Identidades in English No 1, February 2014 | Page 66

BabaEyiobe is the sign that is marking the island during 2014; it has the divinities Olókun and Yemayá at
its head. Olókun tends to be a more timid orisha (deity), since he lives in the ocean’s depths. The Ifá predictions recommend making ebbó with a rooster, a
fifty-cent piece, small clay pot, sand and river water.
They also recommend protecting one’s self from respiratory and cardiovascular illnesses, possible epidemic outbreaks, and bone disease. Socially, they issue warnings about ecological imbalances and water
penetrating coastlines. One must consider that this
Odu was in effect in 1959, 1995, 1998, 2004 and 2011.
Ifá also recommends political, social and economic
organization for the benefit of all people.
According to Ifá priest Lázaro Cuesta, Awo Iwori
Wofun, “the Letter of the Year fulfills everything it
says; what happens sometimes is that people have no
knowledge about what it says. When we speak of epidemics, if there is no newspaper, television or radio to
publicize a truthful summary of what goes on, no one
can truly evaluate the magnitude of the predictions we
made. There is dengue, for example, but it’s not talked
about; there is cholera, but no one talks about it. There
are certain social, economic and political complications occurring, but no one talks about it. One cannot
comparatively study what Ifá’s predictions have been,
but we are all people in society, all citizens of the place
in which we live, and we personally know the reality
going on in our small circuit. When one talks to a
neighbor over there, one finds out that the same thing
is going on there, and even beyond. Then, when you
summarize what you’ve heard from many people in
different places, you see that it was predicted by the
Letter of the Year [And he adds] We believe that Obbetua warned and predicted everything that happened.
More over, not only did the things that were predicted
happen, but worse ones happened, too. When someone dies from an illness, an illness or epidemic, people
arriving to the place where it happened must practice
hygienic measures. Yet, when this happens, if the authorities do not publicly acknowledge, there may be
no solution possible.”
Tomasa is a fervently religious woman who was consecrated to Obattalá 60 years ago. Her prediction for

2014 is that “it will be a year in which we will have to
work hard to enchant the sea; we must coddle Yemayá;
we’ll have to make much ebbó to Olókun and Yemayá,
as they are not very strong divinities, and everything
here is a mess. The problem is not to die, less so now
that we are closer to hope. What worries me as someone consecrated to practicing Santería is how so many
people today who know very little about its principles
are turning it into a lifestyle not in keeping with the
honesty the religion demands. They are getting rich
and taking advantage of many people’s naïveté.”
Regla de Ocha Ifá is still a safeguard for lots of Cubans, but it is also spreading around the world. Despite
the fact religious families believe its roots to be in
Cuba, there are initiates and priests not only in Puerto
Rico, Mexico or Madrid, but also in unimaginable
places like Stockholm, Tokyo, Ljubljana (Slovenia),
Moscow, Warsaw, Prague and Seoul, because the orishas have found a place to live there, too.
According to Priest Víctor Betancourt Estrada, Obbetua suggested last year, through Ifá’s literary body,
that the earth was rotting: “For we babalawos, the
most important legend is the one in which the earth
rotted. We have evidence, through the limited religious communication we have amongst Ifá priests and
babalawos, that this path, which is considered essential for the sign we left behind in 2013, has manifested
itself quite a lot in our country. It has also touched
other parts of the world. There have been epidemics.
There have been cholera outbreaks, but it impacted us
more, becaus RvR