David Dalle
Thursday February 25th, 2016 with David Dalle
Cuba & Nigeria: the Yoruba connection

Today we are looking at the Cuban-Nigerian Yoruba connection. Though several West African ethnicities found themselves in Cuba during the trans-Atlantic slave trade, the most dominant culturally has been the Yoruba from Nigeria and Yoruba music, instruments, and religion have greatly influenced Cuban music and have been interwoven into Cuban culture. The most visible is the Yoruba Bata drum which is integral to Yoruba music in Nigeria and Cuba; the second is the Yoruba religion which was maintained in Cuba and elsewhere in the Caribbean, central and south America through syncretism with Catholicism. For example, Yoruba slaves in Cuba and elsewhere could hide their worship of Yoruba spirits under the guise of worshiping Catholic saints. Today they no longer have to hide the Yoruba religion, but it has evolved into a permanent syncretism with Catholicism (called Santeria). In different circumstances, Yoruba religion has evolved in Nigeria as well with many Yoruba people being Christian or Muslim but still connecting to ritual and cultural Yoruba religious practices. We will hear this musical and cultural syncretism today in several Muslim traditions of Apala and Fuji music from Nigeria and Santeria ensembles from Cuba, both musically based on Yoruba percussion, as well as more contemporary Nigeria and Cuban music with Yoruba influences.