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 tradition. In relations of reciprocity with these gods, people enjoy their successes in life, celebrate their rites of passage, and cope with misfortune, illness, and grief. Comparable to the Iwa of the Haitian Vodou tradition.