As a lover of culture, i decided to find out various cultural believes about the creation of the world(myth). I found out that there are different cultural stories about how the world came into existence both cultural and religious.
I am going to be sharing some of the stories i heard or have read with my friends here on steemit and i hope that you enjoy every bit of it.
Today i will be telling you about the yoruba cultural myth.

The Yoruba Culture

The Yoruba's live mainly in Nigeria and majorly in the western part of the country, they believe in the worship of gods called (orisa). They have up to 400-700 gods. Some god existed before the creation of the earth, others came because they became heroes and heroines, some gods are natural objects such as mountains, valleys, rivers etc, who have their histories in the way they have saved lives in the past.

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The Yoruba's believe that tradition should be passed on from generation to generation by words of the mouth, each parent teaching his/her child as years and time go by.

The Yoruba's believe on the creation of the world

The Yoruba's believe that Olodumare who is the Almighty existed from the beginning. His name describes largeness, might, greatness, massiveness. He created Isalu Orun and Isalu Aye which means heaven and earth.
Olodumare is believed to have four hundred and one servants and they are generally called Irunmole. They were some special ones among them and they were called; Orunmila, Obatala and Ogun.
Ela was the one and only son of Olodumare.

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When the earth was about to be created, Olodumare held a meeting wth his special servants and his Son. At the meeting, he gave Obatala some sand inside a snail shell, a palm kernel and a very old cock with five fingers for the creation of the earth.

Obatala then descended from heaven and poured the sand given to him by Olodumare inside an existing large expanse from the water. The cock which had powerful feet and five fingers started to scatter the heap and to flatten it. The sand was believed to have been poured down and it created the place called Ile-Ife (wide land). Ile-Ife is regarded as the ancestral home of the yoruba's. Obatala as well planted the palm kernel which grew as the first tree on earth. This completed the assignment given to Obatala by Olodumare for the earth's creation.

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Olodumare then summoned his special servants again. This time the meeting was specifically for the creation of man. Obatala also known as the Alamo (clay moulder), took clay and used it to mould man.
Ogun also known as Akomonila (mark-maker) marked the moulded man on the feet and hands for identification, hence the marks on our palms and the flat of our feet.

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The owner of life, the one who has the breadth of life (eemi), put his breadth into the molded man and backed man in order to give him life, as the penultimate act in the process of creating man. This process is believed to have taken place in heaven but as it rains on earth, there was danger that man created out of ordinary clay would be washed down if beaten by rain. To prevent this, Man was then backed in heaven before he was allowed to come down to earth.
Ajala also known as alagbede (the blacksmith) did the backing or firing of the man in heaven. Ajala as well formed the proper head (ori) housed inside the skull. Ajala was as well a palm-wine addict, even if he had no money, he drank on credit. As a result of his drunkness, his baking was not consistent. It is believed that a properly baked man turns out black-brown and such individuals are believed to turn out strong and tough externally and internally to withstand a lot.

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The various shades of skin that humans have was believed to be an outcome of Ajala's drunken state.
Ajala, as well formed the real head (ori), every person had to go back to Ajala after recieving the breadth of life from Olodumare to choose Ori or Ayanmo (destiny). So it is believed that whatever destiny one chooses from Ajala determines the way the being will live on earth. It determines if the individual will have long life, short life, wealth or poverty.

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Extracted from

The animal called man by Olusegun Obasanjo
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