Greg Doyle

TAP: Altars of the Black Atlantic

Professor Brennan

9/15/17

Reflection

In the recent weeks of class, we have discussed the religions of the African continent, their cultures and traditions, and how they came to the Americas during the Mid-Atlantic Slave Trade. Specifically, we have been talking about Syncretism/Hybridism and how it has became apparent in many of both the practitioners and hybrid traditions in many African religions, mainly the Yoruba tradition. In many of our readings, we have discovered that many traditions originated on a specific continent, such as the Yoruba Tradition, in Africa, or Santeria, or Candomble, have been traveling from their original place of creation, to new lands, and even blend with existing religious traditions in these “new lands”. The prime example of this process, referred to as hybridization is described by Steve Engler as: “The way in which social boundaries that are activated and reworked within system of religious beliefs and practices, and how they reflect, retract, and combine with homologous boundaries present in a given society”. Many practitioners of Yoruba culture, were taken to the America’s, and despite the fact that they left their home, the memories of culture and sacred traditions never left their memories and hearts; as one practitioner stated in the video we watched: “Although we left Africa, Africa never left us”.
This blending of religious practices, can be understood as a process of evolution, in faith, almost a renaissance, as described in the video. A renaissance in essence, is a rebirth. With the blending of these religious practices amongst people of different backgrounds, ethnic belongings, lifestyles, etc. These religions which were long thought to have been laid to rest once the practitioners were taken and sent away from their homes of worship, are now beginning to see the light of a new dawn, a new day. These religions are growing, in strength and numbers each and every day, because their practitioners are now seeking safe, and nurturing places to practice their newly formed faiths, and to introduce their cultures to the world and the rest of its inhabitants. An emphasized example, of the blending of many religious traditions, is in the Osun-Osogbo festival, as seen in the video required for this assignment.
We can observe the Osun-Osogbo festival, that occurred in the video, and identify certain aspects of the ritualistic traditions occurring, and how we can relate the aspects of this particular tradition to other traditions of separate religious practices. For example, although not in the actual festival itself, there is a ceremony, where a child is taken to the side of a river and ran water over their heads and asked blessings from the goddess Osun. This ceremony is incredibly similar to the tradition of Baptism in Christianity/Catholicism, where a child is bathed in holy water and receives God’s blessings. Also, during the festival, candles, incense, and bells are used to both call the attention of the goddess into a ritualistic space, but also to center her attention amongst two initiate priestesses of the Osun tradition. Third, there are many instances where altars are sed to place various objects, offerings, statues, etc. That call the attention of the divine, and create a space to worship their presence and their influence. Again, in many modern monotheistic and polytheistic religions, altars are used to worship a god (s) or goddess (es).

The African diaspora religion was stripped from its roots during the slave trade. Communities were forced out of their homeland and shipped all over the Americas. This forceful movement of these people stripped individuals of their origins and identity. Practitioners of the African diaspora religion tend to look past the wrongfulness of their movement and look for a much more positive mindset; their religion and culture has managed to spread all over.

Oṣogbo is the largest city in Africa and is the heart of the African diaspora religion. It is known as Yoruba land and brings thousands of pilgrims every year to the Oṣun-Oṣogbo festival which celebrates Oṣun. This festival is held every August and welcomes everyone. Practitioners and nontraditionalists pack the streets of Oṣogbo learning and joining in on traditions of the African diaspora.

The festival begins with the welcoming of local Orisha. This is done with personal offerings to your personal Orisha. One may have a shrine with various items and offerings to your Orisha. As a community, the lighting of an ancient lamp represents the welcoming of Oṣun in the Yoruba kingdom. A significant part of the lighting ceremony is when the King and other political leaders come together to dance around the fire to welcome Oṣun. The presence of the King and political leaders represents the union between political powers and spiritual powers.

Privately, priests come together in a sacred ceremony to bless new priests. These newly blessed individuals are asked to give their hair to their Orisha as a way to symbolize all the negative powers leaving and the new growth to be positive and blessed. The Ifá, which is the scripture of the Yoruba people, contains the history, practices, beliefs, and traditions written. Priests foretell the future using the Ifá allowing individuals like the new priests to rewrite their story and pray for the things that they want.

Throughout the festival, an important site of worship is Oṣun’s sacred grove. Many shrines are placed here and it contains the sacred river where many sacrifices are made to Oṣun. A tradition of the African Diaspora is to worship history. At Oṣun’s sacred grove in Oṣogbo, Nigeria, it is the origin of Oṣun’s power. This is why during the Oṣun-Oṣogbo festival this grove is the spotlight of worship. Another part of history they worship is their past kings. The ceremony of the crowns involves the crowns of the past 18 kings that have ruled Oṣogbo. Each is blessed by the community and by Oṣun.

An important component of the African diaspora religion is clothing fabrics. It is believed that the patterns and colors of one’s clothes are associated with your Orisha. Those who take part in making the clothing, like those who make indigo clothing, are seen as Oṣun’s disciples.

All these traditions bring the African diaspora give the community a sense of being active and engaged with their beliefs. Simple objects like prayer bells bring traditions to life and allow the worshipers to connect with their Orisha. Humans and Orisha’s are meant to be connected and the Orisha’s goal is to help reinforce humanity’s role that humans and animals thrive and survive.

• In what way is Oṣun-Oṣogbo festival an example of an African diaspora religion? What specific people, events, or objects make you think that?

The Osun-Osogbo festival is an event where Yoruban peoples and descendants alike come together for a celebration of good fortune under the goddess Osun. The festival lasts for a duration of 2 weeks in August in Osun State of Nigeria, where people of all cultural backgrounds and preferences come to honor the goddess through a series of traditions and practices. First to understand the festival in context, individual parts of it must be analyzed.

The festival begins with the lighting of an ancient lamp that represents the goddess Osun and the kingdoms that persist in the heart of Yoruba land. The town surrounds the lamp in the form of glee, dance, and music under Osun. The excitement expressed by traditionalist and non-traditionalists alike is just a hint at the festivities that are to come. The lighting of the lamp is the first example of how the Osun-Osogbo festival is an example of African diaspora religion. The gathering of people who share a love of Osun are not all necessarily avid practitioners of the Yoruban lifestyle. In fact, the people who attend originate from a multitude of places including the United States. However, their exposure to the religion in their respective countries brought them to the festival in Western Nigeria. Professor Badejo of the University of Baltimore remarks during the ceremony that, “You don’t have to be Catholic to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day”. This parallel offers insight to the varying degrees of people who take part in Osun-Osogbo.

A further example of Osun-Osogbo festival’s diasporic characteristics is the story of Alafia and Oni, two college graduates who make their first pilgrimage to the sacred Yoruban land to gain status as priestesses. In days, they transform themselves into a “bridge” between the real world and the goddess Osun. They use various objects such as the Bell of Osun in prayer beside the grove where the final day of the festival commences. The bell is just one of many instruments and tools that carry spiritual significance used by the Yoruban people to call to their desired deity. Prospective practitioners of this specific culture attend the festival to revive hopes and dreams that may have dimmed over time. Johnson’s second definition of diasporic religions relates to the reasoning behind attending the event. That being diaspora as an internalized conversion of consciousness (pg. 518 para 3). Alafia and Oni traveled to Nigeria to take part in a conversion of their mindset, an adoption of a new way of life. In essence, they embody the very definition of diasporic religion.

The Osun-Osogbo festival is a symbol of resilience among other religions that dominate the worship community. The contagious energy of the celebration is a reminder that African culture is very much alive and experiencing a sort of renaissance. The Yoruba tradition is very welcoming, more so than other religions are to it, which represents a struggle felt by African traditionalists in history. Set aside your pre-conceived notions of religion, and it is easy to see the complex devotion and awesomeness that exists among Yoruban people.

During the slave trade, communities of African people were taken by force and shipped to the Americas. These individuals were wrongfully removed from their homes, and stripped of all identity; many forced to practice Christianity. Despite the adversity imposed on these people, they managed to protect and spread Yoruba religion and culture from Africa to the Americas. This does not mean that Orisa culture and tradition has left Africa, for it is bustling in places like the Sacred River in Osogobo, Nigeria; a holy site of the Orisa Osun.

Every year, there is a festival devoted to the river Orisa Osun that occurs on the banks of her holy river, the Sacred river. This festival is essential for “reviewing contracts between humans and the divine.”(Video quote) The people dance, sing, and make sacrifices to their holy Orisas as they unite as a community to cleanse in the banks of Osun’s holy river. Even though these practitioners are not directly using a staged alter, Thompson does state in “Face of The Gods,” that “Stones and water complete the image of this most important woman. We gather her rounded pebbles at the river and place them in river water in vessels on the altar. Water is the altar where we ask for her blessings (referring to Yemoja).” This excerpt explains how alters can take many forms, for instance and alter can be a river where worship takes place.

There were many typical diaspora components in the festival that were familiar from class. For instance, an animal sacrifice is made by a virgin as an offering to Osun. In class, there has been many instances where we have read about animal sacrifices being typical of Diaspora religion. These sacrifices are special gifts to the gods, to show appreciation, but also to give energy to the divine spirits. Also, I saw a lot of dancing, and heard a lot of typical diaspora music. I recognized the intense beating of drums used in the festival. Drums are typically used to invite spirits to possess followers. While the drums beat through the night, the dancing reins on as well. The dancing  builds community, and honors certain orisa. However, among all is the alter in which they worship. The alter is the main aspect of Yoruba Religion, and Osun-Osogbo festival dwellers worshipped in a purely organic alter that Osun herself touched; the Sacred River.

From what was displayed in the video, Diaspora religion is active and engaging. Coming from a rural town in Maine, I of course ‘practiced’ Christianity, but never had a connection to it. As a whole, there was never a sense of community, it seemed forced. However, after watching this video, I can see how religion can come naturally for these people. The Diaspora religions are inclusive to everybody, the dancing engulfs all participants and it is a celebration practiced by many. Everybody in this religion worships, but practice differs from person to person. It is a life long devotion for everyone, but each individual practitioner worships different gods and has different possessions on their alter. The religion seems to mold around the individual, instead of the individual molding around the religion; a special aspect of Diaspora religion in my opinion. (Dan)

Nigeria has a culture that has been constantly impacted by change from many things such as slavery, colonization, and war. Now Nigeria is going through a state of massive amounts of growth and modernization. This modernization in many other countries has resulted in more secular life that isn’t the case in Nigeria. Hybridization and syncretism have changed and shaped The Yoruba religion and evidence of this is in the Osun-Osogbo festival and in the religion’s regular practice as well.

The Yoruba Holy book Efa is known as The Encyclopedia of Yoruba Knowledge because it not only acts as a holy text but also as a way to tell the future, history, genealogy, herbal medicine,and has elements of psychology. Efa uses information from the past and is read using natural objects including sand. The practice of telling the future and the concept of viewing things in the lens of time is an integral part of Yoruba and more broadly most if not all diasporic religions according to Thompson. Additionally, opening the mind and being open are very important in the religion according to the Yoruba priest who performs a ritual on Bruce Feiler in the . That same priest lives next to a church and feels as though he is praying to the same one god that his neighbors are worshiping even though they practice a different way. The opening of the ceremony with a beaded necklace is very similar to Rosary beads in the Catholic faith which seems to be another example of the diasporic process influencing the Yoruba tradition. However the historical significance of beads in Africa which were often times used as a commodity to trade with by the European slavers for slaves makes me question if this was a practice used before the slave trade due to the possible very negative connection associated with the beads.

Yoruba is comparable to Christianity and in fact has influenced the practice of the religion in many ways showing the diasporic nature of Yoruba as a religion. They are comparable due to in christianity there being three traditional aspects of the one god in the Father, Son, and Holy spirit and in Yoruba there is one main God, Olorun, however there are 401 aspects of the deity according to Lloyd Weaver a Yoruba Priest from the united States. As another example of how Christianity, more specifically Catholicism, and the concept of saints in the catholic church is very similar to Yoruba tradition according to Sandy Placido who teaches at American University. Having specific days for saints like saint Patrick’s day, saint Michael’s day, and many more have Yoruba counterparts of specific days of worship for specific Orisha. However, It is much different in that there are specific months for specific deities. While this may seem somewhat different than Christianity it really isn’t, when you compare the Catholic calendar it begins to look somewhat similar with ther. Yoruba has a separate calendar for the gods with 13 months and 4 days a week and a separate calendar for day to day business which is the same as the Gregorian Calendar. The usage of the Gregorian calendar is due mostly to European Christian influence.

The Osun-Osogobo festival’s focus on the water, cleansing, and the head all relate to the idea of being baptized in Christianity. During the Osun-Osogobo festival the is a pilgrimage to the nearby river. The crowd of people walk down to the river while walking, they all do a motion over their head in order to cleans themselves. This act of cleansing is similar to how a priest would bless a person who is being baptized before putting them into the water. Then once the crowd reaches the water they cover their heads in water and some even drink from the water in an effort to cleanse themselves. This is comparable to the act of baptizing someone except there isn’t a priest blessing everyone. The task of cleansing is done individually which differs from the Christian tradition despite the two religions having a very similar tradition. However, just because these two religions have a lot in common that doesn’t mean that they are anywhere near the same.

The hybrid and inclusive nature of Yoruba religious tradition is tied to many different factors however many of those factors seem to be of European origin. Despite the many European influences, the Yoruba religion still remains incredibly unique. The focus on time and change are integral to the religion and differentiate it greatly from many other religions

Some of the aspects of the Oṣun-Oṣogbo festival as seen in “Sacred Journeys” may seem familiar to the American viewer who has little experience with Afro-Atlantic religion, and for good reason. Religious mixture includes traditions of different types of religions and cultures all mixed together. Due to the influence of the slave trade, a lot of these mixtures have aspects and traditions that someone who is unfamiliar with many religions will still be able to recognize. Nigeria was a central country in relation to the slave trade, and many slaves from Nigeria were sent to South, Central, and North America. Practices from all around these areas mixed with practices brought over from Nigeria, and modified versions of religions spread around the world. “Sacred Journeys” may be about viewing and understanding Yoruba culture, but there are still plenty of aspects that are recognizable to someone who doesn’t know much about Afro-Atlantic religion.

One example of religious mixture is when the two young women being inducted into a Yoruba-centric culture shaved their heads and washed with holy water as a way to symbolize their induction into a new life and religion. This is similar to the idea of Christian baptism, in which someone, often a child, has holy water sprinkled on their head to represent entering a new life. These rituals are incredibly similar, and are an example of one of several very familiar aspects of the festival that a viewer is likely to recognize, even if they haven’t studied Afro-Atlantic religions.

Another example would be the animal sacrifice. During the induction of the two young women, several people that are practiced in performing traditional rituals sacrifice a goat. This is somewhat similar to a religion such as Satanism, in which one of the most recognizable aspects to a modern viewer would be the sacrifice of an animal, often a goat. Although this isn’t the most glamorous of comparisons, it is worth noting that animal sacrifice, no matter the reason why, is a very real aspect of both of these religious practices, and could be evidence of more mixing of cultures.

Something else to consider is the influence of the religious institutions so close to the celebrations of the Oṣun-Oṣogbo festival. In Nigeria, many churches and mosques exist very close to the places in which these festivals are occurring, and many people mention how the churches are always trying to get others to convert. While the interactions between these religious groups seem somewhat hostile in their attempts to get conversions, it brings to light the idea that perhaps in their attempts to convert followers of Oṣun, maybe the other religious institutions have spread aspects of their own religions that got enveloped into existing traditions of Yoruba culture. This relates to Johnson’s idea that “even cultural losses, and the responses to loss, continued to inform the experience of a new territory and generate new practices both among the colonized and the colonizers” (“Syncretism and Hybridization”, 759). Different religious institutions may affect each other, and “losses” might be symbolized as people converting to other religions. This most likely had an effect on how the culture of the Oṣun-Oṣogbo festival developed, as all of the factors incorporated into the religion and culture all added up to the festival that we see today.

-Tessa Barnett

Different scholars define African diaspora as different things, while neither is wrong or right one definition stands out in the way it connects the Oṣun-Oṣogbo festival. This definition comes from the article, “Religions of the African Diaspora” by Paul Christopher Johnson, “Diasporic religions are composed on the one hand out of memories about space-places of origins, about the distance traversed from them since a time of exile, and physical or ritual returns…” The idea of memories impacting a religion is seen in the film with the people’s memory of the first king coming to Oṣun’s land and cutting down a tree. This act was not something the Orisha took lightly and to make amends the king said he would keep the area sacred and worship her every year through the Oṣun-Oṣogbo festival. Through memories the African diaspora religion was able to stay alive and continue with their traditions. What interested me most about this part of the film was how little the religion has changed in west Africa, In class we read about syncretism and hybridity, but in the heart of this religion, very little has changed, as stated by practitioners in the film. The other example of African diaspora religion in the Oṣun-Oṣogbo festival is the idea that at some point in the past people left their homeland in a time of exile. This is a big idea at the Oṣun-Oṣogbo festival because many people from the Americas go to Nigeria to connect with their roots in Africa, keeping the traditions alive, even though they do not live in the area. We talked about how the religions African slaves practiced changed and mingled over the slave trade but also how these people kept the religion alive throughout the many years that followed. To me this idea really helps support the idea of African diaspora, people adapted to their lifestyles and in turn changed some traditions, but they always look back to their homeland for connection, rather that be spiritually or physically. Overall, I found the film very interesting. One topic that really stuck with me is how other religions are almost kicking the traditionalist religion out, yet the traditionalists are not the ones causing any problems. I’ve never agreed with the idea of organized religion because of how judgemental they are to each other, but this film showed me that not all religions are like that with how accepting the Traditionalists are. After watching this video I would like to learn if the traditionalists have made any progress with their programs that allow people to practice traditional faith without any consequences from outside religions and society. All in all, this film gave me a better understanding of not only the religions we study but also of the articles read in class.

Link for the class notes document.

August 31, 2017 

Welcome to the class blog for REL 095A: TAP: Altars of the Black Atlantic. Our class blog is where we work through the ideas and arguments discussed in class in writing. Your work on this blog should be more formal than what you write in your class notes, but it also a space where you can explore your own understanding of the course readings and your reactions to the “Spirited Things” exhibition and related programs.