Cabildo de nación
The Cabildo de nación or Cabildo africano was a religious-cultural association of the African population in Latin America . In principle he did not fulfill any administrative tasks like the Cabildos municipales, the city administrations in Spain and Latin America.
Origin of the Cabildos de nación
The first Cabildo de nación known in Cuba was the Cabildo Changó , which was founded in 1568. The slaves deported to Latin America came from different parts of Africa. In the Cabildos de nación, the slaves and freedmen of both sexes from Africa with the same ethnic origin came together. In some cities in Latin America there were Cabildos de nación of different ethnicities due to their different origins. z. B. There were four Cabildos de nación in Camagüey at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century . The Cabildos de nación were associations similar to the religious lay fraternities - Cofradías - which are widespread in Spain. Colored people were not allowed to join the brotherhoods. While the brotherhoods were under the supervision of the church, the Cabildos de nación were under state supervision.
Activities of the Cabildos
The members of the Cabildos de nación met on the holidays to celebrate the festivals according to the customs of their countries of origin. Most of the Cabildos de nación had their own assembly buildings, in which mostly the places of worship of the mixed religions were also located. The Africans tried to bring the gods they worshiped in their homeland into harmony with the Catholic faith. In the Cabildos de nación, places of worship were created in which the ancient African gods were worshiped as Catholic saints . These religious-cooperative associations played an important part in preserving the various cultural expressions of black religiosity, music, dance and social forms, gestures, language and art. Most importantly, they kept a large part of their religious systems alive.
At the head of the Cabildos were the Reyes del Cabildo. The terms "Capataz" (foreman) and "Capitán" (captain) were also used. The election of the Reyes del Cabildo usually took place on January 6th on the day of the three kings . In many cases, those elected were people who already held a prominent position in their country of origin. They showed their importance as Reyes del Cabildo through appropriate attributes such as uniforms, crowns, swords and command staff. Within the Cabildo, the Reyes also exercised political and judicial functions and represented blacks in relation to white institutions. The Reyes del Cabildo administered the funds that were used to pay for the funerals of the deceased members, to buy old slaves freely, to purchase land and build meeting rooms on it, to have images and figures made and musical instruments to buy.
literature
- Michael Zeuske: Cuba 1492–1902 . Leipziger Universitäts-Verlag, Leipzig 1998, ISBN 3-931922-83-9 , p. 472 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Sarahí García Contreras: El Cabildo de nación. un viaje a nuestras raíces afrocubanas. Radio Rebelde, January 10, 2009, accessed August 12, 2014 (Spanish).
- ^ Pablo Samuel Torres: Los cabildos negros en Cuba. (No longer available online.) Enciclopedia de Puerto Rico, December 22, 2011, archived from the original on September 24, 2015 ; Retrieved August 14, 2014 (Spanish). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Consuelo A. Sánchez Viamontes, Maileny García Cuenca: Los Cabildos Africanos en el siglo XVII Camaguey desde al XIX. Apuntes para su Estudio / Portal Cultural Príncipe. Portal de la Cultura de la Provincia de Camagüey, Cuba, August 7, 2014, accessed August 12, 2014 (Spanish).
- ↑ Michael Zeuske: Cuba 1492-1902 . Leipziger Universitäts-Verlag, Leipzig 1998, ISBN 3-931922-83-9 , p. 311 .
