This year the band offerering by “Moko Somõkõw” Is called The Children of Oya.

Here is a short history and some photos from last night’s blessing and launch.

The “Children of Oyá” are followers or spiritual descendants of Oyá (also written Oya, Ọya, or Yansá/Yansa)—the powerful Orisha of winds, storms, change, death, and rebirth in the Yoruba spiritual tradition and its diasporic religions such as Santería/Lukumí, Candomblé, and Trinidad Orisha.

Who is Oyá?

Oyá is one of the most dynamic Orishas:

• Guardian of the cemeteries and the ancestors

• Ruler of winds, lightning, tornadoes, and sudden transformation

• Warrior-queen and protector of women

• Associated with the Niger River, called the River Oya in her honor

• Wife of Shango in many myths, and close to Ogun and Oba

She represents the moment when something must die so that something new can be born—divorce, migration, revolution, spiritual awakening.

What does “Children of Oyá” mean?

In Orisha traditions, a “child” of an Orisha is a person whose head or destiny is ruled by that deity. It can be:

• Someone initiated to Oyá

• Someone identified through divination as belonging to her

• Devotees who feel called to her energy