UCLA UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Old Oyo Influences on the Transformation of Lucumí Identity in Colonial Cuba Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5md66554 Author Lovejoy, Henry B. Publication Date 2012 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Old Oyo Influences on the Transformation of Lucumí Identity in Colonial Cuba A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in History by Henry B. Lovejoy 2012 © Copyright by Henry B. Lovejoy 2012 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Old Oyo Influences on the Transformation of Lucumí Identity in Colonial Cuba by Henry B. Lovejoy Doctor of Philosophy in History University of California, Los Angeles, 2012 Professor Andrew Apter, Co-chair Professor Robin Derby, Co-chair This study examines the correlation between the expansion and collapse of the Oyo Empire, the ethnolinguistic configuration of the migration from the Bight of Benin to Cuba and transformations in the conceptual meaning of Lucumí. Much of the historiography assumes the coherence of Lucumí culture was the result of the “transculturation” or “creolization” of Oyo- centric socio-cultural repertoires in the first third of the nineteenth century, but undervalues symbolic idioms which had already consolidated in Cuba from earlier migrations largely due to Oyo expansionism. The central argument is that a smaller, but more diverse mixture of ethnolinguistic groups – directly or indirectly victimized by Oyo imperialism – established basic Lucumí socio-cultural paradigms in the mid-to-late eighteenth century which were then reinforced and transformed with the massive influx of Yoruba-speakers during Oyo’s collapse (c. 1817 – 1836). The two main objectives of this study are 1) to verify that an infusion of Oyo- centric cultural repertoires into pre-existing Lucumí socio-cultural paradigms coincided with ii Oyo’s collapse and a dramatic increase of the Bight of Benin migration to Cuba; and 2) to demonstrate that by the early-1830s Lucumí cultures of resistance in the Atlantic World helped set in motion the ethnogenesis of a transnational “pan-Yoruba” identity. In order to demonstrate this significant transformation, which is at the root of modern-day practices and beliefs of the Afro-Cuban religion commonly known as Santería, this study incorporates theoretical approaches and methodologies deriving from a diverse array of academic disciplines, including: history, anthropology, sociology, ethnology, ethnomusicology and linguistics. Primary and secondary sources include a variety of published and unpublished written and oral data originating from West Africa, Europe, the Caribbean and the Americas. In particular, documented African names of people from the Bight of Benin can be used to evaluate the likely ethnolinguistic composition of the migration to Cuba; as well as the conceptual meaning of Lucumí between 1826 and 1840. A database of nearly 4,000 names (and their interpretations) has been included with this thesis as a supplementary file. iii The dissertation of Henry B. Lovejoy is approved. Edward A. Alpers Jacqueline C. DjeDje Kevin B. Terraciano Andrew Apter, Committee Co-chair Robin Derby, Committee Co-chair University of California, Los Angeles 2012 iv Dedicated to Dad v TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract ii List of Maps, Tables, Graphs and Figures vii Acknowledgments ix Vita xi INTRODUCTION – The Lucumí in a Pan-Yoruba World 1 CHAPTER 1 – Mythical Kings and Sango: The Rise and Fall of Oyo 39 CHAPTER 2 – The Ethnolinguistic Configuration of the Bight of Benin Migration to Cuba, 1701-1866 70 CHAPTER 3 – Lucumí Cabildos de Nación in Havana, c. 1728 – 1810 107 CHAPTER 4 – Retired Second Sergeant Juan Nepomuceno Prieto and the Cabildo Lucumí Elló, c. 1818-1835 135 CHAPTER 5 – Lucumí Resistance to Cuban Slave Society, 1825-1844 174 CONCLUSION 207 APPENDICES 218 BIBLIOGRAPHY 249 vi LIST OF MAPS, TABLES, GRAPHS AND FIGURES MAPS 1 Frontiers of the Kingdom of Oyo, c. 1790 6 2 Frontiers of the Sokoto Caliphate and Ibadan, c. 1840 7 3 Documented Cases of Lucumí-inspired Slave Resistance in Western Cuba, 1825-1843 183 4 The Banes Uprising of 1833 194 5 Documented Lucumí Cabildos de Nación in Havana, c. 1728-1910 224 TABLES 1 The “Voyages” Database: Estimated Arrivals to Cuba from Africa (by region and century), 1659-1866 17 2.1 The “Voyages” Database: Estimated Arrivals to Cuba from the Bight of Benin (in 5-year intervals), 1701-1867 74 2.2 Distribution of Lucumí by Ethnicity 96 2.3 Distribution of Mina by Ethnicity 96 2.4 Distribution of Arará by Ethnicity 96 2.5 Distribution of Multiethnic Names 96 2.6 Distribution of Unidentifiable Names by Port of Embarkation 96 2.7 Estimated Arrivals to Cuba from Ports in the Bight of Benin (in thousands and 5-year periods), 1826-1840 100 2.8 Distribution of African Names by Ethnicity from Popo 100 2.9 Distribution of African Names by Ethnicity from Ouidah 100 2.10 Distribution of African Names by Ethnicity from Lagos 100 2.11 Distribution of Estimated Arrivals to Cuba from the Bight of Benin by Ethnolinguistic Groups (in thousands), 1826-1840 100 2.12 Distribution of Yoruba Names 103 2.13 Distribution of Muslim Names 103 2.14 Distribution of Akan-Ewe-Fante Names 103 5.1 Distribution of African Names for People Involved in the Banes Uprising 193 GRAPHS 2.1 The “Voyages” Database: Estimated Arrivals in Cuba from the Bight of Benin (in 10-year intervals), 1700-1867 74 vii FIGURES 2.1 Blank Certificate of Emancipation (1836) 84 3.1 Sketch of Sergeant’s Uniform for the Batallón de Morenos (1827) 112 4.1 Santa Bárbara 152 4.2 Nuestra Señora de los Remedios 156 4.3 Nuestra Señora del Carmen 156 4.4 Nuestra Señora de Monserrate 156 4.5 Evidence of Changó Prieto’s Declaration (1835) 159 viii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I am most grateful to my co-supervisors Andrew Apter and Robin Derby and my committee –Edward Alpers, Kevin Terraciano and Jacqueline DjeDje – for giving me sound advice and helping me complete this thesis. I am forever thankful for their invaluable support, backing and revisions. Funding for my PhD program, research and writing has come via UCLA, including the Department of History, Graduate Division, Latin American Institute, Center for European and Eurasian Studies and Dean’s Office. External funding has come from the Universities of California-Cuba Academic Initiative, a Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellowship and The African Origins Project (Emory University). I am, of course, truly appreciative for all this support. Beside my committee, I am thankful to Robin Law for his help with the interpretation of ethnonyms from Cuba and Toyin Falola for his additional perspectives and direction. I am indebted to Olatunji Ojo, Abubakar Babajo Sani and Mr. Umar Hussein for volunteering to interpret, one name at time, the sample of African names used in this thesis. I am also thankful to David Eltis for all his advice and encouragement related to the methodology of interpreting the names and insight into the history of the transatlantic slave trade. Most of the results of this thesis have depended on their expertise, comments and interest. I am sincerely thankful to everyone who has given me feedback, commentaries and suggestions, through coursework, in passing or otherwise, including: Ghislaine Lydon, Margaret Jacob, Lynn Hunt, Adrián López Denis, David Trotman, José Curto, Michelle Johnson, Rina Cáceres, Mariana Candido, Yacine Daddi Addoun, Jane Landers, Mariza de Cavalho Soares, Ana Lucia Araujo, Matt Childs, Rebecca Scott, María del Carmen Barcia, Manuel Barcia, Daniel ix Domingues da Silva, Philip Misevich, David Richardson, Suzanne Schwartz, Natalie Zemon Davis, Carlos Liberato De Sousa, Oscar Grandío-Moraguez and Nadine Hunt. Special thanks to my advisers, Belkis Quesada Guerra and the Instituto Historico de Cuba for helping me navigate between two incompatible governments and acquire the necessary visas. Thanks to all the archival, library and institutional staff I met in Cuba, Europe and elsewhere. So many people have been so helpful and have always taken the time to help find what I needed. I also am grateful to everyone I have met through The Harriet Tubman Institute. I thank all my Cuban informants, spiritual leaders and friends for their help and acceptance into their culture and traditions. I have much respect for Ernesto Valdés Jané who took me into his Regla home in 2001 and again in 2004. I must thank his whole family and associates I met through Proyecto Orunmila for their guidance through the Havana neighborhoods and Afro-Cuban religions. I also have excellent friends and family elsewhere who have been there for me too. Thanks to my sister, brother and Mum; and all my friends and roommates I met at UCLA, York and elsewhere. I also thank my wife for help with some transcriptions, and especially her understanding and patience. x Curriculum Vitae EDUCATION University of California, Los Angeles M.A. in History 2008 Thesis: “What Happened to Sumanguru Kante’s Bala? Mandingo Xylophones and Musical Transformations in Suriname c. 1775 until after 1830.” York University, Toronto M.A. in History 2006 Thesis: “Drums of Sango: Bàtá Drums and the Symbolic Reestablishment of the Oyo Empire in Colonial Cuba, 1817-1867.” Queen’s University, Kingston B.F.A. in Drama 2002 Research Project: “Trends in Cuban Theatre: The Mulatta Stock Character in Teatro Vernaculo, 1868-1886.” Language Studies Canada, Toronto