Efficacy of Sound: Power, Potency, and Promise in the Translocal Ritual Music of Cuban Ifá-Òrìsà

By Ruthie Meadows

The first book-length ethnographic study on music and If divination in Cuba and Nigeria.

Hailing from Cuba, Nigeria, and various sites across Latin America and the Caribbean, If missionary-practitioners are transforming the landscape of If divination and deity ( rìṣà/oricha) worship through transatlantic travel and reconnection. In Cuba, where If and Santer a emerged as an interrelated, Yor b -inspired ritual complex, worshippers are driven to "African traditionalism" by its promise of efficacy: they find Yor b approaches more powerful, potent, and efficacious.

In the first book-length study on music and If , Ruthie Meadows draws on extensive, multisited fieldwork in Cuba and Yor b land, Nigeria, to examine the controversial "Nigerian-style" ritual movement in Cuban If 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 If priestesses ( y n f ), female bat drummers (bataleras), and priests (babal wo) harness Yor b -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 If - rìṣà is leveraged to transform femininity and masculinity, state religious policy, and transatlantic ritual authority on the island.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0226828956
• ISBN13: 9780226828954
• Release Date: November 2023
• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.84 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.0" x 9.0"