Against Feminine Erasure in Yoruba Ritual Archives: Theorizing Oya, the Mystical Deity Across the Black Atlantic World
Yoruba Studies Review April 3, 2026 Niyi Afolabi
Ọya has enjoyed limited attention when it comes to theorization accorded other female deities such as Ọ̀ṣun and Yemọja. Characterized in the New World as a “deity of storms and winds,” her mystical capacity to unleash storms through heavy rains that can ultimately cause natural disasters such as deadly flooding and hurricanes makes her equally volatile, tempestuous, temperamental, and...