Architecture and Apartheid in South Africa: Economic and Social Factors of Santeria

     The economic and social factors that allowed Santeria to flourish were a function of the colonial policies of imperial Spain, whose assimilation tactics revolved squarely around religious unification under the Catholic Church. The primary basis of this religious agenda functioned on the ideology that having a state religion was a way to intrinsically tie all members of society together under an umbrella of unifying faith, regardless of their socioeconomic position. Churches, which were mostly found near urban centers, served as one of the only non-segregated spaces within colonial Cuba, creating an integral social space where people of African descent and people of European descent met at a level approaching equality. The church was the major guarantor of the urban slave's free time and provided, through its educational institutions, a means of upward mobility for those free Afro-Cubans it chose to help.

Throne for Yemaya at La Casa de Los Hijos de San Lazaro, Guanabacoa, Havana Province, 1989 

    Moreover, urban slavery was much less restrictive than rural slavery; that is, many slaves in metropolitan areas did not live with their owners and were often skilled in a craft (professional cooks, musicians, etc) as a result of educational investments made to increase the freelance value of a slave by the slave owner. Consequently, many slaves used this uncontrolled free time to find other sources of employment whose payment they could keep for themselves. This increased financial freedom allowed them to erect another protected sphere – Afro-Cuban clubs and fraternal organizations, which had important centers for the preservation of African religion in Cuban cities. 

    These clubs were targets for guided cultural change by the Church, thus they fostered the organization of these societies for evangelization and mutual aid. Thus, under the direction of a priest, these organizations allowed for the accommodation of African customs in Catholic worship; this guided syncretism is much like the assimilation approach of French colonial engagement that proposed guided urban planning that catered to the cultural sensitivities of the African population. The clergy hoped that Africans would eventually abandon their customs as they became swept into mainstream Cuban Christianity.

Chromolithograph of the Seven African Powers picturing Elegua, Ogun, Orula, Obatala, Yemaya, Ochun, and Chango, as well as Olofi using Catholic imagery and Lucumi names

    The heightened financial and temporal freedom of Africans in urban centers, coupled with the legal status of these organizations, however, made this desired outcome improbable. Africans now had a space to practice their Yoruba religion with minimal interference and expanded economic means to do so. It was in these autonomous organizations (i.e., those not physically located within a church building) and within residences of Africans that permanent altars could be erected, known alternately as the ile ocha (Yoruba, house of the orisha) or casa templo (house temple); it was in this light that Santeria was born. 

Sources:

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