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During the time of slavery in Cuba, religion was extremely important and respected; the intelligent individuals where thought to be the people who followed a particular faith. However because it was a way of living the religions had difficulty understanding and valuing each others beliefs. There were three main battling religions; Congo, Lucumis and Catholicism each religion had different views that clashed with the other religions. Because of this argumentative environment social divisions were created between the slaves.
Each social class refused to accept the other religion as being valuable or valid. The two African religions faced the majority of the problems. They were polar opposites and therefore had difficulty understanding each others beliefs. The Congo's were the more important of the two religions in the Barracoons and they believed in witchcraft. Their witchcraft was quite specific using a strict set of rules. For the men to cast a spell; ngan gas, they had to be out in the sun as it gave them intelligence and strength, the women were different in they used the moon for strength and intelligence.
The ngan gas were the secrets used to created the here. If a slave following this religion had a particular dislike for another individual, he or she would follow the individual and gather the dirt walked upon and by sun down the individual would be dead, When they had a problem with some person, they followed that person along any path and gathered up the dirt they walked on. They saved it and put it in a nana or in a secret little corner. As the sun went down, the life of the person would leave him.
And at sunset the person was quite dead. Because of this practice Congo's were believed to be murderers, yet there intentions were socially acceptable because they only killed those who where harmful. Another principle this group had was the soul was witchcraft one had on the inside, the person was deemed to have either a good or bad soul and that in turn determined how they lived. The death procedure the Congo's had was full of rituals; one must not be afraid to die and if one did die the others were sworn from crying and had to sing without the beat of drums. The process of burring a member of the Congo religion was to take them to the cemetery next to the mill were they were buried without a coffin, and a mound of dirt was then placed on top of the remains and a cedar cross erected. There was also another frequently used custom to ensure the eyes of the dead were shut tight, They closed them for him with sperm, and they stayed close.
If his eyes opened it was a bad sign. If the person who died was a paper it created quite the situation, for he who inherited the prensa usually got sick as well. They were known to completely mess with someones life if it was miss under stood, Now, if that person couldnt carry on with the inherited prensa, he had to throw it in the river so the current would carry it off. Because anyone who didnt understand about an inherited prensa would have his life all screwed up. A prensa was created by a series of steps.
After gathering bones, sticks and rocks a Conga would then steal a buzzards egg, boil it and then return it. The buzzard would then take her eggs in to the sea where a chick would hatch from the boiled egg. Upon return from the sea the buzzard brought with her a stone that was thought to have a witch in it. The Lucumis were utterly different, their religion focused more on saints and Gods. They lead a more colour fully painted life, They liked getting up early with the strength of the morning and look at the sky and pray and sprinkle water on the ground.
Part of their tradition was for the elder Lucumis to cleanse the evil out of their people by locking themselves in the barracoon's. Instead of practicing hexes like the Congo's the Lucumis entrusted their belief in coconuts, They are the same coconuts as today, which are still sacred and cant be touched. Most sprints in the religion would communicate to the people through the coconuts, All saints spoke through the coconuts. Now the master of all of them was Obatala. Obatala was an ancient, so I heard, who was always dressed in white. Obatala was regarded as a very important saint as he was the one believed to have create humans.
Coconuts were not the only scared objects of the Lucumis religion, the older people in the religion had figurines made of wood and one of cement which represented Gods. The wooden collectibles were called one and the one made of cement were identified as Eleggua. Carpenters in the plantation would create these replicas for the elders. Another way of expressing their beliefs of the Lucumis was to paint their Gods on the walls; On the walls of their room they made marks of the saints with charcoal and whitewash.
They were long lines and circles. The Lucumis traditions and ways were much calmer than those of the Congo's. The fiestas the Lucumis put on were treated with great seriousness, as they did not like people who did not believe, to attend, You had to be very respectful when you went to the saints fiesta. If you didnt believe, you had to hide it. Blacks dont like intruders.
These fiestas were thrown to honour the saints of their religion. Catholicism was introduced in an odd manner. The priests where the ones who imposed the religion on Blacks, yet they refused to enter the barracoon's, the priests wouldnt go into the barracoon's during slavery for love or money. Because of this, this religion was seen as strict. Instead the house slaves that converted to be seen as polished brought the word of the Lord to the field slaves, They came to the priest messengers. On account of the strict aura Catholicism held, some Blacks were entranced by what the preachers had to say, They were so serious that there were even blacks who hung on their every word and obeyed them to the letter.
Because only the rich were Catholic it gave a sense of refinement to be Catholic. These three strong religions have nothing in common and caused social divisions because of the confined space people were forced to live in. The Congo's were seen as the most powerful religion at At Flor de Santa because of their magic they had established a sense of fear in the plantations, A Congo would see you sticking your snout in the wrong places and watch out! With Lucumis there approach was less aggressive. They continually fought over their different beliefs, They bickered over the saints and witchcraft. There was also tensions between the two over who did more work.
The Lucumis were known to run away from work where as the Congo's dealt with the fact that they had work to do, The Lucumis didnt like to work the cane, and many ran away. They where the most rebellious and the bravest. Not the Congo's. They were mostly cowards, big on work, so they worked real hard without complain. Each African religious group believed in different ways of life.
However they did stick together when the Catholic slaves came to the barracoon's. The Catholic slaves where mainly the house slaves that were treated very different from the field slaves, The house slaves got consideration from the masters. I never seen a severe punishment for a one of them. The African religions saw the Priest as an untrustworthy bunch, The priest were like other men, but they had the gold.
And they didnt spend any. Its amazing how two religions can despise each other so much yet have common bonds when intruders step on their turf. Though the Congas cast spells on people to have them killed it was not viewed as barbaric according to other religions, but the way the priest treat the women slave was, The priest put women in caves, in holes in the ground where they had executioners ready to kill them. Because this was not apart of there faith it was considered inhuman. The main religions were entirely different from each other and because of the confinement the slaves experienced the difference in religions created huge amounts of tension between the slaves. The tensions in the plantations ended in an emergence of three social classes; the house slaves who were Catholics and then the dividing of the field slave population into distinct groups the Lucumis and the Congo's.
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Research essay sample on Inherited Prensa Catholic Slaves Religion
