Babalu Aye - Relationship To Other Orisha

Relationship To Other Orisha

There are several, sometimes contradictory, accounts of Babalú-Ayé's genealogical relationships with other orisha. Babalú-Ayé is often considered the son of Yemayá and the brother of Shango. However, some traditions maintain that he is the son of Nana Burukú, a Fon deity added to the Yoruba pantheon, and associated with fresh water moving underground and inscrutable female power, but others assert that she is his wife. However, some ritual lineages maintain that Nanú, a strong, mysterious orisha, is the mother of Babalú-Ayé.

Some lineages of Candomblé relate myths that justify Babalú-Ayé being the child of both Yemaya and Nana Burukú. In these myths, Nana Burukú is Babalú-Ayé's true mother who abandons him to die of exposure on the beach where he is badly scarred by crabs. Yemaya discovers him there, takes him under her protection, nurses him back to health, and educates him in many secrets.

Because of his knowledge of the forest and the healing power of plants, Babalú-Ayé is strongly associated with Osain, the orisha of herbs. Oba Ecun (a Cuban oriate in La Regla de Ocha) describes the two orisha as two aspects of a single being, while William Bascom noted that among the Yoruba some connect the two through their mutual close relationship with the spirits of the forest called ijimere.