Those who need justice or whose anger needs a shape
Symbols
Double axeThunderstoneBata drumRam hornsRed and white beadsFire
Mythology Summary
Shango is the orisha of thunder, lightning and justice, and the tradition's own account of him is that he was a king of Oyo, one of the early Alaafin, deified after his death. The praise-name 'Oba ko so', 'the king did not hang', is the tradition's denial that he hanged himself: his followers said he ascended. The Ifa odu and the oriki (praise poetry) carry the account, and the double axe (oshe), the thunderstones (edun ara), the bata drum and the ram are the tradition's, not modern symbols. In the Americas he is also a king and a warrior, and the Lucumi and Candomble houses keep his cult with the drums.
Modern Practice
Shango is served at his shrine with the ram, amala and red cloth, and his festivals are occasions of drumming (bata in Cuba, the aluja in Brazil) and dance. In the diaspora the Thursday devotion and the Catholic feast of Santa Barbara (4 December) are the practical frame. His justice is sought by those who have been lied about, and the drum is the technology of the invocation.