ÈṢÙ (ESHU)

Messenger, crossroads, chance

Èṣù (Eshu) is the messenger orisha and keeper of the crossroads in Yoruba religion. An indispensable intermediary between humans and the deities, he conveys offerings and prayers to the spirit world and sees to it that sacrifices are honoured; for this he receives the first share of every offering and is greeted first in most rituals. Companion of Orunmila, he holds a central place in Ifa divination. An ambivalent figure, at once ordering and unpredictable, he tests human beings, opens or closes the roads, and embodies the principle of choice and consequence. Nineteenth-century Christian missionaries wrongly assimilated him to the devil in their translations — a misreading that specialists of Yoruba religion have long since corrected: Èṣù is not a figure of evil but a principle of circulation and balance. His attributes are the crossroads, the laterite stone called yangi, the carved staff, cowries, and the colours black and red. In the diaspora he remains the first to be honoured: Eleguá in Cuban Santería, where he keeps the doors and the roads, Exu in Brazilian Candomblé, saluted at the opening of every ceremony. His worship remains alive in Nigeria, in Benin and across the Americas.