Adefunmi
# Adefunmi

Efuntola Oseijeman Adelabu Adefunmi (born Walter Eugene King, October 5, 1928 – February 11, 2005) was the first documented African-American initiated into the priesthood of the Yoruba religion, who would then go on to become the first African-American to be crowned Oba (King) of the Yoruba of North America in Ile Ife, Nigeria.

## Biography

King was born in Detroit, Michigan. King left the Baptist faith that he had been baptized into at the age of 12. He grew up with an interest in African culture and began African studies at the age of 16. At the age of 20, King traveled to Haiti to study the Haitian culture and Haitian Vodou. In 1959, just before the Cuban revolution, he traveled to the Matanzas region of Cuba and became the first documented African-American to be initiated into the Yoruba priesthood of Obatala, where he was named "Efuntola Oseijeman Adefunmi". Efuntola means "the whiteness (of Obatala) is as good as wealth (or honor)." Adefunmi means "the crown has given me this (child)."

Upon his return to the United States, he founded the Order of the Damballah Hwedo in Harlem New York, then the Shango Temple, and later incorporated the African Theological Archministry. That organization would come to be called the Yoruba Temple. In 1970, along with several other devotees, Oba Adefunmi created the Oyotunji village in Beaufort County, South Carolina.

Oba Adefunmi's black nationalist stance drew large criticism from within the ranks of the Cuban Santería priests because of his strident opposition to certain aspects of their religion, aspects which - he felt - did not keep with the traditional form of the Yoruba religion. This eventually led to his break from the Cuban form of Ifa (Santeria-Lukumi). To replace his former teachers, Adefunmi journeyed to Yorubaland in Africa, where he was welcomed and initiated as a babalawo in Ile-Ife.

Adefunmi's brother is Henri “Umbaji” King, who was one of the directors of the North American Zone of FESTAC 77, the Second World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture, which took place in Lagos, Nigeria.

