Greetings!
Life is about culture, there's no individual without one culture or the other and that's why it's generally believed that culture is a way of life, which means, anybody that has life has a culture known with him or her. So like I said earlier, this life is about culture.
Also, another thing I want us to know is that culture is beyond what we people believed it is. In my own view, culture is beyond food, dressing, religion or greetings.
Culture is more of a belief of an individual in the society. We have some people living in a particular society that has a culture but are not actually practicing the culture of where they live or belong to just because of their personal beliefs which is quite different from what's obtainable in terms of culture in the community they belong to.
Some have converted from their old religion to another one brought to them and they are still living in such environments but with different cultures.
So, having run through what culture is all about, I would like to talk about the topic which is all about culture and like I said earlier, culture is a way of life which means the way we live our lives on a daily basis is what culture represents.
From my own part of the world, we are rich in cultural practices and there's no doubt about it. I'm from the yoruba ethnic group in the south western part of Nigeria and what we are practically known for is our cultural practices. The way we behave and do our things here in Yoruba land is guided by our cultural values and as it has been in the beginning, so it is till now as nothing has changed about the way we live our lives.
When talking about the Yoruba cultural heritage, there's no doubt about the fact that we are rich in our cultural practices which ranges from the way we relate with each other with our Yoruba ethos in greetings, in our food, naming ceremonies, marriages, religious belief dressing festivals just to mention but a few.
First and foremost, let me start with our cultural ways of greetings. One thing I know about the Yorubas throughout the world is that they are the best when it comes to greetings. The Yoruba through their cultural ways of greetings have words for every kind of greetings with purpose and time. The Yorubas greet all the time of the day, not only that, they also greet on purpose and there's nothing the Yorubas don't have a word of greetings for.
Aside from the cultural aspect of the Yorubas, the Yorubas are also rich in culture when it comes to food. In the Yorubaland, we have varieties of foods such as Amala, Pounded Yam, Eba and so many other indigenous foods that are nourishing to the body with different kinds of soups such as Ewedu soup, Egusi Soup(melon soup) Gbegiri soup and a whole lots of vegetables soup. All these are the cultural trademark of the Yorubas.
These foods are not ordinary foods but are foods that are rich in different nutrients and also, some of these foods are meant for different cultural occasions.
Furthermore, our mode of dressing speaks so much about the Yoruba people. In Yoruba culture, we have so many attires for different occasions, we have the agbada meant for big occasions, we have sanyan, Buba, Sokoto, Ofi, iro, and so on. All these clothes or attires are the signatures of the Yoruba cultural heritage throughout the world. So, a Yoruba man or woman can be easily identified via what she or he is putting on.
In addition, our language which is the Yoruba language is one of the best languages in the world and this our language is the custodian of our cultural heritage. The Yoruba language is a language that commands respect and at the same time dish and accord respect to our neighbors no matter where it's being spoken. This language preserves and protects the virtues of the Yoruba people and it speaks volumes about who we are as a race.
One thing I would not forget about the Yoruba cultural heritage is our religion and festivals. The two are inseparable and that's why I would talk about the two simultaneously. The Yorubas are best known for their rich religious belief and festivals. The Yorubas have their own gods and deities which they worship through their festivals. Some of those their gods and goddesses and their festivals are the Egungun Festival, the Osun festivals, the Ogun festivals, the New Yam festivals and so on. The Yorubas will not joke with their rich festivals and they have time and seasons for celebrating these gods and goddesses and their festivals.
So, when talking about cultural practices, the Yorubas can be said to be the custodian of world culture.
However, there's one other culture that can be compared to the Yoruba culture and that is igbo culture. In the year 2018, when I visited the Igbo land in the south eastern Nigeria, I realized and was also thrilled with their cultural practices and if there's another culture I would love to adopt as my second culture, that would be the igbo people's culture which is also rich in everything, most especially in their foods, dressing, religious beliefs, dressing and so on.
In conclusion, the Yorubas are rich in culture and are also respectful when it comes to their dealing with others but of their culture or not.
Thanks for reading.
Picture sourced from metaAi.