- 2 days ago
The film focuses on the survival and dissemination of West African Yoruba culture following the transatlantic slave trade. It explores why, among the many African cultures, it was specifically Yoruba beliefs, values, and customs that were preserved intact and came to hold a dominant position in the Americas—such as in Brazil, Cuba, Haiti, and Trinidad......
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00:00:28Transcription by CastingWords
00:00:45Transcription by CastingWords
00:01:01From the 15th to the 18th century,
00:01:04enslavement of the Africans
00:01:06was the most lucrative business all over Europe.
00:01:14From the Atlantic coast of Batagri,
00:01:18Cotonou, port of no return,
00:01:21to the Gori island in Senegal,
00:01:2490% of the enslaved Africans
00:01:26taken out of the continent
00:01:28took their last steps
00:01:29on the west coast of Africa.
00:01:32First of all,
00:01:33we have the Portuguese,
00:01:34who are the first to come from Daomé,
00:01:36who came from Daomé here in 1580.
00:01:39We were sent to the Americas,
00:01:41but the majority were sent to Brazil,
00:01:43in Salvador,
00:01:44in Bahia,
00:01:45in Haiti,
00:01:46in Cuba,
00:01:46and a little bit in the Karayu.
00:01:48Hundreds of African culture
00:01:50and ethnic groups
00:01:52left the continent,
00:01:54but only one
00:01:56remains visible
00:01:57till date
00:01:58in the new world,
00:02:01the culture
00:02:02of the Yorubas.
00:02:04Growing up in Trinidad,
00:02:06the culture
00:02:07that I identified
00:02:08as African
00:02:10was Yoruba,
00:02:11Shango people,
00:02:12and Shango is Yoruba.
00:02:35If I free my mind
00:02:40and let it go,
00:02:42I would say that
00:02:44there are no extinctions
00:02:46of the Yoruba land.
00:02:51It is all around us,
00:02:53from city to city,
00:02:56in music and fashion,
00:02:59religion and arts.
00:03:02It was not only
00:03:04the Yoruba
00:03:04that was taken as slaves.
00:03:06We have Angola people.
00:03:07You have Mozambique people.
00:03:09You are from different places.
00:03:11Why actually
00:03:12people talk
00:03:14about Yoruba?
00:03:15Why they don't talk
00:03:16about the other
00:03:17African cultures?
00:03:25The Yoruba
00:03:26were not the only ones
00:03:27taking as slaves.
00:03:28There were other tribes
00:03:30from Ghana,
00:03:31Australia,
00:03:32Lyon,
00:03:33Gabon,
00:03:34up to Congo.
00:03:36But the Yoruba culture
00:03:39was very strong.
00:03:53As of 1976,
00:03:56over 3,000 literatures
00:03:58has been written
00:03:59on the Yorubas,
00:04:01making it
00:04:02one of the most
00:04:03researched cultures
00:04:04of the world.
00:04:05in the Yoruba world.
00:04:20Hundreds of culture
00:04:22and traditions
00:04:23landed with the Africans
00:04:24to the new world.
00:04:27But this particular
00:04:28West African culture
00:04:30might have survived it all.
00:04:34with dresses
00:04:35that are different
00:04:36from the Western style.
00:04:39Masquerade carnivals.
00:04:44Then the king
00:04:46and his council of chiefs.
00:04:48I bet the question
00:04:50on your mind
00:04:51will be,
00:04:52is this Africa?
00:04:55the correct answer
00:04:56will be no.
00:04:59Welcome
00:05:00to Oyu Tunji,
00:05:02the African village
00:05:03in South Carolina.
00:05:07Oyu Tunji
00:05:08was developed
00:05:09by African Americans
00:05:10who were seeking
00:05:12something African
00:05:13but did not have
00:05:14a spiritual community
00:05:17in which to do so.
00:05:18The 1960s,
00:05:20this was a very
00:05:21powerful time
00:05:23in African people's
00:05:25history in this country.
00:05:26We as a people
00:05:27were tired of
00:05:28being second class,
00:05:31third class,
00:05:31fourth class citizens
00:05:32in this country.
00:05:33Some people say
00:05:34there was two movements.
00:05:35There was the
00:05:36civil rights movement
00:05:38and there was
00:05:38the cultural movement.
00:05:39I think this march
00:05:41will go down
00:05:42as one of the
00:05:44greatest demonstrations
00:05:45for freedom
00:05:46and human dignity
00:05:47ever held
00:05:49in the United States.
00:05:51The Yoruba
00:05:52cultural restoration
00:05:53movement began
00:05:54in Harlem,
00:05:56New York,
00:05:57back around 1956.
00:06:00Baba wanted
00:06:01African culture
00:06:02but he did not know
00:06:03which culture
00:06:04to practice.
00:06:05As you know,
00:06:06Yoruba culture
00:06:07is all over the world.
00:06:08However,
00:06:09the African Americans
00:06:10never develop a culture
00:06:11based on African traditions.
00:06:13In North America,
00:06:14we are descendants
00:06:15primarily of Yoruba
00:06:17and Dahomey.
00:06:19In this area
00:06:21was mostly Sierra Leone
00:06:22and Ghana
00:06:24but the rest of Louisiana
00:06:26and parts of South Carolina
00:06:27were Yoruba
00:06:28and Benin
00:06:29or Dahomey.
00:06:30And so Baba
00:06:30met a gentleman
00:06:31from Curacao.
00:06:33His name was
00:06:33Chris Oleana
00:06:34and he knew
00:06:36people in Cuba
00:06:37so they traveled
00:06:37to Cuba
00:06:38and when he came back,
00:06:39he came back
00:06:40with the culture
00:06:40of the Yoruba.
00:06:42It has always been used
00:06:44as a source of pride
00:06:46by people
00:06:47of African descent
00:06:48throughout the New World.
00:06:52This group
00:06:54of African Americans
00:06:55uncovered their Yoruba culture
00:06:57when the Afros
00:06:58began to grow.
00:07:01Black pride
00:07:03was on the rise
00:07:04in the United States.
00:07:06It was during
00:07:07the Civil Rights Ages
00:07:08and we were
00:07:10opening up
00:07:11Yoruba culture.
00:07:13We were opening
00:07:14Yoruba culture
00:07:15to the black people
00:07:18that had no knowledge
00:07:20of where they came from,
00:07:21had no knowledge
00:07:22of who they were,
00:07:23had no knowledge
00:07:24of ancestors.
00:07:26They would make clothes
00:07:27and they would go out
00:07:28and give them
00:07:28to dashikis.
00:07:29That's how the dashikis
00:07:30became popular.
00:07:31Yoruba said,
00:07:31just make them up.
00:07:32Go out
00:07:32and just give them away.
00:07:34What was happening
00:07:35in the 60s
00:07:36was rather overshadowed
00:07:37what Abba Funtula
00:07:38was doing
00:07:39because Martin Luther King
00:07:41had a massive movement.
00:07:43My father,
00:07:44the first king,
00:07:45he was arrested
00:07:46many times
00:07:46for practicing
00:07:47African tradition
00:07:48in North America.
00:07:49Baba didn't even care.
00:07:50His biggest care
00:07:51was the re-implementation
00:07:53and restoration
00:07:53of African culture
00:07:54so that children
00:07:56in America
00:07:56forever and ever
00:07:58after he's gone
00:07:59will know
00:08:00about the culture
00:08:01of their ancestors.
00:08:02and we filter
00:08:04that culture
00:08:04to Yoruba.
00:08:19Research into who we are
00:08:21before we get here
00:08:23dominates the minds
00:08:24and movements
00:08:25of the African-Americans
00:08:27in the 50s
00:08:28and the 1960s.
00:08:30Lots of African heritage
00:08:32heritage and history
00:08:33were uncovered.
00:08:36Most of the people
00:08:37who came to America
00:08:39came from the west coast
00:08:40of Africa.
00:08:42Yoyotunji means
00:08:43Oyo rises again.
00:08:46Between the 14th
00:08:48to the 18th century,
00:08:50one of the largest
00:08:52and most formidable
00:08:53empire in West Africa
00:08:55was the Yoruba Empire
00:08:58was the Yoruba Empire
00:08:58of Oyo,
00:08:59spreading along the coast
00:09:01of modern-day Nigeria,
00:09:03Republic of Benin,
00:09:05Togo,
00:09:06and some part of Ghana.
00:09:10Baba realized
00:09:11that Africans in America
00:09:13did not know
00:09:14their culture.
00:09:15Baba sought to teach them
00:09:16through the dress,
00:09:18through the language,
00:09:19through an understanding
00:09:20of the sociology
00:09:21of the Yoruba people.
00:09:23Baba built
00:09:24this African village
00:09:25here on the old plantation land.
00:09:28This is a part
00:09:28of an old plantation.
00:09:30And so Yoyotunji
00:09:31is sitting in the light
00:09:32of the plantation.
00:09:35Abayafuntala
00:09:36was the first one,
00:09:38African,
00:09:38born in America,
00:09:39to return to the indigenous
00:09:41traditions
00:09:41of the Yoruba people.
00:09:43Collectively
00:09:44and individually,
00:09:47people stood up
00:09:48against oppression
00:09:50in various forms
00:09:51in that era.
00:09:53The founder
00:09:54of this village
00:09:55took pride
00:09:56in the culture
00:09:56of the Yorubas
00:09:57and stood up
00:09:58against injustice
00:10:00with it.
00:10:02I am one
00:10:04of the living
00:10:04founders left
00:10:06from New York City.
00:10:09And we worked
00:10:10very closely
00:10:11with the Black Panthers.
00:10:16and all
00:10:17Serg had to do
00:10:18was snap his fingers
00:10:19and they were there.
00:10:20They were very loyal
00:10:23to your highness.
00:10:24Baba was a part
00:10:25of a group called
00:10:26the Republic
00:10:26of New Africa.
00:10:28Their idea
00:10:29was they were going
00:10:30to take over
00:10:30five southern states
00:10:32with guns
00:10:33and military.
00:10:34They were going
00:10:34to take over
00:10:35Louisiana,
00:10:36Mississippi,
00:10:37Alabama,
00:10:37Georgia,
00:10:38and South Carolina.
00:10:39And the reason
00:10:39they wanted to do this
00:10:40was because they said
00:10:41we built South Carolina.
00:10:43We built all
00:10:44of those states
00:10:44as black people
00:10:45for 300 years.
00:10:47We built all of that.
00:10:49At one time
00:10:50in South Carolina,
00:10:52the Europeans
00:10:53who would travel
00:10:54from Massachusetts
00:10:55or New England
00:10:55to have a vacation
00:10:57in South Carolina,
00:10:57they called it
00:10:58a black country.
00:10:59They said,
00:11:00this is more like
00:11:00a black country
00:11:02than a white colony
00:11:04because
00:11:07in South Carolina,
00:11:10Africans outnumbered
00:11:11the Europeans
00:11:1217 to 1
00:11:14because they were
00:11:15bringing so many
00:11:16Africans from
00:11:17West Africa
00:11:18to South Carolina,
00:11:19the state legislature
00:11:20had to pass a law.
00:11:22They would have
00:11:22concurrent ships
00:11:23coming in back
00:11:24to back
00:11:24to back to back.
00:11:25So they went
00:11:26to Detroit, Michigan
00:11:27at Aretha Franklin's
00:11:29Father Church.
00:11:30Aretha Franklin's
00:11:31Father's Church
00:11:32was the place
00:11:33where a lot of
00:11:34people would come.
00:11:35Historically,
00:11:35it was a place
00:11:36to talk about
00:11:36the movement
00:11:37and what we needed
00:11:37to do to get
00:11:38from under oppression.
00:11:40Detroit Police Department
00:11:41showed up
00:11:41and just unloaded
00:11:43on the church.
00:11:44They just came in
00:11:46and they started
00:11:47shooting up the church.
00:11:48We had women
00:11:49and children with us.
00:11:51Our soldiers fired back
00:11:54until they had
00:11:55no more ammunition.
00:11:56Meanwhile,
00:11:59the Black Panthers
00:12:00got a hold
00:12:00to what was happening
00:12:01to us.
00:12:02They came immediately.
00:12:05The people who
00:12:06began the village
00:12:06came from the Black
00:12:07Panthers,
00:12:07they came from
00:12:08the Martin Luther King
00:12:09movements,
00:12:09they came from
00:12:09the Civil Rights
00:12:10movements,
00:12:11the Malcolm X
00:12:11movements,
00:12:11Stokely Carmichael.
00:12:12They were fired up.
00:12:14From the Odunde
00:12:15Festival in Philadelphia,
00:12:18the largest
00:12:19African-American
00:12:20festival in the
00:12:21United States,
00:12:22to the South,
00:12:24traces of
00:12:25Yoruba culture
00:12:26continued to be seen
00:12:28in the United States.
00:12:30What preceded
00:12:32the Civil Rights
00:12:32movement, though,
00:12:34was the era
00:12:35era of slavery.
00:12:37Fighting for freedom
00:12:38and maintaining
00:12:39one's identity
00:12:40was an uphill battle
00:12:41for people
00:12:42of African descent.
00:12:43This group,
00:12:45the Yorubas,
00:12:46relentlessly left
00:12:47clues of their passage
00:12:49everywhere they landed.
00:12:58The African-Americans
00:13:00who came here
00:13:01to be
00:13:01enslaved in the
00:13:02end of the
00:13:0318th century,
00:13:05belonging to
00:13:07an African region
00:13:08called
00:13:09the
00:13:10Gulf of Benin.
00:13:12From this region
00:13:13there were
00:13:13several individuals
00:13:15currently called
00:13:16Togo,
00:13:17Ghana,
00:13:22We are the ones who have started the slavery, and we didn't bring the slaves to Europe.
00:13:28We actually bring the slaves to South America for the new world that we call the new continent
00:13:36that was our colony, the Brazil.
00:13:50The Portuguese came from Daomé, on the Benino's land, in 1580.
00:13:56This place where we are is one of the biggest port in Africa.
00:14:02Two separate port of no returns lies in the heart of the old Yoruba Empire.
00:14:10Any unfortunate Africans that made it this far was never coming back home.
00:14:20They came without anything.
00:14:22But they brought something much stronger than a baggage.
00:14:27They brought ancestrality to their heads.
00:14:33We believed that our ancestors were talking about the origin of Leifé.
00:14:40Leifé and some other cities in Nigeria.
00:14:44But our history is all in oralism.
00:14:49There are no official records written.
00:14:53There was no record of them as a human being.
00:14:57But there is a record of them as a commodity to be bought and sold once landed in the new
00:15:03world.
00:15:05Everything they knew, culturally, traditionally, and religiously, became prohibited.
00:15:19Naturally, as a human being, one of the things we think about at times of difficulties was to seek the
00:15:26help of the higher power.
00:15:29We must always look at culture as being multifaceted.
00:15:34The culture includes even spiritual practices.
00:15:40Spirituality is embedded in human beings.
00:15:43The superstructure, what sort of manifests spirituality, is what we call religion.
00:15:51And so when people are deeply immersed in their own spirituality, it doesn't matter where they go.
00:15:59Within the secular world, they preserve that inner system of beliefs, of relationship with outside phenomena, with nature.
00:16:09And this, in turn, manifests itself in cultural production, which these slaves took across the Atlantic with them.
00:16:20The Yoruba culture in mythology has been compared to that of other great cultures of the world.
00:16:28With its own profound religious beliefs, which has Oludumari as God, the Supreme Being.
00:16:38What Yoruba believe is different from what other religions believe.
00:16:45They believe in Oludumari.
00:16:47The Yorubas, they don't worship people that have died.
00:16:52The Yorubas worship Oludumari.
00:16:56In the mythology of the Yorubas, Oludumari, there's one God, one Supreme Being, and there are different divinities.
00:17:09Yoruba believes that you cannot contact direct with God.
00:17:13You always have this divinity in between.
00:17:17One Elidumari, different divinities or different prophets.
00:17:22Like Jesus in Christianity, you have to go through Jesus to reach God.
00:17:30When we brought the slaves to Brazil, I know that we forced them to adapt to Christianity.
00:17:38We baptized them.
00:17:40We believe the Africans don't have any religion or any belief.
00:17:44They were forced to be Catholics.
00:17:47So they look at the Catholic religion and look at the Yoruba deities.
00:17:53So if you can worship Mary, I can worship your mother in order to be able to resist.
00:18:02They were tortured, they were penalized, and they were prohibited to believe in their Orishas.
00:18:13Orishas are many gods and deities worshipped by the Yorubas.
00:18:20They're regarded as an intermediary between human beings and God.
00:18:27Like Oshon, the goddess of beauty.
00:18:31Shango, the god of thunder.
00:18:36Yemaja, the goddess of the sea.
00:18:39Ogun, the warrior.
00:18:41The god of iron.
00:18:43And many other 401 Yoruba Orishas.
00:18:47As I said, as a culture of the Yoruba has many gods, the Catholic Catholic have more than 365 saints.
00:18:56The cult of their gods.
00:18:58They took advantage of certain saints of the Catholic Catholic and related them to the yorubas.
00:19:06The church did not win the Yoruban gods.
00:19:09They were able to be more resilient and more intelligent than the others.
00:19:14They would go to the church and they would amalgam themselves, come together, and they would put the image of
00:19:23Jesus.
00:19:24But in the back, they would put Obatala.
00:19:31So what they did, they gave to the Orisha, they gave a saint from Christianity.
00:19:39And if you go to Brazil, you can see the candomblés.
00:19:45This disguise effort of masking the Yoruba deities.
00:19:47And they just played a bunch of verses in the different books.
00:19:49You say the strength, seeds, seeds, seeds, seeds, seeds, seeds, seeds, seeds, seeds, seeds, seeds, seeds, seeds, seeds,��.
00:20:06To know the world they're all about negative辦法, they graciously fruitive and seeds and that purpose never succeed.
00:20:07In the chest the damagedila and pain switched back again.
00:20:07Bye-bye.
00:20:09Fuck.
00:20:10This disguise effort of masking the Yoruba deities while Seit road.
00:20:13within the Catholic Church marks the origin
00:20:17of what is now known as the Cândabla Worship
00:20:19today in Brazil.
00:21:09The most profound influence of the Yoruba culture in Brazil
00:21:13could be the religion, but inheritance of Yoruba culture
00:21:18abound every corner, alley, city, and way of life
00:21:24of many Brazilians.
00:21:43Especially in the city of Salvador, it's a city
00:21:46most black outside Africa.
00:21:48The black women are the first individual entrepreneurs
00:21:53selling products that have origin in Africa.
00:21:58A classic example that everyone knows is the Acarajé.
00:22:03You can find in various areas of the city, but these were
00:22:09commercialized by women.
00:22:11With this money, many women managed to buy alforias
00:22:17and liberate a series of escravos.
00:22:19And, principalmente, the idea of a family hierarchy.
00:22:24So, the people of Yoruba, we deserve respect to the older people.
00:22:28So, when we direct ourselves to the older people,
00:22:31we always refer to the blessing.
00:22:34We also have women as leaders.
00:22:38So, it's something that we also deserve from the Yoruba people.
00:22:42To have women as leaders.
00:22:48Indeed, that statement could not be better said.
00:22:52When many other ethnicity of the world recluse women
00:22:56to the kitchen and childbearing,
00:22:59the Yoruba women were not seen as so.
00:23:03They were in commerce.
00:23:05They were the business women of the family.
00:23:11More so, in the Yoruba system of governance,
00:23:14there is a seat reserved for a woman representative
00:23:17as part of the cabinet of Oyo Empire.
00:23:22No man is allowed to represent in women's affairs.
00:23:26In the Yoruba system of beliefs,
00:23:29some Yoruba gods were even women,
00:23:32like Oshon, Yemaja, and many others.
00:23:38In the Yoruba land, they said,
00:23:40Yado de Oba Uberi.
00:23:43That is, the queen of the women.
00:23:45And being the prime minister of the women,
00:23:48she's in charge of other lieutenants.
00:23:51All other titles of women.
00:23:53In the Yoruba culture, in those days,
00:23:56women are known to bring the money in
00:23:59because they are the market woman.
00:24:01The women make more money in those days,
00:24:04more than their husband,
00:24:05because the man will do the farming,
00:24:07but the women will go to the market to sell.
00:24:10And when they sell,
00:24:11they take their own percentage.
00:24:13And they will say,
00:24:13OK, me.
00:24:14This is your money.
00:24:16But women are always known as traders.
00:24:19They use their hand to work.
00:24:23Inspired by the heritage of the Yorubas,
00:24:26Olodun became the biggest black musical festival in Brazil
00:24:31that has attracted various artists of African descent
00:24:34from around the world.
00:24:36.
00:24:36.
00:24:36.
00:24:36.
00:24:39The Holodun is a word from Yoruba, and the whole word is Holodun Hare,
00:24:45which is the great festival of music culture in Brazil, in the country,
00:24:50with the influence of the city of Oyó and Yifé.
00:24:54Many African artists who were with Holodun or did shows simultaneously,
00:24:59but also with African Americans, like Spike Lee, Michael Jackson.
00:25:13The Yoruba culture became the powerhouse for emotional strength and resistance movement
00:25:19for all the Africans in Brazil.
00:25:23Orixás de várias partes da África se encontram para dançar
00:25:28e para mostrar a sua forma de resistência e luta, encontro espiritual.
00:25:37Essa forma de pensar Yoruba, dando empoderamento ao indivíduo.
00:25:43Uma mulher negra, ela feia, mas na cultura Yoruba, ela é uma filha de Oxum.
00:25:51Oxum é o orixá da beleza. Então, nenhuma filha de Oxum é feia.
00:25:57Se o homem é de Oxum, ele pode ter 80 anos. Ele é forte. Ele é um homem de Oxum.
00:26:04Ele tem que ser forte.
00:26:05Então, isso ajudou muito, porque é um traço cultural que nos serviu demais para a nossa autoestima,
00:26:13para o reforço do nosso. Porque é muito difícil viver sob a escravidão.
00:26:18Não houve desistência, não houve recuo do povo Yoruba. Não arreda a pé.
00:26:24Mas nos ficou do Yoruba uma lição muito importante de força, de alegria, de amor,
00:26:33de um povo que soube manter as suas tradições, mesmo numa terra onde ele era escravizado.
00:26:40Temos as suas músicas, as suas danças, a sua religião, as suas palavras impregnadas em toda a cidade de Salvador.
00:26:54Temos orgulho de sermos descendentes de reis, sacerdotes e guerreiros.
00:27:00Não somos descendentes de escravos.
00:27:03Os nossos ancestrais foram escravizados.
00:27:07Nós colonizamos o Brasil.
00:27:09Nós colonizamos o Brasil.
00:27:43We must always remember that the quality, the nature of oppression, of racial oppression,
00:27:50the nature of colonialism was different from country to country.
00:28:07Unlike Brazil, Cuba was a Spanish colony.
00:28:29Were these West Africans trying anything cultural or religious here under the Spaniards?
00:28:42In the mid-1800s, Cuba was refining over 450,000 tons of sugar crystals.
00:28:52That's roughly about 30% of the entire world's consumption.
00:28:59Majority of these sugar laborers were Yoruba slaves, arriving from West Africa.
00:29:11The first slaves, which arrived in Cuba, in their ships came Igbos, houses from the Ashanti kingdom in Ghana.
00:29:29Many of them, but the majority of them who went to Cuba were Yorubas.
00:29:36That's why the Yoruba is the largest proportion of the Africans in Cuba.
00:29:42You have to get to 19th century or last of 18th century.
00:29:48As you know, the Re La Rocha of Santeria is a Cuban way of seeing all this culture of different
00:29:58tribes or etnias of Nigeria.
00:30:02Nigeria has 400 or more or less.
00:30:06And we suppose have been, to Cuba, have come around 300 of these etnias.
00:30:19Yoruba's Yoruba's Yoruba's Yoruba's Yoruba.
00:30:42will be attempted under the Spaniards in Cuba.
00:30:46In Cuba, the Africans were prohibited from practicing their own religion.
00:30:54They were prohibited from adoring their orillas.
00:31:01Yoruba's religion synchronization effort with the Europeans did not end in Brazil.
00:31:07And he adopted the Catholic saints to protect their orillas.
00:31:14For example, Santa Barbara is Changó.
00:31:18Elegua is San Antonio de Padua or El Niño de Atocha.
00:31:21We came there, San Lázaro.
00:31:25Batalá is Las Mercedes.
00:31:27Ochun, the patron of Cuba.
00:31:32Virgin of the Caridad of the Cobre.
00:31:34That's the way it was merged.
00:31:37And then that's why we call Santeria.
00:31:40Because the Yoruba saints were related to the Catholic saints.
00:31:47This synchronization was not only called Santeria in Cuba, but the entire Latin America.
00:31:57Obviously, this group of Africans were not on a religious crusade.
00:32:03They seem to have one common problem everywhere they've landed.
00:32:09Slavery.
00:32:11And in search of only one goal.
00:32:15Freedom.
00:32:17Escaping slavery with what they knew was their number one goal.
00:32:25Various aspects of human activities, social activities are embedded in the spirituality of the Yoruba.
00:32:33The dances.
00:32:35The attires.
00:32:36The music.
00:32:37And the music, of course.
00:32:40And the music, of course.
00:32:42Because all the cells of the music have to do with the music of the secret society.
00:33:11The Yoruba culture and Cuban tradition is so deeply entangled, it's inseparable.
00:33:18With hundreds of years of separations, Yoruba speakers from West Africa till date could still pick up many words from
00:33:27the Cuban songs and traditions.
00:33:49Yoruba music.
00:33:54When the religious syncretism started, it also included a lot of music.
00:34:01They started to make their tambores, which were like the Batas of today,
00:34:06but they were more rustic, some were more classical, things like that.
00:34:11These Batas have another way of playing,
00:34:14but all of them have been used in all the cellules of all the music,
00:34:19the Cuban music, the popular Cuban music.
00:34:22The three tambores are the ones that give two fundamental characteristics
00:34:26to all the Cuban music,
00:34:28which is the polyrhythmia and the pluritonality.
00:34:33This is precisely from these tambores that came with the slaves Yorua to Cuba,
00:34:40because they are tambores that have six parches,
00:34:43and the six parches have a different tone, different tone.
00:34:48They say, oh, but how do you know so much about music?
00:34:51Before the revolution, I used to play guitar.
00:34:54Well, I promised one of the men who was killed
00:34:57in the attack of the presidential palace in 1957,
00:35:01that even if they killed him or killed me, I would have left the guitar.
00:35:09When we were on the ground in the houses I used to have with them,
00:35:16I used to play guitar with them, to them, no?
00:35:19And they say, well, if something's happened to me,
00:35:22don't play no more guitar.
00:35:24And they killed him in the attack of the presidential palace.
00:35:27So I put my two guitars, which were beautiful guitars and very good,
00:35:32in here, he stopped.
00:35:34I gave it there, and I never played it out.
00:35:39When Fidel Castro led his rebellion against Batista in Masanillo,
00:35:46in the Oriente province, he was able to succeed as much as he did,
00:35:51at least it was aided by the fact that Yoruba culture was strongest there,
00:35:56and Yoruba culture did not teach on the other cheek.
00:36:01On the contrary, Yoruba culture entails the god of war,
00:36:04celebrates the god of war.
00:36:05So you can see that Yoruba played a role in liberation struggle in Latin America
00:36:12and in the struggle for human rights.
00:36:16During the revolution led by Fidel Castro,
00:36:21an enormous participation from the black population
00:36:30made possible for the revolution to win.
00:36:34And after that, to keep the revolution working,
00:36:37the first task of the revolution was to eliminate discrimination
00:36:41and give opportunities to everybody.
00:36:43It says history of Cuban history by the religions,
00:36:48not only by the things that happened in wars of independence,
00:36:53but by the religion and their influence in the Cuban history.
00:36:57We are babalawo.
00:36:59Many. There are plenty of babalawo in Cuba.
00:37:02Many. That many that my neighbor is babalawo.
00:37:08In the Yoruba spirituality,
00:37:10a babalawo is considered the priest.
00:37:14Didn't want one more religious,
00:37:21but one of those who died here and killed nobody
00:37:36Or, Supreme教育 and the world of God aquellos
00:37:42were attracted to ancient people
00:37:43to Россию from where he was spreading to the Qualizen
00:38:01The study of the Orishas has always influenced many artists throughout Cuban history.
00:38:09There has been a point of view for all the people who write, who are poets, who paint, who dance,
00:38:19who make the music.
00:38:24Like Titón, one of our best directors of movies, he was appointed for the Oscar, and he used to study
00:38:35every principal piece of the movies with the original.
00:38:40They want to say, this man is like, oh, it's very, ah, and the music, and then they want to
00:38:49do the characteristics.
00:38:52Tourists from all around the world gathered every Sunday at Calajón del Hamel in Havana to watch the Yoruba folkloric
00:39:01on display.
00:39:03Even though the pronunciation might have eroded due to hundreds of years of various influences, many Yoruba words remain very
00:39:14clear.
00:39:24Muchos estamos iniciados en esto de la santería, de la religión Yoruba, el cual serán estos toques folclóricos, los cuales
00:39:36ustedes van a ver ahorita, que ahí es donde se inician las personas.
00:39:41I don't know, I don't know, I don't know.
00:40:13Hamidoune!
00:40:18Hamidoune!
00:40:28Hamidoune!
00:40:37To say the Yoruba's
00:40:39brought their religion here in trinidad and tobago will no more be surprising one thing
00:40:46that might be different here was the way they came a lot of people don't recognize it but trinidad
00:40:54was a very late settlement for sugar if we look at barbados or we look at jamaica they were
00:41:01settled by the europeans in the 17th century 1620s 1650s trinidad was not settled until the late 18th
00:41:12century by the time we had begun to develop a sugar economy the slave trade was stopped so trinidad
00:41:20never had the influx of slaves directly from africa that the other countries had had when the english
00:41:28put an embargo on slaves leaving africa those freed slaves those slaves that were taken um they were
00:41:36called liberated africans many of them were yoruba they came as indentured or liberated africans while
00:41:46we would have had yoruba coming throughout but not in large numbers we had a large influx of yoruba
00:41:54between about 1840 and 1860. embargo of the early 1800s did not stop slave trade among all europeans
00:42:06illegal slave trade continued until the late 1800s an action that almost cost africa another one of its
00:42:24finest
00:42:26my great-great-grandfather was captured somewhere in western part of nigeria i believe abekuta
00:42:34and he was transported in the ship the slave trade had been abolished governments of europe
00:42:41now still to intercept ships that were coming from africa at this point in time and his ship was one
00:42:50of the ships intercepted and they sent it back but they didn't send him back and dropping in bad agree
00:42:56they dropped them in syria alone so most of them that came from the same region as him all walked
00:43:04back
00:43:04to abekuta from syria alone heroic feet must have been in the blood of the kuti families for generations
00:43:17at the time when there was no airplane nor gps imagine walking over 1500 miles in the jungles of west
00:43:27africa in an effort to locate your homeland despite this heroic act we have to count him lucky how many
00:43:36did we know that took the same leap of faith and never made it perhaps the same could be said
00:43:44for
00:43:44those that made it to the other side of the atlantic ocean how many did we know that never made
00:43:50it through
00:43:50the brutal middle passage some yorubas that made it landed here in trinidad and tobago
00:44:01they set up what we what is known and still known as yoruba village in the heart of port of
00:44:07spain
00:44:08and they spread the yoruba settlements spread from the east port of spain into
00:44:18lavantail into lavantail into belmont into the lavantail hills in fact there are
00:44:27orisha shrines there that are more than a hundred years old
00:44:54that's what they're branded as shango people
00:44:57which when in going to africa or reading about yoruba land shango is predominantly
00:45:05practice heavily in the oil region of of yoruba land
00:45:16when the pause would be banned the african drum for worship remember they will say we will send in
00:45:22message from one part of the island to the next because in the still of the night after the day
00:45:28when we have yoruba worship in the night you could hear the drum far far far far across the land
00:45:36we were told that our ancestors hands used to be chopped off of playing the drum because of the fear
00:45:41that
00:45:42the drum was uh was um inciting people to to rebel and to overthrow things and that sort of thing
00:45:49well neither the portuguese french spaniards or the british was comfortable with the yorubas and their
00:45:56drums simply because of their ability to utilize it for more than just entertainment
00:46:27with it.
00:46:38In the 1880s, the skin drum was banned in Trinidad, and the Africans used the bamboo,
00:46:48tambu-bambu, to get the rhythms, and along with the tambu-bambu, there was always a sort
00:46:58of the iron. There was a very strong Yoruba input in the development of the steel pan.
00:47:12The historians always emphasize that the palais, or the Orisha Yard, was a sort of community
00:47:20center where people would hang out online during the day. During the, during the, when
00:47:25they're having the feasts, or the sarakas, and the pleasure songs, a lot of them evolved
00:47:30into social commentary and calypso. Some of the earliest steel bandsmen were in fact Yoruba.
00:47:37Many of them were butchers, many of them were committed to the god iron. The steel, and the
00:47:44rhythm of steel is very definite in the Yoruba traditions and teachings. People come with
00:47:50it in the DNA, so it wasn't, it wasn't like somebody dropped from this can and decided
00:47:53to invent the steel band. They had some kind of ancestral memory of what music could come
00:47:57out of the iron, what the god of iron open creation could evolve in, that, that manifests
00:48:04into the steel band.
00:48:05The Orisha Illes were very powerful in that they were the ones, both in Port of Spain and
00:48:12in Taqueriguan so, that cradled the birth of the band. In fact, it is reputed that the first,
00:48:22recognizable notes that were played on the steel band, that was a chant to Ogun. Ogun la la la
00:48:52The pan brought melody, but the rhythm continued to be a very strong
00:49:01African rhythm.
00:49:02Those rhythms, remember, when they were taken away from us, we couldn't use it. And the
00:49:09improvisation is what came the steel drum. The pan is one wrong piece of steel. The notes
00:49:20are separated by grooves and have 36 different songs on one instrument. But yet it's one pan.
00:49:38the music that is is one for the first time, that It is one for the second time, the
00:49:45band is one for the first time. The band is filled with dancing, which is what the
00:49:52band is allowed to do. The band is one for the first time. The band did not put down on
00:49:55the
00:49:55track to be the band. The band is one of the band has been passed on, but it's one of
00:49:59the
00:49:59band was so much harder, so that could be amazing. The band did not put up the band into the
00:49:59band.
00:50:22The pan is like the blood of Trinidad, yes, right, I mean, across all corners, it's
00:50:29well loved throughout the world and it's significant and unique to Trinidad, it's all gift to the world.
00:50:40As it is in Cuba and Brazil, survival of Yoruba culture is pronounced on this island of Trinidad
00:50:49and Tobago.
00:50:51There continue to be Yoruba survivals in terms of food.
00:51:00We still, the acra, we still eat acra in Trinidad and we don't use it with the beans, we use
00:51:12it with soil fish.
00:51:13But we call it acra and to hear it called acra, you know it had to come.
00:51:18And it's the same idea, it's the same idea of the mush that is fried and eaten.
00:51:25People in Brazil, the Yoruba descendants that settled there, still eat acra.
00:51:35We in Yoruba land, we call it acra.
00:51:41And by here they call it acaraje.
00:51:45Now they don't call it acra.
00:51:47On top there, they call acra that you eat.
00:51:55Apart from the carnival in Trinidad, Emancipation Celebration is the biggest street parade in
00:52:02Trinidad and Tobago.
00:52:05We're going to have thousands of people, thousands and thousands of people who are going to be
00:52:10wearing their African clothes.
00:52:13When I started looking at the Yoruba all those years ago, I recognized that it was because
00:52:20we did not know.
00:52:22We just, there was not enough knowledge.
00:52:25As I said, I knew things, I'm a historian, I lived in Ife.
00:52:29But I recognized that a lot of Trinidadians were not aware of the details.
00:52:36And around that time, there was a lot of research being done.
00:52:40And I got a sense, well, it's going to happen.
00:52:43Everybody's going to understand the connections.
00:52:48And now that I'm looking at it, I realized that there was a kind of fall off in that respect.
00:52:55So that while there is information, that information is not as widely known as it ought to be.
00:53:03Because in the 1970s, when we had the Black Power Revolution in Trinidad, there was a lot
00:53:09of awareness and a lot of searching.
00:53:12But over the last 30 years, I don't think it has been as prominent.
00:53:22Struggles of the Yoruba descendants here has led to some legal provisions and amendments
00:53:27in this multicultural society.
00:53:32Achievements that might not even be available in either Brazil or Cuba.
00:53:38The Hindus are predominant in Trinidad.
00:53:42They could get married under their traditional rights.
00:53:44The Muslims can also be married under their traditional rights.
00:53:48And of course, the Christians.
00:53:50Trinidad and Tobago has the only marriage act, the Orisha Marriage Act.
00:53:54Where we can be married under traditional Isha-Shia rights of the Ifa Orisha tradition.
00:54:02I don't even think that in Nigeria they have it on their books.
00:54:11In the past, we have a strong oral tradition.
00:54:16Gone are the days where many of the stories were handed down through verbal influence.
00:54:26Gone are the days where a child would sit and listen evening after evening to the stories
00:54:33of grandparents or great-grandparents.
00:54:36Gone are the days where grandparents and great-grandparents have the time to sit with young people
00:54:43and have the patience to sit with them and tell the stories as their great-grandparents would have with them.
00:54:52We also have to accept that they learn and they are exposed to information in a totally different way.
00:55:00To this day, we still have not caught up with the documentation required to ensure that future generations would understand
00:55:11where we came from,
00:55:14the struggles that we would have been through, and therefore using it as the light to guide their future.
00:55:22But we cannot undervalue the strength of oral traditions to ensure that we utilize our brains effectively
00:55:36and to stretch the capacity of our brains to have the level of memory that our ancestors would have had.
00:55:52We had a song being sung in Belmont about Ibadan among the elders, an old lady sang it.
00:55:58And we as young people have been hearing this song, and we didn't know what it meant,
00:56:02but we were told by the elders that that song in particular, when it was sung years ago by her
00:56:08ancestors,
00:56:09they used to actually cry, they used to well up.
00:56:22They used to sing this song, and nobody knew where they came from.
00:56:29But now, when we hear Ibadan, when we hear Oyo, we can make the connection.
00:56:38And we in Trinidad now, in Belmont, singing this song about Ibadan, right?
00:56:43And an old lady, who was almost 90-something, telling us that her ancestors,
00:56:50she being, I guess what, the third generation or fourth generation, Yoruba,
00:56:55used to sing this song, not knowing that Ibadan is the largest West African city.
00:57:23Despite all the hardship and brutality,
00:57:27this African culture to find a way to survive it all makes you wonder,
00:57:34who are these Yorubas?
00:57:37And what's actually special about this particular group of Africans?
00:57:43The Yoruba people are a people of West Africa.
00:57:50But the Yoruba believe that they are the original people of the world.
00:58:00They believe that they were the first people to be created.
00:58:07They were created by the Ulisha, their divinities,
00:58:14who descended from heaven above.
00:58:19400 plus 1 Ulisha.
00:58:24And they landed in Elefe.
00:58:27From Togo to Cuba, Republic of Bani to Brazil,
00:58:33one consensus of all the Yorubas was that
00:58:37Elefe is their origin,
00:58:40and their ancestor from Yfe is Odudua.
00:58:45We're talking about Odudua.
00:58:46We're talking about Obatala.
00:58:47We're talking about Ogun.
00:58:49We're talking about many of these are Yoruba gods and goddesses.
00:58:53And they founded Yoruba civilization
00:58:54on what will eventually endure.
00:58:57What is widely known about the Yorubas
00:59:00has always been their spirituality.
00:59:03Little acknowledgement has been given to their system of governance.
00:59:15If you look at the history of Yoruba land,
00:59:17you will see Elefe as the cradle of Yoruba race and civilization.
00:59:22Elefe would rather become too small for the other Yoruba groups.
00:59:27Many of them moved out.
00:59:29And when they moved out,
00:59:32they established their own kingdoms,
00:59:34they established their own states,
00:59:35but they fashioned or patterned
00:59:37the system of government under the example of Elefe.
00:59:59Elefe played a very pivotal role
01:00:02in which all the descendants of Odudua
01:00:08actually left the land
01:00:10to go and resettle in some other places.
01:00:15The Oyo empire further improved on the structure.
01:00:19From Yoruba to the formation
01:00:22of the largest West African state of the era,
01:00:25the Oyo empire.
01:00:27Oyo would be the first empire
01:00:29in sub-Saharan Africa
01:00:31to emerge with an elaborate system of government
01:00:33with checks and balances
01:00:35and with the, what you call,
01:00:37the arms of government,
01:00:38the executive,
01:00:39the legislature,
01:00:41the judiciary.
01:00:44Many things were said
01:00:46to have been introduced
01:00:47to the Africans by the Europeans.
01:00:50To the Yorubas,
01:00:52democracy was definitely not one of them.
01:01:13How did the Yorubas view the monarchy?
01:01:18The monarchical system, in fact,
01:01:21among the Yoruba was very democratic.
01:01:24The Yoruba's powers
01:01:27were limited by council of chiefs,
01:01:30sometimes known as the Ogboni in conclave.
01:01:34And the Yoruba couldn't be as autocratic
01:01:38as he might have wished
01:01:40or as autocratic as many outsiders view the Yoruba
01:01:44because he's a revered figure.
01:01:47But he's a primus inter pares,
01:01:50you know, first among others,
01:01:53the chiefs, and so on and so forth.
01:01:55And that evolved
01:01:57into a kind of democratic setting
01:02:00which might seem strange.
01:02:02The system of government in Yoruba land
01:02:04is such that it will fit into any age.
01:02:08You have the Alafin
01:02:09as the head of the administration.
01:02:12Below the Alafin
01:02:13you have the Oyomisi.
01:02:14The Oyomisi are regarded as the kingmakers
01:02:17who are regarded in contemporary times
01:02:20as the prime minister of the state.
01:02:22You have the Oboni
01:02:23even to check the activities of the Oyomisi
01:02:27who could be regarded as a judicial arm
01:02:29and they belong to a court
01:02:31to which they have sworn
01:02:33that they will keep the sanctity of the state
01:02:36and they will not betray the trust
01:02:38reposed in them.
01:02:39You have the Aesho,
01:02:41the class of accomplished military officers
01:02:44headed by the Arya Onokakamfo.
01:02:46They were responsible
01:02:48for the military activities of the state.
01:02:52The Alafin could check them
01:02:53because the Alafin would have to
01:02:54give specific instructions
01:02:56before the Aesho could go out
01:02:59to lead the army into any direction.
01:03:01So you now have a delicate mechanism of control.
01:03:04One level of power checking the other.
01:03:07That's what we have in constitutionalism.
01:03:16This oral constitution is well structured
01:03:19that not even the king
01:03:21whom they call Oba
01:03:22is above the law.
01:03:26You must know, of course,
01:03:29that when the Oba went beyond his bounds,
01:03:34when he tried to flout,
01:03:35laid down traditions,
01:03:37the controlling mechanisms,
01:03:38to go around the controlling mechanisms
01:03:40of society,
01:03:41he was newly invited
01:03:42to go in there
01:03:44and open a calabash
01:03:46that he would find there
01:03:46and this meant commit suicide.
01:03:48If an Oba commits an abomination,
01:03:52there are ways of dealing with it.
01:03:56Either he abdicates
01:03:58or he commits suicide
01:04:01depending on the level of abomination.
01:04:06The least will be exile.
01:04:10It may be temporary.
01:04:11It may be permanent.
01:04:14Despite all this traditional guidelines in place,
01:04:18the Yorubas still see their kings
01:04:21as their next,
01:04:23after their gods.
01:04:25If you look at the way
01:04:26God structured everybody,
01:04:28God honors and favors people
01:04:31that give respect to him
01:04:34as our creator.
01:04:36The culture and tradition of Yoruba
01:04:37has to do with respect.
01:04:40Yoruba race has strong respect
01:04:44for elders,
01:04:45not to talk of their kings,
01:04:47in which they hold in high esteem.
01:04:51The norm in Yoruba culture
01:04:53is that the younger ones
01:04:55always bow while greeting their elders.
01:04:58But the reverse was the case here.
01:05:01As the older former president of Nigeria
01:05:04bows to greet the younger king,
01:05:07the Oni of Ife.
01:05:09No matter your social or political position,
01:05:17our culture must not be trampled upon.
01:05:22Our culture is our culture.
01:05:26In Yoruba land,
01:05:27our culture says,
01:05:43In Yoruba understanding of government,
01:05:47the earthly ruler of the world is a representative of the gods and that's
01:05:53why they call him so the all that you give to God you
01:05:58eventually extend to his earthly representative who is the king in
01:06:02reading the literature in Trinidad you got the impression that when they came
01:06:07here whether they were in small groups or not there was order and there was a
01:06:14sense of what ought to be done what should not be done and there was a lot
01:06:21more order than there might have been in some of the other groups
01:06:37with the Euribas controlling the most politically stable empire of west Africa
01:06:42European exploration of world politics will later conflict with their states
01:06:53the wildẹt
01:07:18David
01:07:18David
01:07:18David
01:07:18David
01:07:18David
01:07:18David
01:07:19It was a lot of people who were colonized.
01:07:27Colonization had a lot of impact.
01:07:31Not only on the Yoruba people, but on all peoples who were colonized.
01:07:37Colonization is another name for slavery.
01:07:42It's a kind of slavery.
01:07:44When the European Five, European Power, met in Berlin in 1885,
01:07:49they partitioned different parts of Africa without involving the people.
01:07:56Togo and Damien were carved.
01:08:00And Kuton were carved out of Yoruba.
01:08:04Under the French.
01:08:07I was born in Berlin.
01:08:08I was born in the slave coast of Nigeria.
01:08:14The bank of the river Nigeria.
01:08:17Every African state has its own tradition and culture,
01:08:23which was destroyed by colonization in the form of their own system of government
01:08:29that was transferred to replace our own system of governance.
01:08:35As it did on the entire continent of Africa.
01:08:39The Berlin Conference of 1885 created borders between these brothers.
01:08:45And they will begin to answer to citizens of different countries under the colony of the Europeans.
01:08:52The first impact of colonization was that our kings, Yoruba had many kings.
01:09:01All those kings lost their sovereignty, even though they still had some authority.
01:09:06The most telling aspect of colonization was the strength and the power that it gave the missionaries.
01:09:18The missionaries emboldened by the fact that their own people were in charge.
01:09:24At the time we had independence in 1960,
01:09:28the sizable number of Yoruba land had already been Christianized.
01:09:36Our people started to think that our culture was worthless.
01:09:41Everything African was taught to be primitive.
01:09:44A stigma the entire continent of Africa still struggles with till date.
01:09:53I've met few people who have come from Yoruba land, per se,
01:09:59and some of them I found they do not satisfy me.
01:10:05You know, they too have been robbed.
01:10:08Yes, I'm Yoruba, but I'm so many others.
01:10:11Staying in the particular piece of geography don't make you it.
01:10:16Geography is geography.
01:10:18And I want to say this to anybody and confront you with that,
01:10:21so you would say who the hell you think you are, so I could repeat it.
01:10:26Ideas and innovations of this progressive people will be suppressed and relegated.
01:10:33You are very ill.
01:10:35They will learn to understand the truth.
01:10:38They would have to understand this to the people who say to them and tell them to do it.
01:10:44They will be ubicited and they will be able to see them.
01:10:47They will be rijung.
01:10:49They will be able to understand the truth.
01:11:06Unknown to many and before genealogy and ancestry records, the Yorubas have their own identity
01:11:14database called Aureki. This oral database traces lineages for generations and can identify family
01:11:23places of origin, family occupation, status, physical looks, character traits, and so on.
01:11:32Each family knows theirs, but collective databases are kept by the drummers and entertainers.
01:11:57Everybody have different Aureki. Every house has their own different Aureki.
01:12:05It was a tool to evoke emotional pride in people, for which they were abundantly rewarded.
01:12:21That is my trait. Aureki, you must look for it, knowing people and what they stand for.
01:12:32Aureki reminds you of where you came from, gives you a permanent link with origin, brings clan family
01:12:41together. And ultimately, in fact, it is pure poetry, which appeals to the artistic and those human beings.
01:12:56Aureki. Aureki. Aureki. Aureki. Aureki. Aureki. Aureki. Aureki. Aureki. Aureki. Aureki. Aureki. Aureki. Aureki. Aureki. Aureki. Aureki. Aureki. Aureki. Aureki.
01:13:09Aureki. Aureki. Aureki. Aureki. Aureki. Aureki. Aureki. Aureki. Aureki. Aureki. Aureki. Aureki. Aureki. Aureki. Aureki. Aureki. Aureki. Aureki. Aureki. Aureki.
01:13:09Aureki. Aureki. Aureki. Aureki. Aureki. Aureki. Aureki. Aureki. Aureki. Aureki. Aureki. Aureki. Aureki. Aureki. Aureki. Aureki
01:13:23You have to consider that the Yoruba, the Lucomenia, as we call them, and the Nagoas, they're known in Brazil,
01:13:28these were people who came from a thriving empire, an empire that had subject states,
01:13:34an empire that was well-organized, well-structured, well-founded.
01:13:38This is a culture, but this is also a historical group, a traditional group, an established group.
01:13:44The religion is only part of it.
01:13:53400 years and counting, presence of these West Africans remain a force across the Atlantic.
01:14:02The fact that they were able to influence non-Yorubas to behave in ways that reflected Yoruba culture,
01:14:12I have always been trying to figure out in terms of the elements of the Yoruba culture that had a
01:14:20universality
01:14:21that was able to bring in, whether it was the Congos or, you know, the others.
01:14:28So I get a sense that there was a strength in the Yoruba culture, a very deep understanding of what
01:14:35was being done.
01:14:36People in the Yoruba religion, they may be practitioners or priests of Ifa, of Ogun, of Kabi, of Sishangon,
01:14:46any number of the 401 Orishas.
01:14:49And within that system, people are both the same and different.
01:14:56The Yoruba thought system allows people to be united at the same time that it allows them to express their
01:15:06individuality
01:15:07and be in a unique community of togetherness.
01:15:12Yoruba culture is not only a Nigerian heritage.
01:15:17It's a world's heritage because it has an universal, exceptional value.
01:15:25You go to Brazil, you have Yoruba heritage, which is preserved by the government already.
01:15:33You go to Cuba, you have Yoruba heritage.
01:15:37They are even represented in the parliament.
01:15:40The fact that it came in so late, I think it's a major contributor to its survival in Cuba.
01:15:48You can go to Chinatown and see things that are very Chinese.
01:15:52You can go to Jewish town and see things that are very Jewish.
01:15:54They wear their big hats. I saw a hat big like this.
01:15:57And it was about that thick all the way around.
01:15:59That is what they have.
01:16:01Where is that for black people? Where is that for African people in North America?
01:16:04Where do you go to see things that are very African?
01:16:11You can have the shackles off of your legs and your hands.
01:16:17But if your mind is still shackled, if your spirit is still shackled, then how far can you go?
01:16:25One of the things that I did is try to connect.
01:16:29I took our instrument band to the alafin of Oyo as a gift.
01:16:34I'm going to send another one for the one here to make sure that he gets his.
01:16:38The alafin was amazed to see, I mean, something evolve from the loss of the battle, let's say the battle.
01:16:46And we're coming up with this remarkable story about something being invented in Trinidad amongst his own people.
01:16:53And we're bringing it to him. And he was amazed. He was mesmerized by it.
01:16:56He showcased it. We're going to take a steal back to the new king in Ileife, which is the spiritual
01:17:02home of the Yorubas.
01:17:03And to the Oni as a gift with the intention of also taking back things that we lost to add
01:17:11to our stock pool here in Trinidad.
01:17:12What we need is unity of purpose. The Jews that are Jews in France, they are Jews in France and
01:17:24they are part and parcel of France.
01:17:26But if anything happens that is of importance to Jews anywhere, they are all up to defend, to protect the
01:17:38interest of Jews.
01:17:41I believe we can do the same. Those Africans in diaspora, let them be good citizens of wherever they are.
01:17:55But let them know that Yoruba is in Yoruba land. Either Yoruba land in Nigeria, or Yoruba land in Republic
01:18:08of Beni, or even Yoruba land in Republic of Togo.
01:18:13The history of Africa, the history of the Yoruba land, has to be written by its people.
01:18:21Because the history which exists now, it was written by the colonialism.
01:18:28I think the more that we see and travel, I know one of the problems, of course, is the distance.
01:18:34The encouragement of physical visits by leaders of the diaspora, I mean cultural leaders, community leaders, who then return and
01:18:46share their findings with others.
01:18:48Sons, daughters, relations, curious about this origin of theirs.
01:18:54There are movements, for instance, like Return to Africa movements, it arouses curiosity.
01:19:02People ask questions, and then they say, okay, we're coming to see for ourselves.
01:19:08I think there's a very conscious and vibrant return to the acceptance of what we are.
01:19:16So today, you have diaspora kinfolk coming home. To them, home is Ileife, is Yoruba land. And they proudly return.
01:19:27Here we go.
01:19:42Pequenos pedaços.
01:19:43I'm Yoruba.
01:20:14I'm Yoruba.
01:20:18My grandfather taught my grandfather, my grandfather taught my son, my father taught my son, my father taught my son,
01:20:26and that's how we go.
01:20:28We had this song that has been sung in our palais since our ancestors came.
01:20:43And, you know, it was like,
01:21:04And it said,
01:21:06We are your children.
01:21:08I go, do not throw us away.
01:21:10For me, it's a very sad song because it reminds me of the pain of my ancestors.
01:21:15But we sing it still.
01:21:18We sing it still.
01:21:19We sing it still.
01:21:28We sing it still.
01:21:34We sing it still.
01:21:49We sing it still.
01:21:51We sing it still.
01:21:55And we sing it to you.
01:22:00We sing it still.
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