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I stand with Yorùbá indigenous people across the world to say it clearly and without apology:

ÈṢÙ IS NOT SATAN.

This marks over a decade since Oníṣẹ̀ṣe began the deliberate work of correcting one of the most damaging religious lies ever imposed on Yorùbá civilisation. I salute Olúwo Solagbade Popoola, his family, and all who helped birth and sustain this movement until it gained global visibility. What began as resistance is now remembrance.

I was meant to be at the African Shrine today for World ÈṢÙ Day. Duty called elsewhere, a critical engagement involving my professional body and Lagos State leadership. On our way to Alausa, we passed the procession. One of my colleagues, already aware I was meant to attend, asked a simple but revealing question:

“What is Satan in Yorùbá?”

I answered: Sátánì.

Because it is not our word.

She asked again:

“What is Èṣù in English?”

I said: Èṣù is Èṣù.

You do not translate what does not belong to your cosmology. You do not rename what you did not create. Words like devil, demon, hellfire have no roots in Ìṣẹ̀ṣe. They are foreign concepts with foreign histories.

Èṣù is not Satan.

There is no blindness like ignorance.

And as Prof. Niyi Osundare reminds us: history outlives us all.

How the confusion began

The crisis around Èṣù did not begin online. It began over a century ago, when a young Yorùbá boy named Ajayi was captured into slavery around Òsoògùn–Ìṣẹ́yìn. After the abolition of slavery, he was trained by missionaries and later became Bishop Samuel Ajayi Crowther, the first to translate the Bible into Yorùbá.

In that translation, a grave error was committed: Satan was equated with Èṣù.

Ask yourself honestly:

What did a 13-year-old, not trained in Ifá, not born into an Awo lineage, not raised in Èṣù devotion, truly know about Èṣù?

That mistake born of ignorance and colonial pressure has haunted Ìṣẹ̀ṣe practitioners, Oníṣẹ̀ṣe, and lovers of Yorùbá originality ever since. And it must be corrected, not whispered about.

But chanting “Èṣù is not Satan” is not enough.

We must also say who Èṣù truly is.

Who is Èṣù?

Èṣù is not a fallen angel.

Èṣù is not a demon.

Èṣù is not evil.

Èṣù is an Òrìṣà, an Irúnmọlẹ̀ delegated by Olódùmarè.

He is the Divine Messenger, the Administrator of cosmic order, the enforcer of justice, and the guardian of communities.

Èṣù mediates between humanity, the Òrìṣà, and the forces known as Ajogun. He carries sacrifice, enforces consequence, and ensures balance. That is why Yorùbá wisdom says:

Ẹni tó bá rúbọ, l’Èṣù ń gbè.

He supports those who do what is right.

In precolonial Yorùbáland, towns did not need walls.

Èṣù was the wall.

Odù Ifá Ọ̀ṣẹ̀túrá, Ọ̀wọ́nrínṣogbè, Ọ̀ṣálogbè are explicit: no town is founded without Èṣù. No community stands without his sanction.

Èṣù is not Satan and Satan is not Èṣù

Satan, in Abrahamic theology, is a fallen angel, unseen, a ruler of evil principalities. Yorùbá already had a name for such forces long before colonisation: Ajogun.

Èṣù is not Ajogun.

Èṣù does not possess humans to destroy them.

Èṣù persuades, tests, balances, and enforces consequences.

Even names tell the story.

Yorùbá children bear names linked to Òrìṣà devotion Ifá, Òṣùn, Ṣàngó, Ògún, Odù, Èṣù, etc and none of them are demonic. Names shape destiny, and no Èṣù-named lineage has ever produced “devils.”

Èṣù in space and place

Èṣù has defined worship points — Ojúbọ Èṣù, Ojúbọ Ẹlẹ́gbára often at crossroads, town centres, thresholds. Among the Àwórì, this survives clearly. What is today called Ojúẹlẹ́gba in Lagos was once Ojú Ẹlẹ́gbára, a sacred site, not a coincidence.

What happened to Èṣù was not theology, it was colonial distortion.

It was the demonisation of identity.

It was the rewriting of memory.

And today, Yorùbá people are correcting it; calmly, firmly, unapologetically.

Èṣù is not Satan.

Èṣù is Èṣù.

To know that is not rebellion.

It is remembrance.

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