Gerd Meuer mit Nobelpreisträger Wole Soyinka
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Obatala-Excerpt

INTRO: by self

... Still, mythology is my favourite foraging field, and I readily admit that, confronted with ethical issues that go to the fundamentals of equity and balance in society, I tend to seek paradigms in my own mythological resources, those archetypes - deities, demiurges, reified essences and historic protagonists - who represent in their own history and personalities some of the most elevated, and then also some of the most execrable attributes of human conduct and striving. 
    
Permit me therefore to introduce to you Obatala, the god of purity who, of the former grouping, comes immediately to mind. Let me quickly provide you his C.V. - he it is who gives every new being his or her form. Obatala moulds each putative being, then passes it on to Edumare (Olodumare) whose task is then to breathe life into that form, after which the deity Orunmila imparts to each its individual destiny before sending it to join the living. Well, come one day, and Esu, the messenger of the deities but an irrepressible spirit of chaos, leaves a gourd of palm wine within Obatala’s reach. Thirsty from his creative labour, and being non-averse to the delicious taste of palm wine, Obatala over-indulges himself. The result is that his craftsman fingers falter and he moulds abnormalities - cripples, hunchbacks, the blind, the deaf etc. - all those handicapped members of society whom Political Correctness now coyly describes as - physically challenged.
     Obatala, drowsy from the combination of hard labour and palm wine, dozes off, blissfully. When he wakes, he sees the magnitude of the disaster. Too late, since Edumare and Orunmila have done their part of the joint task and the unfortunate beings have already been dispatched into the world. Remorseful, Obatala covers himself in the equivalent of sackcloth and ashes, goes into mourning and enjoins his followers ever to abstain from the deadly drought. But what is more to the point - every year, Obatala descends into the world of mortals to make atonement for his lapse. At his festival, having possessed one of his priests or acolytes, he undergoes a ritual passage of captivity, humiliation and eventual ransom and redemption. The Festival of Obatala is one of the most moving and elaborate in the Yoruba calendar. It is the equivalent of the European Miracle/Morality play and it is one at which the entire community binds its wounds, mends ruptured relationships, is also purged of the year’s accretion of ills. Blessings are dispensed to fortify the community for the travails the forthcoming year. Its over-riding ethos is atonement, healing and reconciliation.
     A constant image of most rites of purgation, of healing, or simply of transition from one phase of existence to another is an archway, usually of branches, under which the individual or community must pass. Sometimes, it is no more than a pole, draped in palm fronds, a line drawn in chalk or camwood that must be crossed,  a mat over which suppliants must step, or a historic lane through which the communal procession weaves its way, making offerings along the way, in order to be healed and be reborn. I like to image a process of Truth and Reconciliation as one of those symbolic arches under which both victims and violators are required to pass in order to be spiritually healed, fortified in a way that enables them to turn their backs on the past and commence a new life, a new structure of relations that beckons from the other side.
     Obatala is not alone among the erring deities in the Yoruba pantheon. One after another  - Ogun, Sango, even  Orunmila the deity of divination.... they are all brought down to mortal level. A flaw, an infraction, then immersion in compensatory tribulations after which, they regain their status both among their peers and in the eyes of humanity. And of course the annual reenactment of their moments of weakness and error reminds their followers also of their own frailties and the ethical imperatives that make atonement a necessary prelude to rehabilitation and reconciliation. It is, I am certain, a principle that christianity itself cannot help but applaud – both the old and the new testaments are filled with narratives of atonement, of restitution and reconciliation. There is a further extension to this. In referring to Obatala as our model of the saintly virtues, we need to remember that the dramatic structure of his rites of penance make both his arrest and imprisonment totally unjust. This is quite deliberate. It is a way of inculpating Obatala’s own peers and making them also submit themselves to the theology of infraction, penance and restitution.
      Briefly, Obatala’s  rites of atonement unfold as follows: the deity is compelled to make a voyage in disguise, as an ordinary mortal. In the course of that journey, he visits the kingdom of Sango, another deity who exhibits some of what we have described as the less laudable mortal traits –  intemperateness, megalomania etc. etc. There, Obatala is falsely accused of stealing the favorite horse of Sango, the king. He cannot reveal his identity since this is part of his penance, to remain incognito, forbidden to exercise his immortal powers, no matter what tribulations he encounters. Thrown in a dungeon in the most degrading conditions, he has no choice but to await his salvation, never knowing from which direction it might come, or when. Only when Nature takes a hand, and the community - in its turn - begins to suffer the consequences of the unintended injustice inflicted on an innocent old man - only then does Orunmila, the god of divination take a hand. Drought follows floods, imbalance in Nature wreaks havoc on the community. Finally, Orunmila is consulted and reveals that the town is being punished for its own act of injustice - albeit unwittingly committed! Sango, the fiery king must now himself undergo the rites of purgation for having given the orders for Obatala’s arrest without verifying the guilt or innocence of the accused wanderer. He abases himself before Obatala, is forgiven and embraced by his erstwhile friend, turned victim. Reconciliation becomes a universal feast. The Festival of Obatala is total, all-embracing in its ethos of guilt, remorse and reparations, it spares neither gods nor humanity. It is a drama of the fall from grace and upliftment, remarkably apt for a present that sometimes strikes me as a perverse resolve to prolong a century of global anomie - North to South, East to West, Rwanda to Chechnya, Palestine to Sierra Leone. And the question it asks of us is this: if the gods make restitution, dare we mortals accede to less?