Although in Nigeria the Yorubas worship over 600 orishas, in the New World their numbers have dwindled to a little over twenty. The diminishing numbers of orishas do not indicate a lessening in their worship. On the contrary, more people believe in the orishas’ power in the Western hemisphere than in Yorubaland. The reason why fewer orishas are worshiped in the New World is that in Nigeria nearly every village or town worships its own personal orisha. For example, Obatali was originally from the holy city of Ífe, Changó was from Oyo, Oggún from Ife, Oshún from Oshogbo, Elegguá or Eshu from Ketu, and Yemayá from Abeokuta. During the slave trade only some of the Yoruba villages were raided and their inhabitants brought to the Americas. The orishas they worshipped became part of the Orisha Tradition in the New World.

Note: There are different spellings in different countries. For a comparison of spellings, please see the section below.

When the various Yoruba families intermingled during exile, people began to worship various orishas. In some Instances, as with the orisha Ochosi, the divine hunter, an entire village with its corresponding orisha was brought over to the Americas. This ended the worship of that particular orisha in Nigeria, where no one remained who was familiar with his mysteries and his rites. But In Cuba and Brazil, the cult of Ochosi Is very powerful.

The tales narrated in this book are a compilation of some of the legends of the orishas in the Cuban tradition of Santería. Most of them can be traced to Yoruba sources, but some are of purely Cuban origins. There seems to have been a fusion not only of the Yoruba myths with the Spanish and Christian beliefs, but also with the legends of other African groups in the New World. This resulted in a new group of tales recounting the creation of the world and the orisha. The tales presented in this book have been arranged so as to unfold Yoruba creation stories and the lives and adventures of the orishas, emphasizing their Intensely human qualities and the interrelationships among themselves.

The Pantheon

Olodumare

God, the creative force of the universe

Olorún-Olofi

Man’s personal god

Obatalá

The first created orisha, a symbol of peace and purity; he controls the mind and all thought; the head, the bones of the body and all white sub­ stances are his; he is the father of the orishas and of mankind; he has dozens of aspects, and in each aspect he has a different name; In some of these aspects he adopts a female form; his color is white and his number is eight. He’s known as King of the White Cloth.

Orunla

The diviner among the orishas and a symbol of great wisdom; he is one of the most powerful of the orishas and is implicitly trusted by Olofi himself; he is the patron of the babalawo, the high priest of the Yorubas; his colors are green and yellow; no specific number is assigned to him.

Olokún

The original owner of the earth ; she or he, for this is an androgynous deity, Is said to be an aspect of Yemayá, the sea goddess; Olokún represents the depths of the ocean and is sometimes identified with a mermaid or a merman. So awesome is his power that his followers invoke him only rarely; his colors are blue or blue-green and white; no specific number is assigned to him.

Elegguá

He is the first orisha to be honored in all cere­monies; he Is also known as Eshu, Elegba and Elegbara; Elegguá is the owner of the crossroads and is also said to stand In comers to watch every­ thing that goes on; he is often personified as a mischievous little boy; he is the messenger of the gods and a trickster who tests men’s will by caus­ing trouble; he is justice personified and hates evildoers; his punishment of evil is swift and characteristic of his personality; Elegguá is identified with fate and is often propitiated with candies, which he loves; he has twenty-one aspects and his colors are red and black or black and white; his number is three and his day is Monday.

Oggún

The god of war and of metals; he is a powerful warrior who also provides employment and pro­tection against wounds and all types of surgery; he is said to be responsible for car and railroad acci­dents where blood is shed; his colors are green and black and his numbers are three and seven.

Ochosi

The divine hunter; he often walks with Oggun and is identified with all wildlife and with hunters; his colors are blue and yellow and his numbers are three and seven.

Changó

One of the most popular and powerful of the orishas; he is the symbol of fire, thunder, and lightning, and Is one of the greatest warriors of the Yoruba pantheon; Changó represents lust and  passion and control over enemies and obstacles; he is swift in anger and protects his followers fiercely against attack; his colors are red and white and his numbers are six and four.

Aganyú

The patron of volcanoes, he is said to melt stones with his breath; he is Changó’s father; his colors are red and green and his number is six.

Babalú-Ayé

He is also known as Sonponno, Chankpanna and Omolú; he is the patron of skin diseases, especially smallpox, and of paraplegics; he is very powerful and confers good health, wealth and prosperity to his followers; in anger he is swift and terrible; his colors are lavender, black and beige; he dresses in sackcloth and in beggar’s rags and walks with crutches; his number is seventeen.

Orisha-Oko

The symbol of agriculture and of the harvest; he also symbolizes prosperity and stability; his colors are pink and blue; there are no numbers assigned to him.

lbeyi

The heavenly twins; in some legends, the lbeyi are Changó’s children by the goddess Oshún; they are represented as very young children and are the symbol of fertility and the duality of human nature; they are propitiated with twin dishes of candies; no special colors or numbers are attributed to them.

Yemayá

The symbol of motherhood and a representation of sea waters; she is the protector of women and according to some legends, adopted Changó and raised him as her own son; she is austere and immensely wealthy, with all the riches of the seven seas; she has seven aspects and her colors are blue and white; her number is seven.

Oshún

The symbol of love, gold, and marriage, and the patron of river waters; she is also a protector of the arts, especially of the dance; her colors are white and yellow and her number is five.

Oyá

A symbol of the wind and of the lightning bolt; she is also the keeper of the entrance to the cemetery and the guardian of the gates of death; her color is wine and flowery designs are also hers; her number is nine.

Obbá

Changó’s wife and the patron of life; another river deity, she is a symbol of the river that bears her name; her color is pink; there are no numbers assigned to her.

Odduduá

A female aspect of Obatalá and a symbol of maternity; in some legends she is the wife of Obatalá.

 

Glossary of terms

àse

Yoruba word for the power to make things happen, command, or potentiality. Variants include: axe, aché, and ashe.

bata drums

Hourglass-shaped drums with membrane on each end. Set of four used in Nigeria, set of three in Cuba, to form a family of voices. The gods and goddesses sound within the. Strongly associated with the thunder god Shangó. Anyàn, deity of the drums, presides over their playing.

caboclo

Spirits of Native Americans of the interior (the rain forests of South America) worshipped as part of the Afro-Brazilian Umbanda religion. Frequently shown with bow-and-arrow or feathered headdress.

candomblé

Afro-Brazilian religious group

dikenga

Kongo chart of the voyage of the soul­—birth, flowering, fading, return (dawn, noon, sunset, midnight). Represented as a cross within a circle or a diamond. The vertical axis is the   power  line that connects God with the dead below, the horizontal axis is the kalunga line, the water boundary between the living and dead. A turning point, or crossroads.

firmas

Richly elaborated emblems, Kongo-Cuban “signatures or maps of the  spirit.” Chalked on the floor and on initiates, or embroidered on flags and kerchiefs.

Kongo

Major central African group (about 40% of the ten million people taken from Africa in the Atlantic slave trade were from Kongo­-influenced areas).

Lucero

Spirit of the morning/evening star (human soul often equated with the star of a spirit), assistant to Sarabanda in Afro-Cuban Palo Monte religion. Guardian of spiritual crossroads.

Mande

An ancient civilization based In southern Mall, Ghana, and the Ivory Coast in West Africa.

mayombero

Priest, in Cuban-Kongo religion.

mazos

Multi-stranded bead device or necklace, coded by color and design.

maroons

Self-liberated slaves in Suriname who fought for and won their freedom in the 1760s, and created own civilizations in rain forests of northern South America. Three most important civilizations are the Saamaka, Ndjuká, and Aluku.

nganga

Kongo ritual expert.

nkisi

“Animate medicine of god,” teaching, philosophy. Portable miniature tomb (the tomb being a potent crossroad between the world of the living and the power-filled world of the  dead) consisting of container or package filled with earths to embed the spirits, and other objects that act as material ideographs to admonish or praise the spirits. A key element of Kongo and Kongo-influenced religious practice. Plural minkisi.

nkondi

Famous Kongo blade-images that are studded with thorns, wedges, nails, and blades, and used for oath-taking, protection, and healing. Each blade or nail represents an issue or lawsuit.

orisha

Yoruba term for deity.

pretos velhos

“Old blacks,” spirits of Africans who brought and kept alive African traditions in Brazil.

Regla de Mayombé

Kongo-Cuban form of worship; “regla” means royalty, Yombe is a northern Kongo group. Many of the 19th-century African­ Cuban guerillas who battled Spanish colonialism were members of the Regla de Mayombé.

Santería

Yoruba-Cuban religion

Sarabanda

Considered to be the spirit of a powerful railroad worker (“the John Henry of Cuba”). A form of Kongo altar dedicated to Sarabanda is found in the Afro-Cuban religion of Palo Monte.

sévi lwa

Commonly  known  as  voudou or vodun. The national  religion  of  Haiti, it combines the worship of a pantheon of deities under one supreme creator (as found in Dahomey and among the Yoruba of Nigeria) with the (Kongo-influenced) belief in the transcendental power of ancestral  spirits and the efficacy of medicinal packages (nkisi). Both deities and spirits are identified with attributes of Catholic saints whose histories and powers seem parallel. Two branches are the Petro-Lemba, strongly influenced by Kongo/Angola beliefs, and the Rada, reflecting Dahomey/ Yorubaland traditions.

sopera

Tureen containing sacred stones, a hallmark of Afro-Cuban worship.

tronos

Altars of enthronement and initiation. Frequently combines cloths of heaven, canopies, and proscenium-stage design in lavish altar treatment.

vodun

See sévi lwa.

Umbanda

The largest African-influenced religion in Brazil. It combines elements ofYoruba and Kongo worship-with Catholic  and Amerindian powers, medicines, and practices. Stresses charity and mental healing.

Yoruba

Group based in West African region (from Nigeria to Benin and Togo). One of sub-Saharan Africa’s most populous groups numbering some sixteen million. Renowned for their complex urban culture and prolific sculptural tradition.

Spellings in Different Countries

	Nigeria/Benin	Brazil	Cuba	Attributes
deity	orisha	orixa	oricha
commitment, contingency, fate, messenger	Eshù-Elégba	Exu	Echú, Eleguá	black and red, night and fire, cinnabar, threshholds and crossroads, clay pillars, trickster who takes many forms
war, iron	Ogún	Ogum	Ogún	green or indigo, iron implements, martial connection to St. George and St. Jacques, ion keys to heaven equates with St. Peter
ocean, waters, abundance	Yemoja	Yemanjá	Yemayá	blue and white, transparency, river stones, silver, pewter, 10 children, large-breasted, daughter of Olókùn, mother of Oshumare, loves perfume, combs, and mirrors
sweet, water, love, beauty	Oshun	Oxum	Ochún	yellow/gold, honey and sweets, brass, porcelain, carries staff of power, female leopard, loves perfume and yellow flowers
whirlwind, sudden death	Oya	Oya Yansan	Oya Yansá	maroon, uplifted buffalo horns, copper, wife of thunder god Shangó (first husband iron god Ogún), goddess of river Niger
thunder, lightning, terror as moral intimidation	Shangó	Xango	Changó	red & white, double-headed ax, thunder stones, thunder rattle, bata drums, crocodile and dog, calabashes, wood, originally 4th king of the Yorubas, identified w/ brave St. Barbara whose assassins were struck down by lightning
gentle sister of Shangó	Dàda-Bàyònni	Dada-Bayonni	Dadá Obañeñe	cowrie-studded crown, long thick curly hair, dreadlocks, money, kindness—lover of peace, children, beauty, decoration
twins	ibéjì	ibeji, mabasa	ibeyi	white striped with blue, protectors of children, offerings of candy and toys, identified with twin saints Cosimo and Damian
mother of smallpox, victory	Nana Bukúu	Nana	Nana Buruku	grey, straw and seed, snakes, mother of Obaluaiye
epidemic, smallpox	Obaluaiye	Omo-Olu	Babalu Ayé, Omo-Olú	speckled, spotted, perforated objects; broom, sesame seeds, popcorn, thorns and cacti, uses lame master of a host of frightening diseases that he uses for moralizing purposes, identified with St. Lazarus (stricken with leprosy)
healing	Osanyin	Osanyin	Osaìn	bird-topped, wrought iron staffs
gods of creativity and justice	Oshanlá	Oxala	Ochanlà	all four are avatars of Obatálá, share his white attributes
item	Oshagiyan	Oxaguiam	Ocha Guiña	warrior with handsome beard, king of Ejigbo
item	Oshalufon	Oxalufom	Ocha Lufón	white metal staff, king of Ifon
item	Orisha Oko	Orixa Oko	Oricha Oko	red and white, steel staff with male symbol at top/female at bottom
creativity, purity, honesty	Obatálá	Obatala	Obatalá	white, flawless purity, ivory, white beads/cloth/metal, many avatars, 4 warriors protect him—Eshù, Ogún, Oshóòsi, and Osanyín, identified with Jesus
rainbow, wealth	Oshumare	Oxumare	Ochumare	rainbow of colors, serpent, identified with St. Patrick
hunting	Oshóòsi	Oxossi	Ochosi	forest green or turquoise, bow and arrow
moral inquisition	Egúngún	Egun	Egún	multi-colored masker, “technicolor cyclone,” immortalizes important dead, 9th child of Oya (father possibly a patas monkey)
divination	Orunmila	Orunmila	Orula	atlernating green and yellow or blue and tan
supreme god	Olodumare	Olodumare	Olodumare
god of the sea	Olókùn	Olokun	Olokun	blue and white, corals, producer of hurricanes and tidal waves
deity of drums	Anyàn	Anyàn
power to make things happen, command	àse	axe	aché