Joe was initiated to Aganju on May 26, 1979.  He was born during the emergence of African-Americans into The Yoruba religious tradition and his mother became renowned as the progenitor of one of the largest, most active, and respected African-American Orisa lines in the country.  Some of her most noteworthy godchildren and protégées include Lloyd and Stephanie Weaver and she was adjubona and Orisa grandmother to Oseye Mchawi.

In spite of the above, Joe’s family was quite poor but even at the age of ten he was quite industrious so, he commuted from the South Bronx, where we lived at the time, to Harlem to sell bootlegged 8 track tapes, jewelry, and other such items at an open air stand in front of the Apollo Theater. Joe’s family moved to Harlem in 1975.

In 1980, he joined the US Navy from which he was honorably discharged from in 1989 as a non-commissioned officer.  Joe went on to receive a bachelor’s degree in both accounting and international business in 1993 from Temple University in Philadelphia.  He graduated magna cum laude in the top 6% of his class.  In his sophomore year, Joe founded Afrocentricity United, which was a campus-based group that attracted both students and members of the community. It was through his experience with Afrocentricity United that Joe discovered what would become his two passions in life – business and the upliftment of people of African descent, especially Yoruba.

Upon graduation, Joe started an illustrious career as a top corporate sales account executive for AT&T, where he was eventually ranked in the top 2% of the corporation globally. Joe was also an organizer within AT&T and in 1993 founded the Philadelphia chapter of the AT&T Alliance of Black Telecommunications Employees.  It with the Alliance Joe became involved with digital divide issues and did work addressing computer literacy.  He accomplished this by opening a computer literacy lab called the AT&T Learning Network Academy and also ran a computer contest throughout all of the Philadelphia high schools which awarded the winners computers.

In 1993, he also formed Three Brothers Enterprises Cultural Travels and Tours, which planned, marketed, and took people on African culture themed trips. Three Brothers Enterprises’ mission was to bring people of African descent together through culture and entertainment.

Joe is also active as an organizer in Yoruba land and while a post-graduate student at Obafemi Awolowo University in Ile Ife coordinated bringing a group of American teenagers to perform for the Ooni of Ife and the Ataoja of Osogbo.  In response to an explosion in Lagos that killed thousands of Yoruba, he raised money for disaster relief and has bought hundreds of pounds of clothes to Yoruba land for the poor.  Out of respect for his activism in Yoruba land, he was awarded the title Chief Orisagbemi of Ile Ife by the elders of the Obatala Shrine there.

Joe developed his love for travel in The Navy and has traveled extensively internationally and has visited the Nigeria, South Africa, Ghana, Benin, Togo, Ivory Coast, Senegal, United Kingdom, France, Korea, Brazil, Philippines, and more.

In 1996, he started CityLife Property Development and Management, which was a real estate acquisition, development, and management company which had over 1.5 million dollars of assets under management before it dissolved upon Joe’s departure for Lagos and Primrose Development Company.

In 1999, Joe did a formal presentation to his Orisa house, which was then the House of Olosunmi and Oke Sade, proposing that they develop a formal organizational structure with elected organizational leadership to support and compliment the spiritual leadership.  This ultimately resulted in Joe leading the transformation of his Orisa house into the Ile Ase Orisa Community of which Joe served as its first executive director.

In 2005, Joe and Ayoka Wiles founded The Orisa Community Development Corporation.  The Orisa CDC is Joe’s brainchild and his goal was to expand into the larger Orisa Community a vision for a more unified and empowered community of Orisa worshippers than he first expressed by organizing his own Orisa House into the Ile Ase Orisa community.

In October 2008, Joe assumed the position of Managing Director and Chief Operating Officer of Primrose Development Company in Lagos, Nigeria.  Primrose is the real estate development platform for First City Monument Bank and is one of the premier developers of upscale residential units in Lagos and Accra, Ghana.  In 2011, Joe was elevated to partner within the firm.

Joe’s grounding in the Yoruba tradition is compounded by the fact that he is of Yoruba linage. Proof of his Yoruba ancestry is contained in the book “Guinea’s other Suns: The African Dynamic in Trinidad Culture” which contains an interview with his ancestor within which the interviewee detailed his father’s (whom is a subject of various tales in Joe’s mother’s family) arrival in Trinidad as a free merchant seaman and Sango priest in the early 1800s.  He goes on in the interview to talk of the ethnic group (Yoruba) and town (Ilesha) in Nigeria his father was from.

It is his family linage that inspired Joe to resign from AT&T in 2000 and live in Nigeria for 1.5 years where he did graduate studies in Yoruba history and religion at Obafemi Awolowo University in Ile Ife.   With his godfather Lloyd Weaver as his witness, in April 2001, Joe went to his family’s village where a Babalawo, who of course knew nothing of Joe, through Ifa confirmed that he came from a long line of Sango worshippers.

Moreover, the Babalawo said Joe needed to receive a very unique Egun gun ceremony where because Sango was as much Joe’s family Egun (ancestral spirit) as he was his family’s patron Orisa, his Egungun, unlike others that consisted of an egun gun mask, would instead have a figurine of Sango sitting on top of it.  Adding to the phenomena of this revelation was the fact that five years earlier. Joe had a spiritual experience which led him to have a Lucumi Egun stick carved that contrary to Lucumi tradition, had a figurine of Sango on top of it.

The centuries old line of Orisa worshippers that descends from Joe’s lineage continues as Joe is a single parent to his son Akinseye, born in 2006, and his daughter Anike, born in 2008.

Joe’s thesis is that talented Orisa worshippers can be the modern day warriors of their community and use their skill sets to develop economic and political assets for their community that can be used to improve their social conditions and empowerment as a group. Joe aspires to use his skills as a businessman, real estate entrepreneur and community organizer to unify, institutionalize and empower the Orisa Community nationally and ultimately globally.

Today it is not unusual to find African-Americans who know about Orisa, know someone who practices Orisa, or have at least heard of the tradition. But there was a time – just a few generations ago – when this was far from the case.

In the 1950s and 1960s there were only a handful of American blacks who bucked the general African-American belief that anything that was not Christian was evil.

Edward James – Shango Lari — was one of those people.

Eddie James – as he was affectionately called – was physically a big man; he was soft-spoken, always smiling, always with a cigar, and always had a kind word and piece of pertinent information to share.

Born on August 25, 1930 in New York to Catholic parents, James was interested in theology since his early teens, according to his former wife, Pauline James. “That was his calling,” she said, adding, “and he was brilliant.”

Not only did he study all aspects of Christianity, but also Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, and Wicca, said his eldest son, Raj Ananda James (Eni Ewe).  “And believe me, he didn’t just have a passing knowledge of all these systems,” Raj said proudly, “he had a working knowledge.”

Chris Oliana (Oba Ilu Mi ibaye) – a good friend of James – was with him when James traveled to Cuba and received ase on September 6, 1959; making him the first African-American to be initiated Shango.

Although he only made two heads — Alfred Davis (Omi Toki ibaye) in 1964 and Beatrice Adderly (Omi Dina) in 1965 – he quickly became known as one of the most knowledgeable people in Ocha, and was frequently sought out for diloggun readings by both alejo and priests.

“He was a helluva Santero, and was very, very strict about protocol,” recalls Adderly. “He wasn’t the type of priest who just said, ‘Oh, just let it go…’ For him, it was, ‘If it’s an A, then let it be and A.’ He didn’t change things for convenience.”

In the early 1980s, James traveled to Nigeria and became a babalawo. As a result, people often traveled from various parts of the country to seek his advice and guidance. Though he was not a night owl, he never complained when someone called him in the wee hours of the morning to seek his counsel.

Eddie James was the kind of person people felt they could talk to because “he really listened,” said Kathleen “Kitty” Quinones (Yomi Yomi), who knew James all her life. “Some people will hear what you’re saying, but they won’t really listen. Eddie James, he would listen.”

James died of prostate cancer in 2001. He is survived by his two sons; Raj and Hari Aman James (Oshi Ilu).

As we settle into 2011 many of us are seeking to stay committed to our resolutions. Many of those resolutions are going to include promises to drop pounds and improve diets.  We also tend to include resolutions that address our financial health, like saving money and developing a budget. As we focus on slimming our bodies and our budgets I would also like to urge us to focus on improving ourselves mentally and spiritually too.

For a lot of legitimate reasons, mental health can be a touchy subject for people of color. However, we still need to take a proactive role in maintaining our mental health. The pendulum of mental wellness can swing from being in a state of complete calm and bliss to the other end of the spectrum which might include needing professional assistance. During the year we might find ourselves anywhere on this spectrum. To assist us in maintaining mental health, Ori needs to be placated to help us balance and make good decisions. The placating of Ori will help to keep our pendulum balanced, and in the event that we are not successful, Ori will lead us to get the proper help and guidance. Everyone is born with Ori, everyone can placate Ori. An excellent New Year’s Resolution would be to maintain a weekly ritual to placate Ori and pray for elevation.

As we address our mental health, we also need to build spiritual strength. An elder told me that our Egun offer us the greatest opportunity to heal unhealthy generational core beliefs. Many families suffer by passing on negative beliefs (e.g. “I can’t ever get ahead,”  “there are no good men,” “there are no good women”).  Our tradition has given us tools and resources that help us do better. They are more than worthy of a place on that New Year’s Resolution list! Placate Egun and pray for family advancement and healing. Pray that they heal the generational wounds.

Let’s dedicate this year to getting our minds, bodies and souls healthy and in alignment with our greater mission on this planet!

Ile Orunmila Ogunike, is a love filled ile in the Houston, TX metro area, run by computer scientist and jazz pianist Babalawo Rony Perry (omo Yemoja) and his wife Dr. Faizah Perry, a priestess of Ogun, who both hail from the twin island nation of Trinidad and Tobago.  Baba and Iya are assisted by their crowned godchildren Olorishas Attorney Winston Brathwaite, entrepreneurs Alma Espinoza and Cindy Zamarippa, educator Aneesah Rasheed, special event coordinator Margaret Sumter, and Karim Rand – educator, genealogist, and master librarian, as well as by the dedicated Apetebis ni Ifa of the ile.

Whether you are an elder in life humbling oneself to begin a path in the Orisa tradition, or you are a hip-hop generation Orisa worshipper, there are new experiences and concerns ahead as the tradition and its Diaspora move further into the new millennium.

Keeping Iwa Pele at the forefront, this column will explore those experiences and concerns to give new information and insight to inspire growth and productivity within our community.

My perspective is that of a twenty-something, African-American woman, initiated at the tender age of 12 in New York City.  Walking through Osa’s door at the height of puberty, and then graduating from the Orisa-based Egbe Iwa Odo Kunrin/Binrin Rites of passage program, my lens has been set to look at everything within the context of Orisa and Egun.

Unlike many of our elders who came to the religion as adults, my peers and I have had Orisa determine most of our life’s major decisions, even starting with our names.  Young priests and alejos growing into adulthood have many choices to consider. School, housing, dating/marriage, child-rearing, and career are challenging areas to navigate for worshipers of all faiths. So what will the new Yoruba family look like? That will be determined by the decisions that this generation makes.

Even while there is external pressure to conform to the Judeo-Christian norm, the young Orisa worshiper is truly in a position to advocate for our causes. Like never before, we can take advantage of innovative forums and media to guide the next step in the evolution of the Yoruba Diaspora.

Today, we can truly see ingenuity and resolve present in the ways that Yoruba worship has survived throughout the world.  While the world modernizes, it is the job of the youth to learn what once was, maintain our traditions, and continue them diligently.

As we work to preserve what our ancestors and elders worked so hard to give us, we will make fertile ground for the Orisa-worshipping youth of tomorrow to thrive on.

Ase!

My good friend, artist kwenci jones, recently exclaimed “The Orisa tradition is a religion for artists!” The idea of art as an expression of worship is not at all far fetched when thought of in the context of African Traditional Religions or ATR’s (an acronym using the letters A,R,T!)

The universe is awash in magnificent hues of color and kaleidoscopes of temperatures and textures. We can imagine the artist Olodumare wielding a deity laden loom, paintbrush, and potter’s wheel, setting the frame of this ever-changing canvas.
The swirling planets, shooting stars, comets, and supernovas of our galaxy are the creator’s personal mobile abstract art pieces. Right here on our very small blue planet Earth, Orisa are constantly creating new artwork for us to appreciate. How often do we admire the sunrises and sunsets and know beyond a shadow of a doubt that a master painter is at work?

The artist is sometimes subtle, taking centuries to arrange the continents until they are placed just so, or move the mountains and glaciers until they are aligned to catch just the right amount of light and dark. There may be special exhibits of lunar and solar eclipses, aurora borealis or, just for fun, a bioluminescent performance of glowing sea algae.
How cool is that?

When the artist is out of subtle mode, we can see Oya’s tornado rearrange the tapestry, Yemaya’s sea rise and swell in a choreographed dance with Osupa the moon, Shango’s booming thunder-drum-filled light show, lush thickets of the Warriors’ green forest, and Aganju’s hot lava carving new sculptures as the waters of Oshun flow in a musical interlude.

Obatala, the original sculptor, (or Oduduwa, depending on who’s telling the story), formed all of us from clay, creating miraculous masterpieces, enveloped in the virtuosity of these artisans.

From God’s hands to ours, talent continues to flow.

In the months to come I will write about the art and artists of our traditions. Dancing, singing, drumming, chanting, cooking, sewing, sculpting, painting, carving, planting, weaving, dyeing, writing, beading, and on and on.  May Eri Wo Ya! exist until the endless list of art is covered. Ase! ]]> http://orisacdc.org/web/art-as-worship/feed/ 0 http://orisacdc.org/web/our-esteemed-eldership/ http://orisacdc.org/web/our-esteemed-eldership/#comments Mon, 11 Jul 2011 08:33:55 +0000 Administrator http://ocdc.archisense.com/?p=339

By Nana Kwame Osunwole

Irosun F3
Awo Salako – Sixteen Cowries

“Head, push me into wealth”…
Evening got all the fruit of Morning’s labor
Evening got it
Morning was working
To serve Evening
When people pray,
They say, “May Olorun
“Let your evening be good, oh”;
And we reply, “Amen, oh.”
And Evening was good,
Evening had blessings on Earth.

Ifa’ philosophy uses evening as a metaphor for longevity and prosperity for the sacrifice and work in our day and our life. Its fluidity is seen in the reality that a child (through reincarnation) can enter the world as a prophetic priest or wise elder of a family and community, and be revered and taught by a loving religion the principles of longevity and prosperity. This is contrasted by the fast and hurried life seen in some of our communities today, influenced by Western linear thinking, which has hurt many in the last 40 years.

Beginning in the late 1950’s we began to study the rituals and characters of Ifa/Orisa, and the Rites of Passages. We were being taught to understand, as Wole Soyinka stated: the tenet of the cyclical nature of existence – of life and death following one another interminably in saecual saeculorum (“for ever and ever”)

This column is going to highlight exemplary elders who have been within our Ifa/Orisa community for years. Difficult years may be ahead of us. It has become paramount for us to learn from our elders’ vast well of knowledge and practices, and allow this knowledge to guide us at every stage of our evolution. The wise tenets given us of Ifa never separated the cosmic (Orun) and our life on earth (Aiye’). Our wisdom proved to be truth.