{"id":2495,"date":"2025-02-15T11:38:09","date_gmt":"2025-02-15T14:38:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.djamilaribeiro.com.br\/?p=2495"},"modified":"2025-02-15T11:40:16","modified_gmt":"2025-02-15T14:40:16","slug":"orixas-series-iansa-shows-how-powerful-women-disturb-men","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.djamilaribeiro.com.br\/en\/orixas-series-iansa-shows-how-powerful-women-disturb-men\/","title":{"rendered":"Orix\u00e1s Series \u2013 Ians\u00e3 Shows How Powerful Women Disturb Men"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was listening to M\u00e3e M\u00e1rcia de Obaluaiy\u00ea, my dear m\u00e3e de santo<\/em>, sharing her stories this past weekend when she began talking about Ians\u00e3<\/a>, also known as Oy\u00e1. M\u00e3e M\u00e1rcia is devoted to this powerful orix\u00e1<\/em> who rules over storms and goes to war.<\/p>\n

In one of the it\u00e3s<\/em>, as mythological accounts are called, Oy\u00e1 possessed a power and a secret: she could transform into a buffalo. However, one day, while hunting, Ogum saw a beautiful buffalo shed its skin and reveal itself as Oy\u00e1.<\/p>\n

He was amazed and, while the warrior was working at the market, stole the buffalo skin and hid it. Ogum, who already had other wives, then asked Ians\u00e3 to marry him. She was convinced and went to live with him.<\/p>\n

Being a woman as fiery as dend\u00ea<\/em> oil, her overwhelming arrival in Ogum\u2019s community sparked jealousy among his wives. One night, they got Ogum drunk, and he revealed Oy\u00e1\u2019s secret and where he had hidden the buffalo skin.<\/p>\n

Ogum\u2019s wives began to taunt Oy\u00e1 with malicious comments about her and the animal. They did not expect, however, that this would enrage the orix\u00e1<\/em>, who found her buffalo skin, put it back on, and trampled and gored Ogum\u2019s wives and the entire community.<\/p>\n

Before fleeing from Ogum, Ians\u00e3 left a pair of horns with her children so that, in times of need, they could summon her by striking one horn against the other, and she would come to their aid as swiftly as lightning. This summarized version of one of Ians\u00e3\u2019s most famous stories makes me reflect on the obstacles that powerful women face in expressing their strength.<\/p>\n

The theft of the buffalo skin by Ogum allows us to consider how men may become disturbed by and seek to weaken women who captivate them with their strength\u2014precisely the trait they desire to take away to control them.<\/p>\n

It is a paradox in the lives of those who engage with strong-willed women<\/a>. They admire them yet wish to dominate and extinguish the fire that draws them in. In the case of the deity, this act of stripping her power was accompanied by a marriage proposal.<\/p>\n

When I think about the other wives who were unsettled by Oy\u00e1\u2019s arrival, I recall my sister Grada Kilomba\u2019s words about the nymph Echo from Greek mythology, condemned to repeat only the last words spoken by Narcissus.<\/p>\n

What I mean is that if a woman\u2019s power disturbs men\u2014who hold patriarchal power\u2014it also unsettles women who thrive whenever a blazing fire is extinguished.<\/p>\n

On the night of the drunken revelry, I see the betrayal of Oy\u00e1\u2019s trust, with the revelation of her secret, as an alliance between those who felt threatened by her sovereign power.<\/p>\n

Yet this orix\u00e1<\/em>, who governs justice alongside Xang\u00f4, regains her strength when she confronts injustice and humiliation. She becomes a buffalo once more, devastating everything around her and setting off into the world.<\/p>\n

But before leaving, she ensured that her children had the tools to communicate with her, showing that even the fiery temperament\u2014often perceived as reckless in this orix\u00e1<\/em>\u2014is accompanied by deep care for her offspring.<\/p>\n

Like the wind, this orix\u00e1<\/em> traveled the world and lived many adventures. One it\u00e3<\/em> tells us that she lay with the orix\u00e1s<\/em> and learned a secret from each of them. From Exu, she learned magic; from Ox\u00f3ssi, she learned to hunt; and from Xang\u00f4, she learned to breathe fire. She only did not lie with Obaluaiy\u00ea, her dear friend, whom she once helped by blowing wind through his straw coverings, revealing his beauty, as radiant as the sun.<\/p>\n

From her lovers, she received many gifts, but it was alongside Xang\u00f4 that Ians\u00e3 led armies, forming alliances with powerful kingdoms\u2014ones that the mighty ancestral king of Oy\u00f3 had never been able to approach. To honor her, we say \u201cEparrei!\u201d<\/em> and ask that her courage and justice protect strong women, helping them persevere despite many obstacles.<\/p>\n

I take this opportunity to congratulate the S\u00e3o Paulo Academy of Letters for the initiative taking place on July 17 in S\u00e3o Paulo, at the Municipal Park of Cordeiro. Forty trees of native species from the Atlantic Forest will be planted in a gesture of environmental appreciation.<\/p>\n

I salute my fellow member Leandro Karnal for the brilliant idea, my friend Jos\u00e9 Renato Nalini, Secretary of Green and Environment, and the president Ant\u00f4nio Penteado Mendon\u00e7a for this wonderful initiative. I will be there for the planting, to honor the occasion, and for the harvest, to celebrate.<\/p>\n

Originally published in Folha de S. Paulo<\/em><\/a><\/strong> on July 11, 2024.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was listening to M\u00e3e M\u00e1rcia de Obaluaiy\u00ea, my dear m\u00e3e de santo, sharing her stories this past weekend when she began talking about Ians\u00e3, also known as Oy\u00e1. M\u00e3e M\u00e1rcia is devoted to this powerful orix\u00e1 who rules over storms and goes to war. In one of the it\u00e3s, as mythological accounts are called, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2496,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false},"categories":[2],"tags":[440,441,418,446,41,275,153,439,444,415,276,438,437,445,447,442,443],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nOrix\u00e1s Series \u2013 Ians\u00e3 Shows How Powerful Women Disturb Men - Djamila Ribeiro<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Ians\u00e3 embodies female strength and resistance, revealing how patriarchy tries to weaken powerful women\u2014yet she reclaims her power.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.djamilaribeiro.com.br\/en\/orixas-series-iansa-shows-how-powerful-women-disturb-men\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Orix\u00e1s Series \u2013 Ians\u00e3 Shows How Powerful Women Disturb Men - 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