Aje Festival And Mythology – Yoruba Goddess Of Wealth
In the Yoruba mythology, Aje (pronounced as Ajé by the Yorubas) is the daughter of Olokun – the goddess that rules all the entities of water has authority over other water deities.
Aje is believed to be among the most worshipped goddess in the Yoruba land as she is said to be the goddess of wealth that enriches her worshippers with great fortunes.
Òrìṣà Ajé as fondly called by the Yorubas has a hand on the economy of the Yoruba kingdom. She is also the influence behind every profit-making business and any money-related to every one of her worshippers.
Every 24th of February is a special day marked to celebrate the Aje Festival – the Ojo Aje (Òjò Ajé) in which the worshippers would bring white pigeon as a sign of peace and purity, which the Ooni of Ife leads the crowd down to Idi Aje – the home of Aje. Prayers would be made with the pigeon and afterward would be set free at Idi Aje. A ritual that is believed to be effective.
An oral history told by the Monarch of Onigbongbo in Ikeja about the origin of Aje told of a woman, Riri by name who was in search of a child went to the Ifa Priest and after the priest was done making sacrifices to Orunmila and 3 children; Oja, Ona, and Ile were given to her.
She later made a request to excrete on her children’s land which only Ile agreed to the request, and her excrete became wealth and profit thus begetting Aje. Since then, Aje has been active to people upon her summon or any place she wishes to bless with good fortunes.