Luisah Teish

Background

Her father was an African Methodist Episcopal whose parents had been two-generation servants and only one generation away from slavery. Her mother was a Catholic, of Haitian, French, and Choctaw heritage.

Career

She is an African-American, born in New Orleans, Louisiana. Her original ancestry also includes Yoruba (West African). and she is an Oshun chief in the Yoruba Lucumi tradition. In the late 1960s, Teish was a dancer in Katherine Dunham"s group, where she learned and performed traditional African and Caribbean dances.

After leaving the dance company, she became a choreographer in Saint Louis.

In 1969 she joined the Fahami Temple of Amun-Ra, and it was here that she took the name "Luisah Teish", which means "adventuresome spirit". In the late 1970s she became an initiate and priestess of the Lucumi religion.

She began teaching in 1977. She currently resides in Oakland, California.

Teish has said in an interview "My tradition is very celebratory - there"s always music, dance, song, and food in our services - as well as a sense of reverence for the children.

lieutenant"s joyful as well as meditative."

One author said she was the "perhaps the most well known. Yoruba priestess. of the Bay Area" (2010). Another author characterized her as ".well known internationally in Goddess circles as a writer and ritual-maker.".

Works

More photos

• book

  • Credo Vusa'Mazulu Mutwa: Zulu Shaman : Dreams, Prophecies, and Mysteries (Paperback - Revised Ed.); 2003 Edition