Original subtitles

hey there I'm Mike Rugnetta this is

crash course mythology and today we're

going to finish up our look at Pantheon

with African gods

now some crash course fans are already

scratching their head because they know

that it's very hard to speak of African

anything without drastically

oversimplifying if enormous and filled

with diverse people Africa as the saying

goes is not a country it is however a

song by the 80s band toto maybe some

karaoke later toe-to-toe

since way down in Africa there is no one

African mythology or Pantheon just like

there's no single Native American or

Asian mythology there are similarities

in the stories of different groups but

no one consistent family of gods so this

episode is going to focus on an African

people with a well-documented set of

deities the Yoruba of western Africa in

particular we're going to look at their

pantheon of Orisha

and one very wise chameleon

[Music]

yoruba is a language and the term used

to describe the people who speak it your

River people live in the region around

the Bight of Benin in the countries that

are now Benin Togo Nigeria Ghana and

Sierra Leone these regions are important

they're home to millions of Africans and

we're also centers of the African slave

trade meaning Yoruba traditions travels

from Africa to the Caribbean Latin

America and North America some of these

traditions have been modified and

translated into the set of practices

called Voodoo in Haiti probably you know

the best is voodoo vodoun is a word in

the fun language that means spirit

narubu myth however are not the

equivalent of voodoo and most voodoo

cults are actually a lot less intense

than what you've seen in like horror

movies and stuff the Yoruba region is

currently home to many religions

including Christianity and Islam the

fact that the Yoruba people have

maintained their Orisha stories in the

face of other religious tradition is a

testament to the power and importance of

this cultural heritage the arisia

stories are similar in this way to the

Native American myths okay

now let's meet the team Alisha's are the

gods and semi-divine heroes of Yoruba

culture according to Alex Koko

there are countless deities in the

Yoruba Pantheon of arisia

and each one of them in one way or

another has accomplished deed whereby

the ancestors thought it was worthwhile

to include them in their oral traditions

of storytelling known as eaten out of

the hundreds of orishas there are a

dozen or so that feature prominently in

the myths not unlike the twelve

Olympians first there's ol Arun a klo

dumar is sometimes hyphenated he's the

great sky father it adds and ultimately

responsible for the creation of world

order then there is su the trickster T

like many tricksters represents accident

and the uncertainty of life we'll look

at him more closely in a later episode o

goon is the giver of iron who is also a

hunter and a warrior like in the Greek

pantheon not all gods pare monogamously

ogoun had lovers including oh yeah

or on me on a son of a goon is another

warrior and also a fertility God of

sorts being the creator of dry land and

the shaper of infants

before their births so if you know

someone having a sonogram tell them

about around me on that's his handiwork

Ola kun is the god or goddess of oceans

and Alisa is the goddess of lagoons so I

imagine there are some arguments over

who has jurisdiction over Inlet as with

other pantheon some areas have dominion

over natural phenomena as well

the arisia Thunder God is Shango who is

also the same as Han Fei Zeus Thor and

Zhang Gao should meet up sometime

I bet the conversation would be

electrifying I'll just see myself out

okay all right odelay is the goddess of

Earth's soil and there's also OCO the

god of fields farms and agriculture oh

yeah is the goddess win and the Niger

River

she's one of shengo's wives Oh rügen is

the god of air he's the son of a Ganju

god of the wilderness and umoja goddess

of the river oh good and it's not all

positive phenomena either Oh Baloo I is

the god of smallpox disease and death so

I bet he's a real treat at parties you

might have noticed that there's some

overlap in divine responsibility when

myths exist mostly as oral traditions

and come from such a huge and diverse

geographic region a certain amount of

redundancy is pretty normal

we saw this in the Egyptian pantheon -

for instance multiple areas are

considered warrior gods and others seem

to control aspects of the human

condition

Ahri is the God of individuality and

fate while yah is the goddess of

character a number of issues related to

regional geography like forests

particular rivers and hunting and some

represent seemingly hyper specific with

key aspects of African life such as ogia

the god of crushed cassava now that is a

God who I bet is a real treat and a

party and just for you history fans out

there this shows that not all orishas

have ancient origins cassava was

introduced to Africa as parts of the

Columbian Exchange other than sky dad

Ola rune the most important arecia is

his oldest son

Oren Mila the god of wisdom and

divination

according to Leonard and McClure a run

Mila by reading pine nuts and calories

communicates Ola runes irreversible

intention and therefore personifies fate

so think of that the next time you're

having pesto many of the arisia myths

feature a ramela including the one that

explains how the arisia got there

powers oh yeah let's go to the

thought-bubble the Eurasian lived on

earth and before they each had unique

powers they were equal whenever they

needed some special knowledge they would

ask ol Arun or Allen me laughter health

one day an Orisha named oka wondered why

he should have to do that he thought

that if he had a special knowledge of a

certain thing then people could ask him

and not have to hassle Lauren Mila so

OCO asked a Rinella for special powers

to distinguish him from humans

a goon also asked over Mila for special

power to keep the world going soon

all the orishas wanted powers a room

Milla was distressed he held all the

orishas in equal esteem he thought there

are many powers to be shared to whom

should I give one power or another one

day he went for a walk and met a game of

the chameleon who asked Arun Mila what

was wrong

Arun Mila explained and a gamer

responded perhaps it would be best to

leave the distribution to champ return

to the sky then send messengers to

announce that on such-and-such a day you

will pour the powers down on the earth

let each arecia catch what he can or

retrieve it from the place where it

falls whatever power under Isha collects

in this way will be his by sending your

messengers you will have given everyone

equal notice and no one can say a wooden

wheel only collected me or remember

followed this advice when he sent out

the messengers the arecia said Arun Mila

does a good thing thank him for us we

will receive what he rains down on us

five days later the powers fell from the

skies the arecia waited in the field and

ran to catch them they weren't all

equally fast strong or persistent so not

all were able to get as large a

desirable a portion of a rhythm of

bounty but everyone got some thanks

thought-bubble

so man I love this origin story it

explains how the orishas came to have

their roles

unlike the Greek Olympians who were

seemingly born with their attributes the

aresia

well not exactly human don't have any

special abilities or knowledge until a

room Mila rained them down and after he

does they're not all equal in their

abilities explaining why some areas have

a lot of power and why some just get to

make really delicious side dishes think

about arugula for a second he seems to

be all powerful he could easily assign

special characteristic

aresia as he sees fit thus increasing

his influence over them or he could just

ignore them altogether he's powerful why

help these noobs but no not only does he

distribute divine favors but attempts to

be fair in the process providing a

lesson for how humans and especially

rulers should behave and despite his own

power a remulak can't solve his problem

without the help of a very wise

chameleon demonstrating the style

ability of her Isha and the connection

between their world and the world of

animals animals play a big role in many

African stories and we're going to see

more on that in a later episode this

story

echoes another are--some s featuring

olerude that explains the human

condition in this story olivine responds

to the humans of the first city la Issei

who demand inequality as one man claimed

there's nothing that is unequal among us

and there is nothing to differentiate us

we speak the same language we live in

the same town we each own equal amounts

of possessions no one among us has more

than any other and yet no one has less

than anyone else there's absolutely no

variety in anything in our lives why is

it that we are all the same like arugula

Oh Lauren didn't want to give in to the

humans demands he knew that differences

between people would lead to strife he

sent a shoe to explain this but the

people of Elah FA wouldn't listen

and eventually all Arun relented he sent

a shoe to hand out differences to people

in the marketplace and whoa big surprise

here chaos ensued people complained

about their individual differences one

woman saying why are men treating us so

badly and another why are they acting

superior to us so the next time someone

makes a sexist comment blame a shoe but

also the person making a sexist comment

to chaos and war were bred from other

rooms inequality eventually the people

couldn't even get along with each other

and they had to leave alyssay this

caused the formation of new nations

tribes cities and kingdoms and according

to the story in this manner inequality

prevailed among the people of earth this

story is a direct echo of the origins of

the reaches powers and shows just how

similar the gods and humans are

with the other Pantheon's we've seen God

in human form have human frailties which

may make them more relatable as objects

of worship but also makes it easier to

criticize them or see them as salable

perhaps this helps explain why much of

the world that worships a divine being

has chosen to put its faith in a power

that for the most part issues human form

and human emotion but can they make

delicious cassava thanks for watching

we'll see you next time check out our

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for watching and when you've got a

feeling unsolvable problems remember

just ask the chameleon

you