Olokun

The worship and meaning of Olokun in the Yoruba religious tradition are as vast as the waters that she represents. Known as the owner of great waters, Olokun symbolizes the most unfathomable depths of the ocean and the seas. Olokun is often associated with Yemoja (Yemonja), the Mother of Fishes, and together they represent the abundance, fertility, wealth, healing, and source of life and its mysteries. Olokun worshippers are found in Nigeria among the Edo and the Yoruba, as well as in the Republic of Benin, among the Fon. In Nigeria, Olokun worship is found mainly along the southern regions of the Nigerian and Benin Republics, especially along their coastlines.

Among the Yoruba and Fon, Olokun appears as female as well as male, whereas among the Bini, Olokun appears solely as male. In most cases, when Olokun and Yemoja are viewed symbioti-cally, Olokun is related to the invisible depths of the ocean, and Yemoja is related to the visible surface of the ocean and its waves. Olokun/Yemoja is the embodiment of motherhood, whose offspring include such orisa as Oyya, Osun, and Ogun, the creatures of the sea, and children.

Outside of Nigeria, Olokun is worshipped in diasporic communities such as Trinidad, Cuba, Brazil, and the United States. In Trinidad, Olokun is frequently entreated by the name of Ajere, one of her many honorific titles, or by the name of Awoyo, one of her Fon appellations meaning “a large stretch of water.” In her worship in these regions, as in Nigeria and the Republic of Benin, Olokun is associated with wealth, motherhood, and the boundless riches of the sea. In these diasporic cultures, Olokun is frequently conflated with Yemoja/Yemanya, representing both the surface and depth of the ocean and the seas. Symbolizing the ocean, both Olokun and Yemoja are associated with deep blue and foamy white waves. As Yemoja, she is a corpulent woman with mudfish limbs who holds a crocodile in one hand and a serpent in the other.

Some scholars attribute Olokun's origin to the Edo or Bini people whose famous lost-wax bronze and terra cotta sculptures have become cultural hallmarks. Yet Olokun also belongs to the Yoruba, who are equally known for their exquisite bronze sculptures, carvings, and elaborate masquerading traditions in the arts and other cultural practices. In fact, Olokun can be viewed as the nexus between the Yoruba and Edo kingdoms. In both traditions, strong centralized, hierarchal political and religious systems preserve rich cos-mological and empirical histories. In both traditions, the relationship to Ilé-Ifè and competition for dominance of Ikoye, better known as Lagos, abound. In the Republic of Benin, Olokun is also known as Awoyo. Despite variations in her name and some characteristics, Olokun is associated with the Atlantic Ocean generally, with Lagos and Badagry in Nigeria, and with the cognomen Okun Yemideregbe.

Among the Edo, Olokun worship is intimately tied to patriarchy and the court of the Oba of Benin. In this tradition, the wealth, peace, fertility, and abundance of the deity is idealized in the regalia of the court and the king. Olokun's abode in the depths of the ocean is emblematic of the Oba's power in the former Benin kingdom in Nigeria.

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