Obatalá
is the orisha of the creation and he
is the owner of all heads. His name is composed of the terms obá-king, ta-brillar sobre, nlá
grande—which signifies everything. Obatalá: king over everything.*
It
is said that he was the orisha that
sculpted the form of man in the vagina of woman, that he is one of the oldest orishas. It is said that, like Odudúa,
Obatalá has avatars divided into female and male aspects. The oldest of the
Obatalás are found in the first “marriage,” comprised of Oshalufón and Orisha
Ayé. There is a controversy about female orishas
here in Cuba as to which ones have their otá
taken out, leaving only the dilogún,
the tools, and a sea shell—a long one of the type of Cobo Okinkonkó—which
represents the mystical aspect of Orisha Ayé, wherein it is said that the
female Obatalás were born in the sea and the male ones on the land, and that the
union of both created the human species in general. The first Obatalá that came
out of the sea was Orisha Aiyé. Obatalá speaks in many odu of Ifá, but his descent to the world was in the odu Babá Eyiogbe, although the
construction of the head, its formation, is in the odu Ogundá Meyi and Ogbe Yono. These two odu are ruled by Ayalá, which is the Obatalá charged by Olofin with
the construction of human heads. This is why, when there is a guerra de santo over the possession of a
head, that Obatalá is crowned so that all fighting over that lerí is placated, because all [orishas] owe obedience to his office as
the owner of the world.
*Translator’s note: the Yorùbá etymology of the Lucumí Obatalá is, in fact, Obàtálá (Obà-tí-àlà): Obà = King; tí = which is the; àlà
= white cloth, or “King of the White Cloth.”
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