{"id":553,"date":"2017-11-06T20:49:18","date_gmt":"2017-11-07T01:49:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/vlbrenna-rel095fall2017\/?p=553"},"modified":"2017-11-06T20:49:18","modified_gmt":"2017-11-07T01:49:18","slug":"eleggua-friend-or-foe-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/vlbrenna-rel095fall2017\/2017\/11\/06\/eleggua-friend-or-foe-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Eleggua: Friend or Foe?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jack Bechtold<\/span><\/p>\n

10\/30\/17<\/span><\/p>\n

TAP: Religions of the Black Atlantic<\/span><\/p>\n

Professor Brennan<\/span><\/p>\n

Object analysis<\/span><\/p>\n

Eleggua: Friend or Foe?<\/h4>\n

\"\"<\/span><\/p>\n

I will be talking about the Cuban Santer\u00eda and the god Eleggua; specifically, an artifact of the Eleggua exhibit in the Robert Hull Flemming Museum, in Burlington VT. This artifact is the house of Eleggua. Eleggua is the Cuban god of the crossroads and of entrances. I chose Eleggua and his house because of its strategic placement in the exhibit, and because of the detailed craftsmanship that caught my eye. This object is a Cuban style house ornately decorated with beautiful red and black beads these beads. These have been arranged in patterns that add something to the house called ashe -the life force surrounding all beings. The entryway of this house is a stone face of Eleggua. His eyes, nose, and mouth are made from cowry shells. This house is dominated by the colors red, white, and black making the piece a unique artifact and shrine to Eleggua. This house\u2019s structure was built with wooden walls and ceilings; each section is painted a specific color depending on the part of the structure. The walls and ceiling of this house are painted red. The house itself sits on a dual-layered base. This base consists of two boards that have been glued together. The top board has a cut out in it for the dimensions of the house and is painted the same red as the house.\u00a0 <\/span>The bottom board is painted entirely black, making the floor and shadows in the house black.\u00a0 <\/span>The house is then outlined in cowry shells which used to be a form of currency in Nigeria and other Yoruba dominated lands. This use of shells is supposed to show wealth, status, and<\/span>power. It is Eleggua and it is a symbol of the crossroads themselves.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>The artifact is strategically placed at the beginning of the exhibit –<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>you are supposed to pray to Eleggua before you enter a house, and in the setting of an exhibit of African religions, you need to pray to Eleggua so that he may open the door to allow you to enter and see all the secrets of his world.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>Eleggua was demonized due to poor understanding of indigenous concepts of power during syncretism between Christianity and the religions of the African diaspora.<\/span><\/p>\n

Cuban Santer\u00eda originated from the African diaspora and is one of the most popular religions in the \u201cBlack Atlantic\u201d. Many of the Africans taken to the colonized islands of South America during the slave trade were people of the Yoruba faith. There were Africans from all over the western shore of their homeland continent in Cuba and these people had a multitude of versions of faith. While under the constant oppression of slavery these people came up with Cuban Santer\u00eda. Cuban Santeria is a religion based on indigenous power concepts. There is a multitude of different gods with different specialties. Eleggua is the god of the crossroads and entrances. He holds the ability to open and close the doorways to our destiny.\u00a0 <\/span>Worshipers need to appease Eleggua through ceremonies, songs, and rituals to make him inclined to help you.\u00a0 <\/span>A frantic parent with a sick child would pray to Babal\u00fa Ay\u00e9, the god of disease and epidemics for healing. But, if you do not appease Eleggua, he might not be inclined to open the doorway for communication between you and Babal\u00fa Ay\u00e9. This creates an interesting relationship between the worshiper and the gods. The worshiper has the ability to harness each god to ask for help, but if Eleggua doesn\u2019t want to help then there is nothing to be done. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>This mischievous nature has given Eleggua a bad name. In \u2018Flash of the Spirit\u2019 by Robert Thompson, Mr. Thompson talks about Eshu who is the Yoruba version of Eleggua is characterized as \u201c \u2018The devil\u2019 \u201d(Flash of the spirit page 19) by missionaries.\u00a0 <\/span>Thompson then continued to describe Eshu and show the reader that he in fact isn\u2019t \u201cThe Devil\u201d but is \u201cOutwardly mischievous but inwardly full of overflowing grace\u201d (Flash of the Spirit, page 19). Mr. Thompson notes that he cannot be characterized even by his own people due to the fact that Eshu has many different names such as Eshu, Elegbara, Eleggu\u00e1, and Elegba. \u201cEven his names compound his mystery\u201d (Flash of the spirit page 19).\u00a0 <\/span>Eshu is known as \u201cowner of power\u201d (Flash of the Spirit, page 19). It is incredibly interesting how Eleggua has this power that connects all of these followers with their gods and for the most part binds their society together.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>Eleggua has been mischaracterized as the devil by Christians because of a lack of understanding of indigenous concepts of power that is a crucial aspect, not just of Cuban Santer\u00eda, but of all Afro- Atlantic religions. According to Mr. Falola and Ms. Genova and their work on \u2018Orisa -Yoruba Gods and Spiritual Identity in Africa and the Diaspora\u2019. In the Yoruba religion, Eshu was one of, if not the first, divinities created by Olodumare who is \u201c(The supreme being) the source, origin, and creator of all beings, including divinities,\u201d (Orisa Yoruba Gods and Spiritual Identity in Africa and the Diaspora, page 129).\u00a0 <\/span>If this is true, then Eleggua may have had a hand in creating the world and man. Taking this belief into consideration,\u00a0 <\/span>Eleggua cannot be the devil because he is both benevolent and malevolent, while the devil is only malevolent.\u00a0 <\/span>If Eleggua really was the devil, antichrist, Apollyon, Beelzebub, etc. Then do you think he would have helped Olodumare create the world, the other divinities, or answer the prayers of the people?\u00a0 <\/span>The paradox in this idea is \u201cthat can a creature be more powerful than his creator,\u201d (\u2018Yoruba Gods and Spiritual Identity in Africa and the Diaspora\u2019,\u00a0 <\/span>page 131). Olodumare gave Eleggua the power of complete control over the communications sector of religious communication, which makes him so powerful that he has some sort of free will that he likes to exercise by being both benevolent and malevolent.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>Santer\u00eda\u00a0<\/span>offers variations to that story, keeping the message is the same. According to David H. Brown, \u2018Santer\u00eda Enthroned\u2019 ,\u00a0 <\/span>Eleggua was created by the all-powerful God Obatala who is the \u201cOwner of all heads\u201d (Santer\u00eda Enthroned page 126) or the owner of all destinies. In the Santer\u00eda religion, you are thought to have an inner head which is your destiny. Eleggua\u2019s job is to open the doorways to help you find your inner destiny. But, can the creature be more powerful than his creator? if Eleggua is truly in control of all religious communications and he is a \u201ctrickster\u201d then he is going to want to use his powers for benevolent and malevolent things, but that doesn\u2019t make him the devil because he isn\u2019t pure evil. He is as imperfect as the humans he is scribe for. <\/span><\/p>\n

Eleggua was demonized due to a misunderstanding of indigenous conceptions of power. The key to understanding religions like these are looking at the gods and the power structure while separating your own concepts of religion. Once you have separated your own concepts of religion from the religion at hand you can analyze everything through a scientific lens. What makes a scientific lens so important is it filters out the bias from the fact.\u00a0 <\/span>This ability is the defining difference between the way of thinking that leads you to\u00a0 <\/span>Eleggua being synonymous with the devil, and seeing his true place as the\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cowner of power\u201d (Flash of the Spirit, page 19).<\/span><\/p>\n

Bibliography:<\/h4>\n

Brown, D. (2003). Santer\u00eda enthroned. Chicago (Ill.): University of Chicago Press. pp. 126<\/span><\/p>\n

Mason, M. (2004). Living Santer\u00eda: Rituals and Experiences in an Afro-Cuban Religion.\u00a0pp.7, 95, 96.<\/span><\/p>\n

Falola, T. and Genova, A. (2005).\u00a0Orisa Yoruba Gods and Spiritual Identity in Africa and the Diaspora. 1st ed. Trenton, NJ 08607: Africa World Press, Inc., pp.129-139.<\/span><\/p>\n

Thompson, Robert Farris. 1984. Flash of the Spirit<\/i>. New York City, New York: vintage books.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jack Bechtold 10\/30\/17 TAP: Religions of the Black Atlantic Professor Brennan Object analysis Eleggua: Friend or Foe? I will be talking about the Cuban Santer\u00eda and the god Eleggua; specifically, an artifact of the Eleggua exhibit in the Robert Hull Flemming Museum, in Burlington VT. This artifact is the house of Eleggua. Eleggua is the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4549,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/vlbrenna-rel095fall2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/vlbrenna-rel095fall2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/vlbrenna-rel095fall2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/vlbrenna-rel095fall2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4549"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/vlbrenna-rel095fall2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=553"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/vlbrenna-rel095fall2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":557,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/vlbrenna-rel095fall2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553\/revisions\/557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/vlbrenna-rel095fall2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/vlbrenna-rel095fall2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/vlbrenna-rel095fall2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}