Next Time, Say Aṣẹ! Not Amen or Amin, See Why

Over the years, many Yoruba youths, larger percentage of elders, and many lovers of Yoruba culture lives in ignorance of the real meaning of the term “ÀṢẸ”, as may be determined by the usage. These sets of people view it as a pagan term that should be avoided in every ramification, mostly on religion ground. The horrible things do happen when one found himself in the midst of praying Christians or Muslims, and you decided to affirm the prayer with ÀṢẸ instead of amin or amen, they will view such a person as someone that is still living in Stone Age. This is due to lack of understanding, as the bible asserts that my people were destroyed for lack of understanding.

However, it’s of interest to note that ÀṢẸ could be used as an authority, agreement to a prayer, or a powerful charm.
ÀṢẸ, AMIN, AND AMEN

A dictionary of Yoruba Language (2008) defined ÀṢẸ as law, command, commandment, instruction, or order. This definition view ÀṢẸ from the perspectives of authority that one person or group of person’s has over the other. The same dictionary further states that ÀṢẸ means Amen, which means “so be it”. An affirmation to a prayer of a religious leader or elders, even one’s contemporary.

AMEN is defined by Wikipedia (2014) as “so be it; truly” a declaration of affirmation found in the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament. It’s used in Judaism dates back to its earliest text. It has been generally adopted in Christian worship as a concluding word for prayers and hymns. Amen is pronounced as ey-men or ah-men. This is contrary to the claim of Adeoye Augustine Okusanya that Amen is the name of an Egyptian god. The Egyptian god is called Amen-Ra- the primeval deity worshiped especially at Thebes, the personification of air or breath, represented as either a Ram or gorse. He failed to realize that similarity does not mean same. More so, Amen is said to have its origin in Hebrew, and not Egypt.

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