El Mar

Yesterday was Juneteenth, the day that commemorates when Union Soldiers in Galveston proclaimed that the Civil War had ended and slavery was abolished. For many African-Americans this day is a celebration of their African heritage and a day to honor the Ancestors and those who died in the Middle Passage.
The orisha Yemoja gained prominence in the Diaspora because of the Middle Passage. Many slaves jumped overboard and died rather than face a life of servitude, wanting to return to Guinen (Africa). The ones that survived gave thanks to Yemoja for getting them safe across the ocean. Now Yemoja back in Africa was a maternal goddess of the Ogun river and the lagoon just outside the ocean. Olokun was considered the god of the sea. In the New World because Yemoja was credited with helping those survive the horrible passage to the Americas, she was given greater prominence and honor. Yemoja then became the orisha of the the ocean and the Mother of all Life. In Brazil, Yemoja became a nation deity and there is a huge statue to her on the beaches of Sao Paolo.
The name Ye-mo-ja means Mothers whose children are fish. In Cuba and the Carribean she is Yemaya and in Brazil she is Iemanja, but she is the same wonderful Mother.
There are many aspects to Yemoja and she often gets stuck in this conception of a nurturing mother. She is very nurturing, however sometimes she is a warrior mother who will fight with a machete to defend the lives of her children. Sometimes she is a worker of magic, dwelling in the swamps and wharfs, rats delivering her messages and a snake wrapped around her. Sometimes she manifests as a sensual mermaid, looking at her beauty in her polished mirror of silver.
Slavery was a dark time in the history not only of the U.S. but throughout the Americas. The effects of this brutality still have echoing effects today. I think the 16th century in which the slave trade began and flourished was an oppressive time in general. In Europe, the Spanish Inquisition tortured Jews and Muslims, the Roman Inquisition did the same with heretics, In Protestant Northern Europe there was the same with the burning of witches and Jews. This is the mentality and activity the Europeans brought to the New World, with the slaughter of the Native Americans, the enslavement of Africans, and the rape of natural resources in the Americas. Native Americans and Africans had respect for the land and its spirits, the Europeans hungering for Gold, God, and Glory did not.
I think I want to make that previous paragraph part of a larger essay so I will get back to Yemaya. The daughters of Yemaya surround me in my life, I have many friends initiated to Yemaya in Lucumi and my godsiblings in my ile, the majority have Yemaya as their head orisha or their secondary.My goddaughter one day will be crowned Iemanja. My mom was read by my Pai as a child of Yemaya Ogunte, the warrior aspect of Yemaya and wielder of magic. That sounds like my mom :) Even before the reading I called her "The Filipino Yemaya"
So today I give thanks to the Mother of All Life, Yemaya, Iemanja, Yemoja, Queen of the Sea, protector of women and the family. She has blessed my life by putting so many of her beautiful children in to my life
Odoia Iemanja!! Omio Yemaya!!!