Understanding Wealth Creation (Aje) Through the Concept of Yoruba Traditional Religion

The crux of my discussion today is that religion permeates all facets of traditional Yoruba life, that Aje in traditional Yoruba religion is a goddess and therefore must be venerated. Also, that an individual’s effort towards amassing wealth is only physical and that the spiritual aspect of Yoruba life is the guiding force for seeking physical wealth. I will also posit that without understanding the spiritual the person trying to be wealthy through the physical I have mentioned is likely to miss the point of wealth creation.
Aje is responsible for profit making in the market place, and in fact, supervises the entire aspects of life that relates to money. It behoves us to note the special place of this goddess in the traditional economy of the Yoruba race as it centres on the open air market place of old which of course still exists today. The relationship between Yoruba traditional religion and Aje will not be complete if I do not take time to explain how Aje came into the Yoruba cosmos.  As the oral tradition goes, Riri was looking for a child and she was moved into tears about this because she had been looking for a child for a very long time and was unable to conceive and bear a child. Finally, she decided to go to a Bababalawo a guardian of the Ifa oracle and a father of divination.