Chant: Ile l’amu s’enia    (The earth is used to make man)

Ile lo nmu’su jade   (The earth brings forth food)

Ile yin na ni nj’enia   (This same earth eats up man)

Ile iba re o   (Earth, we pay you respect)

Tread carefully stranger

For every earthworm has a face

And every footpath its own tale.

We love the rivers, the seas,

The winding streams that feed every hamlet…

We worship neither the water

Nor the virgin bearing it to the shrine

But our mother who fills the deep

With her luminescence:

Oya, queen of the Niger;

Osun, giver of children;

Yemoja, goddess of waters;

Olokun, lord of the open sea

Whose gentle tread traverses

The rich floors of the ocean,

In your tender arms we lay to sleep,

At your bulging breasts we suck the fluid of life.

Now let there be quiet in this hall of jabbering voices,

It is time for worship!

We bring our offerings,

Sometimes bloody, often bloodless-

It could be cooked, roasted or raw-

Every divinity has his own preference.

We place them at the foot of the image,

The iron rod stuck in the soft earth,

At the mouth of the sea,

Or the crossroads where birds of prey prowl.

We dance joyfully in celebration,

This sacrifice is accepted.

We dance in celebration

Of our lives and our culture.

We love the hills, the valleys, the trees,

All the animals that walk or crawl or climb-

We love all the gifts of the earth.

We love the birds, the stars,

The wind, the rain-

We love all the gifts of the sky.

We love the fishes, the corals,

The crabs, the shrimps

And the fluid that gives life-

We love all the gifts of the waters.

We love the world and the heavens,

We love Olodumare, almighty creator

Whose breath gives life,

Whose light brightens a gloomy world.

Olodumare, Oluwa Olorun Alaaye

Ever living father

Who wields his mighty powers with kindness,

We stand in your circle of ash,

Our kolanuts reach to the heavens-

Bless our path father of all, guide our destiny.

It is not the wood we worship

But the reflection of your eternity,

It is you ruler of the heavens and the earth,

Master of the one thousand, seven hundred divinities

You, whose shrine is in our hearts.

The Oracle never lies

The Oracle always tells the truth

The gates of heaven are open

At the centre of the divination tray…