Eshu the Trickster: Yoruba Culture
Eshu is the Trickster god of the Yoruba people of West Africa. He is a messenger and mediator between gods and men, and is a key figure in divination: “the cornerstone of Yoruba culture”, a ritual that harmonizes and balances the conflicting forces that exist in the world.
Sharing the same contradictions as humans and a lover of conflict, Olodumare, or the creator, Obatala, who, together with the other orishas (or benevolent gods), created dry land and human beings. Alongside the orishas, such as Shango, god of thunder, Ogun, god of iron and war, and Ifa, god of divination, stand the ajogun or malevolent gods such as Iku (death) and Arun (illness). In the eternal cosmic struggle between good and evil, one of Eshu’s key functions is to defeat the ajogun. But as was the case with the Norse god Loki, Eshu is connected at once to the ajogun and the orishas, establishing links between both. Like Loki, he has sometimes been (mistakenly) identified with the Christian devil.
The wrath of the ajogun can be appeased by making sacrifices to Eshu. Perhaps the best way to define his role would be as god of Destiny.