Confusion and personification in Yoruba thought and practice

The paper traces out the place of Èshù ? the Yoruba god associated with confusion, the trickster and the messenger of the gods ? in the classic sources on Yoruba religion, in a postcolonial play which comments on current politics, in the formulations of Christianity and Islam, and from fieldwork on present ideas and practices of the people of two towns in Western Nigeria. It works particularly closely on the place of Èshù in the causation, diagnosis and treatment of the condition known as dàrú, disturbance or confusion, which can apply to many levels of being from the mind to the body to relationships.