Ori-Oke Spirituality and Social Change in Africa

The dynamic nature of Christianity has
necessitated its movement from the cathedral to the mountain top. This
has occasioned a proliferation of Prayer Mountains throughout Africa. In
Yorubaland of southwestern Nigeria, Prayer Mountain is known as
Ori-Oke. Like many communities in Africa, the Yoruba are confronted with
fundamental challenges in life for which people do not rest until they
find solutions. Within the praxis of Nigerian Christian lexicon Ori-Oke
is synonymous with the enactment of a sacred space on a mountain top
characterised by various prayer regimes, rituals, exorcism and religious
practices, aimed at eliciting the help of the divine to alleviate the
existential challenges of devotees.

This book explores the
resacralisation of space on the mountains, highlighting how humans and
the divine interact in Yorubaland. It brings into conversation 35
empirically rich scholarly essays on the role of Ori-Oke to those
seeking divine intervention in their lives. Today, Ori-Oke have become
centres of pilgrimage as a result of the lived experiences of devotees,
creating unique religious value quite distinct from the aesthetic value
of these mountain tops. The spirituality of Ori-Oke is anchored on the
absolute belief in God and the infusion of traditional African worldview
sensibilities in religious rites and worship. Ori-Oke spirituality
employs resources of Christian tradition, introduced by the formal
agents of Christianity, synthesised with traditional culture, to develop
a life based on the precepts of an African Christianity. The book is an
intellectual discourse on Ori-Oke spirituality, reflecting its
contemporary relevance in a context of religious innovation and
competition.