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Forum nameOkay Activist Archives
Topic subjectRE: Ifa, Voodou, Santeria, etc.
Topic URLhttp://board.okayplayer.com/okp.php?az=show_topic&forum=22&topic_id=23379&mesg_id=23383
23383, RE: Ifa, Voodou, Santeria, etc.
Posted by odu, Wed Jul-19-00 07:08 AM
Your reply was dope, but a little misguided.

"Santeria", rightly called Regla de Ocha or Lucumi, is the Caribbean variant of Ifa, which is the indigenous religion of Yoruba-speaking people in West Africa. It is primarily practiced/exported from Cuba, where there is a large Yoruba-descended population. Another South American variant, "Candomble", is practiced in Brazil, Uruguay and a couple of other countries. There is also Shango in Trinidad. All of these (and some other, less-centralized faiths in places like the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Antigua etc.) are descended from Ifa.

Vodun is ANOTHER religion which shares many features and philosophies with Ifa, but it comes from a neighboring ethnic group (the Aja/Fon) . The words "Vodun" and "loa" mean something along the lines of "diety" in the Fon language, as does "Orisha" in Yoruba. They even share some of the same deities, but they are not the same religion. The Fon were exported in large numbers to Hispanolia (Haiti and the Dominican Republic), so this is where you find that faith heavily represented. There's also "Hoodoo" in New Orleans, which is related to Vodun, though it concentrates on folk medicine and traditional healing and not on spirituality. You may also find references to Palo, which is the indigenous faith of the Congolese.

Hope I helped.