From the time of the first English translations of Yorùbá words in the mid nineteenth century, Èṣù has been rendered as "devil" or "satan".The first known instance of this came from Samuel Ajayi Crowther's "Vocabulary of the Yoruba" (1842) where his entries for "Satan" and "Devil" had Eshu in English. Subsequent dictionaries over the years have followed suit, permeating popular culture and Yorùbá societies as well. Lately, many online campaigns have been set up to protest this, and many activists have worked to correct it.There have also been quite a number of academic work examining the mistranslation.
The translation on Google Translate took up the same earlier mistranslations. This led to a number of online campaigns[1until 2016 when Nigerian linguist and writer Kola Tubosun, then an employee at Google, first changed it back to less derogatory connotations. And when the changes were reverted, he changed them again in 2019.The translation for Èṣù to English now remains "Èṣù" while 'devil' and 'satan' translate to 'bìlísì' and 'sàtánì' respectively
But who is Esu?
Eshu (Yoruba: Èṣù, also known as Echú, Exuor Exú) whose nicknames are Trickery, Crossroads, Misfortune, Chaos, Death, Travelers, Messenger is an Orisa in the Yoruba religion of the Yoruba people (originating from Yorubaland, an area in and around present-day Nigeria). an Orisha in the Yoruba religion of the Yoruba people (originating from Yorubaland, an area in and around present-day Nigeria).
Eshu partially serves as an alternate name for Eleggua, the messenger for all Orishas, and that there are 256 paths to Eleggua—each one of which is an Eshu. It is believed that Eshu is an Orisha similar to Eleggua, but there are only 101 paths to Eshu according to ocha, rather than the 256 paths to Eleggua according to Ifá.Eshu is known as the "Father who gave birth to Ogboni", and is also thought to be agile and always willing to rise to a challenge.
Both ocha and Ifá share some paths, however. Eshu Ayé is said to work closely with Orisha Olokun and is thought to walk on the shore of the beach. Eshu Bi is a stern and forceful avatar, appearing as both an old man and young boy, who walked with Shangó and Oyá (the initial two Ibeyi), and Eshu Bi protects both of these, as well as all other small children. Eshu Laroye is an avatar believed to be the companion of Oshún and believed to be one of the most important Eshus, and the avatar of Eshu Laroye is thought to be talkative and small.
Source: Wikipedia.org
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