Palo (religion)
Palo, also known as Las Reglas de Congo, is an African diasporic religion that developed in Cuba during the late 19th or early 20th century. It draws heavily upon the traditional Kongo religion of Central Africa, with additional influences taken from Catholicism and from Spiritism. An initiatory religion practised by paleros and paleras, Palo is organised through small autonomous groups called munanso congo, each led by a tata or yayi.
Although teaching the existence of a creator divinity, commonly called Nsambi, Palo regards this entity as being uninvolved in human affairs and instead focuses its attention on the spirits of the dead. Central to Palo is the nganga, a vessel usually made from an iron cauldron. Many nganga are regarded as material manifestations of ancestral or nature deities known as mpungu. The nganga will typically contain a wide range of objects, among the most important being sticks and human remains, the latter called nfumbe. In Palo, the presence of the nfumbe means that the spirit of that dead person inhabits the nganga and serves the palero or palera who possesses it. The Palo practitioner commands the nganga to do their bidding, typically to heal but also to cause harm. Those nganga primarily designed for benevolent acts are baptised; those largely designed for malevolent acts are left unbaptised. The nganga is "fed" with the blood of sacrificed animals and other offerings, while its will and advice is interpreted through divination. Group rituals often involve singing, drumming, and dancing to facilitate possession by spirits of the dead.
Palo developed among Afro-Cuban communities following the Atlantic slave trade of the 16th to 19th centuries. It emerged largely from the traditional religions brought to Cuba by enslaved Bakongo people from Central Africa, but also incorporated ideas from Catholicism, the only religion legally permitted on the island by the Spanish colonial government. The minkisi, spirit-vessels that were key to various Bakongo healing societies, provided the basis for the nganga of Palo. The religion took its distinct form around the late 19th or early 20th century, about the same time that Yoruba religious traditions merged with Catholic and Spiritist ideas in Cuba to produce Santería. After the Cuban War of Independence resulted in an independent republic in 1898, the country's new constitution enshrined freedom of religion. Palo nevertheless remained marginalized by Cuba's Catholic, Euro-Cuban establishment, which typically viewed it as brujería, an identity that many Palo practitioners have since embraced. In the 1960s, growing emigration following the Cuban Revolution spread Palo abroad.
Palo is divided into multiple traditions or ramas, including Mayombe, Monte, Briyumba, and Kimbisa, each with their own approaches to the religion. Many practitioners also identify as Catholics and practice additional Afro-Cuban traditions such as Santería or Abakuá. Palo is most heavily practiced in eastern Cuba although it is found throughout the island and abroad, including in other parts of the Americas such as Venezuela, Mexico, and the United States. In many of these countries, Palo practitioners have faced problems with law enforcement for engaging in grave robbery to procure human bones for their nganga.
Definitions
Palo is an Afro-Cuban religion, and more broadly an Afro-American religion. Its name derives from palo, a Spanish term for stick, referencing the important role that such items play in the religion's practices. Another term for the religion is La Regla de Congo or Regla Congo, a reference to its origins among the traditional Kongo religion of Central Africa's Bakongo people. Palo is also sometimes referred to as brujería, both by outsiders and by some practitioners themselves.Although its beliefs and practices come principally from the Kongo religion, Palo also draws upon the traditional religions of other African peoples who were brought to Cuba, such as the West African Yoruba. These African elements combined with influences from Catholicism and also from Spiritism, a French variant of Spiritualism. Palo's African heritage is important to practitioners, who often refer to their religious homeland as Ngola; this indicates a belief in the historical Kingdom of Kongo as Palo's place of origin, a place where the spirits are more powerful.
There is no central authority in control of Palo, but separate groups of practitioners who operate autonomously. It is largely transmitted orally, and has no sacred text, nor any systematized doctrine. There is thus no overarching orthodoxy, and no strict ritual protocol, giving its practitioners scope for innovation and change. Different practitioners often interpret the religion differently, resulting in highly variable practices. Several distinct traditions or denominations of Palo exist, called ramas, with the main ramas being Mayombe, Briyumba, Monte, and Kimbisa.
Practitioners are usually termed paleros if male, paleras if female, terms which can be translated as "one who handles tree branches". An alternative term for adherents is mayomberos. Another term applied to Palo practitioners in Cuba is ngangulero and ngangulera, meaning "a person who works a nganga", the latter being the spirit-vessel central to the religion. The term carries pejorative connotations in Cuban society although some practitioners adopt it as a term of pride. A similarly pejorative term embraced by some adherents is brujo, with Palo being one of several African-derived religions in the Americas whose practitioners adopt the identity of the witch as a form of reappropriation.
Relationship to Afro-Cuban religions
Palo is one of three major Afro-Cuban religions present on Cuba, the other two being Santería, which derives largely from the Yoruba religion of West Africa, and Abakuá, which has its origins in the Ekpe society of West Africa's Efik-Ibibio peoples. Many Palo initiates are also involved in Santería, Abakuá, Spiritism, or Catholicism; some Palo practitioners believe that only baptised Catholics should be initiated into the tradition. Practitioners often see these various religions as offering complementary skills and mechanisms to solve people's issues, or alternatively as each being best suited to resolving different problems."Cruzar palo con ocha" is a phrase used to indicate that an individual practises both Palo and Santería, ocha being one of the terms used for Santería's deities. Those following both will usually keep the rituals of the two traditions separate, with some Palo initiates objecting to the introduction of elements from Santería into their religion. If someone is to be initiated into both, generally they will be initiated into Palo first; some claim that this is because moving from Santería to Palo represents a spiritual regression, while others maintain that the oricha spirit placed within the adherent's body during Santería initiation would not tolerate the flesh-cutting process required for initiation into Palo.
Comparisons have also been drawn between Palo and other African-derived traditions in the Americas. Certain similarities in practice have for instance been identified between Palo and Haitian Vodou. Palo also has commonalities with Obeah, a practice found in Jamaica, and it is possible that Palo and Obeah cross-fertilised via Jamaican migration to Cuba from 1925 onward.
Beliefs
Deities and spirits
Although Palo lacks a full mythology, its worldview includes a supreme creator divinity, Nsambi or Sambia. In the religion's mythology, Nsambi is believed responsible for creating the world and the first man and woman. This entity is regarded as being remote and inaccessible from humanity, and thus no prayers or sacrifices are directed towards it. The anthropologist Todd Ramón Ochoa, an initiate of Palo Briyumba, describes Nsambi as "the power in matter that pushes back against human manipulation and imposes itself against a person's will". In the context of Afro-Cuban religion, Nsambi has been compared to Olofi in Santería and Abasí in Abakuá.In Palo, veneration is directed towards ancestors and spirits of the natural world, both of which are called mpungus. According to the anthropologist Katerina Kerestetzi, a mpungu represents "a sort of minor divinity". Each mpungu commonly has its own names and epithets, and may display multiple aspects or manifestations, each with their own specific names. Among the most prominent of these mpungu, at least in Havana, are Lucero, Sarabanda, Siete Rayos, Ma' Kalunga, Mama Chola, Centella Ndoki, and Tiembla Tierra. Others include Nsasi, Madre de Agua, Brazo Fuerte, Lufo Kuyo, Mama canata, Bután, and Baluandé. Each mpungu may have its own particular associations; Lucero for instance opens and closes paths while Sarabanda is seen as being strong and wild. The mpungus of nature are deemed to live in rivers and the sea, as well as in trees, with uncultivated areas of forest regarded as being especially potent locations of spiritual power. Practitioners are expected to make agreements with these nature spirits.
Particular mpungus are often equated with specific oricha spirits from Santería, as well as with saints from Catholicism. Sarabanda, for example, is associated with the oricha Oggun and with Saint Peter, while Lufo Kuyo is connected to the oricha Ochosi and to Saint Norbert. However, mpungus play a less important role in Palo than the oricha do in Santería. There is also a difference in how the relationship between these entities is established; in Santería it is believed that the oricha call people to their worship, pressuring them to do so by inflicting sickness or misfortune, whereas in Palo it is the human practitioner who desires and instigates the relationship with the spirit. In Cuba, Palo is often regarded as being cruder, wilder, and more violent than Santería, with its spirits being fierce and unruly. Those initiates who work with both the oricha and the Palo spirits are akin to those practitioners of Haitian Vodou who conduct rituals for both the Rada and Petwo branches of the lwa spirits; the oricha, like the Rada, are even-tempered, while the Palo spirits, like the Petwo, are more chaotic and unpredictable.