Afrocentring and Emancipating the Black Women's Gaze:

Yemayá, Oyá-Yansán and Ochún as Ancestral Referents of our Liberation Practices

Abstract

Throughout time and in different places, human beings have tried to explain the origin of the world and life through prodigious stories that we call founding myths. This article analyzes the myths of Yemayá, Oyá-Yansán and Ochún, preserved in the religions of Yoruba origin in Cuba and Brazil, focusing on the repercussion of these explanations of sacred order in the socio-political sphere and in our liberation processes, as black women. If we admit the sociological and ritual relevance of myth as a founding story and source of legitimization of collective beliefs and practices, analyzing what the myths of some of the most outstanding divinities of the Yoruba pantheon tell us may be useful to theorize where, according to current conditions, the itineraries leading to the emancipation, autonomy and freedom of Afro-descendant women may lead.