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Liber XXXIV · Vodou & Hoodoo

Liber XXXIV · Vodou & Hoodoo · Chapter VII: Santería & the Orishas

Palo Mayombe: Cuba's Kongo Religion and the Reglas de Congo

Palo Mayombe and Palo Monte, the Kongo-derived religion of Cuba: the nganga vessel, the spirits of the dead, mpungus, rayamiento initiation and its history.

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Palo, often called Palo Mayombe or Palo Monte, is the Afro-Cuban religion derived from the traditions of the Kongo peoples of Central Africa. Its practitioners, paleros and paleras, work with the spirits of the dead and the forces of nature through a consecrated vessel called the nganga or prenda, and it exists in Cuba alongside, and often intertwined with, the Yoruba-derived religion of Santería.

What Palo Is: The Reglas de Congo§

The word palo means "stick" or "tree" in Spanish, and refers to the woods of the monte, the forest or wild land that Afro-Cuban religions regard as the dwelling of spirits and the source of ritual power. Afro-Cubans traditionally speak of the Kongo-derived religions as the Reglas de Congo (Kongo rules or orders). The main branches are Palo Mayombe, Palo Monte, Briyumba and Kimbisa. The last, whose full name is Regla Kimbisa del Santo Cristo del Buen Viaje, is traditionally said to have been founded in the nineteenth century by Andrés Petit, a figure remembered as both a Catholic lay brother and a master of Afro-Cuban religion; it mixes Palo with Catholic and Spiritist elements.

Palo has a supreme God, called Nsambi or Sambia, who created the world but is not approached directly. Practitioners work with the mpungus, powerful spirits of nature, and above all with the nfumbi, spirits of the dead. Its ritual language is a Cuban creole based on Kikongo, the language of the Kongo, mixed with Spanish, and its songs, called mambos, are sung in this tongue. Priests are addressed as tata nganga (father) and yaya nganga (mother), and initiates of a house form a spiritual family under them.

Many Cubans who practise Palo also practise Santería (see Santería and the Orishas) or Spiritism. The religions remain distinct, with different languages, initiations and altars, but they are frequently served by the same people, and practitioners speak of being "crossed" (cruzado) when they hold initiations in more than one.

Kongo Roots and the Cabildos of Colonial Cuba§

Central Africans formed a large proportion of the people brought to Cuba as slaves from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries. In Cuba they were known collectively as congos. Like other African groups, they organised themselves in cabildos de nación, mutual-aid societies under Catholic patronage, which held festivals, cared for the sick and buried the dead, and which preserved languages, music and religious practice.

The Kongo kingdom had been Christian since the late fifteenth century, and Kongo religion already combined indigenous ideas with Catholic elements before the Atlantic crossing. Central to it were minkisi (singular nkisi), containers of medicines inhabited by spiritual forces and operated by a specialist called the nganga; see Minkisi: Kongo Sacred Medicines. In Cuba the word nganga passed from the specialist to the vessel itself. Robert Farris Thompson, in Flash of the Spirit, also traced the Kongo cosmogram, a cross dividing the world of the living from the world of the dead, in the drawn signs of Palo.

The Nganga or Prenda: The Vessel of the Dead§

The nganga, also called prenda ("jewel" or "pledge") or caldero (cauldron), is the heart of Palo. It is typically an iron cauldron or clay pot filled with earth from significant places, sticks from particular trees, stones, animal remains, metal objects and many other substances, each chosen for its meaning. It is understood to be inhabited by a nfumbi, a spirit of the dead, who has agreed to work with the palero in return for care and offerings. Each nganga has its own name and character and is associated with an mpungu.

Historically and in ethnographic accounts, the nganga has included human remains, usually a bone or a portion of grave earth, as the material link with the dead spirit. This element, more than any other, has fuelled outsiders' fear of Palo. Scholars such as Todd Ramón Ochoa, in Society of the Dead (2010), describe the relationship between palero and nganga as a pact or partnership with the dead, demanding, morally complex and sustained over years, rather than as simple sorcery.

Older ethnographies record a distinction between ngangas described as "Christian", which are baptised and work only for good, and others said to be unbaptised and willing to cause harm. The latter were often called judía ("Jewish"), a label inherited from colonial Catholic prejudice that modern scholars note critically. The distinction shows how practitioners themselves frame the moral ambivalence of power over the dead.

Mpungus, Saints and Orishas§

The mpungus are often matched with Catholic saints and with the orishas of Santería, though Palo houses stress that they are not the same beings. Commonly cited correspondences include:

  • Lucero (Lucero Mundo), opener of roads, compared with Eleguá
  • Zarabanda, spirit of iron and labour, compared with Ogún
  • Siete Rayos, spirit of thunder and fire, compared with Changó
  • Madre de Agua, mother of the waters, compared with Yemayá
  • Chola Wengue, spirit of rivers and sweetness, compared with Oshún
  • Centella Ndoki, spirit of the wind, storms and the cemetery, compared with Oyá
  • Tiembla Tierra, the calm, white elder, compared with Obatalá

Names and correspondences vary between branches and houses. The mpungus represent forces of nature and the cosmos, and paleros describe them as working together with the dead who live in the nganga.

Rayamiento: Initiation and Ritual Life§

Initiation into Palo is called rayamiento, from rayar, "to scratch", because it traditionally involves small cuts on the skin that mark the initiate as belonging to a nganga and its family. Practitioners keep the details secret. The newly initiated person is often called a pino nuevo (new pine), and further ceremonies may later make him or her a priest with an nganga of their own. A widely repeated rule holds that a person should be initiated in Palo before being crowned in Santería, though practice varies.

Ritual life includes the drawing of firmas, signs traced in chalk on the ground or on the nganga that identify spirits and direct their work, comparable in function to the vèvè of Haitian Vodou. Paleros divine with chamalongos, pieces of coconut shell, and with mpaka, horns filled with medicines and sealed with a mirror. Drumming and the singing of mambos call the spirits, and the dead may take possession of mediums, who are sometimes called "horses" as in other Afro-Atlantic religions (see Spirit Possession in Afro-Atlantic Religions).

Clients come to paleros with problems of health, love, work and conflict, and paleros are known for working quickly and forcefully on their behalf, which partly explains their reputation. Like other ritual help, this is described by practitioners as working alongside, not in place of, medical and legal help.

Reputation, Fear and Law§

Palo has carried the heaviest stigma of all Afro-Cuban religions. In the early twentieth century, the young Fernando Ortiz, in Los negros brujos (1906), approached Afro-Cuban religion through the lens of criminology and degeneration, a view he later abandoned as he became the founder of Afro-Cuban studies. Press campaigns against brujería (witchcraft) in the early Republic accused paleros of crimes, often on little evidence.

The work of Lydia Cabrera, especially El Monte (1954) and Reglas de Congo: Palo Monte Mayombe (1979), changed the record. Cabrera recorded the voices of practitioners themselves and presented their knowledge as a rich body of religious thought. Later scholars, including Stephan Palmié in Wizards and Scientists (2002) and Ochoa, have examined how Palo was constructed as Santería's dangerous "other" and how practitioners navigate that reputation.

In 1989 a series of murders near Matamoros, Mexico, committed by a cult around Adolfo de Jesús Constanzo, was widely reported as "Palo Mayombe" or "Santería" ritual killing. Practitioners and scholars rejected the association; the killings had nothing to do with the religious practice of Cuban houses. Such episodes, together with occasional cases of grave disturbance reported in the press, keep Palo in a defensive position, much as legal battles over animal offerings have shaped Santería's public life (see Church of Lukumi v. Hialeah).

Frequently asked questions§

What is the difference between Palo and Santería?§

Santería (Lucumí) derives mainly from Yoruba religion and centres on the orishas, while Palo derives from Kongo religion and centres on the dead and the nganga. They have different languages, initiations and rituals, though many Cubans practise both.

What is a nganga in Palo?§

In Palo the nganga is a consecrated vessel, usually an iron cauldron, filled with earth, sticks and other materials and inhabited by a spirit of the dead who works with the palero. In Kongo the word originally meant the ritual specialist.

Is Palo Mayombe black magic?§

Practitioners regard Palo as a religion of the dead and of nature, used for healing and protection as well as for confronting enemies. Its reputation for "black magic" owes much to colonial prejudice and sensational press reporting.

Sources and further reading§