Interlocking African Diaspora Cultures in the Work of Fernando Ortiz
2000; SAGE Publishing; Volume: 31; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1177/002193470003100103
ISSN1552-4566
Autores Tópico(s)Caribbean history, culture, and politics
ResumoDuring the slave trade, enslaved Africans and their descendants in Cuba developed the Yoruba-based religion La Regla de Ocha, popularly known as Santeri'a. Cuba, driven by plantation economics late into the 19th century, depended on the forced servitude of enslaved Africans and their descendants even after slavery was abolished in 1888. Cuban plantation owners tenaciously resisted pressure from the British to abolish enslavement, becoming one of the last countries in the Western Hemisphere to do so. Although a law was passed on July 29, 1880, to abolish enslavement in Cuba, the statute instituted a period of 8-year tutelage for enslaved Africans, officially ending slavery in 1888 (Knight, 1970, p. 177). The continuous infusion of negros de nacion, Africans born on the continent, invigorated the memory of sacred traditional African praxes into the existing population of enslaved and freed Africans in Cuba. Among the ethnic groups brought to Cuba in the latter part of the 19th century were the Yoruba people of West Africa. Thornton explains that although enslavers tried to diversify their ships to deter rebellions, generally, the Africans aboard represented ethnic groups from similar national groupings, which served to maintain cultural bonds in the New World. Thornton (1992) notes,
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