Popularly known as The Santería High Priest

"Known universally by his African name, Adechina was an African-born Cuban who established the fundamentals of Yoruba religious practice in the Americas. Born around 1811 and enslaved as a young man in his native Yorubaland (now Nigeria), he was brought to Matanzas, Cuba, around 1830 to labor in the sugar industry. Little is known of his early life, but he was able to achieve freedom and join a growing Afro-Cuban working class. He worked as a mason and before his death in 1905 had become a prosperous property owner in the town of Regla across the harbor from Havana.

Adechina’s fame rests upon his becoming one of the most influential figures in the development of Yoruba religious traditions in diaspora. Known as Lucumi, the many thousands of Yoruba men and women who had been taken to Cuba established themselves as an important force in the island’s ethnic mosaic.

Their religious practices achieved wide recognition by the Spanish term Santería (Way of the Saints). Adechina was a leader of the Lucumi community and a high priest of Santería.

Among his other achievements, Adechina is credited with carving the first set of sacred batá drums in Cuba. The rhythms of the batá are used to praise the orisha spirits of the Lucumi, and the preparation of the drums requires extensive sacred knowledge as well as carving skills.

Adechina’s drums were said to call the orishas so beautifully
that they were called, in Spanish, la voz de oro (the voice of gold).

Adechina was also a founder of one of the most famous of
Lucumi religious organizations, El Cabildo Yemaya (Yemaja AKA Mermaid) de Regla (The Yemaya Association of Regla).Yemaya, protector of the seas, one of the most prominent of the orisha spirits, corresponded to the Catholic Virgin of Regla.

On her feast day, the Cabildo would honor both the Catholic saint and the African spirit in public processions. Adechina passed on the leadership of the Cabildo to his daughter Josefa “Pepa” Herrara, who built the processions into a national institution famous throughout the island in the 1930s and 1940s.

Perhaps Adechina’s greatest contribution to African spirituality was his development of the Ifá priesthood in Cuba. Ifá is a Yoruba oracular system of great subtlety that organizes and makes available the medical and spiritual knowledge of the Yoruba ancestors. Ordination as an Ifá priest takes many years of arduous training.

Adechina set a standard of excellence that is recognized today by every practitioner. He trained the majority of the most influential
Ifá priests of the next generation, and nearly every practitioner today will claim Adechina as part of his priestly lineage"
SOURCE : Phyllis G. Jestice

Nice history. You mind sharing your source(s)?

GboyegaD:
Nice history. You mind sharing your source(s)?

Just did that Bro, thanks for the heads up