Divinity Atlas

Sacred Correspondences
Sacred Art & Iconography

Las Siete Potencias Africanas (Georgetown University Library, L.2017.2.31)

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A commercial offset lithograph on paper, printed in Mexico before 1975, showing the figures of eight Catholic saints captioned with the Yoruba names of the orishas long paired with them in Santeria devotional practice: Obatala with Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes, Yemaya with Nuestra Senora de Regla, Ochun with Nuestra Senora de la Caridad, Chango with Santa Barbara, Orula (Orunmila) with San Francisco de Asis, Ogun with San Juan Bautista, Elegua with San Benito el Moro, and Olofi with the crucified Christ. It is held by Georgetown University Library's Booth Family Center for Special Collections, accession L.2017.2.31, part of a collection assembled over nearly forty years by Joseph M. Murphy and shown in the 2017 exhibition Sacred Arts of Orisha Traditions. This particular eight-figure roster, sometimes called the Seven African Powers with Olofi added as a ninth or highest figure depending on the counting, is one of several documented rosters in circulation; Oya, honored elsewhere in the tradition as an orisha in her own right, does not appear on this print.

Facts
Custody
Current Location
Georgetown University Library, Booth Family Center for Special Collections, Washington, D.C., accession L.2017.2.31 1
Current Custodian
Georgetown University Library 1
Subject Matter
Depicted Subject
Eight Catholic saints, each captioned with the name of the orisha long identified with that saint in Santeria practice: Elegua, Orula (Orunmila), Chango, Ogun, Obatala, Ochun, Yemaya and Olofi. 1
Physical Form
Medium
Offset lithograph on paper 1
Origins
Creation
to 1975 1
Country
Mexico 1
Cross-Tradition Connections

Belongs to Tradition

A lithograph pairing Catholic saints with the Yoruba names of the orishas long paired with them in Santeria devotional practice, its eight figures named for the orisha pantheon at the center of Yoruba religion.

Depicts

Sources
1. Sacred Arts of Orisha Traditions Exhibition Record (Georgetown University Library)
Joseph M. Murphy (curator), Georgetown University Library, Booth Family Center for Special CollectionsView the Source
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