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Santeria (African Cultural Ideas) Under Attack: The Attempted Erasure of Lucumi and Extinguishing of a Cultural Candle

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Handbook of Racism, Xenophobia, and Populism

Abstract

This chapter is an informative, spiritual, and cultural analysis of the attempt to erase African cultural ideas. Hence, it delves into what passes as Eurocentric deceptions and negative depictions of African spiritual systems, including in-depth academic interrogations which are seamlessly balanced with everyday analogies and practical takeaways for every reader, but are at the core serious hindrances to the assertion of African cultural forms. By maximizing the current convergence of social justice engagement and the ongoing struggle for increasing/continued African cultural connectivity, the author formulates a critical approach to the examination of Eurocentric ideas.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Raul Canizar, Walking with the Night: The Afro-Cuban World of Santeria (Rochester: Destiny Books, 1993), 30.

  2. 2.

    Mary Ann Clark, Santeria: Correcting the Myths and Uncovering the Realities of a Growing Religion (Westport: Praeger Publishers, 2007), 3.

  3. 3.

    Joseph M Murphy, Santeria: An African Religion in America (Boston: Beacon Press, 1988), 11.

  4. 4.

    Miguel A. De La Torre, Santeria: The Beliefs and Rituals of a Growing Religion in America (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2004), 226.

  5. 5.

    De LaTorre, 228.

  6. 6.

    Murphy, 8.

  7. 7.

    Margarit Fernandez Olmos and Lizabeth Paravisini-Gebert, Creole Religions of the Caribbean: An Introduction from Vodun and Santeria to Obeah and Espiritismo (New York: New York Univeristy Press, 2003), 37.

  8. 8.

    Olmos and Paravisini-Gerbert, 38.

  9. 9.

    Ibid., 41.

  10. 10.

    Ibid., 43.

  11. 11.

    Ibid., 44.

  12. 12.

    Ibid., 45.

  13. 13.

    Ibid., 46.

  14. 14.

    Ibid., 47.

  15. 15.

    Ibid.,48.

  16. 16.

    Ibid.,49.

  17. 17.

    Ibid.,50.

  18. 18.

    Clark, 59

  19. 19.

    Olmos and Paravisini-Gerbert, 42.

  20. 20.

    Miguel Barnet, “La Regla de Ocha: The Religious System of Santería,” in Sacred Possessions, ed. Margarit Fernandez Olmos and Lizabeth Paravisini-Gebert (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1997), 81.

  21. 21.

    David H. Brown, Santeria Enthroned: Art Ritual, and Innovation in an Afro-Cuban Religion (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003), iv.

  22. 22.

    De La Torre, 3.

  23. 23.

    De La Torre, 3.

  24. 24.

    Brown, 68.

  25. 25.

    Murphy, 179.

  26. 26.

    Syncretism–Definitions, http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/syncretism (April 24, 2008).

  27. 27.

    Olmos and Paravisini-Gerbert, 7.

  28. 28.

    George Brandon, Santeria from Africa to the New World: The Dead Sell Memories (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1993) 159.

  29. 29.

    Christine Ayorinde, Afro-Cuban Religiosity, Revolution, and National Identity: The History of African-American Religions (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2004), 23.

  30. 30.

    Olmos and Paravisini –Gebert, 51.

  31. 31.

    Clark, 113.

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Smith, A. (2022). Santeria (African Cultural Ideas) Under Attack: The Attempted Erasure of Lucumi and Extinguishing of a Cultural Candle. In: Akande, A. (eds) Handbook of Racism, Xenophobia, and Populism. Springer Handbooks of Political Science and International Relations. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-13559-0_27

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