The intertwining of the State and the institutions of religions are an old story in virtually all of the globe's principal cultures. One need not scamper far into the history books to have described the way in which religion, especially when it has become institutionalized and interlinked with political systems, can sometimes appear to serve the institutions of political authority. That shifting can be as small of interpretive choices, or as large as the corruption of the core rituals and practices of the faith to suit the needs of leaders. That corruption could be merely political (e.g., the religious institutions are permitted to continue to exist, or their leaders praised and rewarded), or economic (leaders are paid off). Usually, though, the corruption becomes an institutional factor; church and state are so interlinked, so entangled, that it is difficult to tell where one begins and the other ends.
In these cases, it is not necessarily inevitable that either the state or the faith community leadership are corrupt (or corrupted), though that happens often enough that one could be excused if one started with the presumption of personal corruption. In some cases, the cultural expectations of alignment between the apparatus of state and that of religion work to ensure that their operations tend to converge interests and practices. Of course, at that point two perspectives are possible. The more ancient one posited that such alignment was natural and that the expression of the state was another form of the expression of the religious leadership (at east in public, with squabbling reserved for the back rooms). The more contemporary one treats the acts of the leadership of the faith community as mere political expression, that is as an interpretation of the divine that can be as flawed as any other form of human interpretation of text or act. Most interesting is when the (mis)interpretation come from ether the state or its key opponents; at that point the issue becomes not merely corruption, but an expression of a political opinion rather cloaked in the language of religious practice.
It is at this point that the rituals of alignment--especially divination--becomes corrupted, or corruptible. That corruption can be said to attach to the divination (or or relevant spiritual communion) itself, or to the interpretation that is made form the divination. And yet at the very moment of the consciousness of corruption, at that very moment, the power of the religious community and its divination is made uncomfortably transparent. Where religious and political communities misalign then corruption assumes a quite different texture--it is manifested post hoc rather than ex ante (that is after the fact rather than before), and treats the misalignment as a failure of operations, or, at worst, as a threat to its political authority.
This was the case in Cuba, and involving the leadership of the various associations of leaders of the Yoruba association of Cuba (Asociación Cultural Yoruba de Cuba). As discussed in an earlier post (The
Orishas Speak: The 2020 Letter of the Yoruba Association of Cuba (Letra
del Año para el 2020 de la Asociación Yoruba de Cuba) and a
Preliminbary Interpretation), the Association annual produces a "Letter of the Year" in which the leaders of so-called Cuban Santería come together to consult the IFa to produce a divination for the coming year. That divination produces a reference to a set of 3 of the possible 256 oddus of Ifa, along with a reference to the guiding orishas of the years whose characteristics might suggest the direction of the interpretation of the divined oddus. The Letra was reproduced in The
Orishas Speak (it may also be found here, and here) but no comment was made of the formal interpretation of the Ifa priests wh produced it.
Among the interpretations provided by the Ifa priets was the following: "Destitución de un gobierno provocado por golpe de estado e intervención de un ejército" ["Removal of a government caused by coup d'etat and intervention of an army"]. The response of the state and its friends was immediate.
First, the state took a wholly narcissistic position--that this interpretation of the oddus was aimed at the Cuban state apparatus. An act of self-conceit, but also one that evidences the importance of religion to the Cuban state apparatus, and the expectation of alignment (along with an expectation of the forms of that alignment).
Second, even a hint of this interpretation of the interpretation of the oddus was enough to produce an almost immediate response by the Ifa priests--a press conference in which such interpretation was disavowed and the glories of the state apparatus were emphasized. This was also an act of self-conceit and hubris--the divination is the divination and interpretation will not change things (at eats among believers). Yet it made the state and its officials feel better.
Third, the episode exposed the weakness of both state and religious establishment. The state apparatus need not have taken that position (about the meaning of the interpretation of the oddus) except that by doing so it revealed just how concerned they may be about just such an event. That produced information (insight really about the internal thinking of the leadership) that they might have been wiser to keep to themselves. The religious apparatus need not have been so quick to re-interpret its interpretation. That evidenced the sort of corruption that might make someone else confident in the interpretation of the Ifa priests, even as one embraced the validity of the oddus (and not its attempted interpretation).
And yet, this episode merely underlined something that is less bvious in the West: not merely the necessary alignment between religious and political establishments, but also their inevitable entanglement (for consideration of the centrality of entanglement in contemporary governance:New
Draft Paper Posted for Comment: "And an Algorithm to Entangle them All?
Social Credit, Data Driven Governance, and Legal Entanglement in
Post-Law Legal Orders").
The greater irony, as relayed by the Cofradía Òlófín, was that the episode itself expressed the sort of synamic that is inherent i the divination oddus. The Three oddus suggested precisely this sort of dynamic between faith and reason, between Obatalá and Oschun. It was a reminder by the Cuban government of the insight of the story of the farmer and the banana. It was as well a bried illuminaiton of dishonesty and its conseqeunces. They note that ee will have a year to see these sorts of thinsg rreplicated nad playing out all over the world. The dead are carrying the dead--Oku li o nru oku.
The news coverage of the events follow from the Cuban press (all in Spanish).
_________
_________
First, the state took a wholly narcissistic position--that this interpretation of the oddus was aimed at the Cuban state apparatus. An act of self-conceit, but also one that evidences the importance of religion to the Cuban state apparatus, and the expectation of alignment (along with an expectation of the forms of that alignment).
Second, even a hint of this interpretation of the interpretation of the oddus was enough to produce an almost immediate response by the Ifa priests--a press conference in which such interpretation was disavowed and the glories of the state apparatus were emphasized. This was also an act of self-conceit and hubris--the divination is the divination and interpretation will not change things (at eats among believers). Yet it made the state and its officials feel better.
Third, the episode exposed the weakness of both state and religious establishment. The state apparatus need not have taken that position (about the meaning of the interpretation of the oddus) except that by doing so it revealed just how concerned they may be about just such an event. That produced information (insight really about the internal thinking of the leadership) that they might have been wiser to keep to themselves. The religious apparatus need not have been so quick to re-interpret its interpretation. That evidenced the sort of corruption that might make someone else confident in the interpretation of the Ifa priests, even as one embraced the validity of the oddus (and not its attempted interpretation).
And yet, this episode merely underlined something that is less bvious in the West: not merely the necessary alignment between religious and political establishments, but also their inevitable entanglement (for consideration of the centrality of entanglement in contemporary governance:New
Draft Paper Posted for Comment: "And an Algorithm to Entangle them All?
Social Credit, Data Driven Governance, and Legal Entanglement in
Post-Law Legal Orders").The greater irony, as relayed by the Cofradía Òlófín, was that the episode itself expressed the sort of synamic that is inherent i the divination oddus. The Three oddus suggested precisely this sort of dynamic between faith and reason, between Obatalá and Oschun. It was a reminder by the Cuban government of the insight of the story of the farmer and the banana. It was as well a bried illuminaiton of dishonesty and its conseqeunces. They note that ee will have a year to see these sorts of thinsg rreplicated nad playing out all over the world. The dead are carrying the dead--Oku li o nru oku.
The news coverage of the events follow from the Cuban press (all in Spanish).
_________
Respuesta de la Asociación Cultural Yoruba de Cuba a la manipulación mediática de la Letra del año y de los pronósticos asociados a ella.
By PostCuba on Ene 03, 2020
Por: Marco Velázquez Cristo.
Ante las interpretaciones mal intencionadas de medios de prensa, incluyendo por supuesto los de la escudería mediática de la contrarrevolución y los “alternativos” que le hacen el juego, los cuales desconociendo y tergiversando a sabiendas el alcance y sentido real de la Letra del Año para el 2020 publicada por la Asociación Cultural Yoruba de Cuba (ACYC), pretendieron utilizarla con espurios fines políticos, acordes a los intereses de los enemigos de la Revolución; la directiva de dicha Asociación decidió esclarecer en conferencia de prensa celebrada en la sede de la misma el 2 de enero del año que recién comienza todo lo relacionado con ella.
El Presidente de la Asociación José Manuel Pérez Andino resaltó que, en Cuba hay libertad religiosa absoluta; el Estado es transparente en sus relaciones con las religiones pertenecientes a su institución a las cuales ayuda, significando además la existencia de una Plataforma Interreligiosa que trabaja por el dialogo y la paz.
Al responder a una pregunta de la prensa sobre lo pronosticado referente a la posible ocurrencia de golpes de Estado precisó que, la Letra del Año y sus predicciones son para Cuba y el mundo, expresando que hacia lo interno no ocurrirá nada, que los problemas son en otros países, añadiendo que en Cuba la religión y el Estado protegen y educan a la población.
Asimismo afirmó que la Asociación Cultural Yoruba de Cuba es patriota y que con el gobierno lo quiere todo y sin este no quiere nada. Resaltó además que aunque la organización es religiosa no política sus 44 mil miembros son patriotas que en caso necesario defenderán la patria.
Por su parte Víctor Betancourt Estrada miembro del Consejo de Mayores de la ACYC planteó que, en nuestro país el Estado educa, no tolera la delincuencia y trabaja por eliminar la corrupción.
Estas esclarecedoras declaraciones de altos representantes de la ACYC desmontan las mentiras, intrigas y tergiversaciones urdidas por quienes carentes de principios éticos y valores patrios pretendían sembrar la incertidumbre, el desasosiego, la desconfianza y la desunión en el pueblo cubano con el vano e irrealizable sueño de destruir la Revolución.
De otra manera no se pueden interpretar las “interpretaciones” no solo las de la despreciable contrarrevolución interna y externa, sino también las de los “alternativos” y los medios y agencias internacionales de prensa que, a sus titulares apocalípticos y sombríos textos acompañantes, ahora añaden el silencio vergonzante ante los planteamientos Yorubas que los desmienten.
Para esos medios, como la ACYC no se presta a sus patrañas, defiende su identidad y con dignidad y patriotismo se niega a ser instrumento de los enemigos de Cuba y su Revolución es oficialista.
Así pretenden descalificarla, ignorantes de una religión que supera ampliamente en edad a la revolución cubana, con principios ético morales que regulan el comportamiento y las relaciones de sus practicantes que fomentan en ellos valores tan loables como la honradez, la dignidad y el amor a la tierra donde nacieron, que coinciden con los que defiende y promueve el Estado cubano.
Luego entonces, dignos, honrados, éticos y patriotas somos todos los que defendemos y honramos esos valores, los que luchamos por preservar la independencia y la soberanía de la patria. Sin importar si se profesa un credo o no.
Basta de intrigas y manipulaciones. Bien por los Yorubas.
_________
Asociación Cultural Yoruba de Cuba aclara manipulación mediática de la Letra del año y sus pronósticos
Según el sitio web PostCuba, el Presidente de la Asociación José Manuel Pérez Andino resaltó que, en Cuba hay libertad religiosa absoluta; el Estado es transparente en sus relaciones con las religiones pertenecientes a su institución a las cuales ayuda
Autor: Redacción Digital | internet@granma.cu
4 de enero de 2020 10:01:16
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Líderes de la Asociación Cultural Yoruba de Cuba desmintieron en conferencia de prensa celebrada en La Habana las tergiversaciones asociadas a la interpretación de la Letra del año 2020, publicada por parte de esta organización religiosa que cada inicio de año se reúne para realizar sus tradicionales pronósticos para Cuba y el mundo.
* * *
Según el sitio web PostCuba, el Presidente de la Asociación José Manuel Pérez Andino resaltó que, en Cuba hay libertad religiosa absoluta; el Estado es transparente en sus relaciones con las religiones pertenecientes a su institución a las cuales ayuda, significando además la existencia de una Plataforma Interreligiosa que trabaja por el dialogo y la paz.
Al responder a una pregunta en la prensa sobre lo pronosticado referente a la posible ocurrencia de golpes de Estado precisó que, la Letra del Año y sus predicciones son para Cuba y el mundo, expresando que hacia lo interno no ocurrirá nada, que los problemas son en otros países, añadiendo que en Cuba la religión y el Estado protegen y educan a la población.
Asimismo afirmó que la Asociación Cultural Yoruba de Cuba es patriota y que con el gobierno lo quiere todo y sin este no quiere nada. Resaltó además que aunque la organización es religiosa no política sus 44 mil miembros son patriotas que en caso necesario defenderán la patria.
Por su parte Víctor Betancourt Estrada miembro del Consejo de Mayores de la ACYC planteó que, en nuestro país el Estado educa, no tolera la delincuencia y trabaja por eliminar la corrupción.
Marco Velázquez Cristo, autor del artículo publicado en PostCuba, refiere que estas esclarecedoras declaraciones de altos representantes de la ACYC desmontan las mentiras, intrigas y tergiversaciones urdidas por quienes carentes de principios éticos y valores patrios pretendían sembrar la incertidumbre, el desasosiego, la desconfianza y la desunión en el pueblo cubano con el vano e irrealizable sueño de destruir la Revolución.
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