The Afro-Cuban Religious Experience: A Conversation with Babalawo Ofunshi Oba Koso

The millions of peoples of Africa who were forcibly brought to the Americas came with their indigenous religious practices. Nowhere was that more conspicuous than in Cuba. What difference did the Cuban Revolution make for those practitioners both before and after its conquest in 1959? What about those practitioners who have since migrated to the United States? Babalawo Ofunshi Oba Koso, a resident of Minnesota for almost two decades, is uniquely positioned to answer such questions in conversation with August Nimtz, U of M political science and African-American African Studies professor and founding member in 1990 of the Minnesota Cuba Committee.
Ofunshi Oba Koso is a traditional healer and spiritual diviner known as a Babalawo from the Yoruba religious tradition. Trained from an early age by both Lucumi and Traditional Yoruba masters, Ofunshi brings a unique perspective of African spirituality through his vast knowledge of Afro-Cuban syncretic religious practices such as Santeria (Lucumi) and Palo Monte, as well as Ifá as it is practiced in West Africa today. In addition to his work as spiritual guide to many, he is also actively involved in global movements to improve the lives and conditions of Africans and African descendants. He has served as Director of Outreach for Project Congo Global Voice, a solidarity network to address the ongoing crisis in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and he has been a member of the International Coordinating Committee for the First World Summit of Afro-Descendants held in Honduras (August 2011), and was a delegate to the United Nations for the General Assembly high level meeting on the 10th Anniversary of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action (September 2011). Baba Ofunshi holds a degree in Cultural Analysis and Promotion from the University of Havana, where he also earned undergraduate certificates in Public Relations and Marketing, and a graduate level certificate in Social Anthropology and Religious Studies.

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