Grenada

Grenada, an island nation in the eastern Caribbean archipelago, was discovered by Columbus on his third voyage in 1498 and was colonized by the French and later by the English. After slavery was abolished in 1850, there was a shortage of labor on the plantations, and therefore the British imported a considerable number of indentured laborers from Nigeria, mostly Yoruba speakers from Ilesha. Although they were superficially Christianized, they have kept a number of their original religious traditions until today. In the so-called Shango cult, Yoruba deities (orishas) are invoked in a dialect derived from their native African language. The believers are mostly peasants, who construct simple altars or shrines (stools) for their favorite divinities, such as Ogun, Shango, Yemanya, and Oshun, next to their ...