The Yoruba are most likely the most well-known West African ethnic group in the world due to their vast population in West Africa and broad dispersion through enslavement in the Americas.[1]
The Republic of Benin and Nigeria contain the highest concentrations of Yoruba people and Yoruba faiths in all of Africa. Brazil, Cuba, Haiti, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago are the countries in the Americas where Yoruba cultural influences are the most noticeable, particularly in popular religions like Vodon, Santéria, Camdomblé, and Macumba. (In 1989, it was believed that more than 70 million individuals in Africa and the New World participated in Yoruba religion in one way or another.)[2] The most prevalent West African religions, both in Africa and the Americas, are likely those of the Yoruba people or those that were influenced by them. These West African faiths may also have the most intricate theologies. For instance, the Yoruba are thought to have a pantheon of up to 6,000 deities.[3]
The following is a list of Yoruba orisha (òrìṣà), or deities.
Supreme being
The supreme being in Yorùbá culture is known as Olódùmarè/Elédùmarè, Elédùà as well as other names.
Difference between Yoruba òrìṣà worship and what is practiced among Afro-Hispanics
As in Yorubaland, Orisha worship in the diaspora is highly varied depending on tradition and spiritual lineage. In Cuba the different versions of the orishas are called "caminos", which means "paths". These paths represent regional variations from different cities in Yorubaland prior to diaspora and slavery, but from a theological perspective also represent individual people who had great aché with the Orisha and were deified after death.
The primary five that practitioners are first initiated in are Eleguá, Obatalá, Changó (Sangó), Ochún (Ọ̀ṣun), and Yemayá (Yemọja), but other individual or groups of Orisha may also be given. [7]
Many Orisha have highly regional variations in popularity. Oyá Yansa enjoys particular popularity in Brazil, while Babalú-Ayé (well known abroad from a song named after him by Desi Arnaz in his role as "Ricky Ricardo") is most commonly venerated in the Oriente region of Cuba.
Cuban African worship, sometimes referred to as Santería, is still widely practiced in Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Panama, Venezuela, Colombia, Tobago/Trinidad and Brazil, a number of practitioners are Yoruba descendants to certain degrees. Remnants of the Yoruba language is still used ceremoniously as a ritual language, and is referred to as Lukumí. Due to 200 years of separation from the motherland, Lukumí became a lexicon of words and is not a spoken language. Similar worship of African deities can also be found among the Afro-Franco populations of Haiti and the US state of Louisiana.
