Thus, for example, among the Swazi, burial of the dead is only done after three days. The U.S. Army and Federal Bureau of Prisons have incorporated orisha ministries into their chaplaincies. As we recall, Africans believe that the destiny of the individual and the community are interdependent, interconnected, and intertwined. Although census data are lacking, it is likely that initiated devotees number in the tens of thousands and that those who consult an orisha at one time or another may be counted in the millions. It doesn't appear in any feeds, and anyone with a direct link to it will see a message like this one. Babalu Aye is known as the Father of the World, and is associated with sickness, epidemics and plagues. They belong to the Six Nations, formerly known as the Iroquois or Haudenosaunee Confederacy. Elsewhere, for example among the Agikuyu of Kenya, ideas of heaven and hell were introduced de novo, since this community's prior concepts of the hereafter had no such notions. Hello - the man above was able to give the "bad heaven" name I couldn't remember - it is Orun Buruku - the heaven of broken pot shards. The Gikuyu refer to such a persons as mwendwo ni iri (the people's beloved). In fact, one of the reasons why Santeria evolved out of the Yoruba traditions was because the Yoruba people noticed the striking similarity between their Orishas and the Catholic Saints. (2020, August 28). The religion emphasizes the here and now rather than the afterlife, and it focuses on natural forces. Whereas in the past the hope was to attain personal immortality as a Living-Dead and to enjoy a status of honor among the ancestors, Christianized Africans look forward instead to joining an otherworldly/heavenly community of God and angels as defined in the Christian discourse. First, Africa is characterized by a tremendous ethnic and cultural diversity. For this reason, too, death is also vigorously, collectively, and publicly mourned. De La Torre also edited Handbook of U.S. Theologies of Liberation, examining Christian concepts and the interrelationship between religion, community and culture from the perspective of U.S. marginalized communities. There are a number of different orishas, and most of them correspond to a Catholic saint. When they die, believers are buried in the earth (never cremated) so that they can provide axe to all living things. Lizette Alvarez explained in a New York Times article about Santeria philosophy: "The religion emphasizes the here and now rather than the afterlife, and it focuses on natural forces. Furthermore, during the period between death and burial, the Swazi, as do other communities, observe a vigil both to console the bereaved and to keep the deceased person company as they transit between this world and the next (M'passou in Cox, 1998). Santeria, a religion created several centuries ago by West Africans enslaved in colonial Cuba and imported to New York City more than 40 years ago, is going public. They also adopted some features from Catholicism. (February 22, 2023). Nairobi, Kenya, 1992. Animal sacrifice is integral in both Santeria and Voodoo since they use blood for initiations and cleansing. For many centuries, cards have been and remain one of the most popular methods of fortune-telling. Furthermore, the ban is seemingly based on Christian notions of afterlife that define salvation as a matter of the individual's disembodied soul getting to an "otherworldly heaven." Refer to each styles convention regarding the best way to format page numbers and retrieval dates. This is often the house of senior Santeria priest, who heads an extended family: He, or more often, she, is the head of the il in the deeper sense of 'family'. The religion focuses on natural forces instead of the afterlife. Originating in West Africa among the Yoruba . Within the Cite this article tool, pick a style to see how all available information looks when formatted according to that style. African Religions and Philosophy. Training includes divinatory work, herbalism, and counseling. Patti Wigington is a pagan author, educator, and licensed clergy. Readers will also find plenty of valuable book reviews and courses which may prove to be helpful for obtaining greater knowledge. At drum dances called bembs, initiated devotees, now properly called olorishasthose who have the orishamay lose their ordinary consciousness and manifest that of their orisha patrons. Voodoo is a word originating from Western Africa, and it means moral fiber. It blends elements of French Catholicism and traditional religions of West Africa. . Since the body is integral to the person, a deceased's body is treated with utmost respect. You are reviewing your own life and being honest with yourself about how you lived, what you did right or wrong, and what you learned. The religion emphasizes the here and now rather than the afterlife, and it focuses on natural forces. In a landmark 1993 case, the Church of Lakumi Babalu Aye successfully sued the city of Hialeah, Florida, for the right to practice animal sacrifice within a religious context; the Supreme Court determined that it was a protected activity. Rites of Passage in Contemporary Africa: Interaction Between Christian and African Traditional Religions. In Voodoo, the possessed individual is known as. That vision includes angels, dogs, and an infinite library of books. Generically called, African Traditional Religion or ATR, it is more complex than one practice, and not religion. This to me just reeks of Christian influence. Initiation is a solemn and life-changing event for the follower and unites them with their Orisha, and with other followers of that Orisha. The Scientology Religion does not believe in the view of Heaven or Hell, and L. Ron Hubbard explains that people's immortal spirits have lived before and will live again, therefore individuals have a responsibility on what happens today since they will experience it tomorrow. Thus, while Africans continue to see death as a "saying yes" to God's summons, this summons is a prelude to God's judgment, which determines one's final postmortem destiny in heaven or hell. The Yoruba call this inner person ori-inu (Idowu, 1994, p. 170). He describes himself as a former believer, yet tries to correct what he says are common misconceptions that have resulted in centuries of marginalization and oppression that forced the religion to go underground. Santeria developed among Afro-Cuban communities while Voodoo developed among Afro-Haitian communities. Santeria is a religion that has beliefs of the Yoruba and it also has Roman Catholic elements (Types of Religion, 2016). What does Santeria believe about the afterlife? We're supposed to evolve, not live like brutes. . Voodoo can be traced to the Fon and Ewe in West Africa, currently known as Benin. All these essays challenge the view that African beliefs including those regarding the afterlife are incompatible with Christianity. The belief system of Santeria is reflected in its history. Among the Gikuyu, as was typical in most indigenous African communities, though one's moral misconduct could provoke divine anger and punishment, such punishment was this-worldly rather than delayed and otherworldly. Her faith is called Santeria or Regla de Osha/IFA, a religion grounded in African beliefs that were transported to the New World aboard slave ships and melded with Christian beliefs in Cuba. Ive been conducting rituals for clients for many years. Practitioners believe that this divinity created the universe but takes little interest in human affairs. The basis of the Santeria religion is the nurture of a personal relation with the orishas, and one of the principal forms of devotion is an animal sacrifice. My Faith as An African. The impact of historical encounters between cultures, and the ensuing dynamism, transformation, and fluidity of ideas will be recognized and factored in this analysis. Research from Arizona State University and the University of Wyoming has found that religious beliefs about the afterlife predicted how people value and practice sustainability. To some extent, Santeria includes magical practice, although this magical system is based upon interaction with and understanding of the orishas. In 1993 the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously upheld the right of devotees to practice the controversial rite of animal sacrifice in the case Church of the Lukumi Babalu Aye v. Hialeah . Priesthood and Initiation People are therefore encouraged to treat the body with suspicion because fleshly desires might derail their souls from the journey to heaven. Governed by Mars, fiery and voluntary planet, Aries is in analogy with House I, concerning the Self, the decisions, the behavior. A religion started in secret. These powers are thought to allow them to predict the future. Such theologians assert the compatibility of African beliefs with Christian ones if only the latter can shed their Western garb and be clothed afresh in terms of African culture, a process called "inculturation." African Religions: The Moral Traditions of Abundant Life. Santeria and Voodoo are not witchcraft but a religious belief that is highly misunderstood . Hector Avalos, Introduction to the U.S. Latina and Latino Religious Experience, 2004, Eugenio Matibag, If and Interpretation: An Afro-Caribbean Literary Practice, in Sacred Possessions: Vodou, Santera, Obeah and the Caribbean (ed. As this creator deity is inaccessible to humanity, no major offerings are dedicated to it. Divination can be done by casting palm nuts, interpreting the fall of shells, or using a divided coconut. Santera is a religion of African origin that developed in Cuba before spreading throughout Latin America and the United States. The process not only brings the worshipper closer to their Orisha, but makes them more aware of the presence of the Orisha within them. Across the many ethnic groupings and cultural expressions, however, one can discern commonalities in worldviews that make it possible to speak of an "African" worldview as compared, say, to a "Hindu" one. Also, Orisha belief is not a monolithic belief system in this aspect. To be thus rejected, excommunicated and forgotten, is truly to die in the African understanding. Apart from vague notions that it somehow involves animal sacrifice and is a syncretistic religion blending Catholic and African beliefs, most Americans know little of anything about Santeria, yet it is probably the most-practiced religion in Cuba and is growing in the United States, De La Torre argues in Santeria: The Beliefs and Rituals of a Growing Religion in America by Eerdmans. Like many religions, Santeria also offers community. Santera, or La Regla Lucum (or Lukum) as it is more properly known, is one of the African Diaspora; religions spread around the world with the scattering of the enslaved African people brought to the new world. Followers believe that these spirits will give them help in life, if they carry out the appropriate rituals, and enable them to achieve the destiny planned for them before they were born. Obviously, in our worldview that kind of violent behavior stirs up all kinds of osorbo and creates problems for other people, as well as for the one who can't control his impulses. They continued to practice their own rituals, which they found to be useful and effective, and which, most importantly, filled the spiritual space in lives torn from their original cultural foundations. Deep stuff. the religion is not just nature based but Everything has Ashe. Schotte, Jan P., ed. Although many people think that they are one and the same, Santeria and Voodoo have quite a bit of differences. Each deity represents an aspect of nature, like thunder, and a human characteristic, like power." According to Mbiti (1969, p. 158), this continued remembrance of the Living-Dead and their sustained interaction with the living constitutes the individual's "personal immortality." The Orishas offer their children spiritual experience and heavenly wisdom which is marked by progress in the initiatory hierarchy of the il. Santeria worshippers have a constitutional right to use animal sacrifice in their ceremonies, and the animals are usually well cared for prior to sacrifice. Santeria fought its way up, and even after the Constitution in Cuba proclaimed freedom of religion, the religion continued to face much opposition. In chapters 13 and 14 Idowu discusses Yoruba notions of human nature and definition of the person. During crucial moments of this life journey, special rituals (rites of passage) designed to mark, celebrate, and help the individual successfully negotiate the key turning points, including death, are performed. The Spanish words for these priests are santero or santera. Mortuary rituals also emphasize the integral connection between the "inner and outer person." Reddit and its partners use cookies and similar technologies to provide you with a better experience. It has grown beyond its Yoruba and Catholic origins to become a religion in its own right, and a powerful symbol of the religious creativity of Afro-Cuban culture. As Ela, for example, argues in his book My Faith as An African (1990), ancestral veneration is simultaneously an affirmation about life after death but also an affirmation of African notions of family, which includes the living, the dead, as well as the not yet born. These individualistic, otherworldly, and disembodied notions of salvation seem contrary to the indigenous sensibilities that focus on "embodied" and "corporate" destiny of the person both in this life and beyond. These commonalities in worldview despite cultural ethnic differences will be assumed in this article. Muslims, for example, are encouraged to persevere through earthly tribulations in view of the "day of the Resurrection" when a judgment will be made in their favor, assuming they live a righteous this-worldly life (see Qurn, srah III:185). The ach exists in everything and is too complex to comprehend fully. Managing editor at EthicsDaily.com from 2003-2009, Allen wrote more than 1,500 news stories during his tenure. Sickness was not known, and when people died, Imana brought them back to life after three days. Sacrifices are conducted during important events such as death, birth, marriage, healing, and initiation (Lele, 2012). Santeria, which came out in October, is one of three recent books by De La Torre, whose earlier works include the 2002 Reading the Bible from the Margins by Orbis Press. The animals are killed by cutting the carotid arteries with a single knife stroke in a similar way to other religious methods of slaughter. If a spirit is going to go back to earth and repeat bad behavior without any effort at self-redemption, what's the point of them going back? Boston, 1988. Especially about birth, life, death and the Afterlife. (M'passou in Cox, 1998, p. 28). Author of. These rituals can include Roman Catholic elements: One major ritual is a bemb. Ancestorhood is therefore a status of honor reserved for the exemplary dead. Discusses indigenous African religions as ethical systems and links belief in and veneration of ancestors to these systems. The slaves permeated these beliefs into Christianity to avoid being persecuted, since their traditional religious expression was forbidden. In Cuba, the practice became known as Santeria, while in Haiti, it started being referred to as Voodoo. Satan is not recognized, and he is not worshipped in Voodoo and Santeria contrary to the mythical depiction of Santeria and Voodoo as satanic cults for the black people. Hello, What is your concept of Egun? 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