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Orisha Deities
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The orishas of the Yoruba of West Africa and of the religions descended from Yoruba practice across the Americas. Each orisha carries their own colours, foods, rhythms, numbers and natural domains, and in the diaspora many were identified with Catholic saints under conditions where the older religion was forbidden. These are living traditions with initiated priesthoods.
Facts
Overview
What Defines This GroupingThe orisa of the Yoruba and of the African-diaspora religions descended from them. They are held to be emanations of, or intermediaries under, the supreme being Olodumare, and are served through drumming, offering, divination and possession. These are living initiatory religions, and what is transmitted in initiation is not reproduced here. 2 Peoples and Traditions CoveredCandomble in Brazil, where the orisa are the orixas 3 Peoples and Traditions CoveredLucumi, also called Santeria, in Cuba and its diaspora 4 Peoples and Traditions CoveredThe Yoruba of present-day Nigeria and Benin, the source tradition 2 Origins
Origin of the NameThe Yoruba word is orisa, written òrìṣà in Yoruba orthography. The spellings orisha, oricha and orixa are English, Spanish and Portuguese transcriptions used in the diaspora, and they do not name different beings. 2 Attestation
Veneration TodayServed today in Yorubaland and across Cuba, Brazil, Trinidad and the wider Americas. 2 Learn More
The orishas of Yoruba tradition
This group holds the orishas, the deities of the Yoruba religion of West Africa and of the African-diaspora traditions descended from it, including Cuban Santeria (Lucumi) and Brazilian Candomble. The orishas are emanations of the supreme being Olodumare who govern natural forces and human affairs and are served through drumming, offering and possession.
The browser will find Eshu/Elegba the trickster and messenger, Shango the thunder-king, Ogun of iron and war, Yemoja of the waters, Oshun of the rivers, and Obatala the sky-father. The atlas notes both the West African source tradition and its diaspora forms, which often pair each orisha with a Catholic saint.
Cross-Tradition Connections
Belongs to Tradition
The orishas as held in Candomble, each orixa a personal guardian revealed to the devotee through divination, named in the group article.
The orishas as held in Santeria's own Regla de Ocha, named in the group article.
The orishas as held in the Yoruba homeland tradition, centred on Ile-Ife, held in Yoruba cosmology as the site of the world's creation, named in the group article.
Sources
2. Olodumare: God in Yoruba Belief
3. Black Atlantic Religion: Tradition, Transnationalism, and Matriarchy in the Afro-Brazilian Candomble
J. Lorand Matory, Princeton University Press, 2005IntroductionView the Source 4. Worldview, the Orichas, and Santeria: Africa to Cuba and Beyond
Mercedes Cros Sandoval, University Press of Florida, 2006chs. 1-2
Santeria Enthroned: Art, Ritual, and Innovation in an Afro-Cuban Religion
David H. Brown, University of Chicago Press, 2003
Ifa: An Exposition of Ifa Literary Corpus
Wande Abimbola, Oxford University Press, 1976
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