Efficacy of Sound : Power, Potency, and Promise in the Translocal Ritual Music of Cuban Ifa-Orisa Hardback

by Ruthie Meadows

Part of the Chicago Studies in Ethnomusicology series

Hardback

Out of stock

Description

The first book-length ethnographic study on music and IfÃ¡ divination in Cuba and Nigeria. Hailing from Cuba, Nigeria, and various sites across Latin America and the Caribbean, IfÃ¡ missionary-practitioners are transforming the landscape of IfÃ¡ divination and deity (Ã²riÌ€sÌ£aÌ€/oricha) worship through transatlantic travel and reconnection.

In Cuba, where IfÃ¡ and SanterÃa emerged as an interrelated, YorÃ¹bÃ¡-inspired ritual complex, worshippers are driven to â€œAfrican traditionalismâ€ by its promise of efficacy: they find YorÃ¹bÃ¡ approaches more powerful, potent, and efficacious. Â In the first book-length study on music and IfÃ¡, Ruthie Meadows draws on extensive, multisited fieldwork in Cuba and YorÃ¹bÃ¡land, Nigeria, to examine the controversial â€œNigerian-styleâ€ ritual movement in Cuban IfÃ¡ divination.

Meadows uses feminist and queer of color theory along with critical studies of Africanity to excavate the relation between utility and affect within translocal ritual music circulations.

Meadows traces how translocal IfÃ¡ priestesses (Ã¬yÃ¡nÃfÃ¡), female batÃ¡ drummers (bataleras), and priests (babalÃ¡wo) harness YorÃ¹bÃ¡-centric approaches to ritual music and sound to heighten efficacy, achieve desired ritual outcomes, and reshape the conditions of their lives.

Within a contentious religious landscape marked by the idiosyncrasies of revolutionary state policy, Nigerian-style IfÃ¡-Ã’riÌ€sÌ£aÌ€ is leveraged to transform femininity and masculinity, state religious policy, and transatlantic ritual authority on the island.