Yoruba are culturally groomed people who cannot do without the art and the use of cultural elements in their day to day activities and fact findings. They occupy the geographical delineation on the map of Nigeria called South-West region.
Yoruba speaking region includes the following states: Lagos, Ogun, Ondo, Ekiti, Osun and Oyo states etc.
It’s however believed that Oduduwa, the progenitor of the Yorubas, settled in Ile-Ife with a large family due to development settled at different locations and environment but didn’t forget their sources and oneness which broom represents. That’s why anytime Yoruba wants to relocate or travel to another environment or cross country, an adage goes like this” Ese rayin ni osusu owo” i.e, always bind ourselves like a bunch of broom.
It is an inevitable tooling in a house, home or office. It’s a cleaning tool consisting of stick, stuff fibres attached to and roughly parallel to a cylindrical handle, the broom stick. It’s an implement for sweeping, consisting of brush of straw or strands of synthetic material bound tightly to the end.
Sources of broom include palm trees, coconut trees and raffia palm.
Products from palm tree are palm oil, palm wine, palm kernel, kernel oil, trunk for furniture industries; roofing, bridges construction, palm front (used for roofing): broom making, basket making, empty bunch (soap making), immature nut (curing fibroid in women), and tooth pick from broom used in the restaurants.
In Southern Nigeria, as in much of tropical and equatorial Africa, people make brooms by grouping together the excised midribs of Palm fronds and tying them with fiber into a bundle.
These bundles are democratic things – they brush aside accumulated filth on the floors of small family homes and Royal palaces alike. Brooms are also used to clear exterior spaces, areas of human activity that might be overgrown by plant, evaded by low-lying snakes, scorpions and the like, or just scattered with the inevitable detritus of everyday life.
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In any culture to use a broom is to engage in a defining act of civilization; to sweep is to assert the boundaries of one’s dwelling space and to defend that space against the natural forces of entropy. In every Yoruba household I have ever visited, sweeping is an important daily activity. It’s through sweeping that environment is restored. The broom is used to sweep and rejuvenation is caused to exist and the newness is sustained within the habitat and society.
For sweeping: The use of broom for sweeping cuts across all the ethnic groups in Nigeria, including Hausa, Igbo and the Yorubas.
• For roofing (slates)
• Used for making draw-soup called “Ewedu” among Yorubas, also known and used by other ethnic groups in Nigeria.
•Always on the side of elderly people, on their bed-side to driveaway flies and mosquitoes.
• Political party symbol in Nigeria presently-(APC).
•In Igbo land, traditional dancers use it as part of dancing costumes.
• It’s tied round the neck of their goat for security among Delta people meaning, it’s no go area for thieves.
Position of broom in Yoruba traditions
Broom is so significant to Yorubas in that, it’s search light into day to day activities and into future endeavors and it is a tool in the act of divination. In the religious system of Orisha worship, Oba Oluaye is the praise name of the Spirit of the Earth and strongly associated with infectious diseases and healings. He is an Orisha representing the deity Olorun on Earth. The exercise of his authority on Earth includes the body, wealth and possessions. He was strongly associated with small pox, he cures ailments, both referred to as the “wrath of the supreme god” because he punished people for their transgressions. His ritual tools include a ritual broom for purification.
Ogun Deity: The God of iron and warfare uses Palm front as clothing. He is the partfinder, way maker. He creates ways for others to follow into their different (journey of destiny) endeavors.
Spiritual Significance of brooms in Yoruba traditions
•Used as shrine door in most ritual centers among the Yorubas. Meaning it’s a no-go area to strangers or non- members (Sacred to them).
•Weapons of warfare: Due to the spiritual connotation and attachment to it, it was used as a weapon of warfare during the Ife/Modakeke War in Osun State, Southwest Nigeria. In those days for slaughtering their opponents.
Security apparatus: Charmed broom is hanged at the back of the door frame of a building among the Yorubas for protection and a security device against robbery and theft. The moment you gain access in to the premises, going out with the stolen items becomes difficult, the thief will pick the broom and begin to sweep until the owner comes around.
•symbolises power and authority in Yorubaland, for sending messages, riddles, oneness of purpose and for disputes resolutions.
•broom is associated with Obalua-aye, which afflicts people with Chicken-pox. The moment it’s noticed that Chicken-pox has affected one person in a home, it’s advisable to stop sweeping that house with broom and immediately transfer their brooms outside the house in order to stop the spread of the Chicken-pox.
•For purification and cleansing of the land. It is forbidden among Yorubas to commit suicide or sleeping with a woman on a bare ground. The implication is that;
(1) It will lead to poor agricultural yield of farm produce.
(2) Their livestock’s will start dying one after the other.
(3) Their children will start falling sick.
(4) Used in the deliverance of Demon possessed individuals like witchcraft, evil spirit e.t.c
*Symbolises unity of people and oneness among Yorubas, especially the art of Divination and the Ogboni Secret Cult members. It is used as (AROKO) message of peace among or between warring communities, meaning war has ended, bits time to remain united and bonded together like a bunch of broom. On the other hand, when a strand or a stick of broom is removed and used as a message to another warring community, it signifies that everybody should be separated apart, no more unity or togetherness and however, that’s the beginning of war.
•Used in casting spell called (MAGUN) thunder bolt on sexually promiscuous women among Yoruba. It is usually done with a stick of broom with other cultural materials with some incantations, and then kept at the entrance where the woman suspected of marital unfaithfulness will cross-over it, and immediately it will become potent on her body. If after seven days she doesn’t have sexual intercourse with a man she will die.
*It is used as a tool of discipline to wicked people or individuals (e.g. Police Officer or wicked Boss)
*Used as charm for business boom or prosperity among market men and women. Such broom is very special to their owners, they don’t allow others or sales girl to sweep their shop or office because of some incantations that are involved while sweeping, it’s a secret of their success.
•Used in some churches among Yoruba, especially during December time, their pastors or shepherds will ask them to bring *new brooms* for special prayers and anointing oil in order to ward off evil occurrence among their family.
•It is used for casting spells or placing a curse
- Oloruntosin is HOD Education Dept, National Museum, Lagos.