“Elenini. Enemy, false witnesss and detractor rolled into one. Remember the Roman god Dis that is one with Pluto, the Greek god of the Underworld? Discomfort, disunity, disharmony – everything suggestive of negativeness. Think of a human equivalent reposing not necessarily in one person”.
Odunlade Adekola
There are different Yoruba definitions of Elenini which is a dreadful human being that spends most of his or her life writing false petitions, plotting and trying to frame innocent people rather than face his or her own life. Elenini is only happy after scoring a goal to make other people unhappy because Elenini is more or less the devil’s apprentice. Some Yoruba people normally pray not to meet or come across Elenini in their lifetime because gruesome Elenini could easily bring sorrow and advanced negativity… Mystically, a person with envious Elenini spirit or attitude may assume that being an Elenini is normal as a hater, pessimist, troublemaker or blackmailer.
In the Yoruba movie Elenini (2014), the protagonist (actor Odunlade Adekola) went through series of hell before he found out the identity of his enemy while actress Ireti Osayemi Bakare played the jealous wife and complainant. The philosophical aspect of the movie showed why enemies who are classified as Elenini will do anything possible in order to destroy their victims and it may take victims a long time before they can identify Elenini.
If you are destined to meet an Elenini in your life, there is nothing you can about it because it is your fate by the law of Karma, but you can battle Elenini and win if you are smart enough although Elenini tend to be more intelligent than their victims as per ‘native intelligence’. Elenini needs to monitor your life in order to block your progress or put you in series of calamity therefore it is up to you to cut off Elenini from your life. Elenini will even get a Pastor to preach to you on ‘forgiveness’ so that he can continue to hinder your progress and subject you to public ridicule. A Yoruba proverb says, “Whoever listens and accepts a one sided story is a cruel and vicious human being”. Who is the Elenini in your life? If you are Elenini free, it could mean that you are extremely lucky because Eleninis tend to attack people who can do specific things better than them like the story-line of the movie Elenini while the victims tend to be vulnerable and honest people.
“Resistance to change is the source of what Ifa calls Elenini, or self-generated demons that have no existence outside of our imaginations.” pg 19 Introduction, Inner Peace
My Elenini were few in number but strong and determine to stay. Growing up in church I am familiar with the idea of demons or spirits riding or attaching themselves to you. People would pray for your deliverance and by the end many times you would end up looking like a greased pig at the county fair, but with little or no result. I have put money on altars, anointed myself, been anointed, told that this trinket or that trinket would help, called on Jesus and tarried until sunrise and all to no avail. What was wrong? Why didn’t it work? If you look at the way the issue was handled I was in a very helpless passive position”.
Could it be that there are different levels or types of Elenini? Do we all have the tendency to become Elenini at anytime if we are not careful? If Elenini are “self generated demons”, maybe it is when we are ready as Eleninis to set the demons free or banish the demons out of ourselves that we may have peace. Are you Elenini? How can you spot an Elenini? Elenini never sees or says good things about people around him or her, and nothing can make Elenini ‘happier’ than sadness, double standard and hypocrisy. Is Elenini mere behavioural analysis or a ‘demonic’ personality?
