Beyond Retentions: Creativity and Innovation in African and Afro-Diasporic Religion

Discourse around retaining ancestral traditions or African “purity” has long dominated scholarly and practitioner spheres in Afro-diasporic religions, with Yoruba mythology playing an important role in establishing and framing much of the valuable work this discourse has accomplished. Simultaneously, innovation, creativity, and adaptability have also been critical parts of African-derived traditions in the homeland and diaspora, and this article offers five sets of related Yoruba myths from Nigeria and Brazil that demonstrate how these ancestral traditions are part of an ongoing, transnational conversation that seeks to adapt and relate important mythic narratives to local circumstances while also preserving ancestral tradition. The similarities and differences between these related myths across the Atlantic as well as different time periods leave records of particular engagement with and responses to Indigenous peoples and pharmacopeia, new religions, and race and slavery, specifically by creatively applying an ancestral tradition to meet very particular needs and experiences.