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Key Details
Type
CityMythology
African Pantheon (Yoruba)
Coordinates
7.8439°N, 3.9306°E
About This Location
Shango's former throne
Old Oyo (Oyo-Ile) was the capital of the Oyo empire. Tradition makes Shango (Sango) a historical Alaafin who became the orisha of thunder after a violent end. Johnson's History of the Yorubas and Ifa/Sango praise-poetry are the usual written and oral witnesses. The city is where kingship and thunder-cult meet; it is not a sky-palace. New Oyo after the capital's fall is a later political fact. Do not invent a festival the Sango cult does not actually keep.
Primary Sources
“Sango was Alaafin at Oyo. When he departed, the people said the king had become thunder.”
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