Afro-Caribbean Glossary Terms

Afro-Caribbean religions

Afro-Caribbean religions include a wide range of religious traditions that have roots in Africa, came to the islands of the Caribbean with African captives, and developed distinctive forms in this new environment: Santería or the Lucumi tradition in Cuba...

Danballah

Danballah is an African deity associated with rain, the serpent, and fecundity. In the Americas, Haiti is his main home. He is also associated with the ancestors and ancestral knowledge. In Haitian Vodou syncretism, he came to be identified with St...

divining

Divining or divination is the ancient and pervasive practice of attempting to discern hidden dimensions of present situations or future course of events through sacred techniques, such as casting cowry shells or reading tarot cards.

Elegba

Elegba or Legba is the guardian god of gates and doorways and is thus associated with communication between the Divine and human realms. Often propitiated at the outset of rituals. In Haiti, this important deity is often identified with St. Peter who is...

Haitian Vodou

Vodou refers to the religious traditions of Haiti—a blend of Fon, Yoruba and Kongo traditions of Africa with French Catholicism. While Haitians do use the term Vodou, they more often speak of “serving the spirits,” the lwa, who are honored on altars and...

Kwanzaa

Kwanzaa is a seven-day African-American festival observed from December 26 to January 1. The festival was started by Maulana Karenga in 1966 and has taken hold as a popular African-American holiday. It celebrates family and community, includes songs and...

Lucumi

The African Yoruba-inspired tradition in Cuba came to be called La Regla Lucumi or Santería, the way of the “saints,” so named because of the correspondence established by worshippers between Yoruba orisha (in Spanish, oricha) and the saints of the Roman...

Manbo

A manbo or mambo is a female ritual specialist in the Haitian Vodou tradition. Like her male counterpart, the oungan (or houngan), she performs ceremonies, initiations, healings, and divinations. She is a spiritual guide for those who make contact with...

Ogun

Ogun or Ogou is the lord of iron, metal-work, and technology and is understood to be a warrior god. As such, he is identified through syncretism: in Haiti with St. James, and in Cuba with St. Peter.

Orisha

Although African and Afro-Caribbean religions acknowledge a supreme God, sometimes described as a “high God,” they emphasize the primacy in daily life of multiple spirit beings, called orisha in Yoruba, oricha in the Spanish language of the Cuban Lucumi...

Rastafarian

The Rastafarian tradition arose in the 1930s in Jamaica as an African-identified, anti-colonial religious movement that saw Haile Selassie, the ruler of Ethiopia, as a savior. They took his name—Ras Tafari or Prince of Tafari—as the name of this movement.

Revivalist

The Jamaican Revivalist movement, called Pukumina, is a form of Christian revivalism strongly influenced by African ritual idioms of drumming, dancing, and trance, or spirit possession.

Toque de Egun

Eggun are the spirits of ancestors or the spirits of the dead more generally, especially including the spirits of guides or teachers. Eggun are saluted and honored in many Lucumi ceremonies.

Toque de Santo

A ceremony of drumming and dancing to celebrate the orichas of the Cuban Lucumi tradition.

Yoruba religion

The Yoruba are a West African people in the area now called Nigeria and Benin. The religious traditions of Yoruba culture formed the foundations of many Afro-Caribbean traditions, including Shango in Trinidad, Lucumi or Santería in Cuba, and, to a lesser...