It has been a while since inspiration for writing has kind of sat in the back burner for myself. This whole new world we are living in has put a damper on life as we know it now in this existence. I hope when people read this they will get a better understanding of mayombe practice and the houses that till this day hold its orthodoxy. See I did not realize that feeding information to viewers and the internet at large would create a lot of people who are naysayers and thieves of intellectual property. I guess it is a form of flattery but be original have your own opinions and be seekers of truth not of innuendos and misguided and totally false adversarial information.
WHAT IS MAYOMBE?
The word mayombe and the region of the mayombe forest can be found in present day republic of the democratic republic of the congo. Simply stated(Ma-yombe) people of yombe. Natalia Bolivar renowned author in her early discoveries found that the connotated the word to magistrate or as a chief. The original practices of mayombe come from the understanding and relationship with the universe and its surroundings nature which we call malongo. Thus the understanding was brought from the reign of the manikongo. The utilizing of the spirit of the dead which is actually a false understanding since mayombe teaches us that which is nature never dies it transmutes into energy (ngolo) force that can harnass all within nature. Storms and fires, earthquakes, fallen debris from the universe and the ever present earth it encompasses all that is within the human body and consciousness. The incorporation of bones especially human anatomy was circumvented in the aboriginal people they found along the way who were settled in cuba.
WHERE DID MAYOMBE ESTABLISHED ITS ORIGINS?
In the 1500’s early enslaved africans escaped from the infamous ranchers(overseers) and went into the Mountains of present day Pinar del Rio Cuba. The slaves that were murdered along the way formed a grand precedent in which the receptacle of the nganga became an element of the nganga. Supposed popular and unfounded beliefs would make it seem the incorporation of bones in mayombe practice did not exist when in fact that is farthest from the truth. An outsiders perspective can not speak on something they know nothing about.
WHY IS MAYOMBE SO ORTHODOX AND REFUSES TO SHARE WHAT THEY KNOW?
In some houses of mayombe you will find that they have intermeshed understandings of what palo is and so you get people saying they are Briyumba with mayombe etc etc. Their is a pact with kimbisa and it was established from individual mayombe houses. Primitivo Arrieta known to most as (El Chino Arrieta) was a great defender of this concept. Unfortunately even till this day the understanding of a pure line is more of a conceptual conundrum. Palo mayombe is a cuban understanding rooted in african practices with native technology from the actual land itself. The key element is follow the lineal understanding of what mayombe is and what it is not.
IS MAYOMBE AN ANCESTRAL PRACTICE?
Mayombe as clearly stated by Natalia Bolivar, Miguel Barnett, Lydia Cabrera and other Cuban anthropological is a relationship of the universe with the spirit of the nfumbe which resides in an nganga together with animals, plants, minerals, dirt’s that make the adoration of ancestral worship very real and not as complex as one might seem. When an nganga as simple and complex as it sounds Nsasi which is a generic term all mayomberos use to call the structure of the prenda . The saying we use is this that is stated in the topic of the heading of my article. (Buena Nganga nunca tesia).
DOES A PANTHEON EXIST IN MAYOMBE?
The understanding of this cultural phenomenon came with the Cuban revolt and the pride of nationalism and independence. But mayombe the elders know that for each particular nganga it was born from one Ingenio(plantation to another). See ngangas were one at best for each plantation which housed its secrets. Later on the this understanding came the influx of mass initiations from briyumba houses that took on the indoctrination of the ideas of kimpungueles( kimpungulu as singular). With time that became the norm in a lot of houses of palo mayombe incorporating attributes of orisha concept into Palo practices. This is not to disprove anyone’s belief this is to better understand the complexity of the homogenization of Palo practices. Some houses of mayombe understand differences in natural selection but will not name the ngangas as such. But again the spirituality is based on one nganga and one person. Not a hodgepodge of cemetery receptacles.
DOES MAYOMBE INCORPORATE ORISHA TOOLS
Mayombe does not incorporate orisha tools especially those that live within the orisha receptacles. We do not paint on our ngangas or paint the actual pots to represent any kind of mixing with the orisha concepts of worship. Everything in its place and in its order. Orisha is orisha and Mayombe is mayombe.
DOES BRIYUMBA HAVE A PACT WITH MAYOMBE?
Understanding that people may get mad or say I do not know what I am talking about which I do not care about. Briyumba was birthed from Mayombe and so with that being said at one time before the internal spiritual wars between mayombe and briyumba formed I would say the affiliation to the ramas may have had something. But when a son tries to overtake the parent I would say that understanding siezes with those elders. That now people claiming they do. Oh well. I know what elders have told me.
IN CONCLUSION
Something of an abhorrent trend has been surfacing and its quite funny and at the same time sad. Palo practitioners in trying to validate that they are the only truth will come into a lot of opposition because they are not and people can see right through the fanaticism. Remember Palo is a collection of oratory and spoken traditions passed down from generation through generation. The word Bambula is to remember in Bantu understanding to Remember is to live on and carry tradition. Ki-BAMBULA to re-remember is an understanding of remembrance and faith to those who passed before us. Let us Ki bambula our ancestors, Let us Ki bambula the people who died on this date of 9/11… Ya son las hora(Now is the time.)
Tata Nkisi Musitu
Sources ….El Monte lydia cabrera …Ta Ma kuende yaya Natalia Bolivar -Arostegui….Our lineal tree is in her book for people to view