The roots of the Yoruba spiritual tradition, or Orisha Worship, as it is practiced, owes its beginnings to the various spiritual discourses of the African captives from the triangle of trade transporting the African human cargo - particularly from the areas now known as Nigeria, the Republic of Benin (Dahomey) and the Congo – to the Americas. Approximately sixty to eighty percent of the descendants of a brutal enslavement sometimes referred to as the “Middle Passage” are connected to those original victims via bloodline. The African religions had to undergo severe transformations in order to survive. The changes that led to Santeria, the Vodun (Voodoo), began when the Yoruba slaves had their first taste of Catholicism in Cuba. The Dahomean and Congolese slaves of Haiti had been force-fed the dominant religion of the French, as the Portuguese had those slaves of Brazil (Candomble), the English in Trinidad (Sango Baptist), and those Spanish captives of Guatemala, Panama, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Columbia and Venezuela practicing Ancestral Worship, were all led toward these spiritual concepts. There are no records. There are only stories, echoes of voices long dead. The slave is brought to the new land. No longer a human being, the slave is sold and traded like a beast of burden. If the Master is kind, the slave will eat and live to work. If the Master is not, the slave will work until physical life ceases. Night brings an old Yoruba song. A homemade drum answers. A chorus forms. More drums are brought out. The old movements are recalled. The dancing starts. Chants and dances from quarrelling African tribes join and make love to each other. There is the commonality of pain and suffering, not knowing where on God’s earth they are located, while separated from family and loved ones. And in this moment, the rhythms unite, transform, and give birth to something new. Prayers. Offerings. Sacrifices. The herbalists look after the sick. They know what foods the gods like. Enemies are killed by a handful of powder. This Immolation is no accident, no error; there is no blame, because if you listen to the ancient ones, they will tell you that all of this was divined long before it began. They see the future. The old Yoruba priest teaches the young the ancient rites. Unfortunately, he knows that these young people cannot totally be trusted with all that he or she knows because they will, at some point, compromise the integrity of what they have learned at their feet. But they are taught anyway, in secret, because they are the treasures. The White man in the black cassock comes. He says there is a Jesus, and this Jesus was tortured and killed. Jesus’ mother cries. The slaves understand grief and death. The Spanish Inquisition comes and kills and burns. They say there is only one god. The white god doesn’t talk. The white god does not come to visit. The white god does not like the things that the earth gives with such love. No singing. No dancing. No food. No perfume. He hates the feel of soft velvety flesh and laughter in the night. The white god makes no miracles. Many white mothers had their child brought back to health by a black herbalist. Nannies croon the apatakis. White babies fall asleep, with the stories of the gods in their ears. These babies grow up; they dance. They believe. The slaves smile and lie. They worship Sango, Obatala or Oshun as they kneel in church. They believe in the white god and saints as well. Simply stated: The more love, and respect, given to all the gods – European and African; the greater their protection. Elegba, the playful messenger of the gods, cheerfully becomes the Holy Child of Atocha. Osossi, the fierce god of the wilderness, shrugged his shoulders and became Saint Norbert, Oshun, the hip-swinging goddess of those who know how to make love with skill and passion, became Our Lady of Charity (La Caridad del Cobre). Sango, the invincible chief, the whoring god of thunder and lightning, showed his sense of humor. He turns into Saint Barbara. Everyone felt much more protected now that Sango was a warrior as well as a female Saint inside the church. No one fooled anyone. The slave owners saw that after a religious festival - A bembe. There was peace and harmony on the sugar plantations. The Catholic priests thought about the recent slave uprisings in Haiti and the accompanying massacre of the priesthood and assured the laity that a little drumming in the night was absolutely harmless. Orisha worship in the New World was born. No one really paid much attention.
