A minority at home.
Yorubaland is now overwhelmingly Christian and Muslim, often within the same family, and Pentecostal churches campaign against the orisha directly — shrines have been burned and objects destroyed. Yet the naming ceremony persists, babalawo are consulted quietly by people who would deny it, and Osun Osogbo draws crowds who describe their attendance as cultural.
Yorubaland today is overwhelmingly Christian and Muslim, frequently with both in the same family and often in the same household, and the traditional religion is a minority practice in its own homeland — census and survey figures put explicit adherence in the low single digits, though such figures are close to meaningless given how the practice is organised. Pentecostal and charismatic churches, which have grown enormously since the 1980s, campaign against the orisha in direct terms, framing them as demons; shrines have been destroyed and ritual objects burned, and deliverance ministries make the renunciation of ancestral practice a central rite. Against this, the naming ceremony persists nearly universally, babalawo are consulted discreetly by people who would deny it publicly, oriki and burial customs survive, and Osun Osogbo draws crowds who describe their attendance as heritage rather than worship. What has changed is less the practice than what people are willing to call it.
The same ground, other faiths
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