Once again, I had the pleasure to speak with Ócháni Lele recently. Those who read last week’s blog interview will remember that he is the Lucumí author of various books on the religion Santería. Specifically, his work focuses on the diloggún and the odu that form its oral literary corpus. His past works include the titles The Secrets of Afro-Cuban Divination, Obi: Oracle of Cuban Santería, and The Diloggún. He is with us today promoting his new book released by Destiny Books on July 7th, Teachings of the Santería Gods.
Year-in-White: Ócháni, this has turned into a very lengthy interview, and I’d like to thank you for taking all this time to speak with both myself and my readers.
Ócháni Lele: You’re quite welcome. I love talking (and writing) about my work.
Year-in-White: Until the release of this book, Teachings of the Santería Gods, all of your work to date has been instructional. This book does have some wonderful teaching material in it, but primarily it is a collection of short stories, beautifully written. Why the change?
Ócháni Lele: I don’t look at this as a change as much as I do a natural evolution of my writing. When I wrote The Secrets of Afro-Cuban Divination in 1998 (it was contracted late 1998 and published late 2000), there was nothing on the market that spoke of the diloggún – either as a system of divination or as an oral holy book. I wanted to begin my work by investigating the diloggún as a system of divination; that is, after all, its most practical application. Something most of my readers don’t know is that when I wrote Secrets I wanted it to be an inclusive survey of Lucumí divination. It had an extensive chapter about Obí divination in it.
But books are limited entities, and for a first volume on two virtually unknown divination systems written in the English language, I had some serious space constraints. Plus, Obí divination isn’t that simple, not really. So I cut the chapter on Obí and presented my first volume as a survey of the diloggún. It was unique; it was innovative; and it was the first book of its kind written in the English language. It was the first book of its kind in any language to provide complete instructional material regarding the casting of diloggún. And it was a huge success!
About the time that Secrets came out I was burnt out on nursing; and one night, disappointed in new staffing guidelines that I felt were unsafe at my then current job, I quit. I put in my two weeks’ notice, worked it out, and after my last night on the job I sat at home wondering, “Now what am I going to do with myself?” The deleted chapter from Secrets sat on my dining room table, all 68 pages of it. I decided to rework that into a book.
In a two-week period in which all I did was write, eat, shower, and sleep, I added my personal anecdotes about being white and entering what is considered by most to be an African religion; and then I added all the patakís I knew supporting the coconut-based divination system. I added a simple chapter on an art few initiates know or remember anymore in regards to Obí divination, the aperes, and then I polished it all up and sent it to my publisher. A few weeks later it was contracted! Late 2001, Obí: Oracle of Cuban Santería was published.
While writing that book, I knew I wanted to move into storytelling. It felt good, no, powerful to tell my own versions of the patakís supporting Obí divination. Over the years I had collected hundreds of patakís, sacred myths, about the orishas and the odu; however, my writing skills were not strong enough to commit to a project dedicated only to storytelling. Plus, every day my email box was crammed with requests for more information on the odu. Those emails gave me the inspiration to write my incredibly huge volume titled, The Diloggún: the Orishas, Proverbs, Sacrifices, and Prohibitions of Cuban Santería.
When I sent that 400,000 plus word manuscript to my publisher, Inner Traditions, I was afraid. Publishers don’t like projects of more than 75,000 to 85,000 words, but when the acquisitions department read it, they “got it.” The diloggún is huge; and the opportunities for writing and studying this system are huge as well. They took a chance and published it. The volume was a huge success and went into successive printings.
Year-in-White: And how did this lead you into your current book, Teachings of the Santería Gods.
Ócháni Lele: Something most don’t realize about the publishing industry is this – after a work is contracted, it can take six months to a year and a half to bring a book to the shelves. It’s a long, drawn-out process of reviews, edits, and rewrites. I sent Inner Traditions the final manuscript for The Diloggún in 2002. It didn’t come out until 2003. During that time, I was searching for the subject matter of my next book; and that is when I decided to start writing short stories based on the patakís.
From 2002 until late 2007, I wrote and rewrote all the stories I had in my private collection. I began with Okana and worked my way through the composites of Ejila Shebora. It took me 6 years to work through them all like this, and along the way my godfather taught me hundreds of additional stories. Even now, I don’t think that man (God bless him) realizes how much he taught me, or how closely I hung on his every word. I worked my versions of those into my notes as well.
In 2008 I still had hundreds of stories and fragments untouched; but when I realized how the years had flown by without me publishing anything . . . well . . . I stopped what I was doing and planned how I was going to present these stories. After many false starts, I decided that a short volume on the patakís of the root odu from Okana through Ejila Shebora would be the most logical. I agonized over which ones to present; and early 2008 I sent a proposal to my editor. The publisher issued a contract; and I began months of cutting, editing, writing, and rewriting until the manuscript was complete.
Truly, the book you hold in your hands is one that took 8 years to write and bring to the bookshelves. I am very proud of the work I’ve done.
Year-in-White: Towards the end of the introduction in Teachings of the Santería Gods you reference Okana’s story. You pose a question to the reader about whether the osogbo that comes into one’s life due to failure to make ebó is the result of the osogbo itself or the result of the person not making the required ebó. This is an intense question, one that involves the realm of moral and ethics. Which do you believe? Was the outcome of that story due to the failure to make ebó or to the osogbo itself?
Ócháni Lele: This is why I love to study both the odu and the patakís, and this is why I wish more people spent time contemplating them. Each, if read thoughtfully, brings up multiple issues regarding morals, ethics, and personal responsibility. Any one story in my book could generate dozens of papers on just these subjects. Without imposing my own beliefs on my readers, I’d like to say that the world is a complicated place, and the stories in my book reflect this world’s complications. Everything we do affects everything and everyone else; nothing exists in a vacuum, and everything is caught up in an intricate web that derives its strength from its multiple threads. I’d like my readers to come up with their own ideas on these topics as they read my work.
Barely 100 years ago (give or take a few dozen years) were the Yoruba thought to be savages with no native spirituality. As recently as our generation, this country tried to make laws limiting the practice of our faith. Even now, mainstream WASP society looks at what we do with disgust. But after reading these stories, myths and histories – sacred dramas as ancient as any sacred texts in our world – one learns that the Yoruba were a deeply spiritual people who struggled daily with the concepts of God, soul, ethics, morals, and personal responsibility. These stories are the core of our spiritual practices. Only the morally insane could read this work and think, “These people have no soul. These people have no spirituality.” There is a gentleness, a refreshingly vibrant, spiritual yearning to these patakís. They are the result of a spiritual genius; there is no soulful poverty in them.
Year-in-White: There are so many ways to present these stories. I’d like to know if you have any plans for an audio book or public performance based on these patakís?
Ócháni Lele: Once I get through the initial frenzy of activity associated with the launch of any book, mine included, I do have a special project planned. I’m still working out the details, so I’d like to ask your blog readers to friend me on facebook (look for Ócháni Lele there), add me on twitter (look for ochanilele) and add me on myspace (myspace.com/ochanilele). When I’m ready to start that project I’ll put up announcements on all those social websites.
Year-in-White: Once again, I’d like to thank you for taking time to speak with us. And to all my readers, Ócháni Lele’s new book, Teachings of the Santería Gods, is available now. Amazon.com has incredible deals on this volume and all of Ócháni’s work, and you can purchase them through the link below. Next week’s third and final interview with Ócháni Lele will be just be about patakís. I can’t wait!
Ócháni Lele: Thanks for hosting me on my blog-tour. I’ve enjoyed this very much!
Ócháni Lele’s book is available online at amazon.com. You can also find the other books he has written throughout his career as both a writer and a priest there. Click on the link below to find his latest book, Teachings of the Santería Gods, released on July 7, 2010.
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