The colonization of the New World led to the importation of African slaves
to
Spain’s Caribbean colonies, which started in the year 1501. The slaves
were used for hard manual labor in either in mines or later on sugar
plantations. Between 1821 when Spain officially banned the slave trade,
and 1860, approximately 350,000 were brought to Cuba as contraband.
Among these, perhaps the most prominent group of Africans brought to
Cuba were the Yoruba. The Yoruba, from Nigeria, consist of a number
of ethnic groups, such as the Egba, Kesu, Ijebu,
and Ife, among others. Today, these groups
are found in the states of Benin (Dahomey,)
Togo and especially southwestern Nigeria. The tribe of the Yorubas
were mainly farmers and they possessed a very complex social structure.
This social structure was divided into a series of kingdoms, which among
them, the Benin kingdom was the most important.
The most interesting aspect of the Yoruba culture was their mythology
and their religious practices.
[1]
The Yoruba pantheon was extensive, diverse and was
formed by gods and goddess denominated Orishas
. Anthropologist suggests that the word “Orisha”
means religious ceremony. In Africa, each Orisha
belong to a particular tribe or region, which represented the autonomy
of the tribes. Within the Yoruba territory there was worship to the
gods Chango, en Oyo, a Yemaya,
en Egba, a Ogun, en Ekiti, Orido, a Ochun en Ijosa, Ijebu, and Oshogbo, Obatala, etc. These are
just a few names of the Orishas worshipped
by the Yorubas at that time. These deities were seen as protectors
and in most of the cases these gods were men that were considered divine
after their death because of their knowledge of nature and the properties
of plants that were used for medical cures. The African slaves were
forced to abandon their land and they were taken to Cuba, Brazil, Santo
Domingo, and Haiti where they developed strategies to maintain and transmit
their religion.
In my paper I will focus on how the Yoruba people developed in Cuba
from the year 1568 when they were first taken to Cuba and put in ”Cabildos Negros” which were
housing for African slaves from the same tribe and their descendants. Here,
slaves reunited after working on the fields and they worshipped their gods and
maintained their culture, cults and deites. By the
end of the 19th century, the Yoruba cult had won many Spanish
followers. Whites liked the magic The Orishas also guided
predictions and prophecy, which helped train followers to face the future with
confidence. Whites liked the magic of the Yorubas,
which they believed cure diseases that doctors could not cure. The Orishas also guided predictions and prophecy, which helped
train followers to face the future with confidence.
What does the word Santeria mean?
The word
“Santeria” means cult of the saints. Santeria was born from the mixture of
African religion “Regla Ocha
de los Yorubas” and the
practice of the Catholic faith. Spanish Catholics baptized the African slaves
into Catholicism, but the Yorubas maintained their
beliefs by hiding their gods and letting the Spanish think that they were
worshipping the Catholic’s saints. These acts brought about the syncretism (union
or fusion of two religion into one) of the Catholic religion and the African
religion. The African slaves identified each saint from the Catholic religion
with the Orisha gods according to their similarities.
| Yoruba God |
Catholic Saint |
What they do |
| Obbatala |
Las Mercedes
Jesus of Nazareth
|
Deity responsible for human creation |
| Eleggua |
Lonely soul, Saint Antony
Nino de Atocha |
Opens the
doors of the World |
| Oggun |
Saint Peter, Saint Juan |
Owner of metal, and War |
| Ochosi |
Saint Norberto |
Divine justice, horses, hunting |
| Osun |
Saint Juan Batista |
Takes care of the mind of the believer |
| Chango |
Santa Barbara |
God of fire, God of lightning of dancing |
| Yemalla |
Virgin of
menstruation |
Mother of the world, Owner of salty
waters |
| Ochun |
Caridad del Cobre |
Deity of sweetness, of beauty, of gold, of sexuality and love
|
| Obba |
Saint Rita de Casia |
Owner of lakes and lagoons. It forms the trilogy of saints who live in the cemetery |
| Yewa |
Lady of despair |
Lives in tombs and between the dead
|
| Orula |
Saint Francisco de Asis |
Possesses the secrets of Ifa,
interpreted by the babalos (high
priest) |
How does Santeria work, for believers?
Santeria is a religious manifestation, which recognizes
the direct contact of human beings with their ancestors and with forces of
nature. It contains two basic concepts: Ache and ebbo.
Ache is divine power. By mediating through Ache, anything imaginable is
possible. All the ceremonies and rituals are made to obtain this divine power
of the Orishas. With Ache all the problems can be
solved and any kind of obstacle can be overcome. Ebbo
is the sacrifice by which Orishas can free the person from diseases, witchcraft, and
prison. Ebbo could be gifts to the Orishas such as flowers, fruits, candles or favorite dishes
of the Orishas. According the Yorubas,
the universe is divided into two forces. One is dominated by the Orishas and good and the other is dominated by “ajogun” and evil forces.[2]
The “black cabildos” were institutions
that helped conserve the African religions and at the same time were
the places where the new Afrocuban religion
“Santeria” was born. The “cabildos” were congregations
of Africans and descendants that belonged to the same ethnic group or
came from the same region of Africa. The cabildos
were not made only of slaves, but also of
“libertos,” freed slaves, who also
sometimes lived and/or socialized there. The term “Cabildos”
originated in Spain when the Spanish took all the Moros
and grouped them into such kinds of housing. The Cabildos
became a place of entertainment where African slaves reunited every
Sunday to dance and chant to their Orishas
behind the back of the Spanish people. Each Cabildo
had a “Capataz” (leader) who was in charge of administrating the
Cabildos and settling disputes between slaves. Usually the
capataz was chosen according to his rank in the tribe and
he was the most prestigious among them. Cabildos
were organized in every Cuban city that had a large concentration of
black slaves.
During their ceremonies, the slaves used to take out their
deities’ images in a procession, but the Spanish soon prohibited these
acts. To compensate, the slaves adopted the Catholic saints that were
seen as being most similar in power to their Orishas.
At first, the Catholic saints were only a disguise, by which Africans
pretended to hide to the Spanish authorities the worship of their gods.
But this was the first step of the syncretism of the Catholic religion
and the African religion. What started as a disguise of their gods,
ended as the identification between the African God and the Catholic
saint. The images of the Catholic saints were taken to the Cabildos
where the sound of the drum and the African rituals resided. When authorities
found out that Catholic saints were identified with African gods and
they were used to make rituals and sacred dances, they attempted to
prohibit the presence of Catholic images in the Cabildos.
During the latter part of the 19th century, the
Cabildos started to lose some of their influence
on Santeria, in part because of authorities’ attempts to suppress the
syncretic religion. The authorities also prohibited slaves
from having ceremonies on the streets and they were forced to incorporate
themselves into the Catholic churches. The Spanish wanted to put an
end to Santeria by making the slaves go back to what they were first
taught in the Catholic Church. But when Cuba became a republic, the
Cabildos were allowed once again with freedom
of religion. Now the African religion no longer needed the Cabildos
because the freedom of religion allowed the practice of Santeria in
the homes of believers. Soon after, the Cabildos
started to disappear and the ones that remained were only for recreational
purposes.
Yet until 1909, there were many Cabildos
such as “Cabildos Lucumi,”
formed by black Yorubas in avocation to Santa
Barbara. Even today the Cabildos are known
as “Casa del Santo” or house of the saint. The Cabildos
were an important part of the life of the African slaves brought to
Cuba. In the Cabildos, the slaves taught their sons the language, their
beliefs, and rituals of their descendants. Throughout history, the Cabildos were a place where slaves look for compassion, refuge
and where they asked their gods for help. The Cabildos
were a main influence on the formation of Santeria and other Afrocuban religions.
[3]
Palo
Mayombe: Another Afrocuban
religion
Many slaves who were not of Yoruba origin came from the
area of Congo to Cuba. These people brought religious forms, which gave rise to
“Palo Mayombe.”
Witchcraft is not a practice of Santeria. However, witchcraft practice,
which was considered magic, existed under the name of Palo Monte or Palo Mayombe. “Palo” means branch and this name is used because
this sect practice their worship by using pieces of wood and herbs to make
their witchcraft. The people initiated in this cult are known as “Paleros” or “Mayomberos” and men
or women can join and become members. There are two branches of Palo Mayombe: the good and the evil. The good branch is known as
“Mayombe Cristiano”(Christian
Mayombe) and the evil branch is known as “Mayombe judio”(Jewish Mayombe) or “sin bautizar”(Without
baptism). The difference between these
two branches was made by the Paleros because in the Caldero cristiano (Christian pot)
is the place in which secrets are kept with holy water and the “Jewish” is
not. The Paleros
syncretized the same way as the Santeros
did with the Catholic religion and this could be seen by the fact that Paleros see anybody or anything that is not baptized as
evil and not belonging to God. The Paleros believe
that holy water take away evil spirits and anything that is evil. The Christian
Palero “Mayombe Cristiano” works with the forces of God, whom they call “Sambia.” The ones
who are not baptized “Paleros judios”
(Jewish Mayombes) work with “Kadiampembe.”
All the Paleros work with the spirits
of nature such as the trees, plants, the rain, water of rivers and animals.
The Christian Paleros work with the spirits
of the dead, but only with the good spirits. The Paleros
who are not baptized work exclusively with suicidal spirits, criminal’s
spirits, and bad witches’ spirits. Their chants are called “Mambos”
and this name is also given in the Haitian Vudu
to the same chants of their religion. The strength of the Palero’s
power comes from the “prenda” or “caldero”
(which means pot) where the spirits that the Palero
uses reside. Inside the pot, human bones are kept, dust from cemeteries,
trees, animals and birds are also kept inside the pot. These ingredients
bring out the strength of the spirit. The Paleros
work in secret behind closed doors because they use human remains in
their rituals and this is not accepted by civil authorities. Similar
to the Santeros, the Paleros
also worship their ancestors, the dead and the spirits of nature.
[4]
African religion was a powerful influence on Cuba, forming
a syncretic bond with the Catholic religion
brought by the Spanish to Cuba. Nowadays, Santeria exists not only in
Cuba, but also here in the United States.
As part of my research on Santeria, I went to a Cuban Botanica
(a store in which you buy religious ornaments and materials to perform
rituals) located in little Habana to find
out more about this religion. Since
so much of the history of Santeria was driven underground by the colonizer
and slaveowner, oral tradition is often the
only way to find out about certain aspects of the religion’s past.
In the Botanica, I spoke with a “Babalao”
(high priest of the Santeros) who told me
that after emancipation, the freed slaves had more freedom to practice
their religion. The main reason
was that they were no longer supervised as they were before, and they
could practice their religion with more freedom.
As a result the Santeria started to spread and become more common
among the population in Cuba. Now Santeria religion among the people
and 
botanicas
(specialty Santeria shops) of Miami, New York, San Fransisco and many places where Cuban immigrants have moved
since Castro’s regime has been in power.
Bibliography
Gonzalez-Wippler,
Migene. Santeria la religion. 1999. Llewlyn Espanol, St. Paul, Minessota.
Hernandez, Paulino.
Santeria afrocubana: Sincretismo
con la religion catolica. Ceremonias
y Oraculos. 1998. Graficas
Monedero, Madrid, Espana.
Lachatanere, Romulo.
El Sistema Religioso de los Afrocubanos. 1992.
Editorial de la Ciencias
Sociales, La Habana, Cuba.
Cabrera, Lydia. El Monte. 1992.
Ediciones Universal, Miami, Florida.
Cros Sandoval, Mercedes. La Religion
Afrocubana. 1975. Impreso
en Espana.
