Hello,
I'm a writer, researcher and hobbyist historian born in Nigeria of Yoruba ancestry. My Wikipedia user name is derived from a term used to describe Ijèşa entrepreneurs in colonial Nigeria. Ijèşas, also spelled Ijesha, are a sub-group of the Yoruba in Nigeria's Osun State. They are also related to the Itcha/Isa of the Republic of Benin, and famously are found as traders throughout West Africa into Cote d'Ivoire. The osómáalò was a long-distance trader, usually in textiles, who sold his goods on generous terms of credit, and then used any means necessary to doggedly pursue his clients until their debts were paid in full.
A series of late-18th and 19th century wars in the area that is now western Nigeria was responsible for many Yoruba-speaking people being sold into slavery in the Americas. Amongst these were many Ijesa people, who retained their ethnic identity, religious practices, and music in Cuba (as Yesa) and Brazil (as Ijexas).
My main interest in Wikipedia is on the history of West and Central African culture, both on the continent of Africa and in the Americas.
La Coubre explosion
editOsomalo: I left this note on the Abakuá discussion page El Jigue 1-15-06
One of the things that seems missing refers to the presence of absence of Abakuá during La Coubre explosion. So far all I know is that the Abakuá in Havana were strong in the dockworkers union, apparently they refused to unload La Coubre at the dock, and were replaced by untrained workers. Does anybody have information on this matter?
Inserts that were deleted from the La Coubre explosion page include: “The Afro-Cuban dock workers were probably members of the secretive, feared [1] and reputedly very violent Abakuá e.g. [2] [3] [4]; they have fought and died for Cuban political causes at least since 1871 [5]. [6]. There are reports that the Abakuá reputed to be vengeful [7] resists the government's pressure, and others that it admires [8] [9] and provides a special guard for Castro [10]. It is probable that these dockworkers have an uneasy pact with Castro, as is so elegantly described by Jerome Du Bois (2004) [11]. Some report that there were a large number of executions after the explosion [12], others state that these dock worker were not qualified to unload explosives”
“Curiously, Saint Barbara is patron of arsenals and in Spanish refers to a ship's weapon storage facility [13]. Saint Barbara is also considered an Afro-Cuban deity (Santa Barbara-Changó), a god of thunder and explosions who is worshipped by the Abakuá among others [14]; it is not known whether the new owners of the ship had these references in mind when they renamed it.” El Jigue 1-15-06