[Marxism] Yoruba gods protect Fidel Castro: priest

[Walter Lippmann]

There's one babalawo and two Christian ministers in the National
Assembly of People's Power which was elected yesterday. Here we
can read the first interview I've seen with the babalawo. Later in
the afternoon the results should be posted. In Cuba, no one today
is excluded from public life because of their religious beliefs,
or lack of same. The idea that there is something automatically
synonymous between socialism, Marxism and atheism, as we look at
today's world, a red-herring used by the right-wing to frighten
people who believe in one or another religious faith to thinking
that socialism is harmful to their belief systems.

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God is with Cuba and with Fidel (Juventud Rebelde)
http://www.walterlippmann.com/docs025.html
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Yoruba gods protect Fidel Castro: priest
REUTERS
53 minutes ago

Yoruba gods protect ailing Fidel Castro from witchcraft and want to
see him continue leading Cuba, the first priest of the Santeria
religion to be elected to parliament said on Monday.

"Olodumare says he is the one that should be there and so he is
untouchable," said Antonio Castaneda, a babalawo (priest) in the
religion slaves brought to colonial Cuba from Nigeria.

Hurricanes may batter Cuba this year, but Castro's health will not
break, according to the orishas (deities), he said.

The 614-seat National Assembly elected on Sunday must approve Cuba's
top leadership at its first session on February 24, when Cubans will
learn whether Castro will retire as head of state.

Castro, 81, has not appeared in public since stomach surgery for an
undisclosed illness forced him to hand over power temporarily to his
brother almost 18 month ago.

Santeria followers have believed their gods were on Fidel Castro's
side ever since a white dove landed on his shoulder during a victory
speech in Havana after his 1959 revolution.

Castaneda, who played the sax at Havana's famed Tropicana cabaret for
30 years, never joined Cuba's Communist Party, but considers himself
a "revolutionary." He praised Cuba's social safety net despite
widespread economic hardships Cubans face.

He said 60 percent of Cubans believe in Santeria and he can give them
a voice in the National Assembly. Castaneda won a seat as president
of the Yoruba Cultural Association of Cuba, which is close to the
government.

The orishas augur a good year for Cuba, the babalawo said. "If Cuba
marches ahead, so too does the Comandante," he said.

(Reporting by Anthony Boadle; Editing by Eric Beech)

















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