The United States: Cuban Transmission, Oyotunji, and the Law
How orisa religion reached the United States through Cuban migration, how African Americans reclaimed it as a nationalist project at Oyotunji and elsewhere, what the 1993 Hialeah ruling established in constitutional law, and the shape of the contemporary US practitioner landscape.
Òrìṣà religion for United States no be wetin survive from slave trade time. Mainland North America receive roughly 4 to 5 percent of di Atlantic trade, most of am happen before di nineteenth-century Yoruba surge, and everything legally stop for 1808, so no institutional Yoruba tradition dey to inherit. Wetin dey US today enter during twentieth century through two ways wey clear to separate: Cuban migration, wey bring di institution, and African American religious nationalism, wey claim am and come start to change am .
Di tension between dis two ways don produce di legal case wey get weight pass for di field and di authenticity dispute wey dem drag pass for di Atlantic world, and we describe di two of dem below.
The Cuban transmission
Cuban practitioners dey United States before di Revolution. Individual babalawos reach New York from di 1940s, and di first person wey dem remember na Pancho Mora, wey arrive between roughly 1946 and 1950 .
Di 1959 Revolution start di first major exile, though dat group na mostly middle-class people and dem face Catholic side more. Di main event wey change everything na di Mariel boatlift of 1980, where roughly 125,000 people leave Cuba go south Florida within about six months . Dat population dey different: dem poor pass, dem black pass, and dem get plenty santeros, babalawos and ritual drummers wey open houses for Miami, New York and New Jersey . Known batá drummers wey arrive for dat wave, including Orlando "Puntilla" Ríos, Juan "el Negro" Raymat and Ezequiel Torres, change di shape of ritual drumming for US and train di next generation .
Puerto Rican and Nuyorican practitioners na di second big group, as dem do initiation enter Cuban lineages and develop santerismo, wey be di practical combination of oricha practice with Puerto Rican espiritismo, wey be big New York tradition on its own.
Di result na say di main form of òrìṣà religion for United States na Cuban Lucumí, for Spanish and Lucumí, with Cuban lineage, Cuban ritual protocol and Cuban authority structures.
Oyotunji and African American reclamation
Di other way start with one person.
Dem born Walter Eugene King for Detroit for 1928, and im parents na followers of Marcus Garvey . E enter African religion through Black nationalist and Pan-Africanist movements of di 1950s, through dance and study instead of family inheritance. For 1959 e travel go Matanzas, Cuba, where dem initiate am enter di priesthood of Obatalá, and na so e become di first African American wey dem initiate for dat lineage . E take di name Oseijeman Adefunmi.
E start Shango Temple for Harlem for 1959 and di Yoruba Temple for 1960 . For 1970 e start Oyotunji African Village near Sheldon for Beaufort County, South Carolina, wey be di first Black nationalist settlement wey African American òrìṣà worshippers build . Di name mean say Ọ̀yọ́ wake up again. Di first population wey be five people, Adefunmi, im wife Majile and three children, grow reach about 250 residents within dat decade, and for 1972 supporters crown am as oba, king . E travel go Nigeria and for 1981 Yoruba authorities install am to recognize im kingship. E die for 2005 and im son, Oba Adejuyigbe Adefunmi II, take over from am.
Adefunmi project dey clear say na reconstruction, no be continuation of di Cuban lineage wey e enter. Im and other African Americans of dat period change their name to Yoruba and begin transform Cuban Santería into religious expression wey match their racial and nationalist commitments . In practical terms, dat one mean say dem remove di Catholic saints, wey dem see as wetin slave owners force put; go Nigeria instead of Cuba for authority; adopt Yoruba dressing, names, language study and titles; build back Ọ̀yọ́-style court with oba and chiefs; and build physical African village on American soil to claim territory.
Tracey Hucks book Yoruba Traditions and African American Religious Nationalism na di standard history, wey put Oyotunji inside di longer story of how African Americans take re-understand Africa and Black cultural nationalism . Kamari Clarke book Mapping Yorùbá Networks na di standard ethnography, based on ten years of fieldwork for Oyotunji and pilgrimages go Nigeria, and di main thing wey e find na about authenticity: Oyotunji heritage travellers dey often return from Nigeria with strong belief say dem, pass even Nigerian Yoruba people, na di true owners of di ancestral history of Ọ̀yọ́ empire .
Dat claim fit look like say dem dey too forward, but e make sense to understand why dem make am, no be just say dem make am. Wetin Oyotunji people believe na say Christianity, Islam and colonialism don dilute Nigerian Yoruba practice, say Nigerian people dey often feel ashamed of traditional religion, and say African Americans wey choose òrìṣà religion with sacrifice, against wetin American society want, na dem actually dey carry am. Whether person agree with am or not, na argument wey connect well, and dem no make am out of ignorance about Nigeria. Dem make am after dem don visit.
Di population of Oyotunji don drop well well from how e take high before, and now e dey inside dozens, but di power of im influence big pass im size by far. E train priests wey start houses across United States, e establish di ideological vocabulary of di African American òrìṣà movement, and e make am possible to think say person fit break away from Cuban authority.
Di wider African American reclamation movement don grow pass Oyotunji and e no too dey unified like before. Di special politics wey dey inside still remain: dem dey see òrìṣà religion as way to claim back ancestor tradition and as resistance against Christianity wey dem understand as religion of slavery; dem prefer Nigerian authority pass Cuban authority; dem reject di Catholic layer; dem get strong interest for Yoruba language; and dem get documented wahala with Cuban and Cuban-American practitioners over lineage validity, ritual correctness, and who get right to talk for di tradition. Di account wey Brown write about Cuban Ocha clearly include Oyotunji as case study of di same innovation dynamics wey dey visible for Cuba, and e note say dis patterns resemble wetin dey happen among rival Yoruba kingdoms for Nigeria . Dat kind framing help well well: di American disputes no be diaspora aberration, but na di normal way Yoruba religious field dey work.
Church of the Lukumi Babalu Aye v. City of Hialeah (1993)
Dis na di most important legal decision wey affect African-derived religion for United States and na one of di free exercise cases wey dem cite pass for modern era.
The facts. Ernesto Pichardo start di Church of the Lukumi Babalu Aye for 1973, and for April 1987 e rent property for Hialeah, Florida, with mind to practise openly, including animal sacrifice . Sacrifice no be just by-the-way tin for Lucumí practice; initiation and most major ceremonies dey require am, and normally dem dey chop di animals after di sacrifice.
The ordinances. Hialeah city council hold emergency meeting for 9 June 1987, where council members show open hostility to di religion, and den pass three laws (ordinances) wey make am criminal offense to kill animal for ritual or ceremonial context, while dem exempt kosher slaughter, hunting, pest control, euthanasia, and normal slaughter of animals for food .
Procedural history. Di district court support di ordinances after trial for 1989, and di Eleventh Circuit agree unanimously for 1991 . Di Supreme Court agree to hear di case (grant certiorari) for 1992, and Douglas Laycock argue di case for di church .
The decision. For 11 June 1993 di Supreme Court overturn di judgment unanimously, even though di judges divide on di reasons dem give . Justice Kennedy majority opinion hold say di ordinances break di Free Exercise Clause. E point out wetin e call "religious gerrymander": laws wey dem write so dat, even though e look neutral for face, for practice na only religiously motivated killing e touch, while e exempt every comparable secular killing . Law wey no neutral and wey no apply generally must serve compelling government interest and must be narrowly tailored, and Hialeah ordinances fail dat test, because at di same time e underinclusive (e touch only religious sacrifice) and overinclusive (e put burdens wey no connect to di stated objectives of public health and animal welfare) . Kennedy write say religious beliefs "need not be acceptable, logical, consistent or comprehensible to others in order to merit First Amendment protection"
Concurrences. Scalia, with Rehnquist, defend di Employment Division v. Smith framework. Souter talk say Smith need reconsideration. Blackmun, with O'Connor, agree with di judgment but state say e consider Smith wrongly decided .
What it established. Smith (1990) bin hold say neutral laws wey apply generally no dey violate free exercise even if dem put burden on religious practice. Lukumi come set di boundary: law wey target religious conduct, whether direct-direct or through pattern of exemptions wey make only religion remain affected, no be neutral and e no apply generally, so e must face strict scrutiny . Since dat time, dem don use dis doctrine well beyond Afro-Caribbean religion, including for cases about worship restriction during COVID time and for disputes about exemption schemes generally, and now na one of di standard tools to challenge any law wey its exemptions look selective.
Di result for practitioners clear well well: dem no fit pick out sacrifice wey person do as part of religious practice make dem ban am. Local harassment continue for different ways, but di constitutional question don settle.
The contemporary landscape
Òrìṣà religion for United States today genuinely plural and e no get central authority, and e good make person talk am plain because different bodies dey claim otherwise.
Di Cuban and Cuban-American Lucumí houses, wey concentrate pass for Miami, New York, New Jersey and wey dey spread more and more across di south and west, still remain di largest and most institutionally continuous stream, dey operate for Spanish and Lucumí with Cuban lineage.
Di African American traditionalist stream, wey come from Oyotunji and from later direct-to-Nigeria initiations, dey operate for English and Yoruba, dey reject di Catholic layer, and dey look up to Nigerian authority instead of Cuban authority.
One growing direct-Nigerian stream consist of Nigerian babaláwo and òrìṣà priests wey dey resident for United States, and of Americans wey dey travel go Nigeria for initiation, wey don turn substantial traffic with its own economics.
Puerto Rican and Nuyorican santerismo continue as its own formation.
And plenty people dey for di outside boundary wey dey consult, receive elekes, attend drummings and identify with òrìṣà religion without initiation, and na dem form di majority of any headcount.
Numbers no reliable because of di reasons wey dem give for di world religion file: no registers, private initiation, dual religious identification, and interested parties on all sides. Figures wey dey range from hundreds of thousands to low millions dey circulate for United States, and none of dem get defensible method behind am. Wetin person fit talk na say di practising community big reach to sustain commercial infrastructure of botánicas, drummers, ritual suppliers, and initiation travel, and say e no be predominantly Cuban again.
Two friction dey define dis present period. Di first one na di authority dispute between Cuban lineage and Nigerian lineage, where each side dey hold ceremonies wey di other side perform to be defective for specific ways, especially on top Ifá initiation for women. Di second one na commercialisation, including paid initiations wey get uncertain provenance and di problem of online initiation, wey dem discuss both of dem for di final file of dis section.