Dimas Castellanos, Translator: Unstated
Between March 8th and 9th in the eastern city of Holguín, the First
Meeting of Women Iyaonifá in Cuba was held. During the event the
association the "Universal Sisterhood" was established, the first
organization of its kind in our country. During the meeting, of a
universal character, 31 delegates from La Habana, Matanzas, Morón,
Holguín and Santiago de Cubawere directly involved, and attending
virtually were delegates from Venezuela, Mexico, Panama and Spain.
The opening, coinciding with International Women's Day, began with a
drum ceremony to honor ancestors and prominent figures. In particular,
Àgbàyé Arábìnrin Oluwa — the first Iyaonifá known in history, who lived
about 200 AD in Nigeria — Fermina Gomez, Latuán and Maria Moserarrate,
among other priestesses of the cult of Ifá and women important in the
history of Cuba like Mariana Grajales and Celia Sanchez Manduley. On the
second day the session founded the international Universal Sisters
association and priestesses were chosen to develop legislative and
executive policies for the fledgling institution.
As announced, the two key objectives of Universal Sisters are: (1)
Regain the position that corresponds to the female gender in the African
religious context, and (2) To contribute, by their example, to the
reduction of distance between different families and institutions of
babalawos that exist in Cuba.
The Constitution of the Universal Sisters is the result of an effort
directed as repositioning women in the religious Afro-Cuban and
Afro-American context in Cuba which started nine years ago, when the
Ìranlówo Ifa Temple House (Salvation is Ifá) led by Víctor Omolófaoró,
consecrated with the rank of Iyaonifá, equivalent to Babalawo for men,
the Cuban women Maria Cuesta Ifachina and Nidia Aguila Ifabiola in March
2002, and the Venezuelan Alba Marina Portals Ifayeni in June 2004, who
became part of list of women on the continent led by Patri D 'Haifa, the
first American woman consecrated in New York City in 1985.
For Victor Omolófaoró the consecration of women is justified: because
essential knowledge in Yoruba traditions is received at a great age and
male slaves who arrived in Cuba, because of their youth, did not have
it; because African women arrived on the island with the knowledge
required for performing initiations; because until the third decade of
the twentieth century women existed in Cuba with these characteristics;
for the religious activities of the House that she directs are copies of
the ceremonies performed between 1860 and 1930 in Cuba and those
undertaken by the Yoruba peoples of old; because the initiation
performed corresponds to the international movement of the signification
of women; because they have received visits from several Nigerian
Iyanifa; because Professor Wande Abimbola Awise Agbaye, Ifa Inspector in
the World, makes no distinction between men and women, as both can study
and receive a hand of Ifa through knowledge, study and practice; and
because the spiritual leader of the Yoruba religion in the world, Chief
Awoyemi Aworeni Adisa Mokoranwale, said that women "can undertake Itefa
to be converted into Ìyáonífá or Iyá-awo, a priestess of Ifa …. "
The solo work initiated by the Ifa Ìranlówo Temple House is followed
today by several babalawos of the country and the number consecrated has
risen within Cuba to 58, demonstrating that gender equality within the
Yoruba religion is on the road to consolidation. A fact that recalls
what happened in 1857 with the first abakuá oath of whites in Cuba, for
which Petit (Andrés Quimbisa) was accused as a traitor and of having
sold the secret to whites. Likewise, the consecration of women priests
and the birth of Universal Sisters is an important moment in the history
of African religions in Cuba and of gender equality.
April 11 2011
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