Sacred Art & Iconography

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

African Traditional Art

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

Medium (class)

Print 1

Physical Form

Medium

Offset lithograph on paper 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

Origins

Creation

to 1975 1

Country

Mexico 1

Classification

Object Type

Print (Engraving, Etching, Woodcut or Lithograph) 1

Connections

Belongs to Tradition

Yorùbá Religion (Ifá)

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.