Concept in Definition ABC

During the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in West Africa millions of Africans were subjected as slaves and sent to the different colonial territories of America, especially Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Colombia or Brazil. A large number of slaves belonged to the ethnicity Yoruba.

This community practiced its own rites based on animism. Their religious beliefs were not accepted by the authorities that governed the colonial territories, so the Yoruba adopted a strategy to maintain their rites: disguise their ceremonies with the worship of Catholic saints. Hence precisely the concept of Santeria arises.

Thus, in the Yoruba pantheons they prayed to San Pedro or Santa Barbara when in reality the Yoruba deities were being venerated. In other words, the whites believed they converted the Catholicism black slaves, but they still kept their rites and beliefs.

Main features of the Yoruba religion

The genuine element of this religion is syncretism, since animism of African origin is combined with tradition catholic.

Like all religions, Yoruba Santeria is a way of understanding the world and the human being. Thus, the deities that symbolize nature are worshiped and man is understood in a triple dimension (the body, the mind and the inner mind).

In Yoruba Santeria there is a hierarchy priestly. The supreme priests are the babalaow and below are the consecrated santeros and the aleyos or believers who have not yet been consecrated. Among the activities of the santeros, two stand out: the spiritual cleansing of the homes and the elimination of the contamination spirituality of believers.

Rituals and beliefs of the Yoruba religion

From the moment of birth, practitioners of the Yoruba religion receive their magara, a force interior that prepares them to connect with the divinities and nature.

They believe in a higher divinity, the god Olorun. At the same time, Odudua symbolizes mother earth and fertility, Olokun is the god of the sea, Oggun is the god of war, and Oke is the god of the mountains. Each of these divinities corresponds to a Catholic saint, among which San Lázaro, San Cristobal, Santa Bárbara or San Norberto (for example, for the Yorubas, changó is venerated through the figure of Santa Bárbara and Babalú-aye corresponds to San Lazarus).

As he dance as the music they are essential aspects in this religion. Through dance the Yoruba spiritually approach the deities they worship.

Photos: Fotolia - Erica Guilane-Nachez - Afflamen