African Pantheons and the Orishas: Crash Course World Mythology #11

So, today we’re talking about African Pantheons. Now, you might say, that’s ridiculous. Africa isn’t a single place with a single pantheon, and we’d be fools to try and cover all that in an eleven minute video. You’d be right. Instead we’re going to focus on Yoruba religion from west Africa, and the Orishas that populate Yoruba stories. The many, many Orishas cover all aspects of life, and can be pretty specialized. We’re going to focus on a dozen or so.

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[DrTimes]

The conversation between Zeus, Thor, and Shango wouldn't be electrifying. It would be en-lightning

[DeolaAdebiyi]

As a Nigerian and a person from the Yoruba tribe, this video made me so happy! I never knew if you were going to discuss our rich pantheon and history. Thank you so much for this video! I'm so happy that people get to see the rich culture and religion we have in Nigeria/West Africa. Well done!

[ReligionForBreakfast]

Glad to see Yoruba getting some attention on YouTube.

[sir_ken]

I am Nigerian and I can say you know your stuff and it is obvious a lot of research was put into this, nice video can't wait for more. Btw you butchered most of the names.

[broski]

It'd be cool if you mentioned the fact that Yoruba helps its followers deal with strife in present life, rather than promising a better more "heavenly" afterlife.

[nicholasloud]

Yoruba tradition is very demonized wrongfully in my opinion. I’m glad someone can explain the belief in a exciting and interesting way.

[gororo]

I'm Ibo (A neighboring tribe to Yoruba) but I can verify that this is spot on. Now do one about the Ibo pantheon. Also for the people saying he butchered the names. At least he tried. I wouldn't call it butchering, I'd call it the English names of Yoruba gods.

[kinkykoilykawaii]

This was great. African Mythology is often overlooked so I did not know a lot of this.

[afrotron]

I'm Yoruba this was a nice video there's stuff here I didn't know but he got all the pronunciations wrong

[demmerri]

This is by far my favorite video you guys have made. I'm a black American, but my people are from West Africa. In recent years I've been trying to connect to this mythology and this is a comprehensive video. I can tell that you guys put a lot of research into this and I appreciate the tasteful display. Blessings to all involved.

[kasiarandall]

You totally forgot Obatala, who is actually the creator of humans, and Oshun, the goddess of love. While I think this has a lot of potential, this has to be done over.

[Balorandy]

My uncle is a babalawo, (Yoruba priest), and I have a lot of African Yoruba influence on my fathers side, so this was helpful

[aG-tduu]

All thunder/lightning gods should get together, Shango, Zeus, Thor, Tlaloc, Chaac, and Raijin

[itsKarenTerry]

This is one of my favorite lesser-discussed pantheons. I know I can't be the only one that gets a little tired of hearing about the big 4 (Greek, Roman, Norse, Egyptian), and wants more on others. More episodes like this please!

[sisekelodlamini]

I like you man. Africa is not a country!

[felip]

In Brazil there is a religion called "spiritism" where it's kind of a mix between all the Orishas stuff and Catholicism. It began with slaves that couldn't practice their religion so they made analogies between the Orishas and saints. It's pretty cool

[mestre]

In Brazil, there people that follow this yoruba Dvines. They are know has Orixas, the Brazillian portuguese translation of Orisha

[MajoraZ]

I really wish all of the Pantheon episodes were on less known mythologies like this rather than Greek, Egyptian, and Norse, which most people are already familiar with. Aztec, Mayan, Incan, Chinse, or Japanese all would have been cool.

[AaronMoody]

This could be the basis for a badass anime, actually.

[houndoomrulz]

This is one of my favorite episodes of pretty much anything ever. As someone who specialises in the history and mythology of various regions of Africa (admittedly not trained and not as a job), I always love it when people actually care and specify so thank you so so much for all of this episode, especially the bit at the beginning where you broke it down and specified and showed that you care