Babalawo

Babalawo or Babalao (of Yoruba Babalawo = " father of the secrets" ) [ Babala: ' o] is a collective term for priests, shamans and herbal healers of the Yoruba in West Africa.

The term covers many different people and activities of oracle booms on initiation priest to medicinal plant experts who are bound in their activities to any particular cult. The negative restriction on mages who deal with damage spells, came only in the 1980s with the second wave of Christianization in Africa. The corresponding term in the Igbo called Dibia.

Babalawo are also the priests of Orunmila Ifa - called one Orixá ( = deity of the Candomblé cult ) in Brazil, as well as the priests of the Yoruba in Cuba.