The opinions expressed in this article are the writer’s own and do not reflect the views of Her Campus.
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at CU Boulder chapter.
My religion is something that is not often heard of and when it is, people call it Santeria, which it is not. Santeria is a religion that originates from my religion, Yoruba. Yoruba is a polytheistic faith that originated in Africa. It’s so unheard of that when my boyfriend was trying to explain it to his parents, he called it “a religion from Peru.” Granted, I never talk about it out of the fear that people will accuse me of putting a curse on them and think that I work with voodoo magic. It’s misunderstood and I want to use my platform to clear its name the best I can. While the terms in this article may be a bit confusing, I will clear up what they mean as we go.
Yoruba is so old that when slavery was happening, many Christians forced the enslaved to conform to Christianity, but what the Yoruba did was apply their deity’s names to Christian saints and act like they were conforming to survive. Due to their conformity, we lost a lot of customs. When they arrived in Cuba, the religion spread, eventually as far as my home. My great aunt is a Santera and my great uncle is a Babalowe. Santera is a priest or priestess while Babalawo is the high priest of Ifa. They both introduced my mom into the religion and she has been in it for almost 12 years, while my dad joined 2 years after her. I am very grateful that my parents never pushed my siblings and me to be in the religion. They taught me the bible, took me to catechism classes, and made sure I had a foundation to begin with. My parents never hid anything from us and answered all the questions I had because I was, and still am, a curious person. They believed our religion was something to be proud of, so why hide it?
Growing up, religion was always a bit iffy for me. I didn’t believe there was a higher being in the sky watching over us, allowing all of these terrible things in the world to happen. My great aunt and uncle live in Virginia so when they come visit, it’s a big deal and many rituals need to be done. Our religion believes that everyone has guardian angels and guides in our lives and that everyone is born with a certain trajectory. Bajada de Orula is one of these rituals; it’s where I get to find out my life path and who my guardian angel or my Orisha is. Orishas are the deities in Yoruba, there are many Orishas but the Seven African Powers or the seven main deities are Elegua, Obatala, Oggun, Shango, Yemaya, Oshun, and Oya. All these deities have different meanings, necklaces, colors, and offerings that they like. Orishas are also your guardian angels. Mine is Oshun, I love her so much. She is the goddess of rivers, purity, fertility, and love. Words cannot explain how much I love her. She is the reason why I love wearing yellow, as yellow, gold, and coral are her colors. She is Olofi’s (God’s) favorite, according to the folklore, and also represents humans the most as she is the one with the most temper and angering her is not the kind of thing one would want to do. The Babalawo in my family told me that she is Aphrodite and as someone who was into Greek Mythology, she was my favorite for a reason.
Yoruba has been a big part of my being for the longest time. I thank the people that are so open minded about it because talking about it scared me. My goal was to educate people and talk about my experiences as someone who struggled with their religious identity. I will continue practicing Yoruba and will be proud to do so.