Writing about our Religion
The cult of the Òrìṣàs was maintained, for centuries, through the oral tradition. In a time where nothing was written, everything was transmitted form "mouth-to-ear" and the possibility of making written notes was considered but disregarded not only to tradition but also to the deities themselves. "Lukumí is learned in practice, in the daily life of the Ilé Òòṣà" Our elders emphatically stated.
I do not intend to theorize as to the validity of this assertion. It might work effectively at a time when worshipers lived only on worship, dedicating their full time to it. But today things have changed……In the present conjuncture, few are the priests who live exclusively from the cult and for the cult. The current human being, however dedicated to his religion, has to divide his/her time by equating a space for religious practice and a space for his/her activities as a common citizen. After all, unlike in Africa, being an Olóòrìṣà is not, or at least should not be, a profession!
Add to this a detail that we deem most important:
Our religious ancestors, the African blacks brought by force to our land, had no writings and for this reason, and for this reason alone, they did not write their religious foundations, although they kept them alive through symbols that represented to them such an effective language as writing.
Unfortunately the technique of interpretation of the language of symbols, retained by those who dominated it, disappeared with them in that they preferred to take it to their tomb to transmit it to whoever it was. And what's left for us?
Sparse scraps, that's what we have left! snippets and rags scattered here and there, and now a group of self-sacrificed priests, me included, tries, with much sacrifice, to gather and, stitch together, to remake the puzzle created by the cultural suicide to which our religion was subjected. Yet these same self-denying ones are criticized and accused of publicly exposing the most secretive secrets of our religion, making them accessible to the uninitiated, as if this could bring about more serious consequences than the manipulation of knowledge so vaunted by their accusers, to know this one that, in most cases, does not withstand a questioning, no matter how superficial and elementary it may be.
"Maybe he does not fear the spread of knowledge"! I affirm in response to the detractors who tremble with fear at the danger of seeing their "truths" crumble before the gentle breeze of a movement of intellectualization of worship in all its diversity of segments. It is not my intention to stir up disputes between the reactionaries and those who think it is legitimate to disseminate religious knowledge, and Afro-Cuban culture by using written records of everything that can bring subsidies to the followers of this religion, as well as those who are passionate about this culture.
It remains for us to remember, and any one is to observe "in loco", just by visiting the temples of any other religions, that in all of them, whatever their origin, books are always present in the rituals. They are read and consulted during liturgies and are as sacred as the other components of the altar.
The time has passed. Now we live fast. Illiteracy is combated like the plague, a plague that places the human being in a state of inferiority only comparable to that considered legally incapable. Lukumí is no longer, fortunately, a religion of the illiterate.
It demands of its followers, and much more of its priests, not a minimum, but a cultural load, sufficiently solid to give them the understanding of its esoteric foundations. And there is the knowing.
But in truth, I am happy to see that those who fight or critique the publications on Lukumí religion, are the first to buy those same publications, always with the hypocritical excuse of trying to evaluate what is contained in them, as if they had, the three basic requirements:
- General culture,
- Religious culture
- Sincerity of purpose.
The present work has the intention to help all, including those who abhor books, to find solutions to their problems and those of those who depend on them.
