Palo (religion)
Encyclopedia
Palo, or Las Reglas de Congo are a group of closely related religion
Religion
Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...

s or denominations, which developed in the Spanish colonies of the Caribbean amongst Central Africa
Central Africa
Central Africa is a core region of the African continent which includes Burundi, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Rwanda....

n slaves of mostly Bantu ancestry. Other names associated with various branches of this religion include Mayombe, Briyumba and Kimbisa.

The word "palo" ("stick" in Spanish) was applied to the religion in Cuba due to the use of wooden sticks in the preparation of altar
Altar
An altar is any structure upon which offerings such as sacrifices are made for religious purposes. Altars are usually found at shrines, and they can be located in temples, churches and other places of worship...

s, which were also called "la Nganga
Nganga
Nganga is a Bantu term for herbalist or spiritual healer in many African societies and also in many societies of the African diaspora such as those in Haiti, Brazil and Cuba....

", "el caldero" or "la prenda". Adherents of Palo are known generally as "Paleros", "Ngangeros", or "Nganguleros". Membership is by initiation into a "house" or "Temple". The organizational structure follows the model of a family. During slavery when blood families often were broken up by slave holders, this model was particularly significant and taken literally.

History

Palo has its roots in the Congo basin
Congo River
The Congo River is a river in Africa, and is the deepest river in the world, with measured depths in excess of . It is the second largest river in the world by volume of water discharged, though it has only one-fifth the volume of the world's largest river, the Amazon...

 of central Africa
Central Africa
Central Africa is a core region of the African continent which includes Burundi, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Rwanda....

, from where large numbers of African slaves
Atlantic slave trade
The Atlantic slave trade, also known as the trans-atlantic slave trade, refers to the trade in slaves that took place across the Atlantic ocean from the sixteenth through to the nineteenth centuries...

 were brought to Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...

, Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...

, as well as to the colony of Santo Domingo, the present capital of the Dominican Republic
Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of La Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are shared by two countries...

. Accordingly, a great part of Palo Monte's liturgical
Liturgy
Liturgy is either the customary public worship done by a specific religious group, according to its particular traditions or a more precise term that distinguishes between those religious groups who believe their ritual requires the "people" to do the "work" of responding to the priest, and those...

 chants and invocations are in a mixture of the Spanish and Kikongo languages, other influences being introduced through their presence in Black Spanish-speaking Latin America.

During the mid 19th century Palo began to spread among the Venezuela
Venezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...

n and Afro-Latino communities in the United States as well as many other places outside the Spanish-speaking Caribbean. Eventually, members of non-African Latino
Latino
The demonyms Latino and Latina , are defined in English language dictionaries as:* "a person of Latin-American descent."* "A Latin American."* "A person of Hispanic, especially Latin-American, descent, often one living in the United States."...

 groups, as well as African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...

s, gained access to these traditions. The religion remains largely Afro-Latino in character. Although it is largely unknown whether the religion started in Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic or Cuba, the most traditional form can be found in these three islands. In Puerto Rico, the city of Guayama
Guayama, Puerto Rico
Guayama is a municipality of Puerto Rico founded on January 29, 1736 and located on the Southern Coastal Valley region, bordering the Caribbean, south of Cayey; east of Salinas; and west of Patillas and Arroyo. Guayama is spread over 9 wards and Guayama Pueblo...

 became nicknamed "the city of witches", because the religion was widely practiced in this town.

Belief system and rituals

The Palo belief system rests on two main pillars:
  • 1. The veneration of the spirits of the ancestors.
  • 2. The belief in natural ("earth") powers.


Natural objects, and particularly sticks, are thought to be infused with powers, often linked to the powers of spirits. These objects are known as "nganga" and are the ritual focus of Palo's magical rites and religious practice.

A certain number of spirits called Kimpungulu (singular: Mpungu) inhabit the Nkisi
Nkisi
Nkisi . The term Nkisi is the general name for a variety of objects used throughout the Congo Basin in Central Africa thought to contain spiritual powers or spirits...

 (sacred objects, also spelled Inquice, Inquise, and Enkisi). Kimpungulu are well known in name and deed, and are venerated as gods. They are powerful entities, but they are ranked below the High God Zambi or Nzambi.

The main practice of Palo focuses upon the religious receptacle or altar known as a Nganga or Prenda. This is a consecrated vessel filled with sacred earth, sticks (palos), human remains, bones and other items. Each Nganga is dedicated to a specific spiritual Nkisi
Nkisi
Nkisi . The term Nkisi is the general name for a variety of objects used throughout the Congo Basin in Central Africa thought to contain spiritual powers or spirits...

. This religious vessel is also inhabited by a muerto or spirit of the dead (almost never the direct ancestor of the object's owner), also referred to as "Nfumbe", who acts as a guide for all religious activities which are performed with the Nganga.

Various divination
Divination
Divination is the attempt to gain insight into a question or situation by way of an occultic standardized process or ritual...

 methods are used in Palo. One, Chamalongos uses shells or disks of various materials, often coconut shells. A more traditional method, Vititi Mensú, is a form of envisioning or scrying, using a sanctified animal horn capped with a mirror.

There are many Ramas that have developed through the ages such as Brillumba - This rama has separated into branches such as Siete Brillumba Congo. The branch born when seven Tata's from Brillumba combined their ngangas to create an Nsasi Ndoki. This rama has grown through the years and is well known today.

Syncretism

Religious syncretism
Syncretism
Syncretism is the combining of different beliefs, often while melding practices of various schools of thought. The term means "combining", but see below for the origin of the word...

 can be seen in some houses of Palo, called Palo Cristiano, with the use of the cross
Cross
A cross is a geometrical figure consisting of two lines or bars perpendicular to each other, dividing one or two of the lines in half. The lines usually run vertically and horizontally; if they run obliquely, the design is technically termed a saltire, although the arms of a saltire need not meet...

 and images of Catholic saints
Saint
A saint is a holy person. In various religions, saints are people who are believed to have exceptional holiness.In Christian usage, "saint" refers to any believer who is "in Christ", and in whom Christ dwells, whether in heaven or in earth...

 as representations of the Nkisi. However, in other houses, called "Palo Judio", there is no syncreticization with Catholic imagery. The name Palo Judio literally means "Jewish Palo", but the term "Jewish" as used here does not refer to the Jewish religion; rather it is metaphorical shorthand for "refusing to convert to Christianity", that is, in the case of Palo, "purely Congo African." It is important to note that because of European economic pressure the Kingdom of Kongo
Kingdom of Kongo
The Kingdom of Kongo was an African kingdom located in west central Africa in what are now northern Angola, Cabinda, the Republic of the Congo, and the western portion of the Democratic Republic of the Congo...

 had officially converted to Catholicism
Catholicism
Catholicism is a broad term for the body of the Catholic faith, its theologies and doctrines, its liturgical, ethical, spiritual, and behavioral characteristics, as well as a religious people as a whole....

 while still an independent nation during the late 15th century and that the African-Catholic syncretic movement extended well into the era of slavery
Slavery
Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...

, reaching its height under the leadership of Kimpa Vita
Kimpa Vita
Beatriz Kimpa Vita , was a Congolese prophet and leader of her own Christian movement, known as Antonianism. Her teaching grew out of the traditions of the Roman Catholic Church in Kongo.-Early life:...

 (1684 – 1706), who promoted Saint Anthony of Padua as "a second God." Thus it is obvious that much of Palo Cristiano's Christian syncretism, as well as Palo Judio's resistance to Christian syncretism, originated in colonial Africa, not Cuba, Puerto Rico or other places in the Afro-Cuban diaspora.

The identity of the Nkisi is further clouded because authors, either outsiders to the religion or coming from houses of Palo Cristiano, have attempted to associate the Nkisi with the Orisha
Orisha
An Orisha is a spirit or deity that reflects one of the manifestations of Olodumare in the Yoruba spiritual or religious system....

s of Santería
Santería
Santería is a syncretic religion of West African and Caribbean origin influenced by Roman Catholic Christianity, also known as Regla de Ocha, La Regla Lucumi, or Lukumi. Its liturgical language, a dialect of Yoruba, is also known as Lucumi....

, a different religion. Thus the entity "Nsambi Munalembe" (also known as "Nsasi", "Siete Rayos" and various other names) may be said by these authors to be the equivalent of Saint Barbara
Saint Barbara
Saint Barbara, , Feast Day December 4, known in the Eastern Orthodox Church as the Great Martyr Barbara, was an early Christian saint and martyr....

 in Catholicism or Chango (Shango
Shango
In the Yorùbá religion, Sàngó is perhaps one of the most popular Orisha; also known as the god of fire, lightning and thunder...

) in Santería.

Because of Kardecian syncretism in many houses of Palo, a spiritual Misa is often held before the initiation, in order to identify the main spirits which will help to develop one's life. These guides often speak also through possession, and may give direct advice.

Related religions

The religions of the Congo reached the Americas by other paths than through Puerto Rico. In Brazil Congo religions are known as Umbanda
Umbanda
Umbanda is an Afro-Brazilian religion that blends African religions with Catholicism, Spiritism and Kardecism, and considerable indigenous lore....

, Quimbanda
Quimbanda
Quimbanda is an Afro-Brazilian religion practiced primarily in the urban city centers of Brazil. Quimbanda practices are typically associated with magic, rituals involving animal sacrifice and marginal locations, orishas, exus, and pomba gira spirits. Quimbanda was originally contained under the...

, Candomblé
Candomblé
Candomblé is an African-originated or Afro-Brazilian religion, practised chiefly in Brazil by the "povo de santo" . It originated in the cities of Salvador, the capital of Bahia and Cachoeira, at the time one of the main commercial crossroads for the distribution of products and slave trade to...

 de Congo, or Condomble de Angola. The one most closely related to the Cuban Palo Tradition is Quimbanda.

In Jamaica
Jamaica
Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...

, the Bahamas, and the Virgin Islands
Virgin Islands
The Virgin Islands are the western island group of the Leeward Islands, which are the northern part of the Lesser Antilles, which form the border between the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean...

, Congo based religions are called Kumina
Kumina
Kumina or Cumina is a cultural form indigenous to Jamaica. It is a religion, music and dance practiced by, in large part, Jamaicans who reside in the eastern parish on St. Thomas on the island. These people have retained the drumming and dancing of the Akan people. Like the Kongo practitioners...

, or when seen as a form of magic without liturgical worship, as Obeah
Obeah
Obeah is a term used in the West Indies to refer to folk magic, sorcery, and religious practices derived from West African, and specifically Igbo origin. Obeah is similar to other African derived religions including Palo, Voodoo, Santería, rootwork, and most of all hoodoo...

.

Closely related to Palo in practice, but like Obeah, lacking Palo's theological and liturgical aspects, is a form of African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...

 folk magic known as hoodoo, conjure, or rootwork, which developed from African slave beliefs in the United States. The reason for the striking similarity between these traditions is that the core beliefs underlying hoodoo derive from Congo and Angola. In Haiti
Haiti
Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...

 there is a Vodou denomination known as Makaya that is similar to Palo.

Pantheon

The highest level of the Palo pantheon is occupied by the creator god, Nzambi.
The Kimpungulu (singular: Mpungu) of Palo Mayombe are spirits or deities encapsulated in sacred vessels (Nkisi
Nkisi
Nkisi . The term Nkisi is the general name for a variety of objects used throughout the Congo Basin in Central Africa thought to contain spiritual powers or spirits...

), representing aspects of nature, such as thunder, agriculture, or wind.
Other spirits that can inhabit the Nkisi are Nfuri (wandering spirits or wraiths), Bakalu (spirits of ancestors), and Nfumbe (anonymous spirits).

Higher gods

  • Nzambi (Nsambi, Sambia, Nsambiampungo, Pungun Sambia, Sambia Liri, Sambia Surukuru, Sambi Bilongo) - not an actual Mpungu, but a higher god, creator of the cosmos. Equivalent to Yoruba
    Yoruba mythology
    The Yorùbá religion comprises the original religious beliefs and practices of the Yoruba people. Its homeland is in Southwestern Nigeria and the adjoining parts of Benin and Togo, a region that has come to be known as Yorubaland...

     Olodumare.
  • Lungombe (Lukankanse, Kadiampembe) - negative aspect of Nzambi

Kimpungulu

  • Kobayende (Cobayende, Pata Llaga, Tata Pansua, Tata Nfumbe, Tata Funde, Tata Fumbe, Pungun Futila, Tata Kañeñe) - king of the dead, god of diseases, associated with San Lazaro, eq. Babalu Aye
    Babalu Aye
    In the religious system of Orisha worship, Babalú-Ayé is the praise name of the spirit of the Earth and strongly associated with infectious disease, and healing. He is an Orisha, representing the deity Olorun on Earth...

    .
  • Mariguanda (Pungu Mama Wanga, Centella Ndoki, Yaya Kengue, Mariwanga, Mama Linda, Campo Santo) - gatekeeper between life and death. Associated with Santa Teresa & Oya Iansan
    Iansan
    Iansan is a spirit entity, or Orisha , of the Afro-Brazilian religious faith Candomblé. Iansan is the Orisha of the winds, hurricanes and tempests. She lives at the gate of the graveyard, and has dominion over the realm of the Dead...

  • Gurunfinda - god of forest and herbs. Associated with San Noberto non Nato or San Silvestre, eq. Ozain.
  • Nkuyu (Nkuyo, Mañunga, Lubaniba, Lucero) - Deity of woods and roads, guidance and balance. Associated with San Antonio, eq. Elegua.
  • Má Lango (Madre de Agua, Kalunga, Mama Kalunga, Pungo Kasimba, Mama Umba, Mbumba Mamba, Nkita Kiamasa, Nkita Kuna Mamba, Baluande) - goddess of water and fertility. Known also as the Virgin of Regla, the patroness of Havana harbor, eq, Yemaja
    Yemaja
    Yemanja is an orisha, originally of the Yoruba religion, who has become prominent in many Afro-American religions. Africans from what is now called Yorubaland brought Yemaya/Yemoja and a host of other deities/energy forces in nature with them when they were brought to the shores of the Americas as...

    .
  • Chola Wengue (Mama Chola, Chola nengue) - goddess of richness and pleasures. Associated with La Virgin de la Caridad del Cobre, the Patron Saint of Cuba, eq. Oshun
    Oshun
    Oshun, or Ochun in the Yoruba religion, is an Orisha who reigns over love, intimacy, beauty, wealth and diplomacy. She is worshipped also in Brazilian Candomblé Ketu, with the name spelled Oxum. She should not be confused, however, with a different Orisha of a similar name spelled "Osun," who is...

    .
  • Kimbabula (Kabanga, Madioma, Mpungo Lomboan Fula, Nsambia Munalembe, Tonde, Daday, Munalendo, Padre Tiempo) - god of divination and winds. Associated with Saint Francis, eq. Orunmila
    Orunmila
    In the Yoruba religion, Orunmila is the Yoruba Grand Priest and custodian of Ifá. This source of knowledge is believed to have a keen understanding of the human form and of purity, praised as being often more effective than remedies; his followers and priests are known as Babalawo.- Mythical...

    .
  • Watariamba (Watariamba, Nkuyo Lufo, Nguatariamba Enfumba Bata, Saca Empeño, Cabo Rondo, Vence Bataya) - god of hunt and war. Associated with John the Baptist, eq. Ochosi
  • Nsasi (Nsambi Munalembe, Siete Rayos, Mukiamamuilo, Nsasi) - god of thunder and fire, equivalent to Santa Barbara, eq. Shango
    Shango
    In the Yorùbá religion, Sàngó is perhaps one of the most popular Orisha; also known as the god of fire, lightning and thunder...

    .
  • Ma Kengue (Yola, Tiembla Tierra, Pandilanga, Mama Kengue) - spirit of wisdom and justice. This Mpungu is associated with La Virgin de las Mercedes & Obatala
    Obatala
    In the religion of the Yoruba people, Obàtálá is the creator of human bodies, which were supposedly brought to life by Olorun's breath.Obàtálá is also the owner of all ori or heads. Any orisha may lay claim to an individual, but until that individual is initiated into the priesthood of that orisha,...

    .
  • Sarabanda (Zarabanda, Rompe Monte) - deity of work and strength. Associated with Saint Peter
    Saint Peter
    Saint Peter or Simon Peter was an early Christian leader, who is featured prominently in the New Testament Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles. The son of John or of Jonah and from the village of Bethsaida in the province of Galilee, his brother Andrew was also an apostle...

    , eq. Oggun.

Grave desecration

Palo has been linked to a rash of grave robbing
Grave robbing
Grave robbery, grave robbing, or tomb raiding is the act of uncovering a tomb or crypt to steal artifacts or personal effects. Someone who engages in this act is a grave robber or tomb raider...

 in Venezuela
Venezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...

. Residents report that many of the graves at Caracas
Caracas
Caracas , officially Santiago de León de Caracas, is the capital and largest city of Venezuela; natives or residents are known as Caraquenians in English . It is located in the northern part of the country, following the contours of the narrow Caracas Valley on the Venezuelan coastal mountain range...

' Cementerio General del Sur have been pried open to have their contents removed for use in Palo ceremonies. In Newark, N.J., a Palo follower was found to have the remains of at least two dead bodies inside pots within the basement, along with items looted from one of the tombs.

External links

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