This paper explores the unique forms of self-representation and performance of Black Nationalism by Orisa devotees. Much attention has been devoted to the origins of Orisa devotion among Black Americans and the use of the Religion as an expression of cultural nationalism. This paper seeks to move a step further and to explore the function of the actual deities, the Orisa, in the lives of their devotees. The acceptance of the Religion, specifically – the appropriation of the Orisa by the devotee is posited to be of utmost significance in the self-identification and development of the Omo Orisa (children of the Orisa). The Orisa should be viewed as operating simultaneously on multiple levels - externally, as governing deities, and perhaps most importantly, as internal psychic and spiritual forces residing within the adherents. This appropriation of the divine represents conscious negation of hegemonic domination and forces the performance and negotiation of an identity constructed by the intricacies of the Orisa/devotee relationship. The paper is organized around interviews of Black American devotees. The interviews reveal peculiarities, as well as startling similarities, in the life paths of the informants. Proper presentation of the information necessitates careful consideration of the socio-political climates of the late 1950s to the present. This consideration lends to a fuller understanding of the respective developments of the informants. Black Nationalism and Hegemony are key theoretical concepts in this study. Also of central importance are the ways in which the devotees engage in novel theoretical construction through the working and reworking of their self-definitions and world-views. This research seeks to contribute to the understanding of the ways in which Religion and Black Nationalism function together as magnificent tools of political negotiation and social transformation.