AFRICAN RELIGION santeria

eshin@ddswl.mcs.com (Eshin-Fun) writes
wed, 17 Jun 1992 23:4224 GMT [repost-revised]

>>:>Bekki Lynn writes to Eshin-Fun:

:>.. you are correct. There is so much to discuss. Sometimes it
:seems as if alt.pagan is just one big flame war. Other times, all
:kinds of interesting topics get brought up. And then all the
:stages in between...
:Probably the best way to have a discussion is to try to start one
:up yourself.
:
:or a couple...
:or three....<<<
:

And therefore Eshin-Fun answers Bekki Lynn:


             "And therefore as a stranger give it welcome,
           There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
                Than are dreamt of in our philosophy."
[shakespeare >Hamlet act 1,scene5<


                               SANTERIA


The religion or practice of what has been commonly called
"Santeria" implies an Afro-Cuban practice exclusively.

It is with national pride that the Cuban studied this, extensively
and in 1935, established "La Sociedad de Estudios Afro-Cubanos"
(The Society of Afro-Cuban Studies). Fernando Ortiz, leads the
names of many whom have written about this phenomena, including
Esteban Montejo's autobiography, and numerous books by Lydia
Cabrera. The most applauded by certain Olosha for her writing is
"La Laguna Sagrada de San Joaquin", though "El Monte" her first
book is still in print and is most popular with the lay person.

In "La Geomancie a l'Ancienne Cote des Esclaves" by Bernard Maupoil
a great deal of detail on the divination of Ifa is extensively
pursued. Pierre Verger's "Notes sur le culte des Orisha et Vodoun"
goes into detail comparison between songs and incantation by the
celebrants of Bahia, (La Baie de tous les Saints au Bresil) and the
African Coast (L'ancienne Cote des Esclaves en Afrique)

We are not dealing here with the machinations of unsubstantiated
ancestry. We are also not dealing with the cynical writings of
Migene Gonzales-Wipler whose popular book "Santeria" has misled
more than it confused.

Upon the arrival of the black to the shores of Cuba, the frightened
non-Spanish speaking African, whenever raucously asked by their
masters their origin, the fated slave would answer "Oluku emi",
meaning I am friend. These acrimonious dealers then took it for
granted to identify them in a general genre as "Lukumi" as well as
the religion the slave practiced.

Of the numerous tribes imported there seems to be three main
cultures, one Yoruba, from Nigeria, one Congolese, from central
Africa, and the third Arara, from Dahomey.

The African word "Mayombe" meaning evil spirit, was given to the
Stick Cult which concentrates on what is commonly termed as Black
Magic as it preoccupies itself with perturbed spirits of the dead
[demons] and its main purpose is malevolent in nature. This Regla
de Palo" literally "Cult of the Stick" is in fact a conglomerate
of Congolese, and other tribes mixed with animistic, spiritualistic
and Catholic elements, not of any pure origin. It is less
sophisticated than Santeria and lacks the integrity that Santeria
sustains, as "Palo" seems to concentrate more on the importance of
self indulgence rather than the principles of magic (magick) from
a pontifical or magickal point of view.

Unfortunately many of the "genuine" paleros or practitioners of
Palo have died taking with them their secrets to their grave.
Realizing the awesome results that it can wage on the unsuspecting
practitioner himself, let alone at the victim to whom it was
directed, many of these "real paleros" preferred to ever pass on
their secrets.

With the exodus of the Mariel from Cuba, a great deal of riff-raff
has come to the coasts of America and the already established
"Santeria" of any worth was seriously endangered with the ill
repute these "pretenders" left in their wake, mercenarily seeking
to capitalize monetarily the popular demand.

The Lukumi (in Spanish spelled sometimes Lucumi as originally the
"k" is not really of latin spelling) was called Santeria by the
Colonial whites in response to the infiltration of African Beliefs
on Catholic imagery. Thus the subsequent worship of African gods
in the guise of as saints.

When the African arrived on the islands of the West Indies,
confused, angry and a thousand of other emotions, they were usually
herded into long type pews where they were made to sit. Then en-
masse the blacks were splattered with water (presumably holy water)
and with the words, "In nomine Pater, et Filius et Spiritus
Sanctus" were automatically considered baptized christians worthy
for christian possession by their christian masters.

There were different kinds of tribes that came together under a
single master's whip.

There were the Lukumi (Yoruban-west african) the Congolese who were
black skinned though there were many of mixed blood with yellowish
skin and light hair. These were usually small. The Mandinga who
were reddish skin, tall and very strong. The Ganga, rather short
and freckled. Many of them became runaways. The Carabali who were
like the Musungo Congolese and considered by the other blacks as
uncivilized brutes. But to mention a few.

Many were the horrors, inflicted in a way of punishment to these
slaves. There were the stocks, which were in the boiler-house,
which were considered the cruelest of all. Some were for standing,
while others for lying down. They were made of thick planks with
holes for the head, hands and feet. There they would keep slaves
fastened up like this two or three months for some trivial offense.
They whipped the pregnant women too, but lying face down with a
hollow in the ground for their bellies. They whipped them hard, but
took good care not to damage the babies in their bellies because
the masters wanted as many of these as possible as they provided
good trade.

The most common punishment was flogging; this was given by the
overseer with a rawhide lash which made welts on the skin. They
also had whips made of fibers of some jungle plant which stung like
the devil and flayed the skin off in strips. Many were the handsome
big negroes with raw backs who afterwards covered their cuts with
compresses of tobacco leaves, urine and salt.

It is not surprising then, that the negro adopted Christian
imagery. They may have been "slaves" but they certainly were not
"stupid"!

The Lukumi adopted the symbolism of their Colonial masters so as
to escape persecution and the constant badgering from the Christian
fathers, who would influence barbarous masters to cut the slave's
hands off for fashioning pagan idols in the manner accustomed in
African temples.

During the Spanish rule of Cuba a sort of club originated for the
African born slaves and their descendants which they called
"Cabildo". Each tribe had its own "Cabildo" dedicated among other
things to raising money to fight for Abolition and maintaining
tribal traditions. The members used to appear in full tribal
regalia on Christian festival days and this was one of the origins
of the National Carnival under the name of "Comparsas". The most
famous of these "comparsas" was the "Comparsa de los Dias de los
Reyes" which was held on the Epiphany on January 6.

Following a European Catholic tradition, the colonials celebrated
the visitation of the Magi to the Christ this day. Therefore it was
a day when the three Magician kings (tres reyes magos), would visit
every house and leave toys and gifts for the children; whom the
night before left on their window sills their shoes with notes in
them of what they wanted. At midnight, or after the children went
to sleep, these magical kings would allegedly flood the children's
living rooms with gifts. At the dawn of the 6th the Epiphany was
celebrated in churches while later in the day the blacks would
parade their "comparsas."

It is interesting how they syncretized their religion too. For
example, the most virile of gods (Osha), Shango; a god that is not
only of the power of thunder, lightning and fire but of virility,
according to a story, was saved in his human incarnation by one of
his favorite wives.

It seems that Shango, out of vengeance had stolen Ogun's wife OYA
from him. Ogun, the god of war and iron, smith of the gods, then
decided to hide in the brush, behind all the prickly bushes. Oya
on the other hand, fell in love with Shango, blindly. But as Shango
is insatiable for his love for women he soon became tired of her
too. His attentions turned, by his fascination of Oshun, the
goddess of beauty, and Oya left him to join his enemies.

Anyway, when one day, two of his courtiers, Temi and Gbonka Ebiri
were becoming too powerful to control, Shango craftily planned to
get rid of them by setting them to fight against each other, hoping
that they both might die in the encounter. Whilst Timi died Gbonka
survived and then waged war in turn on Shango much to the king's
chagrin. It is said that, while surrounded in his palace or castle,
Oya, having taken sides with the opposing army felt a tinge of
remorse for Shango whom she still loved, begged of the army safe
passage to see him one last time. She rode on her white (some say
reddish brown) horse to the castle and tethered the horse outside,
she entered the castle. There she convinced Shango to trade
clothes. As she was a tall stature like him no one would notice
with suspicion. So she cut her hair and fashioned a wig for him so
her long hair would show. Then dressing him in her woman's
clothing, convinced Shango to flee on her horse. And so Shango,
fled the besieged castle to safety. Because of this story, "Saint
Barbara" was used as an image of Shango in flight....in drag!

The gods of the Lukumi are numerous and though some seem similar
to those in Haiti, their pantheons are not the same. To begin with
while the Haitian call their gods "Loa" the Lukumi call them
"Orisha or Osha".

True, Papa Legba and Elegua are found to be similar but have quite
different intensities. In the Haitian/Voodoun there is no Olokun,
instead the sea is identified with Agwe which in the Yoruba/Lukumi
is a different god. Damballah-wedo is not found in the Lukumi but
then the Lukumi have Obatala which is not found in the Voodoun.
Erzulie, or rather Ezili-Freda-Dahomey, a goddess of love and the
sea seems to be a composite of Yemonja and Oshun the latter both
which are not found in the Lukumi. While Erzulie is not a Lukumi
god at all. But of the voodoun I'll speak further in another post.

The Lukumi pantheon seems to be more pure to their african
descendants of the Yoruba and the gods can be traced directly back
to the African coast without much confusion. These include among
many, Eleggua, Ogun, Oshossi, Ozun, Oya, Oshun, Yemoja, Aganju,
Shango and Obatala.

The Lukumi (Santeria) religion is probably one of the few genuine
"pagan" religions, still active and growing, that has survived the
monotheistic efforts of conversion, or elimination, besides the
Shinto in Japan, that still is in practice today.

When Castro won the revolution, though he threw out all the
religious cults from Cuba, specially the Catholic, and desecrated
the Catholic cemetery of "Colon"; where he disinterred the bodies
and looted their graves, he did not throw out the Lukumi.Instead
he held it in reverence as the "religion of the people". Castro,
in fact, dismantled a temple of Obatala, given to him in Africa
and reassembled it again in Habana. Unfortunately the Cuban
populace began to bring offerings etc. to the temple without
priests which moved Castro to have it barricaded as a national
monument so as not to perpetrate any religious views.

The Lukumi remains as the national religion of Cuba. It is only
since the middle of the 1970's that it has systematically begun to
divest itself of it Christian imagery.

In the United States, alone, the ever growing Black Consciousness
has brought a tremendous respect for the African design and
traditions. As early as 1948, Olomide Lucas in a thesis, approved
for the degree of D.D. in the university of Durham, in 1942, writes
of the Ancient Egyptian parallels to the Yoruba religion, and its
Egyptian survivals.

Santeria (LUKUMI) is just not "simply" another cult. It seems not
only to appeal to the black, but to the Caucasian as well. It seems
to have a dynamic diversity and conviction that its gods work! Thus
it also seems to threaten many a hysteric and cryptic occult power
mongers whom with fear would silence the Lukumi Gods, or confuse
it with Cabalistic designs as the French did in Haiti.

As you can see, Bekki, there is sooo much on just one little
subject. I'll conclude with an eye witness account of the famous
yearly festival to the goddess of the sea, YEMOJA.

This eye witness account took place pre-Castro days. You must
understand, that life in Habana, in those days was completely
different than it is there today.

Cuba was viewed by its foreigners as a haven of pleasure, in fact
the pleasure ground for the rich around the world. It already had
influenced the U.S. through american gangsters by giving the
prototype casino of its famous Tropicana Club to the new founded
"Las Vegas", though it was the Parisian that had introduced it to
Cuba.

The Congolese had a ritual of circle dancing around a tree
executing "little steps" in a long line, one after the other
drinking red wine that they would spurt out from time to time onto
the ground. This dance was done to a recurring rhythm from which
later developed the ever popular "Conga" introducing the "conga
drums" which subsequently has richly endowed Cuban music with the
rhumba, and the danzon as ethnic Cuban music. In fact most all the
Cuban music has had African influence.

The province of Regla is part of a peninsula that forms the bay of
Habana (americans spell it Havana..I don't know why) It is an
uneven terrain upon which is the famous Church of the Virgin of
Regla.

According to Christian interpretation, while three men were out at
sea, a great storm arose and threatened them with their lives. The
black man of the three (the other two were white) prayed for
protection and the black virgin (Yemoja) appeared dressed in blue
holding an white infant child (Shango) standing upon a lunar
crescent, and stayed the storm at sea. When these men were once
safely back on shore this black madonna was deified as a virgin
saint of Regla and protector to mariners and pious alike.

In Habana, three of the most famous days, celebrated by the people,
en-masse were the sixth of September, the seventh or eighth and the
twelfth days of the month.

On Regla there were two famous "Cabildos". That of Susana Cantero
and that of Afifa. On the sixth of September, the statue of Yemoja
in the guise of the Virgin of Regla, was taken from the "Cabildo"
to the church of Regla. There the catholic priests gave a Christian
high mass. After which the cabildo's statue borne on a palanquin
was carried out and greeted at the church door by throngs of people
and initiated "bata" drums that would then begin to play
accompanying the palanquin as it paraded through the streets. Just
as the palanquin baring the statue came out of the church the
Lukumi priests would throw the oracle of the coconut (Dida Obi)
then proceed with the procession throughout the winding streets to
the cemetery where again the Dida Obi (coconut oracle) was
consulted. Afterwards the statue was taken back in procession till
once more reentering the cabildo it would be feasted for the night.

The next day was reserved for Oshun known as the "Caridad Del
Cobre" meaning "Charity of Copper". To the catholic she was known
as the Virgen de la Caridad. (Virgin of Charity).

On the 12th of September the church then celebrated the "Dulce
Nombre de Maria" (sweet name of Mary).

At this time, the tarpaulin covered boats (lanchas) launched off
the coast of the city in Habana packed by thousands of people who
would cross the bay to attend the mass at the famous church.
The church gave a High Mass with their own image on display and
paraded this ecclesiastical "Virgin of Regla" bedecked even more
ostentatious than that of the cabildo's on the 6th of September
borne aloft a flower decorated palanquin in procession towards the
dock. Here it was placed into a very large launch. As the statue
emerged on its flower encrusted palanquin from the church, dozens
of children dressed with wings as "little cherubim" or angels would
flank the statue and filled the boats with its Christian priests.
Many other people would join this pageantry in procession but
manned private or hired launches instead as there was no room in
the main launch except for the statue, palanquin, angels and
priests.

Then the main launch leading this naval pageantry would sail all
the way up the bay till reaching the Morro Castle where the main
launch would then turn back around leading the other launches to
Regla accompanied by yet another boat that played all along the
"bata" drums during this excursion. Once the statue had been given
its "Paseo" or walk, the tamboleros (drummers) of the Bata would
then go round about the city playing at each of the initiated's
house celebrating the personal god of their head and this is how
they spent the night.

The "Bata" drum is a series of three double headed drums, each
played by one player. The largest has bells and together they are
supposed to have the efficacy to call down the gods (orisha) They
are used only for religious ceremonial and never for anything else.

Bekki, I hope this gives you some questions.

Eshin-Fun