The African Traditional And Diasporic Religions Thread (Santeria, IFA, 21 Divisions, Sanse + etc)
- Thread starter Guvnor
- Start date
get these nets
Veteran
Description of exhibition: Brandywine Workshop and Archives (BWA) presents All My Ancestors: The Spiritual in Afro-Latinx Art, a major survey of printed works of art on paper—created by artists living and working in North, Central, and South America and the Caribbean—exploring their diverse heritages and collective experiences and influences as descendants of enslaved Africans who embrace the diverse cultural and spiritual legacies that have survived among people of the African diaspora.
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Cuban feminism breaks barriers in Santería
Issued on: October 07, 2022 — 15:02 | Modified: October 10, 2022 — 15:00
Aimeé Ibáñez attends the celebration of her anniversary as an Iyanifá on September 13, 2022, in the Havana neighborhood of Los Sitios. Photo: Adalberto Roque/AFP
Havana (AFP) — Twenty-two years ago, two women became priestesses of Cuban Santeria. They did it in secret, defying five centuries of patriarchal rule. Recently, they broke barriers again by issuing the Letter of the Year, the greatest ritual of this religion, reserved only for men.
This belief, brought in slave ships from Africa centuries ago, maintains its vitality in Cuba. According to experts, 70% of the population has some relationship with this syncretism of Catholicism and African worship.
But the Iyanifás emerged on the island around the year 2000, when Nidia Águila de León, 60, and María Cuesta, 51, secretly became priestesses. Today there are hundreds throughout Cuba.
"As a child I always heard that if I had been born a man I would be a Babalao", Cuesta, the daughter of a respected Santero priest in Havana, tells AFP. In the past, the women were destined to assist the men cleaning and skinning chickens for the ceremonies, she says.
Now "I kill a chicken" in the sacrifices, "I also know how to cast shells" to predict the future. "I know how to do everything, perhaps more than a Babalao", says the dark-faced lady dedicated to providing guidance to her godchildren or followers who come to her with a problem.
"Iyanifás are women, also dedicated to a deity, which is Ifá", the god of wisdom, says Aimeé Ibáñez, one of her goddaughters, who has also become a priestess.
She speaks before an altar in the sacred room, where the consecrations are made and which was previously only entered by Babalaos, the priests of the Regla de Ocha religion, or Cuban Santería.
"We also defend our rights", says this 43-year-old pharmaceutical worker, kneeling to pay tribute to Obatalá, one of the main Orisha (deities), in a ceremony.
Desecration
In January 2021 they headed the Letra del Año or Letter of the Year, a highly-expected prophecy in Cuban society, anxious to know what is going to happen in the next 12 months.
Aimeé Ibáñez participates in the ceremony celebrating her anniversary as an Iyanifá on September 13, 2022, in the Havana neighborhood of Los Sitios. Photo: Adalberto Roque/AFP
Although parallel ceremonies of the Letter had been carried out by women by dividing tasks among groups of Babalaos, the jurisdiction had never been with women.
This divinatory ritual on the Oracle of Ifá is a system that combines 256 possibilities of signs. The youngest Babalao present at the ritual casts the shells and the oldest interprets it.
"I sat before the (Ifá) board and did it", Aimeé says bluntly with a white turban on her head. "There were a lot of people against it, but a lot of people supported it", she says.
The Yoruba Association of Cuba, considered the official religious entity, expressed a strong disapproval.
A group of women "flagrantly hid to desecrate our patrimonial culture, our religion at its best", the association said in a statement released on the internet.
The ceremony was done "in the most reprehensible way, without ethics and without decorum", assessed the body directed solely by men.
"Independence and maturity"
Nidia lives in an old building in the center of Havana where the temple to which they belong is also located. In the central patio of the place, she says that they decided to head the Letter because the then president of the Yoruba society wanted to marginalize all the Babalaos involved with the consecration of Iyanifás.
After making the prophecy, the followers of the Yoruba Association predicted that the divine punishment would be death, the two founders recall.
Santería coexisted for centuries in slave quarters with other African religious beliefs and with the Abakuá, members of a secret fraternity born among slaves that used to work at the port of Havana.
Aimeé Ibáñez participates in the ceremony celebrating her anniversary as an Iyanifá on September 13, 2022, in the Havana neighborhood of Los Sitios. Photo: Adalberto Roque/AFP
In order to practice outside the slave quarters with the consent of their owners, the Santeros identified their deities with Catholic saints, creating the strong syncretism that still prevails in the country.
Syncretism is so ingrained on the island that when the long-awaited thaw between Cuba and the United States was announced on December 17, 2014, in honor of the birthday of Pope Francis, who was the mediator, ordinary Cubans attributed "the miracle" to the popular Saint Lazarus or Babalú Ayé, who is celebrated on the same day.
For Lázara Menéndez, a professor at the University of Havana, the emergence of the Iyanifás obeys a religious principle: "knowledge is shared among all heads".
With solid religious knowledge, this movement represents "an exercise in independence and maturity" for women that contributes "by affirming the struggles for female emancipation", the expert told AFP.
What was swallowed by the sea
The religious uncovering in Cuba occurred in the 1990s. After the Soviet disappearance, the State went from atheist to secular, and the ruling Communist Party admitted believers into its ranks.
Just walking through the streets of Havana is enough to see the number of people who wear beads and bracelets dedicated to the different Orisha, depending on the color. Politicians, intellectuals and artists frequently evoke them.
The new presidency of the Yoruba Association moderated its position after the Letter of the Year scandal in 2021, when many followers supported the Iyanifás.
"We have nothing against the new currents that have arrived in our country in recent years, but they are not within our Afro-Cuban traditions of the Regla de Ocha", Roberto Padrón, the current president, told AFP.
Iyanifás have existed in Nigeria since before the 16th century, when Africans were brought to America as slaves.
But "there is a series of knowledge that did not reach Cuba" and that was lost in the brutality of the slave trade, says Víctor Betancourt, husband of Nidia and the Babalao of her temple.
Betancourt clarifies that women can do everything just like a Babalao, except initiate other priests.
These Iyanifás do not give in and warn that they could head the Letter of the Year again. "If it could be done, I wouldn't see a problem", says María.
Cuban feminism breaks barriers in Santería
Issued on: October 07, 2022 — 15:02 | Modified: October 10, 2022 — 15:00
Aimeé Ibáñez attends the celebration of her anniversary as an Iyanifá on September 13, 2022, in the Havana neighborhood of Los Sitios. Photo: Adalberto Roque/AFP
Havana (AFP) — Twenty-two years ago, two women became priestesses of Cuban Santeria. They did it in secret, defying five centuries of patriarchal rule. Recently, they broke barriers again by issuing the Letter of the Year, the greatest ritual of this religion, reserved only for men.
This belief, brought in slave ships from Africa centuries ago, maintains its vitality in Cuba. According to experts, 70% of the population has some relationship with this syncretism of Catholicism and African worship.
But the Iyanifás emerged on the island around the year 2000, when Nidia Águila de León, 60, and María Cuesta, 51, secretly became priestesses. Today there are hundreds throughout Cuba.
"As a child I always heard that if I had been born a man I would be a Babalao", Cuesta, the daughter of a respected Santero priest in Havana, tells AFP. In the past, the women were destined to assist the men cleaning and skinning chickens for the ceremonies, she says.
Now "I kill a chicken" in the sacrifices, "I also know how to cast shells" to predict the future. "I know how to do everything, perhaps more than a Babalao", says the dark-faced lady dedicated to providing guidance to her godchildren or followers who come to her with a problem.
"Iyanifás are women, also dedicated to a deity, which is Ifá", the god of wisdom, says Aimeé Ibáñez, one of her goddaughters, who has also become a priestess.
She speaks before an altar in the sacred room, where the consecrations are made and which was previously only entered by Babalaos, the priests of the Regla de Ocha religion, or Cuban Santería.
"We also defend our rights", says this 43-year-old pharmaceutical worker, kneeling to pay tribute to Obatalá, one of the main Orisha (deities), in a ceremony.
Desecration
In January 2021 they headed the Letra del Año or Letter of the Year, a highly-expected prophecy in Cuban society, anxious to know what is going to happen in the next 12 months.
Aimeé Ibáñez participates in the ceremony celebrating her anniversary as an Iyanifá on September 13, 2022, in the Havana neighborhood of Los Sitios. Photo: Adalberto Roque/AFP
Although parallel ceremonies of the Letter had been carried out by women by dividing tasks among groups of Babalaos, the jurisdiction had never been with women.
This divinatory ritual on the Oracle of Ifá is a system that combines 256 possibilities of signs. The youngest Babalao present at the ritual casts the shells and the oldest interprets it.
"I sat before the (Ifá) board and did it", Aimeé says bluntly with a white turban on her head. "There were a lot of people against it, but a lot of people supported it", she says.
The Yoruba Association of Cuba, considered the official religious entity, expressed a strong disapproval.
A group of women "flagrantly hid to desecrate our patrimonial culture, our religion at its best", the association said in a statement released on the internet.
The ceremony was done "in the most reprehensible way, without ethics and without decorum", assessed the body directed solely by men.
"Independence and maturity"
Nidia lives in an old building in the center of Havana where the temple to which they belong is also located. In the central patio of the place, she says that they decided to head the Letter because the then president of the Yoruba society wanted to marginalize all the Babalaos involved with the consecration of Iyanifás.
After making the prophecy, the followers of the Yoruba Association predicted that the divine punishment would be death, the two founders recall.
Santería coexisted for centuries in slave quarters with other African religious beliefs and with the Abakuá, members of a secret fraternity born among slaves that used to work at the port of Havana.
Aimeé Ibáñez participates in the ceremony celebrating her anniversary as an Iyanifá on September 13, 2022, in the Havana neighborhood of Los Sitios. Photo: Adalberto Roque/AFP
In order to practice outside the slave quarters with the consent of their owners, the Santeros identified their deities with Catholic saints, creating the strong syncretism that still prevails in the country.
Syncretism is so ingrained on the island that when the long-awaited thaw between Cuba and the United States was announced on December 17, 2014, in honor of the birthday of Pope Francis, who was the mediator, ordinary Cubans attributed "the miracle" to the popular Saint Lazarus or Babalú Ayé, who is celebrated on the same day.
For Lázara Menéndez, a professor at the University of Havana, the emergence of the Iyanifás obeys a religious principle: "knowledge is shared among all heads".
With solid religious knowledge, this movement represents "an exercise in independence and maturity" for women that contributes "by affirming the struggles for female emancipation", the expert told AFP.
What was swallowed by the sea
The religious uncovering in Cuba occurred in the 1990s. After the Soviet disappearance, the State went from atheist to secular, and the ruling Communist Party admitted believers into its ranks.
Just walking through the streets of Havana is enough to see the number of people who wear beads and bracelets dedicated to the different Orisha, depending on the color. Politicians, intellectuals and artists frequently evoke them.
The new presidency of the Yoruba Association moderated its position after the Letter of the Year scandal in 2021, when many followers supported the Iyanifás.
"We have nothing against the new currents that have arrived in our country in recent years, but they are not within our Afro-Cuban traditions of the Regla de Ocha", Roberto Padrón, the current president, told AFP.
Iyanifás have existed in Nigeria since before the 16th century, when Africans were brought to America as slaves.
But "there is a series of knowledge that did not reach Cuba" and that was lost in the brutality of the slave trade, says Víctor Betancourt, husband of Nidia and the Babalao of her temple.
Betancourt clarifies that women can do everything just like a Babalao, except initiate other priests.
These Iyanifás do not give in and warn that they could head the Letter of the Year again. "If it could be done, I wouldn't see a problem", says María.
Cuban feminism breaks barriers in Santería
Vodoun Festival in Benin attracts descendants from the diaspora
Festival is held annually on January 10th and has increasingly attracted the Afro-diasporic community in search of reconnecting with the African continent and their ancestral cultures
Wednesday, January 11, 2023 14:23
By: Josue Mehouenou/AFP | Editing: Elias Santana Malê | Translation and additional information: Vinicius Martins | Images: Yanick Folly/AFP
Every year, in Benin, locals celebrate a festival honoring the Vodun deities, a traditional religion that worships natural spirits and reveres their ancestors.
Increasingly, the festival attracts descendants of the diaspora in the Americas, such as Brazilians and Caribbeans who seek to discover the religion and land of their ancestors who were enslaved and sent away from the shores of West Africa.
Voodoo (or Vodum), known locally as Vodoun, originated in the kingdom of Dahomey — present-day Benin and Togo — and is still widely practiced sometimes alongside Christianity in coastal towns such as Ouidah, once a slave trade center where today memorials to the slave trade are scattered around the small beach town.
It is estimated that 60% of Benin's population, around 4.5 million people, practice Vodoun. It is similar to religions that emerged in the African diaspora, such as Haitian Voodoo, Dominican Republic Voodoo, Candomblé Jeje in Brazil, Louisiana Voodoo, and Santería in Cuba.
"We first came here to look for our origins and reconnect with Mother Earth", said Louis Pierre Ramassamy, 45, from Guadeloupe, who was in Benin for the first time and was visiting Ouidah. He came to see the Vodoun festival, but his stay goes beyond that.
Ramassamy wants to follow in the footsteps of his ancestors, who were taken from Ouidah centuries ago, and rediscover the divinity practiced by his maternal grandmother.
Divinations and sacrifices were made for him at a Vodoun convent in Ouidah to help him reconnect, he told the report.
"If luck doesn't smile on me this time, I'll come back another time. I need that reconnection for my personal development", the tourist told AFP, his camera focused on the movement of Vodoun practitioners on Ouidah's imposing Atlantic Ocean beach.
Credit: Yanick Folly/AFP
Dozens of followers dressed in white attire face the ocean at each festival to pay their respects in Ouidah to Mami Wata, a goddess of the sea.
Accompanied by drumming and dancing, followers dressed in colorful traditional robes and dresses watched the "Zangbeto" ritual — whirling dancers dressed as guardians of the night.
Nearby is an archway, the "Door of No Return", in memory of those trapped on slave ships off Ouidah beach bound for the New World.
"Our ancestors foresaw this return of descendants from Africa. They are eagerly awaited by the ghosts of our ancestors", said Hounnongan Viyeye Noumaze Gbetoton, one of the Vodoun dignitaries in Ouidah.
"When they return, it's to receive blessings and recharge their batteries to move forward".
Brazilian Anaica Durand said to have passed that stage.
She has managed to reconnect with her family of origin, the Almeida family from Benin, and she is delighted about it.
January 10 became a time of great celebration for her to have fun with songs, dances and celebrations around Vodoun.
Credit: Yanick Folly/AFP
'True identity'
Like Anaica, Alexandra Bajeux is on her second visit to Ouidah. This year, she came to honor the Serpent deity, called Dan.
"All the divinations revealed that it was the cult of my ancestors", she says smiling, with a white loincloth tied around his waist.
The 29-year-old Haitian plans to settle in Ouidah to dedicate herself full time to this religion.
"Dan is happiness and he is a source of wealth", said the young woman who swears "to have finally found the happiness she was missing".
"Our biggest goal is that indigenous culture never disappears... sooner or later, all Afro-descendants will return to the fold. This is what our ancestors say", said Hounnongan Viyeye Noumaze Gbetoton.
Credit: Yanick Folly/AFP
Francis Ahouissoussi, a Beninese sociologist specializing in religious issues, explains this attachment by descendants of enslaved Africans as "a natural need that they must fill".
According to him, many Afro-descendants feel that "they are in a permanent search for their true identity", part of which is addressed for some by the role of Vodoun.
For Brazilian Ana Beatriz Akpedje Almeida, it seemed that she was connecting the deities she knew from Brazil and other countries and her ancestors.
"I think most people from the diaspora can connect with this kind of knowledge", she said. "Vodoun is a perspective about humanity".
US visitor Chastyl told AFP it was also her first time in Benin.
"I saw so many deities and lots of dancing", she said. "I don't have any family here, they're all in the States, but obviously, we are from here".
Vodoun Festival in Benin attracts descendants from the diaspora
Festival is held annually on January 10th and has increasingly attracted the Afro-diasporic community in search of reconnecting with the African continent and their ancestral cultures
Wednesday, January 11, 2023 14:23
By: Josue Mehouenou/AFP | Editing: Elias Santana Malê | Translation and additional information: Vinicius Martins | Images: Yanick Folly/AFP
Every year, in Benin, locals celebrate a festival honoring the Vodun deities, a traditional religion that worships natural spirits and reveres their ancestors.
Increasingly, the festival attracts descendants of the diaspora in the Americas, such as Brazilians and Caribbeans who seek to discover the religion and land of their ancestors who were enslaved and sent away from the shores of West Africa.
Voodoo (or Vodum), known locally as Vodoun, originated in the kingdom of Dahomey — present-day Benin and Togo — and is still widely practiced sometimes alongside Christianity in coastal towns such as Ouidah, once a slave trade center where today memorials to the slave trade are scattered around the small beach town.
It is estimated that 60% of Benin's population, around 4.5 million people, practice Vodoun. It is similar to religions that emerged in the African diaspora, such as Haitian Voodoo, Dominican Republic Voodoo, Candomblé Jeje in Brazil, Louisiana Voodoo, and Santería in Cuba.
"We first came here to look for our origins and reconnect with Mother Earth", said Louis Pierre Ramassamy, 45, from Guadeloupe, who was in Benin for the first time and was visiting Ouidah. He came to see the Vodoun festival, but his stay goes beyond that.
Ramassamy wants to follow in the footsteps of his ancestors, who were taken from Ouidah centuries ago, and rediscover the divinity practiced by his maternal grandmother.
Divinations and sacrifices were made for him at a Vodoun convent in Ouidah to help him reconnect, he told the report.
"If luck doesn't smile on me this time, I'll come back another time. I need that reconnection for my personal development", the tourist told AFP, his camera focused on the movement of Vodoun practitioners on Ouidah's imposing Atlantic Ocean beach.
Credit: Yanick Folly/AFP
Dozens of followers dressed in white attire face the ocean at each festival to pay their respects in Ouidah to Mami Wata, a goddess of the sea.
Accompanied by drumming and dancing, followers dressed in colorful traditional robes and dresses watched the "Zangbeto" ritual — whirling dancers dressed as guardians of the night.
Nearby is an archway, the "Door of No Return", in memory of those trapped on slave ships off Ouidah beach bound for the New World.
"Our ancestors foresaw this return of descendants from Africa. They are eagerly awaited by the ghosts of our ancestors", said Hounnongan Viyeye Noumaze Gbetoton, one of the Vodoun dignitaries in Ouidah.
"When they return, it's to receive blessings and recharge their batteries to move forward".
Brazilian Anaica Durand said to have passed that stage.
She has managed to reconnect with her family of origin, the Almeida family from Benin, and she is delighted about it.
January 10 became a time of great celebration for her to have fun with songs, dances and celebrations around Vodoun.
Credit: Yanick Folly/AFP
'True identity'
Like Anaica, Alexandra Bajeux is on her second visit to Ouidah. This year, she came to honor the Serpent deity, called Dan.
"All the divinations revealed that it was the cult of my ancestors", she says smiling, with a white loincloth tied around his waist.
The 29-year-old Haitian plans to settle in Ouidah to dedicate herself full time to this religion.
"Dan is happiness and he is a source of wealth", said the young woman who swears "to have finally found the happiness she was missing".
"Our biggest goal is that indigenous culture never disappears... sooner or later, all Afro-descendants will return to the fold. This is what our ancestors say", said Hounnongan Viyeye Noumaze Gbetoton.
Credit: Yanick Folly/AFP
Francis Ahouissoussi, a Beninese sociologist specializing in religious issues, explains this attachment by descendants of enslaved Africans as "a natural need that they must fill".
According to him, many Afro-descendants feel that "they are in a permanent search for their true identity", part of which is addressed for some by the role of Vodoun.
For Brazilian Ana Beatriz Akpedje Almeida, it seemed that she was connecting the deities she knew from Brazil and other countries and her ancestors.
"I think most people from the diaspora can connect with this kind of knowledge", she said. "Vodoun is a perspective about humanity".
US visitor Chastyl told AFP it was also her first time in Benin.
"I saw so many deities and lots of dancing", she said. "I don't have any family here, they're all in the States, but obviously, we are from here".
Vodoun Festival in Benin attracts descendants from the diaspora
$cam-U-Well_Jack$on
Superstar
Cuban feminism breaks barriers in Santería
Issued on: October 07, 2022 — 15:02 | Modified: October 10, 2022 — 15:00
Aimeé Ibáñez attends the celebration of her anniversary as an Iyanifá on September 13, 2022, in the Havana neighborhood of Los Sitios. Photo: Adalberto Roque/AFP
Havana (AFP) — Twenty-two years ago, two women became priestesses of Cuban Santeria. They did it in secret, defying five centuries of patriarchal rule. Recently, they broke barriers again by issuing the Letter of the Year, the greatest ritual of this religion, reserved only for men.
This belief, brought in slave ships from Africa centuries ago, maintains its vitality in Cuba. According to experts, 70% of the population has some relationship with this syncretism of Catholicism and African worship.
But the Iyanifás emerged on the island around the year 2000, when Nidia Águila de León, 60, and María Cuesta, 51, secretly became priestesses. Today there are hundreds throughout Cuba.
"As a child I always heard that if I had been born a man I would be a Babalao", Cuesta, the daughter of a respected Santero priest in Havana, tells AFP. In the past, the women were destined to assist the men cleaning and skinning chickens for the ceremonies, she says.
Now "I kill a chicken" in the sacrifices, "I also know how to cast shells" to predict the future. "I know how to do everything, perhaps more than a Babalao", says the dark-faced lady dedicated to providing guidance to her godchildren or followers who come to her with a problem.
"Iyanifás are women, also dedicated to a deity, which is Ifá", the god of wisdom, says Aimeé Ibáñez, one of her goddaughters, who has also become a priestess.
She speaks before an altar in the sacred room, where the consecrations are made and which was previously only entered by Babalaos, the priests of the Regla de Ocha religion, or Cuban Santería.
"We also defend our rights", says this 43-year-old pharmaceutical worker, kneeling to pay tribute to Obatalá, one of the main Orisha (deities), in a ceremony.
Desecration
In January 2021 they headed the Letra del Año or Letter of the Year, a highly-expected prophecy in Cuban society, anxious to know what is going to happen in the next 12 months.
Aimeé Ibáñez participates in the ceremony celebrating her anniversary as an Iyanifá on September 13, 2022, in the Havana neighborhood of Los Sitios. Photo: Adalberto Roque/AFP
Although parallel ceremonies of the Letter had been carried out by women by dividing tasks among groups of Babalaos, the jurisdiction had never been with women.
This divinatory ritual on the Oracle of Ifá is a system that combines 256 possibilities of signs. The youngest Babalao present at the ritual casts the shells and the oldest interprets it.
"I sat before the (Ifá) board and did it", Aimeé says bluntly with a white turban on her head. "There were a lot of people against it, but a lot of people supported it", she says.
The Yoruba Association of Cuba, considered the official religious entity, expressed a strong disapproval.
A group of women "flagrantly hid to desecrate our patrimonial culture, our religion at its best", the association said in a statement released on the internet.
The ceremony was done "in the most reprehensible way, without ethics and without decorum", assessed the body directed solely by men.
"Independence and maturity"
Nidia lives in an old building in the center of Havana where the temple to which they belong is also located. In the central patio of the place, she says that they decided to head the Letter because the then president of the Yoruba society wanted to marginalize all the Babalaos involved with the consecration of Iyanifás.
After making the prophecy, the followers of the Yoruba Association predicted that the divine punishment would be death, the two founders recall.
Santería coexisted for centuries in slave quarters with other African religious beliefs and with the Abakuá, members of a secret fraternity born among slaves that used to work at the port of Havana.
Aimeé Ibáñez participates in the ceremony celebrating her anniversary as an Iyanifá on September 13, 2022, in the Havana neighborhood of Los Sitios. Photo: Adalberto Roque/AFP
In order to practice outside the slave quarters with the consent of their owners, the Santeros identified their deities with Catholic saints, creating the strong syncretism that still prevails in the country.
Syncretism is so ingrained on the island that when the long-awaited thaw between Cuba and the United States was announced on December 17, 2014, in honor of the birthday of Pope Francis, who was the mediator, ordinary Cubans attributed "the miracle" to the popular Saint Lazarus or Babalú Ayé, who is celebrated on the same day.
For Lázara Menéndez, a professor at the University of Havana, the emergence of the Iyanifás obeys a religious principle: "knowledge is shared among all heads".
With solid religious knowledge, this movement represents "an exercise in independence and maturity" for women that contributes "by affirming the struggles for female emancipation", the expert told AFP.
What was swallowed by the sea
The religious uncovering in Cuba occurred in the 1990s. After the Soviet disappearance, the State went from atheist to secular, and the ruling Communist Party admitted believers into its ranks.
Just walking through the streets of Havana is enough to see the number of people who wear beads and bracelets dedicated to the different Orisha, depending on the color. Politicians, intellectuals and artists frequently evoke them.
The new presidency of the Yoruba Association moderated its position after the Letter of the Year scandal in 2021, when many followers supported the Iyanifás.
"We have nothing against the new currents that have arrived in our country in recent years, but they are not within our Afro-Cuban traditions of the Regla de Ocha", Roberto Padrón, the current president, told AFP.
Iyanifás have existed in Nigeria since before the 16th century, when Africans were brought to America as slaves.
But "there is a series of knowledge that did not reach Cuba" and that was lost in the brutality of the slave trade, says Víctor Betancourt, husband of Nidia and the Babalao of her temple.
Betancourt clarifies that women can do everything just like a Babalao, except initiate other priests.
These Iyanifás do not give in and warn that they could head the Letter of the Year again. "If it could be done, I wouldn't see a problem", says María.
Cuban feminism breaks barriers in Santería
Regardless of what's stated, Iyanifa's in Cuba will likely NEVER be fully embraced (amongst da Lukumi community) or recognized as their counterparts abroad in Nigeria are (in Isese Ifa/Isese Lagba). Tradition is tradition & many are trying to modernize a religion that has endured for centuries to fit modern norms.
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I skipped reading but lotta feminist adopting this stuff and twisting it
$cam-U-Well_Jack$on
Superstar
Having seen it with my own two eyes, I wish I could say that you were wrong. But it ain't just them.
Oh im well aware of the other fukkery. But thata a topic for another day
This jam right hereThe rhythm has had me jamming all morning. And then the switch around the 3 minute mark
I remember when my grandfather and I use to go to the Fete Saut D'eau every July when I was little kid.
Good times. I miss him.
The difference in how female leadership is viewed from country to country has always been interesting to me. The tradition in Brazil says Ìyá Násò Òká — the Iyá who founded the first temple in Salvador — was bestowed by the Alaafin himself with the task of carrying on with the cult of Shango in Bahia once he saw Oyo was about to fall; this was around the 1830s. Plus the women in Brazil were usually the ones with the capital to buy up land to found temples which helped consolidate female leadership (at least in the Katu nation/branch of Candomblé). Whereas in Cuba it was men like Adesiná who were being sponsored by the Lucumí to make the trip back home to Yorubaland, bring the knowledge back to the island and found the temples.
I remember when my grandfather and I use to go to the Fete Saut D'eau every July when I was little kid.
Good times. I miss him.
Only real Haitians know about saut d’eau. Let alone been there
Salvador resumes festivities in Rio Vermelho and renews devotion to Iemanjá
The celebration this Thursday (2) marks the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the tradition of delivering gifts by fishermen to the Orisha
By João Pedro Pitombo
Feb 2, 2023 at 12:19 pm | Updated: Feb 2, 2023 at 19:16 pm
Salvador — The clock showed 5 am when the fireworks crossed a still dark sky in Rio Vermelho, in Salvador. But the neighborhood's streets and beaches were already crowded with devotees, who took advantage of the first rays of sunlight to leave their offerings to Iemanjá.
The sunrise marked the arrival of the main gift for the Orisha, produced by the temple Ilê Axé Oxumarê. Men and women got together to carry the float on which, under a white cloth, was a basket in blue and white colors filled with flowers and with a sculpture in the shape of a starfish.
Devotees crowd the beaches of Rio Vermelho, in Salvador, on this Iemanjá Day — João Pedro Pitombo/Folhapress
In an atmosphere of religiosity and devotion, the celebration once again took to the streets of Salvador this February 2, Iemanjá Day, after the pandemic restrictions. In 2021 and 2022, the date was celebrated sparingly in the Bahian capital because of Covid-19 — in Rio Vermelho, only fishermen had free access to the sea.
The neighborhood's fishermen's colony was now, once again, the center stage of the country's main African-based religious festival.
"This year we celebrate 100 years of the delivery of the gift to Iemanjá. It is a year revered by the Iabás, who are the female Orisha, with Ogun opening up the paths", said Robson do Agogô, a devotee at Ilê Ibece Alaketú and one of those responsible for leading the gift to the celebration.
In the early hours of the morning, the public gathered around the fishermen's colony, where the Candomblé devotees celebrated Iemanjá with songs accompanied by atabaques and horns. Devotees accompanying the celebration delivered flowers and poured lavender over the gift.
The faithful lined up to enter the Casa de Iemanjá, which is also part of the fishermen's colony, to pray and revere the dozens of images of the African deity that make up the altar there.
This year, a 1.4 meter image of a black Iemanjá, made by the artist Rodrigo Siqueira, was incorporated into the collection. But, by decision of the fishermen, it did not occupy the central place of the altar, where the original image that refers to the syncretism with Our Lady of Navigators remained.
Sculpture of the black Iemanjá, by the artist Rodrigo Siqueira — Cristian Carvalho/Disclosure
Nevertheless, the new sculpture was revered by the faithful, who adorned the piece with necklaces and white flowers.
Around the fishermen's colony, there was a large movement of devotees and cultural groups that paraded through the streets of Rio Vermelho from dawn. Around 4:30 am, the bloco afro Os Negões appeared on the avenue in front of Paciência Beach with their drums.
A little later, groups joined the "Capoeiras Pilgrimage". To the sound of berimbaus, tambourines and atabaques, they formed Capoeira circles, attracting the public's attention.
On the beaches, devotees crowded the sand and the rocks to throw offerings to Iemanjá, especially flowers, into the sea. Boatmen took groups of tourists to drop off gifts in areas further away from the surf.
Iemanjá celebrations in the Rio Vermelho neighborhood in Salvador. Manu Dias/GOVBA
Devotees gather on beaches in the Rio Vermelho neighborhood, in Salvador, to salute Iemanjá. Manu Dias/GOVBA
Cultural groups participate in the celebration of Iemanjá, in Salvador. Manu Dias/GOVBA
The celebration of Iemanjá is the biggest street celebration linked to Candomblé. Manu Dias/GOVBA
Devotees gather on beaches in the Rio Vermelho neighborhood, in Salvador, to salute Iemanjá. Manu Dias/GOVBA
Devotees gather on beaches in the Rio Vermelho neighborhood, in Salvador, to salute Iemanjá. Manu Dias/GOVBA
Devotees gather on beaches in the Rio Vermelho neighborhood, in Salvador, to salute Iemanjá. Manu Dias/GOVBA
Devotees gather on beaches in the Rio Vermelho neighborhood, in Salvador, to salute Iemanjá. Manu Dias/GOVBA
The Governor of Bahia, Jerônimo Rodrigues (Workers' Party) visits Casa de Iemanjá, at the Fishermen's Colony in Rio Vermelho. Manu Dias/GOVBA
The tradition of delivering a gift to the Orisha in Rio Vermelho started in 1923, after a year of little abundance. On that occasion, a group of fishermen decided to consult the Orisha through shell divination to understand the shortage of fish. They were instructed to ask for help and give Iemanjá a gift.
Since then, the delivery of the gift has been repeated every February 2, at a celebration recognized as Cultural Heritage of Salvador. This year, the theme of the celebration in Rio Vermelho is "Odoyá, 100 years of Celebration and Reverence to Iemanjá".
Throughout the day, the colony of fishermen received the faithful who wanted to leave offerings to the Orisha. At the end of the afternoon, the gifts were taken by fishermen in a boat to the "Buraco de Iaiá", a place located 7.5 kilometers from the coast and which is considered sacred by the fishermen.
In addition to the religious aspect, the celebration is marked by the presentation of brass and percussion bands as well as folk groups through the streets of Rio Vermelho, in addition to private parties in bars and concert halls.
Salvador resumes festivities in Rio Vermelho and renews devotion to Iemanjá
The celebration this Thursday (2) marks the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the tradition of delivering gifts by fishermen to the Orisha
By João Pedro Pitombo
Feb 2, 2023 at 12:19 pm | Updated: Feb 2, 2023 at 19:16 pm
Salvador — The clock showed 5 am when the fireworks crossed a still dark sky in Rio Vermelho, in Salvador. But the neighborhood's streets and beaches were already crowded with devotees, who took advantage of the first rays of sunlight to leave their offerings to Iemanjá.
The sunrise marked the arrival of the main gift for the Orisha, produced by the temple Ilê Axé Oxumarê. Men and women got together to carry the float on which, under a white cloth, was a basket in blue and white colors filled with flowers and with a sculpture in the shape of a starfish.
Devotees crowd the beaches of Rio Vermelho, in Salvador, on this Iemanjá Day — João Pedro Pitombo/Folhapress
In an atmosphere of religiosity and devotion, the celebration once again took to the streets of Salvador this February 2, Iemanjá Day, after the pandemic restrictions. In 2021 and 2022, the date was celebrated sparingly in the Bahian capital because of Covid-19 — in Rio Vermelho, only fishermen had free access to the sea.
The neighborhood's fishermen's colony was now, once again, the center stage of the country's main African-based religious festival.
"This year we celebrate 100 years of the delivery of the gift to Iemanjá. It is a year revered by the Iabás, who are the female Orisha, with Ogun opening up the paths", said Robson do Agogô, a devotee at Ilê Ibece Alaketú and one of those responsible for leading the gift to the celebration.
In the early hours of the morning, the public gathered around the fishermen's colony, where the Candomblé devotees celebrated Iemanjá with songs accompanied by atabaques and horns. Devotees accompanying the celebration delivered flowers and poured lavender over the gift.
The faithful lined up to enter the Casa de Iemanjá, which is also part of the fishermen's colony, to pray and revere the dozens of images of the African deity that make up the altar there.
This year, a 1.4 meter image of a black Iemanjá, made by the artist Rodrigo Siqueira, was incorporated into the collection. But, by decision of the fishermen, it did not occupy the central place of the altar, where the original image that refers to the syncretism with Our Lady of Navigators remained.
Sculpture of the black Iemanjá, by the artist Rodrigo Siqueira — Cristian Carvalho/Disclosure
Nevertheless, the new sculpture was revered by the faithful, who adorned the piece with necklaces and white flowers.
Around the fishermen's colony, there was a large movement of devotees and cultural groups that paraded through the streets of Rio Vermelho from dawn. Around 4:30 am, the bloco afro Os Negões appeared on the avenue in front of Paciência Beach with their drums.
A little later, groups joined the "Capoeiras Pilgrimage". To the sound of berimbaus, tambourines and atabaques, they formed Capoeira circles, attracting the public's attention.
On the beaches, devotees crowded the sand and the rocks to throw offerings to Iemanjá, especially flowers, into the sea. Boatmen took groups of tourists to drop off gifts in areas further away from the surf.
Iemanjá celebrations in the Rio Vermelho neighborhood in Salvador. Manu Dias/GOVBA
Devotees gather on beaches in the Rio Vermelho neighborhood, in Salvador, to salute Iemanjá. Manu Dias/GOVBA
Cultural groups participate in the celebration of Iemanjá, in Salvador. Manu Dias/GOVBA
The celebration of Iemanjá is the biggest street celebration linked to Candomblé. Manu Dias/GOVBA
Devotees gather on beaches in the Rio Vermelho neighborhood, in Salvador, to salute Iemanjá. Manu Dias/GOVBA
Devotees gather on beaches in the Rio Vermelho neighborhood, in Salvador, to salute Iemanjá. Manu Dias/GOVBA
Devotees gather on beaches in the Rio Vermelho neighborhood, in Salvador, to salute Iemanjá. Manu Dias/GOVBA
Devotees gather on beaches in the Rio Vermelho neighborhood, in Salvador, to salute Iemanjá. Manu Dias/GOVBA
The Governor of Bahia, Jerônimo Rodrigues (Workers' Party) visits Casa de Iemanjá, at the Fishermen's Colony in Rio Vermelho. Manu Dias/GOVBA
The tradition of delivering a gift to the Orisha in Rio Vermelho started in 1923, after a year of little abundance. On that occasion, a group of fishermen decided to consult the Orisha through shell divination to understand the shortage of fish. They were instructed to ask for help and give Iemanjá a gift.
Since then, the delivery of the gift has been repeated every February 2, at a celebration recognized as Cultural Heritage of Salvador. This year, the theme of the celebration in Rio Vermelho is "Odoyá, 100 years of Celebration and Reverence to Iemanjá".
Throughout the day, the colony of fishermen received the faithful who wanted to leave offerings to the Orisha. At the end of the afternoon, the gifts were taken by fishermen in a boat to the "Buraco de Iaiá", a place located 7.5 kilometers from the coast and which is considered sacred by the fishermen.
In addition to the religious aspect, the celebration is marked by the presentation of brass and percussion bands as well as folk groups through the streets of Rio Vermelho, in addition to private parties in bars and concert halls.
Salvador resumes festivities in Rio Vermelho and renews devotion to Iemanjá
Salvador resumes festivities in Rio Vermelho and renews devotion to Iemanjá
The celebration this Thursday (2) marks the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the tradition of delivering gifts by fishermen to the Orisha
By João Pedro Pitombo
Feb 2, 2023 at 12:19 pm | Updated: Feb 2, 2023 at 19:16 pm
Salvador — The clock showed 5 am when the fireworks crossed a still dark sky in Rio Vermelho, in Salvador. But the neighborhood's streets and beaches were already crowded with devotees, who took advantage of the first rays of sunlight to leave their offerings to Iemanjá.
The sunrise marked the arrival of the main gift for the Orisha, produced by the temple Ilê Axé Oxumarê. Men and women got together to carry the float on which, under a white cloth, was a basket in blue and white colors filled with flowers and with a sculpture in the shape of a starfish.
Devotees crowd the beaches of Rio Vermelho, in Salvador, on this Iemanjá Day — João Pedro Pitombo/Folhapress
Remaining pics I left out cause you can only have 20 pics per post:
Iemanjá Festival in Salvador, Bahia. Paula Fróes/GOVBA
The sun rises in Salvador with celebrations to Iemanjá, the Queen of the Sea. Paula Fróes/GOVBA
Dressed in white, devotees arrange a gift for Iemanjá. Paula Fróes/GOVBA
Gifts are offered to Iemanjá. Paula Fróes/GOVBA
Celebrations on the day of Iemanjá, the queen of the sea of old Yoruba mythology and one of the most popular deities of Afro-American culture. Lúcio Tavora/GOVBA
Offerings to the sea goddess in Salvador. Lúcio Tavora/AFP
Devotees gather at Rio Vermelho Beach, in Salvador, Bahia. Lúcio Tavora/AFP
Offerings to the sea goddess in Salvador. Lúcio Tavora/AFP
Offerings to the sea goddess in Rio de Janeiro. Marco Antonio Teixeira/UOL
Filhos de Gandhy make their offerings to the sea goddess in Rio de Janeiro. Marco Antonio Teixeira/UOL
Filhos de Gandhy make their offerings to the sea goddess in Rio de Janeiro. Marco Antonio Teixeira/UOL
Bump
I was watching the parades during Carnival earlier this year and one of the presentations touched on this subject:
There is an Eshu underneath the ship: a settlement for the Orisha is located underwater in the All Saints' Bay
A floating book fair — which became involved in controversy after defining Salvador as a city of 'spirits and demons’ — is anchored over the religious site
By Alexandre Lyrio
Posted on November 03, 2019 at 06:06:00
Updated on April 20, 2023 at 11:24:04 AM
Credit: Andre Motta de Lima and Leandro Duran
When the Logos Hope ship left Europe in early October, the crew could not imagine what was waiting for them in the waters of the All Saints' Bay. First of all, very close to where the ship docked, at a depth of about five meters, in the Port of Salvador, lies what religions of African origin call a settlement of Eshu. What even the commander of the floating book fair might not know is that Eshu may not be a saint, but he's still nothing like a demon either.
Standing on a sunken rock in an area that separates Codeba — the Bahia state port authority — from the Ferry Boat, the settlement of Eshu was discovered in an archaeological operation that became the object of study of the Ialorixá, master in ethnic and African studies, doctor in Archeology and underwater archaeologist Luciana de Castro. Author of the book O Exu submerso: uma arqueologia da religião e da diáspora no Brasil, she confirms that the settlement was placed there as a guardian of the Bay, protector of seafarers and merchants of São Joaquim.
For Luciana and for many other priests and members of Candomblé, it was no coincidence that the text posted on the social networks of the Christian organization Operation Mobilisation, responsible for the ship, had such negative repercussions for Logos Hope. Two days before crossing the main maritime access to the land of ashe and docking at the Port of Salvador on October 25, OM Ships made a publication on Facebook in which it stated that the vessel would be heading to a city “known for its people's belief in spirits and demons”. From the first responses on the Internet, the matter ended up in the press and reached the Prosecutor's Office of Bahia, which instituted a procedure to investigate what would be an act of racism and religious intolerance. What an online commenter wrote in response to the publication already suggested that the Orisha would respond. “May Eshu receive you with all his wisdom. And protect us from the Satan you carry inside your hearts”, she wrote.
She might not even know about the existence of the settlement, but, like a good Baiana, she seemed to be aware that this Orisha is the guardian of those waters. Incidentally, according to Luciana, the fact that the message reverberated in the press and stirred up the revolt of the people of Bahia was not just the work of the messenger and master of communication Orisha. The “inhabitant” of the settlement certainly had the illustrious contribution of the queen of the waters and the other members of the pantheon of Orisha in the response to the attack made by the ship.
Luciana teaches us that “Eshu is the son of Yemoja. Water is a great conductor of energy and messages. Therefore word got around. Shango also filed a lawsuit through the Prosecutor's Office. No Orisha is alone”. She believes that “the Bay belongs to All Saints, but it is much more about ‘ashe’ than ‘amen’”. According to her, while crossing the Atlantic, the ship was already suffering the influence of Eshu. She bets that “there is an interconnection between Eshu and Africa. From here until there, everything is Eshu”.
Discovery
Probably installed in the 1970s, that is, after the construction of the Ferry Boat terminal, the underwater Eshu was discovered in an environmental licensing work carried out by the professional seafarer and photographer André Lima, the underwater archaeologist Leandro Duran and the seaman Mario Mukeka.
In 2010, the three were hired to prepare an archaeological report for a project to be carried out by the Port of Salvador. In this operation, Leandro and André came across Eshu. “It was on top of a riprap [a set of stone blocks or other material placed in the water to serve as ballast] similar to this one”, said André Lima, pointing to one of those large rocks used to form a breakwater. “We didn't touch him, did we? We left it as it was there. Because that was the idea, right?”, tells André.
Leandro and André still have doubts about who photographed Eshu, which is why they share the authorship of the image. “At first glance it was quite clear that it wasn't anything simply thrown underwater, but religious equipment that was placed there at the bottom. I also thought that there was some kind of maintenance, because it was taken care of, there was no algae or fouling. It was clean”. The recorded image, very clear, ended up at the Department of Archeology at the Federal University of Sergipe, where Luciana was doing a study and saw the photo by “chance”.
The submerged Eshu would change the life of the archaeologist, a religious daughter of Eshu, who from then on would become a diver and carry out an unprecedented study that mixes archeology and religion. “I'm a daughter of Eshu, and I've never seen anything like it. I had never seen an Eshu in the water before”, said Luciana, wearing a string of red and black beads.
Recommendation
In the report, underwater archaeologist Leandro Duran recommended that the National Institute of Historic and Artistic Heritage (Iphan) consult the Candomblé community to find out the best “management of the artifact”.
“Considering that the proposal was to reclaim the area, the perspective was the possibility of relocating the totem to another suitable underwater space”, said Leandro.
In her book, Luciana suggests that the Eshu settlement may have been reclaimed or sucked into the construction site. “Obviously an Orisha settlement would not be respected, right? Archeology does not define this as an archaeological artifact. Either we reform our idea of heritage, or we will privilege this white and Eurocentric model”.
When contacted, the Port of Salvador reported that it never received a notification from Iphan about the existence of Eshu. Iphan, on the other hand, requested more time to investigate the fact, which would take place on Monday (4). Meanwhile, visitors to the bookstore ship questioned by CORREIO were divided on the subject. “They weren't talking about anyone's religion, but evil spirits. No one talked about religion”, said Baptist missionary José Barbosa.
“I'm an Evangelical, but I don't think it's right for them to talk about other people's religions”, said cashier Jaqueline Oliveira. The fact is the majority had no idea of what an Orisha settlement is. “My grandmother was an Ialorixá”, said credit consultant Alessandra Pimentel, one of the few to have an idea of what a settled Orisha represents.
In a statement published on social networks, the group responsible for the ship apologized and said that the publication was made in Germany, on October 22, but that the text, deleted after the criticism, does not portray the vision of the members of the Logos Hope ship. “What Eshu makes come out of a person's mouth, no one can make them go back on it. What was said was said and it shows who's who”, said Gersonice Brandão, known as Mãe Sinha de Xangô, from Terreiro Casa Branca.
CORREIO sought the ship's coordination and communication advisory services in Brazil, but they preferred not to comment. “I don't know who these people are or why they did this. All religions must be respected”, commented Mãe Cici de Oxalá, from Terreiro Aganju and the Pierre Verger Foundation.
Considered one of the most respected intellectuals in the country, sociologist and writer Muniz Sodré said that the origin of attacks like this one lies precisely in ignorance regarding religions of African origin. “This type of comment is proof of the backwardness. I don't know of any devil worship here in Bahia. I found this offensive, extraordinarily stupid, and I regret that anyone went to visit (the ship). It is ignorance that allows this type of comment”, said Sodré.
Power
Even with the likely reclamation or suction of the settlement, archaeologist Luciana de Castro believes that Eshu does not lose any of its power. “His power is intangible. Exu in his origin is invisible. His power consists in invisibility. It would not change his function. So he continues to protect the All Saints' Bay”, said Luciana, who considers reclaiming the area where Eshu was settled a crime.
But there is hope. Seafarer Mário Mukeka, who participated in that first operation, believes that the reclamation was never carried out. The Eshu, according to Mukeka, would be untouched, in the same place. “From what I saw the other times I passed by, that area was not reclaimed. I think Eshu is still visible”, said Mukeka, willing to carry out a new operation to find him.
Like a good seafarer, Mukeka is full of stories. For this reason, he immediately snitched on archaeologist Leandro Duran, who, impressed by the find, would have tried to please Eshu. “He took candy and guarana to offer to Exu. We didn't let him go down, right? It's better not to bring a present at all than to give the wrong one”, said Mukeka, aware that Eshu is not Cosmas and Damian and what he really likes is farofa made from palm oil, cachaça and cigars.
Collective ebó will protest against intolerance
A group defending religions of African origin will hold a collective ebó tomorrow, at the França Bus Terminal, in front of the Port of Salvador. An ebó is an offering to the Orishas. The act is to repudiate the declaration of the organization responsible for the Logos Hope ship, considered the largest floating bookstore in the world, which docked in Salvador on October 25th. Earlier, the organization asked for prayers and said that Salvador is known for its people's belief “in spirits and demons”.
Named as “the devil was brought by you! Bahia belongs to all Saints, charms and Orishas!”, the protest is scheduled to take place from 10am to 7pm.
The text posted on Facebook by the international organization responsible for the vessel said “pray for a safe boarding and for a two-day sailing direct to Salvador. Pray for protection, strength and wisdom for the crew during the ship's stay in Salvador — a city known for its people's belief in spirits and demons. Pray for the events team as they prepare for a new port and may God be glorified throughout each of the events to come”. The message was then deleted after the backlash.
The collective ebó will be organized by the Makota Valdina National Front. As the front announces, what motivates them is the “determination to fight for the life and dignity of black people and religions of African origin in Brazil”. An ogan at the Ilê Axé Torrun Gunan terreiro and member of the Makota Valdina Front, Eduardo Machado believes that Eshu interfered so that there was a response to the aggression.
“He would never let this injustice go unnoticed. His interference is total. We are going to carry out this political act to confront this intolerance”, he said. “This ship was supposed to bring knowledge. But it violates us with racial prejudice. What we have to face on a daily basis is enough”.
The ogan teaches that religions of African origin are far from worshiping the devil. He warns that “we worship ancestral energy, forces of nature, not demons. Every terreiro has a protective Eshu. So does the All Saints' Bay”.
There is an Eshu underneath the ship: a settlement for the Orisha is located underwater in the All Saints' Bay
There is an Eshu underneath the ship: a settlement for the Orisha is located underwater in the All Saints' Bay
A floating book fair — which became involved in controversy after defining Salvador as a city of 'spirits and demons’ — is anchored over the religious site
By Alexandre Lyrio
Posted on November 03, 2019 at 06:06:00
Updated on April 20, 2023 at 11:24:04 AM
Credit: Andre Motta de Lima and Leandro Duran
When the Logos Hope ship left Europe in early October, the crew could not imagine what was waiting for them in the waters of the All Saints' Bay. First of all, very close to where the ship docked, at a depth of about five meters, in the Port of Salvador, lies what religions of African origin call a settlement of Eshu. What even the commander of the floating book fair might not know is that Eshu may not be a saint, but he's still nothing like a demon either.
Standing on a sunken rock in an area that separates Codeba — the Bahia state port authority — from the Ferry Boat, the settlement of Eshu was discovered in an archaeological operation that became the object of study of the Ialorixá, master in ethnic and African studies, doctor in Archeology and underwater archaeologist Luciana de Castro. Author of the book O Exu submerso: uma arqueologia da religião e da diáspora no Brasil, she confirms that the settlement was placed there as a guardian of the Bay, protector of seafarers and merchants of São Joaquim.
For Luciana and for many other priests and members of Candomblé, it was no coincidence that the text posted on the social networks of the Christian organization Operation Mobilisation, responsible for the ship, had such negative repercussions for Logos Hope. Two days before crossing the main maritime access to the land of ashe and docking at the Port of Salvador on October 25, OM Ships made a publication on Facebook in which it stated that the vessel would be heading to a city “known for its people's belief in spirits and demons”. From the first responses on the Internet, the matter ended up in the press and reached the Prosecutor's Office of Bahia, which instituted a procedure to investigate what would be an act of racism and religious intolerance. What an online commenter wrote in response to the publication already suggested that the Orisha would respond. “May Eshu receive you with all his wisdom. And protect us from the Satan you carry inside your hearts”, she wrote.
She might not even know about the existence of the settlement, but, like a good Baiana, she seemed to be aware that this Orisha is the guardian of those waters. Incidentally, according to Luciana, the fact that the message reverberated in the press and stirred up the revolt of the people of Bahia was not just the work of the messenger and master of communication Orisha. The “inhabitant” of the settlement certainly had the illustrious contribution of the queen of the waters and the other members of the pantheon of Orisha in the response to the attack made by the ship.
Luciana teaches us that “Eshu is the son of Yemoja. Water is a great conductor of energy and messages. Therefore word got around. Shango also filed a lawsuit through the Prosecutor's Office. No Orisha is alone”. She believes that “the Bay belongs to All Saints, but it is much more about ‘ashe’ than ‘amen’”. According to her, while crossing the Atlantic, the ship was already suffering the influence of Eshu. She bets that “there is an interconnection between Eshu and Africa. From here until there, everything is Eshu”.
Discovery
Probably installed in the 1970s, that is, after the construction of the Ferry Boat terminal, the underwater Eshu was discovered in an environmental licensing work carried out by the professional seafarer and photographer André Lima, the underwater archaeologist Leandro Duran and the seaman Mario Mukeka.
In 2010, the three were hired to prepare an archaeological report for a project to be carried out by the Port of Salvador. In this operation, Leandro and André came across Eshu. “It was on top of a riprap [a set of stone blocks or other material placed in the water to serve as ballast] similar to this one”, said André Lima, pointing to one of those large rocks used to form a breakwater. “We didn't touch him, did we? We left it as it was there. Because that was the idea, right?”, tells André.
Leandro and André still have doubts about who photographed Eshu, which is why they share the authorship of the image. “At first glance it was quite clear that it wasn't anything simply thrown underwater, but religious equipment that was placed there at the bottom. I also thought that there was some kind of maintenance, because it was taken care of, there was no algae or fouling. It was clean”. The recorded image, very clear, ended up at the Department of Archeology at the Federal University of Sergipe, where Luciana was doing a study and saw the photo by “chance”.
The submerged Eshu would change the life of the archaeologist, a religious daughter of Eshu, who from then on would become a diver and carry out an unprecedented study that mixes archeology and religion. “I'm a daughter of Eshu, and I've never seen anything like it. I had never seen an Eshu in the water before”, said Luciana, wearing a string of red and black beads.
Recommendation
In the report, underwater archaeologist Leandro Duran recommended that the National Institute of Historic and Artistic Heritage (Iphan) consult the Candomblé community to find out the best “management of the artifact”.
“Considering that the proposal was to reclaim the area, the perspective was the possibility of relocating the totem to another suitable underwater space”, said Leandro.
In her book, Luciana suggests that the Eshu settlement may have been reclaimed or sucked into the construction site. “Obviously an Orisha settlement would not be respected, right? Archeology does not define this as an archaeological artifact. Either we reform our idea of heritage, or we will privilege this white and Eurocentric model”.
When contacted, the Port of Salvador reported that it never received a notification from Iphan about the existence of Eshu. Iphan, on the other hand, requested more time to investigate the fact, which would take place on Monday (4). Meanwhile, visitors to the bookstore ship questioned by CORREIO were divided on the subject. “They weren't talking about anyone's religion, but evil spirits. No one talked about religion”, said Baptist missionary José Barbosa.
“I'm an Evangelical, but I don't think it's right for them to talk about other people's religions”, said cashier Jaqueline Oliveira. The fact is the majority had no idea of what an Orisha settlement is. “My grandmother was an Ialorixá”, said credit consultant Alessandra Pimentel, one of the few to have an idea of what a settled Orisha represents.
In a statement published on social networks, the group responsible for the ship apologized and said that the publication was made in Germany, on October 22, but that the text, deleted after the criticism, does not portray the vision of the members of the Logos Hope ship. “What Eshu makes come out of a person's mouth, no one can make them go back on it. What was said was said and it shows who's who”, said Gersonice Brandão, known as Mãe Sinha de Xangô, from Terreiro Casa Branca.
CORREIO sought the ship's coordination and communication advisory services in Brazil, but they preferred not to comment. “I don't know who these people are or why they did this. All religions must be respected”, commented Mãe Cici de Oxalá, from Terreiro Aganju and the Pierre Verger Foundation.
Considered one of the most respected intellectuals in the country, sociologist and writer Muniz Sodré said that the origin of attacks like this one lies precisely in ignorance regarding religions of African origin. “This type of comment is proof of the backwardness. I don't know of any devil worship here in Bahia. I found this offensive, extraordinarily stupid, and I regret that anyone went to visit (the ship). It is ignorance that allows this type of comment”, said Sodré.
Power
Even with the likely reclamation or suction of the settlement, archaeologist Luciana de Castro believes that Eshu does not lose any of its power. “His power is intangible. Exu in his origin is invisible. His power consists in invisibility. It would not change his function. So he continues to protect the All Saints' Bay”, said Luciana, who considers reclaiming the area where Eshu was settled a crime.
But there is hope. Seafarer Mário Mukeka, who participated in that first operation, believes that the reclamation was never carried out. The Eshu, according to Mukeka, would be untouched, in the same place. “From what I saw the other times I passed by, that area was not reclaimed. I think Eshu is still visible”, said Mukeka, willing to carry out a new operation to find him.
Like a good seafarer, Mukeka is full of stories. For this reason, he immediately snitched on archaeologist Leandro Duran, who, impressed by the find, would have tried to please Eshu. “He took candy and guarana to offer to Exu. We didn't let him go down, right? It's better not to bring a present at all than to give the wrong one”, said Mukeka, aware that Eshu is not Cosmas and Damian and what he really likes is farofa made from palm oil, cachaça and cigars.
Collective ebó will protest against intolerance
A group defending religions of African origin will hold a collective ebó tomorrow, at the França Bus Terminal, in front of the Port of Salvador. An ebó is an offering to the Orishas. The act is to repudiate the declaration of the organization responsible for the Logos Hope ship, considered the largest floating bookstore in the world, which docked in Salvador on October 25th. Earlier, the organization asked for prayers and said that Salvador is known for its people's belief “in spirits and demons”.
Named as “the devil was brought by you! Bahia belongs to all Saints, charms and Orishas!”, the protest is scheduled to take place from 10am to 7pm.
The text posted on Facebook by the international organization responsible for the vessel said “pray for a safe boarding and for a two-day sailing direct to Salvador. Pray for protection, strength and wisdom for the crew during the ship's stay in Salvador — a city known for its people's belief in spirits and demons. Pray for the events team as they prepare for a new port and may God be glorified throughout each of the events to come”. The message was then deleted after the backlash.
The collective ebó will be organized by the Makota Valdina National Front. As the front announces, what motivates them is the “determination to fight for the life and dignity of black people and religions of African origin in Brazil”. An ogan at the Ilê Axé Torrun Gunan terreiro and member of the Makota Valdina Front, Eduardo Machado believes that Eshu interfered so that there was a response to the aggression.
“He would never let this injustice go unnoticed. His interference is total. We are going to carry out this political act to confront this intolerance”, he said. “This ship was supposed to bring knowledge. But it violates us with racial prejudice. What we have to face on a daily basis is enough”.
The ogan teaches that religions of African origin are far from worshiping the devil. He warns that “we worship ancestral energy, forces of nature, not demons. Every terreiro has a protective Eshu. So does the All Saints' Bay”.
There is an Eshu underneath the ship: a settlement for the Orisha is located underwater in the All Saints' Bay