Ero Atilẹba Iwoye Agbaye – The Archetypal Expression
There are concepts we see expressed by different cultures around the world that center around certain universal phenomenon. The expression or even the idea of such concepts are not necessarily always copied from or borrowed from another culture. For instance, most cultures experience cold/coolness, heat, rain, thunder, lightening, rivers, lakes, the moon, the sun, seas, oceans, forests, mountains, various animals, kwk. The base of all archetypes, according to Afrikan traditions like Vodùn , Iṣẹṣẹ, Akan, and Odinani ais Air, Fire, Water, and Earth. People aware of this base are able to observe these entities and phenomena and express them in a way that is indicative of their specific worldview; their inherent nature. These archetypal expressions are often expressed through certain symbols, signs, bodily expressions, myths, prayers, invocations, dances, overstanding of the world, kwk. One must overstand thought that it was the Afrikan that mastered these things and were the only ones who were truly in touch with the divine….before the fall.
In Yorùbá, I have coined the term “ero atilẹba iwoye agbaye” to describe this. It means “the original/base worldview – the archetypal expression”. It is the natural phenomenon that all experience and apply their own various cultural meanings to. Many people do not overstand this concept and automatically think or assume a particular people stole or borrowed a cosmological idea from another when, in most cases, it is not true. News flash: the Norse god of thunder, Thor, is not stolen from Ṣàngo (Kawoooo Kábíyèsí!!!) or any other Afrikan deity! What they are, are two thunder deities from two different cultures who realized that there was an essence behind the thunder and lightening that was bigger than the thunder and lightening itself. To my hardcore Afrikans: everything is not necessarily stolen from Afrika. We really need to stop that “everything comes from Afrika” thought. For one thing, if you say that, that means all that degenerate Greek stuff you say you don’t like…the stuff you say is anti-Afrikan… you’re going to have to say that THAT came from Afrika also, right? Not.
The fact is that we need to overstand the concept of the archetypal expression. For those that believe all of these other concepts were copied from Afrika, just examine them in more detail. You will see many non and sometimes anti-Afrikan elements present. But because of the archetypal expression concept, we see how 20 different cultures may have, let’s say, a “goddess of the wind”, and not even know anything about how any of the other cultures express that concept. Yet, because of “ero atilẹba iwoye agbaye”, you will see similarities. The collective conscious of each culture connects with this in its particular way.
By Ayìnɔ̀n Àgɛ̀lɔ̀gbàgàn Jǐsovì Azàsinkpontín Àgbɔ̀vì I