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Eni Achó Iyá Dear Editor, I am writing to you regarding the misinformation and inaccuracies in Ms Latza Nadeau’s article “Pope Francis’s Pilgrimage to a Santería Shrine.” I will begin by saying that although the media often talks about “Santería” as Read more ... a cult, practitioners of the religion consider the word “Santería” to be derogative and condescending. We call it the Lucumi religion, or Regla de Ocha. It is recognized by the U.S. supreme court and Cuba’s Ministry of Religion as a religion in its own right; it is not a “cult.” The definition of cult is "a relatively small group of people having religious beliefs or practices regarded by others as strange or sinister.” We are a very large and widespread religion with millions of worshippers in Africa, Europe and the Americas. Although Ms. Latza Nadeau may think we’re “strange or sinister,” it is not her place to judge us or to label us pejoratively in her news report. Her reliance on words like “magical” and “superstition” in reference to our religion is insulting. Rather than consult someone who practices the religion, she gets her information from unreliable sources who do not understand our religion and who give her a false notion of what it is. Religious “syncretism,” which appears to be the focus of her article, is a complex sociological phenomenon that can’t be reduced to a few slick phrases. While it is certainly true that the Virgen de la Caridad de Cobre is adored by many Cubans, regardless of their religious background, it is ridiculous to call the shrine a “santería shrine.” Catholicism and Regla de Ocha are two separate religions, and practitioners of these religions know very well they are not the same thing. Lucumi practitioners know that Oshún is an orisha, and the Virgen of Charity is a Catholic figure representing the mother of God. Many Cubans leave personal tokens at the shrine, but this is not a santería ritual. If you visit any Catholic church in Latin America, you will see that it is a folk custom, and not unique to Cuba. Certainly, santería worshippers are not the only ones who do this. A more serious concern is that the author confuses Regla de Ocha with "black magic,” which shows complete ignorance on Ms. Latza Nadeau’s part. Her assertions reflect a negative stereotype that has been perpetuated by the foreign media — dark skinned Cubans are portrayed as evil, superstitious and primitive, which reflects the racial bias of the reporters. This attitude can be traced back to colonial times in Cuba when white Europeans expressed fear of being “outnumbered” by blacks who might rise up and revolt against them. To keep “blacks in their place,” they were demonized in the press. Contrary to the reporter’s claim, Orisha worshippers in Cuba did not “hijack” Catholic saints and pray to them. If Ms. Latza Nadeau had done her research, she would have discovered that Lucumi shrines are quite distinct from Catholic ones. It is true that in colonial times some orisha worshippers also kept statues of Catholic saints in the home, but they did not confuse them with the orishas themselves. Anyone who practices Regla de Ocha knows what form the orishas take, and they know they don’t live inside a statue. The art historian interviewed for this article hints at the idea but Ms. Latza Nadeau doesn’t explain it well. The word “Santerios” is totally invented. Wherever Ms. Latza Nadeu heard this word, I can only assume someone was pulling her leg to see how gullible she would be. She mistakenly calls babalawos (Ifa priests) “warlocks,” again trying to link our religion to black magic. Babalawo means the father of the secrets, meaning in this case the secrets of Ifa, our sacred body of knowledge. It is not related in any way to witchcraft. Finally, her conclusion attempting to link Babalu Ayé to the agreement reached by Presidents Obama and Castro makes no sense at all. If she is suggesting this event was brought about by magical means, that’s nonsense. Babalu Ayé is the orisha related to infectious disease, and pilgrims who visit his shrine go in hopes of preventing or curing illness. There is no rational connection between Babalu Ayé and a political agreement reached by heads of state. I suppose this was meant to be a human interest piece, but it is poorly researched, poorly written, and offensive to orisha worshippers. I hope you will tell Ms. Latza Nadeau to stick to stories about Italy, because it’s painfully clear she knows nothing about Cuba.

Marsha Scarbrough Can the orishas heal racial injustice? Before unarmed black men were being killed by police, before Africans were enslaved and brought to the Americas, before Christian missionaries arrived in Africa, African people had been practicing their own rel Read more ... igion for thousands of years. As I watched my city burn in the aftermath of the acquittal of the police who brutalized Rodney King, I wondered if this indigenous spirituality was still alive, and if so, could connecting with it empower African Americans in the face of the racism that plagues their lives? Within a month, I’d met a priest of Ifa, the spiritual tradition of the Yoruba people of what is now Nigeria, and begun to learn about their mythology and healing ceremonies. I studied with this babalawo, who was a healer, diviner, ceremonial leader and master drummer for a decade and a half. Now that I have some knowledge of indigenous African religion, I am convinced that embracing this ancient spiritual tradition could be empowering for African-Americans. Ceremonies invoking the assistance of the archetypal deities known as orishas could be powerful alternatives to rioting. Although Ifa is sometimes wrongly-labeled “voodoo”, in my experience, it is a beautiful tradition that honors Nature and human complexity. It is not black magic. In fact, it is not magic at all. Ifa practitioners are clear that what they do is a focused spiritual practice that creates healing for individuals and communities through the positive vibrations of drumming, dancing and chanting affirmations. In my experience, this practice is entirely joyful and life-affirming. Perhaps giving “voodoo” a bad rap was an intentional tactic designed to help oppress powerful cultures. As with Native Americans, separating African people from their traditional spirituality was an effective technique for controlling them. Without that anchor, people become lost and self-esteem is shattered. Reconnecting with indigenous religion reestablishes ties to ancestral wisdom. Respect for ancient cultural truth can rebuild self-esteem. I see Ifa as a sophisticated blend of quantum physics and Jungian psychology. It’s a healing technology that uses sacred rhythms to realign out-of-harmony energies. Chants, dance and drumming are dynamic affirmations of positive outcomes. The metaphors of Ifa mythology help us identify archetypal energies within ourselves. In this mythology, Oludumare is the energy of creation, perhaps equivalent to the western idea of God. Oludumare is the intelligence above all. It’s not a being. It’s simply energy. Oludumare presides over the orishas, who are intermediaries between humans and Oludumare. Orishas are actual historic persons who have ascended to divine status after their deaths in the distant past, like Catholic saints, but each orisha also embodies universal energy that is identified with a natural element. For example, Oshun, the orisha who represents the energy of love and eroticism, is a beautiful woman, but she is also the river. Each orisha has specific songs, rhythms and dances. Each orisha also has particular colors and favorite offerings. Like gods and goddesses in the ancient Greek pantheon, the orishas’ relationships to each other reflect complex human behaviors including love, lust, anger, violence, adultery and betrayal. Similarities to Greek mythology are striking. Oshun is the equivalent of Aphrodite. Like Hermes, Eshu plays tricks and serves as messenger to the other divinities. Yemoja/Olokun rules the seas like Poseidon. Shango throws thunderbolts and exacts justice like Zeus. These orishas are archetypes. Carl Jung, the founder of analytical psychology, noticed that certain images, symbols and concepts (such as the great mother, the wise old man or the trickster) appear cross-culturally from ancient times to the present. He speculated that these archetypes arise from the collective unconscious and speak to us through our individual dreams and our communal mythologies. Jung wrote that the number of archetypes in limitless. In Ifa there are at least 400 orishas, maybe more. The Ifa practitioners I’ve studied with are clear that the orishas are metaphors for different aspects of human nature, yet orishas are also actual elements of our natural world (such as the river, fire or the ocean). We all have all the orishas within us and Ifa ceremonies allow us to experience their different energies. Similarly, Jung believed archetypes considered together reveal the complexity of the human psyche and experiential encounters with archetypal energies allow us to understand the divine nature of their wisdom. According to my teacher, each orisha is a channel of energy, and ceremony tunes us in to those channels. How could Ifa be used to heal racial injustice? Here’s one possible scenario: As tensions are rising after an inflammatory event, a local babalawo invites the community to a ceremony. When the group has gathered, he invokes the orisha Elegba, the trickster who lives behind our head and pushes us to make mistakes. Elegba whispers in our ear to get us to make bad choices. President Obama called the rioting in Baltimore “counterproductive.” That’s Elegba tricking the community into self-sabotage. However, when we acknowledge Elegba, he comes out in front of our face where we can see him and honor him. Then he becomes the messenger to all the other orishas. That’s why he is always honored first in every ceremony. Next the babalawo asks the orisha Ogun to heal the hearts and minds of the police. Ogun is the orisha of iron and war. Police and soldiers are considered his children. Ogun could take the fatherly role of correcting their behavior, and/or he could use his mighty machete cut through obstacles in the path of African-Americans. Finally, the babalawo calls on Shango, the orisha of fire, thunder and lightning. Shango, a king and a judge, will see that justice is done. Each orisha is honored with pounding drums, wild dancing and affirmative chants. The high-energy ritual continues far into the night. Celebrants leave uplifted, exhausted and comforted by an authentic experience of community. Then the orishas go to work in the unseen world. Far beyond mere superstition, such ceremonies are an intentional focusing of energy (those vibrating electrons described in quantum physics) toward a positive outcome. The larger the group of people simultaneously moving energy toward a single outcome, the faster and stronger the result will be. When the celebrants reflect the diversity of the community, the ritual becomes even more powerful. Ifa followers are not restricted to people of African descent. The practice welcomes all ethnic backgrounds. Let’s dance together for justice and true equality. Marsha Scarbrough’s book, Honey in the River: Shadow, Sex and West African Spirituality, will be published May 29 by Changemakers Books, an imprint of John Hunt Publishing.