The Ganga-Longoba are a small ethnic group of
Afro-Cubans
Afro-Cubans or Black Cubans are Cubans of West African ancestry. The term ''Afro-Cuban'' can also refer to historical or cultural elements in Cuba thought to emanate from this community and the combining of native African and other cultural el ...
who primarily reside in
Perico,
Matanzas Province
Matanzas () is one of the provinces of Cuba. Major towns in the province include Cárdenas, Colón, Jovellanos and the capital of the same name, Matanzas. The resort town of Varadero is also located in this province.
Among Cuban provinces, ...
. The community traces their ancestry to a woman named Josefa Ganga who was imported to Cuba in the 1830s via the Spanish-owned
Lomboko
Lomboko was a slave factory in what is today Sierra Leone, controlled by the infamous Spanish slave trader Pedro Blanco (slave trader), Pedro Blanco. It consisted of several large depots or barracoons for slaves brought from the interior, as well ...
slaving port. She worked on the Santa Elena sugar refinery near Perico and managed to live past the abolition of slavery in 1886. She passed the tradition of her home village down to her great-granddaughter, Florinda Diago, who in turn passed the tradition to Diago's grandson Humberto Casanova; Casanova and Magdalena "Piyuya" Mora currently lead the Ganga-Longoba community. Her descendants have largely lived their lives in Perico, both before and after the
Cuban Revolution
The Cuban Revolution ( es, Revolución Cubana) was carried out after the 1952 Cuban coup d'état which placed Fulgencio Batista as head of state and the failed mass strike in opposition that followed. After failing to contest Batista in cou ...
.
In 2011, after recording the Ganga-Longoba's songs, Australian ethnologist Emma Christopher began research into the origin of the songs, eventually connecting with the chief and residents of Mokpangumba,
Upper Banta Chiefdom,
Moyamba District
Moyamba District is a district in the Southern Province of Sierra Leone, with a population of 318,064 in the 2015 census. Its capital and largest city is Moyamba. The other major towns include Njala, Rotifunk and Shenge. The district is the lar ...
in
Southern Province,
Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone,)]. officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea surrounds the northern half of the nation. Covering a total area of , Sierra ...
, where residents recognized recordings of the songs and their lyrics as being sung in the nearly-extinct Banta language by the Ganga-Longoba as their own tradition. She helped arrange the travel of a contingent of Ganga-Longoba to Mokpangumba, which rolled out a welcome ceremony for the Cuban visitors.
Christopher recorded the process in her documentary ''They Are We''.
See also
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Gullah
The Gullah () are an African Americans, African American ethnic group who predominantly live in the South Carolina Lowcountry, Lowcountry region of the U.S. states of Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, and North Carolina, within the coastal plain ...
people, who trace their lineage to Sierra Leone
References
{{African diaspora
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Afro-Cuban
People from Perico, Cuba