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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 nerve suati kuame
Munu sunga Nsambi lune tune.
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 Kongoderived 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....