Making Caribbean Dance: Continuity and Creativity in Island Cultures

5. The Africanness of Dance in Cuba

The Africanness of Dance in Cuba Graciela Chao Carbonero Translated by Melba Núñez Isalbe This work is humbly dedicated to Don Fernando Ortiz, who inspired us with his Africanía de la música folklórica cubana. The African-rooted legacy we inherited from the enslaved men and women of this continent in past centuries is present in many aspects of Cuban culture and in the traditional culture of the Cuban people. In different traditional cults and religions of African origin, dances play a leading role in rituals whose main aim is to pay tribute to divinities, entities , forces, and spirits. In these ceremonies, possessions help create a direct communication with the various deities. Among these religions are Regla de Ocha, or Santería, the cult of the orishas; Regla de Palo Monte, of Bantu origin; Regla Arará, the vodunes or fodunes cult from the Ewe-Fon culture; and the Abakuá secret society introduced by slaves who belonged to the Efik and associated peoples who came from old Calabar in what is today southeastern Nigeria and the adjacent region in Cameroon. Regla de Ocha or Santería encompasses various types of Yoruba-based ritual ceremonies in which people sing and dance for the orishas. The Güemilere or Tambor de santo is the most important of these rituals and is where the sacred batá drums play an important part. Among the initiation rites, the presentation to the drums constitutes a key element. Those new initiates known as iyabos must dance for the first time in front of the batá drums to finalize the initiation ceremonies. In the different sects of Congo origin, Palo Monte, Briyumba, Kimbisa, and Mayombe, whose practitioners are commonly known as paleros, palo The Africanness of Dance in Cuba 63 dance integrates their ceremonies and rites. The Ararás also dance for their deities, fodunes or vodunes. Drum rhythms, dances, and chants in all three cases have different forms and qualities. Years ago I investigated Santería dances and steps in the Güemilere ritual and could differentiate twenty-two steps; however, steps are not the most important aspect of these dances. The principal element to be considered is chest movement coordinated with arms, hands, and the entire body. All of these contribute to the meaning of arms and hands moving in gestures in which the sea, thunder, and wind are among the aspects of nature and human life that may be represented. Congo dances, on the contrary, are characterized by simple steps with strong movements. (In Cuba, the steps of Congo-derived palo, yuka, and makuta are considered simple when compared with the twenty-two steps of Santería dances.) Dancers kick hard on the ground and jump, and shoulders and arms join in the dance as a consequence. Arará dances are distinguished by a rapid and sustained shoulder movement . The Haitians who migrated to Cuba in the first decades of the twentieth century were also vodunes or fodunes worshippers. As a consequence, their dances also incorporate shoulder movements. What is known in Cuba as Arará came from the Ewe and Fon cultures in Africa, in and near the kingdom of Dahomey (present-day Benin and adjacent Togo and eastern Ghana), the same area from which were brought many enslaved people to Haiti, where their religion is known as Vodou (and in Cuba, Vodú). In the Abakuá secret society exclusively of men, only íremes or diablitos dance, wearing their hooded garments. As íremes are mute, they communicate their thoughts through gestures, but in this case no trance is achieved. We have mentioned four of the ritual manifestations of African origin in Cuba where dance plays a key role. These examples alone would suffice to highlight the importance of the African antecedents, but ritual dances, like music, have transcended their initial frontiers and reached other manifestations of the traditional culture not related to religious factors. The different styles of rumba (yambú, guaguancó, and columbia) are good examples of this. So, too, are the carnival congas or parrandas practiced nowadays in cities and towns of the entire island. If we analyze the steps and movements of these dance forms we will see that many of them derive from ritual steps that have been assimilated. For example, the woman’s basic step in guaguancó is similar to the step danced 64 Graciela Chao Carbonero for the orisha Ochún in the distinctive Iyesá tradition of Yoruba...