To look at the roots of Santería is to gaze into Africa's past and, more specifically, the people that are known collectively as the Yoruba.  History tells us that the Yoruba, like the many other cultures of Africa, are rich and complex.  They possess a "tradition of urban life" achieved before European contact and "in economics, government, and in particular art and religion, they rank with those other West African groups which represent the highest level of cultural achievement in sub-Saharan Africa" (Bascom 1961:1, Brandon 1993:20).  Simply put, the Yoruba, shatter the European perception that the people of Africa were savages.  To discuss the multitude of aspects relating to the Yoruba would be a considerable undertaking.  Their history alone is, as one might expect, extensive.  Instead on focusing on such a broad topic, I will look at the history and religion of the Yoruba primarily as it relates to their  contribution to the rise and spread of the religion we know today as Santería.

The lands of the Yoruba are located in modern day Nigeria.
Map sourced from http://www.batadrums.com/background/yorubmap.gif.

In Santería from Africa to the New World, I believe that George Brandon sums the concept of religion for the Yoruba succinctly: 

The African religions of the area are human centered but posses an idiom of embracing all of life.  The happy, prosperous passage of humans through this world and the spectacle of curing and immortality are their major concerns, not salvation.  They sanctify nature, cultural production and human relations as modes and means of divinity.  Integral and diffuse, they penetrate everyday life with a distinctive attitude towards existence (1993:30).

For the Yoruba, religion wasn't simply a practice.  It was a way of life that permeated through everything that they touched.  Their view is one which remains in harmony with nature, maintaining a healthy respect living things in their many forms, no matter how small or inconsequential.  Why?  Because the Yoruba believe that all living things have ashé. 

Ashé is ever present and vital. In his book Santería, Miguel De La Torre describes ashé as “a sort of primal energy that comprises the power, grace, blood, and life force of all reality. It is amoral, neither good nor bad, unable to be seen or personified, a neutral cosmic energy undergirding every aspect of existence” (2004:22).  The concept of ashé is a powerful one and humbling as well.  It demonstrates the great degree of complexity and understanding these "savages" had.

Ancestor worship is also a crucial element in this system of beliefs.  Family was of great importance to the Yoruba.  Individuals were tied to their roots through their ancestry.  Those who came before provide lessons , assistance and guidance for those who remain and must be given accord as a result.  The Yoruba call their ancestors ara orun, meaning "people of heaven" (Murphy 1993:8-9).  Ceremonies always include some form of veneration to the ara orun, and there are annual celebrations held in their honor.

One cannot discuss the religion of the Yoruba without taking into consideration the orishas, the deities that make up the Yoruba pantheon.  It is believed that all of the orishas came from a single entity or "god" call Olodumare or Olofi.  I have heard in stories, called patakis, that one can imagine the Yoruba pantheon to be like a great tree.  Olodumare is the root of the tree who gives rise to the orishas.  The trunk of the tree might be thought of as Yemaya, considered the mother of the orishas, or Obatala who rules all heads.  There are hundreds of orishas, but there are only a few that are worshipped more universally.  They include: Eleggua who opens the way, Ogun who is associated with iron, Babalu Ayé who is associated with sickness and healing, Oya who rules over the  storms, Shangó, the proud warrior king and lord of thunder, Oshun who is associated with rivers, and Ochosi the hunter.

Individuals may be initiated into the religion through a ritual that takes seven days.  The initiate dies to the person they were and is reborn into a new life through the orisha.  Elements of the ceremony incorporate ebbo, sacrifice.  The orishas must be fed and nourished with ashé, and this is accomplished through animal sacrifice in the case of initiations and some offerings.

Temples were built to house the objects associated with a particular orisha.  The priests that have been initiated or "crowned" with that orisha will work in service of that orisha.  According to William Bascom, "An individual normally worships the deity of his father, and some also worship their mother's deity as well.  Many deities are identified with a particular clan in which case all members, male and female, are worshipers by virtue of birth into it" (1969:77).  In this respect, worship is intimately related with ones family ties.

Other ties would be broken, though, when civil war tore apart alliances.  Raids on villages saw the taking of thousands as slaves to be shipped off to the New World.  The first African slaves would arrive in Cuba in 1511; however, it would not be until the 19th Century when the sugar and tobacco boom would begin bringing in the largest number of slaves to the Spanish controlled island.