Adefunmi

Who was Adefunmi?

Oba Efuntola Oseijeman Adelabu Adefunmi was the first African-American to ever be initiated into the priesthood of the initiation cult of any African traditional religion. His initiation paved the way for other African-Americans to recover and begin to practice traditional African customs that had been lost as a result of the transplantation of Africans during the Trans-Atlantic Slave trade.

Having grown up with a natural interest in African culture, the young Walter King seemed destined to find a way to express his African heritage fully. He left the Baptist faith that he had been born into and travelled the world, going to Haiti in 1954 to study Voodoo and, in 1955, to Europe and North Africa, often as a part of the Katherine Dunham Dance Company. Finally, in 1959 just before the revolution, he travelled to the Matanzas region of Cuba to be initiated into the Yoruba Ifá priesthood of Obatala, returning to the United States as Efuntola Oseijeman Adefunmi. Efuntola means "the whiteness is as good as wealth." Adefunmi means "the crown has given me this."

Upon his return to the U.S. he founded the Order of the Damballah Hwedo, then the Shango Temple, and later incorporated the African Theological Archministry. That organization would come to be called the Yoruba Temple. His spiritual message was accented by a Black Nationalist message, and although his words rang true in the hearts of many progressive African-Americans, his stance drew large criticism from within the ranks of the Cuban Santería priests because of his strident opposition to certain aspects of their religious system. A new lineage of Orisa worship that placed Nigeria at its core, but that was tailored for African-Americans, was formed: Orisa-Voodoo.