“The attachment to the past does not let us see present solutions, nor future plans,” warns the Miguel Febles Padrón Commission
14ymedio, Juan Izquierdo, Havana, 3 January 2025 — Two predictions for 2025 – both political and social – stand out in the Letter of the Year prepared by the Cuban independent Yorubas this Thursday. The first, that there will be dismissals “at the highest levels”; the second, that crimes related to children and infant mortality will increase.
The Miguel Febles Padrón Commission, which meets at its headquarters on Avenida de Diez de Octubre 1509, in Havana, offered its Letter one day after the official Yoruba Cultural Association published its own. Both religious institutions, with similar prestige and seniority, are – after a brief period of union a few years ago – in full schism. The reason: the Government’s preference for the Association, which is totally loyal to it and whose Letter even mimics the official press.
More critical in other times, Miguel Febles has gradually lowered the tone of its “Events of social interest” and its “Recommendations” – the two sections that usually contain warnings against bad government and descriptions of the Cuban crisis.
More critical in other times, Miguel Febles has gradually lowered the tone of its “Events of social interest” and its “Recommendations”
The letter published this Thursday predicts that in 2025 – under the protection of two ominous orishas, Odua and Yewa, respectively incarnations of the divine king and death – there will be a drop in the birth rate and an increase in the abandonment of children. In addition, it foresees no loss of jobs and says that violence will continue to rise in the country.
Coinciding with the Association, which asked this Wednesday to “eliminate the agglomeration of garbage and outbreaks that facilitate the proliferation of epidemic diseases,” Miguel Febles demands a total “sanitation” of the cities.
The Letter, which many exiled Cubans consider legitimate – because their babalawos have not been pressured by the Party when writing it – indicates that it will be a year of “new wars.” Other fragments, which could be interpreted as critical allusions to the Cuban leadership, are: “Do not repeat procedures that have turned out to be obsolete” and “The attachment to the past does not let us see present solutions, nor future plans.”
The election of the governing deities of the year also has a certain political connotation. Odua, a divinized ancient Yoruba king, is credited with the unification of several African kingdoms. Therefore, it is the orisha that grants authority to the rulers, without whose approval every mandate is doomed to failure.
Odua is the ’orisha’ that grants authority to the rulers, without whose approval every mandate is doomed to failure
Yewa, on the other hand, is a goddess of cemeteries and destiny. For the Yorubas, she is the one who “governs existence” and provides at a symbolic level – for believers – a powerful counterpoint to the power of Odua. In the message offered by the Letter, power and death go irretrievably together.
This Wednesday, the message of the Yoruba Association also had, against all odds, a certain critical flavor. They predicted a year of “sadness and melancholy” and “vandalism and crime,” two attributes of Cuban society so obvious that you don’t need fortune tellers to see them coming. The symbol that summarized the year – protected by Changó, according to this group – is the “common grave.”
“Measures must be taken for the intensification of criminal acts,” they asked, in addition to “analyzing well the economic investments and their consequences.” Like Miguel Febles, they urged paying more attention to adolescents and young people, and to “take care of and respect marital and family integrity.”
For its part, in Miami, the Kola Ifá Ocha Commission also published a preview of its Letter. For the exiled Santeros, the reign of 2025 will not be in the hands of Changó or Odua, but of Oggún – the orisha blacksmith and rival of Santa Barbara – and by Oyá, associated with the Virgen de la Candelaria, who in Yoruba mythology abandons Oggún for Changó.
Despite the variety of predictions, the Kola Ifá Ocha, the Yoruba Association and the Miguel Febles all have the same aspiration: to send a message urbi et orbi, “for Cuba and the world,” which is still the charter of behavior for hundreds of Cubans, no matter where they are.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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