The Yoruba people are descendants from a variety of West African communities. They are united by Geography, History, Religion and most importantly Language… They all speak Yoruba.
In present day West Africa, the main countries where Yoruba speaking people live are Nigeria, Togo and Benin. These countries are very close together.
Many years ago, before African slavery, the Yoruba people inhabited an area which stretched, along the coast of West Africa, all the way inward and down to Angola in South West Africa.
During the period of African Slavery, from the late 1500’s to the late 1800’s, millions of Yoruba people were forcibly taken out of Africa. Their numbers dwindled and so did their land area. After Slavery, the European powers (i.e.) the British; French; Dutch; Spanish and Portuguese, cut up the continent of Africa into different pieces and imposed new countries and languages in Africa.
As slaves, the Yoruba people were no longer free. They were not allowed to practice their religion, play on their drums, which was integral to their worship, or engage in any other religious Yoruba practice. They were forced into European religions which were Catholicism and other forms of Christianity.
Far away from home, the Yoruba had only themselves and what was in their hearts…their religion…their God.
What is significant about the Yoruba people is that they kept their religion hidden under the guise of Catholicism, or Protestantism. Whatever religion was forced upon them, they accepted but the Yoruba religion was carried inside of those Christian religions.
Basic Yoruba belief involves ritual practices such as singing, dancing, drumming, spirit possession, ritual healing, respect for ancestors and divination.
Originally prohibited from practicing African religions, slaves and free people of color mostly frequented the Catholic churches but they carried their African beliefs and over the centuries worked both religions together into one. Most of its adherents came from West and Central Africa.
Modern Western Orisha / Yoruba Worship
Cuban Santeria; Hatian Vodun (voodoo); Brizilian Candomble; Trinidad and Tobago Shango are all Yoruba or Orisha based.
All of these religions are African derived religions having different names in different countries. They combine beliefs from the Kabbalah and Yoruba speaking peoples of West/Central Africa, with elements of Catholicism or Anglicanism. Even some Hinduism is included in Trinidad, because of the East Indian influence in that country.
The foundation of this religion is interaction between human beings and a group of spirits called “Orishas”. Each Orisha is associated with particular ideas, objects or natural phenomena. For example the Orisha Shango is associated with thunder and fertility. The Orishas make appearances at religious celebrations through possession trance of Orisha believers. This religion also emphasize continual feeding and supplication to the dieties or Orishas. When one is possessed by an Orisha, one speaks and behaves as though one were that Orisha.
Western Syncretic Religion & Countries
Canboulay/ Candomble / Santeria / (Yoruba Faith & Catholicism) ……Brazil
Canboulay/ Candomble / (Yoruba Faith & Catholicism) ……………Columbia
Santeria/ (Yoruba Faith & Catholicism)…… ……………………………………………………Cuba
Voodoo/ Vodun / (Yoruba Faith & Catholicism) ………………………………………………Haiti
Shango/ Obeah / (Yoruba Faith & Catholicism) ………………………………………..Trinidad
Pocomania/ Rastafarian/ (Yoruba Faith & Anglicanism) ………………………….Jamaica
Christianity / Obeah (Yoruba Faith & Anglicanism) ………..,,,………………….Barbados
Christianity………………………………………………………………………………………………St.Vincent
Christianity…………………………………………………………………………………………………St. Lucia
Christianity (Some Yoruba ) ……………………………………………..The U. S. A.
References
Web- https://www.hoodoowitch.net/about-hoodoo-witch/african-religions/