Кубаның афро-конго діні: Пало дәстүрі

Syncretic Afro Cuban 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 arose amid a process of syncretism between the traditional Kongo religion of Central Africa, the Roman Catholic branch of Christianity, and Spiritism. An initiatory religion practised by paleros (male) and paleras (female), Palo is organised through small autonomous groups called munanso congo, each led by a tata (father) or yayi (mother). Although teaching the existence of a creator deity, Nsambi or Sambia, Palo regards this entity as being uninvolved in human affairs and thus focuses its attention on the spirits of the dead, collectively known as Kalunga. Central to Palo is the nganga or prenda, a vessel usually made from an iron cauldron, clay pot, or gourd. Many nganga are regarded as material manifestations of particular 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 the dead person inhabits the nganga and serves the palero or palera who keeps it. The Palo practitioner commands the nfumbe, through 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 various forms of divination. Palo developed among Afro Cuban communities following the Atlantic slave trade of the 16th to 19th centuries. It formed through the blending of the traditional religions brought to Cuba by enslaved Bakongo people from Central Africa with ideas from Roman 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 Roman Catholic and Spiritist ideas in Cuba to produce Santería. After the Cuban War of Independence resulted in an independent republic in 1898, its new constitution enshrined freedom of religion. Palo nevertheless remained marginalized by Cuba's Roman Catholic, Euro Cuban establishment, which typically viewed it as brujería (witchcraft), 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 Roman Catholics and practice additional Afro Cuban traditions such as Santería or Abakuá. Palo is most heavily practiced in eastern Cuba although is found throughout the island and has spread abroad, including to other parts of the Americas such as Venezuela, Mexico, and the United States. In many of these countries, Palo practitioners have clashed with law enforcement for engaging in grave robbery to procure human bones for their nganga.

Palo is an Afro Cuban religion, and more broadly an Afro American religion. Its name derives from palo, a Spanish term for sticks, referencing the important role that these items play in the religion's practices. Another term for the religion is La Regla de Congo ("Kongo Rule" or "Law of Kongo") 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 (witchcraft), both by outsiders and by some practitioners themselves. Although its origins draw heavily on Kongo religion, Palo also takes influence from the traditional religions of other African peoples who were brought to Cuba, such as the West African Yoruba. These African elements combined with elements from Roman Catholicism and also from Spiritism, a French variant of Spiritualism. The idea of Palo having African origins is important to practitioners. They often refer to their religious homeland as Ngola, indicating a belief in the historical Kingdom of Kongo as Palo's place of origin, a place where the spirits are more powerful. Palo has no sacred text, but is largely transmitted orally. There is no central authority in control of the religion, but separate groups of practitioners who operate autonomously. It has no systematized doctrine, 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 in 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 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 (witch).

Palo is one of three major Afro Cuban religions present on the island, the other two being Santería, which derives largely from the Yoruba religion of West Africa, and Abakuá, which has its origins among the secret male societies practiced among the Efik Ibibio. Many Palo initiates are also involved in Santería, Abakuá, Spiritism, or Roman Catholicism; some Palo practitioners believe that only baptised Roman Catholics should be initiated into the tradition. Practitioners often see these different religions as offering complementary skills and mechanisms to solve problems, or alternatively as offering different solutions for different problems. When an individual practises both Santería and Palo, they 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. Palo also has commonalities with Obeah, a practice originating largely in Jamaica, and it is possible that Palo and Obeah cross fertilised via Jamaican migration to Cuba from 1925 onward.

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, described 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 Abasi in Abakuá. In Palo, veneration is directed towards both ancestors and to 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 Roman 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, and the spirit pact in Palo is more occasional and intermittent than the relationship that practitioners of Santería make with their deities. 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 unruly.

The spirits of the dead play a prominent role in Palo, with Kerestetzi observing that one of Palo's central features was its belief that "the spirits of the dead mediate and organize human action and rituals." In Palo, a spirit of the dead is referred to as a nfumbe (or nfumbi), a term which derives from the Kikongo word for a dead person, mvumbi. Alternative terms used for the dead in Palo include the Yoruba term eggun as well as Spanish words like el muerto ("the dead") and, more rarely, espíritu ("spirit"). Practitioners will sometimes refer to themselves, as living persons, as the "walking dead". The dead may also be referred, especially in a collective sense, as Kalunga. Palo teaches that the individual comprises both a physical body and a spirit termed the sombra ("shade"). In Palo belief, these are connected via a cordón de plata ("silver cord"). In Cuba, the Bakongo notion of the spirit "shadow" has merged with the Spiritist notion of the perisperm, a spirit vapor surrounding the human body. Paleros/paleras venerate the souls of their ancestors; when a group feast is held, the ancestors of the house will typically be invoked and their approval to proceed requested. The dead are regarded as having supernatural powers and knowledge such as prescience. It is held that ancestors can contact and assist the living, but the dead are also thought capable of causing problems for the living, often being blamed for problems like anxiety and sleeplessness. Palo's practitioners are expected to interact and receive messages from the dead, and if possible to influence the will of the dead for their own personal benefit. Some practitioners claim an innate capacity to sense the presence of spirits of the dead. To ascertain the consent of the dead, Palo's practitioners will often employ divination or forms of spirit mediumship from Spiritism, and in communicating with the dead are sometimes termed muerteros ("mediums of the dead"). In Palo, the dead are often viewed as what Ochoa called "a dense and indistinguishable mass" rather than as discrete individuals. Ochoa defined Kalunga as "a place of immanence from which Palo and its myriad forms of the dead emerge". They are also believed capable of existing within physical matter. They can for instance be represented by small assemblages of material, often found objects or those commonly found in a household, which are placed together, often in the corner of the patio or an outhouse. They are often called rinconcito ("little corners"). Offerings of food and drink are often placed at the rinconcito and allowed to decay. This is a practice also maintained by many followers of Santería, although the emphasis placed on the material presence of the dead differs from the Spiritist views of deceased spirits.