Est. 2024 · Archives · Research Library · Living Museum
A postcustodial cultural heritage complex built to serve Afro-Atlantic sacred communities as governing authorities over their own knowledge, not as subjects of institutional description.
Who We Are
The Iroko Historical Society is dedicated to preserving and celebrating Afro-Atlantic heritage by safeguarding writings, texts, images, libretas, and music contributed by practitioners, elders, and scholars. We strive to provide access to this rich repository for advanced scholars and initiated practitioners, honoring the sacred and cultural significance of these materials through ethical, community-governed stewardship. — Mission Statement
The Society operates across three interconnected institutional components under a unified governance logic designed by practitioners with the standing to design it. No institution of this kind has previously existed because none has attempted to hold all three registers — archival, scholarly, and living — under community-sovereign authority.
Institutional Structure
Digital Archive
Governs restricted sacred materials under a six-tier access system calibrated to community authorization protocols. Field-level access control allows a single record to be simultaneously public at one property and elder-restricted at another.
Research Library
Provides structured scholarly access to Afro-Atlantic sacred knowledge systems across traditions, geographies, and historical periods. Contested knowledge modeling documents lineage disputes and variant traditions without forcing resolution.
Living Museum
Holds the living reality of active sacred traditions at the center of its institutional identity — as operational fact rather than curatorial stance. The community is not the subject of the institution; the institution is infrastructure for the community.
Governed Collections Interface
The Society's holdings are accessible through Per Medjat — the governed public interface at medjat.irokosociety.org. Records are presented with explicit stewardship boundaries; governed material is signaled, not silently erased. All collections operate under the Iroko Framework, a sixteen-module semantic vocabulary published CC0 at ontology.irokosociety.org, introducing field-level access control and community-sovereign governance at machine scale.
Ethnobotanical Database Live
50-record structured corpus integrating botanical, linguistic, and ritual description from Pierre Fatumbi Verger and Dalia Quiros-Moran. Field-level access governance via the Iroko Framework Ewé Module. Full corpus of 750+ records in development.
Research Library Live
Cataloged scholarly and reference materials supporting research into Afro-Atlantic sacred knowledge systems. 69+ items in the Zotero-powered IHS Research Library catalog, covering published works, field editions, and reference literature.
Primary Source Collections
Archival and field collections governed under the six-tier access system. Sacred texts, libretas, fieldwork recordings, and donor holdings stewarded with community authorization. Access calibrated to the nature of each material.
Fieldwork & Scholarship
Cuba · Since 2002
Over two decades of fieldwork in collaboration with religious communities across Cuba, including ongoing digitization work with Babaláwo Irete Obara.
Scholarship
Presented at the Society of American Archivists, KOSANBA, and the Biblioteca Nacional de Cuba. UA Outstanding Graduate Paper Award for "Havana to the Sabine."
Founding Credentials
Founded by Délé Fágbèmí Ọ̀., JD, MA (Anthropology), MBA — Babaláwo, Olofista, Olu-Iroko, and Alaaña/Olubata with over 30 years of initiatory experience in the Lucumí tradition.
Annual Observance
Each year on July 14, the Society marks Foundation Day: a private observance followed by a public weekend of scholarship, community gathering, and living practice. In 2026 we enter Year Two.
On Foundation Day itself, we invite the broader community to make a small pilgrimage, to find a sacred tree in your landscape, stand with it, and leave an offering that feels right. Iroko. La Ceiba. Or any tree that holds meaning for you. Year Two marks the Society's passage from founding to infrastructure: the governed collections platform launched, the Framework deposited, the research program in active development.