About the cults of Yoruba origin in socialist Cuba (1959 to the present day)

In socialist Cuba, local religious practices of Yoruba origin have had a singular fate. Indeed they have gained great visibility as well as a certain level of prestige. Their current status in Cuban society is clearly the result of a particular articulation during the last fifty years between scientific discourse and political project. This paper examines, in broad outline, how revolutionary power as well as Cuban intellectuals understood these religious practices from 1959 to present time. It underlines the fact that the Revolution, whereas condemning the practice of AfroCuban religions has been committed to a real process of patrimonialization of some of santeria's rituals. This process took place, on a more general level, within the frame of the questioning of the Cuban revolutionary national identity and was explicitly theorized during the 19601970' s. It has been finalized in the parti cular socio- economic context of the last twenty years, loosing at the same time its initial ideological basis.