Book Review: Èṣù is not Satan by Israel Ayanwuyi

Israel Ayanwuyi stands out when it comes to promoting Yorùbá culture. Through his AIF YORÙBÁ CULTURAL CENTRE (AIF YCC), he had created numerous educating and entertaining Yorùbá contents.

He holds the record for making the highest number of quality and detailed video documentaries about our beloved hometown, Ògbómọ̀ṣọ́, on YouTube.

Though we’ve never met in person, we’ve spent hours talking on the phone and deliberating on our shared passion for promoting our rich Yorùbá cultural heritage.

I am thankful to Olódùmarè and Israel Ayanwuyi, for putting together this book of great necessity entitled: “Èṣù is not Satan” and deeming it fit to gift me a copy despite the distance between us. I’m eternally grateful for the thoughtful and kind gesture.

I enjoyed every bit of the book and I’ll be stating my opinion on the masterpiece titled; “Èṣù is not Satan: Exploring the Indigenous Yorùbá Worldview.”

Preserving one’s culture entails safeguarding its narratives, ensuring they remain unchanged over time. Even when influenced, it should be the duty of all Ọmọlúàbí to consistently protect the legacies of our unsung heroes and progenitors.

Israel Ayanwuyi jẹ́ ọ̀kan lára àwọn Oníbodè àṣà àti ìṣe ilẹ̀ Yorùbá (Israel Ayanwuyi is one of the gatekeepers of the Yorùbá culture and traditions) because he is obviously committed to maintaining the essence and authenticity of the Yorùbá culture, and safeguarding our heritage for posterity.

When people are confronted with ideas that directly challenge their respective religions and what they’ve always believed in, biases can quickly cloud their judgments. Deep emotional attachment to beliefs can lead to a defensive reaction, making it difficult to objectively evaluate perspectives. But one of such cases was addressed in this book for anyone who cares about the right knowledge as they really are, irrespective of religion affiliations.

The book “Èṣù is not Satan” is for everyone. It carefully analyzed all connected subject matters as regarding the way of life in Yorùbáland before the advent of the Abrahamic religion.

The book did a fantastic job of asserting that Yorùbás in the earliest days were obviously organized and they understood the concept of Olódùmarè as the Supreme Being. The book explained the role of primordial beings and divinities, like Èṣù, as instituted and assigned to various tasks on earth by Olódùmarè.

With Bible verses and Ayahs from the Quran, the author established beyond reasonable doubts that Èṣù is totally different from Satan who is the main antagonist to God (YAHWEH) in the Abrahamic religions.

The author was able to note that Ifá is a compendium of Yorùbá wisdom, stories, culture, religion, science, politics, civilization and lots more.

Until I read the book, I don’t know that the popular Yorùbá saying: Ọjọ́ tí a bá rí ibi ni ibi ń wọlẹ̀ is from Ifá, just like many other sayings and practices we cannot jettison but use often as a people with history and way of life.

The book is a must for any Yorùbá who yearns for knowledge and is ready to learn, unlearn and relearn.

However, I was looking forward to a more detailed chapter on Bishop Samuel Ajayi Crowther.

The Bishop possibly translated Èṣù to Satan intentionally while translating the Bible, and I wish the author tried dwelling on the presumed reasons for his deliberate action. And what he hoped to achieve by this flawed and unnecessary misrepresentation.

Albeit, we can’t ignore Ajayi Crowther’s great feats of translating the Bible from English to Yorùbá amongst others during his lifetime.

Before his Bible translation, Yorùbá used to be the name of Ọ̀yọ́ people. We had Ẹ̀gbá, Ìjẹ̀sà, Ìjẹ̀bú, Ifẹ̀ and so on in a region now known as the South-West Nigeria.

By using Yorùbá Ọ̀yọ́ in his translation of the Bible, he created a premise for the unification of all Ọmọ-kúótù-aàjíire-bí to adopt the form as suggested by the Great Britain, and Yorùbá Àjùmọ̀lò/Àjùmọ̀kà became the accepted text.

Asides from translating the Bible, Ajayi Crowther wrote the first Igbo book titled Isoama – Ibo: A Primer in 1857. The book had 17 pages, with the Igbo alphabets, words, phrases, sentence patterns, the Lord’s Prayer, the Ten Commandments and translations of the first chapters of Matthew’s Gospel. In 1882, Crowther also wrote the “Vocabulary of the Ibo Language”, the first comprehensive dictionary in Igbo.

Lastly, I recommend that the author considers creating video contents and audiobooks from this great book. I look forward to us having a series of “Èṣù is Not Satan” on the AIF YCC’s YouTube Channel, something similar to what the author did with The Àrọ́bá Series Podcast. This will help him reach a much wider audience.

It’s important to understand that in today’s digital world, people prefer watching videos over reading books because videos are more fun, easily accessible and relaxing.

With so many exciting videos online, attention spans for reading have gotten shorter. This shift shows how the internet has changed the way we enjoy content, and we must take this into consideration, and then use it to our advantage as we promote our rich cultural heritage.

In conclusion, the book “Èṣù is not Satan” presents a vital correction, dispelling misconceptions that equate Èṣù, a Yorùbá deity, with the Abrahamic concept of Satan.

Èṣù kì í ṣe Sátánì.

Èṣù is not Satan

Get your copy of the book: Èṣù is not Satan

Google Books: https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=RRHREAAAQBAJ 

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CGDTHW77 

Apple Books: https://books.apple.com/us/book/esu-is-not-satan/id6462837792?ls=1