pursue this, forcing his mother into relations with her. Yemaja is taken aback by this and rejects all his notions of having a romantic future together. What I found interesting about this, aside from the several counts of incest, was the fact that after this traumatic and painful experience of being taken advantage of by your son, creation follows. In most stories have seen or heard, things of this sort would often lead to catastrophe and destruction, but instead led to the creation of several Gods and Goddesses that in turn gave them rivers, agriculture, wealth, etc. In Yoruba mythology, Yemaja is the central role of a creator, and their origin story is one I am not familiar with at all. My confusion lies within the moments leading up to this creation, I think in one sense it’s obvious that Yemaja is birthing all these Gods from the ravishing that came from Orungan, on the other hand, I don’t know if the creation is coming from the pain and fear she is experiencing. I suppose the creation could be coming from both the traumatic experience and the pain, but would it make a difference if it was coming from one or the other? Regardless, a whole bunch of creations came from it and gave them new life and purposes, or maybe it’s just an optimistic perspective on something really disturbing.

Week 13: Nature is Violent

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Good afternoon, everyone. For today’s blog post, I want to discuss a crucial theme I noticed reading Aganju and Yemaja, nature is violent.

Aganju and Yemaja is a perfect example of a creation myth. Aganju and Yemaja are the children of Odudua and Obatala. The story says, “The name Aganju means uninhabited tract of country, wilderness, plain, or forest, and Yemaja, “Mother of fish” (yeye, mother; eja, fish). The offspring of the union of Heaven and Earth, that is, of Obatala and Odudua, may thus be said to represent Land and Water.” (Penguin pg. 168). The siblings marry and have a child named Orungan (Air), who falls in love with Yemaja and assaults her, which causes the creation of 15 new Gods.

This is where I believe the theme that Nature is violent really shines through. After Orungan sexually assaults his mother, she attempts to flee from him. “Orungan, however, rapidly gained upon her and was just stretching out his hand to seize her when she fell backward to the ground. Then her body immediately began to swell in a fearful manner, two streams of water gushed from her breasts, and her abdomen burst open…” (Penguin pg. 168). These two sentences depict truly jarring body-horror. Yemaja explodes after her being savagely taken advantage of – and her annihilation birthed deities representing natural occurrences like vegatables and different African rivers – but also human ideas like wealth and war.

This made me ask myself why, like so many other creation myths I’ve read in the past, the myth of Aganju and Yemaja depicts the creation of the world as we know it as such a disturbing event. I’ve mentioned in blogs of the past that the natural world exists under an equal parts chaotic and serene state. The natural world lacks the order we crave in human civilization; the “wild” isn’t governed. I mean, there’s a reason why we call it “the wild” or “wildlife.”

I apologize because I don’t have a clear enough idea of the relationship between violence and nature to end the post on a clear and concise note, but I do believe that we should ask ourselves to make a distinction between human violence and the violence of the natural world. For centuries, Americans alone have been using terms like “beasts” and “animals” to describe their enemies or people “below” them. The violence that humans commit on other humans is different than the violence that occurs in the natural world – but the comparison has done nothing to help us understand the world better. If anything, this type of language only works to solidify the absurd ego imbalance we are all accustom to.