George Yancy, a philosopher and professor at Emory University, underscores the importance of death among the Yorubas in a New York Times interview. He notes that: “Not a day goes by that speakers of the Yoruba language do not make mention of death as both a phenomenon and a certainty.” Rituals on death abound in Yoruba society and traditional thought. Prof. E. Dada Adelowo writes that: “Lots and lots of death and funeral rites and rituals abound in Yorubaland. Some of these rites and rituals are ordinary, while some are special.”
This series of paintings on neutralizing death is based on one of such stories from my mother’s archives.
My mum, who is a Yoruba from south-western Nigeria, narrated a lot of events and stories that took place in her village (Ila-Yara, now known as Ila-Orangun) while staying with her grandmother. One of such ancestral stories, she was told, was about how death was neutralized, an event she described as (Soku dalaye). It is important to note that this was a period of rampant death among her people and, as such, her people were searching for ways and means to neutralize death.
An excellent academic expression of some of these ideas on neutralizing death among the Yorubas are fully explored by the Art Historian, Baba Tunde Lawal in his article: “THE LIVING DEAD: ART AND IMMORTALITY AMONGTHE YORUBA OF NIG ERIA” published in, Africa: Journal of the International African Institute, 1977, Vol. 47, No. 1(1977), pp. 50-61
Death, as Baba Tunde Lawal writes in his article, “will sooner or later expel [humans] from the earth, despite all …efforts [by humans] to make it a permanent home. Scared by the imminence of death, [humans] sometimes wish that [they] had not been created at all; but having been created [they] have no choice other than to accept Death as the price to be paid for living.”
As humans, we may have the desire/option to enjoy life as granted by the creator and accept death as the price for living and enjoying life. On the contrary, we may want to challenge or neutralize death, “this, of course, is taking a big risk,” but if successful, humans will enjoy the gift of eternal life here on earth.
The Yoruba people of Southern-Western Nigeria, in the version narrative by my mum’s story found a spiritual means of “neutralizing the power of Death …[and] they now enjoy immortality.”
It is important to note that there are several iterations of “neutralizing death” stories within the Yoruba worldview. One of the stories of their encounter with Death, as narrated by Mum, became the basis for these abstract paintings. I have chosen [Soku dalaye] as the title of my new paintings.
In this narration from my mother’s archives, the story is as follows:
In ancient times, among the Yorubas, most of the elders’ search for spiritual means of defeating death and they do so by many means. The Yorubas see the world as a duality: “the one in which humans live and the other, a metaphysical/spiritual world where their spirits, deities, and ancestors live.”

In the days when death was rampant in my village, people would ask the ritual leaders (oracles), Osan Yin and Amotagesi, what to do to neutralize death. Amotagesi, the (oracle) ritual leader, will instruct that they perform the ritual, Soku dalaye.

When an individual is confirmed dead, the oracle/ritual leaders will proclaim that the death should not be made known for some time. During this time, the ritual, Soku dalaye, will be performed to see how best they can neutralize the death of the individual.
As part of the ritual, the food of the gods, yams, will be roasted, then the ritualists will call the Spirit of the dead person, and immediately the spirit appears, the ritualists will present the yams to the spirit, with both holding the roasted yam. As my mother narrated, if the roasted yams break into two halves with the ritualists taking one half of the portion and the other half taken by the spirit, the dead person will definitely wake up: it is this process that guarantees the neutralizing of death. This “defeat of death” results in the soul that has left the individual to join the body to become one, and results in the resurrection of the dead. It is seen as the triumph of the soul joining the body, and that explains the Yoruba concept of resurrection. Prof. Babatunde Lawal’s iteration of the neutralizing of death story, even though different, presents the same outcome.
Professor Babatunde Lawal writes that “to the Yoruba, death is not the end of life. It is merely a dematerialization of the vital breath or soul, and hence a transformation from earthly to spiritual existence (a kind of afterlife), where the dematerialized soul may choose to stay forever, although it can make periodic returns to earth through reincarnation (atunwti). It is this belief in an afterlife and in Reincarnation that assures the Yoruba of immortality.”
I invite my audience to explore this Yoruba worldview of neutralizing death through this series of paintings.