‘Orunmila needs a new house’: religious fundraising and the revitalisation of Ijo Orunmila Adulawo in southwest Nigeria

Abstract

ABSTRACT In the last three decades, neo-traditional religious groups in Nigeria have continued to (re-)emerge and expand, despite their earlier inhibition by the increased dominance of Christianity, Islam and secular-modernist values. One such group is Ijo Orunmila Adulawo (African Congregation of Orunmila Devotees), originally established in 1934 as an umbrella organisation for traditional worshippers. Based on fieldwork in the Ikenne branch, I examine the innovative fundraising methods that the group has adopted since 1992 in pursuit of the construction of a modern iledi (temple), and the debates they sparked among members, some of whom felt they reflected Christian or foreign, rather than traditional Yoruba ethics and values. A closer look at the dynamics of the group’s fundraising practices, however, suggests they have been shaped within a moral-economic framework oriented toward the flourishing of what the group takes to be traditional religion and the assertion of related values. The article shows how economic practices not only reflect but are an important part of the politics of value negotiated by neo-traditional religious groups like Ijo Orunmila as they have sought to establish and maintain the authority and relevance that has driven their growth in contemporary Nigeria.