The object is a Drink tray depicting the Goddess Yemaya. The tray is used to carry drinks and is sold to the public in mass. The public can purchase the tray however many don’t have any context as to who is on the tray or who designed the tray. The meaning of the tray to a practitioner of Regla de Ocha, Yoruba, Voodoo, or Candomble is completely different from the meaning to the average person in the United States as the average  person has no idea who Yemaya is or what any of those religions beliefs are. The Drink Tray Depicting the Goddess Yemaya is an item that isn’t used in rituals but still has a very large amount of value and importance. This importance isn’t just for practitioners of Regla de Ocha or other diasporic religious practitioners but also for the way in which non practitioners view the religion. The people who created the tray impacted the United States with a supreme court decision. That decision matters going forward not only legally but also in the way in which the religion is viewed by the public. Did the change in the law change the way in which the religion is viewed by the public of the United States of America and the way other diasporic religions are viewed?

The object was created by Ernesto Pichardo. Ernesto Pichardo is the head priest of the Lukumi Babalu Aye in Hialeah, Florida. The church practices a more “re-Africanized” version of the Cuban diasporic religion, Santeria also known by the name Regla de Ocha. Santeria in Cuba and in most sects in the United States is practiced in a home instead of a dedicated place of worship. Ernesto Pichardo’s “re-Africanized” sect of Regla de Ocha made a physical church instead of keeping worship in the household in an effort to more publicly practice Santeria. The “re-Africanization” of Santeria shows the “reversed diaspora” because it has made the rituals even more similar to the ones found in Yoruban rituals and less blended or hybrid compared to other diasporic religious practices. Paul Christopher Johnson wrote about the way in which diasporic religions all relate to a “memory” of the motherland and this concept of “re-Africanization” is just an extension of this concept and attempts to bring this memory to reality. In 1987 the city of Hialeah, Florida passed a law banning animal sacrifice in the city however made no restrictions on Halal or Kosher butchery. Animal sacrifice is an immensely important feature to the religion. The law was taken to court and eventually it was raised to the supreme court. In 1993 a decision was made the law was overruled in favor of plaintiff Ernesto Pichardo. The decision that the law was unconstitutional was made on the grounds that the law undermined First Amendment guarantees of free practice of religion.

The importance of the ruling is that it did two things, it legitimized Regla De Ocha and it set a precedent for future supreme court cases. The ruling has set in place a clear ruling by the highest court in the land that the right to animal sacrifice is protected under the first amendment. This ruling means a lot not only for just the religion of Regla De Ocha but most other diasporic religions and many other major religions including some sects of Christianity, some sects of Judaism, multiple events call of it in Islam, and it is present in Hinduism as well including many other less known religions where animal sacrifice is important.

The court case legitimized Regla de Ocha as a religion in the United States and showed the public that the people who practice it exist and aren’t some boogeymen practicing dark malicious “magic.” The Supreme Court case gave the religion a very large reason to be mentioned in the news in an accurate and honest manner for the first time when compared to the way Voodoo and other diasporic religions have been portrayed in the media. The way that diasporic religions are being displayed to the public in the correct and accurate way is completely different from the way that they all were put into the same group and viewed the same as a bad “black magic” religion that would do horrible things. The movie White Zombie released in 1932 certainly shows a difference from today with there being so much information available about every diasporic religion and what practitioners actually believe.

However, has the public’s opinion changed? The average citizen of the United State of America has no idea about what Diasporic religions are, what they believe, or where they are from. This is because most American public school systems don’t teach very much about African history. Most high schools teach a few variations of world history, a few variations of American history, and at least one course on European history, however what about other cultures and their history?

The item is used to keep drinks on. The tray is used by practitioners and non practitioners alike due to the tray being an object that is mass produced for utility in daily life. The object isn’t involved in any ritual except for as a potential gift for someone who is practitioner or not. In Regla de Ocha the practice of gift giving is very important. The importance of your birthday is very related to the tradition of gift giving in Santeria. This tray is a great gift for a person’s birthday if they practice Santeria or not. The practice of gift giving in Santeria is also often associated with creating the gifts as opposed to just buying them. The act of making things with elder members of the community is a very important almost ritual like practice that is very important with dealing with family traditions for the way altars are built. What colors, what kind of cloth, what kind of beads “What the “right colors” are is a relatively fuzzy category. The right colors are learned practically in the house among elders and godchildren and in the urban consumer market, with the experience of seeing, selecting, and handling beads and cloth.”(Brown 98)

The object was placed in the exhibit on the wall just past the Yemaya Altar that dominates the room next to the Yemaya ritual dress in the glass case. The placement of the object shows that is it supposed to be a visual aid to help better understand what the goddess is supposed to look like and have some context as to what symbols are important to the deity. In the Exhibit the object is displayed different from the way it would be displayed normally which is due to the lack of the tray which the tiles would normally sit in. This is most likely done to better display the object and to focus on the art rather than on the tray as an object.

The drink tray is a mass produced item which even has a copyright symbol on it. This shows that there are likely many other exact copies of the tray and contrasts from the tradition of things being made from scratch in the Yoruba religion which shows a difference in the religions. However, what this practice of mass produced religious iconography is analogous to the many Judeo-Christian symbols being commonly found on things from cups all the way to placemats. What the mass produced item says about the religion itself is it has been influenced by western thinking and American ideas of mass produced goods displaying the way in which diasporic religions change based on factors around it.

The deity on the tray is Yemaya the goddess of the sea. Her name is spelled Yemoja and Yemaya by the different diasporic religions that worship her. She is considered the protector of women and deals with pregnancy, childbirth, and parenting. In Cuban Santeria and Brazilian Candomble Yemaya is also the protector of the fishermen and is also commonly associated with the queer community. Yemaya’s ritual foods depends on the diasporic religion. In Santeria Yemaya’s ritual food includes Watermelon, cane syrup, and pork rinds compared to her Brazilian Candomble ritual diet which includes milk, rice, flour, and corn. Yemaya’s colors are blue and white in all of the diasporic religions however her sacred number depends on the religion. In Santeria Yemaya’s sacred number is seven compared to in Yoruba where her special number is nine.

Yemaya is deity who generally looks the same and has most of the same kinds of symbols and colors across the many diasporic religions with each having a slight difference similar to the many other Orisha who are present in most if not all of the diasporic religions. Many of the differences are example of how diasporic religions change in response to new stimuli an example of this is Yemaya being a protector of fishermen in Brazil and Cuba two places where the importance of fishing to the local economy is more important than in Nigeria due to geographical factors.

The object’s colors, symbols on it, and use of numbers on the object all reflect different aspects of the goddess Yemaya. The blue color of Yemaya is shaped in a way to make her appear to be almost a part of the wave which shows her being the goddess of the sea. The use of the seven cowrie shells on each side of the border as a design has Yemaya’s number and also shells which come from the sea. Cowrie shells aren’t only important to Yemaya but also to Yoruban tradition “the images extensively discussed during her public discussion was the image of the cowrie shells, a powerful symbol in Yoruba cosmology.”(Otero, Solimar, and Falola 165) The seven small aquatic animals at the bottom of the border of the drink tray and mirrored orange and white fish in the top corners show even more so in depth that Yemaya is the goddess of the sea. The seven starfish on each side represent Yemaya’s number and her relation to the ocean. The watermelon in the border displays one of Yemaya’s foods that are used often times in ritual. Additionally, the border has 7 fish hooks on each side representing Yemaya’s protection of fishermen. The border also contains other maritime symbols associated with Yemaya including ropes, anchors, and a ship’s wheel.

The goddess Yemaya’s colors blue and white are all over the object. The color blue represents the ocean as she is the goddess of the ocean. The color white is the color of cowrie shells which are very a important symbol for Yemaya and come from the oceans in addition the salt from the ocean is white along with many different kinds of fish and sea animals.

The object paints a vivid image depicting Yemaya and her related symbols. If a random individual saw the tray with no description they could easily understand that the woman on the tile is involved with the water in someway. However, the same person likely wouldn’t know who made it or why that person matters. The public’s perception of the religion hasn’t changed because for the most part due to the lack of knowledge of it. This is immensely unfortunate because learning about the Diaspora would provide many people with an appreciation of African arts, stories, and culture. 

 

Brown, David H. Santeria Aesthetics. Washington And London, Smithsonian Institution Press.

 

Otero, Solimar, and Toyin Falola. Yemoja: Gender, Sexuality, and Creativity in the Latina/o and Afro-Atlantic Diasporas. Boston: New West Indian Guide, 2014.

Cruz, R. Ted Winter 1994 article 17.1 Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy Animal Sacrifice and Equal Protection Free Exercise: Church of the Lukumi Babaluaye

 

Epstein, R. A. (1992, Dec 23). Rule of law: Testing the boundary between church and state. Wall Street Journal

 

Matory, J L. “Ceramic-Tiled Image of the Afro-Cuban Goddess Yemayá.” Duke University.

 

Johnson, Paul C. A Companion to Diaspora and Transnationalism. Hoboken: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013.