Iya Olga epitomised and perpetuated the customs and traditions of Yoruba culture, while actively participating in the Brazilian society.

Iya Olga descended from a princess of the royal house Aro of Ketu (in modern Benin), who had been kidnapped and abducted to Bahia between c. 1636 and the end of the 18th century.

When the Ile Maroia Laji temple was declared a national heritage site, Cultural Minister Gilberto Gil said of Alaketu, "In the last forty years, we can consider Mother Olga as the greatest proponent of the religion of the Orishas in all Brazil."

The Ketu nation (localisation of cultural origin) into which Olga de Alaketu was born has a long history of religious oral tradition.

Alaketu refers to an Afro-Brazilian spiritual centre, known as Ilê Maroiá Laji, in the Matatu district of Salvador de Bahia, one of the oldest of its kind.