Contacting Congo Luanda

Congo Luanda Video

Congo Luanda, Jovellanos

Jovellanos is a small city of 50,000 people 60 km south of Matanzas. Its very name makes Cubans' eyes open wide, for it is a great center of Congo culture in Cuba.

Congo Luanda is a vibrant young group from families associated with the old cabildo Congo Luanda in Jovellanos. Members of this group still speak bantu. The tape described below was given to a Congo elder, Bunseki FuKiau, who was able to say: "this person's family comes from Angola, this person, from the center of the Congo."

The group's repertoire is strong on Palo Monte, which is unusual in Cuba. They do dances featuring machete duels and fire breath attacks. The tape described below an opera involving the nganga, or sacred cauldron, dear to the bantu people. The nganga is made up of pieces of wood, cemetary dust, and some human remains of the spirit being lodged in the vessel so as to enable the owner to work with it.

Congo Luanda won first prize for folkloric group at the 1997 Festival Caribeño in Santiago, which was that year dedicated to Brazil. They won against very stiff competition, including much better promoted groups from Havana.

The director is Marco Zulueta, whose wife Yohandra is also in the group. The Zulueta family has been associated with the Congo Luanda cabildo since its founding in the last century.