ADULTERY: YORUBA'S VIEW PART 2

By Alabi Martin

 The Africans believe in communalism, which means people living together in order to reach or achieve the common goal of the community.  This can be easily found in the ancient Yoruba community where people live a community life and act under the influence of the community and also work together in favor of the community. Also, in the Yoruba community, whatever is declared universally wrong is considered wrong by the individuals within the community, and whatever the community accepts to be right is considered rights by the individuals. This means that morality is the code of conduct that is being set up by the community in order to guide the conducts or actions of the people within the community.  In line with this, Adègbindin states that:
Morality is held in high esteem by the Africa people and the regard they have  for how man should conduct himself in society has produced or led to the enactment of law, rules, customs, traditions and taboos that must be obscured by the individual in society.
This means that the set up rules to guide human conduct is the outcome of different individual behavior that comes together and form norms, customs, laws, among others. And also, it can be derived from the people’s way of life, and it is embedded in the system of behavior and also in their conducts.
There is a belief among the Yoruba that any action or conduct of a man can affect other members of the community whether positively or negatively, and that is why there are set norms and code of conducts that are to be observed by individuals and which is also extended to the entire community at large and these can be referred to as moral values. Whereas Wiredu and Gbadegesin see morality not as the fruit of religion but human invention. But morality, according to Adègbindin is not man’s invention but it is what had been planted in man through creation and thus the effect of individual action does not only affect the community but also affects the natural order which is created by the Supreme Being.
In regards to this Bewaji tries to marry religion and the human conduct together by stating that there is some relationship between religion and conducts in African society, religion is both instrument of cohesion and a factor of order, bringing to the fore the creative genius of members of society. He also states that religion developed out of human necessity and served the human need for knowledge and security.
Furthermore, in Yoruba cultural thought system, ethical behavior and morally approved conduct can be regarded to as character, that is why we have ìwà rere (good character), ìwà ìpèlé (humble character), ìwà tútù (cool character) and ìwà omolúàbí (a well-behaved). These also mean that we may have the opposite of these characters like ìwà búburú (bad character), ìwà ìgbéraga (pride character), among others. Every individual in Yoruba society have one kind of character or the other. The individual that has good character is seen as the morally inclined individual because he or she lives according to the mind of the society, but anyone who goes contrary with the good character is tagged as immoral in the society.