Human cultures have devised religious worldviews to justify their societies’ hierarchies, structures and traditions. Yet at the same time, these ideologies have also speculated about humanity’s origins, the creation of the universe, the meaning of life and other significant topics. Tragic events that impact an entire culture may also cause shifting beliefs or the rise of brand new religions. Santería, an amalgamation of West African, Spanish Catholic and Indigenous American practices, is just one example of how people forcibly removed from their homeland adapted to terrible conditions and forged a new faith.
Preserving the Old Ways During Slavery
Writing for The Root, historian Henry Louis Gates, Jr. reveals that between 10 and 12 million Africans were abducted and transported to North America during the Transatlantic slave trade. Of that number, several million were taken directly to the Caribbean. European legal maneuvers such as the Spanish Requirement of 1513 and King Louis XIV’s Code Noir justified forced conversions of black slaves to Catholicism while forbidding their original religions. Some kept remnants of their old ways in secret while blending these with the newly mandated religious practices, giving rise to both Haitian Vodou and Cuban Santería.
Cuba and the Creation of Santería
The Encyclopedia Britannica discloses that the term “Santería” translates to “way of the saints,” a word hinting at how the religion came into being. However, it’s also called “Ayoba religion,” “Regla de Ochá,” “La Regla de Ifá” and “Lukumi.” Indeed, the term “Lukumi” can refer to several different things:
- An Afro-Cuban ethnic group with Yoruba ancestry
- Yoruba religious practices adapted in Cuba
- A liturgical language derived from the original Yoruba tongue
Like the syncretism occurring in Haitian Vodou, Santería also makes correspondences between Yoruba “orishas” and Catholic saints. The Church of the Lukumi Babalu Aye divulges that these orishas oversee specific aspects of nature or human existence. One example is Changó, a powerful lord of fire, lightning, war, drumming and dance. Dr. Cynthia Duncan, a Santería priestess and professor of Latin American studies, explains on her website that he was usually syncretized with the Catholic saint Barbara. Duncan comments that the connection between the masculine Changó with the feminine Barbara may seem unusual to outsiders. However, both are associated with lightning and the colors red and white, and they are shown wearing very similar-looking crowns.
BBC’s Religions guide cites a 1988 text stating that the Catholic Church permitted some native traditions to continue and allowed the formation of African ethnic clubs called “cabildos.” These groups often doubled as religious organizations headed secretly by “babalawo,” or Lukumi priests. Post-slavery Cuba officially outlawed African religions until the early 1940s, when the independent nation’s first constitution was created. Cuban adherents took their orisha religious traditions with them when immigrating to other parts of North America during the late 20th century.
North American Orisha Religion in the Modern Age
Unfortunately, Afro-Caribbean orisha traditions have been frequently labeled as “Devil worship.” Racism may be partially to blame, as Aisha M. Beliso-De Jesus points out in a 2015 Huffington Post article when writing about anti-blackness and the maligning of Santería in modern Cuba. At the same time, fundamentalist evangelicals in the United States have also decried these and other non-Christian types of religions.
The Santería Church of the Orishas describes its faith as a “beautiful religion that is vibrant, empowering and sings to your soul.” Perhaps that is why, despite ongoing prejudices, many practitioners defend their faiths, keep these traditions and welcome genuine interest by outsiders. Devotees usually cite the deep emotional need filled by these spiritual practices, along with a sense of communal belonging and a connection with African cultural roots, as reasons for their belief. With such powerful incentives, Santería shows no signs of decline in the 21st century.