Santería (Lucumí)

A Cuban orisha religion that hid its African gods behind Catholic saints.

c. 1800 CE → · Cuba & diaspora · African & Diaspora

Santería, or the Lucumí religion, grew among enslaved Yoruba in Cuba, who preserved worship of the orishas by identifying them with Catholic saints. It centers on cultivating ashé — sacred life-force — through divination, offerings, and drumming ceremonies that invite the orishas to descend. Initiation into its priesthood forms lifelong ritual families that sustain the tradition across the Americas.

Key figures

• The orishas
• Santos (paired Catholic saints)
• Priests (santeros)

Texts

• Oral tradition & divination

Beliefs

• Worship of the orishas under saintly masks
• Destiny and balance (ashé)
• Living bond with ancestors

Rituals

• Drumming ceremonies (bembé)
• Divination and initiation
• Offerings to the orishas

Grew from

• Yoruba Religion (Ifá)
• Roman Catholicism

Connections in the atlas

• Osun-Osogbo Sacred Grove
• The Ifá corpus (Odù)
• The Middle Passage
• The Yoruba and the Atlantic diaspora
• Ile-Ife