The Yoruba Atlantic: Section Index
Guide to the diaspora section, what each file covers, the argument that runs through all of them, and how to read the section in order or by interest.
introhigh·
Loading…
Guide to the diaspora section, what each file covers, the argument that runs through all of them, and how to read the section in order or by interest.
The Yorùbá wey dem quote, the proverbs, oríkì, ẹsẹ Ifá, word list headwords, Odù names and citations dey exactly as the corpus record dem, for every language.
Dis section dey cover Yoruba religion, culture and people across di Atlantic world: Cuba, Brazil, Trinidad and di Caribbean, Benin and Togo, United States, and di return movement back to Lagos and Porto-Novo. E dey bring out di historical and ethnographic evidence for all dis development across di two sides of di Atlantic.
One central thesis dey run through every file, and e make sense to state am for front because e reverse di normal picture wey people dey get.
Di Yoruba Atlantic no be just one-way survival of Africa inside di Americas. E be two-way circulation. Lagos, Bahia and Havana dey inside continuous contact throughout di nineteenth and twentieth centuries, through returnee merchants, priests and travellers wey travel back and forth freely many times after slave trade end. Diaspora practitioners actively shape wetin people dey regard as authentic inside Nigeria itself, and some of wetin Bahia dey treat as dia deepest ancestral inheritance come from Lagos inside di twentieth century. Na dat one be J. Lorand Matory argument, and file 02 bring am out alongside di older Herskovits-versus-Frazier survivals debate wey e replace, plus di objections against am.
Di second theme wey dey repeat na say di diaspora traditions hold body well on dia own terms. Dem no be downgraded copies of Nigerian original, and Nigerian practice no be one frozen source. Di two of dem move through di same two centuries.
Di third one na carefulness about attribution. Plenty things wey people dey call Yoruba inside di Atlantic world na African things wey no be strictly Yoruba, and file 10 give di method to know di difference.
[01] Di Atlantic Passage and Why E Be Yoruba Specifically (diaspora-atlantic-passage)
Why Yoruba religion dey very visible inside di Americas, and why di answer na timing instead of numbers. Di figures according to destination and wetin dem fit support, di four mechanisms wey make late concentrated arrival produce institutions instead of just pieces, and di uneven map wey come out. E cross-reference 03-history for di wars demselves.
[02] Di Two-Way Atlantic: Matory, di Survivals Debate, and Who Dey Decide Wetin Be Authentic (diaspora-two-way-atlantic)
Di Herskovits and Frazier debate and how people take pass am, Matory thesis in detail, how Lagosian Cultural Renaissance reach Bahia, Nagô purity as constructed claim, Martiniano do Bonfim, and di objections from Parés, from practitioners, and about scope. Na dis be di section intellectual backbone.
[03] Cuba: Regla de Ocha, Lucumí, and Wetin Dem Dey Call Santería (diaspora-cuba-lucumi)
Di cabildos de nación and di shift to casa-templo, di founding generation wey include Adéshiná, Latuán and Efunché, di oricha, Lucumí as liturgical register and di debate about im linguistic status, kariocha and di one year in white, Ifá and di babalawo, diloggún, di four scholarly positions on top Catholic saint correspondences, why Palo and Abakuá no be Santería, and di post-1959 and Mariel dispersal.
[04] Brazil: Candomblé, di Nations, and di Terreiros (diaspora-brazil-candomble)
Why Ketu, Jeje and Angola no be just classification system but politics, di founding of Casa Branca, Gantois and Ilê Axé Opô Afonjá and di women wey lead dem, axé and di structure of terreiro, di regional variants from Xangô for Pernambuco to Batuque for Rio Grande do Sul, Umbanda as distinct twentieth-century formation, and di current evangelical violence along with di figures.
[05] Trinidad and di Wider Caribbean (diaspora-trinidad-caribbean)
How Trinidad Orisha take start from free African immigration after slavery end instead of slavery itself, di connection with Spiritual Baptist and di 1917 to 1951 Shouters ban plus correction of di common mistake people dey make about am, di Nago rite inside Haitian Vodou wey dem explain without turning Vodou to Yoruba religion, and Jamaica, Grenada, Puerto Rico and Venezuela.
[06] Benin and Togo: Fa, Vodún, and di Ketu Corridor (diaspora-benin-togo)
Vodún as dem describe am on im own terms with im own pantheon structure, wetin Fa and Ifá share and where dem separate, di destruction of Kétu inside 1886 and di corridor wey give Brazilian Ketu nation name, and di correction of di common error wey dey treat Vodún like say na Yoruba religion dem just change name.
[07] United States: Cuban Transmission, Oyotunji, and di Law (diaspora-united-states)
Why US practice na twentieth-century import instead of survival, di Mariel transmission, Oba Oseijeman Adefunmi and Oyotunji African Village, di special politics of African American reclamation, di 1993 Church of the Lukumi Babalu Aye v. City of Hialeah court decision and exactly wetin e establish inside constitutional law, and di contemporary landscape.
[08] Return Circulation: Agudas, Pilgrimage, and Diaspora Demand (diaspora-return-circulation)
Di Agùdà and Amaro returnees, di Brazilian Quarter and di architecture of Lagos, Martiniano do Bonfim and Pierre Verger as people wey carry di circulation, how dem install Wande Abimbola as Àwísẹ Awo Àgbáyé inside 1981, and how diaspora demand dey shape Nigerian practice and im economy today.
[09] Comparative Reference: Orisa Across Nigeria, Cuba, Brazil and Trinidad (diaspora-comparative-orisa)
One side-by-side table of names, domains and saint correspondences, wey start with di reasons why e fit mislead and follow with case-by-case explanation of where di comparison scatter: Yemọja and di sea, Èṣù and Exu, di three different fates of Ifá, Ṣàngó and Santa Bárbara, di Nigerian figures wey no travel, and di diaspora figures wey no be Nigerian.
[10] Yoruba Retentions inside Atlantic Culture (diaspora-retentions)
Di four tests wey dey separate clear retention from ordinary resemblance, as dem apply am to music, food, language and aesthetics. Batá drums and acarajé as strong examples, di pan-African substitution mistake, Turner findings on top Gullah as corrective, Thompson contribution and im methodological problems, and di Kongo and Fon contributions wey Yoruba-centrism wipe out.
[11] Òrìṣà Devotion as a World Religion (diaspora-world-religion)
How e spread round di world today, di five structural reasons why pesin no fit trust di number of practitioners, wetin World Orisa Congress achieve and wetin e no achieve, di drag on top authority between Nigerian, Cuban and American practitioners including di ìyánífá question, re-Africanization, plus di problem of commercialization and online initiation.
Follow di order. File 01 and 02 first, in dat sequence, before you read di rest for any order. Every oda thing depend on di foundation wey dat two don lay down.
If na di traditions you dey find. 03 Cuba, 04 Brazil, 05 Trinidad and the Caribbean, 06 Benin and Togo, 07 the United States, then 09 comparative.
If na di argument you want. 02, then 08 return circulation, then 11 world religion. Dis na di main historiographical line.
If you wan check claim wey you read somewhere. 10 retentions dey give you di method, and 09 comparative go give you di caution for how to map am. Both of dem together go handle most of di overclaiming wey people dey do.
If you be Yoruba and dis thing na new thing to you. 01, then 03 or 04 depending on wetin interest you pass, then 08. File 08 na di one wey go change how you dey look di relationship between Lagos and di diaspora pass.
Di wars, di history inside Yoruba land, and how di slave trade take happen directly dey inside 03-history, especially "The Atlantic Slave Trade and the Yoruba" and "The Nineteenth Century Wars." Di òrìṣà inside dia Nigerian form dey inside 06-orisa. Di structure of Ifá, di Odù and di whole corpus dey inside 05-ifa. Di theology of àṣẹ, orí and destiny dey inside 04-cosmology. Dis section dey cover di Atlantic dimension, and e dey refer to those ones instead of to repeat dem.
Every file get Sources block wey carry inline markers. Dem mark plenty files as confidence: contested or medium, and dem give di reasons inside one note for di end of those files. Contested no mean say pesin no fit trust am; wetin e mean na say specialists no agree, and di file call out di different positions instead of trying to smoothen di disagreement.
Where claim stand on practitioner lineage tradition instead of documentary evidence, di files talk am. Where source na old material wey dem write from inside colonial racial science, especially Nina Rodrigues and di early Fernando Ortiz, di files label am like dat and explain why dem still cite am.
Why Yoruba religion is so visible in the Americas, why the answer is timing rather than numbers, and how a late arrival into two late-abolishing societies produced unusually intact institutional transmission.
Why the Yoruba Atlantic was a circulation rather than a one-way survival, how the Herskovits and Frazier debate was superseded, and how diaspora practitioners helped decide what counts as authentic in Nigeria itself.
How the collapse of Ọ̀yọ́ and the wars that followed fed the last decades of the Atlantic trade, why so many Yoruba ended up in Cuba and Brazil, and what returned.
The history and structure of Yoruba-derived religion in Cuba, from the cabildos de nación to the modern casa-templo, including initiation, Ifá, diloggún, the saint correspondences and the traditions it is wrongly conflated with.
The history and structure of Candomblé in Brazil, why the nations matter, the great Bahian terreiros and the women who led them, the regional variants, Umbanda as a distinct formation, and the current situation under evangelical pressure.
Trinidad Orisha and its Spiritual Baptist entanglement, the Nago rite within Haitian Vodou stated without collapsing Vodou into Yoruba religion, and the smaller and thinner Yoruba presences in Jamaica, Grenada, Puerto Rico and Venezuela.