Petrodollar, Bolivarianism, and the ReYorubanization of Santería in Chávez’s

Petrodollar, Bolivarianism, and the Re-Yorubanization of Santería in Chávez’s Socialist Venezuela

FÉLIX AYOH’OMIDIRE

Este es un país petrolero, nunca debemos olvidar eso, un país donde hay mucho dinero circulante en la calle, un país donde la población maneja mucho efectivo, y un país de posibilidades. Por eso es que vemos personas que, aunque tienen una casa que vale 40.000 Bolívares, se hacen un santo que vale lo mismo que vale esa casa, porque tienen la necesidad de ser como el padrino […]. Enver “Olayemi” Arbelaez (The Oluwo of Egbé Oturupon-Isokun, Venezuela)1

1 “This is a petrol-rich country, we must never forget that. It is a country where

there is a lot of money circulating on the streets, a country in which the popula-tion handles a lot of cash, a country of possibilities. This explains why there are people here who, even though they live in a house that is worth 40.000 Bolí-vares, don’t mind paying the same amount for an (Ifá/Orisa) initiation ceremo-ny, because they want to be like their oluwo (spiritual guide) at all cost [...].” (free translation by the author). Interview with Enver Olayemi Arbelaez and Ri-cardo Acevedo, in Caracas, Venezuela on April 19, 2012.

204 | FÉLIX AYOH’OMIDIRE

The coming to power of Commandant Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías (1954-2013) and his so-called “Bolivarian Socialist Revolution for the 21st centu-ry” as the 52nd President of Venezuela in 1999 marks a turning point in the history and reality of that country. Venezuela occupies a unique position as a frontier country between Latin America and the Caribbean, sharing a lot of political, economic, socio-cultural, and historical ties with countries of the Andean region of South America as well as ideological, ecological, po-litical, economic, and socio-cultural realities with her Caribbean neighbors, especially Cuba. As the major oil-producing country in the region, Vene-zuela has considerable economic and political weight in the affairs of Cen-tral, Meso-, and South American countries, a fact that often creates frictions between the country and the United States of America, often seen and por-trayed as the bullying power within the regional OEA – Organization of American States. The present paper seeks, on the one hand, to analyze the relationship between Venezuela’s prevailing economic condition under President Hugo Chavez and the (re-)emergence and/or (re-)invigoration of the interest of middle-class Venezuelan youth in the practice of the Yoruba cultural ethos, specifically, the new waves of initiation into Ifá/Orisa prac-tice. On the other hand, the paper intends to contribute to the on-going de-bate on the re-Yorubanization of Afro-Latin-American religions, most es-pecially Santería Lucumí, otherwise known as La Regla de Ocha (Way of the Orichas).

Backed by the purchasing power of what Chavez sympathizers fondly refer to as the bonanza petrolera, President Chavez’s government was able to bring about a number of obvious socio-economic changes in Venezuela. The most visible were the government-sponsored social programs known as Misiones Bolivarianas. Totaling twenty-one in all, the missions aim to im-prove the living standards of Venezuelans by addressing diverse areas of human development. At the economic level, Chávez’s brand of socialism has led to the creation of various programs that support job creation and provide other socio-economic benefits that help the populace to cope with the growing rate of inflation. According to the official statistics released by the Venezuelan News Agency AVN – Agencia Venezolana de Noticias, every Venezuelan family at the peak of the Chavez’s regime in 2012 earned at least a monthly income of two minimum wages, which stood then at 6000 Bolívares, roughly 1000 US Dollars.2 2 For more on the rise in the standard of living of Venezuelans under the Chavez

government, see: http://www.avn.info.ve/contenido/ingreso-m%C3%ADnimo-legal-promedio-hogares-venezolanos-compensa-inflaci%C3%B3n. consulted on 09-05-2012. It is also noteworthy that even today, after the death of President

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The prevailing economic conditions were also reflected in the pattern of the consumption of symbolic goods by the lower-to-middle working-class groups in Venezuela, as it became possible for more and more Venezuelans to subscribe to and seek out new and not-so-new socio-cultural, philosophi-cal and religious experiences. A major hypothesis of the present paper is to contend that Chavez’s Bolivarian Socialism has favored the propagation of the Yoruba Ifá/Orisa tradition in Venezuela over the past one and a half decades, a process which, in turn, has boldly inserted Venezuela into the Re-Yorubanization process of the Regla de Ocha, the Afro-Cuban religious tradition that originated from the Lucumi3 (Yoruba) of West Africa.

Chávez, the Missiones Bolivarianas are still supported by the government of President Nicolás Maduro.

Cf. http://www.gobiernoenlinea.ve/home/misiones.dot (May 27, 2012). 3 The Yoruba, an extensive and highly diversified ethnic group which originated

from the ancient civilization of Ile-Ife in present-day Nigeria became prominent in the slave societies of the Americas from the end of the 17th century as a result of the mass enslavement of Yoruba-speaking peoples. Due to the different ports of deportation from the African continent, they became known in the Latin-American and Caribbean diasporas under diverse ethnonyms. In Brazil, they were known as the nagô, a name derived from the term anago. This was how the Dahomean neighbors to the west referred not only to Yoruba-speaking groups generally, but also to people who practiced the orisa religious tradition. In Cuba, the same group became known as the lucumí. This name was purport-edly derived from a kingdom of Ulkamy, but it has since been determined that it likely came from an expression common among people of that culture that was used to refer to non-family members whom they held dear as olùkùmi, i.e. my bosom friend, my confidant. This term is still widely used in modern-day Nige-ria in central and eastern Yoruba dialects like Ife and Ijesa. The etymology of lucumí is thus similar to another collective ethnic name of the Yoruba-speaking peoples, which persists today in Sierra-Leone. There, they are known as the Akú, a term derived from the greetings custom and philosophy of the kaaro-oo-jiire group, who still greet each other with formulas that invariably begin with “e kú” or “a kú” (cf. Ayoh’Omidire, 2004, 2005 and 2009a).


From the Cuban Lucumí tradition to the Yoruba Ifá/Orisa4 in Venezuela

In the theoretical discussion of the spread of the Yoruba religious culture into the Americas, scholars have always worked with a theory of periodiza-tion. In essence, the diasporization of the Yoruba cultural and religious worldview can be divided into at least three phases: 1. The adoption and incorporation of various aspects of the Yoruba reli-gious, philosophical, linguistic, and cultural traditions by non-Yoruba Afri-cans within the larger process of interpenetration of cultural practices prior to the Atlantic experience.5 2. The recuperation of the Yoruba identity and the implantation of the Yo-ruba worldview6 within the slave oligarchies of the Americas from the late 18th to the early 20th century.7 4 Ifá is the Yoruba oracular practice par excellence. Although the two are inter-

connected, Ifá is different from the Orisa religious tradition in that the patron of Ifá is Orunmila Bara Agboniregun, who is not seen as a deity per se by the priests of Ifá because the object of worship in Ifá is the odù and not Orunmila himself, who is considered more as the patron of the oracular science. On the other hand, Orisa worship centers around the person of the specific Orisa, e.g. Ogun, Oya, Sango, Osun, Obatala, Esu, etc. who are appeased by their followers via specific liturgical practices in accordance to the given localities and con-texts.

5 For a proper understanding of this process, cf., among others, Samuel Johnson, S. Biobaku, A.B. Eltis, Robin Law,Yai, etc.

6 By Yoruba identity or the Yoruba worldview, we refer to the totality of the cul-tural, material, and spiritual traits shared by all the kaaro-oo-jiire group, which makes it possible for the different sub-groups like Ife, Ijesa, Oyo, Ekiti, Akoko, Ondo, Owo, Onko, Egba, Egbado, Sabe, Ketu, Idaissa, Menigri, Ife-Ana, etc. to recognize one another as brothers and descendants of Oduduwa, emanating from the same ancestral stock at Ile-Ife. These features include kinship and kingship institutions and practices, language, inheritance customs, Ifá-Orisa religious tra-ditions, ancestral worship of Egungun and Gelede, among many other traits. Contrary to what is held by some scholars who prefer to see the Yoruba identity as an invention of the 19th century, when all of the more than 30 sub-groups of the kaaro-oo-jiire were collectively referred to as Yoruba, a name that was hith-erto reserved exclusively for the Oyo sub-group of the descendants of Oduduwa, it is evident that – irrespective of the individual or collective ethnonym adopted – the traits uniting the groups have never been in doubt among the different sub-groups. The use of the collective name Yoruba by the missionaries and the adoption of same by contemporary Kaaro-oo-jiire communities in modern-day Nigeria must thus be regarded as a mere term of convenience, which neither di-minishes the collective identity nor invalidates the individual identifications and identities of the sub-groups.

7 Cp. the works of Herskovits, Roger Bastide, Edson Carneiro, Arthur Ramos, Fernando Ortiz, Lydia Cabrera, Mercedes Cros-Sandoval, Miguel Barnet, and a host of others.


3. The back-and-forth movements in the post-slavery era of free and/or economically indentured Yoruba cultural agents within the Atlantic space i.e. from Brazil, Cuba, Trinidad and Haiti via Barbados, Granada, Jamaica, Puerto Rico and other Caribbean locales, from where their descendants have today spilled into the United States and other parts of the Western Hemisphere to form what Falola/Childs (2004) term “economic diasporas” in the 21st century.

The second phase in the scheme elaborated above appears to have been responsible for the greatest portion and the largest expansion of the Yoruba cultural presence in the Atlantic region. Scholars have subdivided this phase of the diasporization of Yoruba identity in the Americas into two ad-ditional phases. The first is what Alejandro Frigério (2004) calls “primary diasporas,” which includes countries like Brazil, Haiti/Santo Domingo, and Cuba, while countries like Puerto Rico, Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, and the United States belong to the “secondary diaspora” groups. I have argued elsewhere (Ayoh’Omidire 2005; 2009a) that between Brazil and Cuba, the two countries in the Americas which received more than 70 per cent of the total population of enslaved Yoruba persons during the slavery era, a spon-taneous redistribution of the Yoruba cultural and religious worldview de-veloped. This was consistent with the general trend of the redistribution of enslaved persons into different countries of the Americas from the ports of Salvador da Bahia and Rio de Janeiro and Santos (SP) in Brazil, on the one hand, and the port of La Havana in Cuba, on the other (Ayoh’Omidire 2005; 2009a). While Brazil exported its brand of the Ketu-Nagô religious worldview in the form of Candomblé, Batuque, Umbanda, and Xangôto countries like Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, and other parts of the Cone Sur, Cuba exported its Lucumí tradition to the United States, as well as to other Hispanic American countries like Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, Mexico, Colombia, and Venezuela.

In the case of Cuba and the exportation of the Lucumí-Yoruba worldview in the Atlantic region, Michaelle Ascencio speaks of two dis-tinct periods in her book Las diosas del Caribe (2007: 35-36). She de-scribes the first as la primera emigración de los dioses africanos (the first migration of the African deities) covering the period from 1601-1910, which was almost immediately followed by what she describes as the sec-ond migration of the deities. This same re-diasporization of Yoruba reli-gious praxis has also been described elsewhere both as a process of the re-location of the deities and the transnationalization of rituals, whereby Yo-ruba rituals and religious beliefs were transposed and transplanted through


the agency of Cuban santeros and babalawos8 to various countries of Span-ish-speaking America. In the specific case of Venezuela, scholars have identified three phases or moments in the process of the implantation of Santería in the country.

It is worth pointing out that, based on the available records of the distri-bution of enslaved Yoruba people in the Americas, Venezuela did not re-ceive a significant number. This fact, coupled with the absence in Venezue-la and Puerto Rico of the enabling institution known as cabildos de nación in the Hispanic Americas and as Irmandades and Confrarías in Brazil,9 may partially explain why the Yoruba religious culture and worldview did not originally take root in these countries before the Cuban diasporization and the subsequent second migration of the Yoruba deities. Before this, the predominant Afro-Latin religious culture in Venezuela was the María Lion-za and her tres potencias, a syncretic tradition that incorporates elements from the three principal racial influences in South America, similar in many aspects to the caboclo tradition of Brazil.

Santería in Venezuela

The historiography of Cuban Santería in Venezuela has revealed that the ar-rival of the Yoruba deities to that country can be divided into three distinct moments. The first covers the period from the beginning of the 20th centu-ry to the Cuban Revolution in 1959, the second continues through the 1980s, while the third extends from the 1990s onward

It is interesting to note that, in the initial period, prior to the second dis-persal of the Yoruba deities (which was a fall out of the Castrist Revolution in Cuba), Santería and Lucumí worldviews did not permeate Venezuela in their “religious dimensions,” but more in their artistic and aesthetic forms. While the religious aspect was dismissed as sorcery, the areas of music, dance, and performance were seen as exotic in Venezuela.

On the other hand, as scholars like Michaelle Ascencio have already discussed, the migration of Cubans dissatisfied with the Castrist Revolution

8 The terms santeroand santera are popularly used in Cuba and the Afro-Cuban

religious offshoots to refer to practitioners of SanteríaSantería, i.e. the Afro-Cuban religious expression based mainly on African religious traditions such as the Yoruba Lucumí or Regla de Ocha, the Bantu Palo Mayombe or Palo Monte, and the Dahomean Rada. On the other hand, babalawo refers to the priests of Ifá who use different divinatory methods including opele (divination chain) and erindinlogun (known as diloggun in Cuba), i.e. the 16 cowries, to consult Ifá.

9 See, for instance, the works of Miguel Barnet, Cros-Sandoval, Samuel Cruz, and, especially, Philip A. Howard.


of 1959 led to the second emigration of the Yoruba deities. They first took the deities to places like Miami and New York in the United States, where they interacted with other Latino immigrants like Dominicans, Puerto Ri-cans, and Haitians in what Capone (2005: 115) considers to have been une-qual conditions. As Ascencio (2007: 36) observes : “[...] debido a las altas cifras de emigración cubana en Miami [...] la Santería se ha expandido de un modo notorio con el reclutamiento de devotos de otras nacionalidades: venezolanos, portorriqueños, dominicanos, además de los cubanos [...].” A consequence of this encounter of various Hispano-American nations with the Cuban-Lucumí Santería in the United States was the eventual transfer of Santería to Venezuela in the late 1960s.

In Venezuela, one of the pioneers of this process that can be aptly termed the 3rd diasporization of the Yoruba divinities from Cuba to the rest of Hispanic-America was Domingo Gómez. His Lucumí name was Changò Migua. Born in Cuba, Gómez grew up in New York, where he was initiated into the Sango cult by another Cuban santera named Mercedes Nobles. Ac-cording to Venezuelan santero Esteban Pérez, Gómez’s was one of the first Orisa initiations to be held in New York in the early 1960s.10 After having perfected his knowledge of Ocha11 with members of the older generation of Cuban santeros in Puerto Rico at that time, Domingo later turned to Vene-zuela for his Ocha works. When another Venezuelan santero, Ramón Sáenz, was interviewed by Gonzálo Baez in the local magazine Los Oricha, he summarized Domingo’s arrival in Venezuela as follows: »Creo que llegó en el 74 o 75, empezó a venir porque él primero venía mucho como venían muchos santeros como Evelio Iglesias, Ambiro, Abelardo, Chiqui Valdez, santeros que venían e iban, y así comenzó Domingo Gómez, así estuvo, hasta que se quedó definitivamente en Caracas. Tenía un apartamento, ese apartamento tengo entendido que se lo dio un ahijado para que viviera ahí. «12

10 Cp. “Conversación con Esteban Pérez,” interview in Personajes by Gonzálo

Baez (2006), In: Revista Los Orichas, Febrero 3/33, pp.14-18. 11 In Cuba, as in other Hispano-American communities, Orisa is pronounced as

Ocha, originally received in Cuba as a phonetic contraction common among Òyó-Yorùbá speakers.

12 “I believe he (Domingo Gómez) arrived here in 1974 or 75. He started by com-ing for short visits, because at the start he was coming a lot like many of the other santeros such as Evelio Iglesias, Ambiro, Aberlardo, Chiqui Valdez, san-teros who were coming and going. Domingo Gómez did the same until he de-cided to remain permanently in Caracas. He had an apartment. I understand that the apartment was given to him by one of the people whom he had initiated so that he could live here for good.” (free translation by the author)


Sáenz further points out in his interview that prior to this period (1974/75) not much was known about Santería in Venezuela. The few who were initi-ated into the religion had done so in Puerto Rico or Miami, while one or two had done their initiations in Cuba. Notwithstanding the apparent con-tradictions in the exact dates of Domingo Gómez’s trip to Venezuela, it is clear that Santería only came to the country as a result of the actions of itin-erant Cuban santeros living and practicing in the United States and Puerto Rico in the wake of the Cuban Revolution. Another important and relevant detail is that, during this initial period, the transplantation of Cuban San-tería to Venezuela was made possible by the patronage of wealthy Vene-zuelans artists and intellectuals, who invited the itinerant santeros to prac-tice and consult for them in Venezuela.

With regard to the introduction of lucumí-Yoruba Ifá into Venezuela, the trajectory resembled that of Ocha, as Ifá was also brought into the coun-try by the same Cuban migrant santeros. José Manuel Perreira – whose Ifá initiation name, or Odù, is Ocana Che – became the first Venezuelan to un-dergo the Ifá initiation in the country in 1986.13 Five years after his Ocha initiation which was done by his own bloodbrother, Luís Eduardo Hernán-dez (Ochún Laddé), in 1982,14 José Manuel Pereira “Ocana Che” was initi-ated into Ifá priesthood by Adalberto Herrera “Otura Tiyú,”assisted as Ojugbona by Ivo Illinois Morales Díaz, “Otura Trupon” (ibid. 21). It is noteworthy that during the time of Pereira’s initiation in 1986 there was al-ready an impressive array of Cuban babalawos practicing in Venezuela, who probably came and went as itinerant priests, as in the case of the san-tero Domingo Gómez “ChangoMiguá.”15

Interestingly, José Manuel Pereira “Ocana Che” also indicates the num-ber of Ifá initiations he himself conducted from the time he was consecrated in 1986 to 2006. In response to the question, “Cuantos Ifases has hecho hasta el momento?” he affirmed that he had so far initiated 27 persons into 13 Interview “José Manuel Pereira, Ocana Che – El primer venezolano que fue

consagrado como Babalao en nuestro país.” (2006), In: Revista Los Orichas, Febrero 3/33, pp. 20-23.

14 Ochun Laddé himself was one of those initiated by pioneer santero Domingo Gómez “Chango Miguá” in Caracas.

15 José Manuel Pereira “Ocana Che” provides an impressive list of the babalawos present at his own initiation, which reads as follows: “Adalberto Herrera (pa-drino), Ivo Illinois (Oyugbona), Alfonsito Herrera (Iroso Batrupon), Iván Romero (Iroso Fún), Jhony Pérez (Obe-Di), Roberto Lara (Ogunda Keté), Pepe-Páez (Oberoso), Buena Ventura Páez (Osa Wori), Mildonio (Odi Omoluo), Ubaldo Porto (Olofista y Obba de la ceremonia), Osalofobeyo, Ubaldito Porto (Iwori Turá), and Lázaro (Alfonso) (Irete Kután).”


Ifá in Venezuela (Ibid. 22). This is a fairly high figure, considering the rela-tively recent date of the introduction of the tradition into that country. However, as a Santería cubana website points out, after Santería eventually took roots in Venezuela as a religious tradition in the 1990s, is witnessed an unprecedented growth that was aptly described as a “boom”:

»El boom y popularización de la Santería cubana en Venezuela comienza a partir de los años 90 y comienza a apreciarse una divulgación y visibilidad mucho más amplia de la Santería cubana en Venezuela no sólo en la capital y sus zonas urbanas sino también en otras ciudades del interior del país. Actualmente en Venezuela la Santería cubana y sus trabajos rituales de magia tienen una expansión sin precedentes.«16 This boom in all likelihood was responsible for the real venezuelarization of Santería, having prepared the ground for the next phase of the manifesta-tion of Yoruba Ifá/Orisa traditions in Venezuela whereby a faction of Ven-ezuelan Orisa practitioners today seeks to subscribe to, and participate in the larger process of the re-Africanization of Ifá/Orisa practice in the Amer-icas by connecting directly to the Yoruba-African Orisa homeland.

Egbe Orisa-Oko and Egbe Oturupon-Isokun: Re-Yorubanizing Ifá/Orisa Tradition in Venezuela

In recent years, two groups of Ifá/Orisa practitioners in Venezuela, who are direct descendants of the first and second generations of Cuban santeros and Ifaleros,17 have turned towards Yorubaland in West Africa to strength-en and legitimize their religious practice. The first group, led by an astute former showbiz Venezuelan santero, José Hidalgo Edibere (Ifa Tokun Itaniyi), is registered under the official name of Egbé Òrìsà-Oko, while the second group, under the leadership of a Nigerian babalawo named Solagbade Popoola and coordinated by his Venezuelan disciples, a group of young Awos, is known as Egbé Otúrúpòn-Ìsokùn.

Edibere’s group officially initiated the process of the re-Africanization of the Ifá/Orisa tradition in Venezuela following the first contact with the Ifá tradition in Yorubaland, Nigeria, around 2006/2007. Edibere and a few

16 http://www.consultassanteria.com/santeria-cubana-en-venezuela-santeros-y-

babalawos-en-venezuela.php (December 5, 2012). 17 As we have already seen, the term santero describes priests and devotees of the

ocha (orisa).In the same manner, the term ifalero is sometimes used to describe priests and devotees of Ifá.


of his close associates, including his wife, participated in the annual Ifá fes-tival known as OdúnIfá-Àgbonnìrègún, which is usually held on the first Friday and Saturday in the month of June, with rituals presided over by the Àràbà Àgbáyé (the highest priest of Ifá worldwide) beginning at the palace of the Oòni (king) of Ilé-Ifè, and then moving in a procession to the sacred hill of Ifá in Ilé-Ifè, popularly known as Òkè-Ìtasè. This process of the re-Africanization of the Ifá/Orisa tradition in Venezuela was fully legitimated in December 2007 when the Egbé Òrìsà-Oko invited the Àràbà-Àgbáyé, Chief Adisa Mókorànálé Awóreni for a one-month official visit to Vene-zuela. Today, the visit still appears to pay dividends for Edibere in terms of legitimizing his position as a priest of Ifá and Òrìsà, who does not depend on the traditional lineage of a Cuban padrino to legitimize his authority as a babalawo (as is usually the norm in the Diaspora). Rather, Edibere prefers to project himself in Venezuelan Ifá circles as one whose authority derives directly from the highest hierarchy of the tradition in the Yoruba homeland, the Araba-Àgbáyé, the one considered worldwide to be the descendant of Òrúnmìlà-Bara-Àgbonnìrègún, the mystical founder of Ifá religion.

Thus, based on his purported association with the Àràbà and other high-ranking Ifá and Òrìsà priests in Yorubaland, Nigeria, Edibere has been able to attract many disciples to his temple, which has resulted in an astounding number of Ifá initiation ceremonies. On the official site of his temple, Edi-bere displays an impressive list of 547 Omo-Awo (disciples) whom he has initiated into Ifá so far. In the page titled “Babaláwo del Egbé Òrìsà-Oko” located under the subheading “Família Tókun” (Tókun’s family), the civil name of each individual Omo-Awo is given, in addition to the signature of his/her personal Odù of initiation, displayed on a virtual opón-Ifá (divina-tion tray), as well as his/her Ifá name, followed by Edibere’s own adopted Ifá name, Tókun, which now stands as the “surname” of each initiate.18 This extensive list of Omo-Awo shows Edibere to be the most proficient baba-lawo in the world by far when it comes to initiating new Awos, since all 547 initiations must have been carried out between late 2007 and early 2012, an average of almost 137 initiations per year or 11.4 per month!

If, on the one hand, these highly impressive figures demonstrate how truly popular the Yoruba Ifá-Òrìsà tradition has become in Venezuela over the past one and half decades, on the other, it reflects the success of the publicity surrounding the practice of Ifá/Orisa tradition by Edibere19 under 18 www.edibere.com.ve/nuevo/familiah.php (May 5, 2012). 19 Ibid. A good example of this publicity savvy of Edibere can be seen in the 4th Èsù

Festival held on the Initiation ground of the Egbé Òrìsà-Oko on February 11, 2012. The massive crowd that attended the event was treated to free food, trans-


the favorable conditions provided by the improved socio-economic stand-ards of living in Venezuela under President Chávez’s “Bolivarian-Socialism of the 21st century.” As the analysis of an interview that I con-ducted in April 2012 with Enver Olayemi Arbelaez, the Oluwo of the Egbé Otúrúpòn-Ìsokùn and his Ojugbona Awo,20 Ricardo Acevedo (Ifa-tooyangan), will amply demonstrate, the considerable rise and stability in the employment rate and living standards of Venezuelans under the Boli-varian government of President Chávez has made it possible for virtually everyone to be able to afford the usually high costs of an Ifá initiation.21 This is exactly the point that the Oluwo Enver Olayemi makes in the extract that serves as the epigraph of the present paper.

portation from Caracas and other places, a musical concert by the Orquesta Òrìsà-Oko, as well as ritual sessions with renowned Ifá priests from the Yoruba homeland such as Prof. Wande Abimbola, the Àwise-Àgbáyé, who, as an-nounced in the flyer of the event, was slated to be in charge of the ritual washing of Èsù. Though Abimbola did not attend the festival, another apparent Yoruba-African stood in for him before the Venezuelan crowd, though it is doubtful however if the organizers informed the enthusiastic crowd of this fact. It is also noteworthy that Edibere chose as the motto of this religious festival not some modest “ìwàpèlé” formula from the Yoruba religious philosophy, but an expres-sion that is typical of Chavismo in its most aggressive form, “¡Seguimos Triun-fando!”

20 Oluwo and Ojugbona Awo are the two highest ranking priests in a typical Ifá temple or small community.

21 Interview with Enver Olayemi Arbelaez and Ricardo Acevedo “Ifatoyangan,” Oluwo and Ojugbona of Egbé Otúrúpòn-Ìsokùn, respectively, on April 19, 2012.


Egbé Òtúrúpòn-Ìsokùn and the formation of a new generation of Ifá priests in Venezuela

When the Egbé Orisa-Oko of José Hidalgo Edibere took the Àràbà-Àgbáye to Venezuela in December of 2007, Venezuelans had the opportunity to see for the first time a high representative of the Ifá/Òrìsà tradition from the Af-rican homeland. During this historic visit, Venezuelans from all walks of life were encouraged to avail themselves of the opportunity of meeting and receiving personal blessings from the Àràbà-Àgbáyé, aptly described in the publicity leaflets released by the Egbé Orisa-Oko as “la máxima autoridad religiosa de los Yorubas”22 (the highest ranking religious authority of the Yoruba nation). As a result, many Venezuelans were initiated into Ifá and other Òrìsàs by Edibere, with the (implicit) blessing of the Àràbà, which made the initiation a lot more prestigious and “complete” in the opinion of most Venezuelans, especially those who had already received a mano de Orula23 from different Cuban-Lucumí priests before the arrival of the Àràbà.

Included among the scores of Itefá – the Ifá initiation ceremonies – that Edibere carried out at about the initial period of his re-Yorubanization drive were those of Enver Olayemi Arbelaez and Ricardo Acevedo, two young Venezuelan bank workers who decided on the Ifá/Òrìsà religious tradition after trying virtually all other Afro-Latin religions, from Cuban Palo Ma-yombe24 to the more indigenous cult of María Liónza.25

Attracted by what they considered a golden opportunity to move closer in their religious quest to “Africa, de dónde vienen nuestras raíces” (Africa, our roots), the two Omo-Awos began to assiduously study the sacred texts of Ifá under the guidance of babalawo Solagbade Popoola, an itinerant Ifá priest from Lagos, Nigeria, who also has disciples (Omo-Awo), and over-

22 Cf. the first edition of Edibere Magazine, 2008 where the Àràbà’s picture ap-

peared in full regalia on the cover, with the inscription, “el descendiente de Orunmila” (the descendant of Orunmila).

23 Known as “owó kan Ifá” in Yoruba, the mano de Orula is a preliminary ritual in the preparation of a future Ifá priest.

24 Palo Mayombe, also known as Palo Monte or Regla de Congo,is an Afro-Cuban religious tradition based on the religious worldview of the Bantu-speaking peo-ples of Africa.

25 María Liónza, also known as the cult of the “tres poténcias” (3 powers), is a syncretic religion that combines the healing and ritual practices of the Venezue-lan indigenous tradition with elements from the African and European religious cultures. Its principal temple is known as la Montaña de luz (Mountain of Light). Interview with Enver Olayemi Arbelaez and Ricardo Acevedo. April 19, 2012.


sees temples in Trinidad and in Colombia. According to Enver Olayemi and Ricardo Acevedo, it was actually Solagbade Popoola who had conse-crated the temple of José Hidalgo Edibere, known as Egbá Òrìsa-Oko. However, apparently due to personal disagreements, Popoola left Edibere and established another temple in Caracas known as Egbé Òtúrúpòn-Ìsokùn on February 18, 2011. Under the spiritual guidance of Popoola, the young Awos who make up the membership of the Egbé Òtúrúpòn-Ìsokùn have been actively working to give a new outlook to the Ifá/Òrìsà religious prac-tice in Venezuela, bringing it closer to the practice in the Yoruba-African homeland.

With a membership of more than a hundred awos – 20 or so of whom are very active members highly committed to a rigorous regime of training and regular observances of Ifá tenets and activities – the Egbé Òtúrúpòn-Ìsokùn takes its vocation as a Yoruba Ifá temple in Venezuela very serious-ly. This is attested to by the mission statement posted on its Facebook page: »Templo-Egbe Oturupon-Isokun, inaugurado el 18 de febrero de 2011 por el líder del mismo Chief Oluwo Solagbade Popoola, dicho templo es regido por enseñanzas de este prestigioso babalawo, todas las practicas hecha en el mismo son avaladas y enseñadas por él. Solagbade Popoola: Actual Coordinador de la Ética y Escrituras Sagradas en el Concilio Internacional para la Religión Ifá – ICIR. Presidente/Rector del Ifá International Training Institute – IITI. El templo está diseñado bajo las doctrinas Yorubas genuinas, las cuales no solo se basan en el aspecto ceremonial (CONSULTAS, EBO, CEREMONIAS) sino que hacemos énfasis en el aspecto religioso al difundir la palabra de Olodumare a todas las personas, con el fin de orientarlas sobre cómo mejorar los distintos aspectos de su vida y la de su entorno.«26 One remarkable feature of the Egbé Òtúrúpòn-Ìsokùn temple is the ongoing efforts to make the activities of the temple conform to what they consider

26 “The Oturupon Isokun Temple, founded on February 18, 2011 by its supreme

leader, Chief Oluwo Solagbade Popoola, is a temple whose affairs are directed by the teachings of this prestigious babalawo, who also oversees and directs all the activities of the temple. Solagbade Popoola is himself the current Director of Ethics and Sacred Scriptures of the International Council of Ifá Religion – ICIR, and President/Rector of the Ifá International Training Institute – IITI. The tem-ple is designed in conformity with genuine Yoruba doctrines which are not only based on ceremonial aspects like (Ifá) consultations, ebo and ceremonies, but emphasis is also placed on the religious aspect by propagating the word of Olodumare to all people with the aim of orienting them toward improving vari-ous aspects of their lives and their environment.” (translation by the author)


the true Yoruba-African model. A phrase often repeated by members of the temple is: “hacer lo más parecido a la práctica tradicional africana.” The young people who make up the Egbe greatly value this constant assurance that their practice is as close as possible to what obtains in the traditional Yoruba homeland. They hope to make a difference in Venezuela by placing emphasis not on the consultant/client relationship that is common between Ifá/Òrìsà priests and the rest of the local population, but rather on a rigorous observance of regular ritual activities such as the forthnightly itadogun sim-ilar to those in Yoruba-Africa. Toward this end, they also promote activities like weekly lectures based on the curriculum of the Ifá International Train-ing Institute, encuentros de actualizaciones en rituales de Ifá. These actual-ization workshops on Ifá rituals are open to all interested persons, whether or not they are members of the temple. Invitations to such events almost always carry an open message to members of other Ifá/Òrìsà temples in Venezuela. This can be interpreted in one of two ways: either as a way of promoting unity among Ifá/Òrìsà adepts in the country or as a challenge to “rival” temples whose ritual practices are not considered “purely Yoruba.” The latter suggests an effort to indirectly take sides in the debate on purity and syncretism in Afro-Latin religions.27 Even the Popoola Magazine pub-lished by the temple carries the motto: “100 per cent Isese.” In other words, its contents conform 100 percent to the traditional Ifá/Òrìsà practice of the Yoruba homeland where the religion is often referred to generally as Ìsèse or Ìsèdálè.

However, this insistence on the purity of the practices of the Egbé Òtúrúpòn-Ìsokùn may be considered problematic if one looks carefully at the content and form of the practices purportedly carried out “al estilo tradicional nigeriano,” as repeatedly declared in their brochures. To begin with, the reference to a “Nigerian traditional style” can only be taken as rel-ative, since, in the best of situations, it can only refer to a particular Yorùbá-Nigerian “tradition,” specifically, that of their guide and leader,

27 Another possible reading, which was actually confirmed in the interview this au-

thor had with the Oluwo and Ojugbona of the Temple, is that the Egbé Òtúrúpòn-Ìsokùn is interested in demystifying what other temple leaders hoard from their members in the name of ritual secrecy and “prohibitions” such as the one held by Cuban-lucumí priests that women cannot be initiated into Ifá. That is probably why they specifically mentioned that their event was open to baba-lawos (male priests) and iyanifa (female priests) alike, along with promising po-tential attendees of their weekend Ifá actualization course that both the lecture and ritual explanatory texts would be distributed to participants irrespective of their religious (temple) affiliations or creed.


Chief Solagbade Popoola, or at least what they believe to be “his” tradi-tion.28

This is perhaps better understood on a closer analysis of how and what the members of the Egbé Òtúrúpòn-Ìsokùn understand by the diverse ritual activities of adoration and appeasement of Ifá and the Òrìsà such as Sú-plicas Matutina (daily morning supplications), Días de Ifá (translated in the Egbé’s Facebook page as “how to greet Ifá in the morning”), la ceremonia de Ose Itadogun (the forthnightly held ritual ceremonies for Ifá), etc. A typ-ical example would be the description and comments surrounding what they called “Servicio de Templo” or Ile Ijuba. For interested readers, it may be instructive to look at the complete text of the invitation circulated on the Facebook page of the Templo-Egbe Oturupon-Isokun, which reflects the importance accorded by the members of the temple to this “novelty” in Ifá/Òrìsà worship ethos and praxis in Venezuela.

First and foremost, the discussion and comments generated by some of these postings may suggest that the various innovative ritual activities of the Egbé Òtúrúpòn-Ìsokùn that are supposedly modeled after the “purest Nigerian tradition” are still fraught with remnants of the Catholic liturgy. In fact, with its opening song, the kyrie, the credo, the sermon, and the offerto-ry, any Catholic who has the opportunity to participate in what the Egbé Òtúrúpòn-Ìsokùn calls the Servicio de Templo de Ifa will be struck by the similarity of the sequence of the liturgy to that of a normal Catholic mass. What is probably left out are the bible readings (replaced by Ifá textual readings) and the consecration of the host that are typical of a Catholic mis-sa. It is equally revealing that participants are informed in bold letters that, in order to attend the Servicio de Templo, they must be dressed in white, which is considered the only color appropriate for Òrìsà worship in the Americas.

Egbé Òtúrúpòn-Ìsokùn: a commitment to Ifá education and practice

Perhaps a major advantage of the absolute majority of members of the Egbé Òtúrúpòn-Ìsokùn being young working-class individuals between 22 and 42 years of age is that they have a greater propensity to acquire and deepen

28 It is equally important to point out, with various theorists of cultural and identity

studies, that religious tradition is as dynamic as any other aspect of human cul-ture. It is therefore untenable to believe that a particular tradition, in this case, the Yoruba religious tradition as practiced in the Yoruba-African setting, has ever been, or will continue to be, constant and unchanging over time.


their knowledge of the Ifá/Òrìsà religion through active study. Rather than being daunted by the linguistic barrier associated with having a leader and guide who only speaks Yoruba and English, and not a word of Spanish, they have created an efficient system in which they can access Solagbade Popoola’s theological thoughts and teachings through translation. First, the writings are translated from Yoruba into English by Popoola himself, and then from English to Spanish by Popoola’s disciples, the lion’s share by one particular Latino Awo living in the United States.29

It should be pointed out that the spiritual guide of the Egbé Òtúrúpòn-Ìsokùn, Chief Solagbade Popoola, is well-known in Ifá/Òrìsà circles as an Ifá intellectual. He has published many of his teachings and lectures in the forms of books and articles, above all in the Orunmila magazine of which he is also the editor-in-chief. It is therefore no surprise that his disciples place considerable emphasis on learning and intellectual training in Ifá by reading appropriate literature.

The length to which the Egbé Òtúrúpòn-Ìsokùn is willing to go in its commitment to learn about and propagate the Ifá/Òrìsà religion as practiced and taught by their Yoruba-African model is remarkable. The Venezuelan Oluwo of the Temple, Enver Olayemi Arbelaez alluded to this level of ded-ication in the aforementioned interview conducted by this author. He claimed that one major expectation of the newly released Popoola Maga-zine was that it would serve as a source of authentic Yoruba Ifá/Òrìsà knowledge to those of his compatriots who, either for lack of time or op-portunity or because they are too shy or jealous, are not able to participate in the other teaching programs of the Egbé such as the regular courses and seminars offered by the IITI, the teachings propagated on their Facebook pages, etc. This is corroborated by Ricardo Lopes, the editor of Popoola Magazine, who asserts in his editorial note that the magazine has the objec-tive, among others, of “sharing with the entire religious community of Ven-ezuela and the world at large our knowledge, experiences, wisdom and the literature accumulated in the course of over thirty years by our director (Solagbade Popoola).”30

29 Interview with Enver Arbelaez and Ricardo Acevedo, April 19, 2012. 30 Editorial (2012), Popoola Magazine April/1.


Conclusion

Clearly, the Egbé Òtúrúpòn-Ìsokùn, under the spiritual guidance of Solagbade Popoola, is gradually establishing itself in Venezuela as a major actor and agent of the re-Africanization process of the Ifá/Òrìsà tradition. It may be argued that the members of the temple are still too young and im-pressionable to make a serious impact on a society where the Cuban-lucumí tradition is very strong and better organized with its more than 150-members-strong ASOIFÁ – Asociación de Seguidores de Ifá en Venezuela (Association of Followers of Ifá in Venezuela) – which, since 2004, has been organizing the annual reading of the Letra del Año.31 They are also not as rich and influential as the Egbé Òrìsà-Oko of Edibere. However, one can also advance, on the other hand, the fact that the members of the Egbé Òtúrúpòn-Ìsokùn Temple are actively investing in the long-term process of restoring a kind of biological lineage system through the involvement of their own children, who are ritualized from their infancy into the Ifá/Orisa tradition through the Ikosejaye32 rite of passage. This is seen by most mem-bers as a trump card in the consolidation of the re-Africanization or, more appropriately, the re-Yorubanization of the Ifá/Òrìsà tradition in Venezuela.

On another level, the youthful vigor, professional independence, and studious intent of the Egbé Òtúrúpòn-Ìsokùn members can be conceived perhaps as the key to the much sought after re-approximation33 of the two

31 The Letra del Año is an ancient Ifá tradition that has been practiced in Cuba

since the early 20th century. It consists of a collective Ifá consultation by the council of babalawos in a town or country at the beginning of the year to deter-mine what the year holds for the entire community, the ire (blessings), and the ibi (dangers) that may affect the community, the ebo (sacrifices), and the etutu (propitiations) that should be offered to the deities to attract the ire and ward off the ibi. In the Yoruba homeland, this ritual is usually carried out in an elaborate three-day ceremony starting at the Ooni’s palace at Ile-Ife, and concluded during an all-night vigil at the World Ifá Temple in Oke-Itase, Ile-Ife. Today, this cer-emony is considered a kind of homecoming, and/or compulsory pilgrimage for Ifá devotees all over the world, most especially since the UNESCO declared Ifá as a World Intangible Heritage in 2005. While the Letra del Año is “read” at Ile-Ife at the beginning of the Ifá ritual year (early June), in the Diaspora, it is “read” at the beginning or the end of the secular year, i.e. in December or Janu-ary.

32 Ikosedaye, also known as Esentaye or ikosdjaye is,an Ifá ritual conducted for new-born babies. It is a consultation of Ifá to determine the “path,” destiny, and taboos of the new-born in life. It is expected to reveal the blueprint of the child’s future: his/herprofession, the protector Orisa, the colors and environments that are best for his/her upbringing, etc.

33 I have used, or rather, borrowed the word “re-approximation” here from my ear-lier theoretical discourse on the relationship between Yoruba-Africa and it’s


sides of the Yoruba-Atlantic in matters relating to the content, form, and praxis of the Ifá/Òrìsà and other Yoruba cultural traditions. If, for example, the Ifá Heritage Institute, a Category 2 UNESCO Institution founded since 2009 in Oyo, Nigeria under the presidency of Prof. Wande Abimbola (Awise Awo Agbaye) as a result of the 2005 UNESCO recognition of Ifá as an Intangible World Heritage has not been successful at attracting young omo-Awo (Ifá students) from the Portuguese and Spanish-speaking Yoruba Diasporas like Brazil, Cuba, Santo Domingo, Puerto Rico, or Venezuela due to clashes and misunderstandings based on what can be described as doctrinarian and liturgical issues that are further compounded by commer-cial rivalries between followers of the Cuban lucumí tradition and the Yo-ruba-African tradition. This problem has been further compounded by the linguistic chasm that separates the two sides i.e. English/French and Yoru-ba on the African side; Spanish and Portuguese on the Latin-American and Caribbean side. It is the humble believe of this author that one can begin to hope that the fact that the young people who make up the active member-ship of temples like Egbé Òtúrúpòn-Ìsokùn and who are now beginning to approach and interpret their affiliation and subscription to the Ifá/Orisa practice in a more holistic and less commercial light, apparently uncontam-inated by the feuds raging on among the older generations, will help in ac-tually making the required leap towards re-approximation possible.

As the members of the Egbé Òtúrúpòn-Ìsokùn prepare to make their first group visit to Yorubaland in Nigeria between May and July 2012,34 let us hope that their conviction about the culture and religion of the Yoruba that they exhibit so proudly in Venezuela, where they have received enthu-siastic names like Ifatooyangan (Ifá-is-great-enough-to-boast-of), will not suffer any significant setback in their encounter with their brother Ifá priests and Òrìsà devotees in Yorubaland. As the Oluwo of the group suc-cinctly puts it at the end of our interview:

»Mi expectativa es ir a presenciar cuál es la manera con que los Yoruba llevan a la religión, porque hay muchas personas que especulan que los Yoruba ya no

Latin-American diasporas where the term originally means a “rapprochement,” i.e. the forging of closer physical, economic, cultural, religious and even politi-cal ties between the two sides of what I call the “Yoruba Atlantic” (cf. Ayoh’Omidire 2005; 2009a).

34 The visit was indeed consummated with 10 members of the Egbé Òtúrúpòn-Ìsokùn, led by their Olúwo, spending 2 weeks in Nigeria and participating in the 2012 Odun-Ifá ceremony in Ile-Ife.


mantienen Ifá, que los yoruba ya no mantienen los orichás, que eso en África se acabó, y que hoy hay muy poca población dentro de la tradición.«35 However, as the experienced Venezuelan santero Adrián de Sousa aptly concluded based on the Yoruba religious and socio-moral tradition, espe-cially the Omoluwabi concept as propounded by various Yoruba scholars and intellectuals, the totality of the human values ensconced in the Yoruba religious philosophy and cultural worldview is sufficient to sustain the faith of its adepts and adherents. This is especially true of the Atlantic World where such Yoruba values can serve to de-hegemonize the values of global-ization, seen at times in some sensitive quarters as highly invasive.

»El acercamiento desprejuiciado a una cultura ancestral como la Yoruba es ya un paso positivo. La comprensión de los mitos Yoruba es la savia necesaria para que florezca en nuestras conciencias la comprensión de la era contemporánea. Lo importante es ver con los ojos del corazón aquello que los ojos no alcanzan [...]. Cuando se reconozca cuánta riqueza emana de esa cultura que premia en su justo valor la importancia de la familia, la caricia de un ser querido, la sonrisa de un niño o de un anciano, la inigualable necesidad de un maestro, la importancia de la salud, la alerta contra la ignorancia que nos hace esclavos, estaremos conscientes de la diferencia entre valor y precio. Se puede comprar una casa, un automóvil; sin embargo, nadie ha podido pagar por una acción honesta, su valor es inapreciable (Sousa 2004: 39).« In the final analysis, whatever may have been source of the appeal of the Ifá/Òrìsà tradition that was responsible for drawing so many Venezuelans to the new temples, one can safely conjecture that, judging by their impetus and tenacity of purpose, the new generation of Ifá/Òrìsà practitioners as represented by the Egbe Oturupon-Isokun in Venezuela will definitely be necessary to solidify the newfound convictions in a country where, given the more recent prevailing political and social conditions, more and more people are becoming disenchanted daily by the promises of the Bolivarian Socialism of the 20th century, whose incoherencies now glare them in the face after the untimely exit of the Comandante in 2013. In other words, now that Venezuelans are faced with a harsher reality under the Maduro

35 “My expectation is to go and see how the Yorubas handle their religion, because

there are many people who go about claiming that the Yoruba no longer practice Ifá, that they no longer practice Orisa, that all this is already part of the past in Africa, and that there are very few people to be found in the religion today.” (free translation by the author)


Government, it may be up to the young ifaleros to demonstrate to their compatriots how Ifá might be a viable option in their individual and collec-tive existentialist quests for a better world. In doing so, they would perhaps be able to encourage all Venezuelans to take the next necessary leap and thus allow Ifá to mend our broken world as promised by Awise Wande Abimbola in one of his publications.


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Petrodollar, Bolivarianism, and the ReYorubanization of Santería in Chávez’s

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