A history of the Santeria religion's origins in the traditions of enslaved Africans.
Santeria and slavery
Last updated 2009-09-15
Santeria and slavery
Santeria was created in Cuba ©Santeria was created in Cuba by the mingling of Yoruba traditions brought by enslaved Africans from Nigeria and Benin with the Roman Catholic faith of the Spanish plantation owners.
Attempts were made to convert the enslaved Africans, but while they accepted much of the missionary teachings, they didn't find that these provided sufficient 'religious fulfilment'.
They continued to practise their own rituals, which they found to be useful and effective, and which, most importantly, filled the spiritual space in lives torn from their original cultural foundations.
What happened next was remarkable:
...in Cuba the Catholic church was tolerant of ethnic traditions and even allowed various African groups to create their own "clubs," which became known as the Cabildos.
The Cabildos were not only ethnic clubs but also religious organizations under the secret leadership of the babalawo - the religious functionary whose patron divinity was Orunmilla, the oracle divinity of the Yoruba.
The contact between African religion and Catholicism in Cuba yielded a synthesis known as Santeria...
... there was a strong symbiosis between the Catholic sacramental system and that of traditional African religion. Under the Yoruba babalawo, the Catholic calendar was wisely utilized for the veneration of African saints. The word santeria itself means veneration of the saints.
Charles H. Lippy and Peter W. Williams, eds, Encyclopedia of the American Religious Experience: Studies of Traditions and Movements, 1988
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