#Arikuyéri: Yoruba Names

What is it with Yoruba cultural belief and death...what makes death so important that people from the culture make so much reference to it, even in their names?


You know what the title of this post mean; the name is an African Yoruba name being bared by people far and wide across the culture. It might be quipped quickly as 'ariku-dodge-head' or simply translated as "I see death and dodge my head".

Just like the famous Fela, who is often referred to as 'Anikulapo', 'death is in my porch', the Yoruba culture is known to be non-scared of death. Many people in this part of African culture have death as prefix to their names, this make me wonder, will that scare death away?

Death generally is inevitable and is mostly seen as an important aspect of man, without which, he would be seen as incomplete and as the Yoruba culture see it, denial to transcend to the world beyond, to claim the ancestral rite.

I think 'iku' being in most Yoruba names is there to remind us as mortals that one-day-one-day, we shall die and leave this world and everything in it behind. If then we shall die, what is all these fuss all about, why do we pride around with our worldly possessions and go as far as being wicked to others?

Follow me on Twitter and Facebook; @Roluseye
Forwarded via GlitzPlusEnt® Email Services, network provided by Airtel Nigeria.