20th century AD

African Arts, Summer, 2001 by Judith Bettelheim

The "rayados," those sworn into the Congo Reglas, as are the Lucumi [Yoruba] descendants and initiates in the cult of the Orishas, consider themselves united by a sacred bond of mystical kinship and, like them, speak and pray in their language.... A Mayombero friend of mine, his eyes filling with tears as he remembered the Congo mothers he had known in his childhood from the mill where he was born, sang for me the crib song that they were in the habit of singing to put their children to sleep:

   Tata solele lembaka solembaka
   Lune nene suati kuame
   Munu sunga Nsambi lune lune.

   Sleep, my little baby, so you can go to
   heaven and give god -- Nsambi -- a cigar.

(Cabrera 1986b:121-22; my translation)

Kongo culture still resonates throughout the Caribbean. Many Cuban practitioners of the religion known as Palo Monte Mayombe (colloquially) Palo Monte or Palo) or Congo Reglas, among other names, (1) refer to their homeland as Ngola (Ngola a Kiluanje, "the land between the lower Kwanza and the Dande"), from which derives the Europeanized "Angola." (2) Through a detailed discussion of Palo Monte initiation, I will discuss the significance of some of the religion's Kongo-derived iconography and show how it finds expression in the work of three Cuban contemporary artists, particularly Jose Bedia, an initiated practitioner.

Nganga and Mpungus

Palo Monte is related to religious practices from the historical kingdom of Kongo in central Africa, and the language used by Cuban practitioners is heavily indebted to Ki-Kongo. (3) It is intriguing to speculate on the origins of its Spanish name, for within the religion palo monte refers to "spirits embodied in the sticks in the forest." A palo is a segment of wood; monte is the forest or a rural area, where local rule is dominant. Palo also describes the sections of wood that form a palisade around a military outpost or rural stronghold. As such, the name of the religion reflects the reputation of people of Kongo descent in Cuba; they are rural, strong, and strong willed. (4)

In Cuba, Kongo ancestor spirits are considered fierce, rebellious, and independent. The greatest power in the Palo Monte faith is Nsambi (Nzambi), and below him practitioners venerate mpungus, spirits of the ancestors and spirits of natural forces. In some cases an mpungu has a proper name, such as Nsasi or Sarabanda or Baluande. (5) This pantheon can be even more refined, for a named mpungu may have multiple aspects which also have proper names. For example, there are many different Sarabandas, each having a distinguishing modifier, such as the Sarabanda Tongalena. (6)

Each mpungu can be known by four names: a name in the Palo Monte religion, a creole or Congo-Cuban name, a name in the Yoruba-based religion La Regla de Ocha (also known as Santeria and Lucumi), and a name in Cuban-Spanish (see Fig. 2). These are often used interchangeably, yet diacritically, in my own field experience, practitioners frequently used a Santeria name, because most visitors interested in Cuban religions are more familiar with Santeria terminology than any other. The orichas of Santeria have been part of the official national cultural agenda since the Triumph of the Revolution. J. Lorand Matory writes (1994:226):

   Despite the numerical prominence of central African captives during the
   slave trade and the strength of their cultural influence throughout the
   diaspora, Oyo-Yoruba gods are the core of a "metalanguage", or lingua
   franca, according to which even religious groups consciously opposed to the
   Yoruba--such as Bahian Candomble Angola, Umbanda in Rio de Janeiro and Sao
   Paulo, and Cuban Palo Mayombe--feel obliged to identify the beings they
   worship.

[FIGURE 2 OMITTED]

The essence of Palo Monte, however, can be condensed in the concept of nganga, the religion's central icon. In central Africa the nganga is a wise and powerful man who conducts religious rituals. In Cuba it is a receptacle, also called a prenda or cazuela (Sp.) (7)--usually a clay container, a gourd, or a tripod iron cauldron, which is kept in the backyard, in a cellar, or in the monte under a tree. The most commonly depicted nganga is the iron pot, often resting on a tripod stand (Fig. 1), for Sarabanda (Fig. 3), the mpungu associated with things made of iron. Other Palo mpungus use distinct types of nganga. For example, Chola Wengue, Baluande, and Nsasi use differently shaped clay pots called tinaja (Sp.) (Fig. 4). Chola Wengue's is painted yellow or orange, Baluande's is blue, and Nsasi's is red. Another mpungu, Centella Ndoki, uses an nganga made from a gourd.

[FIGURES 1 & 3-4 OMITTED]

In service to Palo Monte, the initiate accumulates power through the objects he or she deposits in the nganga. These are many and varied. The eminent Cuban ethnographer Lydia Cabrera comments (1986b:126; my translation):

   [The nganga] is spirit, a supernatural force, but it is also the name for
   the entire receptacle ... and the wrapping, a sack of Russian cloth ... in
   which is deposited a skull and human bones, earth from the cemetery and
   from a grave, sticks, herbs, bowls, bones of birds and animals, and other
   items that make up an Nganga.... Moreover, the Nganga signifies the
   deceased.