Forms of Worship: How Orisa Worship Became Religion in Nigeria and Brazil

The worship of Yoruba deities known as oriṣa is commonly understood as an indigenous African religion, but Ayodeji Ogunnaike argues that these traditions initially differed from the modern Western concept of religion.

In Forms of Worship, Ogunnaike examines how the practices and meanings of oriṣa worship have transformed across the Yoruba diaspora and homeland. Because the Yoruba word ẹsin, often translated as “religion,” more closely means “form of worship,” he explores how reframing oriṣa traditions as multiple forms of worship reshapes understandings of religious identity, practice, and dynamics across both contemporary and historical contexts.

By developing indigenous models for understanding religious phenomena, Ogunnaike accounts for Yoruba cultural dynamics, including the significant levels of religious harmony, syncretism, and interaction found in both Nigeria and Brazil.

Furthermore, he traces the subtle and largely unnoticed transformation of oriṣa worship toward a more modern, closed, and rigid conception of religion, along with the complications that have followed. Forms of Worship demonstrates how the introduction of Western religious rigidity around practice and identity has contributed to increasing religious tensions and fragmentation.