My paper will explore the historical development of an Alachua County Yoruba American community and its connection to Oyotunji Village in Sheldon, South Carolina and discuss trend-shifts and processes that influence the living experiences, (socio-economics, environmental and bodily aesthetics, transpatial-movements and interactions) of Ifa /Orisa-Voodoo and Santeria practitioners in these communities.My research seeks to investigate how adherents of these religious traditions are responding to processes that result from globalization, shifts in worshipping trends, ethos and customs, and the alteration of socio-cultural nuances within their religious practices. These emerging trends are representative of symbolic and syncretic reconfigurations that continue to occur within Yoruba derived diaspora communities. They also signal various types of culture-production, and reflect “processes of cultural change that can be observed in the present and over the very recent past” (Brandon 1993: 2). The growing interest in Yoruba derived religious practices vis-à-vis Orisa-Voodoo and other traditional African derived religions reflect a trend that has been emerging since the early 1960s. This trend emerged during the wake of the political and cultural activism that was associated with the civil rights movement, the rise of Black/Cultural Nationalism, and the widespread commodification and commercialization of items/ideas that represented “blackness” or “Africaness.” While it can be said that these developments were an outgrowth of the Pan-African movement of an early period, their proliferation and widespread acceptance did not occur until they were supported and popularized by mainstream economic and capital interest. When entrepreneurs realized that profits could be made through marketing ideas associated with “blackness” (cultural nationalism, black politics) black power themes became acceptable and were incorporated

into popular music, films, literature, and a large assortment of commercial products. The broad appeal for the consumption of cultural knowledge and ideas was converted into schemes for production and promotion and quickly became viable economic resources for individual entrepreneurs, visual and performing artists, and several mainstream corporations. During this period it became fashionable to wear an Afro hairstyle or African styled clothing and sing songs that promoted pride in “blackness.” Although ideas about African and African American culture-production and black/cultural nationalism within the USA evolved from the bottom-up, these ideas quickly took root and were transformed into commercial entities that were then mass-produced and devised to aestheticise and popularize concepts that became associated with blackness, African and African American heritage, and African derived religious practices. As a consequence of these developments and the intermingling of group members, religious knowledge and customs that were once considered to be secret and sacred within the Ifa/Orisa-Voodoo and Santeria circles are now available to consumers that can afford the cost of the many books written about the subject, initiation fees, airline tickets to Nigeria or Ghana, West Africa, and/or Internet access. Finally, my paper will discuss how these communities have moved away from zones of exclusion towards a space where new knowledge is propagated and proliferates through the use of Internet/World Wide Web (WWW) access and email, cell phones, fax machines, and video recording cameras and equipment that are used to create professional documentary films. This use of technology and media production is enabling local and international discourse about Ifa/Orisa/ Santeria practices and traditions.