INTRODUCTION
The word myth has an alarming effect on many people of faith. They see no relationship at all between the bible and myth. Some take myth to mean “something” once believed to be true but now know to be false. Some say it is human beings attempts to come to grips with his or her place in the universe. Still others say that myth is a story in which gods and goddesses play a role as characters in action.
Samson. A. Fatokun in a book titled African traditional Religion and belief system argues that Africans have a great pantheon of gods, which is as diverse as the gods of the Greeks or Hindus, yet the belief in a supreme being is common and very strong in all African communities. Often times this Supreme Being is responsible for the creation of all that exist, for example the Ngewo of Mende people of Sierra Leone lived in a cave and he was responsible for feeding and naming all animals. Prominent among the understanding of God in Africa is the conception of God as the Almighty creator, put differently, despite the multi-various African myths of creation which often speak of God delegating one lesser god or the other of work of creation for example the Yoruba Obatala. Olodumare, remain the vital and sole power behind all creations. For the Yorubas, olodumare remained the most powerful in heaven and on earth, and that he is able to do all things. All these is a prove that Africans developed clear concepts about the supreme being and creation account very similar to that of Christianity and Islam even before the arrival of the missionaries.
In this work we are set to give the creation account as told by traditional Yorubas of the Southwestern Nigeria, this account have two versions that are so similar, we shall therefore expose the two respectively. We shall also outline the Genesis account of creation, after which we shall briefly examine the creation ex nihilo in genesis account
FIRST ACCOUNT OF THE CREATION
According to the first version of the mythology the whole universe is covered with water making it impossible for any other creation to exist. The Olodumare sent Obatala also known as Orisa-Nla and sixteen other Immortals to create farm land out of the liquid mass. He gave them five pieces of iron, a cockerel and a lump of earth tied in a white piece of cloth. They held a party at Oritameta that got Obatala drunk with Palm wine, this gave Oduduwa that later became the father of all Man the opportunity to seize the paraphernalia of power from Obatala and led the group to Oke- Oranfe in Ile Ife. He set the five pieces of iron down, placed the lump of earth on it, and the cockerel was made to spread the earth with its toes, as it spread farmland appeared. It was the act that gave the name Ile-Ife meaning the house of spreading.
SECOUND ACCOUNT
The second account of the creation also shows that the world was all marshy with water without farmland and tress. The Olodumare (Supreme Being) lived in the sky with deities, not far from the earth, they used spider web as a bridge between them and the marshy place. The Olorun (owner of the sky) one day decided to create a solid earth, to do this He commissioned his deputy called Orisa-Nla the Arch-deity to create for him, he gave him loose earth, five toed hen and a pigeon. He came down and threw the loose earth on a sport of the mass of water, letting go the hen and the pigeon to scatter the loose earth all over the water. Some other scholar holds that he tied the earth to the leg of the pigeon, which flew around, and the hen helped to spread it with its toes.
After this Orisa-Nla reported the completion of the work to Olodumare who sent a chameleon to ascertain the work and report the state of things to him, Chameleon confirmed the dryness of the earth after two consecutive visits for the next stage of creation to began. It was then that the earth was filled with things including human beings, Orunmila the father of Agbonmiregun as a wise counselor instructed Orisa-Nla on how to plant palm trees for the purpose of drink, food and oil, the hen and the pigeon multiplied and provide man with meat.
For the purpose of multiplying human being the Supreme Being appoints Orisa-Nla to mould the physical body of Human beings from clay but the giving of breath of life is strictly reserved for Olodumare. Ajala is responsible for molding of heads; one beautiful thing about this creation story is that, each person chose his or her own Ori (Destiny) which determines what the person will be in this life. However he or she goes to Olodumare to ascertain his/her Ayanmo before coming to the world.
Orisa-Nla saw himself as the greatest of all divinities but realize that he is not equal with Olodumare, he attempt to give the breath of life to his molded humans but failed as such he became envious of Olodumare, one day, when he had finished molding human forms, he hid himself behind them so that he could spy on the creator, but the Olodumare sent a deep sleep on him, before he woke up human forms had come to life
The creator lived among his creature for so long till Esu one of the deities created a big problem among the deities, so great was the war that Olodumare left them for the sky and put a boundary that separate man and God till date.
The word myth has an alarming effect on many people of faith. They see no relationship at all between the bible and myth. Some take myth to mean “something” once believed to be true but now know to be false. Some say it is human beings attempts to come to grips with his or her place in the universe. Still others say that myth is a story in which gods and goddesses play a role as characters in action.
Samson. A. Fatokun in a book titled African traditional Religion and belief system argues that Africans have a great pantheon of gods, which is as diverse as the gods of the Greeks or Hindus, yet the belief in a supreme being is common and very strong in all African communities. Often times this Supreme Being is responsible for the creation of all that exist, for example the Ngewo of Mende people of Sierra Leone lived in a cave and he was responsible for feeding and naming all animals. Prominent among the understanding of God in Africa is the conception of God as the Almighty creator, put differently, despite the multi-various African myths of creation which often speak of God delegating one lesser god or the other of work of creation for example the Yoruba Obatala. Olodumare, remain the vital and sole power behind all creations. For the Yorubas, olodumare remained the most powerful in heaven and on earth, and that he is able to do all things. All these is a prove that Africans developed clear concepts about the supreme being and creation account very similar to that of Christianity and Islam even before the arrival of the missionaries.
In this work we are set to give the creation account as told by traditional Yorubas of the Southwestern Nigeria, this account have two versions that are so similar, we shall therefore expose the two respectively. We shall also outline the Genesis account of creation, after which we shall briefly examine the creation ex nihilo in genesis account
FIRST ACCOUNT OF THE CREATION
According to the first version of the mythology the whole universe is covered with water making it impossible for any other creation to exist. The Olodumare sent Obatala also known as Orisa-Nla and sixteen other Immortals to create farm land out of the liquid mass. He gave them five pieces of iron, a cockerel and a lump of earth tied in a white piece of cloth. They held a party at Oritameta that got Obatala drunk with Palm wine, this gave Oduduwa that later became the father of all Man the opportunity to seize the paraphernalia of power from Obatala and led the group to Oke- Oranfe in Ile Ife. He set the five pieces of iron down, placed the lump of earth on it, and the cockerel was made to spread the earth with its toes, as it spread farmland appeared. It was the act that gave the name Ile-Ife meaning the house of spreading.
SECOUND ACCOUNT
The second account of the creation also shows that the world was all marshy with water without farmland and tress. The Olodumare (Supreme Being) lived in the sky with deities, not far from the earth, they used spider web as a bridge between them and the marshy place. The Olorun (owner of the sky) one day decided to create a solid earth, to do this He commissioned his deputy called Orisa-Nla the Arch-deity to create for him, he gave him loose earth, five toed hen and a pigeon. He came down and threw the loose earth on a sport of the mass of water, letting go the hen and the pigeon to scatter the loose earth all over the water. Some other scholar holds that he tied the earth to the leg of the pigeon, which flew around, and the hen helped to spread it with its toes.
After this Orisa-Nla reported the completion of the work to Olodumare who sent a chameleon to ascertain the work and report the state of things to him, Chameleon confirmed the dryness of the earth after two consecutive visits for the next stage of creation to began. It was then that the earth was filled with things including human beings, Orunmila the father of Agbonmiregun as a wise counselor instructed Orisa-Nla on how to plant palm trees for the purpose of drink, food and oil, the hen and the pigeon multiplied and provide man with meat.
For the purpose of multiplying human being the Supreme Being appoints Orisa-Nla to mould the physical body of Human beings from clay but the giving of breath of life is strictly reserved for Olodumare. Ajala is responsible for molding of heads; one beautiful thing about this creation story is that, each person chose his or her own Ori (Destiny) which determines what the person will be in this life. However he or she goes to Olodumare to ascertain his/her Ayanmo before coming to the world.
Orisa-Nla saw himself as the greatest of all divinities but realize that he is not equal with Olodumare, he attempt to give the breath of life to his molded humans but failed as such he became envious of Olodumare, one day, when he had finished molding human forms, he hid himself behind them so that he could spy on the creator, but the Olodumare sent a deep sleep on him, before he woke up human forms had come to life
The creator lived among his creature for so long till Esu one of the deities created a big problem among the deities, so great was the war that Olodumare left them for the sky and put a boundary that separate man and God till date.
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