At a time where we struggle to hold on to our values, due to the pressure partly brought upon us by social media, to make it big and flashy, content such as this one becomes imperative to share and re share, in order to remind us of what really matters and what our culture is or should be.
We were going through twitter as we always do when we found this amazing thread by Lanre Basamta. Basamta is a marketing communications and business strategist who is highly passionate about mentoring and grooming younger ones for a better future.
So here are etiquettes and values of the Yorubas.
The Yoruba people are an ethnic group that inhabits western Africa, mainly Nigeria and Benin. They are more than 44million people
“In Yoruba land, money has never been foremost in Yorùbá value system. In our value system, money is number six.. What are the first five ? The first is làákà’yè, which is the application of ogbón, ìmò òye (knowledge, wisdom, understanding).
The second is valour. Akin or Akínkanjú. That is why Balóguns are second-in-command to the leaders in Yorùbá land. Balóguns are people that can lead them to war. Yorùbá have no respect for cowards.
The third is integrity. (Ìwà omolúàbí ). Someone with integrity is a man of his words. If you have all the wealth in the world but lack integrity, it means nothing. Integrity is combined with iwa – character, which we regard as omolúàbí.
4th is having a visible means of livelihood. (Anísélápá tí kìíse òle).A person must be identified with a visible means of living; that guarantees a lawful income or sustainance, his or her profession must be open & legally approved by the society not through cheating or forceful
The fifth is honour ( iyi ), Yorùbá’s places premium on the gait & carriage with which one carries himself & public reputation. When you set out to look for money & you met honour on the road, you are fulfilled, because if you get the money, you will still use it in buying honour
The last in the Yorùbá value system is money or wealth. ( owó tàbí orò ). If you have money in place of the earlier five, you are nobody in yorubaland of olden days. Unfortunately, this is being pushed to be the first nowadays due to erosion of value system.
