Ayodeji Ogunnaike
Assistant Professor of African Religions; Canada Research Chair (Tier 2) in the Globalization of African Religions and Yoruba Mythology
B.A., M.A., Ph.D. (Harvard)
African indigenous/traditional religions, Islam in Africa, Christianity in Africa, Afro-diasporic religions, African mythology, comparative religion, history of religion.
Professor Ogunnaike teaches interdisciplinary courses on Africa and the African Diaspora that center around the important role religion plays in these communities. His research focusses mostly on Yoruba oriṣa worship in Nigeria, but also addresses Islam in Africa, Christianity in Africa, and diaspora religions—Brazilian Candomblé in particular.
Having studied Ifa divination with a high priest and diviner in Nigeria, he has a keen interest in indigenous African intellectual traditions and mythology. With his brother, Professor Oludamini Ogunnaike, he is the author of the forthcoming Yoruba Mythology: Oriṣa Stories from West Africa and the Diaspora, the first widely accessible, major anthology of Yoruba mythology. His first book, How Worship Becomes Religion, analyzes how the worship of traditional Yoruba deities originally differed greatly from Western notions of “religion” but eventually became the most widespread and celebrated indigenous African religion through contact with modernity and mission Christianity. He is currently working on a project to study and protect the rights of Africana religious practitioners in Canada and a new book project The Nigerian Female King of Sheba which investigates the dynamic nature of traditional Yoruba mythology, time and sacred history, gender, identity, and politics.
- Yoruba Mythology: Stories of the Oriṣa from West Africa and the Diaspora (Black Dog & Leventhal, 2026).
- Forms of Worship: How Oriṣa Devotion Became Religion in Nigeria and Brazil (Duke University Press, 2026).
- "Ifa and Traditional Yoruba Interpretations of Christianity” in Topographies of African Spirituality: Essays in Honour of Professor Jacob Olupona (Routledge, 2024).
- "The Transcontinental Genealogy of the Afro-Brazilian Mosque" Essay, MAVCOR Journal 6, no. 2 (2022): 1-52.
- “Why Are Indigenous African and Afro-Diasporic Religions Relevant to You?” in Indigenous Religious Traditions in 5 Minutes eds. Molly Bassett and Natalie Avalos (Sheffield, UK: Equinnox, 2022).
- “What’s Really Behind the Mask?: A re-examination of Syncretism in Brazilian Candomblé” Journal of Africana Religions (2020): 146-171.
- Oyinbo Ọmọ Aṣogun Dere: An analysis of racial injustice, gun violence, and sexual assault, in America through a traditional Yoruba perspective.” Journal of Interreligious Studies (2018): 103-26.
- “Mamalawo?: The Controversy over Women Practicing Ifa Divination” Journal of the African Association for the Study of Religion (2018): 15-34.