In an effort to teach the next generation about Yoruba culture and tradition, the Traditional Religion Worshippers’ Association on Wednesday encouraged the Federal and State Governments to open schools where traditional religious knowledge would be taught as a subject.
Fayemi Fakayode, the secretary of the association’s Oyo State branch, made this request in the state capital of Ibadan. He also urged the governments to include traditional religious knowledge, such as Islamic and Christian religious knowledge, as a subject in the curricula of primary and secondary schools.
In a statement he personally signed, Fakayode emphasized the need for accurate education to dispel myths about Yoruba history and ancestry from the minds of the younger generation. He clarified that Africans’ miseducation about their origins and culture had resulted in many false beliefs about their traditional religion.
“We made this call during the installation of two Brazilians, Awoyomi Fakayode and Iyanifa Ifatayo Obemo as Mayegun and Yeye Mayegun of Ìjọ Ìmọ́lẹ̀ Olódùmarè Àgbáyé, accordingly, on Sunday at Alade Town in the Akinyele Local Government Area of the state,” stated the secretary, who also happens to be the Founder of Olodumare’s Temple of Light International.
The Federal and State Governments should now incorporate TRK into the basic and secondary school curricula, just as they do with IRK and CRK, respectively. For the younger generations to learn about our customs and faith, they must receive a proper education.
Additionally, it is necessary to instill in the next generation a sense of patriotism that will make them unyielding to the spirit of betraying their predecessors and to arm them with culturally grounded information that will make them beneficial for both themselves and their country.
“We urge traditionalists to begin pushing for the inclusion of this subject in our elementary and secondary education systems, and the federal and state governments will provide the necessary backing by endorsing its inclusion in the curricula and syllabus.”
