Religious Activity among the Yoruba and Religious Expression on the Island of Cuba - Essay Example

RELIGIOUS ACTIVITIES OF THE YORUBA v. RELIGIOUS EXPRESSIONS IN CUBA By Religious activity among the Yoruba and religious expression on the island of Cuba Introduction Religion refers to the service and worship of God or any other supernatural. People who practice religion commit or devote to religious faith or adherence with expectations of gaining favor from the worshipped God or supernatural. Religious activities, on the other hand denotes to different forms of devotions and worship (Stark & Bainbridge, 1987). The Yoruba people belong to an ethnic group in Nigeria making up 21% of the country. The island of Cuba is located in the Caribbean. Religion between the two nations depicts both similarities and differences. Yoruba Worship Each of the major Yoruba activity in their everyday life is characterized by a detailed worship. For example in a distinctive ceremonial worship, libation is poured to the ground to symbolize that the earth is opened up for spiritual beings to attend the worship. Chanting mysterious names and praises attract divination beings, who address prayers presented to them. Worship is also characterized by sacrifices of animals while in early years it involved human sacrifices. There are different types of sacrifices include prevention (Ebo Ogunkoja), substitution (Ebo A-ye-pin-un) and propitiation (Ebo Etutu). The ritual also has a prayer, songs and dances. These rituals are also practiced in modern day Yoruba (Comaroff & Comaroff, 1993). For example, their supreme deity is consulted frequently in the people’s submission to get solutions to their everyday troubles. The people of Yoruba believe that sacrifices they have to make in worshipping individual divinities depend on the problem or situation in which the person is experiencing. Besides formal prayers, the Yoruba engage extensively in unplanned and impromptu prayers which can precisely be termed as religious worship (Miller, 1997). They approach divinity openly in times of a crisis, happiness and sorrow. Unplanned prayers are made to the Supreme Being in usual praise, prayer conversation and through oaths taken. People seek favors in various areas of life such as employment, business and family. Drums also play key role in religion of Yoruba as a tool in communicating to their deities (Adegbite, 1988). Beliefs of the Religion of Yoruba The people of Yoruba exhibit beliefs such as belief in Olodunmare the most imperative being in the world, the maker of heavens and the earth, with no beginning. They also believe in Orishas. These are the small entities created by Olodunmare who were handed specific duties; they act as intermediaries between Olodunmare and humans. There are almost 401 deities (Orishas). The Island of Cuba Santeria religion The religion is characterized by the offering of sacrifice (Ebbo). The followers of the religion otherwise known as the santero executes the offering (ebbo) to the orisha in order to obtain ashe, the raw cosmic power, to work in favor of his client. The santero demands monetary pay for this, the derecho, and the demand for payment for the santero’s work can be relatively costly (Brown, 2003). There are basically three kinds of animal sacrifices. First is the sacrament purification: the santero rubs an animal over the body of a troubled client, taking away the source of trouble, and then sacrifices the animal. He must throw away the body of the animal. Offerings to orishas are the second ritual. Asiento offerings follow where the Saints are offered blood sacrifices. Use of drums is another activity used to sound atypical conversation. Similarities The religion of the Yoruba people embraces traditional religious and spiritual perceptions. Among the Yoruba people, the major religious conception is the Orisha, a deity that is a sign of the expression of God. The Yoruba religion has spread all over the world, mainly due to ancient slave trade that shipped indigenous Africans to the US via the Caribbean (Cohen, 2002). They Yoruba slaves were tagged a name by the Cuban people known as Lucumí. The Lucumí took religion practices with them to Cuba. As a result, there now exist similarities between the religious practices of the Yoruba and the assimilated nations, such as Cuba. Such similarities include several illustrations of conflation involving attributes, representations, personalities and symbols of Spanish Catholic saints with those of Orisha related creation myths (Bascom, 1950). The people of Yoruba have a traditional religious system (Orisha) that is similar to that of the island of Cuba. Both religious systems comprise of well-structured mythology that has amalgamated different popular Spanish catholic religious practices. Yoruba Orisha is also refers to as Ocha which means order or law of the Orisha. Priests amongst the Yoruba have various names such as babalosha and olorisha. The island of Cuba also practices Orisha religion commonly designated as Santería. The meaning of Santeria reveals that the religion has rules that are aimed at creating laws and shrines for their religious followers (Cornelius, 1992). Therefore, religious practices in Yoruba land corresponds to that in Cuban island by the fact that they use one system of religion (Orisha). Another similarity is that they observe laws of the religion. According to Curtis (1982) most of Santería rites can be traceable to Orisha religion in Yoruba. Santeria practice magic and sorcery, just like the Yoruba (Wedel, 2004). Though practitioners of the Santeria religion associate themselves with Catholicism, they perform rites that have African roots. They attend Catholic masses, practice baptism, at the same time practicing their African-based religion in their respective Lucumí temples. The people of Yoruba, observe their deity (Orisha) as having a subordinate (Gleason, 1971). One of the most vital deity subsidiaries that they strictly adhere to is the Eleggua. Eleggua is the charlatan and the divine spirit of irregularity. The Yoruba relate him to crossroads, communication, language, trade, entryways and the marketplace. As a superior acquaintance of Orula (Orisha deviner), he assists him in ensuring that divined rituals are carried out timely and properly. He posseses the power to converse in all languages and therefore is the intermediary between the human beings and Orisha. Consequently, he must be the first to be invoked in all rituals and the Yoruba ask his permission to communicate with other Orisha. Similarly, the religion expressions of the island of Cuba have subsidiaries of their deity. The Eleggua of Santeria is associated with baby Jesus whom they refer to as Santo Niño de Atocha. Eleggua also symbolizes a child because of the fact that Santeria view him as personifying birth. Similarly to Orisha’s view that Eleggua is the beginning and the end, Santeria view Eleggua as an elderly man, thereby characterizes death. The Yoruba view him as a child. Hence both Eleggua and Jesus are teachers of modesty and kindness. The Caribbean countries such as Cuba have experienced religious evolution that comprises of a mixture of western African religion and Spanish Catholic practices (Schmidt, 2006). This is generally connotes religious Syncretism which manifests two main types of syncretism attitudes. To start with, it is common to find Yoruba extremely committed to more than one religious faith hence do not consider it as blasphemous to be a Christian or Muslim and carry out Yoruba rituals simultaneously. Peel (1994) refers to this concept as religious pluralism. Similarly, religious practices in the island of Cuba allow parallel observation of two or more religion. The Santeria allows recognition of particular Catholic Christian Saints who are Roman (Brandon, 1997). Although the Catholic Church and Santeria have conflicting beliefs on the life after death, rebirth, and the location of the hidden realm, these discrepancies do not seem to be considerable obstacles hampering the recognition of syncretism between the two (Cabrera, 1994). Almost all of the most important Orisha have matching Catholic saints with several related attributes and or signs, and the Orisha and the saints may be worshipped in the designated place of those deities they are associated with ( Reid, 2004). An example of a parallel deity to a saint is Saint Peter and Eleggua. St. Peter has almost equal characteristics with Eleggua for example that of high affinity to dogs (Davis, 2003). Therefore he is associated with gate keeping, and also associated with iron since he holds keys made of metals. The Aside from St. Peter’s affinity for dogs and his role as a gatekeeper, characteristics which liken him to Eleggua, St. Peter is also associated with Ogun because St. Peter holds metal keys, and Ogun is a blacksmith, and thus he is associated with iron and metal items. Ogun also has a gatekeeper function in that he uses his razor-sharp machete to clear the undergrowth and to open the Orisha Deity that is associated with metals is the Ogun. Differences The people of Yoruba have stories about the orisha that differ from one region to the next region. There are also more crucial Orisha than others in different parts of Yoruba land. Moreover, worshipping in Yoruba land is subject to historical evolution. But in Santeria, Gonzalez (1989) recognizes that there is a quite established hierarchy of the Orisha. The core distinction between the groups of the Orisha are those that can be accommodated and those, that are received, and not accomodated. An accommodated Orisha is installed in a Santero’s head. In the Island of Cuba, Santeria religion has incorporated Catholicism. Though Santeria has practices that mirror those of Orisha, they had at first resisted Orisha practices. Slaves who came to Cuban shores with the religion were required to practice Christianity in the form of Catholicism. They also obligated the slaves to learn Spanish as their foremost language. However, in Yoruba, the people still have their ancient religion system which has not been tampered by westernized religion. The only difference arises, of course, that Yoruba people have been affected by Islam religion. This is because Yoruba people dwell in countries that boarder Islamic nations. In the island of Cuba, consecrating a person to becoming a priest must meet certain conditions. To begin with, the person must receive a majority of Orishas at the time of consecration. These Orishas include Eleggua, Ogun, Oshosi, Oya, Obatala, Shango and Yemaya. However, practices of sanctification or consecration of a priest in Yoruba only included recieving Eleggua and Obatala only. In Yoruba land, worshippers practice secret rites in fully fledged Orisha temples. There the orisha pretictioners can perfom their practices such as sanctification of priest anyone who is not an initiate is prohibited from entering. However in the island of Cuba, any space can be used to consecrate priests but they also do not allow those who are not initiates to enter. Yoruba religious practices can only be executed in sacred places. On the contrary Cuban Orisha can be practiced anywhere so long as the place is private with no public interference. With the Yoruba, the stories connected to the different divination signs or are recited as poems (Apter, 1991). Poems aids memory and the island of Cuba, Spanish is the main spoken language of communication. As a result, Yoruba fluency in the region has tremendously diminished, meaning that stories can only be recited in form of stories known as Apatakis. This English translation is things of importance, but ancient Yoruba poems are recited as Suyeres. Suyeres are a category of language that is used by followers to address and acknowledge the divination signs. Conclusion The people of Yoruba have various religious practices that they carry out, since ancient times. When slave trade was booming in pre-colonial era, many people from Yoruba were shipped to the Caribbean countries such as Cuba, Trinidad and Tobago, and Haiti (Murphy, 1988). These nations are Spanish speaking countries that majorly practice catholic religion. Nonetheless, the Yoruba religion reached Cuba and the other Caribbean countries which had an impact. Religion expression in Cuba, therefore, has many similarities compared to those in Yoruba, present day Nigeria, Togo and Benin. Such similarities include worshipping the same deity, sanctification of priests and worshipping culture. The two religious expressions also reveal that they have incorporated other religions as well. However, there are numerous differences that emerge when comparing the two religious expressions. While communication in Yoruba is still in its ancient form, modernization and westernization has vastly contributed to the change of communication language in the island of Cuba. Regardless of these differences, it is clear that Yoruba religion (Orisha) will always have an impact in Cuba, whether Santeria will completely differ from Orisha remains to be seen. References Adegbite, A. (1988). The drum and its role in Yorùbá religion. Journal of religion in Africa, 15-26. Apter, A. (1991). Herskovitss heritage: Rethinking syncretism in the African diaspora. Diaspora: A Journal of Transnational Studies, 1(3), 235-260. Bascom, W. R. (1950). The focus of Cuban santería. Southwestern Journal of Anthropology, 64-68. Brandon, G. (1997). Santeria from Africa to the New World: the dead sell memories. Indiana University Press. Brown, D. H. (2003). Santería enthroned: art, ritual, and innovation in an Afro-Cuban religion. University of Chicago Press. Cabrera, L. (1994). Religious Syncretism in Cuba.”. Journal of Caribbean Studies, 10, 1-2. Cohen, P. F. (2002). Orisha journeys: the role of travel in the birth of Yorubá-Atlantic religions. Archives de sciences sociales des religions, 17-36. Comaroff, J., & Comaroff, J. L. (Eds.). (1993). Modernity and its malcontents: Ritual and power in postcolonial Africa. University of Chicago Press. Cornelius, S. (1992). The music of Santería: traditional rhythms of the batá drums (No. 5). White Cliffs Media Co. Curtis, J. R. (1982). Santeria: Persistence and change in an Afrocuban cult religion. Objects of special devotion: Fetishism in popular culture, 336-51. Davis, E. (2003). Who Is Eleggua? Trickster at the Crossroads. Gnosis, 19(10). Gleason, J. I. (1971). Orisha: The Gods of Yorubaland. Atheneum. Gonzalez-Wippler, M. (1989). Santería: The Religion: a Legacy of Faith, Rites, and Magic. Harmony Books. Miller, I. (1997). Ifá will mend our broken world: thoughts on Yoruba religion and culture in Africa and the diaspora. iroko academic publishers. Murphy, J. M. (1988). Santeria: An African Religion in America. Boston: Beacon Press. Peel, J. D. Y. (1994). Historicity and pluralism in some recent studies of Yoruba religion. Africa, 64(01), 150-166. Reid, M. (2004). The Yoruba in Cuba: Origins, Identities, and Transformations.The Yoruba Diaspora in the Atlantic World, 111-139. Schmidt, B. E. (2006). The Creation of Afro-Caribbean Religions and their Incorporation of Christian Elements A Critique against Syncretism.Transformation: An International Journal of Holistic Mission Studies, 23(4), 236-243. Stark, R., & Bainbridge, W. S. (1987). A theory of religion (Vol. 2). New York: Lang. Wedel, J. (2004). Santería healing: A journey into the Afro-Cuban world of divinities, spirits, and sorcery. University Press of Florida. Read More