溝 religion - Santería

「聖母岩」

自問是一枚唔膠的基督徒，看到 Santería 這宗教或宗教現象，覺得荒誕、難堪。

人在 Trinidad，路過街上一個開著門、有點奇怪的單位。引頸一看，有個黑臉的大娃娃坐在正中，牆上有符號和陌生的名稱，起初以為只是異教神廟。誰知再進內看，竟然又有一黑面女神抱著小娃娃，分明就是A貨聖母瑪利亞。又有十字架、聖杯等等，一時又以為是本色化的天主教，但直覺是十分邪（認真！）。

好明顯功課沒做足，這其實是 Santería 的神廟，急急補習。

簡單來說，是殖民時期被賣豬仔來到古巴的非洲人把他們的宗教 (Yoruba) 也帶來了，但懾於殖民者淫威及傳教熱誠，必須假扮拜你們的天主。於是，奴隸表面上供奉聖母像，暗地裡拜的是海洋之星 Yemaya、Obatala 或 Oshun；同理，聖芭芭拉代表 Chango、聖安東尼則是 Eleggua、聖約瑟等於 Osain、聖彼得也就是 Oggun。七位主要神祇，就這樣藏身殖民者的宗教裡。

一八三三年，奴隸制度取消，Santería很無所謂的繼續發揚光大。

下塌的好幾間民宿，都貼了很多聖乜乜聖物物的畫像，但你不會知道其實他們拜甚麼。

我常暗忖，被基督教逼迫會是怎樣一回事呢。又想，上帝，會有多難過呢。


>>延伸閱讀埋嚟睇（覆述老友維基）：

"The colonial period from the standpoint of African slaves may be defined as a time of perseverance. Their world quickly changed. Tribal kings and their families, politicians, business and community leaders all were enslaved and taken to a foreign region of the world. Religious leaders, their relatives and their followers were now slaves. Colonial laws criminalized their religion. They were forced to become baptized and worship a god their ancestors had not known who was surrounded by a pantheon of saints. The early concerns during this period seem to have necessitated a need for individual survival under harsh plantation conditions. A sense of hope was sustaining the internal essence of what today is called Santería, a misnomer (and former pejorative) for the indigenous religion of the Lukumi people of Nigeria. In the heart of their homeland, they had a complex political and social order. They were a sedentary hoe farming cultural group with specialized labor. Their religion, based on the worship of nature, was renamed and documented by their masters. Santería, a pejorative term that characterizes deviant Catholic forms of worshiping saints, has become a common name for the religion. The term santero(a) is used to describe a priest or priestess replacing the traditional term Olorisha as an extension of the deities. The orishas became known as the saints in image of the Catholic pantheon." 

~ Ernesto Pichardo, CLBA, Santería in Contemporary Cuba: The individual life and condition of the priesthood 

As mentioned, in order to preserve their authentic ancestral and traditional beliefs, the Lukumi people had no choice but to disguise their orishas as Catholic saints. When the Roman Catholic slave owners observed Africans celebrating a Saint's Day, they were generally unaware that the slaves were actually worshiping one of their sacred orishas. Due to this history, in Cuba today, the terms "saint" and "orisha" are sometimes used interchangeably. 

This historical "veil" characterization of the relationship between Catholic saints and Cuban orisha is made all the more complicated by the fact that the vast majority of santeros in Cuba today also consider themselves to be Catholics, have been baptized, and often require initiates to be baptized as well. Many hold separate rituals to honor the saints and orisha respectively, even though the faith's overt links to Catholicism are no longer needed.