In the sacred creation narratives of the Yoruba nation, Ashe (also spelled Ase or Axé) refers to the heavenly and godly force, also called Olodumare. In the spiritual tradition of Ifa, Ashe is used to bring about the universe. Ashe is a primary example of an organizing force that accounts for the origins and nature of humans and the universe.
Ashe is a fluid concept, bridging the space between the seen and unseen worlds. It exists in all things, yet it can be an active or passive force. Ashe is always present and cannot be destroyed. The Yoruba concept of Ashe spread outside of the African continent through the enslavement of African people during the 18th and 19th centuries. European colonial restrictions on African culture and religion were unable to suppress the migration of intellectual and spiritual ideas. Ashe may have been the most important phenomenon to survive the Middle Passage.
You may have seen it spelled Asé, Ashe or Axé. You may have heard someone yell it out at an event or after a prayer. You may have wondered how to pronounce it and what it means exactly, or this may be your very first exposure to the word, and you’re wondering the very same thing. Relax. Take a deep breath. And prepare to say Asé when you finish reading this.
Asé (pronounced Ah-Shay) is an African word from the Yoruba language, which originated in the country of Nigeria. Asé means three very important things:
- Affirmation: Asé is a word of affirmation, similar to the word ‘Amen’ at the end of a prayer. It means, “Right on!” “Yes!” “I’m with you!” “I can dig it.” So when someone says something you like, say Asé loud and proud, for it is definitely not a meek and retiring word. It is bold and powerful and affirms out loud that which resonates in your heart as true. Asé?
- Life Force: Asé is a word that means life force or life energy, similar to the concept of Prana in Sanskrit or Qi in Asia. Each person comes into this life with a certain amount of life force, which can be increased or decreased throughout our lives, depending on our choices. For example, negative thoughts and actions can decrease your life force and positive thoughts and actions can increase it. In the Yoruba culture, it is said that our Ancestors bring us the Asé. Those that have come before us have generated for us and leave behind for us a certain gravitas that becomes our Asé in this lifetime. Similarly, our descendants, those who come after us, increase our Asé as they help increase our bloodline and therefore our influence on this Earth.
- Power to Create: Asé means the power to create that which you speak. As we’ve already discussed, Asé means life force, so it makes sense then that you are adding life force onto every word that comes out of your mouth. This is one of the many reasons it is crucial to be careful of what you are saying. It is imperative to choose your words wisely and intentionally. If you only realized how much Asé you have to create that which you speak, you would become much more aware of the words you add your life force to.
So the next time you hear something that moves you down to your soul, the next time you contemplate the impact your energy has on the world, or the next time you wish to manifest something by speaking it into existence, finish it off by saying “Asé” with all of your Asé!
Read also: "Sabi" Meaning Explained
In Yoruba religion, aṣẹ, àṣẹ,[1] aṣe,[2] ase, or ashe is a postulated natural force or power that creates, catalyzes or facilitates change in the natural world depending on interpretation.
It is believed to be given by Olódùmarè to everything - gods, ancestors, spirits, humans, animals, plants, rocks, rivers, and voiced words such as songs, prayers, praises, curses, or even everyday conversation. Rituals to invoke divine forces reflect this same concern for the autonomous ase of particular entities. The concept of ashe influences how many of the Yoruba arts are composed. Units often have no prescribed order and are interchangeable.
Attention to the discrete units of the whole produces a form which is multifocal, with shifts in perspective and proportion. Such compositions (whether representational or not) mirror a world order of structurally different yet autonomous elements. It is a formal means of organizing diverse powers, not only to acknowledge their autonomy but, more importantly, to evoke, invoke, and activate diverse forces, to marshal and bring them in to the phenomenal world.
The head, or orí, is vested with great importance in Yoruba art and thought. When portrayed in sculpture, the size of the head is often represented as four or five times its normal size in relation to the body in order to convey that it is the site of a person's ase as well as his or her essential nature, or iwa.[3] The Yoruba distinguish between the exterior (òde) and inner (inú) head. òde is the physical appearance of a person, which may either mask or reveal one's inner (inú) aspects. The head also links the person with the other-world.
The ìmorí ceremony (which translates to knowing-the-head) is the first rite that is performed after a Yoruba child is born. During imori, a diviner determines whether the child comes from his or her mother's or father's lineages or from a particular òrìṣà. If the latter is the case, then the child will undergo an orisa initiation during adulthood, during which the person's ori inu becomes the spiritual vessel for that òrìṣà's àṣẹ.
Read also: Understanding Nigerian Slang: Idan
Since at least the time of the Afrocentricity movement in the Anglophone diaspora during the late 20th century, the term "Àṣẹ" has become a relatively common term in the United States, with the general connotation being of affirmation and hopeful wishes.
There are innumerable religious traditions on the continent of Africa, and within a great number of them is the power to ‘call-forth’ or the ability to use the body and voice as a conduit to focus the spiritual powers of the unseen world to impact upon the realm of the living. In the Yoruba tradition this ability can be summed up in the word: ashe’.
Yoruba traditional rulers
Ashe’ like the word ‘amen’ provides emphasis to any and all spiritual conversations. As well it represents the embodiment of the divine life force that exists within and throughout all things in the seen and unseen worlds. Will Coleman in the article “‘Amen’ and ‘Ashe’’: African American Protestant Worship and Its West African Ancestor”, states: “‘Ashe’’ is something like an all-pervasive spiritual energy. But it is also a term comparable to ‘Amen.’ It could be translated as ‘so be it.’”
For the Yoruba, ashe’ is the divine word handed down from the supreme deity Olorun its’ self, which enables communication between deities and mortals. The Yoruba belief system is ancient with no clear origin date. Yoruba people believe they are descendants of the Goddesses and Gods of their pantheon whom are themselves mere manifestations of Olorun.
Read also: "Ire": A Deep Dive into Yoruba Meaning
The deities of their pantheon, of which there are hundreds, each embody aspects of the material world. For instance, Eshu is the spirit of change and individuality, Ogun is the God of iron, Oshun is the Goddess of love and so forth. Further, Yoruba deities are equipped with the looks and personalities of humanity, which makes them accessible to humans, unlike Olorun. That is to say, the supremacy of Olorun is so much that It cannot be reached by humans, which is why intermediaries or lessor Goddesses and Gods are necessary for the Yoruba people.
Furthermore, each of the lessor deities has certain requisites for humans who wish to connect with them, such as particular dances, items, costumes and/or gifts. The offerings are dependent on the particular personality of the specific deity being revered. For example, Legba, a trickster, requires an offering of tobacco, while iron must be present for Ogun to make his presence felt. Failure to acknowledge the specific requisites of a particular deity is blasphemous and may be met with divine justice: crop failures, disease, death of family members, loss of prestige, etc.
The lessor deities were created through the ashe’ of Olorun as It has the ultimate power to bring into existence or make-things-happen. However, to be clear, ashe’ power by itself is inherently neutral, and can only become good or evil at the will of the user. Also, ashe’ was given to particular avatars on Earth as conduits for human empowerment, specifically, the royal python (ere), the gaboon viper (oka olushere), the earthworm (ekolo), the white snail (lakoshe) and the woodpecker (akoko).
Other representations of ashe’ for the Yoruba exist within inanimate objects such as certain sculptures and other works of art. Moreover, for the Yoruba, when human personality is combined with the power of ashe’ a sense of certainty or coolness (itutu) is born. Coolness is the gentle but serious nature that exists within human beings as a result of strong character and a keen understanding of ashe’ power.
In the New World, the Yoruba belief system did not expire during the process of enslavement, instead it evolved as the Yoruba people did. Many Yoruba deities began to appear in various folk belief systems of enslaved Africans in the Americas and the Caribbean. Meaning, the Yoruba belief system took on (and maintains) a number of different identities in the Western Hemisphere, such as: Vodun, Condomble’, Santeria, Macumba and Umbanda. This phenomenon was made possible because of the strong philosophic foundation of the Yoruba.
That is to say, the Yoruba developed their belief system in such a manner that it is conceptually grounded and not dependent on conversion. Thompson explains, “The Yoruba remain the Yoruba precisely because their culture provides them with ample philosophic means for comprehending and ultimately transcending, the powers that periodically threaten to dissolve them.”
During the middle passage and settlement in the Americas, the Yoruba religion simply evolved and took on a number of different names and diverse manifestation, but is still essentially governed by the power of ashe’. To explain further, through syncretism many of the Yoruba Goddesses and Gods were easily replaced with Catholic saints because of the many parallelisms that exist between the Saints and the Orishas.
For instance, the Virgin Mary can be worshipped and adorned the same way Oshun is because they share a gentle nature. Or, Eshu becomes ‘the Devil’ upon Catholic conversion because they share a precarious disposition. This syncretic process was not made possible simply because the deities share similar characteristics, but instead by the ability to “make it so” through the signification of words and symbols, through ashe’. That is, the use of ashe’, to name, to call-forth, or to create through voice and action, provided the parameters to ease the conversion of Africans in the New World.
In North American Christian Churches, ashe’ became amen, but the idea behind the expression was never lost on Africans who were converted to the religion of their masters. More precisely, the difference between the expressions is merely semantic, nothing more. Amen like ashe’ provides emphasis to the preacher’s words on Sunday, strengthens individual prayers, as well it accompanies shouts of jubilation for African Americans attempting to make manifest the desires of the soul. Both expressions ensure that the messages of mortals will be heard by the Divine.
Like the Yoruba, African Americans depend heavily on the ability to bring-forth through the word, and amen allows that, just as ashe’ does. Due to the fact that the Yoruba religion was able to survive the conversion experience of Africans in the New World, it is likely the only traditional African religion that not only survived the Maafa (African Holocaust) intact but continues to thrive outside the continent of Africa. This speaks to the strength and versatility of the Yoruba belief system. In that, the tradition survived the middle passage but did so by evolving to fit the temporal and spatial context in which it found itself in the New World.
This is not to say that other African traditions and cultures did not survive the Maafa, such a perspective would be rather shortsighted. Instead this is to argue that the versatility of the Yoruba tradition, which emphasizes the power to “make it so” through ashe’, has enabled the tradition to grow in the Americas. In essence, I am proposing that ashe’ is the same as ‘amen’: the basis of all conjuring power for Africans in the New World where the human voice becomes a conduit of supernatural power in the natural world, thereby allowing Africans in the Americas to continue to develop and nurture a sense of identity and being-ness.
In conclusion, Ashe is a multifaceted concept deeply embedded in African, particularly Yoruba, culture. It serves as a word of affirmation, a representation of life force, and the power to manifest through spoken words. Its survival and evolution through the African diaspora demonstrate its enduring significance.
