The Abakua in Cuba is no different but it seems there are fears as to what would endure if the society’s image is not defended. The creolized Cuban term Abakuá is thought to refer to the Abakpa area in southeast Nigeria, where the society was active.
The first such societies were established by Africans in the town of Regla, Havana, in 1836. This remains the main area of Abakuá implantation, especially the district of Guanabacoa in eastern Havana, and in Matanzas where Afro-Cuban culture is vibrant.
Members of this society came to be known as ñañigos, a word used to designate the street dancers of the society. The ñañigos, who were also called diablitos, were well known by the general population in Cuba through their participation in the Carnival on the Day of the Three Kings, when they danced through the streets wearing their ceremonial outfit, a multicolored checkerboard dress with a conical headpiece topped with tassels.
The oaths of loyalty to the Abakuá society’s sacred objects, members, and secret knowledge taken by initiates are a lifelong pact that creates a sacred kinship among the members.
The duties of an Abakuá member to his ritual brothers at times surpass even the responsibilities of friendship, and the phrase “Friendship is one thing, and the Abakuá another” is often heard. One of the oaths made during initiation is that one will not reveal the secrets of the Abakuá to non-members, which is why the Abakuá has remained hermetic for over 160 years.
Secret societies, by their nature, breed curiosity. Often, the gap is filled with the most chill-inducing content that is sellable yet farthest from the truth it is intended to represent. Secret societies do not often tell their own stories; their mouthpieces are usually others.
The Abakua in Cuba is no different but it seems there are fears as to what would endure if the society’s image is not defended. The Abakua say theirs is a mutual aid society founded by slaves against the backdrop of the vicious realities of slavery and colonization.
The inspiration for Abakua, however, was fetched thousands of miles in Nigeria. The Spanish Caribbean was a hotbed depository for slaves from West Africa.
Jane Landers writes in “Slavery in the Spanish Caribbean and the Failure of Abolition” that even in the 19th Century, years after the Spanish crown had outlawed the slave trade, Cuba’s economy was benefitting from the addition of new slave labour.
