Santeria

The term “Afro Cuban” refers to those Cubans of African ancestry. Afro Cuban religion embraces the African religious roots left by the slaves and is still practiced by the majority of the Afro Cuban population today. Most of Slaves were brought to Cuba from the Congo as well as Nigeria, Dahomey and South Eastern Nigeria. Other slaves were brought to Cuba from Mozambique and Sierra Leone.

When the slaves were brought to Cuba, they created cabildos or associations based on their African ethnic backgrounds. Thus you had different Afro Cuban religious cabildos based on the religious backgrounds of the various slaves. There were Bantu cabildos, Yoruba cabildos, Arara cabildos, Abakua cabildos and Yesa Cabildos among the major cabildos in Cuba during colonial times. These all represented an Afro Cuban Religion. When the slaves were emancipated in 1886 the Catholic Church tried to do away with the various Afro Cuban Religion cabildos to no avail.

Afro Cuban Religion as practiced by the Yoruba descendants was given the misnomer of Santeria. Santeria was a Spaniard term used for the African religion the slaves practiced from Nigeria. The slaves would camouflage their Deities by equating them with the Christian saints to appease the slave masters. This kept the slave masters off of their backs so they could practice their beliefs in peace. In actuality they were worshipping their indigenous deities under the guise of saints.

Yoruba slaves that came to Cuba all left Africa via a slave ship port called Lucumi. Thus the Afro Cuban Religion of the Yoruba people in Cuba was and still is called Lucumi not Santeria. Coming all from the same departure point of Lucumi tied the Yoruba slaves together in Cuba. This is what gave the Yoruba religion in Cuba the name Lucumi. The Afro Cuban Religion of Lucumi is the worship of Orisha based on Ifa in Nigeria.

The Bantu tribes that came to Cuba practiced what is known as Congo or Bantu Religion. Once again the Spaniards named the Bantu religion Palo or Sticks because they saw the Bantu slaves use different herbs and barks as well as branches from trees. The term for Afro Cuban Religion of Congo origin is called Bantu as a general term because of the different Bantu sects. Among the different sects are Myombe, Briumba and Palo Monte.

As in Africa, Afro Cuban religion maintained the tradition of deities and ancestor possession as well as communication with deities and ancestors through religious worship. Animal sacrifice and religious drumming and dancing were also kept intact in Afro Cuban religion. The Afro Cuban religions all believe in some sort of force of nature that has a corresponding deity to that force. There is also a supreme god in the Afro Cuban religions that head the pantheon of the deities as in Africa. Nothing is seen as totally good or totally evil in the various Afro Cuban belief systems. It is a balance between these two polarizations that the universe exists in. In Afro Cuban religion it is man’s choice to do right or wrong based on the choices given to him as deemed by the ancestors or deities. As a result one’s consequences are a matter of whether or not the advice given to them by the ancestors and deities was heeded or not.

Santeria |