Jubilant Coral and Jade: How Afro-Cuban Beaded Art Reflects Religion, Heritage, and Anthropology

Beads, like humans, travel the globe and carry with them their histories and narratives, adapting, metamorphosing, and interacting in new and unique ways. These movements and experiences of people and objects help us to understand that nothing is static nor lives in isolation; they/we can never be limited to a specific geographical area or a moment in time. The art that I make as a mixed-race initiated priest of Erinle, often shortened to Inle—the Yoruba riverine deity (orisha) of wealth, healing, and hunting—and introduce you to below embraces the idea of embroidered biographies and meaning that become deceptively loaded into beads. Indeed, this piece is an exercise on highlighting the interconnections of becoming and being an artist, priest, and scholar and reconciling these overlapping genres and celebrating them through their inclusion. This portfolio of bead-work dedicated to the orishas helps challenge some of the ongoing assumptions about religious practice, and their practitioners and scholars, giving insight into the contemporary composition of orisha art and the spirituality that fuels these many beaded strands.

Coral is one of the greatest symbols of prosperity and blessings in the Lukumí religion and has become the preeminent material to bead with from its intimate connection to kings and traditional seats of empire and spirituality in West Africa. Jade, on the other hand, is highly prized in cultures across Asia, and for the Chinese especially, it is treasured for symbolizing eternity, wisdom, and attracting a price often well above gold. It is the epitome of prosperity. Erinle (figure 1) is best known for his intimate relationships with Yemayá, the mother of the world and water, and Oshún, the goddess of survival, strength, and flowing rivers. Erinle's aquatic connotation is evident in his praise name, Oba Odo, King of the River, in whose indigo depths he is said to have an Atlantis-like citadel called Ode Kobaye. Although he is not one of the most well known deities of the pantheon, he is well loved, as worshippers implore him for health and fertility, as children and a growing lineage are traditionally deemed the ultimate expression of wealth.

Figure 1.

An installation of beaded objects for Erinle—horsetail fly whisk, collar de mazo, and beaded arrow (ofá) at the University of Miami Otto G. Richter Library in 2016. Erinle has a signature yellow bead with red and green stripes that is incorporated in his ritual items. Coral, blues, greens, yellow, as well as gold and jet, can be used in Erinle's beadwork, making his pieces some of the most varied and colorful among the orisha pantheon. Materials: Bamboo, cedar, glass, jade, turquoise, brass, coral, stone of pearl beads, horse hair, and monofilament. Courtesy: Martin A. Tsang, 2015.

My own journey to initiation required a steep learning curve about Erinle, understanding his characteristics, his relationships within the pantheon, and his peculiarities. I learned that every offering, ritual, and ceremony needs to be conducted with the utmost finesse and elegance, that he is the deity of refined and exquisite taste. In practice, Erinle's material culture is distinguished by the lavish use of copious red coral, gold, and jet (azabache).

Elders told me that his necklace or ileke is composed of beads made from these three materials to which is added a small gold fish pendant to honor his association with fishing. Often such a necklace can be outside of the financial reach of a worshipper, which is how glass beads became introduced in his worship. Erinle's myths or patakin speak of his having saved worshippers from famine and also from drought. The fish symbolizes these feats and Erinle's sovereignty over the treasures of the water. I used both coral beads and jade beads on the fishing pole that I made for Erinle, my guardian orisha, whom worshippers envision as a fisherman, doctor, intellectual, and owner of wealth. I used the wooden pole in my priesthood initiation ceremony—it is a tool that the orisha uses to harness prosperity and because its...