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The story of Shango that you are about to see
is a little bit different from the story of Shango
that you are already familiar with,
though it is the same Shango.
This particular story
is based on the Cuban experience
of the legendary god himself.
I can see smiles on your faces
My children
Long time ago, your great grandfathers
and your great grandmothers were
captured and taken into slavery.
Some of them, my people
your own people were taken from
the western coasts of Africa to Cuba
and other parts of the world
Over a hundred million Africans
were forcefully uprooted from their roots.
People who spoke the same language
share the same vision and
venerated the same spirit.
A saying of our people goes thus,
“A strong heart is not a knee that can be bent”
and so these African people,
our ancestors established and
in some cases reinvented their cultural identity
wherever they were taken all over the world.
They made their captors to understand that
though rain may beat the skin of a leopard,
but it cannot wash off the spots on its body.
For example,
in Cuba, our ancestors maintained a number
of traditional African religious practices
by developing a complex relations
among their experiences and
the Roman Catholicism that was
forced upon them by the Spanish law.
It is this fusion of African religious practices
and the Christianity that later became
known as Santeria.
Africans gods and goddesses
were parallel to the Christian saints.
For example,
Shango in Cuba is sometimes referred to as Santa Barbara,
Ogun as Saint Anthony
Oya as Saint Theresa and so on and so forth.
You see how wise our ancestors are.
You see how wise our ancestors are,
I hope you are following me.
However,
to make this evening’s story even more interesting,
I thought of an ingenious idea.
I arranged for some actors and actresses
to bring alive the way our ancestral Africans
in the diaspora feel and uphold
their traditional practices
handed down to them by their ancestors
our forefathers.
You see, this night, you are going to
experience the Cuban account of
the pantheon of the Yoruba gods.
But it is pertinent that
I prepare your mind that
what you are about to see,
might be a little bit different
from what you were told
what you were taught
what you feel everyday around you,
please, accept the Cuban version of
the legendary god himself,
the Yorùbá mythology,
the mythology of Shango because
as our people usually say,
“To be ignorant of an event is bad,
but to refuse to be educated by that event is worse”.
So, please,
let us see how our brothers and sisters in Cuba,
what they think about our gods.
Thank you, Epele
oh, oh, Lest I forget
some Yoruba songs, dances, chants and
gyrations have been intentionally
added to the performance
to make it even more interesting after all
the culture itself is Yorùbá.
So sit down, enjoy the show.
Follow the action of the performance for
we start with ignorance in most endeavours
and end up becoming wise through experience.
My children,
Audience: Baba,
My Children
Audience: Baba O
There is one particular song that keeps ringing
in my head whenever I remember how our ancestors
maintained their cultural practices in Cuba.
The song goes thus:
Africans n’se oro ile won o ni Cuba
Africans n’se oro ile won o la America
Africans n’soro ile won ni Alabama,
Africans n'se oro ile won o
Esin kan o pe, O yee
Esin kan o pe kawon ma se Oro,
Africans n’se oro ile won o, e gbe orin
Chorus: Awa o se oro ile wa o,
Awa o se oro ni ile wa o, awa o se oro ni ile wa o,
A wa o se oro ile wa o
awa o se oro ni ile wa o,
esin kan o pe, oyee,
esin kan o pe, kawon maa se oro
awa o se oro ni ile wa o.
Enu aye mi baba
enu aye mimoshe o
Enu aye mi baba
Obatala, ta wini wini se e kure
Bobo la ina fere
Obatala ta wini wini, se ekure
bo bo la ina fere
I, orishanla, I am born of Olodumare, Uan Mariqueno.
Mother, I want to know my name
Obatala: You can call yourself Shango
Shango, I like my name
I want to know the name of my father
Obatala: Oh, child, don’t pester me.
Young Shango: I want to know who my father is.
Obatala: There isn’t enough time in the whole
And I, every day, from dawn until sunset
will ask you the same thing, again
and again, until I drive you crazy
And just how is this father of yours to mean anything
...to you when he is so unworthy of me.
I don’t care. I want to know who my father is.
I want to see my father.
I WANT TO SEE MY FATHER
I WANT TO SEE MY FATHER
Stop! Shango,
Someday when you no longer
wish to see or to hear the name of
the one who came to my side as justice,
then what will you say
Your father’s name is Agayu Sola
go and find him him.
Go and find him upon the rivers and
when you see him, stay with him
Shango: Ah, mother, please…
Obatala: Go and find him.