Lukumí

Santeria redirects here. For the Sublime song, see Santeria (song).

Lukumí or Regla de Ocha, is most widely known as Santeria, (Santería in Spanish) is a set of related religious systems that fuse Catholic beliefs with traditional Yoruba beliefs. In the Yoruba language, Lukumí means "friends" and also applies to descendants of Yorùbá slaves in Cuba, their music and dance, and the cubanized dialect of the Yorùbá language.

History

The name Lukumi originated from present-day Nigeria. The Yoruba, also known as Nago as well as Lukumi people, of Nigeria were initially called the Lukumi which was supposed to be from the word "Olokun mi" (my dear one). The name Yoruba is popularly believed to have been derived from a Hausa ethnonym for the populous people to their south, but this legend has not been substantiated by historians. The term first appeared in a treatise written by the Songhai scholar Ahmed Baba, and is likely to derive from the Oyo or Yagba, two Yoruba-speaking groups along the northern borders of their territory. However, it is likely that the ethnonym was popularized by Hausa usage and ethnography written in Arabic and Ajami.

Yorubas were more likely called Lukumí in Cuba and their religion was historically practised by descendants of West African slaves, slaves were not purposely divided by slave families but as a means of maintaining tribal and ethnic animosities on the Island during enslavement (see Midlo Hall's 1992,2005). It is in this manner that Latino Enslavement and the mean of maintaining control evolved. Later, in the early 18th century, the Spanish Catholic church allowed for the creation of societies called cabildos which were primarily for African ethnicities which also provided means for entertainment and reconstruction of many aspects of ethnic heritage but were intended to institutionalize the interethnic animosities. For some unknown historical reason, still under investigation, the Yoruba deities, became paramount in Santeria and this occurred even though the Yorubas themselves were a minority among the enslaved. The slaves practised Yorùbá religious ceremonies in these cabildos, along with religious and secular traditions from other parts of Africa, combining and amalgamating their masters' pantheon of Catholic saints with their own pantheon of Orisha. This combination would come to be known as Santería (the worship of Saints).

The survival of Santeria in Cuba was primarily due to this convergence of Yorùbá's Ifa religiosity and Catholicism. When slave owners observed Africans celebrating a Saint's Day, they were generally unaware that the slaves were actually worshiping the Orisha. Today, the terms saint and Orisha are sometimes used interchangeably. The common bond between the Lukumí Orisha and the Catholic saints has become a part of Cuba's religious culture. It was originally referred to as Santería (also known as, Way of the Saints), a derisive term applied by the Spanish to mock followers' seeming overdevotion to the saints and their perceived neglect of God. The slaves' Christian masters did not allow them to practise their various west African religions. The slaves found a way around this by masking the Ifa's Orishas as Christian saints while maintaining their original identities. Often this combining is called by Eurocentric anthropologist and other social scientist as syncretism. A term that is being used less and less as Afro-centric scholars have pointed out that all religions are syncretic, i.e. the Judeo-Christian root of European religiosity. Nevertheless, the masters thought their slaves had become "good Christians" and were praising the saints, when in actuality they were continuing their traditional practices. ^*

Forms of the Lukumí Ifa religion is often combined with other religions but especially Catholicism and is practised throughout the Caribbean, and has a following in Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Venezuela and the United States and other areas with large Latin American populations. A very similar religion called Candomblé is also practiced in Brazil, which is home to a rich array of other Afro-Latino American religions. This is now being referred to as "parallel religiosity" since some believers worship the African variant that has no "devil fetish" and no baptism or marriage and at the same time they belong to either Catholic Churches or Mainline Protestant Churches, where there is a devil fetish. Yoruba religiosity works toward a balance here on earth (androcentric) while the European religions work toward the here after. Some in Cuban Santeria, Haitian Vodun or Puerto Rican Spiritualism (Afro-Latin Religions) do not view a difference between the Saints and the Orishas, the ancestor deities of the Yoruba people Ifa religion.

There are now in Cuba individuals who practice a purer form of Ifa religion which is what the religion is called in Nigeria. This Ifa form rejects any mixing with Catholicism.

Deities

In Lukumí beliefs, Olorun, from Oluwa Orun (owner of the heavens) (also rendered Oluwa, Olodumare, Eleda (the creator)) is the supreme deity. He is the creator both of the universe, and of the Orishas, including:

Esu/Elegbara/Eleggua/Elegua
Shango/Chango/Obakoso
Obatala
Orunmila/Ifa
Oshun/Ochun
Ogun/Gun
Oya/Yansa
Yemoja/Yemaya

Each Orisa has its specific nick name, symbols, offerings, music, archetype, etc..

Beliefs and rituals

Some Lukumí rituals are open to initiated priests only, so are seen as highly secretive by the outside world. Santeria was traditionally transmitted orally, although in the last decade a number of books have been published on the tradition. Practices include animal offering, dance, and sung invocations to the Orishas. Of these the most controversial is animal sacrifice. Followers of Lukumí point out that the killings are conducted in a safe and humane manner. The priests charged with doing the sacrifice are trained in humane ways to kill the animals. Furthermore, the animal is cooked and eaten afterwards by the community. In fact chickens, a staple food of many African-descended and Creole cultures, are the most common sacrifice; the chicken's blood is offered to the Orisha, while the meat is consumed by all. Also of note is that the practice of animal sacrifice is common to many religions, most notable Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Fruit is also offered to the Orisha. Drum music and dancing are a form of prayer and will sometimes induce a trance state in initiated priest, who become "possessed" and will channel the Orisha, giving the community and individuals information, perform healing etc. (see Yoruba music). One's ancestors, egun, are held in high esteem in Lukumí. All ceremonies and rituals in the Lukumi religion begin with paying homage to one’s ancestors.

The Lukumi believe in a creator who is called Olodumare. There is no specific belief in a Devil since the Yoruba belief system is not a dualistic philosophy - good versus evil, God versus a Devil. Instead the universe is seen as containing forces of expansion and forces of contraction. Theses forces interact in complex ways to create the universe. All things are seen to have positive aspects, or Iré, and negative aspects, or Ibi. Nothing is seen as completely “good” or completely “evil” but all things are seen as having different proportions of both. Similarly no action is seen as universally as “wrong” or “right” but rather can only be judged with the context and circumstances in which it takes place. This concept is sometime derided as “situational ethics.” In this context the individual is seen as made up of both positive/constructive impulses as well as negative/destructive impulses. Similarly, an individuals talents and facilities are seen as having a potential of both positive and negative expression. Therefore, there is a great deal of attention and focus on each individual striving to develop good character and doing good works. Good character, or Iwapele, is defined as doing the right thing because it is the right thing to do, not out of fear of retribution or as a way of seeking rewards, but simply because it is right. All humans are seen as having the potential of being good and blessed people (no original sin), although they have a potential to make evil choices, and the universe is seen as benevolent.

Persecution

African Spirituality was actively suppressed and outlawed during slavery. On the continent native traditions were viewed as inherently backward and "primitive” by the European colonizing forces who set out too actively "civilize" the natives through a number of mechanism including torture and execution; kidnapping the young and putting them in "boarding schools;" bribing or other material incentive. Intimately implicated and complicit in this process were Christian missionaries, who charged themselves with "saving the souls" of the native peoples by converting them from their millennia old traditional spiritual practices to christianity.

Within the European and North American Christian culture African Spiritually has been historically demonized, sensationalized and distorted. Hollywood’s portrayal of African traditions has be mired with gross distortions and exaggerations. The historic repression of African Spirituality in the context of slavery has as well as racism, cultural imperialism and supremacy have also played significant roles. The notion that a legitimate, sophisticated spiritual philosophy could have originated in Africa flies in the face of widespread distortions in Europe and North America about the backwardness of African culture. The controversies and criticisms of this tradition have to be viewed within this historic context.

Controversies and criticisms

Some animal rights activists take issue with the Lukumí practice of animal sacrifice, claiming that it is cruel. The singling out of this Lukumi practice can be seen as suspect considering the way most animals are slaughtered in commercial applications as well any number of animals routinely slaughtered by small farmer etc. for food. In 1993 This issue was taken to the United States Supreme Court in the case of Church of Lukumi Babalu Aye v. City of Hialeah. The Supreme Court ruled that animal cruelty laws targeted specifically at Lukumí were unconstitutional, and the practice has seen no significant legal challenges since then.

There have been a few highly publicized cases where injuries have allegedly occurred during Lukumi rituals . One such case, as reported by The New York Times took place on January 18, 1998 in Sayville, New York, where 17-year-old Charity Miranda was suffocated to death with a plastic bag at her home by her mother Vivian, 39, and sister Serena, 20, after an unsuccessful exorcism to free her of demons. Police found the women chanting and praying over the prostrate body. Not long before, they had embraced Lukumi. The mother in question, Vivian Miranda, was found not guilty by reason of insanity, and is currently confined in a New York State psychiatric hospital for the criminally insane. ^*. It can be argued, however, that these people had nothing to do with Santeria or Lukumi because there is no common belief in a devil or demons in the religion.

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