Ño Remigio Herrera Adeshina Obara Meyi, 1891

Description

Ño Remigio Herrera Adeshina Obara Meyi (1811/1816 – 1905) was a babalawo (Yoruba priest) recognized for being, along with his mentor Carlos Adé Ño Bí (birth name, Corona), the main successor of the religious system of Ifá in Cuba. Ño Remigio Herrera was perhaps the most famous surviving African in Cuba in the nineteenth century. Some argue that he was from Ijesha due to his Lucumí classification of "Idessa," which was an ethnonym recorde around the time of this photograph late in his life i. However, his ethnic markings are more likely Oyo, meaning he was almost certainly not Ijesha. In 1830, Dahomey sacked the town of Idasa Agnessignon to the west of Oyo in Mahi territory. Idasa were a remote tributary Yoruba sub-group loyal to Oyo. In Cuba, Adeshina likely arrived to Cuba in 1830 via a ship leaving Ouidah or Little Popo; and he went to Matanzas and then Havana, where he obtained his freedom and founded the famous Cabildo of the Virgin de Regla in the neighbourhood of Regla. This photograph was taken in 1891.

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remigio_Herrera

Citation

"Ño Remigio Herrera Adeshina Obara Meyi, 1891", Slavery Images: A Visual Record of the African Slave Trade and Slave Life in the Early African Diaspora, accessed May 31, 2023, http://yorubadiaspora.org/s/yorubadiaspora/item/3342

Ño Remigio Herrera Adeshina Obara Meyi (1811/1816 – 1905) was a babalawo (Yoruba priest) recognized for being, along with his mentor Carlos Adé Ño Bí (birth name, Corona), the main successor of the religious system of Ifá in Cuba. Ño Remigio Herrera was perhaps the most famous surviving African in Cuba in the nineteenth century. Some argue that he was from Ijesha due to his Lucumí classification of "Idessa," which was an ethnonym recorde around the time of this photograph late in his life i. However, his ethnic markings are more likely Oyo, meaning he was almost certainly not Ijesha. In 1830, Dahomey sacked the town of Idasa Agnessignon to the west of Oyo in Mahi territory. Idasa were a remote tributary Yoruba sub-group loyal to Oyo. In Cuba, Adeshina likely arrived to Cuba in 1830 via a ship leaving Ouidah or Little Popo; and he went to Matanzas and then Havana, where he obtained his freedom and founded the famous Cabildo of the Virgin de Regla in the neighbourhood of Regla. This photograph was taken in 1891.

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remigio_Herrera