Reflections on the Children of Shango: An Essay on a History of Orisa Worship in Trinidad

Abstract

Studies of the transfer and development of Yoruba religious practices in the Americas have tended to focus on Candomble in Brazil and Santeria in Cuba. This essay examines the development of the practice of Orisa worship in Trinidad which received the bulk of its Yoruba settlers in the post-emancipation period. It explores the impact of the socio-economic adjustments of a frontier society on the development of this religious practice and identifies a process of consolidation, debilitation and resurgence. The essay also discusses the emergence of a constructed Yoruba ethnicity as the signifier for African identity in Trinidad.

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