Lucumi, a Yoruba word meaning "friends", is a common name for the The Yorùbá are the largest ethnic group in Nigeria, comprising approximately 26 percent of that countrys total population, and numbering about close to 100 million individuals throughout the region of West Africa. While the majority of the Yorùbá live largely in the south-west of Nigeria, there... Yoruba religion, also referred to as Lukumí or Regla de Ocha, most widely known as Santeria, is a set of related religious systems that fuse Catholic beliefs with traditional Yorùbá beliefs. It is practiced by descendants of west African slaves in Cuba, Brazil, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Panama, and in Hispanic population centers in the... Santeria. The term also applies to descendants of Yoruba slaves in The Republic of Cuba is an archipelago in the northern Caribbean that lies at the confluence of the Caribbean Sea, the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean. To the north are found the United States and the Bahamas, to the west Mexico, to the south the Cayman Islands and... Cuba, their music and dance, and the cubanized dialect of the Yoruba language.

The Yoruba religion originated during the time of slavery in Cuba, when slaveowners purposely divided slave families and mixed members of different African ethnic groups as a way of maintaining control. Later, in the early 18th century, the Spanish Catholic church created societies called cabildos to provide means for entertainment and reconstruction of many aspects of ethnic heritage for both sides. The slaves practiced Yoruba religious ceremonies in these cabildos, combining their masters' pantheon of Catholic General definition of saint In general, the term Saint refers to someone who is exceptionally virtuous and holy. It can be applied to both the living and the dead and is an acceptable term in most of the worlds popular religions. The Saint is held up by the community... saints with their own pantheon of This article is about the type of spirit. Orishas is also the name of a hip-hop/latino fusion band whose members are Cubans living in Spain. Orixa is also the name of a rock en español/alternative rock band. An Orisha, also spelled Orisa and Orixa is a... orisha.

Yoruba's survival in Cuba was primarily due to its practicants' camouflaging the religion with a pretence of Catholicism. When slaveowners observed Africans celebrating a Saint's Day, they were generally unaware that the slaves were actually worshiping the orisha. Today, the terms saint and orisha are often used interchangeably. The common bond between the Yoruba orisha and the Catholic saints has become a part of Cuba's religious culture.