PBI: Orisa/Orisha aren’t SAINTS.

They aren’t synchronized with anyone. Sango is NOT a mute white woman, trapped inside a castle. Eshu is not a cute holy child that you give candy to. Because these saints may have displayed traits of the Orisha does NOT make them the same. I am a saint. Would you pray to me for your roads to be opened? Of course you wouldn’t, why would you give offerings and pray to other people?

This is a colonist trap in which they have you praying to their actual egungun, making them more relevant and powerful. Your prayers are not reaching the Orisha because you are praying to spirits.

Venerating in order to connect to Orisha is different. Nothing wrong with using them as a vehicle to understand and connect. It becomes a problem when people say “Elegbara is synchronized with St. Anthony,” which implies they are the same. That’s not how that works. We not elevating Egun, especially Spanish-speaking Egun. Or did we forget that the colonizers of Cuba were Spanish-speaking Catholic Conquistadors?