American Voudou: Journey into a Hidden World

21: Orisha Anew

21 FOR MONTHS Ihad followed the spirit, drifting with it from Texas into New Orleans, tracking its peaks and depths across the South like lines on a Richter scale chart. I had jumped up into Brooklyn andback down to Miami. And now I would jump again. A call had gone out across the voudou network: history was going to be made in Atlanta. For the first time ever, American blacks would conduct, in the symbolic capital of both the Old and the New South, a full orisha voudou initiation in the traditional manner. Not santeria, not hoodoo, not some ersatz mix. Initiations were not uncommon in the U. S., but mostly they were taking place in the urban ports-New York and Miamior at Oyotunji. To conduct one in Atlanta was evidence the renaissance had moved openly into the heartland. But there was something even more special about the event: the initiate was from New Orleans. With one stroke, the two most important cities of the old slave belt were united in what was once unthinkable-perpetuating the vo-du in America. And it was almost too perfect that the woman chosen to forge the link was 299 300 - AMERICAN VOUDOU the dancer Ava KayJones, and that the site ofher initiation-to the goddess Oya-was the home ofBaba Kunle and Baba Tunde, the two priests who had given me my first taste of sacrificial blood. I arrived for the final ceremony, known as Throne Day. Ava had been cloistered for a week oftraditional Yoruba preparation rituals-prayers, dances, teaching of secrets-presided over by Baba Kunle, her spiritual godfather. She also had received her orisha pots and ita. Now she approached the conclusion, a kind of "coming out" gala in which the intitiate emerges from her ring ofpriests as though from a river ofbaptism, and greets her friends with a bimbe. Guests, participants and relatives from New York, Oyotunji, Miami, LA, and around the South had been filtering in for days. I had been told a number of important babalawos would be present, and sure enough as I made my way toward the patio there was Dr. Epega in a festive dashiki. We couldn't talk long-he was still helping with the rituals. A gathering ofbabalawos at the initiation ceremony in Atlanta: Oba, left; Dr. Epega, center; Baba Kunle, right. ORISHA ANEW - 30 I Divining tray, center, and instruments in Dr. Epega's home. Opele chain to right. I wandered around, struckby the difference in ambiance from the rain-soaked evening on which I had first seen that yard, slogged through its puddles, passed the night ofthe summer solstice with fresh blood on my forehead. Hearing noises from the basement, I peeked into the downstairs kitchen, where a ha1fdozen women were cutting up chickens and goats that had been sacrificed during the night. I gave them a cheesecake I had brought as a gift. Back outside I ran into, almost literally, Baba Tunde, sweating and en route to the house, but spiffy in white T-shirt, trousers , and head scarf. He looked tired from the previous evening, during which Ava had been fully consecrated. He greeted me with such a big smile I think he must have been a little amazed I'd really shown up. I knew he didn't have time to chat, but I quickly told him how the Oba had read me as an Ochosi instead of Obatala. Tunde seemed surprised. Then he said that sometimes Ochosi "hid behind" Obatala. 302 - AMERICAN VOUDOU Ebo Shrine in back yard of priests' home in Atlanta. Iron pots for Ogun; small conical heads with cowrie shell eyes denote Elegba. Someone called out from an upstairs window and he excused himself. I picked up a can of pop and walked over to the tree shading the sacrificial shrine where I had first made ebo. It had been fed recently and was thick with palm oil and feathers. I counted at least three Ogun pots and as many Elegba heads. I also saw a conch shell, probably for Yemonja, and a tripod of iron poles from which was hung a piece ofcloth, possibly from a dress or dashiki. I wasn't sure oftheir purpose, though they were, like all the other evidence of sacrifice, connected to the initiation . I wanted to see Ava but wouldn't be able to do so before dusk, when she would greet...