African religious leaders pay homage to Cuba

HAVANA — Leaders of the Yoruba religion praised Cuba on Tuesday for helping spread the Africa-based faith around the world as they opened the Congress of Orisa Tradition and Culture here.

"We realize the pre-eminent position of Cuba in this religion," said congress president Wande Abimbola, a Nigerian professor at Boston University.

"From this island, the religion has been transported to so many diverse places in the world," he said, referring to the Cuban emigration that helped spread a religion that survived centuries of oppression here.

Abimbola said that more than 100 million people now practice Yoruba religion and added that it is "one of the fastest growing religions" in the United States.

"Our religion is now a world religion," added Abimbola, 71, a former head of Nigeria's senate.

Leaders among the 300 conference participants from 28 countries called for unity and tolerance toward all faiths, but there were signs of divisions at home.

Several of Cuba's most revered babalaos were either not invited or were unable to attend the closed meeting after local organizers rejected their papers.

"You cannot have a congress excluding people within the religion and the culture of the country," said Natalia Bolivar, an academic expert on and practitioner of Afro-Cuban religion.

Conference organizer Antonio Castaneda said others had been invited but their papers had been rejected by review panels because "they did not have the quality to be presented."

Men and women in African robes mingled with others in suits or dresses on Tuesday at Havana's Palace of Conventions — where Cuba's parliament also meets — chatting in Spanish, English and Yoruba.

Workshops covered topics such as Ifa ethics, Orisa education in U.S. public schools and the use of midwives and herbal treatments.

Castaneda, president of the Yoruba Cultural Association of Cuba, estimated that about half of the island's 11.2 million people follow African-based religions, which are often tightly mingled with Catholicism here.

Yoruba religion, which involves worship of Orisa spirits associated with hills, rivers, animals and other entities, has a complex theology based on what Abimbola said was a simple message: Human beings "are a product of nature. We are no higher than nature.

"We bow down to important features of nature because we know they represent much more than their physical presence that we can see."

In Cuba, orisas are usually identified with Catholic saints — a practice that helped slaves and their descendants secretly follow African traditions which were frequently harshly suppressed.

Another outgrowth of that oppression is that some groups are more secretive than those in Africa tend to be.

"Our purpose is not to put our stamp of approval on a particular brand of religion to the exclusion of others," Abimbola said. "We are Africans and if anybody wants to practice the religion the African way, very well. But if anybody wants to practice the religion in their own way, it is very well for us."

Iyanifa Iya Osunyemi Ifanike from New York (L) greets a friend at the World Yoruba Congress in Havana, July 8, 2003. High priests from Nigeria and followers from the Caribbean, Brazil and the United States, attired in flowing cloth robes and lots of beads gathered in Cuba to attended the congress of a religion brought to the Americas by slaves. REUTERS/Claudia Daut

A priest from Nigeria holds a devination tapper during the World Yoruba Congress in Havana, July 8, 2003. High priests from Nigeria and followers from the Caribbean, Brazil and the United States, attired in flowing cloth robes and lots of beads gathered in Cuba to attended the congress of a religion brought to the Americas by slaves. REUTERS/Claudia Daut

Iyalocha Oya Odde from Cuba attends athe World Yoruba Congress in Havana, July 8, 2003. High priests from Nigeria and followers from the Caribbean, Brazil and the United States, attired in flowing cloth robes and lots of beads gathered in Cuba to attend the congress of a religion brought to the Americas by slaves. REUTERS/Claudia Daut

Faithfuls attending the 8th. Yoruba Global Congress, view the Yoruba altar located in the lobby of the Conventions Palace in Havana on Tuesday July 8, 2003, in Havana, Cuba. The Yoruba religion has roots in Africa but it has spread throughout the world. (AP Photo/Cristobal Herrera)

Faithfuls attend the inauguration of the 8th Yoruba Global Congress, at the Conventions Palace in Havana, on Tuesday July 8, 2003, in Havana, Cuba. The Yoruba religion has roots in Africa but it has spread throughout the world. (AP Photo/Cristobal Herrera

Wande Abimbola, President of the Yoruba Congress, attends the inauguration of the 8th Yoruba Global Congress, at the Conventions Palace on Tuesday July 8, 2003, in Havana, Cuba. The Yoruba religion has roots in Africa but it has spread throughout the world. (AP Photo/Cristobal Herrera)