La Regla Conga o Palo Monte

La Regla Conga o Palo Monte

This religious expression has its roots in religious cults of Bantu origin, a term with which Western ethnology gathers under a single name the community of the peoples of eastern, central, and southern Africa who speak the same language in any of its variants. Also known as Mayombe, this regla was the result of the first transitions of Bantu beliefs into Cuban society.

In the Conga regla, in general, a characteristic feature is the connection with the forces of nature, some elements of which, such as the vegetation, are felt to be animated by spirits, where they take refuge, as they also do in the depths of the earth. The ancestors are represented in water. The center of the ceremony in this belief is the Nganga, a container in which the soul of a dead person is supposed to reside, subjected to the will of the initiate through a pact that nourishes them both.