Vultures and Mud

Monstrous, abject manifestations of feminine power offer potent political performances in Afrolatine religious cultures. This chapter puts into conversation rituals performed by Santería priests, writings of ethnologist Lydia Cabrera, and artists’ beadwork devoted to Ochún Ibú Kolé. Ochún Ibú Kolé is an avatar of the riverine Yoruba goddess that manifests through the image of turkey vulture. She is known for living in the mud, performing conjure, and eating carrion in ways that reveal multidimensional strategies for the transformation of earthly remains. In looking at how priests, authors, and artists have reproduced Ochún Ibú Kolé’s “monstrosity,” spatial and temporal conduits full of radical social purpose are created that specifically speak to gendered and racial violence. Through a contemplation of ecologies of regeneration, cultural expression inspired by Ochún Ibú Kolé creates modes of re-materialization that can be weaponized through conjure. Thus, I argue that inscribing an intimate proximity between the living and the dead allows for the comingling of different kinds of energies that create potentials for ontological work that ensures Afrolatine continuity through multiple practices and performances.