Ph.D., Antioch University, 2017, Leadership and Change

The purpose of this study is to understand the culture of one of the newest branches of traditional Yoruba Ifa /Orisa practice in the United States from practitioners born in the United States that were initiated in Nigeria, West Africa. The epistemology of the Ifa /Orisa belief system in the United States has been based on the history and influence of Regla de Ocha or Santeria that developed out of Cuban innovation and practice. This is an ethnographic and auto-ethnographic study that pulls from participant observation, field notes, interviews, and photos as data. The central question of this dissertation is what are the challenges and opportunities for this branch of practitioners in the United States who were initiated in the Ifa /Orisa practice in Nigeria? Some of the main findings indicate that the opportunities include: opening doors intellectually and spiritually about African philosophical thought and ethics were that: it instills a sense of spiritual discipline; it lays the foundation, giving confidence that one can achieve what they set their minds to; and, it offers spiritual technologies and systems that are liberating and relevant in the Unites States in terms of identity, direction, and purpose. Some of the challenges included: a rugged Nigerian experience, and cultural change; a transformative experience from the initiation rituals; understanding and learning the Yoruba language; and, the contradiction of Africa being the idea of utopia. The challenges in the United States also included: understanding and learning the Yoruba language; understanding the different systems of practice in the Ifa /Orisa belief system; the role of women as Ifa priests; ecological concerns in disposing ritual sacrifices; accessibility to traditional (African) ritual items; issues of acceptance, inclusion, and exclusion on the basis of race, gender, and sexual identities from other systems of Ifa /Orisa practice; and, developing new communities of practice base on the experi (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Philomena Essed (Committee Chair); Laura Morgan Roberts (Committee Member); Tim Sieber (Committee Member) Subjects: African American Studies; African Studies; Black Studies; Caribbean Studies; Cultural Anthropology; Divinity; Epistemology; Religion; Spirituality