
Abakuá, also sometimes known as Ñañiguismo, is a Cuban initiatory religious
fraternity
A fraternity (; whence, "wikt:brotherhood, brotherhood") or fraternal organization is an organization, society, club (organization), club or fraternal order traditionally of men but also women associated together for various religious or secular ...
founded in 1836. The society is open only to men and those initiated take oaths to not reveal the secret teachings and practices of the order. Members are typically known as Abanékues and are divided amongst lodges or chapters called ''juegos''. Abakuá derives largely from the
Ékpè society of West Africa, but displays adaptations like the inclusion of
Roman Catholic
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...
symbolism.
The society teaches the existence of a supreme divinity named Abasí who supplied humanity with a form of power which holds a central place in Abakuá's origin myth. Rituals are called ''plantes'' and typically take place in a secluded room, the ''fambá''. Many of the details of these ceremonies are kept secret although they usually involve drumming. Some of the Abakuá society's ceremonies take place in public. Most notable are the public parades on the
Day of the Three Kings, when members dress as ''íremes'', or spirits of the dead.
Abakuá derives much from the Ékpè society, which was established by
Efik people
The Efik are an ethnic group located primarily in southern Nigeria, and western Cameroon. Within Nigeria, the Efik can be found in the present-day Cross River State and Akwa Ibom state. The Efik speak the Efik language which is a member of the Be ...
living around the
Cross River basin of West Africa during the 18th century. Ékpè was involved in facilitating trade, including the
Atlantic slave trade
The Atlantic slave trade or transatlantic slave trade involved the transportation by slave traders of Slavery in Africa, enslaved African people to the Americas. European slave ships regularly used the triangular trade route and its Middle Pass ...
, as a result of which various enslaved Efik people — including Ékpè members — were transported to Cuba. It was there, in 1836, that Abakuá was formed in
Regla
Regla () is one of the 15 municipalities or boroughs (''municipios'' in Spanish) in the city of Havana, Cuba. It comprises the town of Regla, located at the bottom of Havana Bay in a former aborigine settlement named ''Guaicanamar'', Loma Modelo ...
. The society soon spread to other areas and split into two branches, the Efó and the Efí. Although membership was initially restricted to Afro-Cubans, by the 1860s it also had members from other ethnic backgrounds. Through its membership, the society became increasingly influential in the stevedore, transportation, and local manufacturing industries of Cuba's ports, also attracting a reputation for criminal activity. After the
Cuban Revolution
The Cuban Revolution () was the military and political movement that overthrew the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista, who had ruled Cuba from 1952 to 1959. The revolution began after the 1952 Cuban coup d'état, in which Batista overthrew ...
, Abakuá continued to face persecution but benefitted from the liberalising reforms of the 1990s as it became increasingly important in the Cuban tourist industry.
Definition
Abakuá represents a confraternity.
It is a religious group, often seen as a religion by its practitioners, and it seeks to provide spiritual protection for its members. It also operates as a mutual aid society, offering economic assistance to its members.
Only men are permitted entry—although gay men are typically excluded—with these members regarding each other as brothers. These members are referred to as ''Abanékues'', or as ''ecobios''. A once common term for members was ''Ñáñigos'', a term potentially deriving from the ''nyanya'' raffia chest piece worn on many Ekpe and Abakuá ritual costumes. Abakuá has been described as "an Afro-Cuban version of
Freemasonry
Freemasonry (sometimes spelled Free-Masonry) consists of fraternal groups that trace their origins to the medieval guilds of stonemasons. Freemasonry is the oldest secular fraternity in the world and among the oldest still-existing organizati ...
".
The term ''Abakuá'' likely comes from Àbàkpà (Qua-Éjághám), one of the peoples from Calabar.
Abakuá is one of three major Afro-Cuban religions present on the island, the other two being
Santería
Santería (), also known as Regla de Ocha, Regla Lucumí, or Lucumí, is an African diaspora religions, Afro-Caribbean religion that developed in Cuba during the late 19th century. It arose amid a process of syncretism between the traditional ...
, which derives largely from the
Yoruba religion
The Yorùbá religion (Yoruba language, Yoruba: Ìṣẹ̀ṣe), West African Orisa (Òrìṣà), or Isese (Ìṣẹ̀ṣe), comprises the traditional religious and spiritual concepts and practice of the Yoruba people. Its homeland is in pres ...
of West Africa, and
Palo, which has its origins among the
Kongo religion
Kongo religion (Kongo language, Kikongo: Bukongo or Bakongo) encompasses the traditional beliefs of the Kongo people, Bakongo people. Due to the highly centralized position of the Kingdom of Kongo, its leaders were able to influence much of the ...
of Central Africa. Another Afro-Cuban religion is
Arará, which derives from practices among the
Ewe and
Fon. In Cuba, practitioners of these traditions often see these different religions as offering complementary skills and mechanisms to solve problems. Thus, some Abakuá members also practice Palo, or Santería, or alternatively are ''
babalawo''s, initiates in the divinatory system of
Ifá.
Organisation and membership
Operating along a highly organised structure, the Abakuá society displays a complex hierarchy.
Different members play different functions in the society. Members pay fees to join the society and subsequent dues, money which finances the operation of the society.
Members are bound to oaths of secrecy not to reveal details of the group's beliefs and practices.
Chapters are referred to as ''juegos'', ''potencias'', ''tierras'', and ''partidos''. The creation of a new chapter requires the permission of the society's elders as well as a collective consensus in favor of its establishment. The formation of a new lodge requires consecrated drums. Each ''juego'' has between 13 and 25 dignitaries, or ''plazas'', who govern it. Each dignitary has a different title that indicate which ritual tasks are their responsibility. If there is a disagreement within a ''juego'', members can branch off to form their own group. In 2014, the scholar Ivor Miller noted that there were then approximately 150 lodges active in Cuba.
Initiation may only take place in Cuba itself.
The oaths of loyalty to the Abakuá society's sacred objects, members, and secret knowledge taken by initiates are a lifelong pact that creates a sacred kinship among the members. The duties of an Abakuá member to his ritual brothers at times surpass even the responsibilities of friendship. The phrase "Friendship is one thing, and the Abakuá another" is often heard.
A member's loyalty is primarily owed to their lodge and its lineage. Members identify each other through coded handshakes, phrases, or, in certain circumstances, specific whistles.
Beliefs and practices
Abakuá draws heavily on the West African Ekpe society but also reflects innovations and developments that have taken place in Cuba.
The supreme deity in Abakuá is called Abasí. Members look back to Calabar as a holy place.
Origin story
There are various versions of the group's origin story, some of which contradict the others. It revolves principally around how the god Abasi delivered a source of power, which was in the form of the fish Tanze, to two rival groups, the Efor and the Efik. In one version, an Efor woman, Sikán, found the fish in the river and revealed it to the Efik; another variant has her betray the Efor after she married an Efik man. Some versions of the story maintain that men killed Sikán and seized the power; they then banned women from involvement in their society so that they would never again obtain the power. In the story, the Efik then pressured the Efor to share the power with them, with seven members of each group meeting to sign an agreement; one individual refused, and this resulted in the thirteen major plazas within the society.
This origin myth explains the exclusion of women from the society. The myth is also re-enacted through a number of the society's rituals.
Practices
The society's rituals are called ''plantes''. These include initiations, funerals, the naming of dignitaries, and the annual homage to Ekué. The details of these rites are kept secret from non-members.
Rituals often take place in a special room, the "room of mysteries", known as the ''fambá'', ''irongo'', or ''fambayín''. This room is prepared for rituals by the drawing of images, called ''anaforuanas'' or ''firmas'', on the space and objects within it.
Brown noted that altar objects are "permanent living repositories of ancestral presences". These altar objects may be ''renevado'' (renovated) during which they are redecorated, and this may also entail then being "recharged" with spiritually powerful substances.
Aesthetic innovations developed in one lodge may get adopted by others.
These are full of theatricality and drama, and consist of drumming, dancing, and chanting in the secret Abakuá language. Knowledge of the chants is restricted to Abakuá members. Cuban scholars have long thought that the ceremonies express Abakuá cultural history.
When a lodge member dies, all of the lodge's other activities stop until the correct rites have been conducted.
Music
Music is central to Abakuá rituals. Drumming plays an important role in Abakuá rituals, as it does in other Afro-Cuban traditions. Abakuá chapters will often have two separate sets of drums, one used in public events and the other in private ceremonies. These drums will be consecrated prior to ritual use and then fed with the blood of sacrificed animals.
Public drumming ceremonies rely on the use of four drums, each typically cut from a single log and left undecorated except for an ''anaforuana'' marked onto the skin. The largest of these drums is called the ''bonkó enchemiyá''; it is approximately 1 metre tall and placed at a slight tilt when being played. The other three drums, which are typically around 9 to 10 inches in height, are called ''enkomó''. The three are tuned to produce different types of sound; that which reaches the highest pitch is the ''binkomé'', the middle is the ''kuchí yeremá'', and the lowest is the ''obiapá'' or ''salidor''. The three ''enkomó'' are each placed under one arm and hit with the other, using fingers rather than the whole hand. As well as these four drums, the public rituals are typically accompanied with two rattles, the ''erikundí'', and a bell made from two triangular pieces of iron, the ''ekón''.
Private rituals involve four drums, the ''enkríkamo'', ''ekueñón'', ''empegó'', and ''eribó'' or ''seseribó''. These four drums are decorated with at least one feathered staff, attached at the end with the skin. They may also have a "skirt" of shredded fibers.
The ''eribó'', which has four of the feathered staffs rather than just one, is constructed differently, having the skin attached to a hoop of flexible material. Sacrificial offerings are placed over this drum, which represents the dignitary Isué. The ''enkríkamo'' is used to convene the spirits of the dead, while the ''ekueñón'' is employed by the dignitary tasked with dispending justice and performing sacrifices, which the drum is expected to witness. The ''empegó'' is played by the dignitary of the same name and is used to open and close ceremonies.
Also important in rites is a drum called the ''ekve'', which is kept concealed behind a curtain in the ''fambá''. The ''ekve'' is a single-headed wooden friction drum with three openings at the base, giving the impression of three legs. It is played by rubbing a stick over the skin, with the resulting sound symbolising the voice of Tanze the fish.
Although hermetic and little known even within Cuba, an analysis of Cuban popular music recorded from the 1920s until the present reveals Abakuá influence in nearly every genre of Cuban popular music. Cuban musicians who are members of the Abakuá have continually documented key aspects of their society's history in commercial recordings, usually in their secret Abakuá language. The Abakuá have commercially recorded actual chants of the society, believing that outsiders cannot interpret them. Because Abakuá represented a rebellious, even anti-colonial, aspect of Cuban culture, these secret recordings have been very popular.
Day of the Three Kings
Members take part in the public carnival held on January 6, the
Day of the Three Kings. For this they wear elaborate outfits consisting of checkerboard cloth, a design perhaps influenced by a leopard skin pattern. They also wear a conical headpiece that is topped by tassels, which is based on those of the Ejagham. Dressing as ''íremes'' signifies the return of the dead to Earth.
Permission to conduct an Abakuá procession must come from the lodge leaders and also requires access to their ritual objects.
Language
The ritual language used in Abakuá is commonly called Brícamo.
The Abakua language was proposed by Nunez Cedeno (1985) to be a Spanish-based pidgin, with the main African lexical influence originating from the
Efik language.
[Rafael A. Núñez Cedeño. “The Abakuá Secret Society in Cuba: Language and Culture.” Hispania 71, no. 1 (1988): 148–54. https://doi.org/10.2307/343234.]
History
Ékpè and the Atlantic slave trade
Abakuá was heavily influenced by the
Ékpè society, which existed among the settlements of the
Cross River basin in what is now Nigeria and Cameroon during the 18th and 19th centuries. Ékpè lodges have commonly also been called leopard societies. Ékpè emerged among 18th-century
Efik people
The Efik are an ethnic group located primarily in southern Nigeria, and western Cameroon. Within Nigeria, the Efik can be found in the present-day Cross River State and Akwa Ibom state. The Efik speak the Efik language which is a member of the Be ...
as a means of transcending ethnic and family barriers and thus facilitating business relations for the trade in palm oil and slaves to European merchants. Dominated by wealthy merchants, it was an all-male society, and members were expected to keep its rites a secret – those who revealed secrets to outsiders could be punished with death. Some Europeans, especially British traders, were also initiated into the group, as it helped to build trust and credit.
The Efik of this period engaged in slavery; they enslaved members of their own people who were deemed guilty of theft or adultery, purchased slaves from other groups like the Igbo-Aro, and launched war expeditions to capture slaves from other communities. The Ékpè society helped to organise and spread the Efik slave trade, playing a role in the establishment of the old town slave centre at Old Calabar. Efik traders often sold enslaved people to British merchants, with the British slave trade from the Bight of Biafra being most intense between 1700 and 1807, at which point the British Empire banned the trade in slaves.
In Cuba, African slaves were divided into groups termed ''naciones'' (nations), often based on their port of embarkation rather than their own ethno-cultural background. Those slaves originally sold at Old Calabar became known as the ''Carabalí'' nation. Those included in this category came from a range of ethnic backgrounds, including Ibo, Bibí (Ibibio), Iyó, and Ekoi. In Cuba, traditional African deities perhaps continued to be venerated within clubs and fraternal organizations made up of African migrants and their descendants. The most important of these were the ''cabildos de nación'', associations that the establishment regarded as a means of controlling the Afro-Cuban population. These operated as mutual aid societies and organized communal feasts, dances, and carnivals. It was within the Carabalí ''cabildos'' of Havana and Matanzas that knowledge of the Ékpè secrets and rituals were preserved. Although Efik people were transported to various parts of the Americas through the Atlantic slave trade, it was only in Cuba that there is evidence for the Ékpè society being reconstituted in any form.
Formation and early history
The first Abakuá group was formed in Regla in 1836. This group was commonly known as Efik Buton, although other names used were Acabatón and Acuabutón; its members were called the Belenistas. The term ''Efik Buton'' probably derived from Obutong, the Efik settlement in Old Calabar that English speakers had called "Old Town." The group's formation was supported by the Regla's Cabildo de Nación Carabalí Brícamo Appapá Efí. According to an account from the 1880s, members of that Regla ''Cabildo'' pushed for Abakuá's creation as a means of passing their secrets to black creoles without actually admitting them into the ''Cabildo'' itself.
From there, the society spread to
Havana
Havana (; ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.[Matanzas
Matanzas (Cuban ; ) is the capital of the Cuban province of Matanzas Province, Matanzas. Known for its poets, culture, and Afro-American religions, Afro-Cuban folklore, it is located on the northern shore of the island of Cuba, on the Bay of Mat ...](_bl ...<br></span></div>, <div class=)
, and
Cárdenas. By 1881, there were 77 ''juegos'' in Havana's nine districts and six in nearby Regla and Guanabacoa municipalities.
Two distinct branches emerged, the Efí and the Efó.
For over twenty years, Efik Buton and those in its lineage prohibited white and mulatto membership, seeking only those deemed to be of pure African blood. By 1863, the Havana Efó branch was reported as having many white members. This demographic change reflected the social and economic changes in the cities of west Cuba in this period; the ruling elites had encouraged the mass migration of white Europeans to Cuba in the mid-19th century to offset the numerical dominance of an Afro-Cuban population.
Although established among Afro-Cubans, it came to let in mulattos and whites. As Ivor Miller noted, the requirements for admission became not race, but "a demonstration of a moral character as well as discretion." The whites who joined were predominantly working class but also included high-ranking military figures, aristocrats, and politicians. The Efó branch, and also some Efí lodges, also admitted mulattos and those from additional migrant communities, including Canary Islanders, Chinese, and Filipinos.
In the 1860s, the society began to adopt the public display of Roman Catholic symbols.
Abakuá came to control the stevedore, transportation, and local manufacturing labor in Cuban port cities between the 1870s and 1942.
The society faced persecution in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Throughout the mid-19th century, the group was commonly rumoured to be involved in criminal activity. In Cuban society, the term ''Ñáñigos'' gained negative connotations, equivalent of English terms like "sorcerer" and "delinquent".
Rivalries between different lodges sometimes escalated into violence, contributing to the society's negative reputation in Cuban society. For many in the Cuban establishment, Abakuá was regarded as being "linked to a culture of poverty and marginalization". At the same time, some politicians in the republic courted the society's support, even printing electoral material in Efik.
Abakuá members were among the Cubans who migrated to
Florida
Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...
in the late 19th century, many of them fleeing the Spanish government's crack down against perceived rebels. There were many society members among the Cuban tobacco rollers who settled in
Ybor City
Ybor City ( ) is a historic neighborhood just northeast of downtown Tampa, downtown Tampa, Florida, United States. It was founded in the 1880s by Vicente Martinez Ybor and other cigar manufacturers and populated by thousands of immigrants, mai ...
by the 1880s, for instance.
Although they gathered for communal celebrations, these U.S.-based members could not establish lodges nor perform initiations in Florida. The tradition's Cuban leaders have never sanctioned the establishment of a lodge outside Cuba itself, concerned that such American lodges may operate autonomously of the mother lodges from which they have been spawned. Cuban carnival activities in Florida nevertheless sometimes generated false claims that Abakuá was active in the U.S.
Substantial research into Abakuá was conducted by the Cuban anthropologist
Lydia Cabrera, who worked in Havana and Matanzas between the 1930s and 1950s. In the 1960s she moved to
Miami
Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...
, where she published several books on the society. The 20th-century work of Cabrera and
Harold Courlander reflected a growing scholarly usage of the term "Abakuá", replacing the previously common term ''ñañiguismo''. Many group members embraced this term over ''Ñáñigos'' because of the latter word's associations with criminality in Cuban society.
After the Cuban Revolution
The
Cuban Revolution
The Cuban Revolution () was the military and political movement that overthrew the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista, who had ruled Cuba from 1952 to 1959. The revolution began after the 1952 Cuban coup d'état, in which Batista overthrew ...
of 1959 resulted in the island becoming a
Marxist–Leninist state governed by
Fidel Castro
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (13 August 1926 – 25 November 2016) was a Cuban politician and revolutionary who was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008, serving as the prime minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976 and President of Cuba, president ...
's
Communist Party of Cuba
The Communist Party of Cuba (, PCC) is the sole ruling party of Cuba. It was founded on 3 October 1965 as the successor to the United Party of the Cuban Socialist Revolution, which was in turn made up of the 26th of July Movement and Popu ...
. Committed to
state atheism
State atheism or atheist state is the incorporation of hard atheism or non-theism into Forms of government, political regimes. It is considered the opposite of theocracy and may also refer to large-scale secularization attempts by governments ...
, Castro's government took a negative view of Afro-Cuban religions; it viewed Abakuá as a criminal and counter-revolutionary organisation, with state persecution of Abakuá continuing through the 1960s and into the 1970s. Following the
Soviet Union
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
's collapse in the 1990s, Castro's government declared that Cuba was entering a "
Special Period
The Special Period (), officially the Special Period in the Time of Peace (), was an extended period of economic crisis in Cuba that began in 1991 primarily due to the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the Comecon. The economic depression o ...
" in which new economic measures would be necessary. As part of this, it selectively supported Afro-Cuban traditions, partly out of a desire to boost tourism. Abakuá's relationship with the tourist industry helped to improve the society's reputation in Cuba.
Abakuá ritual objects first began to be publicly displayed in anthropological and criminological museums. By the mid-1960s, they could also be found in institutions like Cuba's
National Museum of Fine Arts. The 1960s also saw the increasing use of Abakua music and dances in secular performances, something that angered some society members.
In 1998, a group of Abakuá initiates in Miami formed a lodge they named the Efí Kebúton Ekuente Mesoro, a reference to the first Cuban lodge. Abakuá leaders in Cuba refused to recognise the legitimacy of this group, both because it did not have a sponsor and because several of its leaders had previously been suspended from their Cuban lodges for disobedience. Subsequently, in the early 21st century, Abakuá members in the United States met with Nigerian and Cameroonian Ékpè members based in the same country and helped establish growing links between the related societies. In 2001, an Abakuá performance troupe appeared at a meeting of the
Efik National Association of USA in Brooklyn, New York. For the 2003 Efik National Association meeting, two Abakuá leaders traveled to
Michigan
Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...
to meet with the
Obong of Calabar. In 2004 two Abakuá musicians traveled to Calabar, Nigeria to perform at the International Ékpè Festival. In 2007, an Abakuá group and an Ékpè troupe from Calabar performed onstage together in
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
, France.
Reception and influence
Abakuá has been demonised by colonial and state authorities throughout its history. The ethnomusicologist María Teresa Vélez suggested that Abakuá had been "discriminated against and persecuted more than other Afro-Cuban religious practices". Prejudice against the group has been widespread both before and after the Cuban Revolution, and successive Cuban governments have seen the society's ''juegos'' as potential centres for resistance to the government and establishment.
Fernández Olmos and Paravisini-Gebert noted that the society had exerted a "profound and pervasive creative influence" on Cuban music, art, and language.
From at least the late 19th century, there has also been an artistic tradition of using Abakuá imagery as a symbol of the Cuban nation as a whole. This can be seen not only in Cuba itself but also among artists in Florida, where it is evident in the work of Cuban diasporic artists like
Mario Sánchez,
José Orbein, and
Leandro Soto. Soto for instance used an Abakuá mask as a symbol for Cuba in a video-installation performance piece created in the early 21st century.
References
Citations
Sources
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Further reading
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Article on Cuban Abakuá musicwritten by Dr Ivor Miller at lameca.org
{{DEFAULTSORT:Abakua
1836 establishments in the Spanish Empire
African secret societies
Afro-American religion
Afro-Cuban culture
Cuban-American culture
Organizations established in 1836
Society of Cuba
Folk Catholicism